Knowing God: Introduction (Chris)

We introduce a new series: Knowing God, based on a book of the same title by renowned theologian J.I. Packer.  Why is it important to study God, and what characterizes people who know God?  Most of all, how to we make our faith living and active?  Discipleship is not knowing about God, it is having a purposeful and personal relationship with God.

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My Utmost for His Highest: Living Theology -- Ripple Effects (Chris)

This Sunday, Chris will conclude our series based My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.  We will consider the way God works wonderfully in all of our lives.  Having been saved by Christ, the purpose of our time on earth is to grow closer to God through Christ and the Holy Spirit.  As we do so, God is able to use us for His purposes in ways that we never fully understand or appreciate.  The ripple effects of His Love then change the world.

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My Utmost for His Highest: Living Toward Sanctification (Chris)

This lesson is based on the October 20th passage from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers: What is the purpose of our lives?  Our Salvation has been won by Christ.  We are promised eternal life with Almighty God.  What about here and now?  Is life just a waiting room where we bide our time until paradise arrives?  Not according to Scripture and not based on the life of Jesus.  Sanctification is our purpose: growing closer to God and becoming more like Christ.  It is what we are asking for when we pray, "Thy will be done."  Sanctification is striving, active, living faith.  This lesson considers how to pursue it as true disciples.

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My Utmost for His Highest: What Do You Want? (Randy)

What do you want? We spend a lot of our time and mental energy trying to answer that question. Our wants and needs vary widely, but in the end, we typically want something for ourselves.  God offers a different answer to that question, and when we embrace his answer, he blesses us with far more than we ever thought we wanted. Join us as we wrestle with this timeless question and how our faith informs the answer.

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My Utmost for His Highest: Temptation and Deliverance (Chris)

Temptation is a constant in life.  We are lured in ways large and small away from the light and love of God and towards sin and darkness.  Even Jesus was tempted.  Oswald Chambers asks a provocative question: "Is there good in temptation?"  He also contrasts our typical, worldly temptation with the more advanced versions overcome by Christ.  This lesson explores how we should address temptation in our discipleship and how it can serve as a gauge of progress in our spiritual journeys.

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My Utmost for His Highest: Christ's Agony and Our Access (Randy)

The night before Jesus gave himself up for us, he went to the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed earnestly to God. A great spiritual battle took place as he agonized over what was to come the next day. What happened that evening, and why does his anguish give us such confidence in our access to God? In this lesson, we explore the decision Jesus made to go to the cross and why it makes all the difference in our lives.

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My Utmost for His Highest: Loving Christ (Chris)

"Jesus loves me."  This truth is the foundation of our faith from earliest childhood, but it is difficult for us to comprehend the magnitude of Christ's love.  Jesus loving us enables us to love him fully and to be connected to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in the process.  This week, we will use C.S. Lewis's "Four Loves" (affection, friendship, romance, sacrifice) to explore just how wonderful and miraculous Christ's love is, and how we can be spiritually transformed by it.

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