Teaching
on God, Christianity, and Culture
Alistair Begg, pastor of Parkside Church in Ohio and helpful resource Truth for Life, taught a four part Dallas Theological Seminary chapel series going through Humility, Anxiety, Adversity, and Security. The 30 minute video message on humility takes us from being aware of self-love and self-glorification to be humbled before God through the Bible passage of 1 Peter 5:6, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”
We have begun the organization and resource for equipping and training people in truth and love in varying context of life, Telos Center. The phrase is a purposeful and instructional phrase to capture the biblical pattern of what is to happen to any of us when listening and learning from God, his word, and living in the world. We want to provide helpful resources that reveal, affirm, and exemplify God's work on us to live for him in real life. Therefore, what finishes (telos) our hearts aims (telos) our life.
I'm posting this more for the lyrics that encourage, and Sanctus Real provides a helpful and reflective song for when life suffering and difficulties his home and hit hard. They calls us to remember scripture, get into God's word, and "hold onto his promises." "Let God's word be your strength" rings true as his he is stronger than life and anything that comes with it. This is true as we humbly live by truths, principals, and conviction through life's ups and downs as well as goods and evils. Either we turn to God's steadfast word and love or we look to the world for answers, comfort, and security. Those that turn to the Lord also build community with one another to no longer walk life alone.
Plant the Gospel video produced by Together for the Gospel is a unique and helpful resource to overall explain what we are doing in Sacramento which is to live and love for Christ that results in a unified and localized church community. Telos pastors are not here to "plant churches" but "plant the gospel and it bears fruit and forms a community." The gospel is also not a means to an end of wanting a local church to appear but the gospel is the reason for a local church to appear and pastors pastor to God's end.
What are you doing in Sacramento and beyond? Wanting God to become the epicenter of people's hearts and lives that love others to reveal the gospel as truly good news to be justified and sanctified by.
Pastor Chip Ingram addresses Dallas Seminary's first night chapel during the 2016 Fall semester with a message really for anyone. The intro video Chip plays brings clarity to what he's addressing and bringing us to understand which is trusting and knowing the Creator God. Chip brings us from how we view God to how God wants us to view and trust him.
Pastor Chip Ingram addresses Dallas Seminary's chapel in the 2016 Fall semester with a message really for anyone. Chip speaks on "Experiencing the Real God" following his previous chapel message the night before on "The Real God."
Dr. Stanley Toussaint addresses Dallas Seminary in "How to Listen to God and God's Word." The message serves anyone beyond being a seminary student. Dr. Toussaint brings a heritage of humility and honesty in teaching God's word. Dr. Toussaint makes clear that God has revealed himself in many ways and mainly in two primary ways of his world and the word, in which ultimately and supremely through the Living Word of Jesus Christ.
Listen to these lyrics from hymns sung recently by the music group, King's Kaleidoscope. You can watch their 2015 "Live in Season" album of 5 hymns below or on their youtube playlist. King's Kaleidoscope's music is available on iTunes ("Live in Season") as well, providing a robust list of albums and lyrics that reveals depth and width of scripture from old hymns sung contemporarily. Hymns uniquely and adequately provide lyrics filled with truth for anthemic, passionate expression, especially when sung collectively with resounding conviction.
Sovereign Grace Music put together this great 2014 album, Prepare Him Room, somberly capturing the Christmas truth of the biblical and historical story of Jesus the Christ's divine birth into humanity for anyone to listen to and especially for local churches to corporately sing together. Their website also provides musical charts for instruments and direction. Sovereign Grace Music's website provides lyrics, varying ways to purchase the album beyond the iTunes album. Here's three musical sessions singing through the Prepare Him Room album.
Ghost Ship music albums are available on iTunes especially their 2015 music album, Costly, capturing the truths of God and the costly life in following him in real life. As you find time to listen and even share, think through these lyrics which tied directly into profound and overarching truths in scripture bringing listeners to be challenged, comforted, and convicted. A few other impactful music albums that combine some new renditions to old hymns include A River With No End and The Good King.
