the logos became sarx and tabernacled…
#2 Salt and Light
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
Detroit is the darkest city in America.
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.
It brings certainty to a 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.
#7 Goodness
Date: August 16, 2015
Series: The Fruit of the Spirit
Title: Goodness
Teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Ezekiel 22:30, Genesis 1:3-4, Genesis 1:27, Ephesians 2:10, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 3:5, Genesis 6:9, Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Exodus 32, Genesis 6:17-18, Genesis 18:22-33, 1 Peter 2:20-22, John 8
Goodness.
I like to think of goodness as integrity, but with a little more punch. Typically when I think of integrity, one of the main words that comes to my mind is the word consistency. The person that you are in your home when nobody is around and nobody can see, is the same person that we see. You don’t put on a new self for the sake of the public.
But goodness adds on to that in several ways. Goodness is consistently doing the right thing, not just the same thing. It is doing the right thing when you are by yourself, and doing the right thing when you are in public. But it goes even beyond and strikes an even deeper core.
It is doing the right thing whether it is what is best for you, or it its not. Its making the right decision even when its not what you want, and even when it may have a negative affect on your life.
Goodness, as Paul uses it when he is listing the Fruit of the Spirit, is the Greek word agothosune and it means “Uprightness of Heart and Life.” Your noble heart is matched identically by your noble way of life.
As simple as this may sound as you read it in a few short sentences, there is a lot to this concept, and I encourage you to join us as we journey through it in our series “Fruit of the Spirit”
