In Focus Church Podcast

This week we are picking up where we left off in the Apostles' Creed. “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, and what we will look at today, “Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit; born of the virgin Mary…” We must affirm the virgin birth as it is the foundation of many other critical doctrines we believe. Without the virgin birth there is no gospel. Christ is not God. If Christ was no...

We are in week 3 of our series on the Apostles’ Creed, where we are looking at this historic creed and emphasizing the core doctrinal beliefs it summarizes for us. This is important because the Apostle’s Creed contains essential Christian doctrines and beliefs that summarize the gospel and make up the foundation of our faith. It is important to know what you believe and why you believe it consider...

Before anything else, God is first and foremost "Father." This has an incredible impact on how we see ourselves and how we view our faith. Galatians 4 says "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons & daughters." We have all been shaped by our earthly Fathers....

What do you believe in? We believe in a lot of things, and what we believe affects how we live. Believing leads to action. What we do and how we live says more about what we believe than what we say. So, what do your actions say about what you believe? Let’s keep it churchy. You say you believe in honoring God with your money and being generous. But what you believe about giving generously to God...

He is Risen Indeed! Today, we do not reduce the Resurrection Story down to just what we get out of it. Our salvation because of what Christ has done is a benefit of this grand story, but if that is all it is about, the story becomes all about me and not about King Jesus. Only after we have acknowledged and focused on King Jesus can we talk about the redemptive benefits that the King offers us. Joi...

Over the course of this series on Lament, we have learned quite a lot. As we learn to lament more and more, we will learn from lament more and more. We can grow in wisdom; we can learn from the past and persevere in the present with hope for the future in Christ. Lament helps us see the brokenness not just in us, but around us in other people. It is a liturgy of loss that broadens our view beyond...

From OT to NT, we see God using the leaders, judges, prophets, disciples, and apostles in ways where they contextually spoke to the sins of God's people as they tried to figure out what it meant to be in the world but not of it; to live in a land of unrighteousness, but to dwell as God's holy people. And especially in the NT, we see that the early church had difficulty functioning as God's united...

Racial reconciliation is supposed to be one of the marks of the church. We say supposed to because it has not happened on a large scale to date, and it is a continuing spiritual battle against division and hatred of epic proportions. In this message, Pastor Brent talks about how lament sets the table for racial reconciliation. What if the majority led with lament even if we are not sure why others...

There are things that we learn through the pain of life that we can never learn through the comforts of life. Or as one author put it, “Perhaps I shall see things through my tears that dry-eyed I could not see.” We have talked about minor keys, major keys, and even suspensions. Today we will be tackling the book of Lamentations which is the most comprehensive minor key song in the Bible. Lamentati...

Who taught you how to cry? It is a rhetorical question, but have you ever thought about how you entered the world? I mean does it strike you as odd that we didn’t enter into this world laughing and smiling, but screaming and crying? Life begins with struggle and tears, a wholehearted protest in essence. To cry is human. But lament is different. Biblical lament is altogether Christian as we affirm...

A God-given vision helps us intentionally live in our God-given purpose today. Today, Pastor Brent is asking God to give you a glimpse of your future in Christ & our future together as His Church, which we believe are inseparable. Our individual purpose is always tethered to our corporate purpose as the Body of Christ – so we need to see what God sees for us so we can get to work accomplishing all...

We have looked at God’s Self-existence through the name Jehovah My Lord, God’s Justice through the name Jehovah Shalom, a God who can bring peace to any and every situation, God’s Compassion as El Roi, the God who sees you wherever you are, God’s redemption as Jehovah Jireh, the God who is able to provide all you need and can even redeem your suffering, and God’s mission through His name El Shadda...

We are in week five of our series we are doing with our Every Nation churches all over the world, “Awesome God.” We are looking at the different names of God, and how by knowing His name we know His character better, we know God more intimately. Be encouraged to continue to cultivate your knowledge of God through His Word. The more you know Him the more you will love and trust Him, and the more yo...

Are you willing to go through what God leads you through in order to receive the promise God has for you? That is a loaded question as to whether you are willing to live a life of walking by faith and not by sight. But that is what we are called to do, and it is not blind faith, but anchored in the character of a faithful God. This again is what I mean by knowing God’s name, His character, His fai...

Compassion is defined as suffering with another; painful sympathy; a sensation of sorrow motivated by the distress or misfortunes of another; pity; commiseration. (Websters 1828) This morning we are in week 3 of this series, which we are doing in conjunction with this time of prayer and consecration with our Every Nation churches all over the world. Today’s attribute of God is compassion. Aren’t y...

Peace is something we are all searching for, and many claim to have the answer. Here, Pastor Justin Gray dives into the story of Gideon in Judges 6 and how through Gideon's weakness and self sacrifice he experiences true peace with the Lord. Connect with us on Instagram & Facebook: @infocuschurch Learn more about In Focus and what we have going on by visiting our website at https://infocus.church

We are in week 2 of our series “Peace on Earth.” It is a classic Christmas time theme, but it is much more than that, it is a promised inheritance to all who believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord. But since we live in a world of constant unrest and upheaval, stress, and incessant noise how is this peace possible? It requires a rigorous, disciplined commitment to do what James 1:19 says for us to do,...

The Christmas season reminds us of the promise of peace that was to come through Jesus Christ. Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise of peace, He is the Prince of Peace, there was a steep price for peace and there is great power in peace. So, with all of that being true why do we see such little peace on earth today? Why is there so much personal inner turmoil spilling over into corporate turmo...

We have covered the politics of left and right, hypocrisy and sanctification, suffering and hope, personal faith, and the local church, and in this message, we look at money, specifically about guilt or greed. Thus far, there have been a lot of both/and as we looked at the way of Jesus being outside the lines we often draw. But today’s subject matter is more of neither/nor. As we have emphasized e...

Despite the decline, and being constantly maligned, the local church is still God’s plan A for his children. So if you claim to be one of His children the goal is not to abandon His family but become a better part of His family. Now one of the things you may hear a lot is, “we need to be like the church in the New Testament…” Well good, because they were jacked up too. Think about 1 Corinthians 13...

What do we do with the seemingly incongruent realities of a loving, sovereign, heavenly Father and people dying of terminal illnesses, and hurricanes that destroy property and kill people, the holocaust, slavery, racism, poverty, abuse, oppression, abortion, genocide, sex trafficking and every other injustice that continues to plague us and our world? The correct response is one of the hopeful rea...

A line that is often drawn is that hypocrisy and spiritual growth are mutually exclusive. You are either a hypocrite or a verifiable work in progress. But history and the Bible tell us that they actually do go together. Romans 3:23 says we all fall short of the glory of God, in Romans 7 there is the infamous passage about doing what I don’t want to do and not doing what I do want to do? So if they...