We hope you become rocked on how you think about God, Christianity, church, and life through this teaching video series by Dr. Mark Young. Dr. Young had taught the below video series at Dallas Theological Seminary's chapel on the critical concept of Missio Dei. Dr. Young's 4 part chapel series completed in one chapel series week provides the origin and history of the phrase and overarching truths of scripture through the lens of Missio Dei.
Shane and Shane music albums provide a combination of simplicity and profoundness. The above video from Shane and Shane previews their 2013 "Bring Your Nothing" album. Their album title rightly explains the a core truth in our relationship to God, that we have nothing and he is everything. What's interesting is that God values his creation of humanity but he is the one who determines, describes, and distributes value. Shane and Shane's music provide a biblical and theological frame that helps consider God and his love to anyone one of us, especially through the gospel of the person and work of Christ Jesus.
Shane and Shane explain their album "The One You Need" in the below video and lyrics as the song comes from a parental heart of a prayer, confession, and counsel to their kids (daughters) to trust Christ as the one you need and the only true love in life knowing full well that they are temporal and he's truthful and eternal. They explain that the only 'true love' in life is in the person and work of Christ Jesus -- the one you need.
There are certainly misuses and abuses of both the biblical interpretation and application regarding the answer to this question for us after the New Testament days, but that is not to hinder or excuse any Christian from researching and living by the question's answer. More so, it's never a 'should' but a 'want' (desire) to give. Giving is a desire when we become a Christian, in which we have trusted in Christ to follow him. There certainly seems to be extremes in life, especially regarding topics like 'church giving' or 'tithing', where one answers the question with pragmatic or spiritualized reasons to give or not give. Instead of extremes or bi-polar opposites, let's find sound answers and live differently than the world for the sake of God and his good news to the world.
Here are helpful and resourceful articles on financially giving or 'tithing' from Pastor John Piper through the Desiring God website.
If you want to, then hear me as a friend, sitting down with you with a light-hearted smile, with all seriousness, and years of research along with friends saying 'look at this (miracle, healing, etc.)' while redirecting you to be one not looking for any of those things but
“looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)
Pastors, leaders, and overall churches (people) are led down a path of decisions of "how" to setup a context like a Sunday service, small group Bible study, kid's ministry, Sunday school, outreach ministries, and the path seems to never end (which is revealing in and of itself). The "how" mainly translates into setting the mood to keep the attention of people engaged or ensuring reverent order of tradition. Variables and conditions are looked through like that of curriculum or teaching content to location and even ambience to align and support the "how."
Keep it simple when reading the Bible by staying at the intersection of method, motivation, and message. (Footnote: We don't think you end up becoming culturally weird, socially inept, cultish, cliquish, unloving, and the list can go on when reading the Bible. We see these are the inevitable when we don't stay in the intersection.)
We are starting our Sunday sermon series in Revelation, which is the Bible’s last book.
We are:
completing the “Relationships: Inspired by truth and love” series by February and
then digging into 1 and 2 Corinthians to answer, “What is the most important thing in life?”
Read more on “What should I expect on a Sunday gathering?”
We will take time during Sunday gatherings to go through:
How to teach kids (on Sundays and in the rest of life)
Hebrews (in the Bible's New Testament)
Relationships (family, friends, dating, engagement, marriage, divorce, re-marriage, death)
In the Spring of 2019 after our current teaching through the Bible’s Luke and Acts about Christ and Christianity, we will be going through another New Testament book of Hebrews. Hebrews quotes a lot from the Old Testament and a book that helps people understand the connection between Christ and salvation (i.e. being a Christian) as well as Christ and the Old Testament (i.e. was Jesus ever mentioned before he came to the earth?).
Watch 1 of several T4G recorded testimonies of people unashamed of the gospel and convicted to love those around them in order that they would come to know and trust Christ Jesus. As some of the videos reveal, not all respond in faith, but we continue to love regardless of their response because God continued to call us to believe in him.
Watch 1 of several T4G recorded testimonies of people unashamed of the gospel and convicted to love those around them in order that they would come to know and trust Christ Jesus. As some of the videos reveal, not all respond in faith, but we continue to love regardless of their response because God continued to call us to believe in him.
