Gulf Coast Community Church Podcast – St. Petersburg

What if the Gospel isn’t just about a ticket to heaven, but about a kingdom that’s already here? Imagine the voice of John the Baptist in the wilderness or Jesus proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” These words weren’t just religious slogans—they were an urgent invitation to a new way of life, here and now. This Sunday, in the first message of our new series, “The King a...

Samuel McNair - Psalm 37

GCCC Sermon 1/5/25 - Luan Nguyen tells of our mission, his mission in Vietnam, and how we can continue in our partnership with all God is doing.

Joy is not just a fleeting emotion tied to circumstances, but a profound, enduring gladness rooted in God's promises. In this Advent season, amidst the whirlwind of lights, music, and traditions—or the hardships of loss, waiting, and uncertainty—we're invited to reflect on the tension between Christ's first coming and the anticipation of His return. Just as Mary, Elizabeth, and others rejoiced in...

As we journey through this Advent season, we’re reminded that the true essence of love is revealed in Jesus Christ. This week’s message, "All Things New: Let Your Gentleness Be Evident to All," dives into Paul’s words in Philippians (1:9-10; 2:1-11; 4:2-7), calling us to embody love as humility in action that we might experience joy as the fruit of love. Paul prays for love to abound with knowledg...

Isaiah’s vision of the day when Messiah would come is either the most fantastic promise of peace or comically absurd. He pictures the messiah slaying his enemies with mere words. Wolves living peacefully with lambs; leopard resting with goats, baby bulls and lambs fattened for slaughter lying peacefully with lions; and get this, all with a little child leading them. Not only this but infants could...

Hope is one of those funny words that can describe both the waiting and the arrival of a thing. For instance, it could be said that the Jewish people (and truly all people unknowingly) longed for the messiah and that Jesus was their hope, the Messiah. He is the hope of all the world. Hope anticipates what is to come and is embodied and fulfilled in that which comes. This Sunday is the first Sunday...

Colditz was a German POW camp inside an old castle during WWII. It was the kind of place that may have inspired Hogan’s Heroes. Though the real-life version was no comedy, it certainly had its comical moments. The prisoners frequently put on theatrical productions –usually bordering on the absurd. But none of their productions were as bizarre as the drama that unfolded at the end: the German garri...

If one were to live under the Law of Moses today, what would they look like? Arguably they would look Jewish. Food rules, feast days, circumcision, and more might be the defining characteristics. Of course, there would also be lives distinguishable from the world. The Christian is not under the Mosaic Law. Does that mean their lives should be indistinguishable from the world’s? May it never be! Th...

Over 120 years ago, two brothers who hadn’t graduated from high school were trying to accomplish something without the funding that many other well-known and well-educated people were working to accomplish. A manned, powered, flying machine. And as you know, The two brothers, the Wright brothers, against all odds, were first to accomplish it. Their accomplishment would not have been possible if th...

"The church is not just a club of Christians who gather to express their praise and worship of God. Rather, the church is a called people, gathered to encounter and be shaped by God into a ‘peculiar people.’” (James K. A. Smith) This term “peculiar people” is often joked about and certainly far too often applies in the way the jokes imply. But what does it mean to be a peculiar people and what mak...

These last 3 weeks have been wearying for most of us. Houses flooded, roofs damaged, fences down, power out, food lost, waiting for gas for hours if you can find it. And then there’s the help you need and others need. The sense that you aren’t doing enough and can’t do anymore. For the believer, this can pile onto plenty of other things that feel like defeat. Is there any let up? Is there any vict...

Ephesians 4:1-6

I am a fan of impressionist paintings. Author Malcolm Gladwell explains how the impressionist painters became a movement. It “didn’t begin because one genius took up painting impressionistically and, like the Pied Piper, attracted a trail of followers. Instead, Pissarro and Degas enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts at the same time; then, Pissarro met Monet and, later, Cézanne at the Académie Sui...

A lot of the focus in modern discipleship is on the individual. There are exceptions, of course, but rarely is discipleship taught primarily as a community project. It’s a team sport, not like an aerobics class or a zoom class, but like a baseball team or a football team. In an aerobics class, it may serve me to be in a class for I might feel more motivated with the group. With baseball, or footba...

Churches are much noisier than libraries, and for good reason. Libraries are filled with words but are absolutely silent. Churches have less words, to be sure, but are much noisier. And they should be. Since the beginning, the Church has held the spoken, sung, and heard Word as an essential part of its liturgy (public worship). A lot has changed since then, but maybe nothing more significant than...

We, the Church (and the church), are a royal priesthood and holy people. To be a priestly people, a holy people, our first obligation is to the God we serve. As a priestly people, our first obligation is our worship of God together. As a holy people, we must keep that worship pure. Worship of the Triune God is the primary difference between the church and any other organization (though there are s...

Text: 1 Cor. 13 Themes: Love vs. individualism and selfishness.

All I wanna do is go the distance … so I’ll know I’m not just another bum from the neighborhood. Rocky Is the church of the Lord Jesus “just another bum from the neighborhood”? If we listen to the world we might think so. If we listen to believers at times we might think so. But it’s a lie; a lie which can only be overcome by an amazing truth about the church. Paul’s letter to Ephesians is a maste...

Have you ever heard (or even said, like me) “Justice is the act of giving people what they deserve, while mercy is the act of not giving people what they deserve.” There is some truth in those words, but it is not a full, Biblically informed definition of either justice or mercy. Since justice and mercy are at the heart of what God requires of us as human beings (Mic. 6:8), having a more Biblicall...

Nearly anyone who has been the recipient of an inheritance (or should have been) can relate to the man who approached Jesus with the request, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Most people feel either slighted or justified in one way or another in such circumstances. That there are disputes over inheritances is no surprise. Jesus’ response to this man, however, likely su...

The book of Acts begins with Luke telling us that his first book (Luke) was about all that Jesus began to do and teach. The implication is clear: Acts is about what Jesus continued to do and teach through His Spirit empowered church. But what is it, exactly, that they did? What did Jesus do? What did the early church do? We often focus 95% of our energy on what they taught (I made that statistic u...

Text: Matthew 7:13-29 Themes: Spiritual formation, Holy Spirit, Community, Abiding with Jesus. Transformation. Following Jesus. Summary: We learn from Jesus in the sermon on the mount how we are to live and we see this played out through the rest of Matthew’s gospel. Jesus reveals and leads us in the way of life, forming a new humanity and we must follow His ways to experience the good life he pro...

Text: Acts 2:42-47; Exo. 20:3-6; 1 Pet. 2:8-10

Have you ever been in one of those moments when you wanted to have a spiritual conversation but the only way to bring it up was to awkwardly insert it in an abrupt fashion? Did you want to cringe and hide after that? What if there were a way to have those conversations without all that cringe? What if it left people feeling more loved and cared about? There are no secrets for making everyone recep...