Overcoming Demons Read Psalm 95 and Luke 11:14-23 What does it mean to acknowledge the greatness of God? How exactly are we to relate to Jesusas a king? The Psalms have many such songs where praise is going up to God as the Almightypowerful and strong King. Psalm 95 is one such example. It begins with a call to enter …
What’s Worth Fighting Over?
Galatians 2:1-14 Discussion Guide One of the saddest statements about the American church in recent years is that we are mostlyknown for arguments and disagreements with other Christians. Some of these disagreementsare over important matters, but others of them appear stupid and petty to everyone who is notdirectly engaged in the argument. One of the great characteristics of Paul in …
Galatians 1:10-24 Discussion Guide
Galatians 1:10-24 Paul’s great concern in writing to the churches of Galatia is the purity of the Gospel as itwas handed to him and as he gave it to them. As with nearly every generation ofChristians since, the churches were being tempted to add to the Good News ofsalvation by grace through faith.Paul is adamant that if you add anything …
Distorting the Gospel
Galatians 1:6-9 As stated in last week’s discussion guide, turning aside from the true Gospel- the oneproclaimed by Jesus and the apostles- to a different gospel was a concern for the church from avery early time. Keeping the purity of the Gospel is a challenge to which every single generationof Christians has had to rise.Austin’s sermon challenge zeroed in on …
Lenten Devotional #1 • Jonathan Pugh
Read Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus begins Matthew 25 with two parables that speak of the reality of divine judgment. In the parable of the ten virgins, he speaks of five who are prepared and waiting for the bridegroom to come. The other five virgins are unprepared and are shut out of the feast that was supposed to be a celebration of …
Galatians 1:1-5 Discussion Guide
Some scholars believe that Galatians is one of the first, if not the first, of the New Testamentbooks to be written. There is zero debate among any Biblical scholars. that it was written by theApostle Paul and that it reflects his concerns for the church in his day. Even some of the mostradically anti-Christian skeptics who study the New Testament …
A Redeemer and a King
Today’s sermon and discussion guide will tie together to conclude all of the multiple layers of themes that we have seen in the short book of Ruth. Take time in your group to review some of the things that we have learned so far. Today we will focus on the many ways that God provides for his people. He has …
Love is Patient
In the first two chapters of Ruth we have seen the loving characters of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. The love they exhibit is not tied strictly to feeling or emotion, but to faith in knowing the character of God. In Ruth 3 we begin to see some action taken out of the preexisting character of love that is already seen …
Defining Love
We live in a culture where people claim very much to adhere to the concept of love. Love is still the number one subject of popular songs. People still watch movies and TV shows that are love stories. Despite all the professed “love for love” that is in the world, we have a great lack of understanding for what love …
How Are You Living?
This week is the last week in which Venture is learning from 1 Peter in our sermon series. The context of 1 Peter has been to churches living in community with one another as they are being cancelled by the outside world. Remarkably, most of what Peter has to say to the believers under pressure has very little to do …