New Beginnings Lutheran Church

Judgment Day! We have no way of getting around it. We must go through it. The Great White Throne of God proves to be the watershed of history whereupon divides heaven’s gates and hell’s flames. What’s it gonna be for you? 📖 Revelation 20 | bit.ly/34Ptf1z 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Will your favorite food be in heaven? Will it still be fattening? Food is a major theme throughout the Bible and eating with God seems to be like a party most of the time. Are you hungry? Come find out what’s on the menu! 📖 Revelation 19:1-10 | bit.ly/2DgmTgp 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Want to know what heaven looks like? Revelation gives a hint. This picture also gives a clue as to when the world will end! Compare what you read in Revelation 7 with what Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 and you’ll have a good idea of what to expect now and forever. 📖 Revelation 7 | bit.ly/32His70 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Make sure you have a white robe. And sunglasses. Wear sunglasses. Also, we might want to gather on a hilltop—somewhere prominent, right? What do God’s people look like, according to Revelation, as we prepare for the end of the world? 📖 Revelation 2-3 | bit.ly/31LEDto 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

**SOUND ISSUES - TUNE IN AT 32:14** The End is *hear*! Blessed are those who hear the words of Revelation. This notorious book is not so much a prophecy foretelling future times as forth-telling the promises of God to people living through troubled times. 📖 Revelation 1 | bit.ly/34LdNnc 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

The language we use is shaped by who we are. From what part of the world do we come? From what part of the country? Are we teenagers or seniors? Rural or urban? Are we “hip” or not so much? How can God use your particular lingo to communicate with others His great Gospel message? 📖 Acts 2:1-21 | bit.ly/3a21ZNL 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Things aren’t always what they seem. What seemed life-giving to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden actually ushered in a reign of death. But through His death on the cross, Jesus ushers in an even more powerful reign of life. 📖 Romans 5:6-15 | bit.ly/3kdCQoa 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

When introducing people to Jesus today, we face lots of scrutiny. We all too often confuse God’s part and our part. Too many feel the need to have all the answers to people’s questions—to defend our beliefs. But only one response is needed. 📖 John 9 | bit.ly/2XzSFf4 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Anyone hungry? Everyone eventually. We all feel a craving that even transcends food! That’s why we agree with the D.T. Niles quote: “Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.” Got bread? Know Jesus? 📖 John 6:1-14 | bit.ly/2PuRGIE 🤗 Connect Card | nblc.net/connect 💚 Giving is Loving | nblc.net/give

Do you want to condemn others? Of course not. You wouldn’t be invited to any parties if you acted like that! God did not send Jesus to condemn the world. Jesus came to love the world. This is what “our mission” is—the same as Jesus’ mission: to share God’s love with the whole world! JOHN 3:1-17 // Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by...

How good is it to put on a pair of glasses or contact lens with the correct prescription for the first time and see the world with better focus? How does seeing more clearly change the way we interact and live in our world? COLOSSIANS 3:5-11 (12-17) // Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account o...

Have you ever experienced weeks and months that tend to blur together? You look back over the year, and you do not see progress or growth in your life? Looking at your faith walk, does your growth every feel like a blurred optical illusion? COLOSSIANS 2:1-15 // For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that t...

Do you ever feel that you live your day to day life with a lack of focus easily becoming distracted with the mundane? How much does a lack of focus cost our families, our relationships, our employers? How much do distractions cost the church or our faith walk? What are you focused on? COLOSSIANS 1:15-22 // He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things w...

I’ve heard marriage is a competition between two people to see who can forgive the other more. The competition is real, and it is with everyone you encounter! There is one secret to forgiveness that you must learn to make it work; we will discuss this next.

The Bible says it. That settles it. Or does it? Ask a hundred people to describe how to be a Christian and you’ll find a hundred answers. So is variety the spice of faith, or is most everybody wrong except a few (maybe you?). Or do you doubt we can even know? ROMANS 14:1-23 // As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anythin...

Which sin is worse: to compare or not to compare? Careful how you answer or you’ll be comparing! It’s like saying you’re humble—immediately pride slips into the room. That’s why we need to read the Bible as a mirror more than binoculars. LUKE 18:9-14 // He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the...

Here is a guilt trip: If you were accused of being a Christian, would you be found guilty? It all depends on how well you could keep your Christian faith a secret. Wait? People can’t be secret Christians, can they? The answer isn’t as easy as you might think. JOHN 19:38-42 // After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that h...

“People are like drunks on horseback, set right on one side only to topple over to the other.” Martin Luther is thought to have said some version of that unflattering statement. It’s true, though. We can be legalists one moment and libertines the next. MATTHEW 5:17-20 // “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For trul...

The social pain of loneliness, like pain, results in observable behaviors. Unfortunately, when we feel lonely, we begin to think and act in self-defeating ways. We can become anti-social and the symptoms reinforce the disease. But there is a cure. EPHESIANS 4:25-32 // Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be...

Being alone does not necessarily mean being lonely. In fact, many pleasurable and productive actions often involve solitude: research, endurance exercise, art, and prayer. These actions are done alone, and with others. We are called to do both. JAMES 5:13-18 // Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elder...

Social isolation has an adverse impact upon your health comparable to high blood pressure, lack of exercise, obesity, or smoking. Therefore, it is more important than ever to regard others as more important than yourself, right? Wait. How does this work? I’m healthier if I care more for others than myself? PHILIPPIANS 2:1-8 // So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any...

Roughly 60 million people in the United States experience loneliness as a major source of unhappiness in their lives. If only they could all get together! But let’s face it, getting together and staying together are two very different experiences. How can we stay together? EPHESIANS 4:1-7 // I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have...

Loneliness is an empty feeling; hence the expression, “Lonely as the grave.” Strange how you can be lonely in a crowd. Equally strange: the word lonely doesn’t have an antonym. You can be social, affable, even beloved, but still lonely. How can we cure loneliness? Paradoxically, the solution is an empty grave! 1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18 // But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about thos...

Sermon Discussion Questions: 1. Which of the seven devotions connected most with you? Why? 2. How does that devotion speak to your relationship with Jesus? Do any other people in your life come to mind as a point of application for you? What would the Lord want you to do? 3. How would you summarize the overall message from Good Friday for a friend who doesn’t quite get it in 1-3 sentences?

Can you love those who hate you? Frederick Buechner wrote: “And then there is the love for the enemy--love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.” MATTHEW 27:27-31 // Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion...