The Gospel House

The Easter story shows us the importance of desperation - desperation from us, and desperation FOR us.

Strange to call such a horrific day "good", but we do indeed celebrate the wondrous cross of Jesus Christ upon which he bought our salvation.

What all of the worshipers in the Palm Sunday story teach us about how to worship Jesus and how NOT to worship Jesus.

Three different cities, three different lessons from the Holy Spirit, as we travel through Acts 17 with Paul.

Never underestimate the power of obedience.

The beginning of Acts 16 shows us that God has a plan for every little detail, if we are willing to slow down and let the Holy Spirit lead us.

Paul makes it quite clear, both here in Galatians 6 and elsewhere in his letters (Romans 11), that there are two types of Israel: man’s Israel and God’s Israel. How we walk and the seeds we sow make all the difference in which kingdom we’re truly living for.

In Galatians 5, Paul continues the theme of showing us the difference between God's ways and man's ways, this time comparing the deeds of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit.

In Galatias 4, Paul turns back to Abraham to show us two different types of children, children of the flesh...this world, and children of the promise… children of God.

In Galatians 3, Paul shows the churches in Galatia (and us) how the gospel was revealed to Abraham by faith, thus opening the door for anyone to become a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ!

In Galatians chapter two we see a dispute between Paul and Peter, and it shows us how we handle conflict in the gospel and also begs the question, how do we respond when confronted by the truth of the gospel?

In chapter one of Paul's letter to the Galatian churches he makes some ver important introductions - showing the problem they're facing as well as the only way to defeat that problem, and any other we may face.

As we pick up where we left off in the book of Acts, we see Paul and Barnabas, as always, following as the Spirt leads in Acts 14 but this time we see them fighting something pretty counter-cultural and embracing something unheard of.

God has always been Emmanuel, God with us. But the greatest part of this story is that Jesus is coming back and will always, eternally be Emmanuel, God with us!

If God has always been with His people, why did Jesus have to come? What was the purpose of Emmanuel, God with us?

In John 1:14 we are told that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” one of the most profound statements in the history of the world. Every Christmas we celebrate this fact, but do we really understand what we’re celebrating…because if we did, we’d celebrate it year round!

This week we look at Emmanuel in the Temple in Israel, and how God must be Emmanuel in order for any temple to function properly.

In Exodus 13 and 14, God shows He is with Israel in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. And how He leads Israel shows us a lot about our own encounters with Emmanuel.

We talk a lot about Emmanuel, God with us, during Christmas, but God didn't start being with us at the birth of Jesus. As we look at today, God was Emmanuel from the beginning.

Since praise is our purpose, it must encompass everything that we do. Meaning our praise is every thing, every where, and every breath of our being.

We continue looking at the command in the Psalms to praise the Lord, though this time we bounce around the book of Psalms to do so. Looking at Psalm 117, 135, and 146, we see yet another theme develop, that of the result of our praise.

We all know we are to praise God and God alone, but the more specific we are about who God is and all that He has done for us, the more epic our praise will be.

Is your praise epic? Do you want it to be? Step one to an epic praise life is making sure the purpose of your praise is right. If it's not, everything else in your life will suffer.

In the second part of Acts chapter 13, we see yet another group of people who think they can see the truth but are actually blind, and another group who once were blinded to the truth, but through salvation in the preaching of the gospel, now can see.

After making our way through the letter of James, we jump back into the book of Acts where we left off in chapter 13. Here God has some pretty incredible lessons for us and they all center around a false prophet cursed with blindness by Paul.