Antioch Waco

This week, Dorothy Abshire took us through a tour of many Scriptures that equip us to weather times of trial. We can glean four obedience points from the Word of God: We must let God clean the sin from our lives. We must be filled with Him. We must walk in His discernment, and we must be filled with His courage. Lord, make us strong for the days ahead!

As we prepare for our upcoming three-day Prayer & Fast, Vincent Carpenter's sermon this week focused on Jesus' fasting experience in Luke 4:1-13. The truth is that fasting is more of an invitation from God to draw near to Him than it is an inconvenience. With this understanding, Vincent discussed three truths we need to focus on: Focus on God's provision, not your need. Focus on God being in c...

Last week, Mick Murray explored with us our call to the person of Jesus — to follow Him and also to live how He lived — as a sacrificial Lamb, even when He had every right to live as the Lion of Judah. This week, Mick discussed five tools to practically walk in unity: surrender, essentials, prayer, service and truth and love. Listen to the sermon to hear more!

This week, Mick Murray explored our calling as Christians to the person of Jesus. Our mandate is to live how He lived — when He had every right to act as the Lion of Judah, He chose to be represented as the Lamb of God. Our only hope for unity is to follow His example in this.

In Matthew 24, Jesus' disciples asked Him, "What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" For the 2,000 years since then, people have been asking the same question. Scripture tells us that no man or woman can know the answer to that question. Our response of obedience to God should be to walk in peace in our salvation, not giving in to fear, and to share Him with our city, nati...

This week, Jimmy Seibert focused on Philippians 2:1-5 to explore God's exhortation to believers to live in selfless love.

In the discussion of a topic that is a source of great pain for so many in our world today, Mick Murray and Maddie Echols helped us explore what the Bible has to say about what it means to be male and female. Our hope is to establish biblical clarity about how God has designed us, and that the way He's designed us is good. We need each other. We need both men and women to represent the image of Go...

In Ephesians 4:1, Paul mentions "the calling" that the people of God have received. This week, Clarence Hill drew the parallel between this calling mentioned by Paul and the calling of the historical high priests. Like the high priests, Lord, give us the grace and faithfulness to maturely carry the family of God on our hearts and in prayer in spite of living in a world torn by disunity.

In Ephesians 4:1-3, Paul exhorts the Church to walk in gentleness, humility and unity. He prefaces this challenge by calling himself a prisoner for the Lord. To walk in true unity with other believers, we must first surrender ourselves fully to God and prepare the soil of our hearts to live in grace, not in judgment. Lord, cultivate in us a lifestyle of grace!

After taking a hiatus this summer to look at Ephesians 3, we're returning to our Union | Communion | Partnership series by jumping straight into Ephesians 4. Did you know that the original Greek word for unity in this passage means "to be unified with what is real; unified with the source"? Similarly, the word for disunity means "to pull away and split from; detached from the source." Lord, let us...

This week, we continued studying Matthew 16:13-19, gleaning the direction it gives to every believer's question, "What is my purpose?" As Jimmy summarized, Scripture shows us that every believer's purpose is "to be salt and light as part of the family of God; to distribute the grace of God in my assignment, where I currently am; to take the authority and the power given to us by Jesus to bind and...

This week, Jimmy Seibert led us through Matthew 16:13-19 as we looked at how this passage advises the questions, "Who is Jesus? Who am I? Who are my people? What is my purpose?" Throughout Scripture, we see the answer to "Who are my people?" is the Church. We must be plugged into the family of God to walk in obedience to God's commands and participate with what God is doing in the earth.

Without the shedding of blood, there is no sacrifice for sin; without a sacrifice, there is no way to have right relationship with God and with people. It is because of the blood of Jesus that we are able to have relationship with God. Jesus' sacrifice of His life for ours allows us to be forgiven, fully free from sin forever and allowed to have right relationship with God.

Our local church, Antioch Waco, is named after the church of Antioch that we see in the book of Acts. This week, Pastor Jimmy Seibert led us through 10 characteristics of the ancient church at Antioch that we see in Scripture. Lord, we submit to You! Like the ancient church at Antioch, let us glorify You and look more like You!

In Acts 1:8, Jesus spoke His last words to His apostles before returning to heaven: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem [their city], and in all Judea and Samaria [their region], and to the ends of the earth [the world]." Today, we got to hear amazing testimonies of the many ways God has worked through you this summer in our city...

This week, Pastor Mick Murray led us through a study of Ephesians 3:14-21, a prayer from Paul for the corporate Ephesian church. After writing the first two and a half chapters of this epistle, Paul pauses to pray for the church in Ephesus, that God would enable them to live how he had exhorted them to live in the first chapters, that they would be filled with Christ and that they would know and e...

This week, Zach Daniel led us through Ephesians 3:1-12 as we studied how God's vision for the Church is bigger, better and more beautiful than we have understood. Thank You, Lord!

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity." - Psalm 133:1 The Body of Christ is most powerful when it is unified and when we all feel like we have a part. There is a sense of belonging that we experience when we are adopted into the family of God and join our brothers and sisters as one body in unity. Listen to the full sermon series in the "Our Inheritance" playlist.

This week, College Pastor Austin Murray led us through Ephesians 2:1-10. As a church, we learned what it looks like to allow the old things to pass away and welcome in the new life that Jesus has for us. There is so much freedom in realizing, again and again, the joy of our salvation, paid for by the blood of Jesus. Lord, would we be a people that maintain the joy of our salvation!

This Sunday, Dorothy Abshire walked us through Ephesians 1:15-23. This passage is packed with exhortations for how we should live–by praying for our local church body, asking God for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know Him better, setting our hearts on the hope of Jesus and not our natural world, remembering how He has valued us to exchange the life of His Son for our own lives...

Ephesians 1:11-14 can bring up some deep theological questions. This week, pastor Weston Nichols led us through an exploration of this passage's comments on election, security and love. Although every individual's beliefs on election and security need to be worked out through Scripture study and relationship with God, two things are very clear. First, God is able to do what our minds think is impo...

Happy Father's Day! Our Scripture for the day was fitting—Luke 15, the parable of The Prodigal Son. Carl Gulley taught on the causes of guilt and shame. Guilt is caused by the knowledge that we've wronged someone we love; shame is caused by the knowledge that because of that, we're no longer in right relationship with them. But, like the father in the parable, God not only forgives us, but likes u...

This week, Young Adult Pastor Jeremy King led us through Ephesians 2:1-10. We heard about the extravagant grace that God has made available to us. Without an understanding of Jesus' immeasurable sacrifice, though, and the immensity of how much it cost, we can't fully appreciate that grace. Lord, show us the extent to which You love us and pursue us, and mold our hearts to serve You well!

At times, evangelism may sound daunting or extremely challenging. In reality, though, the pressure is off of us. The Holy Spirit, living within us, is faithful to highlight to us each person who needs His love. When we live fully aware of the goodness, kindness and worthiness of Jesus, and when we live filled with and guided by the Holy Spirit, walking in step with Him becomes much more natural an...

Jason Ramos shared with us this week on our calling to live a lifestyle of evangelism, as Jesus did. Rather than waiting for our next mission trip or scheduled outreach, let us be proactive to move outside of our circle of comfort and share Jesus' salvation with people who don't know God's love. God, make us bold, and give us eyes to see those You're calling us to love!