First Fruits Sunday
Read moreMission:Detroit
the mission at home.
Read moretime
There are two Greek words for the word "time" - and they couldn't be more different.
Read moreFaith that Can't Sit Still
Pastor Kevin, lead pastor of Mount Hope Church in Lansing, MI, gives a powerful message about faith.
Read moreintroduction: cultivate
if you have no gauge on what is important, then you have no way to measure whether or not you are on the right track. That is what Core Values do… they keep us disciplined… they keep us on mission… they give us something the bounce whatever it is we are doing, off of, and see… IS THIS FURTHERING THE MISSION?
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Where is the Space?
series: Rachab
title: Where is the Space?
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: September 3, 2017
scriptures: Genesis 26:12-25, Psalm 31:15
Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”
So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them. But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
From there he went up to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
Sometimes, we find ourselves lost in a sea of things that the world throws at us, and we get so distracted with all of the things that WE THINK THAT WE HAVE TO DO... that we never do the THINGS THAT WE ACTUALLY SHOULD DO.
and time gets sucked away, leaving us feeling like there is no space for us to actually create the things that we believe we are supposed to make out of this life.
But just like Isaac, I believe that the Lord has made room for you, here and now. He has made room for your dreams, he has made room for your gifts...
But sometimes we can't see the things that are right in front of us... So lets ask ourselves a question...
What is it for me? What is it for you?
What is it that is keeping you from your calling? What is keeping you living life as if you don’t actually have any.… What is keeping you living like you are already dead?
What is taking up the space in your mind?
In your heart?
In your life?
What is filling the space?
What needs to be laid on the altar to create space in your life for what Jesus wants to do?
What has you bound and maybe you don’t even know it?
Perhaps the best way to answer that, is to answer this question:
What is taking your time?
Psalm 31:15 says "my times are in your hand;"
We need to be like David, and place our times into the hands of Jesus. Time is a most valuable asset, and we will waste it if we remain distracted and never create space for the spirit to move in our lives.
Impartation
In his first Sunday visiting us at Courage Church, Pastor Brad Reed (lead Pastor of the New York Dream Center and one of the overseers/pastors of Jacob and Dawn Bender) talks about impartation, and about building the church on a firm foundation.
Read more#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
#1 Cowardice
series: Thawing
title: Cowardice
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: January 8, 2017
scriptures: Numbers 22:30 (mentioned), Matthew 1 (mentioned), Psalm 51:10, 1 Timothy 1:7, James 4:17, Revelation 21:5-8, Romans 8:15, Luke 15:11-32, John 14:23, 1 Corinthians 16:13-14
New
title: new
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: January 1, 2017
scriptures: Isaiah 40:30-31, Galatians 5:22-23, Galatians 6:7-9, Luke 12:13-21, James 5:7-11, Proverbs 16:9, Nehemiah 10:35.
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
#6 It ends with a question
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,
The Reconciliation Table
Courage Church 12 Year Anniversary Service
title: The Reconciliation Table
date: October 9, 2016
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Psalm 23, Genesis 31, Luke 15:22-24, Luke 14 (The Great Banquet).
#2 Caught by Grace
series: a case for bad choices
title: caught by grace
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: Septemer 25, 2016
scriptures: 1 Peter 1:5, Genesis 1:2, Deuteronomy 8:2, 1 Corinthians 13:12
#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.
#3 Defining the Romance
series: Cultivate the Romance
title: Defining the Romance
date: January 17, 2016
teacher: Dawn Bender
#2 Creating Space
series: Cultivate the Romance
title: Creating Space
date: January 10, 2016
teacher: Jacob & Dawn Bender
scriptures: Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 3:16-Matthew 4:2, Ezra 8:21, 1 Samuel, Proverbs 29:18, Proverbs 23:7
In part two of our series “Cultivate the Romance,” Jacob and Dawn team up and tell the story of what brought them to Detroit in the first place.
Come and See
Date: May 3, 2015
Teacher: Jacob Bender
Title: Come and See
scriptures: Isaiah 61:1-2, John 1:43-46, Genesis 33, 2 Corinthians 5:17-19, Luke 4:16-21, John 12:47-48, 2 Corinthians 6:2
“optimum remedium contra opiniones praeconceptas”
Bengel in his commentary of the conversation recorded in John 1:43-46 between Philip and Nathaniel, uses this latin phrase to describe Philips response to Nathaniel’s question “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
It means “The best remedy against a pre-conceived opinion.” The only remedy to a pre-conceived opinion is to show him something different.
Well, we have only been here, living in Detroit for a few days now, so we don’t want to pretend like we know everything about this city yet, but one thing is for sure. We live in a place that has a lot of pre-conceived opinions formed against it.
It kind of sounds like the church.
People who draw conclusions about the church based on past experiences, probably in most cases justified. About the way someone treated them in the “name of Jesus” – someone who didn’t act like Jesus but did so while claiming to represent Jesus. And I think that its time that those people “come and see” – but when they do come and see, will they see anything different than what they saw in the past? Will we be any different than the pre-conceived opinions that they have already formulated in their minds? What will they see?
By the grace of God, when they do come and see, I want them to see Jesus.
I want them to see a place that is all about restoring them back to Jesus.
A place that is all about reconciliation.
