Element Christian Church of Santa Maria

Jesus paid every last penny we owed for our forgiveness at the moment of the cross, understanding His grace is how all of our relationships will be restored.

Jesus is not announcing the termination of the Old Testament’s relevance and authority, He is showing forth the entire point.

We are all called to partner with Jesus in the renewing and proclamation of His name and His greatness. His hope, His healing as salt and light in the world.

It is abundantly clear in scripture that God is a Father, and as a Father He sets His perfect example in love. He loves us even when we are unlovable, comforts us when we are broken, pursues us when we are wayward, lets us fail when we need to learn the hard way, and uses everything in our life for a teaching opportunity. He is a perfect father who gives His children what they need, not just what...

Bonheoffer’s once said, “Flight into the invisible is a denial of the call. A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him”

The Beatitudes end where they began, with the Kingdom of God and a proper understanding of persecution.

According to a 2004 study, Americans are getting 2 1/2 fewer hours of sleep than people did one hundred years ago. The Centers for Disease Control are now tracking this information; not properly resting can bring on Diabetes and Obesity. Forty million Americans get fewer than 6 hours of sleep per night. In the modern church, we think it is more godly to forget sleep and find more work, but God mad...

When your focus is on the person of Christ everything changes, everything is different, and nothing can separate us from that.

When we become a measure of God’s grace to this world Jesus says we can expect negative reactions; that it does not mean we declare a culture war or pick an issue just to get people mad at us, we declare Jesus and love others.

Believers are especially equipped for peacemaking, and in doing so reflect their heavenly Father’s character.

Download this week's Sermon notes that has all of the verses referenced, Sermon notes, and family or Gospel Community discussion questions.

Scripture, why it can be trusted. Inspiration: means “God’s breathed.” Inerrancy - means the words are without error. Infallibility - means the words CANNOT error. Canonicity - means we have the RIGHT words contained in the Bible. Archeology - means that the words have been confirmed through archeology. Prophesy - the words have predicted future events accurately.

Peace has been made between us and our maker because of Christ. Jesus invites us to go on an interior journey that sees our hearts for what they are and what they can become in Him.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important historical event in the world. It changed history and Christianity stands or falls on the resurrection. As Paul says, if Christ did not rise from the dead, then his teaching is in vain, our faith is futile and we are the most to be pitied. The historical evidence and scholarly respect for the physical and bodily resurrection of Jesus is overwh...

Jesus suffered our wrath and gave us grace because of His great mercy. We do not have to stand before God and justify or vindicate ourselves because Jesus took care of us.

Three Main Arguments 1. The Moral Argument 2. The Cosmological Argument 3. The Teleological Argument (“Fine Tuning”) • Argument is not a fight or quarrel • True philosopher doesn’t use arguments for the sake of arguing but for the sake of truth • We use arguments all the time in our lives • Why Philosophy? “To be ignorant and simple now--not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground--woul...

The beatitude is not: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after blessedness?” It is: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” All life dead ends at the cross, and that also is where life begins.

The word for “defense” is where we get our word apology, it means a defense like you would make in a court of law. This class will cover how to make a defense to various things such as: -the existence of God, -the proof of the resurrection of Jesus, -the reliability of the scriptures, -competing systems of thought, -what some call the “problems” of a biblical position.

When we see the suffering in the world and realize Jesus’ heart for the suffering world, we get a glimpse of hunger and thirsting for righteousness.

A meek person is not a weak person, the word meek is the Greek word which means a tamed wild animal. When we truly own up to our sin, only then do we become free.

True mourning sees ourselves for what we are and what we have done, but also sees Jesus for who He is… our needed savior.

Jesus’ announcement, at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, to the crowd of people, is BLESSED are all the people who have no reason why they should be blessed.

The “blessing” of the Old Testament was a straightforward blessing; the blessing of the New Testament is a divine paradox: an experience of the kingdom’s inner riches amid external poverty and trial.

The Heidelberg Catechism: What is your only comfort in life and in death? Response: That I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

In Isaiah 9:6, Jesus is referred to as the Wonderful Counselor. This means Jesus is well beyond our understanding. He inspires awe in those around, and is never lacking in wisdom or love for us. Jesus counsels his people in a way that is much more profound than how a modern therapist would. The word or deed of Christ in the Gospels frequently both comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortabl...