This Friday at EPIC we start a brand new series called ‘GODVIEW’. Every single one of us has a perspective of God, and through the next few weeks we’ll be exploring what that looks like for each of us as individuals.
Here’s a little taste of some of the issues that we’ll be covering…
Jesus said it himself – Love God, and Love People.
This month at EPIC, we’re gearing up for a massive LIVE DIFFERENT home renovation project by looking at the call on our lives to live out the commands of Jesus Christ and show love to the people of our city. Every single week at EPIC is gonna be massive, so don’t miss out on a chance to connect with other young adults in the area, listen to some great speakers, party at a great mid-month bash and participate in a life-changing project at the end of this month.
‘Friday’s. Without Fail’ - CAFE from 7:30PM, Program at 8:15PM. Central Gospel.
Last Friday night at EPIC, Jon Topping spoke exhaustively about the existence of Jesus Christ, sharing different resources that proved Jesus Christ as an actual historical figure. Despite what makers of movies such as Zeitgeist or The God Who Wasn’t There say, there is more solid evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ than the majority of other historical figures we take for granted.
Here is some more resource you can look into with help on this subject:
- Creation Ministries Resources
- Voddie Bauchum sermon(Youtube): Series of 5 clips on the Bible and Jesus
- The Evidence for Jesus by William Lane Craig
- Who Was Jesus of Nazareth (Youtube Audio Clip) by William Lane Craig
If you need more help with resource, or have questions about this subject, be sure to leave a comment.
R.O.O.
(HT: Blogwilder)
For the next couple of months at EPIC, we’re looking at some interesting questions concerning life, Jesus, taxes, and much more in the ‘You Asked For It’ series.
In a couple of weeks, Jon Topping will be starting a 2 part series focusing on questions brought up about Jesus Christ. Here’s a clip of Jon discussing the Big Bang, and a few other things.
Enjoy.
R.O.O.
Talking about marriage, sex, relationships and everything else in between can be pretty daunting – unless you’re Darrick and Natalie Vanderwier!
Be sure to come out to EPIC this Friday, February 20th as they wrap up their 2 part series on Crazy Love. Feel free to ask anything in the comments section below this post – it can be asked anonymously – and then come out and hear what Darrick and Natalie have to say in reponse to a myriad of wild, wacky and practical queries.
Last week we kicked off our new series here at EPIC called One Passion. We started off by looking at the fact that every person alive has some sort of passion – the big question is whether your passion lines up with what God is passionate for. Ultimately, if what I’m investing my heart and soul into isn’t what God is into, I should really be questioning whether my passion is worth my time.
One of the greatest things about the internet is the opportunity we have to learn from those that have already discovered many aspects of living a life passionate for God’s name. Passion Conferences - led by Louie Giglio (pictured) - is one such resource. They exist to spread a passion for God, so be sure to check out their website. Another guy worth checking out is John Piper. He’s all about Christian Hedonism - which is probably one of the strangest combination of 2 words. Lastly, it would be well worth your time to pop over to Francis Chan’s church website, book website, blog and video resource site.
Feel free to pass along any resource, stories…anything that would encourage and drive us in this journey towards having a passion for God above all else.
Catch you all soon.
R.O.O.
Over the past few weeks we’ve been looking at the identity of Jesus in our series entitled, “That’s What He Said?”. The aim of the series has been to look at how the world generally views and reacts to the person of Jesus Christ, and how we should react to Him in light of who the Bible says He is.
This past week at ‘Fridays.Without Fail’ we looked at our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. How does Jesus relate to you in your everyday life? When you wake up, go to school or work, hang out with friends, watch movies, listen to music – how does the identity of Christ affect you in these small moments throughout the day? Our lives are simply the cumulative result of what happens everyday; ultimately, the way in which Jesus affects you and me right now – as you’re reading this – is how He affects you in light of eternity.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son and Isaiah’s Vision of the Lord show us 3 ways in which we can react to Jesus Christ – 3 ways in which we can react to the gospel. We can wrongly react in two major ways – by looking for satisfaction in what we do for God, or by looking for greater satisfaction and joy in something or someone other than God. Tim Keller has a great sermon on the Prodigal Son passage where he deals with these two reactions – I would really encourage anyone to listen to it. He brings out numerous points from the text that most would skip over, so check out the sermon here. For the 3rd (and correct) reaction to Jesus, John Piper has a great sermon on Isaiah’s vision – audio and video available here on the Desiring God website.
Jesus Christ clearly and emphatically showed himself to be God. To meet him is to meet the most weighty, solid and significant reality that exists. We cannot meet Christ and remain unchanged. We cannot meet Christ and not strive to live radically different lives to everyone else – the Bible is clear about that.
So the question remains – have you rejected Jesus, simply learned of Him in your head without being existentially overwhelmed, or have you been radically changed in a way that affects your everyday life?
R.O.O.
