In Paul’s call to unity through humility in the Philippian church he does something no other gospel writer had done before or would do after, he used Jesus as the example. These few verses that we will study tonight are of incredible importance. In many ways, they are a summation of Paul’s theology, they represent...
Author: City of Refuge
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Ezequias Lamarche: John 5:19, 12:49 “Unity and the Call to Love”
This Sunday one of our worship leaders, Ezequias Lamarche shared a message of unity and love with us. The Scriptures reveal to us that Jesus is everything that we were meant to be, that He walked in a pattern of boldness and a sense of meekness, declaring His authority while, at the same time confessing...
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Matthew 5:9 “From Peace Keepers to Peace Makers”
In this beatitude Jesus teaches us that there is an unbreakable connection between our identity as children of God and our willingness to live, not in, but for peace. It doesn’t say “Blessed are the peaceful, for they shall be called the sons of God”, it says the peacemakers will be called the sons of...
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Guest Speaker: Joanne DiLeo Exodus 17:8-13 “Intercession”
This week we had the great joy of having our friend Joanne DiLeo as our guest speaker. Joanne’s heart for prayer and her devotion to and grasp of God’s Word is evident to all who know her. In this message she shares beautifully about God’s desire that we join the Son and the Holy Spirit...
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Blog: The Presence of God’s Desire
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...
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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...