Watch 1 of several T4G recorded testimonies of people unashamed of the gospel and convicted to love those around them in order that they would come to know and trust Christ Jesus. As some of the videos reveal, not all respond in faith, but we continue to love regardless of their response because God continued to call us to believe in him.
Watch 1 of several T4G recorded testimonies of people unashamed of the gospel and convicted to love those around them in order that they would come to know and trust Christ Jesus. As some of the videos reveal, not all respond in faith, but we continue to love regardless of their response because God continued to call us to believe in him.
Watch 1 of several T4G recorded testimonies of people unashamed of the gospel and convicted to love those around them in order that they would come to know and trust Christ Jesus. As some of the videos reveal, not all respond in faith, but we continue to love regardless of their response because God continued to call us to believe in him.
Willian and Danica are brother and sister, growing up in a Christian home, later walk through the death of their brother and the pain of missing him. They grew up with parents that "were dedicated to the Lord and taught us who Christ was" and in a "Christian high school and Christian college and going to church." William shares about how he "mentally agreeing to the idea of God ... all those things led me to believe that I was a Christian."
Watch 1 of several T4G recorded testimonies of people unashamed of the gospel and convicted to love those around them in order that they would come to know and trust Christ Jesus. As some of the videos reveal, not all respond in faith, but we continue to love regardless of their response because God continued to call us to believe in him.
Caleb meets Billy in a college philosophy class, as Billy had been looking for more than mere knowledge to get a degree but searching for knowledge that affects real life. Billy searched Plato's Republic among other historical philosophers and literature looking for the answer to, "What is the highest good in life?"
Watch 1 of several T4G recorded testimonies of people unashamed of the gospel and convicted to love those around them in order that they would come to know and trust Christ Jesus. As some of the videos reveal, not all respond in faith, but we continue to love regardless of their response because God continued to call us to believe in him.
The above video features Michael having been in a tutoring situation to Steven, and how the gospel humbles us to love beyond barriers like ethnicity and language. Michael became unashamed of the gospel and was transformed to love because of God's gracious work in him to consider asking Steven if he would like read and study the Bible. Steven replied yes and wondered about the stories. More time seemed to focus on explaining the language, but that still did not stop Steven from learning about the Bible, history, God, and the gospel of Christ.
I Am Second interviews Jim Munroe, one who had a developed skepticism of God knowing that sometimes things are fake and used as a show since he's a magician. Jim Munroe's skepticism turned to trust in God, and Munroe uses the life story of the blood transplant he endured to cure his cancer. The life story truly is a natural way to describe the spiritual truth of how Christ Jesus becomes our eternal substitute for salvation in reconciling us to God through the cross and resurrection.
Nothing is like Christianity because of what's at the center, Christ Jesus, and we believe that's good news (gospel).
If something else takes the center of Christianity, Christianity then falls apart. The strength, power and life of Christianity is the rock solid truth of God in three persons - the Father, Son Jesus, and Holy Spirit. Within the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, God spoke the world into existence. Therefore, Christians believe in the only, true, breath-taking creator of the world.
Without him, we have nothing. Disbelieve him and Christianity becomes charitable organizations of brainwashed people wondering aimlessly through the world speaking and believing gibberish. Even in self-less acts of kindness exists the self, known more as self-centeredness.
A great song capturing the turning from and turning to. We turn from sin and our sinful state to God the one who's drawing our faith to be in him. This is repentance, a turning and transformation, for God's purposes and will.
C.S. Lewis said that our desires for things that harm us are not too strong, but our desires for God are too weak. That is what this song means to us. We want god to awaken us deeply, and remind us that He is worth waking for.
Christian musician artists, Zimmerman Band, brings the truth and love of God via the gospel to bear on our hearts, realizing the reality of the world and ourselves that we are broken with him as our hope. Therefore, we are not hopeless in life; rather, filled with great hope -- him.
I feel thorns where my crown was
(I be weak but I'm alive)
From the dusk until dawn yeah
(I'll survive 'cause I got) sweet victory
Nobody can take it from me sweet victory
'Cause I got (sweet victory) yeah
Featured set songs:
Featured set songs:
