Self-Care - Train of Thought
Pastor Robbie begins a new series on Self-Care, focusing on the trains of thought in our lives!
This past Sunday we began a new series where we're going to look at some of the Scriptural teachings about how you can be a better you and experience a better self-care as it relates to your mind, body, soul, spirit, and rest in general. f you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you and hope to be able to see you this upcoming Sunday!
Self-Care is a concept that has become incredibly popular in our culture here in America, and it certainly isn’t a wholly bad thing when it has the right motivations and right results for you and others around you. This can be a very real issue with some people, who can wrongfully abuse this term in their lives, Pastor Robbie states early on about our cultural view of self-care being ‘like a new virtuous way to do the things we want to do anyway. Biblically speaking, that would be a little bit more like selfish care…’. If our ideas surrounding self-care are for the exclusive benefit of ourselves at the expense of those around us, we are not taking care of ourselves like Scripture suggests we should. Our trains of thought are so critical for how we live our lives, because what you think about in your mind is going to impact the person you become!
Moving towards proper self-care from a biblical perspective includes several things, the first of which is to remove toxic thinking from our lives and minds. Ps. Robbie said, ‘All of us came into the room this morning and have had thoughts fill our minds that are toxic. They are not in line with God's Word, and you have to capture or arrest those thoughts. Thoughts like that are going to pop up. They're negative thoughts, anxious thoughts, lustful thoughts, all kinds of different thoughts. God would say those things are going to pop into your head, but it is your choice over whether you will dwell on them.’ (2 Cor. 10:3-5). We must take captive of our thoughts as we go throughout our days, we cannot be complacent and allow thoughts to live outside of obedience to the Gospel!
This second mode we need to work towards for proper biblical self-care is replacing toxic lies, and malicious thoughts with the Truth we find in Scripture! This comes directly from Philippians 4:8 saying, ‘ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.’ If you want to win the battle of the mind, it involves replacing the lies with the truth. I need to identify when I am beginning to believe a lie, wanting to get on this train, and I need to have others around me and really take the steps to replace the lie with the truth. It’s not enough to just try to arrest and push out the lies and toxic thoughts, we have to replace them with God’s Truth! Imagine what your life would look like if you really applied these verses. Imagine what this week would have looked like if everywhere you went, every thought you had at work even?! We have to tell ourselves the Truth! We have to affirm ourselves and those around us with Scriptural truths!
The third and final point mentioned about re-orienting our trains of thought is that we need to refocus with the right perspective. What do we mean by that? We mean with an eternal perspective. We can either choose to see the world around you with an earthly perspective and with today and "This is always how it's going to be" or with an eternal perspective. The apostle Paul was able to choose joy because he maintained an eternal perspective. In Phil. 4:4 we hear Paul declare to us ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!’ Because of God…his promises are eternal, we have security, no matter what we face in this life he's working for our good…you can choose to look for the goodness of God in every situation!
There are so many things that uniquely happen in all of our lives - many of them seem impossible to try and manage or deal with. What we can find comfort in an eternal perspective, dwelling in this mode of living through training our minds to focus on God’s promises! This is the same train of thought that allowed Paul to continually praise the Lord in the midst of harsh jail conditions, in the midst of persecution, in the midst of dealing with life! We are not alone in this fight, we have an intercessor who in familiar with our trials and pains - Jesus!
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Self-Care - Train of Thought: Unlike the sometimes selfish sentiments of our cultural idea of ‘self-care’ Scriptural Self-Care is based on how we orient our Trains of Thought!
Main Scripture Passages: 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Philippians 4:4, 8; 2 Cor. 12; Rom. 12
Remove Toxic Thinking: Our trains of thought must be checked because what we think about in our minds is going to impact the people we become.
Replace the Lies with Truth: Checking our trains of thought are not enough, eventually they will come back unless they are replaced with Scriptural Truths.
Refocus with the Right Perspective: Our perspective needs to be more focused on the eternal, rather than only on what is going on in our lives right here and now.
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
Instagram: LegacyCityGWD
Twitter: LegacyCityGWD
Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie continues in our Self-Care series!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
Angels and Demons - The Reality of Hell
Pastor Robbie continues our Angels and Demons series by addressing the traditional view of Hell as a place of eternal conscious torment for Satan and all those living in rebellion to our Lord and Creator.
This past Sunday we concluded our Angels and Demons series by diving into what Scripture has to say about Hell! This was such a great series, full of information that many of us have never really sat down and addressed before surrounding the ‘spiritual realm’ around us. This upcoming Sunday Pastor Robbie will be addressing Self-Care as we see prescribed in Scripture. If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you and hope to be able to see you this upcoming Sunday!
As Pastor Robbie addressed last Sunday, Heaven is a very real place of perfect communion with God - we also believe that Hell is a very real place that is meant to righteously judge those who have not been forgiven of their sinfulness. He stated, “A recent survey done shows that only 55% of professing Christians believe that Hell is a real place, while 15% are undecided and 30% don’t believe in Hell.” showing that so many believers want to believe in a place of blessing, but want to avoid the idea of judgment for those who live in open rebellion against our Lord and Creator. There are a lot of misconceptions about Hell, and hopefully, we can really dive into what Hell is and is not, in addition to showing how and why our understanding of The Reality of Hell matters.
A common question, that we believe most people ask at some point in their spiritual journey is ‘Why Does Hell Exist’ and the answer to this question informs us on many different fronts theologically and practically. This question brings up God’s holiness and justice as both of them exist in resistance to the presence of rebellion and sinfulness in our world. Hell exists as a means of dealing with injustice against God, - the Lord, and the Creator of our world. Hell is not for ‘bad people’, Hell is for those who live in open rebellion to what God desires for His Image Bearers i.e. those who are NOT forgiven. God’s holiness and perfect justice must be satisfied, this is done through what is and will be eternal judgment for Satan and those who do not accept the saving knowledge of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
First and foremost, Hell was intended specifically for Satan and the angels/demons that fell from heaven with him. In Matthew 25:41, we read ‘Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…’ The original intention of this place of torment was for Satan who originally rebelled against God, taking 1/3 of heaven’s angels with him; he would go on to influence the Fall of mankind in Genesis 3. Some have got this picture in their mind that Hell is a place where Satan rules and does whatever he wants, and by default unbelievers who stayed in their rebellion to God will just be enjoying themselves through their sinful pleasures. This is not the image that we see in Scripture, Hell is a place of fire and torment - a place that is meant to be eternal punishment for Satan himself.
Hell is also, now meant as a place of equal punishment and torment for those who live in rebellion to God - specifically, those who are not forgiven! 2 Thess. 1:8-9 reads, ‘He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.’ (NIV). In Luke 16:19-30 we see a story about an incredibly rich man who fails to live out the Gospel by ignoring the poor man at his doorstep and the rich man is sent to Hell, while Lazurus is sent to Heaven. In verse 24 we see that the man is in conscious agony wishing for Lazurus to just ‘dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’; here we see that He is suffering and in pain and in torment, which begs the question, what do we really know about Hell? We don’t know a lot, but if you are taking notes, we know immediately that Hell is a place of unspeakable suffering. It is a place of unspeakable suffering.
Ps. Robbie concluded with a ringing statement that we all should pay very close attention to and dwell on going forward, “Why do we talk about hell? Because what you believe about eternity affects how you live today, and if we don't understand the horrors of hell, we'll never truly appreciate the goodness and the grace of the price that God paid by sending his Son so that we could have eternal life.”
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Angels & Demons - The Reality of Hell: Pastor Robbie addressed the traditional view of Hell as a place of eternal conscious torment for Satan, and those who live in rebellion to God.
Main Scripture Passages: Matthew 25:41; 2 Thess. 1:8-9; Luke 16:19-30; Rev. 14:10-11.
Why Does Hell Exist? - Hell exists as a means of righteous judgment for all those who live in rebellion to what God has prescribed as Lord and Creator of our world.
