Lent 2024
Lent is a wonderful time for the distracted, anxious, work-driven, conflicted, cold, uncertain, and struggling heart.
It is a wonderful time for our hearts for Lent reminds us that there is a Kingdom reality that holds all of our days. How much of this Kingdom do you know? How much of this Kingdom do you find your life’s rhythms aligned to? And what does it have to do with the Kingdom’s donkey-riding, city-weeping, and temple-cleansing King?
Establish the Work of Our Hands
Work is a major part of our lives.
Beyond being a means to making a living, our work also plays a big role in shaping our identity, affecting our health, controlling our schedules and even where we live as well as setting the context for important relationships. With work playing this big of a role in our lives, how much more do we need to think about why, how and what we do at work?
For Christians, we want to seek out God's Word to guide how we think about our work lives so we can honour the Deuteronomy 6:5-6 . Everywhere we go and in all we do, we want the Scriptures to shape how we think about our lives, including our work.
Grace and Glory
Isaiah 40-55 contain some of the most beautiful Scriptures in the Bible. Often called “Second Isaiah” or “deutero-Isaiah” as some speculate about its later authorship, this section of Scripture is the subject of beautiful music and lyrical compositions like Handel’s Messiah.
This section has for its meat the theology of a Big God. This is no paltry domestic deity we read about. The God of Isaiah is the God of grace and glory — He is both tender in mercy and majesty in holiness, gentle and lowly in love unconditional, and towering in sovereign power and authority. As we study these passages together we will hear again and against the pure Gospel
Kingdom Come (Matthew 1-7)
Jesus Christ came proclaiming the gospel of His coming kingdom — the rule of God entering and invading this fallen, hostile world. He establishes a new community, a bright new humanity under the reign of God according to His Word and reconciled to Him.
What does this kingdom look like? What is its culture? How does one enter it? What are its goals and priorities? How does it stand apart from this world and its brokenness? The Gospel of Matthew builds on these themes as it introduces King Jesus and His message of good news.
Isaiah (Part 4): The Gospel According to Hezekiah
This section of Isaiah focuses on Hezekiah, the faithful reformer King of Judah but not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. In this series, we will sit with Hezekiah and learn vital lessons about prayer, health, war and faith from this flawed, yet faithful king.
Truth for Trusting
A creed is a faith statement that expresses and affirms our shared beliefs - and they can be very useful to reach for when we find ourselves confused, lost, or doubting. In this five week series, we looked at five creeds from within the New Testament itself which help us anchor and tether ourselves to what the church of Christ has always believed. These includes creeds about God, the Cross and resurrection, the incarnation and ascension, and the nature of the divine.
Isaiah (Part 3): In God We Trust
These chapters set in the eighth century deal have the context of the rising Assyrian threat — and the fears and anxiety of the the people of God in their day just as we are. The prophet’s words from God especially address personal questions of security and certainty and the central role of faith. Faith in God dominates this section of the book and challenge us how to think about faith in God, the reasons for it, and what faith in God looks like practically.
Isaiah (Part 2): Lessons from the Nations
Isaiah chapters 13 to 23 plainly deal with the oracles of the prophet to the Gentile nations around Israel and Judah. These are God's words to the world spoken by the man he chose. We will looking at each of these ancient near Eastern nations in turn, their spiritual state and what God Almighty has to say to them. Each week we'll consider what spiritual lessons God's word to them has for us, and recover ancient truths about human pride, rebellion against God, judgment and the nature of history itself.
Read more here.
The Psalms: Anatomy of the Soul
This series examined the wide range of emotional struggles the believer goes through this side of heaven, and how faith is applied by Christ’s people to cry out to Him and renew our confidence in God. Our prayer is that this series would be restorative and comforting for many who are struggling, and that we experience the life giving power of God’s Word.
Advent 2021: The Gospel of John -- The Advent Word
In this second year of COVID-19 many of us feel more tired than thankful and certainly more worried than worshipful.
And yet in this life, more than anything else, we need to hear Good News from our God in power. This Advent let us focus our hearts on Christ and by faith renew our spirit in Him.
Our prayer is that as we read from John’s first chapter, we would see the Light that is the life of men: “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”
Isaiah (Part 1): The Gospel According to Isaiah
Some have called Isaiah a "fifth Gospel" because of its magnificent sweep of and and coverage over the story of redemption, and how it speaks about God's glory in salvation and judgment. Alec Motyer calls Isaiah "Paul of the Old Testament" because of how he speaks about the centrality of faith in God, and "James of the Old Testament" because he insists that faith works in obedience.
It is also a book that is highly relevant for our times. Do you find it difficult to put your trust in your Savior? Isaiah is an adrenaline shot to the heart, spiking our spiritual temperature and invigorating our muscles to run and sprint forward.
Being Bible-Built
The timing of this series coincides with tightened COVID measures. While we’ve been shifting from stage to stage in SG’s fight against COVID-19, our habits and patterns change dramatically. In that context Bible reading and time w God is usually the first to go. This period (and this series) provides a timely reset.
Some folks are also facing massive life stage changes and it’s important in the transition to Make your big priorities God and His word, and everything else will fall into place. And Deuteronomy is a helpful place for us to start.
There are some life-defining commitments that we hope to trigger in this series. People who love the Bible and read it and meditate on it day and night like the man in Psalm 1 become like that because they have a transformative encounter with the life-giving scriptures. Perhaps this will be your moment.
If you don’t tune your heart to Scripture, you will find something else to tune to. It will be either the world’s advice and discipleship on relationships, happiness, purpose and productivity, fear and worry, hope and desire, and it will either draw you to Jesus or farther away and show up in how we live and feel. What trajectory are you on? Would you like to change it?
Advent 2020: Advent Songs
2020 is not a year for advent songs. With all that's gone on and the spiritual disorientation, the drag of the burdens you're carrying, or just the fact that our still-isolated end year celebrations will remind us of how abnormal and unhappy this year has been.
This is why we need these advent songs. We often forget that for the original context of Mary, Zechariah, and the apostle John -- their first century church context was also government stifled, oppressive, disruptive and isolated. God's people in Scripture were in situations that taught them to sing with the Psalmist in Ps 37: "how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" How can we sing any of God's songs in such difficult times?
Now more than ever, we need to be strengthened and trained, not by the cheery jingles of consumer jingles and Christmas showtunes by the latest singer, but by the words of Scripture's songs sung by the original singers whose faith in God was brighter and more life-giving than all the LED lights of Orchard Road put together. The Spirit of God uses those lives and their words for our instruction, and ultimately, our hope (Rom 15:4).
2 Corinthians: Fellowship of the Weak
In a world struggling with COVID-19 and its effect, 2 Corinthians offer us much encouragement. It speaks to hearts hardened to God’s voice. 2 Corinthians also casts a spotlight on Christian weakness in the midst of our world’s brokenness and is the pastoral voice that will re-educate our hearts with God’s truths.
It is a book that will serve to remind us of true, trustworthy, and timeless glory, and guards us from self-confidence and boasting in our successes.
2 Corinthians will also make clear God’s awesome purposes for His people, through His church, by His gospel of grace.
Doctrine of Scripture
The Doctrine of Scripture is important for the Christian because, among other reasons, it is an essential part of who our God is. (If you are interested, we listed at least 8 reasons why this is an important series!)
Joel: The Lord's Great and Awesome Day
We are living a global crisis right now, even if many of us have not yet felt it, and the sun will not be rising for quite some time. How are we going to survive?
Christians are tempted in these long nights to atheistic despair or worldly distraction. Either we wring our hands because we honestly don't know what to do, and functionally operate like those who do not know God, or we may compartmentalize our faith, and turn on Netflix, grab a drink, and look for the next amusement to numb ourselves out to everything.
We must renounce both and instead, reach for deep repentance. This is exactly what the minor prophet Joel called for in his day as he looked at the calamity and crisis around him. Joel is a little book with a big message -- in the face of disaster, reach for deep repentance.
Fortify Faith: Attributes of God
This 7 week series was directed at addressing fear and anxiety in the COVID-19 season. And did this the best we know how — by looking at God Himself according to Scripture — and resting our hearts in worship of Him. Each week, we focused on an attribute of God from a psalm to help us to learn, worship and marvel at our great God.
Lent 2020
The forty days before Easter are, in the Christian calendar, called “Lent”. This is a season associated with penitent reflection, quiet contemplation and sacrificial living as we, with Jesus, journey to the Cross. We will do just that as we read about the events of the Cross, tomb and post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.
Exodus (Part 6): Exodus Ends
The end of Exodus reads like the climax of an adventure novel. They’ve overcome obstacle after obstacle, from the captivity and enmity of Egypt and Pharaoh, survived the drought and famine of the desert, and witnessed the glory of God at Sinai, the revelation of His Law, organized Israel for civic order and legal justice, and received the instructions to build God’s tabernacle, His dwelling place and mobile throne. As Moses prepares to come down atop the mountain to lead God’s people triumphant from Sinai to the promised land, the final lap of going Home and Fulfilling Every Promise — there is a major crisis.
It threatens whether or not God will dwell among His people, and it causes Moses to say, “Lord give me a sign that you are still with us or we won’t leave this place because we will surely die.”
What was so deadly to this rescue mission?
What would threaten God’s redemptive purpose?
How will they make it through the desert and Home?
1 and 2 Thessalonians: With the End in Mind
Thessalonians is not one but two letters addressed to the same church, and reading both these 2 letters in this study allow us to see a remarkable consistency or contrast in message when Paul speaks to this church.
These letters also have a unique doctrinal stress on eschatology (end times teaching). What does this mean for us practically? At the same time, these epistles give us a fusion between discipleship and healthy church life.
Exodus (Part 5): Shadows of the Heavenly
This section through Ex 25-31 will focus on what Hebrews calls “the shadows of the heavenly things” in the tabernacle and its furnishings.
Imagine — what would God ask His people to build, and why? We’ll take a look at the plans and purposes of God in these divine blueprints and plans meant for our good and His glory. In it, we’ll discover truths of God that are meant to undergird both the ceremonial aspects of the Law as well as everyday Christian living.
Life Alive
The doctrine of the resurrection is full of practicality and power, but is sorely neglected in the local church. It not only gives us a new understanding of reality and the future, but it fills our present with wonder and hope if it's true that God is working new life through His Son. This series will look at the core truth of, as well as prayer changes and power brought about by the resurrection.
Exodus (Part 4): Laws for a Nation
"Laws for a Nation" describe the way that God, by His Word, built and shaped the nation of Israel with a distinct character, tone and culture.
What does the Old Testament church of God look like? How were the people of Israel to think of themselves as God's people, and of each other? How should the nation organise itself? What structures, customs, rituals and justice would lay out the national life? How does this reveal the character of the God who had claimed a people for Himself? What does His righteousness and justice look like -- or His vision for humanity?
Advent 2018: Long Live the King
The phrase “long live the King” is part of a formula that people traditionally use when a new king ascends to the throne, sometimes at the death of a former king to show the perpetuity of a kingdom, or that that there will always be a ruler on the throne. The full phrase is “the king is dead, long live the king”. It summarizes well the spirit of Matthew 1-2 and the idea that Matthew was introducing the advent of the Davidic King and His rise to power. In these chapters, we see not just His birth, which we typically celebrate at Christmas, but the arrival of this long-anticipated King who would claim the throne of His father, David.
Advent is a good season to prepare our hearts spiritually for Christmas, and to give Him the due honor and reverence and these sessions and studies in Matthew 1-2 are designed to do just that — ready our hearts for the coming King.
Clarity
Scriptures give us clarity on some key issues that are and will become very contentious in the days to come, and will test our ability to be clear about what we believe, and whether we will stand with Christian orthodoxy.
Will we unite around the clear teaching of Scripture, or will we shatter into unorthodoxy and theological confusion? Will we have clarity?
Exodus (Part 2): Mighty to Save
Exodus 7-15 looks at how God brings His judgement upon Egypt. This is the portion of Exodus that celebrates God's mighty rescue and triumphant delivery, which is the great Gospel moment of the Old Testament. From plagues to pillar of cloud and fire, and the Red Sea parting, it is spectacularly dramatic. The New Testament writers will reach back to this climatic event, how it's told, to shape their gospel presentation.
Advent 2016: The Mothers Of Christmas
The mothers in the Bible play an important role in the Christmas story. Read more here.
Samson: Strength and Weakness
Samson is a complex character and the book of Judges is a book about complexity and ambiguity, and it speaks to the complicated situations of life in the grey. No easy answers here, only true ones. Samson not only has important lessons for young adults and Christians today, but also points to Christ.
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