Element Christian Church

This week launches our 19 week series through the book of James, a book written by Jesus’ own half-brother. James moved from seeing Jesus not just as a family member, but as God and Savior. In his opening verses, James encourages readers to “count it all joy” as we come face to face with trials and suffering. The word “count” (NIV says “consider”) has at its root the idea of being first, meaning when you face trials, before you focus on the trial, think about what it means. He doesn’t say, “Consider your trials joy.” He says, “Count it all joy….when…” James is commending the conscious embrace of a uniquely Christian understanding of every trial: that all things can grow us and glorify God. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Psalm 135 would have been sung after the ascent to Jerusalem. It’s a psalm that encourages true worship in which praise is the inevitable expression of a relationship with the living God and creator of the universe. God’s people would be reminded of the abundant reasons they have for praising and blessing “the name of the Lord,” and that our God is worthy of all praise. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE

Merry Christmas Element! Before we get to the new year, we are taking one more look at the 15 steps of discipleship we see in the Songs of Ascent. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Michael and Aaron sit down and discusses the final Psalm in the Songs of Ascent series, and what’s next for Talking Element. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

The reason we end all of these Songs of Ascent with the idea of hope is that hope is what those taking this journey were ultimately looking for. They traveled to Jerusalem for the feasts, the holidays, to remember who God is and what He had done…but they also remember what God promised He would do. When we look back at all that was written and said in the Hebrew Scriptures, we see God promising to come and rescue His people through no merit of their own. That should bring us hope because we have all failed miserably, all too often. Peterson writes, “God gets down on his knees among us, gets on our level and shares himself with us. He does not reside afar off and send us diplomatic messages; he kneels among us. That posture is characteristic of God.” Because God came to save us, we get to go out and get down on the level of those around us in a way that makes God’s love tangible. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Psalm 131 explores the idea of Humility. It is a prayer-song that some people are reluctant to recite or sing, because its claims are so bold! But it comes to us, not as a command to be humble, but as the honest prayer and testimony of a person who has spent his adult life working on humility through his failures and successes. An honest person knows that he or she is not perfectly humble, but this Psalm gives us a challenge to keep working at it. Rather than seeking our own greatness, we are challenged to be satisfied with having the Great Jehovah in our lives at all times. We, along with Israel, are to hope in Him now and forevermore! DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE

Jesus tells us that the world around us will know that we are His disciples by how we love each other: John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Having true love for one another is the only way we will ever live in true community with one another. Why is it so important to God that His people live in community? Because it means we are living as we were created, image bearers of Him. God’s solution to the problems in the world is meant to be lived out in tangible ways in the church (church meaning not a place you go or a service you attend, but a body of people who become family that find their reality in Him). Jesus came to restore us to God’s family with people where no one is perfect, but everyone is welcome. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE

Psalm 132 is meant to be a reminder of how our obedience comes about: it comes from God first being faithful to us. We obey, live by the Holy Spirit’s guiding, because we understand how great, worthy and good God is. We are told in the scriptures that Jesus came to fulfill the law, everything we couldn’t measure up to, He lived the perfect life of obedience for us. He wants to return us to who we were meant to be, image bearers of God! This is why the scriptures are big on obedience. Obedience to God increases the freedom that matters most to human beings, and we obey God because God alone in all the universe is worth obeying. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Aaron, Michelle and Michael sit down and talk about Prayer and our Agape meals. LINK TO AGAPE SIGN UP: https://ourelement.churchcenter.com/people/forms/311388 LINK TO TRIDUUM SERIES REFERENCED: https://www.ourelement.org/media/messages/serie/10035-triduum 00:00 Intro 00:36 Our Hopes for Agape Meals 05:50 How do we point people to Hope? 13:10 Prayer WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

When the Bible speaks of God declaring us “righteous” it is a term that denotes relationship. God extends relationship—and in turn, His righteousness—to us, because He is faithful. Peterson writes, “God sticks to his relationship. He establishes a personal relationship with us and stays with it. The central reality for Christians is the personal, unalterable, persevering commitment God makes to us. Perseverance is not the result of our determination, it is the result of God’s faithfulness.” Through this relationship anchored in the work of Christ, we are granted the ability to speak with our redeemer freely. It is through prayer we are called to come before God, converse intimately, and process all of life with the understanding He is present, loving, and faithful—even as we recognize our own brokenness and wrongdoings. As we cry out to God, we acknowledge our finiteness, His sovereignty, and our need for a loving Creator to depend on. As our feelings shift with our circumstances, we can rest in the truth of

