Austin Life Church

Our created purpose is to reflect God’s image with our lives, to become like Jesus. As Paul said in Philippians 2:12, we are to work out our salvation, put in the work to become like Jesus. Ok, I’m in. Now what? What does that look like? “Do everything without grumbling or disputing”. A life free of grumbling and disputing is a life that trusts and honors God well. 

We all follow the lead of something, or someone that we believe is true, right, good and best for our lives. It’s just naturally how we are made. But what if we are following the wrong thing? Jesus invites us to follow Him, be His disciple, and thus find life. 

Joy is a feeling of happiness, pleasures, and gladness. God is for our joy! In fact, He commands us to rejoice, to pursue and choose joy in our lives. But how? How do we feel joy? How do we pursue joy? “Behold”, the angel said, “I bring you good news of great joy for all people.” In the birth of Jesus, joy came to us. May we be filled with eternal joy in Jesus the Christ.

The Bible defines peace both as the absence of conflict AND the presence of wholeness. Who doesn’t want peace? We all do! Where does this peace come from? How do we get it? That first Christmas, Jesus was born, and He was called by Isaiah, the Prince of Peace. If we want to know peace, it starts and ends with Jesus. 

Advent is time of waiting, watching, anticipating Jesus. He came once, as promised. And He will come again, as promised. This is a sure and certain hope. In the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, we have a steadfast hope to lean on and carry us to the end. Jesus is our hope.

Paul continues his message to the Philippians that with their whole lives, become like Jesus, work out your salvation. It’s God who first works for us and then continually in us, so that we can actually work out what He has worked in. 

In order to live lives worthy of the Gospel of Jesus, lives of loving God and loving others, we must do nothing out of selfish ambition, and everything out of other ambition. We must learn how to consider others as more significant than ourselves and look to their interest and not just our own. 

The Church in Philippi faced real, tangible persecution. Paul’s call the them was to be unified by their likeness in Christ to stand firm in the face of persecution. When the church is unified in Christ, His good news is illuminated through them. He is worth whatever cost comes from being unified in Him. We can learn so much from what Paul is teaching the Philippians about living together in unity...

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” This proverb speaks to hope, to optimism, to finding good in a sour situation. Paul, while writing in prison, being afflicted by others who should be brothers, potentially facing the death penalty, is still living a life of joy. How? Because what makes a good day for Paul is being able to honor Christ. And he is able to honor Christ regardless of c...

Philippians is known to be a letter written with much joy. Why so much joy? Because of love in action. The Philippians are practitioners of love, which compels Paul to pray that they would abound in more and move love. May we be practitioners of love and ask God for love to abound in us, and in others.

The letter to the Philippians was written by Paul, with the help of Timothy, for the purpose of encouraging the church in Philippi to joyfully live their lives in a manner worthy of Christ while maintaining unity and taking every opportunity to advance the gospel of Jesus. 

Faith is belief that moves us to action. Faith is not real faith unless it moves us to trust and live according to that belief. Habakkuk is faced with a decision in the midst of calamity: will he trust and follow God even though God’s ways are not how he would have imagined? Spoiler alert - Habakkuk remains in faith. How? What kept Habakkuk faithful even though the ways of God were wildly differen...

Looking around, there is much to lament and grieve. Sin is running rampant. But, God promises that His justice will come. Hope is coming. His glory will be known throughout the earth. Today, the justice and hope of God is known in Jesus. We can rest assured justice will come!

There will come times in life when we, finite humanity, do not understand the Infinite and Eternal God. This is where confusion, frustration, lament reside. And that’s ok. It’s part of being a work in progress. But, even when God doesn’t make sense to us, He is and always will be faithful. Therefore, have faith in God and live. 

Let’s be honest, there are parts of the Old Testament that are difficult to understand. But, that’s life isn’t? There are parts of life that are difficult to understand. What is happening here? Where is God? If He is good, how does what is happening reconcile? But even when life is far from ideal, heck far from ok, God is worthy of our trust and worship. Even though the night lingers, yet we will...

Every church and organization that wants to survive long term seeks to create a culture of unity, but it seems that everyone has a different idea of how to achieve that goal. Today, we dig into Romans 14 to see how Paul addresses unity within the churches of Rome, and how Jesus himself set an example for being united as one.

In a society that is built around the American dream of working hard to gain recognition and growing your bank account, it can be hard to focus our lives solely on the Lord. Meeting deadlines or cleaning the house feels as if they can only be done to please our bosses or families. Our reading from Colossians is directed specifically towards bondservants, but we learn how Christ defines Christians...

We exist for the glory of God and the good of all people. As followers of Jesus and as the people of Austin Life Church, it is our mission to help one another live life to the fullest in Jesus, to become a people who Love God with our whole lives, Love One Another as Christ loves us, and Leads All People to the fullness of life in Jesus. We will become these people as we continually trust Jesus an...

We exist for the glory of God and the good of all people. As followers of Jesus and as the people of Austin Life Church, it is our mission to help one another live life to the fullest in Jesus, to become a people who Love God with our whole lives, Love One Another as Christ loves us, and Leads All People to the fullness of life in Jesus. 

As humans, 100% of us have sinned. In small and big ways. We have all sinned against God, against others, against ourselves. The question is not, will we sin? The question is, will we respond well when we do. The invitation from God to sin is repentance. Repentance is God’s joy and our freedom. 

Psalm 121 would be a strange song to sing in church for many of us. It isn’t a song singing praise to God, but instead it’s a song where we sing encouragement to one another. We sing to remind each other that the Lord is the one who keeps our life, despite what Life’s circumstances show.

Jesus told us, “in this world you will have trouble.” How do we respond when trouble comes? How do we get through it? And not just survive, but thrive again? That’s where Biblical lament comes in. The grace of God to make room for us to not be ok, and lead us on the path toward healing with Him.

David invites us to a wholehearted worship of God because of His abundant goodness. He invites us to taste and see how good God is. Not just to hear about it from David. But to know it personally. And then, to worship God in response. But how are we able to taste and see for ourselves? How is this not just wishful thinking?

In Psalm 8, we see that the majesty of the Lord is found through the entirety of His creation. Jesus came as a brother to us, so that we can be the ultimate image bearers of His majesty!

In the 100th Psalm, David exhorts the whole earth to come and give the LORD praise, to enter His presence with a thankful heart. Why praise the LORD? Because He is God, and He is good. Do you gather with the church to worship God? Do you joyfully sing praise to Him and serve Him with gladness?