Union Church

Listen along as Mike Gaston wraps up our series through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes 1 Peter 5:6-14 - Mike G Teaching   Slide 1   Big Idea Our faith in God allows us to navigate challenging times now, as we await  better times ahead.   Slide 2   Challenging times now (vs 6-9) We are called to humility before God We have an adversary Suffering is part of life   Slide 3   “You contribute nothing to your s...

Listen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes   1 Peter 5:1-5 - Faith 1 Peter 5:1-5 The vocation of pastor(s) has been replaced by the strategies of religious entrepreneurs with business plans - Eugene Peterson “By all our ministry activity to mistakenly be like God, we’ve actually made it hard for people to see or hear him.” John Calvin Matthew 20:25-28 “It is possible for ministry l...

Listen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 4:12-19 John 16:33  Romans 5:1-5  James 1:2-4  Certainly there is unanimous teaching among the NT writers that there is no condemnation for those who believe in Christ and that they will be delivered from the destiny that is coming to those who disobey God by rejecting the redemption he provides in Jesus Christ. But there is ample...

Listen along as we continue our series through 1 Peter. Notes/Quotes: Jon reading Title: Lock In “We prefer a gospel in which God gives us healthy bodies and bulging wallets. And we too readily think that material blessing is the entitled reward of the gospel. To put it bluntly, the democratized West expects Jesus, comfort, ease, and acceptance from the world.” - David Helm “Indeed the only way in...

Listen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 3:13-22 Title: The Pilgrim's Path “8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always...

Listen along as we continue our time through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 3:8-12 - Anthony reading  “This is the mission of God: to restore the creation and the life of humanity from the ravages of sin. The church’s function in this story is to participate in God’s mission; we are to be caught up in God’s own work of restoration and healing. This defines the identity and role of the church.” -...

Listen along as we continue our time in 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: Faith: 1 Peter 3:1-7 Title: The Way Home “Submission is not something being taken from me, but is something I’m choosing to give. The truth that Jesus, being fully God, willingly entered into this world, becoming fully man and submitting His will to God the Father and giving His life to justify us as well as the Spirit’s role of illum...

Listen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 2:13-25 - Jack 1 Peter 2:13-25 There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine! - Abraham Kuyper  Romans 13:1-2 “The cross is not a sign of the church's quiet, suffering submission to the powers-that-be, but rather the church's revolutionary par...

Listen along as we continue our time in 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 2:9-12 - Faith Title: Earworm [Verse 1] Guilty running down the side of the egg I'm in love with the past, and the things that they said Guilty running down the side of my head I get by on the promise of future excess Guilty running, guilty running I put my back in waiting for something [Chorus] I keep waiting for the shoe to...

Listen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 2:1-8 Psalm 19:7-11 Every other ethical system calls us to the costly effort of becoming what we are not. But in the full salvation already bequeathed to us in Christ, the new nature is already ours, waiting for expression, poised for growth, until its potential is triggered by our obedience to the word of God - Alec Motyer What G...

Listen along as we continue our time through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 1:13-26 - Chris F Reading Title: Exilic Exercise “The tidings were mostly sad and ominous: of gathering darkness, the wars of Men, and the flight of the Elves…And I warn you that peril is now both before you and behind you, and upon either side…. ‘But where shall I find courage?’ asked Frodo. ‘That is what I chiefly need....

Listen along as we continue our series through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 1:3-12 “Jesus matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weaknesses he gives us strength and and imparts through his companionship a life that has the qua...

Listen along as we begin our series through 1 Peter.

Listen along as we wrap up our series on the kingdom of God and celebrate Easter. Notes//Quotes: Revelation 21:1-5 - Karen Reading Revelation 21:1-5 (pic) “The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom…It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven…The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus...

Listen along as we look at the Palm Sunday story. Notes//Quotes: Mark 11:1-10 Luke 17:20-21 Matthew 11:4-6 Zech 9:9  “One the one hand this looks like all other triumphal entries. Two hundred years earlier Simon Maccabeus had defeated foreign armies and kept Israel independent and he rode in to Jerusalem with people shouting cheers and waiving Palm branches because he delivered them… This triumpha...

Listen along as we begin a 3 week series on the kingdom of God. Notes//Quotes: Text: Isaiah 35:1-10 Title: Kingdom Promised “The God in whom we believe is the creator of the world, will one day put this world to rights. That solid belief is the bedrock of all Christian faith. God is not going to abolish the universe of space, time and matter; he is going to renew it, to restore it, to fill it with...

Listen along as we wrap up our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 28:17-31 2 Timothy 4:6-8 -  “Readers always experience “gaps” in narration, but the gap at the end of Acts threatens to widen into a canyon.” Beverly Gaventa 43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip fo...

Listen along as we near the finish of our journey through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Mike reading - Acts 28:1-16 “No crowd gathers for Paul’s preaching, and no description illumines the situation of those believers who journey out to meet him. That minimalistic assessment should not obscure the importance of Paul’s thanksgiving in v. 15. The journey all along has less to do with what will happen in Rome...

Listen along as we continue our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 27:1-44 - Jack Title: Small Ship, Big Sea “Chiding is indeed cruel, and brings no comfort; but if it be tempered with some remedy, it is now a part of the medicine.” - John Calvin “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed” (Prov. 15:22) “We do not worship a deistic God, an absentee landlord who ignores...

Listen along as we continue our series through the book of Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 26:1-32 First-century Pharisees excelled in everything we admire spiritually. They were zealous for God, completely committed to their faith. They were theologically astute, masters of the biblical texts. They fastidiously obeyed even the most obscure commands. They even made up extra rules just in case they were...

Listen along as we continue through the book of Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 25:1-27 - Faith  Title: Political Purgatory “…He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.” (Acts 9:15) “The soul that is not united solely to the will of God will find neither rest nor sanctification in any self-chosen means — not even in the most excellent exe...

Listen along as we continue through the book of Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 24:1-27 The resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. It is the decisive event demonstrating that God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven. The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it. - NT Wright 1 Thess...

Listen along as we continue through the book of Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 22:30-23:35 - Jack Title: The Second Speech “[God] upholds heaven and earth with all creatures and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.” - Heidelberg Catechis...

Listen along as we continue through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 21:37-22:29  Matthew 5:9-11, 5:43-46 ”Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in...

Listen along as we continue our series through Acts. Notes//Quotes: Acts 21:1-36  The same forebodings marked Jesus’ journey—the same strong resolve on Jesus’ part, the same misgivings on the part of his disciples. In the Gospels Jesus’ predictions of his coming passion provide the ominous tone. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ journey is particularly marked by sayings regarding Jerusalem as the place of...