Hell is a place of righteous, eternal judgment for Satan: Satan openly rebelled against God and led to the fall of mankind - Hell was originally intended to be a place of judgment for Him and his angels/demons.
Hell is a place of righteous, eternal judgment for Unbelievers: Given the Fall of mankind, as influenced by Satan, our rebellion (without forgiveness) must be judged as a means of God’s perfect justice.
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
Instagram: LegacyCityGWD
Twitter: LegacyCityGWD
Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie will be starting a new series on Self-Care as prescribed by Scripture!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
Angels and Demons - Heavenly Misconceptions
Pastor Robbie continues our Angels and Demons series by addressing misconceptions about Heaven!
This past Sunday we continued our Angels and Demons series by diving into what Scripture has to say about Heaven! This has already been a great series, full of information that many of us have never really sat down and addressed before surrounding the ‘spiritual realm’ around us. Heaven and Hell are pretty broad topics, so we decided to split these up into two separate messages; we don’t want to miss out on any important details. If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you and hope to be able to see you this upcoming Sunday!
When someone talks about Heaven, what naturally comes to mind? Some think of the idea that we will be in ‘some ethereal space’ where we will be singing and praising God. Others have never really considered that question, and just know that they would rather be there than in Hell. The afterlife, and what we believe about the afterlife directly effects what we in our lives here today. But, even from what we can see in Scripture, describing heaven explicitly probably takes away from the grandeur it will likely be! 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” - this being said, what we have to work with is what we see in Scripture, and there is quite a lot to consider about Heaven. Consider John 14:1-
Pastor Robbie starts us off saying, “My strategy today is this: In order to try to help you understand what heaven is, what I want to do is I want to start by showing you what heaven is not. Because I really believe a lot of people have misconceptions about what heaven's going to be like.” The first of these misconceptions surround this idea about heaven somehow being boring! Many people have many different ideas about heaven, and this could be from Satan whispering lies in the ears of people who are spreading such an idea. “If I were the devil, what I would do, is try to convince the world today that hell is not a real place...or at the very least you shouldn't worry about it. And I would try to convince you that heaven is boring. You might as well live for today. This is all that matters. Heaven is boring, why would you want to go there?” Revelation 21:1-7 has a lot to say about heaven - heaven will be a perfect dwelling place between mankind and God, ‘death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore…’ (v4). God has a place for us, holy and perfect. Heaven is the opposite of boring, because our God is the opposite of boring, for those that know Him.
Naturally, the question we all want to know, is if heaven isn’t this or heaven isn’t that - what will heaven actually be like? In heaven, you will see Jesus face to face. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will have has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2). Your body will be perfect and new in every way. “What will heaven be like? Heaven is the absence of everything bad, painful and evil. It's the presence of everything good, holy and glorious. Based on my study of heaven, what it appears is that we'll actually have the glory of working for Jesus - in a way that we enjoy and love.” For all eternity, you are ruling and reigning with the king of all kings and the Lord of all lords. It’s the presence of everything good, holy, right and just - the absence of everything evil and painful.
The lies that we continue to hear from people around us, from those who do not know God tries their very best to convince everyone that this world is the only thing there is! They believe that this world is the only world that matters - that we should live for this life, and just do what makes us happy. Philippians 3:19-20 informs us of something very different church, “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Not to mention, some of these same people would suggest, that even if there was a heaven, most of us will be there because ‘most of everyone is good, right?’ There is a belief that all people eventually end up in heaven, because most everyone around us are not murderers, rapists, or any severe violator you would like to input - this is not the case church, Heaven is for those who are forgiven, not those who are ‘good’ enough. All have fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), all of us have turned our backs away from what God desires for our lives, and we must be forgiven to be able to dwell with Him eternally.
Those who are forgiven, gain eternal life in Christ Jesus. People ask themselves, Have I been good enough? What about all my secret sins. Have I been too bad? I go to church, I try to do good, I try to dedicate my life and but I keep messing up. These things are not what we find salvation in, faith in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is what gives us salvation - through this faithfulness, by God’s grace, we are forgiven. A Heaven of pure bliss and perfect communion with the Creator and Lord of our world is what awaits those who are found faithful.
