Anthem Church

Andrew Clark preaches on the importance of seeing ourselves and God rightly. When we do, we find our place and we experience his power.

Andrew Clark preaches from 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. The truth of the gospel is joy, peace, wisdom, and beauty to those it is changing, but to those who don't know it is literally stupid. God uses what is foolish in the world to bring about his amazing, life-giving purposes. God's heart is that we all would humble themselves to receive the good news of Jesus.

Joel Maginnis teaches on the importance of an undivided community, centered around the simple, true gospel. As soon as we begin changing the good news of Jesus Christ in any way, we begin to faction and the gospel loses its power.

Andrew Clark teaches on 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, where Paul is expressing his gratitude to God for the Corinthian church. Our gratitude is certainly a response to the goodness and blessings of God, but gratitude must also be practiced and grown, that we may rejoice in the Lord always.

Joel Maginnis teaches on the introduction of 1 Corinthians, setting the tone and context for the book. God's desire for his church is that our lives would be defined by Christ-centered unity expressed in deep love for one another.

Listen in as Andrew Clark shares what God has been stirring in our church community, what our big picture goals are, and what this means for us this fall.

As we conclude the book of James, we ask ourselves: do we want more of God in our life and our community?

The promises of God are not made to us in a perfect, vacuum-sealed world. On the contrary, God knows the brokenness of our lives, within and without. What does it look like to establish our hearts in the truth and person of God himself? How do we abide?

How do we steward the wealth we are blessed with?

Our lives need planning, but how do we do this in God's wisdom?

The grace of God is to received and experienced in all of life for the follower of Jesus. How does our pride prevent this?

The peace of God is not just absence of conflict or a lack of stress. Rather, peace is a wholeness, a completeness, that only Christ provides through our faith in him. He is the one who makes us whole.

We know that faith and works both play an integral part in walking with Jesus, but often these two principles are seen as two separate things that need to join together somehow. What if, instead, they are part of the same thing, brought together by a heart that treasures Jesus?

As followers of Jesus, we are not to show partiality towards others. How, then, do we navigate through life, growing in discernment and avoiding discrimination?

Our relationship with God is based primarily on faith, but what does this faith look like? Far from simply a mental assent to a collection of belief, we begin to see in the book of James that pure faith, which pleases God and blesses us and others, works itself out into every moment in all of our life.

If we are going to follow God's way when we face hard times, we are going to have to trust his character? Is he trustworthy? Is he good?

If we are going to follow the way of Jesus with all of who we are, his way needs to work in the high times of life and in the low times. Can we trust his way to work when life is hard?

In our last sermon of the series, come face to face with the final deadly sin: wrath. Anger has a unique way of making itself at home in our innermost being. Anger, in the moment might be reasonable, but while it might be ok to be mad, it's never ok to stay there. Wisdom shows us what anger does to us and the way out. 

Fighting lust is not simply about fighting disordered desires, it is about recapturing who we were truly made to be.  

Gluttony is the silent sin. It's entirely acceptable to talk about how lust or greed are sinful, but it is not often that we talk about how we are affected by our relationship to food and drink and how that might be a sign post to a deeper need: satisfaction. Comfort. The wisdom of God gives us a better path. 

Sloth is not simply overindulgent laziness - the problem is much deeper. Instead, sloth is a disruption of our calling as image-bearers of God as we love ourselves and our comfort more than our neighbors, family, and even God. How do we navigate out of spiritual apathy into fortitude and a life of sacrificial love?

Scripture speaks loudly about our love of possessions. Many of us have believed a lie: life is a zero-sum game and if I don't look out for myself, then I'm missing out. So we take because we do not trust. Wisdom corrects this lie and preaches to us that God is generous and that generosity is the path to life.  

Envy does not just rob us of joy - it is a distortion of our very role and calling as those made in God's image, designed to be satisfied in him. How do we walk the path of peace, away from envy and towards a proper love for God, ourselves, our neighbors, and even our enemies?

God is not indifferent to pride - He opposes the proud but gives abundant grace and favor to the humble. How do we wear and walk the path of peace towards humility?

God prescribes a way of being in the world that leads to life and flourishing. Proverbs gives us practical insight into what that looks like. But before we can travel down the paths of wisdom, we need to understand exactly what wisdom is and why it's so valuable. Wisdom begins with wisdom.