“if anyone chooses to remain ignorant, then let him stay ignorant.”
Read morefive: contribution
Contribution understands that everybody has a role, and there is room for us here. We know that the gifts we are given matter to the body of Christ, and we so seek to discover where we each fit.
We honor the contributions of others, knowing that God perfectly crafted each one of us, and only together are we truly the church.
Read morefour: community
Community is a body, committed to all its parts.
Read more#11 The Church (Part 3)
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)
#8 The New Self
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.
That used to be your life… That is not your life anymore.
You have learned Christ… Christ has done something NEW in you.
#7 The Church (part 2)
series: Love Incorruptible
title: The Church (part two)
date: June 4, 2017
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Ephesians 4:1-16, 1 Corinthians 12:27, Psalm 68:18, Luke 9, Colossians 1:18
#5 The Church (part one)
series: Love Incorruptible
title: The Church (Part One)
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: May 21, 2017
scriptures: Ephesians 2:11-22, Mark 11:17, John 13:35,
#3 Prayer for the Church
series: Love Incorruptible
title: Prayer for the Church
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: May 7, 2017
scriptures: Ephesians 1:15-23, Malachi 3
More series from Courage Church:
#4 Loving our Neighbors
series: Neighbor(ing)
title: Loving Our Neighbors
teacher(s): Jacob & Dawn Bender
date: March 19, 2017
scriptures: Luke 10:30-37, Acts 2:42-47, Galatians 2:6, Galatians 2:9-10, James 1:27, 2 Corinthians 6:18, Isaiah 32:8
#2 Who is my Neighbor?
series: Neighbor(ing)
title: Who is my neighbor?
date: February 26
teacher: Mark Bender
#2 Busyness
series: Thawing
title: Busyness
date: January 15, 2017
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Mark 4:2-20, Psalm 46:10 (mentioned), John 14:26 (mentioned), Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 10:16 (mentioned), 1 Timothy 5:8, Proverbs 11:29, Matthew 27:50-51, Matthew 11:30
Church Bells still ring in Brooklyn
title: Church bells still ring in Brooklyn
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: December 25, 2016
scripture: Ephesians 2:19-22
a Thanksgiving meal, on a normal day
title: a Thanksgiving meal, on a normal day
date: November 27, 2016
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Acts 16:20-34
#7 Oaths
series: Red Letter City
title: Oaths
date: May 29, 2016
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Matthew 5:33-37, Numbers 30, Ecclesiastes 5:2, Luke 8:17, Matthew 12:36, Matthew 16:16-19, Matthew 18, James 4:7, Ephesians 6, Ephesians 4:27, 1 Peter 5:8, Luke 13:15
I don’t know Rick Warren.
But I have met him.
somewhere out there, there is a picture of me that I have, of Dawn and I with Rick Warren, but I couldn't find it this week. I only have a picture because when I met him, he said “lets take a picture for facebook!” and so we took one… but I guess I never posted it to facebook. and I now I can’t find it. But it exists somewhere. But I don’t know Rick Warren. I had emailed him a couple of times about our bands music because we wrote one particular song that I thought he would really like, and he was very encouraging and said that he did.
The last time that I put out an album with my band was in 2011, and on release day, because of our previous conversations, Pastor Warren very graciously sent out one tweet on twitter encouraging people to go and check out our record.
One tweet, and suddenly thousands and thousands of people were going and checking out our songs. For a few hours our page had more visits than it had had the whole month. Until he sent out another tweet, and the one about us got lost.
His name brought me a temporary sense of popularity.
Because he said it was good, people wanted to hear for themselves.
and I could scream from the rooftops how great I thought my own music was, but when someone who had already done something significant…
like written the best selling book of all time other than the bible… when he puts his name on it, people listen.
It is very easy to use other people’s names to elevate our purposes.
There are certain name drops that become trump cards in conversations. and in Jesus’ time and in the generations leading up to Jesus it was no different. People made promises all of the time, it was not really a big deal. But if a person were to make a “vow” or an oath, it would almost automatically be believed… and that is what Jesus was addressing here. The concept of oaths. Of promising something with someone else’s name attached to it.
