Archive for the ‘New Life Fellowship Baltimore MD’ Tag

Who Is The Relational God Revealed In Jesus?, Pt. 2

Part 2A

Part 2B


Scripture: Acts 2:33, 2 Cor 13:14


Summary and Goal:

This Sunday, following Trinity Sunday, we continue proclaiming the relational God-Father-Son-Holy-Spirit Revealed in Jesus. This message is meant to help believers remember that the Father-Son-Holy-Spirit-God is not just an add-on doctrine of Christian faith, but that this God IS the Gospel! God the Trinity is “the root and nerve center” of all Christian belief. There could be no beliefs or doctrines apart from the Truth of Who God has revealed Himself to be in Jesus Christ. Indeed, there is no Christian faith apart from this relational God Who, in Love, sent Jesus Christ into our humanity to reveal Himself and share His Love and Life with us in the Holy Spirit. If you don’t get this basic understanding of the Gospel, you don’t get or understand Christianity. God’s primary revelation to us is the revelation of Himself! The scriptures are primarily about Him! We can only understand ourselves, and the scriptures in the Light of Who He is, or we cannot and do not understand either! Check it out!

Christ Connection:

Jesus alone reveals this God and, by becoming human, has given us human beings real knowledge of, and access to, God, through the Holy Spirit!

Photos compliments: trinityandhumanity.com (John Stonecypher)

Sin and God’s Good News!


Scripture: Gen 3:1 – 4:8


Introduction:

Summary and Goal:
In the previous two sessions, we saw that God created everything good, including people as the pinnacle of creation. Adam and Eve were made in God’s image and instructed to rule over the world and worship God through their work, rest, and relationships with one another and with Him. As we will see in this session, that didn’t last. Adam and Eve chose to sin against God in open defiance of His goodness and loving provision for them. Their sin had drastic consequences as it brought death to all humanity and ruptured our created purpose. But as dark as that moment was, we will see that it was pregnant with hope—hope that could only come from God in His promise to one day send Someone who would make everything right again.

Theological Theme:

People sinned against God and ruptured our created purpose, but God has provided
forgiveness in Christ Jesus.

Christ Connection:

God promised that one of Eve’s offspring would crush the head of the serpent. Jesus

is the promised One who defeated sin and death once and for all.

“ There is more mercy in

Christ than sin in us.”

–Richard Sibbes (1577-1635)

Missional Application:

Because we have been forgiven through faith in Christ and given His righteousness,
we trust in God and His grace as we fight against sin in our lives and proclaim the
reason for our hope found in Christ Jesus.

Photos compliments: youtube.com

I Am the Resurrection And The Life!

Part 1A

Part 1B

Scripture: John 11:17-27


Introduction:

On this Easter Sunday, the Resurrection has something first of all, and primarily, to do with the Father-Son-Holy-Spirit God and His Activity as the Father-Son-Holy-Spirit-God, especially Revealed in Jesus Christ!

Theological Theme:

The most fundamental thing that Jesus has revealed about the resurrection is that HE, HIMSELF, is the Resurrection. We don’t want to keep mistaking resurrection primarily and only as rising up from physical death in the life of the age to come.

Christ Connection:

You don’t have to wait to until the life of the age to come to participate in rising from death. You can rise from death now, because this is meant not only physically but spiritually, and Christ shares himself with us NOW through the Holy Spirit conforming our humanity to his! Forget ONLY waiting to rise from the dead in the future. You can begin to rise and share in the life of the age to come right now, from the Father, through the Son, and in and by the Holy Spirit!

Missional Application:

Because Jesus is Himself the Resurrection, receiving and enjoying the Resurrection is primarily about receiving and enjoying Jesus Christ (along with him the Father and the Holy Spirit!) This is the Good News we seek to share with all that they too may participate actively in the relationship Jesus graciously gives!

Photos compliments: http://www.pinterest.com

The Primary Point You Should Receive From All Christian Teaching! 

The Primary Point You Should Receive From All Christian Teaching, 1A
The Primary Point You Should Receive From All Christian Teaching, 1B

Bible Verse: 2 Peter 1


Introduction:

Because the primary goal of God-Father-Son-Holy-Spirit is that we share in the Divine nature, as it says in 2 Peter 1, we are properly pointed to the primary point of all Christian teaching!

