Sermons

A good but difficult question we are often asked is, why? Why do we do certain things, believe certain things, or go to certain places? It’s a good question because “why” forces us to think and answer truthfully. This week, one of the questions that arises is why do Christians share the gospel and why do they persist in sharing the gospel even in hard, challenging places? The answer we’ll see is because He wants us to, and because it will be believed.

If you could ask Jesus to do one thing in your life, your community, someone close to you, what would you ask him? Our answers give us a picture that grounds our church’s vision: gospel renewal. Jesus is moving all things from the failure of the garden to the glory of new creation and he’s working through us, his church, to do it. What kind of expectations does Jesus want us to have for what he’s doing in us and through us? The answer we’ll see is probably more than we think.

In this generation and the next. Why would our church have those words in our vision? This short phrase helps define the timeline and the scope of our mission and calling. Weeks ago, we began our current series by looking at the grand story of the gospel; that God is moving all things from the failure of the garden to the glory of New Creation. Now, as we position ourselves within the story, we see that God wants His grace of new creation to go out to both this generation and the next.

The name of our church draws influence from Kansas City, being the City of Fountains, but it signifies more than that. Behind our name is a reality that transcends our church and extends to all of Jesus’s people and churches. It’s a reality that gets at something core to our identity as disciples of Jesus; that we are sent. And as a sent church, we believe that core to Jesus’ calling to us is to be a church that sends disciples.

A question that can evoke many different answers is what a church should prioritize. What should a church build its mission around? We might say loving our neighbors, caring for the poor, seeking justice and all of those are certainly true. Throughout his life, Jesus said many things that He wants his church to prioritize, but one thing He said has stood out to Bible readers for thousands of years. It was in his last words to his closest followers: make disciples.

Guest speaker Dave Robinson on being a Disciple of Christ.

One of the more confusing realities of the Christian faith is perhaps the part we interact with the most: the Church. What exactly is THE church? In our modern context it’s easy to connect church with a building or a social club or non-profit that helps us grow but as we’ll see this week, none of that gets close to what the Church really is. As Peter will show us, the church is a community of born-again people saved to be with God and bless the world.

What does it mean to have something at the center of your life? That word, center, can be a verb like focus or aim. It can also be a noun like heart. What’s the focus, aim, or heart of your life? In the introduction to his letter to the Christians in the Corinth, Paul laid out a strong case that for a Christian the only possible center is Jesus himself. And the same goes for a church. A Christ centered church keeps Christ at the center. That’s what we, Fountain City Church, want to be and do.

If you could ask Jesus to do one thing in your community or in the lives of people close to you, what would that be? The answers we might give would likely be varied, but together they belong to a phrase that gives the basis of the vision for our church: Gospel Renewal. Behind our vision is a defining “Why”: why have and pursue this vision? Because through Jesus and his church, God is moving all things from the failure of the garden to the glory of new creation.

This week, as we reflect on the good news of Christmas, that in Christ God’s grace has come to us all, we’ll take a deeper look at what God intends for this gift of grace to do in our lives. What is it that Jesus has come to do for us? Could our view or understanding of life with Jesus be too small? Through one of the Bible’s best known passages, we’ll see that God’s gift of grace through Christ is so powerful in our lives that you can say we are born again.