Not long ago I was reading an article about how a man, who viewed himself as a “secular Jew”, came to faith in Jesus. While the entire article was quite interesting there was one line in it that has set me to thinking. As he was sharing about the household he grew up in, about...
Author: City of Refuge
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Philippians 2:1-4 “Unity Through Humility”
In the last passage we studied Paul gave his first command of the letter to the Philippians, “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Paul purposefully used a political phrase to teach the Philippians that being found in Christ was being found out of everything else. When the Bible calls Jesus...
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Mark 9:14-29 “Praying Together for the Mind of God in the Midst of an Election”
This morning we are going to continue our discussion about the nature and purpose of prayer. We have built this discussion on the belief that prayer is not just how we communicate with God it is how God communicates with Himself. Romans 8 tells us that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father...
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Acts 1:4-14 “They Prayed Together”
This morning we will continue to talk about the nature and purpose of prayer. In the last few weeks we have seen that prayer is God’s language, it is how He communicates with Himself and how He invites us to join the divine conversation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Prayer is...
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Philippians 1:27-30 “The Gospel in the Midst of Internal Conflict and External Pressure”
Tonight’s text begins moving us into the instruction and confrontation portion of Paul’s letter to his friends in Philippi. Over our first few weeks we have talked a lot about this letter being a real model for Christian friendship, tonight we begin to see that true friendship that is based upon being mutually found in...
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Matthew 6:5-13 “The Intimacy of Community”
We are in the midst of discussing the nature and purpose of prayer. We have talked about prayer being God’s language, it is how He speaks to Himself and how He invites us to join the divine the conversation of the Father, the Son and the Spirit. God’s intimacy with us is revealed through His...
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Genesis 3:7-11 “The Consistency of Intimacy”
Last week we began discussing the nature and purpose of prayer. Prayer, like many of the gifts of God is both a mystery and a necessity. It contains more than we quickly see and yet it is not complex or complicated. Prayer is like a tree in that what we see is strong, tall and...
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Philippians 1:19-26 “Life or Death”
In our last lesson Paul moves from sharing his prayers for the Philippians to addressing their concerns for him. He dealt with their concerns about how his imprisonment would affect the gospel and the reality that there were people now preaching that may not be qualified or whose motives may not be pure. In tonight’s...
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Romans 8:26-27 “A King Who Chooses Weakness”
II Chronicles 20 tells us that while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah that Ammon, Moab and other countries gathered together as one large army and declared war against the nation of Judah. The Scriptures tell us that after the king got this news that he was afraid, that he turned all of his attention to...
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Philippians 1:12-17 “Perspective”
In tonight’s passage Paul moves from sharing his prayers for the Philippians to addressing their worries and concerns about him. He doesn’t tell them not to worry, he doesn’t judge them for being anxious, he doesn’t even try to convince them that there is nothing for them to be concerned about; he addresses the reality...