Last week at ‘Friday’s.Without Fail.’ we continued on with our “That’s What He Said?” series. Pam Sykes spoke on Jesus as our Saviour, looking at the fact that as humans, we are in desperate need of a Saviour in order to be forgiven of our sin and reconciled to God.
Our fallen, sinful human nature is one that automatically (due to the fallen nature) looks to earn good standing with God. Christianity under the Roman Catholic church had become very inclined to view salvation in this manner – having to accomplish certain things in order for God to forgive you and gain entrance into heaven. During her message, Pam looked at Martin Luther, and how he along with other Christians throughout the reformation re-aligned the church into the truth that salvation was not an act of man, but an act of God. Luther’s famous 95 Theses were radically rejected by the Roman Catholic church – others who followed and taught the same (i.e. salvation by grace alone, through faith alone) as Luther suffered the loss of many things, and scores died as martyrs defending their faith, including Luther himself.
Today, whether raised in the church or not, we as young adults are still inclined to do things in order to have right standing with God. We will help someone move house, paint their living room, volunteer at a shelter, etc. Whether we realise it or not, the feeling we get out of that – of pleasing God simply by what we’ve done – can often be a form of “works righteousness”, where we earn our way into God’s good books.
However, that kind of thinking is futile when we consider the Bible - the Word of God. We clearly see throughout Scripture that men are sinful, and God is violently opposed to sin. We are in need of grace and mercy, and the nature of God requires justice. This is where Jesus, the eternal Son of God - the God man – comes into the picture. Only His sacrifice can satisfy the wrath of God, and provide a way for sinners (i.e. every human being ever born) to be in relationship with God.
There is great resource all over for more information on this. A greater starter book to read through is ‘Basic Christianity’ by John Stott. John Piper has a book entitled, ‘Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Christ Came to Die’, which is available online via the Desiring God website. Lastly, Matt Chandler, one of my favourite preachers in the world has an amazing 5 part sermon series on the cross, available for free here. To access, simly click ’show/hide’ under the 2007 sermon series archive and search for ‘The Cross’ in the ‘Series’ column. Of course, the best resource out there is the Bible itself.
If you know of any other great resource, feel free to pass it along. Comments and questions are also welcome.
And be sure to come round this week for our final message in the “That’s What He Said?” series.
R.O.O.
This past Friday night at EPIC, we started our series on Jesus entitled, “That’s What He Said?”. In this series, we’re taking a look at what the world potrays Jesus as, then comparing that with what the Bible actually declares Him to be.
To launch the series, we focused on Jesus’ identity as God. Tim Keller, one of the smartest and coolest pastors on the planet, rightly points out that Jesus Christ is the only historical figure to fit into the top 5 individuals when it came to 2 categories – those who made radical claims and those who were influential figures. Individuals that have historically made radical claims to be divine have always and only ever appealed to a small minority; those individuals that have historically had great influence have never claimed to be divine. Jesus did both. For further insight into this, Keller has a great sermon entitled ‘Who Is This Jesus’, available here.
Some more great resource in dealing with this statement of Jesus being God can be found on the Mars Hill Church website. Mark Driscoll, preaching pastor and founder of Mars Hill recently completed a series entitled Vintage Jesus (available here). His sermon on ‘Is Jesus the only God’ takes a deeper look at more issues surrounding this statement. Driscoll has also written a ‘Vintage Jesus’ book based on the sermon series, which can be found here.
John Piper, another amazing God- and Scripture-centered preacher has a great sermon on ‘The Word of God’. We explored John 1:1-3 briefly on Friday, outlining what “The Word” was, and highlighting how this description of “The Word” was the apostle John’s description of Jesus. Piper goes over this in greater detail in his sermon, available here. More great resource on the person of Jesus can be found at Piper’s Desiring God website, including an article on ‘How can Jesus be God and man?’.
A couple of books that I have found useful on highlighting Jesus’ identity as God are ‘The Incomparable Christ’ by John Stott, and ‘The Glory of Christ – His Office and Grace’ by John Owen. The Owen book is a heavy read (it’s a few centuries old) but well worth it.
If you’ve found some great resource on this topic, feel free to pass it through to us here at EPIC so we can share it with everyone else. Our hope is that we’d grow together in seeing Jesus Christ as who he really is - King and Lord above all.
R.O.O.
Here’s THE big question, at least the biggest question there is in my opinion – Who Is Jesus? Who is this man that lived over 2000 years ago, spent 3 years in public ministry, has sparked controversy for centuries, and now has T-shirts made about him?
Well, at EPIC this October, we’re seeking to find out who Jesus really is. Did he really say all that Christians claim he did? With so many conflicting views of what the world says he says, what other religions say that he is, can we be sure that he said certain things of himself?
In answering these questions we’ll be exploring three aspects of who Jesus is over 3 weeks:
- Jesus (God)
- Jesus (Saviour)
- Jesus (and me)
We’re looking forward to it! Come join us on this journey into the truth of the matter!
Friday’s.Without.Fail
R.O.O.
