Grace Sagola Church

The book of Revelation contains 7 letters to 7 churches with a common thread inviting the reader to pay attention to what the Spirit has written. The first letter to the church in Ephesus highlights the high degree of discernment practiced by the believers in Ephesus, but Jesus also reveals the callousness of their hearts to have fallen from a life of love. We will seek to show that the solution i...

There are subtleties in our world that can seem benign but hold differences that can be drastic, especially when the topic at hand is a foundational topic.  The subject of the Trinity is one that has left many scratching their heads, but that the church has sought to clarify in the face of false teachings.  Many times it is much easier to say what something "is not" rather than what it actually "i...

When false teachings show up in church history, we sometimes forget that those same heresies are alive and well today, lived out under a different name.  For the early church, there was never a question of Jesus' divinity, only a firm confidence that it must be accurately articulated when faced with false teaching. 

In the creeds the church has preserved the truth of the gospel and identity of Jesus in the face of false teachers and false teaching.  While many churches have incorporated the creeds into their worship services, there are still many who remain confused as to the creed's source, occasion, and purpose. 

There is a plan behind Jesus' prayer.  It is nothing short than the purpose behind our salvation.  For many in our world today, becoming a Christian is a private and individualistic decision that never requires expression in the world. But Jesus has different plans for us. 

The Lord's prayer is often mis-titled as the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray from Luke 11.  However, Jesus' personal prayer is found in John 17, and it contains a treasure of spiritual truths; none more greater than the identification of the source of eternal life. 

The true follower of Jesus has a grounding in joy that the world rejects.  As Jesus is leaving His disciples He brings them a message of hope to aid them through the upcoming moments and days.  The crucifixion will be a devastating blow to their hopes, but Jesus' promise to see them again is coupled with the great hope that their joy will never be taken away.

The Holy Spirit is given to Jesus' disciples to continue the same work that Jesus started in their lives while He was with them.  The Spirit's influence in our lives will help to identify what true discipleship looks like. 

The fear that prevents evangelism is a virus throughout American Christians. I believe much of it stems from an under-emphasized and often overlooked truth of discipleship: true disciples will be persecuted. 

What a danger it is in our world to be deceived into religion.  Praying a prayer doesn't save you, getting baptized doesn't save you, paying a tithe doesn't save you. 

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ?  As Jesus was preparing to leave his disciples for the cross and then ultimately through the resurrection and ascension, he leaves them with the great task of obedience to the Father's will... but he does not leave them to this task by their own strength. 

Living as a person of faith in Jesus is not celebrated in our world today. There is a value system of the world that places "mankind" and our interests and desires (really our own glory) at the forefront as contrasted with the glory of God. 

1 John 2:16 “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” Observations & Conclusions: 1. The idols of more 2. The idols of success 3. The idols of indulgence Application: How to avoid the traps? 1. Call up on the Lord 2. Remind yourself that you belong to God 3. Reconcile your relations...

It’s all too easy to listen to the voices of dissension and even become controlled by the fears in our own mind and hearts.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemies.  These failures to trust in God reveal a lack of confidence in the Lord, and a misplacement of expressing faith in ourselves when we know we will fail.  The solution starts by looking to God as the One greater than our difficulties. 

We are being influenced by more than we notice. The things that we find enjoyment in are indeed the most subtle influencers. As music or a song lyric would entertain our attention, we slowly and subtly become conformed to the ideas contained therein.

One of the major challenges facing the early church was the danger of falling away from personal commitment to the faith.  Apart from a few isolated areas around the globe, Christians today enjoy a relatively safe and easy practice of their faith.  The vast majority of Christians can gather together and worship Jesus Christ without fear of life threatening persecution. 

Too often in the church, Jesus has been confused as cosmic genie that exists as a supporting character in our life's screenplay. The reality however is that we all have been estranged from our God from humanity's fall in the garden.

The religious leaders questioned Jesus for a sign, but not because they wanted to believe, for they had already determined what they thought of him. Unfortunately, this is all to common in our world today.  Many people have already made up their mind as to what they believe about Jesus, no matter the signs. 

There may be a very real danger in our world today that has been sourced from God's patience.  Although we progress in our rejection of Christ and our sinfulness goes from bad to worse, the wrath stored-up seems suspiciously absent from the everyday and therefore we may be deceived that it is absent in the future. 

The picture of Jesus as compared to manna from the Exodus account is one filled with both similarities and differences.  It is within these dynamics that we find a challenge to our hearts today - to be reminded that we do not live by bread alone. 

The picture of Jesus that we find in the scriptures gives us the truth about a God who has displayed His love to His creation.  However, we must be careful that the picture we get is the correct picture of Jesus.  This series will seek to examine the "portraits" of Jesus as found through the study of Typology; the Old Testament symbols that point to the corresponding New Testament truths of redemp...

The letter to the Philippians is a theological thank you note, in which Paul helps the church to see a greater vision for the suffering that Christians are called to undergo in this life.  The crux of the letter centers around the reality of the church's call to unity and partnership in the gospel, and it is in this partnership that we are characterized as the people of God.

We live in a world that encourages excess.  Even if it isn't greed or gluttony, the term FOMO or "Fear of missing out" has our young people paralyzed to their phones and social networks to make sure they've seen and heard it all! 

In a world fraught with worry and anxiety, how it even possible for the people of God to find peace?  The Apostle Paul, helps the Philippian church identify 5 distinct areas of their lives where God's peace can rule.  

The itching ears of our cultural forms of Christianity have left the church in America largely dull and unresponsive to much of the false teaching that is propagated through the medium of Christian TV, bookstores, and radio.  We've bought into the temptation that heaven is now and God's greatest concern is for our happiness.