The Gospel House

As we pick up where we left off in the book of Acts, we see Paul and Barnabas, as always, following as the Spirt leads in Acts 14 but this time we see them fighting something pretty counter-cultural and embracing something unheard of.

God has always been Emmanuel, God with us. But the greatest part of this story is that Jesus is coming back and will always, eternally be Emmanuel, God with us!

If God has always been with His people, why did Jesus have to come? What was the purpose of Emmanuel, God with us?

In John 1:14 we are told that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” one of the most profound statements in the history of the world. Every Christmas we celebrate this fact, but do we really understand what we’re celebrating…because if we did, we’d celebrate it year round!

This week we look at Emmanuel in the Temple in Israel, and how God must be Emmanuel in order for any temple to function properly.

In Exodus 13 and 14, God shows He is with Israel in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. And how He leads Israel shows us a lot about our own encounters with Emmanuel.

We talk a lot about Emmanuel, God with us, during Christmas, but God didn't start being with us at the birth of Jesus. As we look at today, God was Emmanuel from the beginning.

Since praise is our purpose, it must encompass everything that we do. Meaning our praise is every thing, every where, and every breath of our being.

We continue looking at the command in the Psalms to praise the Lord, though this time we bounce around the book of Psalms to do so. Looking at Psalm 117, 135, and 146, we see yet another theme develop, that of the result of our praise.

We all know we are to praise God and God alone, but the more specific we are about who God is and all that He has done for us, the more epic our praise will be.

Is your praise epic? Do you want it to be? Step one to an epic praise life is making sure the purpose of your praise is right. If it's not, everything else in your life will suffer.

In the second part of Acts chapter 13, we see yet another group of people who think they can see the truth but are actually blind, and another group who once were blinded to the truth, but through salvation in the preaching of the gospel, now can see.

After making our way through the letter of James, we jump back into the book of Acts where we left off in chapter 13. Here God has some pretty incredible lessons for us and they all center around a false prophet cursed with blindness by Paul.

James ends his letter to the twelve tribes of Israel scattered abroad with a reminder of the very important issue we all face of dropping our anchor. Do we anchor in the things of this world or do we anchor outside of this world in Jesus Christ?

The fourth chapter of James hits heavy yet again, but the encouragement we get on the other side, while coming from an unlikely source, is beyond anything we could imagine!

In the third chapter of James, we get the incredibly difficult call to tame our tongue, but with it the promise that in doing so, we will tame the entire body as well. And in the midst of it all is a secret to the gospel that will help us conquer any and every thing in this walk with Jesus.

In chapter two, James deploys a familiar tactic he saw from his big (half) Brother, Jesus, the art of storytelling. And James uses these stories to dive deeper into the way our walk of faith SHOULD look, if we have faith God's way

A little history, a little introduction, and a little setting the tone for the book of James in chapter one.

Today, Nolan Dill tackles the powerful, sometimes confusing, topic of prayer. The secret of which being all about our focus heading into our prayers.

In Acts 10, Peter is instrumental in bringing the Gospel to the gentiles and inviting them into God's family, but the biggest hurdle come in Acts 11, when Peter has to convince the Church of God's new plan.

In Acts 10, we see God expand His Church beyond the Jewish nation and into the Gentiles. But as with most things, HOW God does it is just as, if not more, important as what God does.

In acts 9, we see Saul, the persecutor of God's church, receive a little cosmic comeuppance. But the just desserts aren't nearly what we would hope for such a persecutor showing now little WE truly understand God's grace to us!

Continuing on in Acts 8, we see Philip, scattered by persecution, but carrying the Gospel with him, obeying the Holy Spirit, and changing everyone he comes in contact with.

Up to this point, the only "sermons" have come from Peter. But here in Acts 8, we see Stephen fill the role of guest preacher, and he does such a great job, they stone him for it. So what can we learn from Stephen's first and last trip to the pulpit?

Acts 6 is a beautiful picture of the early Church operating as the Body of Christ. But it also takes an interesting turn at the and and teaches us a valuable lesson on loyalty.