Austin Life Church

God’s desire has never been for us to settle, to become complacent. God is always interested in us pouring our lives out, here and now, for the increase of His kingdom and for the good of others around us. We believe God is on the move in our body and is calling us to set roots in our city where we can multiply, increase, and bless others around us. 

God is a God who relentlessly pursues every single one of us. God is a God who diligently seeks after us. Until we are found. Do we share the same heart as God? Do we relentlessly pursue the one that is in our life and needs to know and find life in Jesus?

We want to be a church, a people, of overflowing, cheerful generosity, giving generously of what we have first generously received from God. We must be these people! Overflowing, cheerful generosity is the way of God, and should be the way of His people – to His glory, to the good of others, and to our own good as well. 

In closing this short letter, warning believers of false teaching creeping into the body of Christ, Jude directs our gaze back to Christ. Praise be to the Christ who presents us blameless to The Father with great joy!

As a people called to live under and contend for truth, we must keep ourselves in the love of God, while always showing mercy to those outside of faith and doing whatever we can to bring salvation to all. 

While the church is meant to be a safe haven for all, there are those who seek to destroy it from the inside by luring us away from Christ. In this passage, Jude reminds his listeners of the dangers of those who deceive God's people, and he offers guidance for how to identify them from among the flock. 

God is gracious, merciful and kind. But God is also just, Righteous Judge, and wrathful towards sin. This is good, right, and loving. We have the opportunity to repent and return. The choice is ours.

If a danger has entered into your presence, you can’t just sit idly by, but you must oppose it. This is the situation Jude is writing about. A dangerous and insidious faction has entered the community - perverters of grace - and it is imperative that they oppose lies for Truth.

Life comes with many challenges. Obeying the LORD even at times is challenging. That’s not a bad thing. It’s actually a good thing. We grow and learn more in the challenge than in the easy. The good news is that even as we traverse forward through various challenges, in the footsteps of the LORD we already have victory. He is a King, and His is a kingdom without fail and without end. 

“But from this day on I will bless you.” What does it mean to be blessed by God? How do we get God’s blessing? Do we have to obey to get God’s blessing? The Israelites, in trusting and obeying, were blessed by God. We will be too.

What do we do when the road of obedience ahead of us seems too big to handle? What do we do when we feel small and dejected and defeated? When we are afraid of all that could go wrong? We look to and lean into the One who is bigger than any challenge and obstacle set before us. We keep moving forward no matter what, trusting that God is with us and will never let us down.

As people created for connection, we must learn the ways that God informs us to form, build, and keep those relationships. Today we look at the Biblical commands to honor one another, and to speak what is true and good to and of one another.

Maya Angelou once said, “People will forget what you did; they’ll forget what you said. But they’ll never forget how you made them feel.” People long to feel connected, long to belong, long to feel seen, wanted, valued. Nothing can make a person feel the complete opposite than not being welcomed in, not being show hospitality. In showing hospitality, we open the front door, pull up a chair, and in...

Probably one of the most difficult topics to discuss, loving one another. Something that is so simple, yet so complex. How is it that we are supposed to love one other then, and where can we get the power to love those around us? Listen as we look through scripture to see how the Spirit alone empowers us to truly love one another!

We are created for connection. We all long for, because we are designed this way, deep, lasting, secure relationships. But how do we build these friendships? How do we keep them? What do we do? First, we need to look to Jesus and trust Him as friend. But then, we need to commit to being the friend to others that we hope they will be to us.

Jesus wants us to know and be known by him deeply. In this sermon, we look at how Jesus views friendship with him, ad how we are to pursue that connection everyday. 

Every single person desires to have deep, safe, lasting relationships. We all want to know and be known. And that’s because we are created for connection. In order to both survive, and thrive, we need relational connection with others. Both God and others. So how do we do this? Build, keep, nurture relational connection? 

When we die, we will all face judgement before God. What will He say when we are judged? Guilty, or Righteous (Innocent)? We all know that we are not perfectly innocent before God. So what is our hope? Easter. The death and resurrection of Jesus to pay the price for our sins and justify us, make us right with God.

There are many things in life that can give us a blurry vision of who Jesus is. No matter what those things are for you, Mark 8 shows us that Jesus’s desire is that you may see him clearly for who he is! He tells us that when we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him, we see him clearly for who he fully is and get to live in the victory of his resurrection!

Sometimes, God will call us to receive from others. Sometimes God will call us to give to others. In both giving and receiving, we are to be in need. Why? So that we will learn experientially that He is the one who meets all our needs. So that we can learn to do all things - have or have not - in Christ who strengthens us. 

As we press on to know and become like Jesus, we must learn the ways of following Jesus. Rejoice, be reasonable, do not be anxious but rather pray, think about what is good and right. As we establish these rhythms of life, we will better know and become like Jesus.

In our journey to know Jesus and become like Him, we must stand firm, knowing there is an adversary who wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy. We must be willing to identify and correct any weak points by which the enemy could attack. One of those weak points - disunity. We must agree in the Lord for the sake of knowing Jesus and becoming like Him. 

By nature, we are creatures who observe, are influenced by, and then imitate others. It’s how God formed us. Which is why it is so so important to choose wisely who and what we let influence us and who / what we imitate. Since something is influencing us, we want to make sure we are being influenced toward Jesus, and not away from Him. 

We all have goals and ambitions in life. But there is one ambition that is greater than all - knowing Christ. Since we are all a work in progress when it comes to knowing and becoming like Jesus, what do we do? We press on. We intentionally and relentlessly pursue knowing and becoming like Jesus. 

How do you know you’re getting the real thing? No one wants to be duped in anything. How do we know that we truly have a relationship with God? Jesus, only Jesus. Jesus is our only and certain hope. Nothing else will do.