Theological Theme:

What the triune God requires of us has to be something He first does for us in our place and on our behalf since he is the only one Who is divine, and able to give and receive divinity!

Christ Connection:

Jesus Christ is not only the Gift of Humanity that God gives to us by becoming Incarnate in our place and on our behalf in a substitutionary way, but Jesus is also the Giver of our Humanity to us, and sharing His Spirit with us that we might participate with Him in His Humanity!

Missional Application:

Psalm 24: says, “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord;” Because this is so, the new humanity God shares with us in Christ is not just for Christians but something God has done for and to all mankind in the person of Jesus. Therefore we joyfully proclaim this Good News about Who Jesus is, and Who we all are in him, to everyone, that all may accept, receive, and experience Jesus’ life in the Spirit, by grace, repenting of their unbelief in Him by believing in Him!

Photo Compliments: twitter.com

Jesus Is Our Wonder-Full World Tomorrow – TODAY!

Wonderful 2

Audio – Part 1a: 25 min

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/19.4.21-jesus-is-our-wonder-full-world-tomorrow-today-part-1a-matt-28-tah.mp3”

Audio – Part 1b: 26 min

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/19.4.21-jesus-is-our-wonder-full-world-tomorrow-today-part-1b-matt-28-tah.mp3”

Audio – Full Message:

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/19.4.21-jesus-is-our-wonder-full-world-tomorrow-today-matt-28-tah.mp3”


Bible Verses: Matthew 28


This message proclaims Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son! It proclaims how he is The Life of New Creation breaking into the present right now, by the Spirit! He has come and appeared, and is still here by the Spirit, saying he would never leave or forsake us! At one and the same time, He is also yet coming in his second appearance! Although we don’t get to experience the fullness of his life here and now, even with the Spirit (you don’t get “your best life now”), you can indeed get “your best taste now” as we await the fullness experienced in glorified human bodies! A taste may only be a taste but it’s not meaningless, rather a taste is meaningful and provides hope! We only get a taste right now or else we might think the corruption still in the world represents part of the whole thing that’s coming, and it doesn’t! We don’t want to get totally locked into the here and now and “trade our inheritance for a bowl of soup”. On the other side we don’t want to be so future-oriented only that we are of no earthly good as the Spirit lives in us to lay out the red carpet for Jesus’ soon coming return! From the Father, through Jesus and in the Spirit we can live in the tension of the “Already-but-not-yet!”

Missional Application:

We’re not just called to raise children, maintain households, make widgets and spreadsheets, and create music, do homework assignments, or oversee projects, deadlines and inventory! We’re also called to make disciples who can make disciples that the world may know Jesus starting now – as many people as possible! Others who can also begin receiving and helping to share in God’s Love and Life proclaiming the Good News of the “Wonder-full World Tomorrow – Today!” There is no discrimination or respecter of persons but to all who believe and receive in him, he gives the right to become the children of God!

Photo Compliments: alwaysnjoy.com

Jesus Is Risen! So Go…Make Disciples! Part 2

Make Disciples (In the name of FSS)

Audio – Part 2a: 20 min

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/19.4.01-jesus-is-risen-so-go-make-disciples-part-2a-5-matt-28-1-cor-15-tah.mp3”

Audio – Part 2b: 20 min

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/19.4.01-jesus-is-risen-so-go-make-disciples-part-2b-5-matt-28-1-cor-15-tah.mp3”

Audio – Full Message:

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/19.4.01-jesus-is-risen-so-go-make-disciples-part-2-5-matt-28-1-cor-15-tah.mp3”


Bible Verses: Matthew 28


 This Good News series is about Jesus’ Believers and Disciples “GO”ing in Active Participation with Him, Wherever He Says to “Go!…”

Theological Theme:

What is a disciple? Disciples are those who willingly, by grace through faith, and in loving obedience, participate with Jesus in offering their total humanity in allegiance to the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit! They participate with Jesus in his repentance and baptism, being incorporated into his body, the Church, and become fully committed to making disciples of Jesus who can make disciples of Jesus that make disciples of Jesus – in the Spirit, through the Son and to the Glory of our Father!!

