Sermons Christ Community Church: Daytona Beach, FL

What does it mean to go deeper in times of difficulty?

This morning we’re looking at how a deeper communion with Christ leads to deeper commitment to each other.

This morning we’re looking at how a deeper communion with Christ is deeply connected to a deeper obedience to Christ.

Jesus says fruitful spiritual life comes through deeper communion with him.

What are you building your life on?

The deeper strength you need in life comes from being deeply rooted in the love of Christ.

Firstly, can you have peace with God? Secondly, can you KNOW you have peace with God?

But again and again, we come up against the gravitational pull of our former selves or our current selves. We look into our hearts, and we realize - that thing I was struggling with when I was young, that thing I’ve been praying about for years, I’m still struggling with it now. So, is there any hope of deep and lasting transformation in the Christian life?

: You must walk with integrity because the Lord is coming to destroy evil and bring you home.

The miracles of Christmas bear witness to the unparalleled uniqueness of the gift of Jesus. The proper response to these miracles for us - is to be filled with humble, grateful wonder.

This is a passage about Kings, and how they react to the coming of the greatest King of all.

The Christmas story when believed changes the whole way you look at the world - the entire course of the life you live - can change not only your here and now but your hereafter and your eternal destiny and because of all that -- it can change any mood when deeply believed.

If someone like Jesus makes the extraordinary claim that He is the Son of God, you’re going to need some pretty extraordinary evidence to back up a claim like that. Very religious people make similar demands too. And Jesus says to them, “The only sign you’ll get is the sign of the prophet Jonah.” So what exactly IS the sign of Jonah?

The compassion of God is purposeful.

In the Christian faith, when you put your faith in Christ and invite him into your life, he begins to work on you to change you into the person he wants you to become. It's a process. It requires patience.

Theologians call it God’s “immutability”: the idea that God is unchangeable in His essence, His nature, and His perfections. Firstly, this is good news because it means God’s PERSON, God’s being, is unchangeable. Secondly, it’s good news because his CHARACTER is unchangeable. Thirdly and finally, this is good news because it means God’s PLANS and PROMISES to you are unchangeable.

God uses this story to teach us that he is both a God of steadfast love and a God of righteous judgment. And therefore, we need to be sure that we get right with him. Repentance is how we do that.

It is not unreasonable to believe in the divinity of Jesus, that it is not unreasonable to believe in miracles.

It’s often when we are at our very lowest that we have the deepest insights about who we are and who God is.

No matter how deep our distress, we can call on the Lord for help.

First, sin always leads to a storm. And secondly, there is love in the storm.

What Jonah teaches us from the very beginning is that it is foolish to run away from even the most demanding assignment from God. When God calls us to do something, the only way to go forward is to trust and obey.

The book of Jonah presents Jonah as disobedient, selfish, bitter, angry, and foolish. And yet, no one would have known the details of the story to tell it except Jonah himself. So the evidence suggests Jonah, on the other side of his own repentance and restoration, is inspired by God to tell his own story in a self-deprecating manner that highlights how foolish he had been.

...Because He is the One who supplies EVERY need. It’s ALL from Him. There is not a single breath we draw that hasn’t been given to us by Him. And so, the only fitting response is to praise him, to give glory to Him.

The logical connection is this: the more contentment we experience in Christ, the less we feel we need materials things to be content. So our grip on money loosens. We realize we don’t need those things to be happy, so we’re happy to give them away to others. Contentment leads to giving.