RUF at UNCW

In this passage from John 13, Jesus demonstrates and describes the kind of love that is at the center of the universe. Agape love, the kind of love that spends itself in pursuit of another person’s good, shows up at the beginning and end of John 13. The passage starts by describing Jesus’s love for his people, and ends up with Jesus commanding his people to follow his example of love in such a way...

In this world, there are all sorts of things that can totally upend our lives—violence, broken relationships, broken trust, sickness, physical suffering, disappointments … the list goes on. And try as we might, we can’t just live our lives avoiding suffering. How do we endure suffering, without getting overwhelmed by it?  Or, to put it a different way– how can we find a joy, a settled sense of sec...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. Where you do you go when you're afraid? In the final passage from our fall semester, we learn why Jesus alone is worthy of our trust and attention-- especially when we...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. What kind of story are we living in? It is a tragedy or a comedy? The difference between tragedy and comedy is not the presence of death. It’s the placement of death. ...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. In this passage, Jesus makes the case for his shepherding-- and he shows us that unlike the teachers who claim to speak for God, Jesus leads us with the perfect words...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. In John chapter 9, we continue to see evidence of Jesus's unique authority as the light-bringing God, who has come into the world. The healing of a man born blind is a...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. In John chapters 7-8, Jesus shows up at the Jewish Feast of Booths and begins to teach. As he speaks, he radically reshapes our ideas about God’s presence, the source...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. It’s very possible to be doing the right things, but for the wrong reason. This is one of many times in the gospel where you have the outward appearance of great relig...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. It's often said, "people don't care what you know until they know you care." Compassion, empathy and emotional intelligence are some of the top qualities people look f...

The message from Saturday night of our first ever "StayCo" stay-at-home conference, where we studied the idea of justification from Romans 3. Our final message is about receiving and responding to our justification. Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 60, 61, 64. Q.60. How are you right with God? A. Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned aga...

The message from Friday night of our first ever "StayCo" stay-at-home conference, where we studied the idea of justification from Romans 3. Our first night's message is about the burden and beauty of justification. Q. 33. What is justification? A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace by which he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only because of the righteousness...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. This week, in the “third sign” of John’s gospel we see Jesus bringing a healing to a helpless man, and confronting the narrow religiosity and unbelief of the Jewish le...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. This week, in the “second sign” of John’s gospel we see a real-life illustration of what it means to believe in Jesus and receive life in his name (John 20:31). Th...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. In John 4, we have a case study in what it looks like for someone to pass from spiritual darkness into light, from death to life. This passage isn’t intended by Jo...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. Celebration is wonderful! It's a core need of the human soul. But if we're honest, we're all a little disappointed when seasons of celebration end, sum...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. In our world today, we're constantly bombarded by advice on what to do to become more healthy people. Seek after physical health or emotional health. Set bette...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This year, we're examining the Gospel of John to learn about the words and work of Jesus. We live in a world that values self-expression— it seems natural to us that someone would want to share, display, and communicate about ourselves to others. When h...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. At our final on-campus meeting of the semester, we had some graduating seniors (and our departing intern, Bailey) share about how God met them during their time in RUF. Then Sam closed us out with a reflection on the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6. The sto...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. In our final series of the Spring semester we are looking at how to relate to God through prayer, using the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 as our guide. This week in our series on prayer we look at “supplication,” which is a fancy word for petition, which i...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. In our final series of the Spring semester we are looking at how to relate to God through prayer, using the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 as our guide. We tend to want to put our best food forward, sweep our failures under the rug, and downplay our shortco...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. In our final series of the Spring semester we are looking at how to relate to God through prayer, using the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 as our guide. As we begin the prayer, Jesus focuses our attention on God himself, the audience and object of our adora...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This semester, we are looking at how the Spirit of God transforms our relationships. Tonight we look at the final aspect of fruit, Self-Control, and we discuss how people in Christ are called to relate to their desires. Nothing builds vibrant relationships...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This semester, we are looking at how the Spirit of God transforms our relationships. For this week's message we're examining the gentleness of Jesus. Gentleness (or meekness) is the aspect of Jesus’ heart that he gives to his people which allows us...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This semester, we are looking at how the Spirit of God transforms our relationships. This week, we look at the aspect of Jesus's character called "faithfulness." Maintaining faithfulness in relationships has always been difficult— it’s why Jes...

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This semester, we are looking at how the Spirit of God transforms our relationships. This week, we look at the aspect of Jesus's character called "goodness" (Gal 5:22). How do we live a life where we grow in genuine goodness and integrity? The...