Cinco Ranch Church of Christ
By CRCoC
Cinco Ranch Church of ChristMar 14, 2024
Landlords
We live in a society that deeply believes in and values merit-based entitlement. We have a tendency to believe that when we have accomplished certain tasks, then we should receive our due reward. Jesus turns this teaching upside down in a parable about an entitled group of workers. With that said, he also talks about the last being first and the first being last. This morning, we will explore what the real meaning might be behind this famous saying.
Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16
Impossible
Oftentimes we have an idea of the kind of person that is getting into heaven. It is someone who has done the right things, lived the right kind of life, and inspired others to do the same. While I don’t think that is wrong it would still be impossible for our very “best” person to make it on their own. Ancient Israel, and in our passage, the disciples struggled with this too. If someone like the rich young ruler couldn’t get into heaven, what chance does anyone have? Yet we serve a God who makes the impossible possible. Isn’t that good news for the very “best” and “worst” of us?
Scripture: Matthew 19:16-30
Transforming Greatness
Jesus' ministry took place during a time when children were not highly valued. Outside of being a "future asset," children weren't really valued much at all. They were fairly low on the pecking order. Jesus turned his culture upside down with his teaching the disciples that children were actually the greatest in the Kingdom. Kids are now seen through a different lens in our culture and society today. This gives us new and fresh opportunities to love kids in ways that can truly change the world and introduce others to the way of Christ.
Scripture: Mark 9:33-37
Shiny Faces and Deep Voices
This week we are kicking off a new series that will take us all the way to Easter! We begin at the furthest point north that we believe Jesus went during His ministry. It is in this place that something truly incredible happens as Jesus is transfigured. A lot of questions can come from this though. Why did only a few get to see this? What was the significance of who got to be there and why did this happen in the first place? While there are a myriad of potential answers to some of these questions, the beauty is in the simplicity of the overall story.
Scripture: Matthew 17:1-9
When We Pray
Prayer is a core theme and discipline to the Christian faith. It's a core discipline to other faiths as well. While this is an integral aspect of our relationship with God, it is something that we have limited ourselves on for quite some time. When we examine our lives and ask ourselves why there isn't something deeper going on, perhaps it is our opportunity to wonder about it with God, as opposed to expecting God to perform for us.
Scripture: Colossians 4:2-6
Child of God
When parents find out they are expecting, they being to prepare. We start thinking about names, dreaming of what they will become and the titles they will hold. Should we name them after a parent or a historical figure? Should we encourage them to be a basketball player, a dancer, or a doctor? Most importantly is the question of how do we teach our children to be a Child of God. We need to teach them what it means, how to get it, and how to live our lives with it. It is the most important title that they will ever have and it is our job to guide them to taking it on.
New Life
What separates Christ-followers from everyone else? Less or no sinning? That tends to be the answer from many whom you might talk to. However, God invites us into a different way of living, an alternative lifestyle. This life isn't about doing all of the right things or even not doing the wrong things. This life is about living differently from everyone around you because this new life is more liberating than any other life that you could imagine.
Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17
Looking Like God
As we prepare to ring in a new year, we being preparing by making plans and setting goals. What if we chose not just to be more like God, but to even look more like God? how might one go about doing that? What would be the results and how would they change us? At our very core, the focus would need to be the same that it has always been: Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Colossians 1:15-20
Love Has Arrived
The Advent season culminates in the arrival of baby Jesus. While we celebrate bringing in a new year, this season is celebrating everything changing as well. Out of darkness comes light. Out of depravity comes fulfillment. It was lowly shepherds who heard this news first and they couldn't help but drop everything to join in the celebration. This morning, we remember this invitation to join in the celebration.
Scripture: Luke 2:8-20
Choosing Joy
Life comes at us in seasons. Some seasons are easier to work through than others. Some seasons are busier than others. Regardless of the season, a choice is always laid out before us. While happiness is a state of being which we are always told to strive for, it is only a temporary feeling. Joy is what we can choose even in busy or desolate seasons and joy is what God invites us to experience at the birth of His Son.
Scripture: Luke 1:46-55
Preparation for Peace
Christmas has not received the nickname of "the most wonderful time of the year" for nothing. There is a difference in the air. Decorations look different, homes and trees look different. In a time when leaves have fallen and died and cold should have kicked in, there is an excitement about our environment. A major reason for all of this isn't circumstance, it's preparation. As peace comes to earth, God invites us to prepare ourselves for the gift of His Son and His birth.
Stay and Wait
As we prepare for the Christmas season and the celebration of the arrival of Jesus, we sometimes find ourselves in a place that we hate in our current day and age: waiting. We wait for school or work to let us off, we wait to travel to see friends and family, we wait for Christmas. In a time where so much of our lives are built around NOT waiting, this is a discipline that God has set before His people in all phases of life. We wait for Jesus and God waits with us.
Scripture: Isaiah 64:1-9
The Full Circle of Friendship
Scripture: Ruth 4:14-17
Redeemer
We have so many different ways of messing things up. Sometimes it's just accidents that happen and other times we just seem to get in our own way. The latter is one of the stories we enter into this Sunday morning. Whether our plans or actions are well intentioned or not, God always find a way to work in and through our mess to make something beautiful out of our lives.
Kindness That Transforms
Has there ever been a time in your life when you were treated extra special and you knew you didn't deserve it? Sometimes we believe that we don't deserve special treatment because of our social status with other people and other times it's because of mistakes we've made in the past. This is what makes the story of Jesus so special and we can see this in the story of Ruth as well. When we are treated this way and when we treat others in this way, a life-altering transformation begins to occur.
Generational Repercussions
Scripture: Ruth 1:16-18
I Am Barabbas
Scripture: Mark 15:5-15
The Murder of Innocence and the Birth of Grace
Scripture: Genesis 50:14-20
Real Righteousness
Checklists help us keep track of things that are important to accomplish and they help us stay on task. They help keep us accountable and focused. We often use checklists – even if not written – to help us as we attempt to live up to our calling in Christ, as we attempt to be righteous. But what happens when we can’t check all the boxes on our list? What happens when our checklist includes the wrong boxes (i.e., when important things are left off the checklist and incorrect things are added to the checklist)? Thankfully, God answers these questions by telling us our righteousness always comes from him – not our checklist and not our works.
Love Beyond Belief
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-48
Throne Room Experience
Many of us have heard stories from others or from the media about people who say they have witnessed Heaven. We read about a few of these experiences in scripture as well. This is something that we all wish to encounter on some level, but a fair warning: if you truly do experience it in this lifetime, there will be a cost that comes with that experience. The question we must ask ourselves then is "Is it worth it?"
What Goes Around
With Mark Williams
Destination: Unknown
Sometimes God calls us to do some crazy things. What happens if you're called to go somewhere though? How do we discern God's calling and when we do, what if it's something that we weren't ready for? The only two things that can ultimately get us through this involve God: His presence and His promise.
Unqualified for God's Plans
We live in a world of constant strife and competition. We must do our best and be our best. Sometimes we even need to be better than our best. This is why we tend to only get recognized, appointed, and promoted when we have accomplished enough and are considered to be the best choice. This is a primary way that God turns our lives upside down. God constantly chooses people who have no business being chosen. The unqualified are His top picks. This is a wonderful thing though because we are all unqualified and therefore, God chooses each of us.
Kingdom Ownership
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:3-7
Good Shepherds
This morning, we will officially begin the process of appointing new shepherds (also known as elders) for our congregation. What makes a good shepherd? What qualifies or disqualifies one from being a shepherd? More importantly, what do good shepherds do and how do they reflect Jesus? This morning, we will explore mentors and shepherds in scripture and in our lives as we begin this sacred journey together.
