Danny Hernandez
God's Grace Luke 15:11-32 The parable of the prodigal son is very popular but also very misunderstood. It's about the grace of the Father. “Til sin be bitter, grace cannot be sweet. In order to celebrate God’s grace, you need to see your sin and our need for Him.” Celebrating the Father’s Grace Context: Jesus is with tax collectors and sinners as well as Pharisees. There is a contrast between messy immoral people with the righteous and holy. The parable helps both sinners and Pharisees see God's grace. How would these two groups see Jesus’ parable? God's grace covers our immorality 11-24 Parable: Man has younger son and older son. The inheritance is divided into thirds. Older son got double portion, younger son gets the third. NO ONE ever asks for their share of the inheritance before the father dies, because it is essentially wishing his father was dead! The father divided his property (his “bios”) and gave it to his son. In a few days later, he wastes his money recklessly. (Prodigal means reckless and wasteful.) The son turns to being a farmhand, working with pigs and desiring to eat the pigs’ food. (For context: pigs were ceremonially unclean and dirty.) (For the Pharisees, they would have liked the parable to end there.) While the son is still FAR AWAY, the Father RUNS UP TO HIM (not even waiting for his son!!!) and shows COMPASSION, repeatedly kissing him. The son receives the ROBE of the FATHER, and the FAMILY RING, and SHOES (which signifies a free person, not a slave)The son is has been instantly reinstated as part of the family again. No longer a slave and a stranger.
God's grace covers our morality
Final points: What does this mean for us? Are we the prodigal or righteous son? Do you clean yourself up before going to God, not seeing His grace as sufficient? How’s your prayer life? Are you dependent on Him? “Our worst days are never so bad that we are beyond God’s grace. Our best days are never so good we are beyond the need of God’d grace.” The two sons are the opposite sides of the same coin. Both are after the father’s things. They wanted their inheritance, not him. They just do it in different ways. The older brother obeys to get his inheritance; his actions are not out of love. Grace is sufficient for both morality and immorality. God pursues the lost. Both of these sons believed what they had done in the past determined their value. The younger son saw his value as low because he messed up. The older son saw his value as high because he didn’t. If you ground yourself in feelings and not truth, you’ll never experience joy. Look at who God is and what God has done first, because that is what determines who we are. A good older brother would have gone to look for the younger brother. Hebrews 2: Christ is our perfect older brother. He came FOR US, unlike the older brother in the story. Christ becomes what the younger son thought he was. He took on the wrath and justice of the Father so that we can be treated as God’s children. There’s a rejoicing in heaven when people repent. When you repent, it’s an opportunity for God’s grace to be magnified.
0 Comments
Pastor Chris (Crit) Fukunaga
God's Wrath Romans 1:18-32 Introduction: God’s wrath is not only a characteristic about Him; it is also important for understanding ourselves/ We can learn from this passage about God’s wrath manifested in ourselves. What happens when a person hasn’t heard of Jesus? Romans 2:14-16 He is judged by conscience, judged by your own definition of good and evil, and judged against Jesus Christ and will face God’s wrath. Thesis of passage: God’s wrath will come to people because they choose to worship themselves over God. The opposite of worship of God is worship of the self as God. Worship of creator vs worship of creation as the creator. Orge (Greek) - refers to God’s wrath: (Five Types of Wrath) Environmental - Ex: Noah’s Ark Sowing and reaping - Ex: Sinning and the fruits of sin Eschatological - Ex: Revelation Eternal - Ex: Hell In the case of the passage, God's wrath is removing Himself from the human spirit - taking away His restraining hand of grace. Points: No matter if you’ve ever heard of anything Christian, every single human has built into them a capacity to understand that God exists. There has to be a creator God behind everything, as seen in His creation. People will reject God. They will see Him and reject Him. Nature reveals God, but they choose to reject Him. Then they start worshipping idols, images, creation. There is no spiritual, neutral gear to the human soul. Our soul is always worshipping something or someone. We are always longing to worship. Verse 24, 26, 28 “God gave them up...” He removed His hand of grace and restraint from their heart, and: They dishonor their bodies They exchange the truth of God for a lie They worship the creation Their hearts were ruled by dishonorable passions. Their minds become debased Note: God did not impose their evil desires. They were evil already. Verse 29, 30 Description of the human and culture when they reject God and when God is absent. Romans 5:9 Good news! We have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ. If you’re struggling with idolizing something, recommit yourself to worshipping God. Pastor Terry Coon