Anything truly meaningful in life will come to a place that requires perseverance, this includes discipleship. We don’t persevere because it makes us worthy of a relationship with God, we persevere because of the Gospel. We are saved by grace, but perseverance will flow out of that grace. In Psalm 129 the pilgrims sing these words on the way up to Jerusalem, they took the journey. We live after Jesus came, instead of going up we realize that God came down to rescue us. Our worth before God is not based on how well we persevere, it is based upon how He persevered for us. This teaches that a Christian suffers with hope and perseveres with hope! True perseverance only comes when we understand the Gospel. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Michelle sits down with Jason to talk about persevering through loss and hardship. How community plays a role and how it has affected how he leads the congregation in worship through music. 00:00 Intro 01:14 Psalm 129 02:48 Areas Jason has dealt with hardship 11:28 How it has affected leading the congregation WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

We must trust that God intends good for us. Robert Roberts says “in a Christian context, there must be gratitude, but in order to be truly grateful, we must believe we are receiving something we did not earn, merit, or deserve.” Eugene Peterson writes, “Being a Christian is what we were created for. The life of faith has the support of an entire creation and the resources of a magnificent redemption.” What he means is that God has repeatedly blessed His children, even though we have run away from Him. God shows up over and over, most notably in the person of Jesus. The meaning behind the cross is blessing, salvation for a lost people. The cross reminds us that God’s purposes are accomplished even in the middle of suffering all the things we don’t equate with “blessed.” What we know is this: God dealt with sin once and for all at the cross. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

The beauty of how we speak of the Gospel is that our salvation isn’t by our work, it is by Jesus’ work for us. Because He died we find rest in Him. We live, we work, we raise families and when it all feels overwhelming Jesus says (in Matthew 11:28) “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus will also tell us, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me…” Jesus is not saying, “Don’t work.” He’s saying, “Work with me and for me.” When we see what He did for us out of love, by working with and for Him we will be liberated. This is why the New Testament says that all we do is for the glory of God. We are to ultimately love of our work because we love Jesus and we do it all in a redeemed way. Our work first honors God and then others because Jesus did the ultimate work for us on the cross. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Michael sits down with Jesse to talk about about story and dealing with loss and being angry with God and how God is always faithful. And Aaron and Michelle talk about work. 00:00 Intro 00:42 Jesse’s Story 08:38 Aaron and Michelle join to ramble about work, rest and our need for Jesus to be our source of life. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

No matter where we find ourselves, we trust that God is good and will bring His good to us. The focus of Psalm 126 is on God and what He has done and will do again. The Bible speaks of joy, not like we experience on our own, but the kind that is characterized by God. The whole Old Testament’s sacrificial system was put into place so we could be returned to relationship with God again, to the joy and hope and redemption we were meant to live in. It is why everything in the Bible points to the eventual coming of Jesus because God did not and does not leave us in our brokenness of sin and rebellion. Jesus says in John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. God brings us new life, life full of life and joy. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

Sarah sits down with Clarence to talk about life struggles and how he finds Joy in the midst of crazy busy work schedule, his wife temporarily living in another state, and experiencing the loss of their son. And Michael and Sarah discuss what Gospel reminders have brought them joy recently. 00:00 Technical Issues Explanation 00:25 Intro 02:04 Psalm 126 - Joy 12:46 Gospel Joy with Michael 17:49 Bonus Sneak Peak WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

One of the sad things about people who call themselves Christians, is that they are afraid of their worries and doubts. Too many people try to push any doubts out of their minds as if even having a doubt is a sin (as if it makes us not steadfast in our trust in Christ). Being steadfast doesn’t mean we don’t have questions, it means that we believe that ultimately we know (whether we fully understand it or not) who the ultimate answer truly is. Faith in God is not faith untroubled by anxiousness or doubt, it is a faith in spite of it. An elderly woman asked the great church reformer, Martin Luther, about faith though she has doubt, he said “tell me, when you recite the creeds, do you believe them?” She says “yes, most certainly,” his response was “then go in peace, you believe more and better than I.” DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE

This week, Michelle sits down with Allison and discusses what steadfastness has looked like in her life, and specifically the past couple of years of marriage and moving to rural Texas to be with dying father. 00:00 Intro 01:31 Psalm 125 2:45 Allison’s story WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH This Episode of Talking Element

The people making the ascent to worship God in these Psalms of Ascent endured multiple hardships. They walked and prayed what they did because they knew that God is a rescuer of those who cry out. We know that He is the God of the Passover, the God of the Exodus, and ultimately of Easter; the God of slavery, death, life, freedom. The cross is where the reality of our image bearing becomes a restored reality. Peterson writes, “If God is worth our attention at all, he must be a God we can look up to—a God we must look up to…The moment we look up to God (and not over at Him, or down on Him) we are in the posture of servitude.” As servants we serve Him as peacemakers, calling the world to understand not only who made them, but how they were made to live. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH RELATED TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE