Gulf Coast Community Church Podcast – St. Petersburg

Themes: Evangelism

We live in a fractured world. What can we offer them? Does the church offer a compelling alternative to what the world offers? If so, how so? If not, what needs to change? As Christians in America in 2024, how we live during this election year might say more about our faith than anything else. That might sound too strong (and maybe it is). However, if followers of Jesus cannot show a compelling al...

To become a people of God’s mission, we must be a prophetic people. To be clear, I do not mean by that a people who prophesy (though that might be a legitimate use of the phrase). I mean a church that first sees clearly (the prophets were known as seers—see-ers) the idols of our age and rid our own lives of those idols. The hardest idols to root out of our lives are those we have reimagined as Chr...

There is often a grave inconsistency in the lives of those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus. This is not unique to the Christian faith. It was certainly a significant factor in Israel’s community in the Old Testament. People today might call it hypocrisy, which indeed it is. Not hypocrisy in the traditional sense of the word— “professing to be one thing and living as another” —but a deeper hypo...

Text: 1 Cor 10:23-33; Col 3:12-17 Headings: 1. Context Matters 2. Relationships Matter 3. Everything Matters

Text: James 1:27 Themes: Gospel Mercy as an essential of Being a People of God’s Mission

The Bible tells us we are a kingdom of priests and a holy people. What does that mean? Since the Reformation conversation about that has largely focused on the priesthood of all believers, but while that is a thing, it isn’t really what that phrase in Scripture (Exodus 19:6; 1 Pet. 2:9) is about. That phrase envisions a whole community of priests. Why does God want a priesthood and what does that...

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday which is sadly one of the more neglected days on the church calendar. For some “Pentecost” is merely a reference to one particular strain of Christians that emphasize emotionalism (as described pejoratively by their detractors). It can bring to mind debates about supernatural gifts of the Spirit. But Pentecost is so much bigger than this. To grasp the significance o...

Themes: Life and abortion

As a pastor, it’s not uncommon to be asked the question, “What is the church’s mission?” It’s a fair question but I am not sure if it is the right question. At least, I don’t think it is the right question for the church to be asking itself. The right question for the church to ask itself is, “What is God’s mission?” Once we find out what that is, we certainly ought to do everything we can by His...

What does it mean to be a praying church? How do we become one? What would a praying church pray for? We’ve spent 4 weeks focused on Becoming a Praying Church as an essential part of what it means to fulfill our calling as a royal priesthood and holy people. This Sunday we will explore what has been given to us as an essential tool for formation into a church becoming a praying church. Join us thi...

Themes: God’s people are blessed. What does this mean and look like? We are to bless others. What does this mean and look like? The blessing of God as He involves us in His mission as we bless others we too are blessed. What does this look like over history and for us now? Texts: Gal 3:8-9. Gen 1:22, Gen 12:1-3, Ex 19:5-6, Acts 1:8

The church is called to be a royal priesthood and holy people. Core to that calling is our calling to pray for one another, for the world, and for our enemies. In a word, intercession. This week, in our series Becoming a Praying Church, we are exploring intercession. We will look at what it is and why it is needed, we will see how Israel failed in her calling but also see excellent examples in our...

What is the meaning of the Resurrection? Each of the Gospel writers shares details that make us curious. It is not uncommon for people to talk about how the Resurrection means we will not die but go to heaven. However, it is interesting that none of the Gospel writers, seem to draw that meaning when the events happened. What was the significance of the Resurrection? Why can the first “Easter” righ...

Palm Sunday opens what is traditionally called Holy Week. It shouldn’t be missed that there was not much “holy” going on that first “Holy Week.” The events we remember on Palm Sunday start that week, and the trial and crucifixion of Jesus complete it. These accounts challenge us to examine the idols in our own hearts and rid ourselves of them. We in the modern world have demystified the world so w...

Text: Hebrews 11 & 12 Themes: The endurance of faith comes from having the proper vision of glory. Jesus endured the cross because of the joy set before Him. The people of Heb. 11 had the vision of the new Kingdom which was their hope, which empowered their faithful endurance. Selling all to buy the field joyfully because of the treasure.

In his book, Reversed Thunder, Eugene Peterson wrote: “While conflicts raged between good and evil, prayers went up from devout bands of first century Christians all over the Roman empire. Massive engines of persecution and scorn were ranged against them. They had neither weapons nor votes. They had little money and no prestige. Why didn’t they have mental breakdowns? Why didn’t they cut and run?...

If what we have considered in our series Gospel Clarity is true (and, of course, I think it is), then it affects everything. Since everything the church does should grow out of the Gospel, then even slight adjustments to our understanding of the Gospel will affect everything from our mission to how we achieve it. How much more significant adjustments. We begin a new series this week. It grows out...

Text: CSB Version. Hebrews 11:1-12:3 (also 10:35-39 as an intro)

It’s not hard to find Christians today who might bemoan the fact that the church has lost a significant amount of its influence in culture today. We no longer have prayer in schools, people have to work on Sundays, and we no longer get to define marriage by Biblical standards. I cannot deny that there were benefits to such cultural dominance that is now long gone. What if I were to suggest to you,...

Most sharks have to move to breath and therefore cannot stop moving forward. This is how they force water through their gills so they can get the oxygen they need. Humans are much the same way when it comes to glory. We were created to bear glory, God’s glory. In our rebellion against God, we’ve substituted our own glory, a weak substitute that is actually killing us slowly (like carbon monoxide s...

“Our passion is to know that we are fulfilling the purpose for which we are here on earth.” — Os Guinness Deep down, I believe Guinness is right and the Gospel calls us to that very purpose and equips us so we are able to fulfill it. (All good Evangelicals will say, “Amen!” here. But if pressed to explain how, we may well be stuck.) Last week we began a series, Gospel Clarity: What is the Gospel?...

The message of the Gospel is the most important message in all the world. Yet for most of us, if someone asks us, “What is the Gospel?” we have to pause, minimally, and often struggle to articulate it. When we finally do articulate it, we wonder if we got it right. Or worse, we think we have it right but wonder what relevance it has to the person we told. Have you ever read the sermons in the book...

The book of Revelation describes beasts, dragons, plagues, wrath, persecutions, and rewards. It is filled with visual stimuli such as blood, fire and even meteors as well as threats and promises. It finally comes to a glorious, surprising, and transforming end. Revelation 21-22 is not only about the future, it has a lot to do with the present, a present which is anchored in a sure future. The visi...

Are you premillennial, postmillennial, or amillennial? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’ve gotten into chapter 19 of the book of Revelation and haven’t answered that question. Why? Because it is largely irrelevant in determining how we read the rest of the book. A whole lot of ink has been spilled on something that doesn’t really come into play until chapter 20. That said, we will have arriv...