Gulf Coast Community Church Podcast – St. Petersburg

In the first half of Ephesians 1, Paul praises God our Father for how He gloriously adopted us in Jesus Christ, a plan He had from before the foundation of the world, and a plan rooted in His love for us. A plan which made us heirs of God through Jesus Christ. As heirs of God, we have been called to live a certain way. In the second half of Ephesians 1, Paul isn’t satisfied that we simply know the...

Paul’s opening praise of God for what he has done in the glorious gospel in Ephesians (1:3-14) is amazing. It speaks of our adoption and says much about how it came about. It all revolves around our being “in Christ,” our union with Christ. Yet Paul assumes we understand what this phrase means. What does it mean to be in Christ? Whenever I see new books on the topic of our union with Christ (our b...

Adoption is one of the greatest pictures given to us to understand our relationship to God as the church. Unfortunately, it is also veiled because adoption in the ancient world was quite different than adoption in the 21stcentury. If we are going to imagine the kingdom, a kingdom headed by a Father whose Son is King, we must allow Paul’s understanding of our adoption to paint its picture in our he...

Text: Mark 1:15 (CSB Version) Themes: Gospel, King Jesus

Donna and I spent our first 10 years of married life in Salt Lake City, Utah living with the majestic Wasatch mountains to the east (pictured below), wrapping around a bit to the North and south and feeling as if they were watching over us, and the less towering, arid Oquirrh (oaker) range to the west. Having moved there from the Midwest, initially those mountains, especially the nearer and taller...

Did you know that this Sunday is the anniversary of Christ’s kingdom inauguration? On this day nearly 2,000 years ago the inaugural ball was thrown and the first citizens of the restored kingdom of God were welcomed in with fanfare. The festivities began with wind and fire filling the place. People speaking in languages they did not know but others understood. This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. Did...

The story about Simon Peter getting Jesus’ tax money from the fish’s mouth (Matt. 17:24-27) came to mind this morning in prayer (feel free to join us every Friday morning from 6:30-7:30 for prayer at the church office). That story demonstrates this importance of imagining the Kingdom. Jesus and the disciples arrive in Capernaum (where Jesus lived) and those who collect the temple tax ask Peter if...

Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks, after making a case for the power of patience, suggests that to harness the power of patience the first thing we must do is “develop a taste for having problems.” That may sound familiar (James 1:2-4; Rom. 5:3-4). And it may make you think, “Yuck!” None of us like problems. However, it may well be that the essence of our existence is to square-off wi...

The metaverse has taken imagination to a whole new level. In it imaginary real estate is created, deeded, bought, sold, and rented out for real $$. If you need a board room for a meeting, you’ll pay more for one with a view. The Nomadx Foundation notes on its website, “Even though a metaverse is a place that exists only on a computer, it’s just as real as any other place you’ve been to before. You...

Text: Heb. 6:10-12 Themes: Faith and Patience to Inherit the Promise

Text: Colossians 3:1-17 Themes: Centrality of Jesus, Gospel Culture, Gospel Formation

A few weeks ago, I told a little of the story from a classic Russian film called, “Stalker.” The plot centers around the journey to a room where you will receive exactly what you want. You will not necessarily receive what you might ask for. Rather, the room knows your deepest desires and grants what you truly want. Imagine a similar room that granted what you needed. It would certainly be safer,...

We often talk about the Resurrection of Jesus from the tomb as proof of Christianity. To be sure, if Christ was not raised, our faith is in vain (1 Cor. 15:14). However, that the Resurrection of Christ is proof of Christianity doesn’t mean we can argue people into the faith by offering proofs of the Resurrection. Faith is a gift from God and has to come from Christ Jesus Himself. The New Testament...

A Mountain of Crumbs, by novelist Elena Gorokhova, is her memoir of life growing up in Soviet Russia, life in a world so different from our own experience growing up here. Having become a proficient student and then teacher of English, “Lena” taught summer students from the United States who came to Leningrad (now, St. Petersburg) to study Russian. One young man, Robert, pursued getting to know he...

“I don’t want to!” is a phrase every parent of a talking child is familiar with. Of course, the goal of the parent is that sometime between then and when they are adults they begin to want to do the things they ought to do. The process that gets them there is called formation. When we are born into Christ’s kingdom, we are much like that child whose desires need to be reshaped. We know what we oug...

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:9-10) The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for what we desire in two senses. First, the coming of God’s kingdom is the longing of the human heart (whether we realize it or not). So it is a prayer for the very thing we desire. But in truth, while we long for what only God’s kingdom ca...

Scripture: Romans 12

We’ve been in a series discussing our missional priorities, the things which are central to our Gospel witness: Gospel culture, Gospel formation, Gospel mercy, Gospel outreach, and Gospel unity. However, we cannot assume the Gospel. What is the Gospel? Why is it called the Gospel of the kingdom? And what does this have to do with making a disciple? For that matter, what is a disciple? This Sunday...

Text: Matt 28:18-20 Themes: Christ’s authority; the nations; His commands; His presence.

“I am always turning my ears to the music of streams. There is indeed a music in streams, but it is not for the hurried. It has to be loitered by and imagined. Or imagined toward, for it is hardly for men at all. Nature has a patient ear. To her the slowest funeral march sounds like a jig.… The ear must imagine an impossible patience in order to grasp… such music.” (Wendell Berry) For the believer...

Yesterday as I was leaving Publix, I paused because a lady was exiting at the same time with two very large balloons making it unlikely that we could make it through the double doors at the same time without colliding. So, I paused. As she passed, I noticed that she had one large Kansas City Chiefs balloon and another large Philadelphia Eagles balloon. “It looks like a divided household,” I said a...

Eugene Peterson’s excellent book on the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) is titled, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Playing only on his title, might I suggest that when it comes to reaching the world for Christ, the modern church may already have a long obedience in the same direction, but it might not be the right direction. Regarding our mission, we need a long obedience in the right di...

Text: Luke 7:36 – 50 (ESV) Themes: Forgiveness, debts canceled, mercy