Grace Sagola Church

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. 

Is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ enough?  Or does God require something from us to make salvation possible?  The answer to this question will ultimately reveal where glory is given.

There is a contemporary lie that is gaining more traction today: "believe whatever you want, and find God."  We are warned continually about the dangers of false teachings, but too many Christians are not equipped to know how to identify that which is true and that which is false. 

Participation in the work of the gospel is a collective privilege for the church.  However, we do not always see it that way.  For many, the work of Christ is either an overlooked nuisance or an expectation for an overloaded pastor. Today we will see how Paul's ministry team carried the mantle of ministry in both the obvious and unexpected ways, as motivated by a deep love and longing within the p...

Sacrifice is not a word you often hear about in today's church.  Properly put, Jesus is our final sacrifice, however what does that leave for His followers today?

We live in a "selfie" world. Unfortunately, that means our culture's values often stand in opposition to God's glory. As the old saying goes, "self praise stinks!"

Because of what God has done for us, we are expected to have a change in our hearts towards one another. However, if we're honest sometimes it can be very hard. We're easily annoyed, and misunderstandings and miscommunication clutter the efforts we make towards unity.

The way we live our lives often speaks louder than our words. As Christians we must see our faith as the essential component of our new identity in Christ, and therefore in obedience to God's Spirit living in us we may see suffering as natural outcome of a new nature living in a cursed world.

It is a difficult thing to suffer for Christ, and it is uniquely foreign for much of our modern world's teaching on Christianity. How should we rightly carry Christ into our spheres of influence, and how can we develop a courage that make us willing to suffer for our faith.

The pattern of our world celebrates the "lone ranger" over the one who seeks cooperation.  We value competency rather than dependency, and individual achievement over cooperation.  We laud the "self-made" man, and we are trained to market our own brand at the expense of all others.

One of the greatest challenges the church faces today is the influence of individualism and a rebellion of God's standards when it comes to the family.  The family is the most fundamental unit of society, and if the family breaks down, we can easily see the results as they prove God's formula true by the statistics found in fatherless homes.

The importance of investing in our children does not end with graduation.  Even adult children are in need of love and support from their parents, and the saying "it takes a village to raise a child" is true today more than ever.