Christ Community Church - Leawood Campus - SUNDAY MESSAGES

It is easy to miss, in our polarized world, that Jesus seems to have intentionally drawn together people from across ideologies and cultures of the world to be worshippers. Jesus is not after ideologies. He is after worship in spirit and truth. This is Jesus’ language for a new heart that only the Spirit can give, a new obedience to the truth that Jesus is Lord of all. Does Jesus have our worship?...

When Jesus is invited into every part of our daily lives. Jesus becomes more present to us in our Monday worlds of work, work,  school, recreation. He becomes more present in our homes, in our friendships and family.  When Jesus becomes more and more Holy Spirit fills and empowers us. He draws us to deeper intimacy with Jesus and He guides us, teaches us and reshapes our priorities and reorders ou...

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48847927 From a posture of glorious holiness and a motive of unfathomable love, God the Father, sent Jesus his Son on a divine rescue mission to save us his fallen image-bearers from eternal separation from himself. When we slow down and pause to reflect on it, the intensity and beauty of God’s love, its breadth, and width, its sacrificial nature, the len...

If I were to ask you what you think is the greatest obstacle to faith, what would you say? Perhaps what blinds us more than anything else to true gospel faith is religion. Churches can be full of religious people, moral people, upstanding citizens, who do not really know Jesus or have forgotten what life with Jesus is all about. For God so loved the world, that He gave His son, not just to people...

Jesus came to make God accessible to everyone. Jesus died so that people could have access to God. Are there places in our lives or in our church, or the Church, where we’re putting up barriers that make it more difficult for people on the outside to encounter God? Church is meant to be a place to practice dying to self, for the sake of others, even if that means you don’t get the song that you wa...

In John 2, by turning water into wine,  Jesus draws his disciples to a greater faith. They learned about the kind of king Jesus is and the kind of kingdom he means to bring. It is easy to forget when the wine is flowing, that it can’t flow forever. What do we do when the wine runs out? When life’s circumstances let us down? John tells us in that moment to trust Jesus. When our wine runs out, we ar...

In our text this morning, in John 1, there are five men. Andrew, probably John himself, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael. All different with different motivations, questions and jobs. But all of them come and see Jesus for the first time. And it changes them forever. If you are here and you are a christian, or exploring what it means to be a Christian, you are a link in the chain, that goes way back t...

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48829523 First-century Christians waiting for the Messiah were expecting a King, a strong leader, a warrior who could take on their oppressors from Rome. They wanted the Lion of Judah and a judge who was on their side. They were not prepared to see the Lamb. Israel’s minds and hearts were stubbornly set on only accepting someone who fit the picture in Her...

As humans, we have always had an interesting relationship with darkness. On one hand, we can be afraid of the dark, but we love it when we need it. To hide. To retreat. To sin or commit evil. John wants to reveal to us that Jesus is the Light. He is not a light, but the one true light, who gives life to humanity. Satan opposes Jesus and His light everywhere he can, but Jesus came into the world to...

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48815757 22.01.02

I believe we live in a time of great skepticism and growing mistrust and yet skepticism of truth claims and the challenge of discerning what is true and what is not- is not restricted to our modern time. Through John’s witness, we see that from the opening verses of the bible through the very end, the story of God we encounter is one who greatly loves this broken material world. Let’s remember tha...

Sermon notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48815690 21.12.26

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48812107 21.12.19

We are in a sermon series this Advent season on the names of God. How does the Bible talk about God?  What names does He have, the Son given to us on Christmas, who has come to us and will come again?  He is the Lord of hosts which is a reminder that we do not fight alone. He is an invisible general, fighting for us. He isn’t afraid of a human army, and swords and shields and chariots. He’s the lo...

We all long to be seen, noticed, known, valued by others, not just around or tolerated, but really seen. This time of year lots of people are around, but many feel more invisible than ever. This morning, our story in Genesis is giving us a window into the life of one of the most invisible people ever, until God met her. This overlooked woman is actually the only person in the whole bible to give G...

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48801492 21.11.28

Our world is constantly changing around us. It seems as though it is changing faster now than ever. What never changes, and what always grounds us, no matter what, is not who we are, but whose we are. We do not belong to the chaos of our world when it rears its ugly head. We do not belong to an ideology. We do not belong to a human authority. We don’t even belong to ourselves. We belong to Jesus....

The bible tells us God designed the family and the local church to be the primary sustaining institutions for human flourishing. The bible also teaches that a flourishing faith is a belonging faith. That real faith not only believes, it also belongs!  But what does a belonging faith look like? It was a great privilege for us to host Dr. Curt Thompson at Christ Community recently. As a devoted appr...

In today’s passage, James wants to warn us about the effect money can have on our faith. If we are not careful, wealth can corrupt us. It can convince us that we deserve more than we need. It will even try to convince us that our wants are actually needs. Our want for “stuff” is never done. We must not put our trust in material possessions which can lead to the hoarding of wealth, oppression of la...

Planning can be wise and good, but who do we have in mind when we plan? If we long to have real faith, whole faith, lived out faith, we must remember who holds tomorrow. When we plan out our lives and love our plans too much, we become reliant on them. Our plans will inevitably let us down. Our plans, good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, are trials that are designed to bring us closer to who G...

When is the last time you really sat down and thought, “what do I want?” Not like in a shallow way. But like, “what do I want in life? It’s a more important question than I often acknowledge. There is ancient wisdom about how important what we want is. How powerful it is, and how dangerous it can be. James chapter 4 is a warning. A warning about wanting the wrong things, and the consequences to ou...

Our words matter to God. Words can lift up or tear down. They can unite or divide. They can make us laugh or make us cry. Words stick with us and cannot be taken back. They leave a lasting imprint. Our tongues reveal our human sinfulness and brokenness. It is like a barometer for our inner world, our character, and our spiritual formation. At the root of any tongue problem is a heart problem. We m...

The more we internalize, trust, and believe in Jesus’ mercy for us, the more mercy, compassion, and service will be evident in us toward others. There’s a direct relationship between how loved we know we are, to how much mercy we show those around us. This is why Jesus ALWAYS points out that the one who loves Him best are always the ones who have received the most mercy. It’s also why the poor and...

What difference does faith make in the lives of Christians? What difference should it make? I think today’s sermon is the one many of my non-Christian friends would like to preach to Christians. They want to see a faith that makes a difference not only in the lives of the individual believer, but also in our communities and in the world. They want to see a faith that works. We need to ask ourselve...

When we allow the trials and sufferings of our lives to refine our faith, we get closer to wholeness, to perfection, even in a very broken world. When Jesus talks about you and me, those of us in the faith, that we are to be “perfect” as His heavenly Father is perfect. He is saying, whatever you are right now, if you let me, if you follow me, I will make you as flawless, as whole, as perfect, as m...