Sermons & Resources

SERMONS

Join us as we begin the countdown to Christmas. A season when we expectantly anticipate, patiently wait for, and will, on December 25th, joyfully celebrate the birth of Jesus. The 4 Sundays of Advent are a time designed for Christians around the world to prepare their minds, their hearts and their daily activities for the arrival of our Savior, Jesus.

Reslilent Hope: In looking at II Peter, it almost seems that this letter was written for us today. Every word of it is so pertinent, so filled with practical advice, that it is a confirmation of the freshness and the vitality of God's Word. It also suggests that perhaps we have come full circle--that we find ourselves living in days very similar to those in the first century--that today's church is experiencing similar external persecution and internal strife, as was experienced by the early first century church. The churches of Asia Minor were not just struggling with the persecution and suffering addressed in Peter's first letter; they also had strife and dissension within their ranks. What would have prompted another letter to the same group so soon after the first? As we will see, it appears that Peter had received reports of false teachers in and among these churches. The apostle Peter wanted to encourage them to stand firm in their faith and to instruct them on how best to do that. Peter's second letter to the early church, is a letter whose theme is that of faithful truth in the face of falsehood and the certainty of the coming of Jesus!

Resilient Hope. Through Peter's letter to people just like us, my prayer is that we will find encouragement and hope as we live in a world filled with pain and disappointment. How Christians respond to suffering is what separates us from the world. As we begin this series, I want to encourage you to take time and read the entire letter of I Peter in one sitting. I believe understanding the context in which this letter was written will help us better understand the individual topics addressed by Peter.

Would you like to see a movement of God that is only explainable by the Spirit of God? Are you interested in discovering where God is working and how to join Him in His work? This Sunday, we will take a peek at Acts 5:12-42, in order to see how God worked through the Holy Spirit in the early church, and how we can join with God as he continues to move through today's church.

The apostle John invites us to examine our lives in order to see if we pass the "love God, love others" test. This is the main point of I John 4:7-21.

Brennan Manning, author of the Ragamuffin Gospel and Abba's Child, began speaking mostly to evangelical Protestant audiences after his status as a divorced priest made him unwelcome in many Catholic churches. A small, nondescript man with a head of snow-white hair, he would usually start his talks slowly, until the Holy Spirit took over and he would immediately launch into a passionate speech about the grace of God. Below is one of those speeches:

"Why is Brennan Manning lovable in the eyes of God? Because on February 8th of 1956, in a shattering, life-changing experience, I committed my life to Jesus. Does God love me because ever since I was ordained a priest in 1963, I roamed the country and lately all over the world proclaiming the Good News of the gospel of grace? Does God love me because I tithe to the poor? Does he love me because back in New Orleans I work on skid row with alcoholics, addicts, and those who suffer with AIDS? Does God love me because I spend two hours every day in prayer? If I believe that stuff I'm a Pharisee! Then I feel I'm entitled to be comfortably close to Christ because of my good works. The gospel of grace says, "Brennan, you're lovable for one reason only--because God loves you. Period."

The book of I John can seem at times, confusing and repetitive. I John tends to follow a meandering path around a number of different themes and topics. The Apostle John begins by pointing us to the idea of walking in the light, before moving on to the need to confess our sin to God. He then goes back to the theme of light...then to love...then back to sin again...then to truth...back to light, and so on. This is what makes the book of I John so hard to study. But remember, even with all its twists and turns, the overarching theme of I John is this: Close fellowship with God and with his son, Jesus, is the key to a joyful, discerning and confident life. I John is ultimately about loving God and living in the confidence of our relationship with Him.

This week we look at John's first epistle. In addressing the early church, John presents a simple, uncomplicated worldview of right and wrong: light versus darkness, truth verses falsehood, righteousness versus sin, love of God versus love of the world. With clarity of perspective and singularity of purpose, John redraws lines that had begun to fade in the minds of his readers who were beginning to compromise and find themselves lost in the fog of moral and spiritual relativism. While John's solid stand for the truth of the gospel might be viewed by some as unloving, this couldn't be further from the truth. While John teaches on the importance of recognizing the lines between truth and error, he never forgets that truth must always be delivered in a spirit of love.

Larry Annes continues our series, Postcards with a Punch. This week, Larry will be sharing from the shortest book in the Bible...III John...with only 219 words. Our world continues to become more unsettled and chaotic by the minute. People are angry and bitterly divided over everything from politics to medicine. Even family members are finding all kinds of reasons to either avoid or verbally spar with one another. Why? Because of the mounting pressure in just about every area of our lives and everyone is feeling it. This includes churches and Christians. The external issues of our time (the pandemic, economics, mental health, fear, anxiety, moral depravity, relational stress, etc.) coupled with the internal spiritual poverty of our society are creating an environment where people are acting out in ways that are creating havoc.