But do you even know the one whose name you have attached to your purposes?
#5 Ekklesia
Please note: We experienced technical difficulties when recording this sermon. There are two places that the audio loses quality significantly.
series: Jesus and Me (and the people we need)
title: Ekklesia
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: March 6, 2016
scriptures: Ephesians 2:13-22, 1 Peter 2:5, Ephesians 5:25-32, Deuteronomy 6:4-5, John 17, Acts 2,
#3 Community
series: Jesus and Me (and the people we need)
title: Community
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: February 21, 2016
scriptures: Acts 2:42-47, Acts 2:5-12, Joel 2:28-29, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Matthew 5:42, Matthew 6:21, Matthew 19:16-30, Matthew 16:18, 1 John 3:17, Psalm 133:1-3, Hebrews 10:24-25, Galatians 6:2.
#1 Loneliness
series: Jesus & Me (and the people we need)
title: loneliness
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: February 7, 2016
scriptures: John 17:6-11, Genesis 1:26, Genesis 2:18, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Proverbs 5:14, Isaiah 59:14, Romans 5:8, Luke 5:31, 1 John 4:7-8
We want our relationships to look like the gospel.
and the only way to do that is to understand the gospel, and then let it trickle into the way that we relate to one another. Everybody, deep down, has a desire:
to be fully known.
to be fully accepted.
and to be fully loved.
and the good news, right out of the gate, is you are all of those things!
Jesus Christ knows everything about you. He knows you fully. And yet he still accepts you just the way that you are and he still loves you with all of his heart to the point of literally laying down his life for you.
and the types of relationships that are worth having, look like that… they look like the gospel. The gospel should trickle. It should apply everywhere. We love, because he first loved us (1 John 4:19) – well how did he first love us?
He loved us, and accepted us, fully knowing us.
#4 A bigger picture
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.
#5 The Layered Heart
DATE: June 14, 2015
TEACHING: Jacob Bender
SERIES: Intentions
TITLE: The Layered Heart
SCRIPTURES: Philippians 2:1-13, Philippians 1:27, Ephesians 5:22-23, Galatians 6:2, Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, Genesis 2:18, James 5:17, Isaiah 53:3, Luke 5:16, John 14:12-13, 1 John 3:16-17, John 13:35
We have come to the end of our first series. I have been so encouraged by all of the feedback everyone has been giving us through this series, and the reports of the healing it has been for peoples lives. I know it has impacted me greatly to study it and to put it together.
Last week, Dawn talked about transparency, which could not have been a better lead-in to the Layered Heart. As we go through life, tragedy, heartbreak, disappointment, etc. we tend to put layers around our hearts… because nobody wants to be hurt over and over and over again so we put up a layer against a person… “They will never get through again… They will never hurt me again…”
but before long, somebody else, or something else, will let you down. And you put up another layer.
And soon enough, you decide to block everyone out from that part of your life, from that part of your heart, and transparency gets thrown out the window and your whole life becomes about the appearance of strength. Nobody can hurt a strong person, right?
The layered heart (or whatever you want to call it) is the number one killer of community. It stops community dead in its tracks. But Paul tells us that we should bare one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)… how are we suppose to bare each others burdens, if we don’t know what they are.
He tells us that we should not only look out for our interests but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:4), and he tells the Philippian church that he hopes to hear reports of them “standing firm in ONE spirit, with one mind, STRIVING SIDE BY SIDE for the faith of the gospel (Philippians 1:27).
I love this quote by Paul David Tripp, he says “Autonomous Christianity never works, because our spiritual life was designed by God to be a community project.”
This whole series has been about working out our minds, so we can be effective in our world. Well the church is the hope of the world. Discipleship happens in community. Life transformation happens in the context of healthy relationships… and as we work out the Intentions of our hearts, lets do it standing side by side together, striving for the faith of the gospel. Lets do it understanding that two are better than one, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
Why do we do what we do?
We do it because we are the bride of Christ.
We are his representation here on Earth.
We are his ambassadors to the city of Detroit.
We do it because Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient, to the point of death (Phil. 2:8).
We do it because the local church is the hope of the world. And that is us.
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.