Glorifying God by making disciples.

Luke 1:26-56 | We know Jesus is gracious.  We experience his grace.  We see his grace in his life, death, and resurrection. Luke 1 unpacks for us, though, the grace of God in the announcement to Mary that she will conceive and give birth to a son. Everything about Gabriel's announcement to Mary magnifies the amazement of God's glorious grace.  So let's walk through this announcement in Luke 1 and see grace signified, grace personified, and grace magnified in such a way that leads us to deeper awe of God's amazing grace.

Luke 1:5-25 | We established in week one that he Gospel of Luke is a Spirit-inspired, historically perfect, authorized biography of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what we might expect next is for Luke to mention Jesus...but he doesn't. Mary and Joseph? Nope. Luke introduces us first to the parents of John the Baptist. Why is this? And what are some massive lessons God is teaching us through this couple we meet in Luke 1?

Luke 1:1-4 | What are you certain about?  I didn't ask what you were confident about, but what are you absolutely certain about?  Some say you can't be certain about anything.  Luke would beg to differ.  This Sunday we begin our series in the gospel of Luke, and we begin with the declaration that we can have absolute certainty about Jesus.  Let's go on this journey together to see the life and teaching of Jesus Christ and what it means for us to follow him as Lord with absolute certainty. 

Acts 4:23-31 | What is our greatest need to be a faithful gospel witness? What is our greatest hurdle to a life of faithfully sharing Christ with the lost? It isn't more training.  It is more boldness. In Acts 4 we see the church gather in the face of threats to ask the Lord not for more safety, or more training, but to ask for more boldness.  This Sunday, as the final sermon in our prayer series and the final session of our Sent Conference, we will look at the prayer, the power, and the perseverance of prayer-fueled witness. 

Various Passages in Acts | The old adage goes, "The family that prays together, stays together." It's true for church families as well: The church that prays together, stays together. There is unity, fellowship, joy, and missional oneness that comes as we devote ourselves to prayer together. We will take a walk through the book of Acts to look at the times the church gathered for prayer together and the circumstances that drove them to corporate prayer. This must deepen our own convictions for the priority of corporate prayer.

Matthew 6:5-13 | E.M. Bounds in his classic, Power Through Prayer, notes that prayer is great spiritual work, and our flesh opposes great spiritual work. This is so true. We long to lean into this great spiritual work in a deeper way because we know there is a depth of communion, transformation, and enjoyment with the Lord as our prayer life with Him deepens.  This Sunday we turn to Jesus' teaching on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount to prepare us for a deeper prayer life in 2026. 

Nehemiah 13 | Nehemiah came to Jerusalem the first time a revivalist. He now returns to Jerusalem a reformer.  A reformer sees the evils that are downright wrong and seeks to make them right before the Lord.  In this chapter we will watch as Nehemiah seeks to bring purity back to the people of God and their worship of God through the reforms he initiates.  As we walk through each of these five reforms, may we be sensitive to where the Lord may want to reform these areas in our own lives as well.

Nehemiah 12:27-47 | Most versions of Nehemiah 12:27-47 have the heading “the dedication of the wall.” As this passage of scripture unfolds, we’ll see much more than just a dedication of a wall, and much more than the celebration of an incredible accomplishment, but an all-out worship service to a sovereign God who always fulfills his promises. This morning we’ll unpack four elements of corporate worship we see from this wall dedication, and how they impact the corporate worship gathering today.

Nehemiah 9-10 | God's people have been captivated by God's Word, and now they are under conviction.  As Nehemiah 9 begins we find God's people gathered in sackcloth, fasting, and with earth on their heads.  This is a solemn assembly. In the midst of this conviction, we see them express God-exalting contrite confession (ch. 9) and God-exalting resolute repentance (ch. 10).  What bout their confession and repentance keeps God at the forefront and his glory their motivation?  And what can we learn so our confession and repentance is driven more by the worship of God than by the wallowing in self?  Let's get a glimpse of what God-exalting confession and repentance looks like in our life. 

Nehemiah 7-8 | The Word of God...that lamp to our feet, hammer to our will, double-edged sword that pierces our inmost being.  The power of the Word of God transforms everything.  Nehemiah 8 is a vivid picture of a revival with the Word of God at the center of it.  As we walk through it together we will look at 6 Convictions for People of the Word.  This passage will stoke our reverence for and dependence on the Word of God. 

Nehemiah 7-8 | The Word of God...that lamp to our feet, hammer to our will, double-edged sword that pierces our inmost being.  The power of the Word of God transforms everything.  Nehemiah 8 is a vivid picture of a revival with the Word of God at the center of it.  As we walk through it together we will look at 6 Convictions for People of the Word.  This passage will stoke our reverence for and dependence on the Word of God. 

Nehemiah 6 | There are very few guarantees in life. One of them is this: if you are faithfully walking in obedience to the Lord, opposition will come. What do we do when opposition hits? How should we respond? As we continue our study of the book of Nehemiah, we’ll see what chapter 6 has to say about our response to spiritual opposition.

Nehemiah 5 | In the midst of the wall's rebuilding, there is a major problem. The problem does not lie in a breach of the wall but rather in a breach of love among God's people.  As Nehemiah learns of the injustice, he puts the people over the project, and with a loving, righteous indignation seeks to right what is wrong.  What was this problem?  What does it look like to pursue justice?  What does loving sacrifice for the people of God look like?  And how does Jesus encapsulate the perfect picture of all of this?  Nehemiah 5 will tell us how.

Nehemiah 4 | If we are faithful to obey the Lord and be about his work, we will face opposition.  What the Lord is moving forward for his glory and Kingdom, the enemy will be sure to oppose.  In Nehemiah 4 we see opposition to the rebuilding of the walls. In this chapter we will see what kinds of opposition God's people face, and we will also learn how to press on and persevere in the face of opposition.  

Nehemiah 3 | Nehemiah 3 is a beautiful picture of what it looks like when all of God's people come together to do God's work for God's glory.  This chapter is a detailed unpacking of the different groups that rebuilt the different sections of the wall around Jerusalem.  Within these details we will be built up and encouraged to faithfully play our part alongside God's people to do God's work for His glory!