Seven Marks Church Messages

Compromise is when we accommodate our Christian beliefs and practices to align with or at least harmonize with whatever the culture holds dear. It might seem harmless, but compromise is a cancer that threatens Christ's church in 2023, just as it did the church at Pergamum.  

The Church at Smyrna was in the midst of much suffering in their city, and they were trying to persevere as Christ followers. Jesus was very aware of the landscape of their world and lives, just as he is aware of our current trials and hardships in our cultural context. More trials are coming, but he commands us to be faithful.

The church at Ephesus was a good church-going people who diligently did things right, but in focusing on doing the "right things," they had become people who were not loving. Truth and sound doctrine are essential, but we need to speak and live the truth from a heart of love.

Revelation is a work of art, doing what only good art can do: activating our imagination; giving us an interpretive lens through which to see the moments of life so that you can respond correctly. Revelation is a book about practicing the way of Jesus in the now and not yet.

We live in the now and not yet, which means we are not immune from the problems of the old world. But we know that one day, the not yet will overwhelm the now and flood the earth with God's love, justice, and goodness. In other words, our confidence in God's ultimate future should give us the resources we need to respond differently to problems we face.

One of the interesting things about living in the now and not yet is that our lives often look, at least at a surface level, very similar to that of the people all around us who don't follow Jesus. A perfect example of this is our relationships with one another, such as marriage. For Peter, the marriage relationship becomes a way to out-narrate the culture with the story of Jesus.

From your school to your job, from your HOA to the federal government, our world is full of people with different levels of authority over your life. If you are a follower of Christ, how should you respond to the various authorities in your life in light of your identity in Christ, especially those you disagree with?

In the biblical sense, the word holy means 'set apart for a purpose,' 'unique,' or 'divine.' God, of course, is holy. And because God is holy, those who belong to him are called to pursue holiness as a lifestyle. After all, if there is nothing different about us, then by implication, there must not be anything different about Jesus.

We live in a 'now' culture, which means we struggle with the words 'not yet.' But, as we will discover in the weeks ahead, 'now' and 'not yet' are not competing opposites. They are truths in tension. Followers of Jesus are, in fact, the people of the now and the not yet.

Organizations, including local churches, often labor over how to communicate their values and mission. When it comes to these important statements of identity and purpose, words matter because they provide the guiding principles of that church or organization. When you hear a good mission statement, it should inspire you to chase something, to see the world a certain way. Seven Marks is no differe...

The Kingdom of God is not just about a destination you go to; it's a quality and condition of life on this earth that is available to us  now . How? As we live in allegiance to King Jesus (Value #1), and love people like He did (value #2), we will discover that the Kingdom is in our midst. 

Our first guiding value at Seven Marks is Jesus. He is our life, our hope, our source, direction, purpose, and highest goal. We are convinced that without Jesus we are simply without.

After Jesus' resurrection, the angels asked the women, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" The 'good news' of the resurrection of Jesus overcame all of the 'bad news' of everything that led up to it. Those ladies went from believing Jesus was dead to believing He was alive. They went from having no life in them to being full of life. They went from being absorbed with sadness within thems...

Behind the actions of sinful individuals and institutions, unseen spiritual enemies are also gathering their strength and forces. We are caught up in this cosmic conflict and have an enemy. His name is Satan. For many of us, this spiritual dimension of reality is confusing and uncomfortable precisely because it is often beyond our awareness and understanding.

The bad news is that we are sinful as individuals caught up in a culture that sinful people have developed–intentionally or not. But as followers of Jesus and as agents of this Kingdom, one of our primary jobs is to give our sinful world tastes and glimpses of this new and better future.

So here's the bad news: we are going to talk about sin for the next three weeks. Sin, as we will see throughout this series, is both messy and complicated. Sin is an easy subject when we are talking about your sin or their sin, but not so much when the topic is my sin. The good news is that Easter is coming. And Easter means that no matter how bad the bad news is, the good news is better.

For most of us, our work feels like a child building sand castles at low tide. It won't last. It can't make a difference against the power of the ocean. So what's the point?

Have you ever wondered: "Why on earth am I here?" or "What is my purpose in life? One of the most significant ways to ensure our lives count for something is in and through our work. Our calling in life and work is to discover how God wants to use us uniquely to serve others and make a difference in His world.

Jesus changes everything. That is the fundamental truth underneath the first of our seven marks of a disciple: identity in Christ. The question is, what does my identity in Christ have to do with my lived experiences with work? According to the apostle Paul, we are the workmanship of God. He is doing something in us so that He can do something through us.

Humans were created to be God's image bearers and partners, and then we fell under the curse of sin. But when Jesus stepped out of the grave on Easter morning, he rose victorious over sin. The curse is broken. This means new life and a new purpose for us and our work.

Work is at the very core of who we are and what we were always meant to do. It is among our first and highest callings–to bear the image of God by becoming His partners, by stewarding creation for His glory and for the good of others.

Worship is surrendering all of life back to God. But what does all of this have to do with Sabbath? Well, in one sense, worship is what Sabbath is all about. We don't just stop to stop, rest to rest, or delight to delight. We stop, rest, and delight so we can become the kind of people who can worship God with our whole being.

Over the last two weeks, we talked about 'stop' and 'rest.' This week, our focus is on 'delight.' The Sabbath isn't just about what we stop doing, and it isn't simply about what we rest from. We stop and rest so that we can become the kinds of people who can enjoy the goodness of God. For people like us–prone to be negative and vulnerable to hardships–we need a day set aside to delight in God and...

'Busy' and 'tired' are the primary ways most of us answer questions like 'How are you doing?' or 'how was your week?' But, at the risk of sounding cliche and insensitive, it need not be this way. What we need is rest.