The Timeless Battle All Around Us
When you hear the phrase "spiritual warfare," what is your response? Some people are afraid of it. Some people refuse to acknowledge it. Paul, however, wants Christians to prepare and be ready for it. He also goes into detail about what it will take to withstand the assaults from Satan. Not only is this battle for real, it's been going on for an incredibly long time. This is a winnable though for one simple reason: we have the ultimate weapon on our side. His name is Jesus.
Summer 2023 recap
From each of our ministers
Upside Down Relationships
A lot of how we determine what a healthy Christian home looks like can be drawn straight from Ephesians 5 and 6. While this is a good source, it's even more fascinating to look at the culture of the time of this writing because of how this turns the world upside down. Much like today, relationships were about power. It was about knowing the right people and climbing the social ladder. Paul changes all of this in sharing the news of Jesus and showing the church how this example becomes a guide to sharing the gospel in our everyday relationships: through submission.
Life in the Light
Throughout Ephesians Paul paints a picture of what faithful living looks like. In this section, he contrasts a followers former way of living and his new life with darkness and light. Paul urges us to live a life of light in a way that honors and pleases the Lord.
Ecclesial Fundamentals
Something that many of us will hear from people about Christianity at times is how exhausting it can be trying to be a Christian. They feel like there's a big checklist of things that you have to do and not do in order to be a "good Christian." What is important when looking at passages that look like checklists is to understand the WHY of the checklist. If we don't understand the why of the list, then the list will feel less and less important. The core essence of the checklist in the passage this morning is holiness.
Scripture: Ephesians 4:17-24
Ecclesial Essentials
After Jesus, what do you think is the most important thing about church? Paul is writing to the Ephesians about a number of important things that a church should practice but he begins with the top two things that every church MUST have: unity and discernment of spiritual gifts. This morning we will dive into what these mean to us in this day and age.
Different Kind of More
Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21
Divine Ingredients
Ephesians 3:1-13
Building Bridges
Ephesians 2:11-22
Then vs Now
With Allen Calvert. Based on Ephesians 2:1-6
Getting It
Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23
Chosen
We live in a world where we're told on a regular basis that what we are doing isn't enough, that we need more, and we need to do more. We eventually start to believe that we are not enough. However, God sends a message to us that not only says otherwise, but turns this message on its head. This message is that because of Christ, we already are enough right now! Those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ are exactly whom God has called us to be and we know this by the seal that comes with this promise: the Holy Spirit.
Church Family: What A Mess!
Over the last few weeks, we've talked a decent bit about how messy family can be and that finding family amongst our church can be a real blessing in place of the holes that family can sometimes leave in us, but sometimes church family can be just as much of a mess and sometimes even more so! What's beautiful about it though is Jesus's love for His church and how, despite us getting in the way, God's tendency to do some of His best work through us.
Blended: The Traditionally Untraditional Family
For a long time, our culture almost expected families to look the same way. So much has changed now and so many things are now out in the open. Blended families are practically the norm for so many nowadays. While this can be a good thing, it's also a mess. There are territories to navigate and feelings to be attentive to. Usually, there's some form of hurt to work through as well. What we can find throughout scripture though is a variety of people who experienced the blended family life, especially Jesus. These people's stories don't reveal how to perfectly navigate this life so much as it does reveal who the actual family in your life truly is and what really matters most in that family you have is.
The friends we choose and family we are stuck with.
What does it look like when we choose to be part of a messy church family? How does it help us as individuals, families and the Kingdom of God?
Passion and Presence
This is a special morning in that it is Senior Sunday! Loving our graduating high schoolers is something that our family does so well because our students are so easy to love. Loving our children is a command that goes back to Old Testament law and it came shortly after the greatest command of loving God with everything in ourselves. But with a culture that continues to change so rapidly, this can be tricky to love younger people in the ways that they need it. What's crazy is that the answer that most experts are offering on how to do this is actually one that's been around since the original command itself was instituted.
Messy Family – Change the Name
There are so many things that come into play with adoption. If there’s one thing I can promise, it’s that every adoption story is different. There are times in everyone’s adoption story when the clarity you felt in the calling gets messy. It’s in the middle of that mess that God’s plan is truly taking shape.