God's Holiness Isaiah 6:1-8 Intro: As humans we believe we have some inherent value outside of God, and if anyone diminishes that value, we demand they see us for who we are. The issue is that we diminish the value of God as we go about our everyday lives. Very rarely do we consider God in our daily activities. The Knowledge of the Holies by AW Hoser: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” We’ve been conditioned to think of God as this mean, old man who is waiting to catch us in our wrongdoing and He’s not to be trifled with. Or is God a pop-culture icon that is accepting of every lifestyle and every worship because He forgives everything. Our conceptions of God must be rooted in His holy word!!! Main points:
He has invited us to come experience His grace. Pastor Andrew Yang
"Attachment Theory and God the Father" Attachment Theory Attachment theory: the study of attachment bonds within a caregiving system and how it affects a child's Internal Working Model Caregiving system: negotiation between child and parent; how the child expects to be comforted and how the parents expect to give comfort Internal Working Model: child's mental representations of the attachment figure, self, and environment based on experiences - Growing up, you feel like you have unlimited potential; you don't know your weaknesses yet. This changes as you age. Ainsworth's Strange Situation Assessment explores attachment styles: secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant. This is important to identify because how we react as a child in distress is how we react now when we're in distress. Promise Keeping Why is promise keeping important? We need to develop trust, credibility, reliability, and vulnerability. When someone breaks a promise, we lose all of that. With promises, there is an expectation to be cared for and for the promise to be followed through with. God's promises throughout scripture are given for us to hold on to, to rely on, to trust. Promise keeping is a biblical mandate (See Mat 5:37 and 5:33, and Lev 5:4). Words are an extension of the attachment caregiving system in humans. God's word is one way He takes care of us and demonstrates His commitment and love to us. Understand that God is a perfect Father and is always with us through the Holy Spirit. We are by definition God's children, because we have been brought to Him through the blood of Christ. Psalms 22: David feels a separation and abandonment from God. Yet, he responds by lifting God up in glory and praise, demonstrating a secure attachment to God. He reflects on moments when God saved him and fulfilled His promises. It's normal to feel and express moments of frustration and anguish. However, what do you do after? Do you reflect on the moments where God has taken care of you? Do you remember when God saved you? Remember God's goodness in our lives. Pray to Him, read His word and seek comfort through it. Rely on God - "Take care of me because I cannot do it on my own". What can you do? Be a witness for God. Demonstrate how God is our primary caretaker through your own actions. Facilitate and help your brothers and sisters in Christ to seek God. As images of God, we were created and designed to reflect God and His love and characteristics to the world. Be a compassionate listener. Don't try to fix people's problems when they come to you to share. Empathize with them. Live this out in discipleship, small groups, and pray for each other. Pastor Kevin Hayashida
The Bigger Picture 1. God’s plan is bigger than my plan. Seek God’s plan in the world, and be a part of it. 2. People are more important than achievements. How you work with people, how you serve, love, and minister to people will lead to you success. Material things are temporary; the people around you are eternal. God works through the relationships around you! Refer to 2 Peter 3:10-11 3. Post-college life is longer than college life. Invest in the things that will last. Appreciate the time you have your entire life; this will allow you to make wiser decisions and have a clearer perspective. Psalm 90:12 Church versus Parachurch As a definition, the church is the divinely established institution that is the continuation of the Lord’s presence and ministry in the world. To live together as the church calls for the development of close personal relationship, for the ministry of memebrs to one another, for the experience of family love, and for maturing in holiness. The church is the visible presence of Jesus Christ in the world. It is an enduring body, a community, that will prevail over the gates of hell. Parachurch goes alongside the church, providing ministries that the church cannot do on it’s own. Whereas in the parachurch, you can choose who you want to be with (you tend to choose a parachurch ministry with similar people), you do not get to choose who God places in your church family (and real family!). However, the parachurch has great opportunity for reaching non-believing college students, providing a unified vision to a community, and offers opportunities to serve. Prepare for transition into your next season of life by developing health habits now. The benefits of starting things now are cumulative. Part of those habits should include how you relate to the church. People often feel out of place post-grad because they did not set up the habit of getting plugged into the church. Also, develop your spiritual gifts by serving. Finally, cultivate relationships beyond your comfort zone. Hey all! We will officially start meeting with our very first large group of the year:
Wednesday October 4th (Week 1) Humanities Gateway (HG) 1800 7:45PM See you all there! This new page on our website will be specifically for summaries of speakers' messages during Large Group, in addition to any important announcements made during Large Group that members or newcomers should know about. The first post will be made when the 2017-2018 school year starts in September. Stay tuned!
|