Element Christian Church

In this long form bonus episode, Aaron and Michael interview Kevin, our new hire for High School and post graduation ministries. This get-to-know you episode is for you to hear Kevin’s journey getting here and his heart for ministry. CLICK HERE TO EMAIL KEVIN WATCH THIS WEEK'S SERVICE ON YOUTUBE

Up to this point in Galatians, Paul has been recounting his story of how and why he preaches grace and the Gospel. He has been giving a couple of stories about his life, his interactions with the church in Jerusalem, and his confrontation between Peter and himself. This confrontation was about the nature of the Gospel, the essence of the Christian faith, and what a Christian really is. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE VIEW WINTER MISSION UPDATE HERE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Truth is a big deal in our culture, but the truth we adhere to is often personal truth based on what we feel, and not on what is objectively true. Christianity believes there is absolute truth and it is found in Jesus. That claim has caused a lot of people to shy away from Christianity, because we are often taught that if someone claims they have absolute truth, it undermines others’ freedom. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE VIEW WINTER MISSION UPDATE HERE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

In this section of Galatians, there is an encounter that feels like one of the most awkward moments in the early church: Paul goes after Peter for separating himself from Gentiles he was eating with previously. After a group of Jewish men show up in Antioch, Peter reverts to the old ways of keeping distance from those who were not Jewish. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH THAILAND INFO MEETING DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Paul has a passion for the Gospel. It is why he continues to tell his own story about what God did and continues to do. Sometimes it is easy to talk about the need for grace in our lives, but it is another thing to see or believe how much we really need that grace. Paul has been telling his story of coming to understand God’s grace in Galatians 1. He will do a 3-year time jump in chapter 1 by talking about how he first met Peter and James. Today he continues his telling of his story and will pick up approximately 14 years from where he was in the last chapter. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH THAILAND INFO MEETING DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

We all have a grid for how we view our life—the things that happen around us and the things that happen to us. At Element we are constantly trying to get people to see their lives through the larger narrative of God’s story. Very often, we tend to narrate life through the lens of our past. All of our joys, sorrows, ups, and downs filter through and inform how we interpret the world around us. If we place ourselves at the center of our story, then our vision will be skewed by life’s events. If our stories can be re-narrated with God at the center, everything we have ever gone through can have a new and different purpose—a redemptive purpose. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH THAILAND INFO MEETING DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

The Apostle Paul was an interesting case in his authority as an Apostle. He was one of the most learned men in the history of the church, being trained by the best scholars of his day, but when it came to the Gospel message it was Jesus who took all that learning and applied it in real ways. Paul was independent of most influences of his day, but not independent of God’s influence. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH THAILAND INFO MEETING DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

In week one we started by talking about what the Gospel is, who Paul was writing to, and Paul’s apostleship and authority. People have now arrived in the area of Galatia who are trying to tear Paul’s teaching down by saying he was a secondhand apostle and wasn’t actually sent by Jesus. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Galatians is a book about God’s grace as seen specifically in the Gospel. This book was the central theological work that brought about what we now call “The Reformation.” Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians says, “…tyrants and enemies of ours may accuse and frighten us, but they dare not condemn us, for Christ, whom God the Father has raised from the dead is our righteousness and our victory.” Many people, when they start Galatians, skip the intro and jump to verse 6, but we must start at the beginning. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Last week we looked at Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3. Today we want to flesh that out in how we truly view God. We want to become a people who know that the reason we pray is not to get things from God, but to know Him better. Prayer is often misunderstood because we think it is about getting from God rather than being with God; this is why Paul prays that we would be reminded who God is. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Statistics and surveys today tell us that most people in America (and around the world) say that they are spiritual but not "religious." They are not interested in what would be called "institutional religion." They also say they value "spirituality" and are "spiritual" themselves. It is important in this series to understand what "spiritual-ness" actually is and is not. Paul's prayer, which we look at this week, focuses on the point that we should expect and seek profound, life-changing spiritual experiences of the love and joy of God. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Daniel is one of the most famous Bible heroes of all time. He prays to God and recognizes where his country failed, but also where God showed Himself as faithful. The book of Daniel, historically speaking, is written while the nation of Israel is in captivity in the nation of Babylon. Daniel was probably, scholars say, somewhere in his middle school years when he went to Babylon and yet you see a strong commitment to God in Daniel's life. How does Daniel pray? WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

