Christ Community Church - Leawood Campus - SUNDAY MESSAGES

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events /48941176 We are anxious people living in anxious times. The many challenges of pandemics, climate, technology, overwhelming information, and political and governmental concerns seem to “seep into our collective consciousness, building on an increased sense of insecurity and powerlessness…an anxiety over an uncertain future.” Prayer is God’s most powerful...

Deconstruction is a process by which we question what we know, or at least what we have been taught. When it comes to deconstructing our religious beliefs, our faith, we’re talking about things of ultimate significance. If we are going to reconstruct, to build something that will stand the test of time, it all starts with God. His plan was set in motion from the foundation of the world and stands...

There are fewer things harder in the Christian life than waiting for Jesus. The glory of God is not so much about the glory due to God, but something God will reveal about himself. Something we sometimes have to see to believe. Something that sometimes makes us wait. Jesus waits for reasons inexplicable sometimes to us, and Jesus weeps when he sees us weeping, and Jesus rages when he confronts dea...

No one likes to think about aging. Our natural reaction to aging is usually revulsion, but time is coming for you. And as uncomfortable as that makes us, or as painful as that may be, the better we are able to reckon with that idea, the wiser we will be, no matter how young or old we may be today. It’s never too early to remember your Creator, to remember that we are creatures, with an expiration...

We all want to be on the front line of protecting freedom, but the fight for real freedom is not outside of us, but within. We must beware who offers us freedom and at what cost. Satan will use the common areas of our lives to deceive us from our sin. Sin permeates, stains, and spreads. It begins in one part of our life and moves into the deepest parts of us where our subconscious takes over and s...

Our family shapes who we are in ways we are hardly even conscious of most of the time. We come from extended families with their own stories, histories and patterns. But are we in Jesus’ family? In this family obedience is not because we earn something from Jesus. It’s because, as Jesus says, his words, his instructions, his design, IS eternal life. Obedience to Jesus doesn’t just give us access t...

When you first hear Jesus speaking in our passage today, you may be slightly offended. Jesus claims to be our shepherd. Jesus says he is our good shepherd because he knows us by name. He doesn’t just lead us, he knows us. He will not leave us or forsake us. He gave his life for us.  The hands that stretched out, on the cross of calvary, pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities...

The first-century Gospel writer John brilliantly weaves truth through a multi-layered story of Jesus healing a blind man. In the nearby literary shadows of this remarkable story lurks a provocative question, “Who’s Really Blind? Helen Keller once said, “ The only thing worse than being born blind, is having sight, but no vision.” Embracing the Gospel is the only way to gain true sight. Just like t...

We all want to be on the front line of protecting freedom, but the fight for real freedom is not outside of us, but within. We must beware who offers us freedom and at what cost. Satan will use the common areas of our lives to deceive us from our sin. Sin permeates, stains, and spreads. It begins in one part of our life and moves into the deepest parts of us where our subconscious takes over and s...

If the sun stopped shining, our earth would be a dark lifeless wasteland and without Jesus the light of the world, we are in spiritual darkness. Like the sun, Jesus is the source and sustenance of life itself. He is not only the redeemer, but also the Creator. Without light, we can not see what is true, good or beautiful. Without Jesus the light of the world, we live in darkness. He proclaims a bo...

When it comes down to it, many of us are living desert lives, but what if we could have a lush, overflowing life? That is what Jesus offers us. The desert life gets stuck on how impressive Jesus looks from a human perspective. But Jesus knows that his Father’s timing is more important than human strategy. For an overflowing life, our faith has to be bigger than our ability to always know what Jesu...

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48909625 Following Jesus is hard. Staying with Jesus, obeying him, loving him through thick and thin, listening to him, is really hard. Jesus says things and teaches things that are offensive to every culture, every era and basically every person. So we should not be surprised when Jesus makes us uncomfortable. In fact, if Jesus isn’t offending us, isn’t...

Storms can be frightening. Storms and fear usually go hand in hand. This is not only true of weather-related storms, but also of life-related storms. We all face fearful storms and are living in a very fearful culture. Jesus is not only the creator of the omnipotent God of the universe, Jesus is the loving and attentive omnipresent God who is always there with us even in the midst of chaos. He is...

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48903412 22.06.12

Life is like smoke. It looks real and solid but when you try to grasp it, it slips through your fingers. And this observation leads Qohelet to the brink of despair at times, because there seems to be nothing that can be counted on in this life “under the sun.” Rather than try to grasp the smoke, the hevel, and watch it slip through your fingers, live life with an open hand. The simple pleasures of...

Jesus is not only the only Son of the Father, but His father has given him all authority under heaven and on earth. Literally, everything hangs on every word that comes from His mouth. If you want to honor God, you must honor the Son. Honoring the Son means taking his words, not just the words we like, but especially the words we don’t like, seriously. He is the Son of the Father, the Judge of all...

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48891565 22.05.22

Human beings, for most of human history, have a really unhealthy relationship to money. It’s one of those through lines of every age, culture, ethnicity, doesn’t matter: people love money. Qoheleth puts his finger right on the problem. Pleasure and work, and other good things that we can love too much, are like the carrot at the end of the stick that, when you finally get it, leaves you disappoint...

One of the main ways we seek meaning is our work. We were created with work in mind. But when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, not only was human work toilsome, human work became idolatrous.  Instead of work being a vital aspect of  God-honoring worship, humans began to worship their work. And that continues today!  The reason we feel so deeply the meaninglessness of our work at times is precise...

Pleasure also has no answer to pain. This is perhaps pleasure’s greatest weakness as a purpose to life. Qoheleth will point this out later, but life is so hard, even under the best of circumstances, and you can’t simply distract your way through that. No matter how much pleasure you can have, all it takes is one devastating diagnosis, or loss, or divorce, or death, to completely undo you. And you...

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48878305 The paradox of human knowledge is the more we know…there is so much more we do not know…like climbing a mountain, when you get to the top, you see other mountains you have never seen before. This is life under the sun. Gospel life under the sun is smoke, but there is life over the sun and it is found in the Son! The vivid contrast between a life...

There is no meaningful way to follow Jesus, no matter how compelling his example and his teaching, if you think he is dead and buried like every other human person from the beginning of time. If he is not raised, then we have no hope. But in fact, Paul says, and he bet his entire life on this: Jesus has been raised. And if he has been raised, then we have eternal hope in him. The only thing more w...

John recounts Jesus’ words to religious leaders who are hell-bent on rejecting and condemning him -–despite the evidence. These religious leaders are so motivated to condemn Jesus, they have already decided the verdict in their hearts. If we are honest with ourselves, some of us have made our verdict already, picking and choosing the things we “like” about Jesus. And rejecting anything that gets i...

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48862957 It is so easy for us to embrace a misguided religious faith founded in a religious consumer mentality. Christian faith is desirable to us as long as it is comfortable and helpful to us. When it helps us form friendships or our involvement in religious services provides a sense of connection or provides us with great business contacts, or helps ou...

Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/48859272 22.03.20