Marriage is Mission
Anyone who has been married for any length of time will tell you the same thing about marriage:it is both difficult and a blessing. While every marriage is different, there are always challenges to be overcome on a variety of levels. However, this is also a beautiful picture of Christ and the church. Paul illustrates God's love for the church through the image of a bride and groom. In this way, marriage can be something that puts God's love for us on display to the world.
ISRAEL: A NATION OF MESSINESS
Throughout the Old Testament, we see a myriad of stories that depict a group of people who represent God's chosen people, the nation of Israel. Most of these stories share a plethora of moral failures on just about every level imaginable. Some of the stories are frustrating while some of the stories are just devastating. The truth about the Israelites is that they are ultimately one giant, messy family. In a lot of ways, that describes our own families too and we have the same thing going for us that the Israelites had: we have a God who is in the midst of the messiness showing us what cleaning it all up really looks like.
I Am The All
In the "I Am" statements that we hear from Jesus throughout John's gospel, we notice one thing: Jesus is more than just one thing. He is exactly who we need Him to be in our various seasons of life. This morning, we celebrate the resurrected Savior who was, is, and will be all of what we need at all times if we only choose to notice Him in our midst.
Remain in Me
Some of the simplest thing that the Bible teaches us are oftentimes some of the hardest things for us to do. In John's gospel, Jesus gives a LOT of things to consider before he leaves the upper room. One of these things is the final "I Am" statement in His being the true vine. After this though, Jesus's command is simple: "Remain in me." Yet at the same time, this is incredibly difficult. Quitting is not only easy to do, it feels easier and easier to do as time goes on. When things don't go our way, the easy thing to do is to quit and do something more convenient. This is where the command to remain becomes much harder. Perhaps this is a staple test of a true follower of Jesus. When things get difficult, those who truly love Jesus do one simple and difficult thing: remain.
True North
We make sense of the world by learning, storing and analyzing facts. We inherently take that analysis and form expectations by applying it to new situations or imagined situations. As Christians, this same pattern of exploration and analysis is used to develop expectations of who God is and what He is doing in the world around us. Unfortunately, our analysis and expectations are, at times, simply wrong and, as a result, can be difficult to reconcile with our experiences. Dealing with unmet expectations can be incredibly disorienting and debilitating, including as applied to our spiritual lives and expectations around God. Initially, in disorienting times, Jews found their way, security and identity by looking to the tabernacle and the law. Now, as the disciples begin celebrating Passover and remembering their deliverance from the Egyptians, Jesus tells his disciples in the coming days as they experience extreme spiritual disorientation arising from the crucifixion, they have a new spiritual compass - Jesus - because, he says, I AM the way, the truth and the life. He tells them they know the way to God because he is in God and God is in him. These powerful and life-giving declarations still provide us with a spiritual compass today, so that we can experience peace and have a guide as we process and grow through spiritually disorienting events and the associated pain. We can find life and direction in the mystery and reality of the incarnation and knowing that Jesus overcame the world.
Revolutionary Resurrection
When we talk about resurrection in our churches today, it is something that probably sounds fairly common since so many people in church know about Jesus' own resurrection. When Jesus tells Martha that He IS the resurrection, it would have been received far differently because no one believed that it was actually possible until the last day or judgment day. Jesus isn't only revolutionizing people's view on resurrection, He is wasting no time in starting that immediately in that moment. This morning, we will dive into what revolutionary resurrection might look like in our world today.
The Good Shepherd
A shepherd is something that is mostly only talked about in Christian circles nowadays, especially in our community, simply because of how rare it is to find sheep. That being said, this idea of Jesus as "the good shepherd" would have connected in a very deep way for those who heard this. In a lot of ways, it's the difference between an authentic relationship and a surface level one. Hired hands will leave sheep at the first sign of trouble but a good shepherd will always protect, love, and defend his sheep. God will never leave us to face our troubles alone regardless of how bad things might get. He is our Good Shepherd.