series: a week to live
title: Jesus Cleanses the Temple
date: April 2, 2017
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Mark 11, Leviticus 14, Mark 13:1
title: Church bells still ring in Brooklyn
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: December 25, 2016
scripture: Ephesians 2:19-22
series: Jonah
title: It ends with a question
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: November 20, 2016
scriptures: Jonah 4, Isaiah 58:12, Nahum 2:10, Nahum 3:1-5, Genesis 4,
series: Red Letter City
title: Treasures
date: July 10, 2016
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Acts 20:24, Matthew 6:19-24 (main passage), 1 Timothy 6:18-19, Malachi 3:16, Genesis 11, Revelation 18, Matthew 23:23, Malachi 3:10, Revelation 18, Revelation 13:17, Luke 16:11, 2 Corinthians 6:10, Proverbs 27:20
series: Red Letter City
title: Salt & Light
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: April 17, 2016
scriptures: Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 18:19-20, 1 John 1:5, John 8:12, Matthew 25:14-30
We have less working street lights than anyone. And maybe that statistic has changed by now, because I know that the mayor and our city officials have been working really really hard to put up new lights around the city and really make it feel safer for people when they are walking to their cars or walking down the street at night. But most of you who live here have probably experienced what it feels like to walk down a street at night, with no lights.
Its a horrible feeling.
All sense of confidence is gone. Its just gone. You walk on eggshells. You wonder what is around you. Because its really really dark. You can’t see whats right in front of you. and there is something about experiencing a lack of light in a context like that one that makes you realize how valuable the light truly is.
It shows us what is right in front of us. It shows us what is a few feet down the road. It shows us where we parked, and who is walking toward us in that moment.
But how many of you know, we live a world that is filled with uncertainty. It is filled with doubts. It is filled with people walking through their days not knowing what is on the other side of it, not knowing if people are on their side, or are out to get them… not knowing if tomorrow is even going to come.
and in this dark city that still lacks lights to even guide our steps as we walk on the streets… in this dark city that is Detroit but in so many ways can represent life… Jesus tells us that in this city… we are supposed to be another city… a city on a hill.
series: Lets talk about Hope
title: Life of Hope
date: March 13, 2016
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Isaiah 9:2-7, Hebrews 6:19, Titus 2:13, Matthew 10, Proverbs 13:12, John 5, Mark 3:1-6, John 1:4-5, John 11:53,
series: Cultivate the Romance
title: A Bigger Picture
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: January 24, 2016
scriptures: Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 3:20, Isaiah 9:2, 2 Corinthians 5, Proverbs 31:8-9, Acts 10:34-35, Hababbuk 2:2-3, Ephesians 4:12, Mark 12:41-44
In this message, Pastor Jacob shares from his dream journal about the direction we believe God is directing Courage Church in 2016.
series: The narrative of Grace
title: Grace in Exile
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: December 6, 2015
scriptures: Matthew 1, Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 41:41, Jeremiah 29:11, Jeremiah 29:4-6, Leviticus 25:3-4, 2 Chronicles 36:18-21, Jeremiah 29:7, 1 Corinthians 9:22, Jeremiah 29:8-10, Jeremiah 29:11-14
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
This is one of the most quoted verses in the entire bible. Everybody makes this verse their own.
They speak it over their life every time things get hard and suddenly the certain things begin to feel uncertain. They speak it over their friends every time someone feels like they are in a rut, or not where they should be, or not understanding why things are they way that they are in their life. So they say “I know the plans that I have for you…”
“maybe you don’t understand your circumstances, but God has a plan, and its good.”
That is the idea. And it is true. You should speak Jeremiah 29:11 over your life, but you should speak Jeremiah 29:4-10 over your life too. And you should speak Jeremiah 29:12-14 over your life too.
Because one verse sandwiched in the middle of an amazing set of scriptures says something incredible, but everything that it is nestled between is your guide for how you get verse 11. It is how you actually see that hope and that future that God has laid out for you.
It is your guide for how you, as a citizen of Detroit but ultimately as a citizen of the city of God, can claim your inheritance as an heir of the King.
But it may be different than you think.