Christ Connection:

Who is Jesus? The Father’s Son! Our Chief brother! He’s the One Who sends the Spirit!
*He’s the one intent to fill the whole universe with his presence, which means his relationship with his Father in the fellowship of the Spirit!
*He’s the captain of our salvation Who has defeated sin, hell, death and the grave, affecting atonement and reconciliation with God, self, others and creation!
*He’s the Resurrected God/Man who has broken back into our corrupted time, cleansing and exalting it!

Missional Application:

God the Father calls us to embrace a life of participation with His Son, our Savior and Lord, and in his life of fellowship and communion, whose mission was only to seek and to do what his Father was doing, in the Spirit. What Jesus is doing now is sending out his people, even as he was sent, that the world might believe, receive and be saved! We’re actually supposed to make disciples of Jesus NOT just discuss making them!

Photo Compliments: sandwichink.com

Jesus Is Risen! So Go…Make Disciples! Part 1

Go and Make Disciples

Audio – Part 1a: 26 min

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/19.3.31-jesus-is-risen-so-go-make-disciples-part-1a-matt-28-1-cor-15-tah.mp3”

Audio – Part 1b: 24 min

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/19.3.31-jesus-is-risen-so-go-make-disciples-part-1b-matt-28-1-cor-15-tah.mp3”

Audio – Full Message:

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/19.3.31-jesus-is-risen-so-go-make-disciples-part-1-matt-28-1-cor-15-tah.mp3”


Bible Verses: Matthew 28


 This Good News series is about Jesus’ Believers and Disciples “GO”ing in Active Participation with Him, Wherever He Says to “Go!…”

Theological Theme:

As Christians called to Christ and in Union with him, Jesus sends the Spirit so that we can be transformed and begin to Organize and Execute our Lives Around the Father with him and his priorities! We no longer seek to live only for ourselves. Believers have died to selfishness and self-centeredness in Jesus and now we live unto the Father and for others by God’s Grace!

Christ Connection:

Immediately following his Resurrection, Jesus began to meet with his disciples, directing them to “Go” in the Spirit.  In this message his disciples are encouraged to go everywhere and make disciples, encouraging and equipping those new converts to also make disciples who can make disciples that make disciples!

Missional Application:

God the Father calls us to embrace a life of participation with His Son, our Savior and Lord, and in his life of fellowship and communion, whose mission was only to seek and to do what his Father was doing, in the Spirit. What Jesus is doing now is sending out his people, even as he was sent, that the world might believe, receive and be saved!

Photo Compliments: s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com

Jesus Is Not Pretending – God REALLY IS Humble!

Jesus is humble

Audio – Part 1a: 34 min

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/19.1.27-jesus-is-not-pretending-god-really-is-humble-part-a-john-13.1-15-matt-26.26-30-tah.mp3”

Audio – Part 1b: 34 min

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/19.1.27-jesus-is-not-pretending-god-really-is-humble-part-b-john-13.1-15-matt-26.26-30-tah.mp3.mp3”

Audio – Full Message:

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/19.1.27-jesus-is-not-pretending-god-really-is-humble-john-13.1-15-matthew-26.26-30-tah.mp3”


Bible Verses: Matthew 26:26-30 John 13:1-15


For more than a thousand years, the Passover meal celebrated God’s deliverance in the exodus of His people from Egypt and simultaneously pointed ahead to an even grander sacrifice and work of God. Jesus reinterpreted the Passover meal in light of Himself and His coming sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world. With a demonstration of authority and humility, Jesus set forth the pattern of countless Communion celebrations that now point back to His new covenant sacrifice and point forward to His coming kingdom with holy anticipation.

Theological Theme:

The Lord’s Supper points to our participation in the sacrificial nature of Christ’s life and death, and the humble nature of God – Father, Son and Spirit.

Christ Connection:

Hundreds of years before Jesus came, God made a covenant with Israel and sealed it with a sacrifice. When the people of God broke the covenant and worshiped false gods, God promised to enact a new covenant in which He would forgive sins and write His law on His people’s hearts. At the Last Supper, Jesus explained that His sacrificial death would establish this new covenant and bring forgiveness of sins in the humility of God.

“Why was this sacrament ordained at the time of the Passover? That we might learn that he [Jesus] is the giver of the law and that the things that are foreshadowed in the law are fulfilled in him. The Old Testament was a type of the things to come. He is the truth of those things.” –John Chrysostom (circa 347-407)

“Humility is the principle of all virtues: it removes any contrast, division or dissension from human beings and plants into them peace and charity. And through charity it grows and increases.” –Theodore of Mopsuestia (circa 350-422)

Missional Application:

God the Father calls us to take the Lord’s Supper, participating in his humility by the Spirit, looking back to Christ’s finished work and looking forward to his return.

“Throughout church history, this command to wash one another’s feet has been understood to mean we should do whatever it takes to serve one another, no matter how menial the task. To be a community of foot-washers is to live with this question on your lips: ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’” –H. B. Charles Jr.

“The ideal of a church community living in peace with one another is foundational to the evangelistic witness for the local congregation. It stands to reason that the Lord’s Supper, then, is not just an observance but a declaration about the way things are to be among God’s people. The meal contains a message not only about who Christ is and what He has done for the church, but who is included in the gospel story and in the benefits of Christ’s glory. It is a story of belonging, and a radical message that God intends for His people to identify with all believers, whether they are poor, weak, or forgotten.” –Gregory Alan Thornbury

Photo Compliments: cisphil.org

Contending For The Faith Delivered To The Saints! – Part 11

Jesus and Politics 2

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X08EByCsRQg

Slides: NLF Sermon Slides 12.2.18

Audio: Part 10a: 32 min

“https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/18.12.02-contending-for-the-faith-delivered-to-the-saints-part-11a-jude-mark-tah.mp3”

Audio: Part 10b:  32 min

“https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/18.12.02-contending-for-the-faith-delivered-to-the-saints-part-11b-jude-mark-tah.mp3”

Audio: Full Message:

https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/18.12.02-contending-for-the-faith-delivered-to-the-saints-part-11-jude-mark-tah.mp3”


Main Passages: Jude 1  John 4 


 

This Specific Message in the Series Points to the Truth in Christ that: “The Church in its witness must never give ultimate or unquestioned allegiance to any political or social ideology, or to the absolute rule or reign of any person or human institution. It must not idolize any humanly imagined ideal, and it must not justify evil means to accomplish the ideals promoted by ideological zealots. Instead, the church must carefully discern what limited good government (be it local, regional, national or international) can achieve without causing more harm than good (see Romans 13:1-7).”…other good stuff!

This series on God’s Good News urges believers to contend FOR the faith once delivered to the Church, in participation with Jesus Christ!, and AGAINST the ungodly cultural pressures and influences of our current times!

This is a Gospel message to a specific congregation of our times facing issues similar to congregations in other times as seen in the scriptures, particularly the Books of Jude and John. In this series, we make Christ-centered comparisons with the congregation in Jude and the Samaritan woman of Jesus’ time in John 4 to our particular congregation. You may see that the Church in general (especially if in the United States!), faces these same issues and also be helped by WHO and HOW He is proclaimed!

In the light of Jesus and the God revealed in Him (and over the course of 12 messages), we address today’s big questions regarding relationships, race, marriage, love, gender/sexual identity, politics, and worship and witness as it relates to the Christian God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Photo Compliments: http://jacksonwu.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/jesus-politics.jpg

When Faith In God Fails

Numbers 13-14 When Faith Fails 1

Part 1, 25 mins :https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/16-10-09-what-happens-when-faith-in-god-fails-part-1-numbers-13-14-tah.mp3”

Part 2, 25 mins :https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/16-10-09-what-happens-when-faith-in-god-fails-part-2-numbers-13-14-tah.mp3”%5D%5B/audio%5D

Full Message: “https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/16-10-09-what-happens-when-faith-in-god-fails-numbers-13-14-tah.mp3”

 

Theological Theme: Our Lord Father disciplines and redeems the faithless for the glory of His name.

Christ Connection: When Israel was tempted in the wilderness, the people failed to trust the Lord and faced 40 years of wandering. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days, He remained faithful. Through His obedience, He became the representative who pleads for all humanity before the Lord.

Missional Application: God the Holy Spirit calls us not to conquer the nations but to take the gospel to them no matter the obstacles, knowing that His power and wisdom is greater than our own.

*photo courtesy of tbjfansuk.wordpress.com

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