How are we, as followers of Jesus, to respond in this historic moment? Well, the good news is that the answer is a rather simple one! Choose to impact those around you by living your life on the foundation of Christlike lovability. In other words, be so loving to others that your example helps them want to stop acting in hurtful ways and choose to follow Jesus. The book of 3rd John draws our attention to the idea of servant-leadership, driven by a deep desire to lead and love like Jesus.

This Sunday, Juan Garcia reminded us that God is for us and will fight for us. As we went back to Nehemiah 4, we were reminded of God's hand in the rebuilding of the wall of the city. His leadership and protection over His people as they worked and were confronted by their enemies.

This Sunday we will be looking at the shortest (in the Old Testament) and least read book (according to biblegateway.com) in the entire Bible...the book of Obadiah.

Why would I preach on such a short and obscure book of the Bible? I think Paul said it best in Romans, where he wrote the following:
"Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises to be fulfilled." Romans 15:4

As we will see, the book of Odadiah was given to restore Israel's faith in God, who came to the defense of a ravaged nation...families who had lost everything...in order to rescue, restore and return them to a nation filled with hope for a rich and satisfying future. For us, the book of Obadiah reminds us that God is sovereign. That God is watching and that nothing happens outside of his knowledge and plan. Our comfort is found in knowing that God will make all things right in the end!

Come celebrate Father's Day at Parkside Fellowship. Learn why God is our "perfect" father. A father who is holy. A father who is the almighty maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. We speak truth when we call him King. And we also speak truth when we call him by his favorite name...Abba, Father.

Postcards with a Punch. What we are going to be doing over the next couple of months is taking a deep dive into some "postcard" type letters from the Bible. When I say postcard letters from the Bible, what I am referring to are those short books like II and III John, Philemon and others. As we open these short letters from scripture, what we will quickly realize is that short does not mean insignificant or irrelevant. In fact, I titled this series, Postcards with a Punch, because each of the books we are going to look at contain passionate language and vivid "postcard worthy" imagery that communicates the urgency to stand up and fight for the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

After his miraculous, bodily resurrection from the grave, Jesus spent forty days on earth, mainly with His disciples. It must have been an incredible time for these men and women as they spent time with their resurrected Savior; because now, with a living breathing Jesus, all the hope, all the confidence, and all the dedication to the mission and message suddenly returned. What an amazing experience it must have been! Oh, how I would have loved to have been there to witness the reactions of those who went from the dark despair of a crucified Christ to the overwhelming joy of a risen Lord...all in a matter of days!

How do you respond to the resurrection of Jesus? What do we do with a resurrected Savior? What was unleashed when Jesus rose from the dead and walked out of the tomb?

We look back at arguably the most important week in human history..."Holy" or "Passion" Week. The climax of Jesus's messianic ministry began as he entered Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. He rode into the city on the back of a donkey as Israel's Messiah-King. While the journey between Bethany and the gates of Jerusalem was rather short, to the crowd that gathered along the road on that Sunday morning, it was a profoundly important journey that had the potential to seal their eternal destinies. Holy Week could not have begun on a bigger note!

There's only one right response to the One who has come to reign in our lives...total surrender. It's the one response that doesn't come naturally to any of us. And yet, with all of our heart, soul, and strength, we are called to join the loud chorus of eternal "Hosannas"! "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna, Hosanna to the King!"

Why do we give into temptation? Why do we keep making bad decisions? Join us as we take a closer look at the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness in order to identify the driving forces behind the temptations we face every day. Once we realize what is behind temptation, we can find the confidence to respond as Jesus did...with a right attitude, a right heart and the right desire.

Belief - Action - Heart

Join us this Sunday at 9:30am, as we take a closer look at our beliefs, our actions, and our heart. The story of King David will set the text so come ready with Bible, phone, or other mobile device in hand. Also, look up 1 & 2 Samuel so you can find it more quickly - those Old Testament books sometimes are more difficult to find.

Alive!

Join us this Sunday at 9:30am, as Larry Annes speaks on being Alive in God's Love. He will be sharing from I John 2, where the Apostle John reminds us how destructive and deadly sin can be. The good news is we have a God who is for us and sent us an advocate in Jesus to extract us from the penalty of sin and walk alongside us in our walk with God.