During the last few weeks of this series on prayer, we want to look at examples of how people prayed in the Scriptures so that we can have insight into what real prayer looks like. Today we look at a prayer by Heman that is dark; as a matter of fact, the last word in the Psalm is darkness. There is a reason we want to study a dark prayer like this. Growth, for us, happens most often in the darkest times when we are faced with the question: "Where are we looking for salvation?" When times are dark, we must pray in the midst of it and pray through it, this will allow our prayers to be honest and real. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

This week we begin to make a transition from talking about what prayer is, to how certain people in the Bible prayed. We have walked through unanswered prayers, real prayer, the "Lord's Prayer," ceaseless prayer, and what "praying in the Spirit" means. Now we want to see how some people in the Bible actually prayed and what their examples can show us. The Bible says real spirituality is not just believing in God or even talking to God; real spirituality is responding to a living God who speaks, has spoken, and acts in the world. God has come to reveal Himself in real ways. Real "spirituality" is knowing the God who comes and shows Himself to us through His word. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Praying in the Spirit can sound other-worldly and spooky, but that is what the Scriptures tell us to do. The Greek word for "pray in" means "by means of," "with the help of," "in the sphere of," and "in connection to." Praying in the Spirit does not refer simply to the words we are saying, but it refers to how we are praying. Praying in the Spirit is praying according to the Holy Spirit's leading. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

One of the dangers in “spiritual life” is thinking that we know what the Scriptures are saying when we don’t; we at times get so used to Bible language that we fail to stop and think, “What did the writer mean by that?” This is why an understanding of prayer is so important, because prayer is always connected to a very deep truth: God is always present, which means He is right wherever and whenever we are. What should we pray about in unceasing prayer? Everything. When should we pray? All the time, unceasingly. Where/when should you pray? Anywhere, anytime. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

People everywhere have at least some difficulty knowing how to pray. We tend to default to the way we have heard others pray. Because we've heard people being "eloquent" as they pray, we think God wants us to step up our vocabulary to a higher level, so we try to learn the new spiritual dialect, but God wants to have a relationship with us as we are. Today and this week we are going to take a look at a METHOD of prayer that became popular several years ago, called the ACTS Method. It is meant to help us guide our prayer time and bring some balance to it at the same time. DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

It is interesting that Jesus' disciples never asked Him to teach them how to prophesy or preach, but they did ask Him to teach them how to pray. Most often, Jesus taught others how to pray by simply praying. He would pray where the disciples could see and hear Him, but He also went off to pray by Himself (sometimes at the most inconvenient times) and the disciples had to take care of themselves. That alone time was important for Jesus in how He modeled a life with God in front of the disciples. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Some people pray and are constantly wondering if God hears them. If and when we do pray, we usually expect God to interact with us in a way that we find acceptable. When He doesn't, we may think there is something wrong with the relationship or with God Himself. We are told that God is like a Father, which is wonderful, but some people view that relationship as one where God must always give us the answers we are seeking. Prayer, for some people, simply becomes a way to avoid the anxiety and responsibility of making a choice. As a Father, God knows that there are many times we will grow more when we have to think about what truly glorifies Him, asking others for wise counsel, and choosing to take responsibility. As a good parent, God is wise and will make sure that His children learn to choose the correct course, because there is no other way to grow character. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE

Unanswered prayers can be challenging for us on an individual level. They can be especially challenging in a group/community setting, where different opinions/interpretations of why they've gone unanswered come to the forefront. This sermon challenges the misconceptions we often have and shows us how we can offer Gospel encouragement to one another in the midst of our waiting-when we've yet to see/hear an answer from God or when He doesn't respond in the way we would like. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE