Christ Community Church - Leawood Campus - SUNDAY MESSAGES

The bible tells us God designed the family and the local church to be the primary sustaining institutions for human flourishing. The bible also teaches that a flourishing faith is a belonging faith. That real faith not only believes, it also belongs!  But what does a belonging faith look like? It was a great privilege for us to host Dr. Curt Thompson at Christ Community recently. As a devoted apprentice of Jesus and practicing psychiatrist, Curt brought great insight from theology and interpersonal neurobiology as it relates to God’s design for our flourishing.  Curt highlighted how each one of us as image bearers of God need relationships and community where we are Seen, Soothed, Safe, and Secure. To be seen means we are seen as we really are.  To be soothed is to experience empathy from others. To be safe is to be comfortable in our relationships with others. To be secure means others are trustworthy and won’t abandon us when things get hard. I think these four S’s are a good picture of what the New Testament writers like James describe as Agape love, the binding glue that holds a local church together and fuels a flourishing faith. As fellow Christians, we have a window of opportunity to be the church, the gracious and truth telling mouthpiece, the loving hands and feet of Jesus who laid down his life for others. 21.11.14

In today’s passage, James wants to warn us about the effect money can have on our faith. If we are not careful, wealth can corrupt us. It can convince us that we deserve more than we need. It will even try to convince us that our wants are actually needs. Our want for “stuff” is never done. We must not put our trust in material possessions which can lead to the hoarding of wealth, oppression of laborers, self-indulgence or the murder of the righteous. We must remember to leverage our wealth for love of God and love of others through the practice of generosity and practicing simplicity.SERMON NOTES: https://www.bible.com/events/4879017321.11.07

Planning can be wise and good, but who do we have in mind when we plan? If we long to have real faith, whole faith, lived out faith, we must remember who holds tomorrow. When we plan out our lives and love our plans too much, we become reliant on them. Our plans will inevitably let us down. Our plans, good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, are trials that are designed to bring us closer to who God wants us to be. The moment our plans fail is a moment to trust God and find joy in His plan for the day over our own. We need to remember to number our days, practice Sabbath rest, and pray through our plans. When we do this, our plans become an act of worship and faith in the only One who actually knows what He is doing.21.10.31

When is the last time you really sat down and thought, “what do I want?” Not like in a shallow way. But like, “what do I want in life? It’s a more important question than I often acknowledge. There is ancient wisdom about how important what we want is. How powerful it is, and how dangerous it can be. James chapter 4 is a warning. A warning about wanting the wrong things, and the consequences to our faith and our community together. Jesus linked our unity, our ability to handle conflict well among one another, to the world’s belief in who Jesus is. When we are at war among each other, no one will believe that Jesus is the Son of God. So if we want God above all others, we must humble ourselves and come back to God, our first love.21.10.24

Our words matter to God. Words can lift up or tear down. They can unite or divide. They can make us laugh or make us cry. Words stick with us and cannot be taken back. They leave a lasting imprint. Our tongues reveal our human sinfulness and brokenness. It is like a barometer for our inner world, our character, and our spiritual formation. At the root of any tongue problem is a heart problem. We must pursue a wise lipstyle by training our tongues, being attentive to our words, and being reflective in what we say. Are we using words that are edifying, necessary, and grace-filled? Our words matter and need to be guided by grace in a broken world.21.10.17

The more we internalize, trust, and believe in Jesus’ mercy for us, the more mercy, compassion, and service will be evident in us toward others. There’s a direct relationship between how loved we know we are, to how much mercy we show those around us. This is why Jesus ALWAYS points out that the one who loves Him best are always the ones who have received the most mercy. It’s also why the poor and oppressed are almost always examples of faith. If we feel better about ourselves when we consider the poor, the broken, the immigrant, the single mom, the addict, the unemployed, the unpopular, it is that moment when we must reconsider ourselves in light of grace, as rebels, and outcasts, as exiles, now brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ.21.10.10

What difference does faith make in the lives of Christians? What difference should it make? I think today’s sermon is the one many of my non-Christian friends would like to preach to Christians. They want to see a faith that makes a difference not only in the lives of the individual believer, but also in our communities and in the world. They want to see a faith that works. We need to ask ourselves hard questions like, “whose life around me is different because of my faith in Jesus? Is my faith working in such a way that it’s making a difference for other people? How has my faith matured since I first trusted in Jesus?” We also need to recognize that real faith is a process. Don’t let today’s doubt, today’s failure, keep you from pressing back into the grace of God, trusting that he is good and he has not given up on you.21.10.03

When we allow the trials and sufferings of our lives to refine our faith, we get closer to wholeness, to perfection, even in a very broken world. When Jesus talks about you and me, those of us in the faith, that we are to be “perfect” as His heavenly Father is perfect. He is saying, whatever you are right now, if you let me, if you follow me, I will make you as flawless, as whole, as perfect, as my Father in heaven. James reminds us that God is an artist, He’s the sculptor of our lives, and when we submit to Him, he can use the hardships of life to shape us into something beautiful. Perfect. God won’t allow you to be as you are, right now, not because He doesn’t love you, but because He does. In fact, when God made you, when He conceived of you, when He thought of you, He saw you whole. Perfect. Exactly as you were meant to be.21.09.26

SERMON NOTES: https://bible.com/events/48763151Jesus took all His power, and all His freedom, and all His wisdom, and love, and goodness, and patience and kindness, and He leveraged it, used it, not for Himself. But for you. If you are in Christ, that is what you believe. And the Spirit sets you free, not the law, not the flesh, but the Spirit, produces fruit in you, to be like Him in how we serve one another. His freedom was not for Him. Our freedom is not for us. Imagine what God can do with a church, with a believer, growing in the fruit of the Spirit, using her freedom for her neighbor? Her coworker? Her enemy? I don’t care how much brokenness and concrete is poured over that kind of person, we know who is winning that war. May it be so of us.21.09.19

SERMON NOTES: https://bible.com/events/48755397Hitting the wall of faith has been described a dark night of the soul...the rigorous terrain of biblical faith...the struggles, the doubt, the difficulty…doubt, discouragement, heartache, ...As a child of God...why? Why is my transformation so painfully slow? Being a Christian for a long time, yet still struggling in my faith.. Groaning that I am often so far from where I long to be. Why does it feel sometimes like in my Christian life I am taking 1 step forward and two steps back? An seemingly unanswered prayer…when you feel like you can’t go on...when you feel abandoned by God and hopeless, you can trust that the spirit is interceding for you in the Dark Night of Souls.21.09.12