Water City Church

We long for peace. But how do we get it? And what is peace anyway? Malachi 3:1 - 4

Jeremiah 33:14 – 16

Closing message in our series through Titus.

God's desire is for all to be saved. The good news is that "all people" really does mean "all people". So, how do we live in light of this grace? Titus 2:11 11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.

“…so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” The call to a sacrificial life has many layers. One is to live in such a way that the Good News of Jesus is actually attractive to outsiders. At least, that's what Paul tells Titus anyway.

A mark of our generation is that too many have been hurt by bad leadership in the church. Paul knew that good leaders were necessary for healthy churches. Character matters.

"How do we live as Christians in a dishonest, harsh, selfish culture?  How can we survive without adopting those attitudes?  How can we live the good life in this situation?  These are the question the letter of Titus addresses, and these are the questions we need help with each day as we seek to lie a gospel-changed life in a society that seeks change and finds truth in many places, but so rarely...

Titus is a unique glimpse into the beginning. Paul left Titus in Crete to establish healthy leadership and challenge the believers to represent Christ well. This was the start of a new household, and beginnings matter.

A prevailing narrative of our time is "You are enough." Which, on the surface, feels right. A response to the comparison trap that always leaves us wanting. "Not pretty enough..." "Not wealthy enough..." "Not educated enough..." Always just beyond our reach. But what if this "You can do it on your own" business is just as burdensome because we know...

"There was one time every Sunday where you take off your hat, and you sit under one roof with a group of people, and you say, ‘We're in this together, aren't we?’" Ethan Hawke Community matters. We were designed for life together with others, especially in exile. We see this in Daniel 1 and 2. This is the living out of Jeremiah's letter to exiles.

Exile is our reality. Do we allow God to shape us, or are we getting bitter? Psalm 137 is a difficult example of a people being hardened in exile.

Too often, we read the words of Jeremiah 29:11 out of the context of the exile. There is promise in these words, but not away from the work of exile. Followers of Jesus must be careful to avoid edits even when they are "small and carefully considered.” Promise without difficulty leads to entitlement.

Jeremiah 24 & Jeremiah 18

Today, we circle back to John 18 and take a second look at the story of Jesus' resurrection. https://watercitychurch.org/garden https://watercitychurch.org/cross

The story of the resurrection of Jesus is amazing and difficult. It is that way for us today, and it was that way for John and Peter then. Yet even though they didn't understand what they saw, they still believed. How do our lived experiences reflect theirs?

We tend to focus on Jesus' "Triumphal Entrance" into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, but that is not the only scene that day. Jesus clearing the temple is an essential moment for reasons so much deeper than just "he flipped some tables". A deep reading of Isaiah 56 touches on the elephant in the room.

John 11 “What we have at the moment isn't as the old liturgies used to say, 'the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead,' but a vague and fuzzy optimism that somehow things may work out in the end.” N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope

Jeremiah 18:1 - 10 The Potter is responding to the clay. God tells Jeremiah (us) that He responds to the people. Our free will - choices, actions, heart matters in how God deals with us. link to art

A message on discernment

Context matters. Let's dig in before we go forward.

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”  C.S. Lewis