Proverbs 1
This message introduces a new series on Proverbs. The Church in America lives in a cultural environment of moral confusion, which can lead to sin. Pastor Scott addresses the need for the Church to return to moral order, to root ourselves in God’s wisdom.
This letter goes out to skeptics of the Christian faith, specifically intellectual skeptics. John Michaelson addresses those who question the legitimacy of Christianity, who have been offended by the church, or who are seeking answers to their faith questions but not ready to believe. He also explains why Christians are so eager to tell the story of Jesus to nonbelievers and come off a little too strong. John wants you, a skeptic, a normal person, to know that God meets you where you are at, questions and all, all the while inviting you to be part of His story of transforming the world.
This letter goes out to addicts and alcoholics. I can’t imagine any place in all of Rhode Island that has more substance abuse than the neighborhoods around our church. It is a massive problem. Many addicts have no desire to quit; they love their lifestyle. But there are others who cry themselves to sleep aching to be free. It is to the person desperate to overcome addiction that I’m speaking to. I believe there are thousands in our neighborhoods who are at this place of wits end. Some have called it “rock bottom.” It’s the place of being sick and tired of being sick and tired. There is hope for the addict. The Truth will set you free!
This message goes out to the many suffering moms in and around our city who struggle to make it through the day. Who I especially have in mind with this letter are single moms who feel far from God and who also have very little support from friends and family. Some moms are technically married but are raising kids alone because their husbands are in prison or never around. Some mothers live with abusive husbands which is probably the most difficult situation of all. Some are hiding in safe houses and others are at homeless shelters with their children. This letter goes out to all the moms who are feeling crushed under the weight of a heavy burden. The Lord God sees your pain and is moved with compassion when He thinks of you.
This letter goes out to the many in our city who are experiencing homelessness or the effects of homelessness. We’ve all heard the saying, “there’s no place like home.” It’s a way of saying that being in our own home is the best place to be. The saying isn’t perfect, of course, because the home life of some people is hostile. But most people enjoy being in their home more than any other place. It may be a tiny hut, a fourth floor apartment in an old broken down house, a one room studio, or a mansion by the sea. It doesn’t matter how big or how nice the home is. What matters is that it’s our space. Home is a place we can call our own; it’s a place for our stuff; it’s where we rest. Sadly, millions of people around the world do not have a place of their own. The Lord God—who created all people to live in homes—feels the suffering of the homeless; He is attentive to their cries.
This message is essentially a love letter to the many artists in and around our city who don’t know Christ. God is an artist and it is He who created artists. We are created by the Creator to create. Many artists I’ve talked with through the years who don’t identify as Christian have a lot of misunderstandings about the Christian faith. Many think it is something different than what it actually is. This message is an effort to clear misunderstanding and spread out a compelling vision of what God has in mind for those He has uniquely created to be artists.
As I started to think about an Easter message this year I felt that strange pressure that pastors feel to put some new spin on the old story of Easter. Thankfully, I really felt a strong impression from the Spirit saying, “Just tell the story.” This brought much peace to my heart since I knew that telling the story was something I could do. So that’s what this Easter message is. It’s a telling of the story, starting all the way back into eternity past and stretching out into the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. What a story it is! It doesn’t need to be dressed up. It is the greatest story of all, and the resurrection is the greatest event in the history of the world. At the end of the message I set aside my notes and gave a strong appeal to those who do not yet have peace with God to receive the free gift of eternal life that Christ purchased.
Ren Elder Mark Skillin preaches a Palm Sunday message, highlighting the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection for our lives. Jesus not only rode into Jerusalem on a colt, died for our sins and rose from the dead, but these also function as prophetic signs of God's future for His people and for the world.
Today's service includes worship led by the youth and youth directors, and the message is two-fold. You'll be hearing from some of the church about what they learned from the book they read together last summer called Be the Bridge by Latasha Morrison, which is about God’s heart for racial reconciliation. (Watch the video of this section here.)
Secondly, Pastor Scott finishes up the book of Ephesians—finally! This message takes some of the ideas in the last verses of this epistle and relates them to the relational tensions we are seeing in the Church throughout the land regarding politics, race, the pandemic, theology, and many other things.
The Church is more divided than ever. Even groups that have enjoyed much unity around a system of theology have suffered terrible divisions. How can our church survive what is happening today? How can we be unified as brothers and sisters if we disagree about important things? This message shows how—despite the complex differences of opinion amongst Christians—we can find harmony by simply caring for one another.
Ephesians 6:19-20
The world is becoming increasingly hostile to the message of the Gospel. This has been predicted from the beginning and we are seeing it unfold before our very eyes. The reason why persecution is mild in America is that there are still great numbers of Christians, and very few Christians speak the Gospel with boldness. The reason Christians have been silenced is primarily because of social fear. There exists in society such a collective frown upon anyone who would preach that their way is the right way, and other ways are the wrong way, that Christians fear being categorized as zealots, extremists, proselytizers, fundamentalists, and now, even evangelicals. Some Christians won’t even call themselves Christians anymore! The prayer request of Paul for boldness to proclaim the Gospel should be our desperate request. The glorious truth is that the Lord is willing to grant great boldness to His people to speak out His message without fear of consequences.