The Gospel: The Story of a Redeeming God. Our story of forgiveness and redemption, although personal to each of us, was never meant to be kept private. The vision behind this series is, as we take a deep-dive into the nature, character and love of God; the person of Jesus Christ; the scope of salvation; and the finality of eternity; that each of us will fall in love with our own place in the gospel story, that will fuel a passion to point others to the work of Christ in our own lives.

Rediscovering Christmas. The joy and promise of Christmas is that the miracle of Bethlehem still happens. God still enters into the reality of our messy lives to restore hope that is found in a relationship with God. We can experience peace from knowing that our sins have been forever forgiven through the love of God made visible in the birth of Jesus. And so on this day, we open wide our hearts to receive Jesus, who brings "Joy To The World".

The point of Christmas is that you and I need a Savior and because of Bethlehem we have one! Let's not keep this a secret. Invite someone to join you this Sunday morning at 9:30am for Christmas at Parkside!

Thanksgiving

Exodus: Seeing God in the Journey. To know the story of Exodus and God's people is to recognize it as our own. Through this series, we hope to learn more about how God leads us into certain situations, so that He can lead us out. Two questions for you to think about are: .
1. When faced with a difficult decision or choice, do you look back or look forward?
2. Do you walk with your eyes focused on your own steps or do you look for the footprints of Jesus, who is walking right beside you?

Has it ever occurred to you that Jesus launched the church, not while people were singing or while someone was preaching, but while people were praying? In the first two chapters of Acts, the disciples were doing nothing but waiting on God to move. As the late expositor Harry Ironside once stated, "When God is going to do some great thing He moves the hearts of people to pray. He stirs them up to pray in view of that which He is about to do so that they might be prepared for it." Just like these early disciples, I want to invite you to set aside time this next week for self-examination through prayer and supplication, so that we might be ready for the tremendous thing that God is going to do in our church.

"Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you...Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results."

FOCUSED. Our vision behind this series is to enter into a season where we intentionally regain our focus on who Jesus is and who He has called us to be as a church. When we focus on Jesus, transformation in our lives and the lives of those around us is inevitable. Focusing our attention on Jesus will ultimately lead to an intimacy with Him which in turn allows us to experience abundant life.

Focusing on Jesus also brings freedom in our lives and allows us to see His purposes for us. In any area that we are struggling, as we set our eyes on Jesus, we will receive power to overcome those areas of weakness. Now more than ever, we need to keep our focus on Jesus, so that He can bring clarity to what may seem chaotic and unclear.

The reason behind the title is we will be joining the early apostles on a wild, roller-coaster type ride through the book of Acts. Over the next several weeks, we will take a peek at how God used Gospel-Centered Multiplication to launch the First Baptist Church of Jerusalem. However, during our journey through Acts, we will also witness how the early followers of Jesus dealt with opposition so ferocious and so deadly that any other organization would have folded immediately...but not these bold, unhindered disciples! Come ready to "Fasten Your Seatbelts" and hang-on as God continues to transform us into the image of His Son, Jesus!

We are in a new series titled Gazing at Glory. Through the Gospel of John, we will learn about a loving God, who sent his one and only Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for our sins. Thankfully, Jesus rose from the grave and ascended into heaven where "God gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". (Philippians 2:5-11). Don't miss this as we begin a journey towards a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Our ability to be surprised by Jesus has largely been shaped by the New Testament, and too an even greater degree, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Traditions and past experiences have also shaped our idea of how Jesus moves and works in our lives and in the world around us. I believe that because of these two factors, the Jesus of the Bible and our own experiences, our ability to be surprised by Jesus is limited. Not because of Jesus himself. Not because Jesus isn't doing some amazing things today; but rather, because of our own self-imposed limitations or beliefs in how we experience Jesus.

Surprise the World, by Michael Frost.
Join us as we explore 5 essential missional values: engagement with neighbors, connection with each other, a deeper experience of God's leading, a stronger understanding of the gospel, and a framework for identifying ourselves as missionaries

If I ask a person why they aren’t in church today, many may say it’s because of the hypocrisy of Christians. For Mary Jo Sharp, this objection is personal, painful, and forms the background of her latest book, Why I Still Believe. Though she’s an apologist and professor, her experiences in the church have driven her to question if Christianity is true…or even worth it. Having been drawn to God through the beauty of His creation, but seeing the ugliness of human failings, she’s heartbroken that what she found in church didn’t match what she longed for. Mary Jo calls her journey an “anti-deconversion” story about finding hope and answers in the grace of truth of Jesus.