Grace Community Church Sunday Morning Messages

David Guzak writes ; “This psalm is simply titled To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Charles Spurgeon rightly said regarding the title of this psalm,“The dedication to the chief musician proves that this song of mingled measures and alternate strains of grief and woe was intended for public singing, and thus a deathblow is given to the notion that nothing but praise should be sung.” We have...

“Water has tremendous erosive power, particularly when carrying large amounts of sediment and rock, like the Colorado River does with flooding.” So says the National Park Service when explaining the role the Colorado River has had in the forming and carving out of the Grand Canyon. They go onto describe; “When large amounts of water are moved through a river channel, large rocks and boulders are c...

“Water has tremendous erosive power, particularly when carrying large amounts of sediment and rock, like the Colorado River does with flooding.” So says the National Park Service when explaining the role the Colorado River has had in the forming and carving out of the Grand Canyon. They go onto describe; “When large amounts of water are moved through a river channel, large rocks and boulders are c...

Psalm 24 lifts our eyes up to the grandeur of God and His rule over all that exists in His creation. If not read through the lens of Christ, our eyes drop in discouragement over the next set of verses—for who can enter the presence of their Creator but only those with clean hands and a pure heart! This statement is a universal qualifier. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, slave or fr...

In a well produced film, the soundtrack accompanies the story in an honest and appropriate way. Likewise, God has not left us without a soundtrack to accompany us on our own journey. The life of every human includes a storyline of joys and sorrows, health and pain, mountaintops and valleys, for which God has given us the Psalms: a hymnbook for every occasion and every emotion. This summer our serm...

Adults and Kids have spent the week learning who our great God is by EXPLORING HIS NATURE!  *God is our Creator *God knows everything and is our safe place *God is love *God is forever.** From Genesis to Revelation, we surved the whole of Bible to explore the nature of God and what that means for us in our everyday. We see in the beginning how God is the only one who can create from nothing. Each...

Laodicea, an important city of the Roman Empire, had a serious issue with drinkable water. Hot Springs filled with impurities were a main source of water for the city. Archaeological excavations have revealed an attempt to bring water from an outside source in through stone pipes containing limestone deposits which would have contaminated the water for drinking.  Just as lukewarm water is useless,...

Laodicea, an important city of the Roman Empire, had a serious issue with drinkable water. Hot Springs filled with impurities were a main source of water for the city. Archaeological excavations have revealed an attempt to bring water from an outside source in through stone pipes containing limestone deposits which would have contaminated the water for drinking.  Just as lukewarm water is useless,...

This week’s church is in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. Yes that’s the tagline for the Philadelphia in the US, but we didn’t coin the phrase. Brotherly love is what Philadelphia means in the Greek. This is a place along a trade route linking Europe to Asia and where earthquakes are common.  This little church was harassed by what Jesus refers to as “the synagogue of Satan, those who cla...

Jesus has told us;   "No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me….apart from Me you can do nothing. ---John 15   “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.” ---John 6:60 After His resurrection, Jesus told His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit before doing anything else. We know that it is only by the power of th...

Lydia was from Thyatira and was a dealer in purple cloths. She was converted in Philippi when she heard Paul speak (Acts 16:1-15) Paul accepted her invitation stay with her in her home and he and Silas returned to her home when they were released from prison. (Acts 19:16-40)   Thyatira was a small and insignificant area famous for the dying of cloth.  The trade guilds were places of idolatry and s...

Pergamum sits north of Smyrna and about 16 miles inland from the Aegean Sea. Their massive library rivaled the library in Alexandria housing thousands of works. It was in Pergamum where the use of more expensive and longer lasting parchment was developed (1) . In addition to three temples dedicated to the emperor, Pergamum also had a temple for Asclepius, god of healing; Dionysius, god of “wine an...

Smyrna was a city of wealth, trade, and deep loyalty to Rome. In 195 BC Smyrna built a temple to Roma, the goddess of Rome. Theirs was a city for whom Emperor worship was central, in AD 12 a temple was built to honor the Emperor Tiberias and during Domitian’s time (A.D. 81-96) it was a requirement for every Roman citizen to give worship, allegiance, and loyalty to Rome’s emperors. For a Christian...

What would it mean to you to have someone know you – to know your strengths and your weaknesses and to know this accurately? All of us carry a fear of being found out and rejected. The beauty of the gospel is that Jesus does Know us Completely *and* has not rejected us. No! On the contrary He loves us more deeply than we can even comprehend. Remember: *Jesus is who loves us and has freed us from o...

**Through the Resurrection all who trust in Jesus can live Victoriously.**  Seven churches in Asia minor were each given a letter with encouragements, corrections and promises to those who overcome. How do we overcome and live victoriously? It is by faith alone, through grace alone. Jesus' victory is ours through faith in His work on our behalf. All Praise, Honor, and Glory to Jesus, the Living On...

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. All Pr...

We begin our last week of preparation walking with Jesus as he enters Jerusalem to the praise of an adoring crowd. Looking at all that transpires between this triumphal entry and Jesus' death we notice such Grace, patience, fortitude and forgiveness from our Victorious Christ. We also see people whose understanding is incomplete and who 'know not what they do' - be it shouts of "Hosanna!" or shout...

What a journey we have been on in this letter to the Colossian church! And what a final exhortation we are given to devote ourselves to prayer, to be wise, and to seek every opportunity to proclaim the glory of Jesus. It is all for Him. All our service, choices, gratitude, and love poured out into the world is for the praise honor and glory of Jesus. Take some time this week to read through the wh...

We’ve looked at how the gospel impacts our behavior and what it means to live into the new nature we have been given. We studied how this impact makes its way into our homes and families. This week we will look at how the gospel applies to our working lives – both as employers and employees. Ultimately we all answer to Jesus and it is Him that we seek to honor in the way we conduct ourselves out i...

All Christians are invited into a new way of relating to one another. This section focuses in on families. Just like the traits we are told to live into in the previous verses, marriage relationships and parent-child relationships are different for the child of God. The contrasting natures we have been studying in chapter three have the most bearing on our closest relationships within our homes. L...

In contrast to the list of things Paul asks us shed, he provides us a list of things to wrap our hearts and our lives in. These characteristics are standards that can only be met by ones who understand that they are holy and dearly loved. This is fruit that the Holy Spirit must produce within us and are traits demonstrated within relationships. As you ponder the high calling to which God’s childre...

Our identity in Jesus is distinct and living into that identity means to live contrary to the values, principles, and practices of the world. Among the list of things we are to reject, there is no one who could say that these don’t apply to them. Paul is clear about the equality of these sins and their association with everyone who does not belong to Jesus. All of these are in the past for those w...

Thus far Paul has explained who Jesus is and what Jesus has accomplished through His work on the cross. Now his letter transitions  into application of those truths. As a result of Christ’s supremacy and His completed work on the cross, we are set free from earning anything or paying back what is owed. This is great news! Anything we participate in along with anything we abstain from need only be...

Paul uses a number of metaphors in the same sentence that seem at first glance to be contradictory; live (or walk) in Christ, be rooted and built up. How can you walk and be rooted? It’s more of a both/and, we are to be firmly grounded in Christ’s work on our behalf and also to keep growing in our faith journey towards Christ-likeness. While on this earth we battle between our old nature and our n...

To Contend means to struggle for victory and also to earnestly dispute. Paul is laboring hard, at times to the point of exhaustion, for this church, many of whom he has never met. Why? And what is he contending for? To put it simply, Paul is committed to magnifying God and maturing His people. He understands that God’s people include Gentile believers and he is working for their encouragement and...