God Centered Life

Some of those who say they have never seen God have not actually been looking. The surest way not to find is not to seek at all. Even if you are not a Christian, we all need to come to this study with an open mind and consider that these things might indeed be true. John 14:22-31 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There is no ancient literature like the book of Proverbs more likely to enable us to attain a wise life. We need practical wisdom, and the Bible provides it for us. Proverbs 1:1-7 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sometimes when we're going through a difficult time, we wonder how we can know that the things we believe in because we are following Christ are all true. The way to find the truth is to ask questions. We as Christians have nothing to hide. We do have the truth, and we can examine it with all the questions we have, and it will survive. John 14:8-21 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...

Sixty-six percent of Americans think that belief in many different religions will get you into heaven. The more we come across people of other faiths and the more globalized our world is, the more we begin to think that truth is relative. This makes it harder for people to believe that Jesus is the only way to God. John 14:5-7 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When we think about Christian failure, we need to remember that the enemy is on the prowl. But these lessons teach us to fight the good fight, to resist the devil and he will flee from us. While we may be disappointed in a leader who has failed, Jesus teaches us here how to handle that and how to take responsibility for our own lives. John 13:36-14:4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast...

The first message in this new series teaches about Peter, David, Moses, and others—great leaders, but men who messed up. Humility saves and arrogance kills. We need to be careful and remember that, "There by the grace of God go I." John 13:36-14:4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why would someone go out of his or her way to visit a sick person or mentor someone they don't know? We need to turn this on its head and instead of asking, "What's the return on my investment?" ask "How am I going to invest for God's glory and the good of others?" That is the heart of the Christian life. John 13:31-35 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

These famous words are from the story of Joseph: "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." The great truths that God is utterly sovereign, and that he is weaving everything together for a salvation purpose, all come to us in power as we trust in Christ. Genesis 50:15-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." What is new about this? Surely we've heard this before! Even the Beatles say, "All you need is love." John 13:31-35 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jesus did not die for the innocent victim. Here John says, "And it was night." You will never understand or appreciate the cross unless you grasp the full depth of the darkness of your night.  John 13:21-30 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here we see the real humanity of Jesus—he was troubled in spirit. When we consider the betrayal that Jesus went through, it helps us appreciate in a deeper way just what a great Savior He is. John 13:21-30 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is a complete reversal of every religious assumption we have in our minds. Religion says: Be clean, and God will accept you if you're good enough. Jesus says: Come as you are, dirty feet and all. I'll clean you up. Christianity is, in many ways, the anti-religion. It is all about what God has done for us through His love and transforming grace. John 13:1-20 Learn more about your ad choices. V...

Washing someone else's feet is never a particularly pleasant task to do. But in biblical times, it was a whole different experience. There were all kinds of animals on the roads with no one picking up what they left behind. This makes what Jesus did even more astonishing. John 13:1-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The story of the Bible as a whole, and particularly the story of Joseph, is God's sovereign telling of a story that weaves together the elements of our lives for the purpose of our salvation. When we are in the midst of a storm, we don't know how it's going to turn out, but we have to trust and do what we can right then and there. Genesis 42-45 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice...

The starving man looks at a piece of bread as life; a person who is dying of thirst would say a glass of water is life. For those who have hungry souls, to follow God's commandment is to feed on the food of eternal life, the life that starts now and continues forever in relationship with Christ. John 12:44-50 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Bible is ever-relevant; it's living and active and it speaks today. The kind of opposition that Jesus experienced in this passage is certainly related to the kinds of questions that we get asked about Christianity today. John 12:44-50 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We tend to think about glory as just heaven or something in the far beyond. When the Bible talks about glory, it is the gravity, the weight, the brilliance of God—that which makes God special. God is glory, and therefore knowing Him is glorious. John 12:37-43 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Theological tribalism is so human. Some look with great fear upon Calvinism, and others think it's the club to belong to. Instead, we need to be driven by the Bible and what it teaches. John 12:37-43 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With all the information overload today, it's never been easier to keep the truth of God at a distance. It becomes just another piece of information we scroll past and ignore. Instead, it needs to penetrate, and only by God's Spirit as we embrace it through personal trust will it touch our mind, conscience, will, and emotions. John 12:27-36 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.co...

It could be that the very things that you find most traumatic and difficult are the things that God is precisely weaving into the tapestry of your life. In this way, you might, in your weakness, be exalted as a witness that you have been taken out of the pit and restored to a relationship with the King of the whole universe. Genesis 41 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adc...

The Church today needs to rediscover the heroism of Christian suffering. So often today preachers try to make everything easy—"follow what I say and your life will never have trouble again." Preachers are tempted to say what their listeners long to hear. But then we rob Christians of the opportunity for heroism in the face of difficulty. John 12:27-36 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...

The Greeks in this passage were on the right track; they were seeking salvation and wanted to be with and know Jesus. He teaches that His salvation and knowing Him is better than anything and anyone else on this earth. John 12:20-26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We assume that the way to have the best life is to love your life. But Jesus said this common intuition is incorrect. It is counterintuitive both intellectually and emotionally that dying would be the path to fruition in life. The truth is that the cross and its impact upon our lives is the very last thing that we would expect, and yet it is the path to newness of life. John 12:20-26 Learn more ab...

Perhaps there is something in your life right now that you do not understand. Maybe it's something intellectual like a doctrine, or a place of suffering and you aren't sure why God would allow it. It is only through the lens of the cross and the resurrection, and ultimately heaven, through which everything can be understood. John 12:12-19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/...

Church stuff, like the music or the building or the good works people do, is not what church is meant to be about. Jesus is real and present by his Spirit, and church is about Him. You can meet him and know Him. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1417/29 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices