eight: connection

November 19, 2017 Jacob Bender

connection is living a life of constant community with God.

He is our supplier, who is as close to us as the air that we breathe.

four: community

October 16, 2017 Jacob Bender

Community is a body, committed to all its parts.

#14 A Different Army

July 23, 2017 Jacob Bender

Paul ends the book of Ephesians by telling the church in Ephesus to put on the whole armor of God.

#13 Working

July 16, 2017 Jacob Bender

Most of us try and separate worship from working. Ministry is what we do on Sunday's, and everything else is "life" - but it doesn't work.

#12 Children & Parents

July 11, 2017 Jacob Bender

In this special Father's Day message, Pastor Mark talks about the ways that we provoke our children, and how deep a Father's love truly is for his child.

#11 The Church (Part 3)

July 9, 2017 Jacob Bender

Download Print Version

series: Love Incorruptible

title: The Church (part 3)

date: July 9, 2017

teacher: Jacob Bender

scriptures: Ephesians 5:22-33, Hosea 13:9, Genesis 2:24, Deuteronomy 6:5, John 17, Genesis 3

Man is incomplete.

Woman is incomplete.

But when they come together, in the way that God designed for them to be together, suddenly you have the fullest and most complete reflection of God available to man.

Paul calls it is mystery... A mystery that He says...

refers to the church.

In this sermon, we explored the DEPTH that is "the mystery" that Paul is referring to, and we went through some VERY BIG IDEAS that are revealed in the original language of the text that Paul quotes.

Of all of those big ideas, this one (explained below) is probably the biggest, and has by far gotten the most questions and responses from people, so we have provided this additional walk through of the concept for you to follow along as you watch the sermon.

It is the concept explained in this sermon about the Hebrew words for man and woman...

This is Genesis 2:24, which Paul quotes in Ephesians 5 when he is talking about marriage and how it relates to the church. Not the words "man" and "woman"

This is how it looks in Hebrew (right to left in Hebrew, but written in English left to right--- so "aleph" is the letter farthest to the right)

See the similarities... note the differences. They both have two identical letters, and one that is unique to their word.

By removing the two DISTINCT letters and putting them in a word by themselves, it spells "yah" - a Hebrew word for God. (and one half of YHWH "Yahweh")

Naturally, this makes sense. Because when a man and a woman come together, the way that God intended it to be, it is the closest reflection available to mankind of what God is like (a lot more about that in the sermon) - perhaps this doesn't surprise you... but when you combine the unique parts of the word "man" and "woman" you spell "God" but what may surprise you, is what you are left with, with you take God out.

if you now read the letters that are remaining... the letters that are the same in each word, you get fire. and because there are two words, you get fire, fire. Which in Hebrew, there were no explanation points so to emphasize something you would double it when you really wanted to show how important something is. Its almost like someone shouting "fire" or the concept of "the worst kind of fire"

In other words…

this.

is.

as.

bad.

as.

it.

gets!

Something that was designed to be the absolutely great gift… the absolute best… can become THE ABSOLUTE WORST, MOST DESTRUCTIVE THING IN YOUR LIFE.

or...

it could just be a coincidence :)

(it's not)

Featured

#6 The Plan, The Purpose, and the Prayer

Featured

#10 Melodies

July 2, 2017 Jacob Bender

Print Version

series: Love Incorruptible

title: #10 Melodies

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: July 2, 2017

scriptures: Ephesians 5:15-21, Proverbs 4:7, 1 Corinthians 12:8, Luke 12, Romans 8:14, Romans 8:22, Genesis 3:16, Philippians 2:12-13

Melodies produce hope. They are connectors. You hear them, and they draw you into a hope that you didn't even know existed.

but it is hard to sing when the days are slipping away from you… It is hard to sing when you don’t have anything to sing about.

and this is the last thing I will say about this message... then you just need to watch it.

It was a long, challenging, exciting week... and this concept carried me.

Featured

Featured

#9 Imitators of God

June 25, 2017 Jacob Bender

Print Version

series: Love Incorruptible

title: #9 Imitators of God

date: June 25, 2017

teacher: Jacob Bender

scriptures: Ephesians 5:1-14, Genesis 6:5, Genesis 1-3, Genesis 4:6-7,

One thing Drew always says, and he says it about the most simple things, (it's hilarious) is he says: “This changes everything.” He said it on Thursday, I told him at Kids Club “we have a slip and slide today” and he said: “This changes everything.”

That is exactly the way that we should look at the gospel. This truly is the one thing, that changes everything.

and the thing that it should produce in you, probably more than anything else: is Thanksgiving. It is the word “eucharisteō” (you-har-estay-o) - bundled into this Greek word are the Greek words charis and chara which means “grace” and “joy” - when you understand how every finite detail of your life all the way down to your salvation is grace, it produces unspeakable joy, which equates to thankfulness.

and when that Thanksgiving is genuine, the behavior side of things begins to happen automatically.

Not because you aren’t trying to do the right thing… part of growing up in Christ means learning how to live your life with INTENTION… but the difference between the old and the new self is: the old self WANTS to give way to the flesh… the new self WANTS to resist it.

Featured

Featured

#8 The New Self

June 11, 2017 Jacob Bender

Print Version

series: Love Incorruptible

title: The New Self

date: June 11, 2017

teacher: Jacob Bender

scriptures: Ephesians 4:17-32, Matthew 7:12, Ecclesiastes 7:2, 2 Corinthians 5:14,

This section begins by working on the issue of ME. The issue of YOU.

Paul tells us to put OFF the old self… put away everything that used to be us… the former life… the corruption… the greed that drives most of our lives. Put it all away.