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Angels & Demons - Heavenly Misconceptions: While there are many different ideas about Heaven, Scripture is clear that it is among the most unique things possible.
Main Scripture Passages: John 14:1-6; Rev. 21:1-7; 1 Cor. 2:9; 2nd Cor. 4:17-18; Rom. 3:23; Phil. 3:19-20
What Will Heaven Be Like? Is it boring? - New Bodies, no sickness, no pain, living life with Jesus, and working with pure and sinless purpose - Heaven is going to be awesome!
This World is Not Our Home - Some would say that this world is all there is, we know different - there is freedom and hope in what is to come!
Only ‘Forgiven People’ Will Be In Heaven - ‘Good’ people do not go to Heaven - ‘Forgiven’ People, go to Heaven!
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
Instagram: LegacyCityGWD
Twitter: LegacyCityGWD
Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie continues in our Angels & Demons series when we explore the subject of Hell!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
Angels and Demons - Satan and His Demons
Pastor Robbie continues our Angels and Demons series by addressing Satan and His Demons.
This past Sunday we continued our Angels and Demons series by diving into what Scripture has to say about Satan and His Demons! This has already been a great series, full of information that many of us have never really sat down and addressed before surrounding the ‘spiritual realm’ around us. If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you and hope to be able to see you this upcoming Sunday!
Last week Pastor Robbie addressed the lighter and more favorable side of spiritual beings with Angels, but this week we dove into the less appealing subject of Satan and His Demons. In our pop culture, Demons are presented as malicious entities that make themselves known in the most explicit and terrifying ways possible. People in our western culture have this idea of Satan being a red man with horns and a pitchfork - his demons tricksters with menacing smiles. While our culture’s portrayal of Satan and his Demons are not altogether true, like many things, there are shreds of truth that still keep the image in the minds of our friends and family. Ps. Robbie started off with a unifying declaration that is paramount in understanding our situation in our world, “We need to establish a baseline - Satan is real. And taking it a step further, demons are real. They are also a part of this unseen supernatural realm.”. Here in the West, where a naturalistic and materialistic worldview dominates, these entities in pop culture are discussed in such a way that degrades the reality of our situation. Evil forces that seek to steal, kill, and destroy God’s Image Bearers are very real - our underestimation of them gives them equally real power over our communities.
Let’s start from the top and we’ll work our way down to the range of influence and impact of their works’ demons have in our world. First of all, Demons Influence the Leaders of Nations. Let’s look at Daniel who had prayed for twenty-one days nothing happened. Then, an angel of the Lord came to him and declared in Dan. 10:13, “The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia…”. This ‘prince’ is understood to be a demon of significant power, in other faith traditions we see hierarchies concerning demons defended and this is one of the verses to support such an idea. We see the forces of darkness, demons at work, trying to influence the leaders of nations!
Now, consider the work that is being done in our communities - most of the stories in the Gospels surrounding demonic activity involve the suffering of individuals in very unfortunate ways; to say the least, Demons Desire to Inflict Suffering on You. Take Matthew 17:15-18 for example, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.” Ps. Robbie implores us saying, ‘I want you to think about a six-year-old, or a seven-year-old, or a little boy or a little girl, and imagine this little child doing stuff like trying to throw themselves into a fire, or trying to jump into a pool in order to drown themselves.’ (v15). This is what was happening in this story. This demon was trying to kill this child - but Jesus rebuked the spirit and the boy was healed instantly (v18)! The torment that this family and their surrounding community endured from these events must have been unimaginable!
Now let’s get right down to it, this was a story back in Jesus’ time, and some may think that demonic activity was for this time and has ended - this is not the case church! The reality that we are dealing with, right here and right now, is that Demons Scheme to Lure You Away from God & Demons Want to Paralyze You with Fear. Satan and His Demons are schemers, and above all deceivers; for the believer, the enemy has what power is given to them and that real power comes from deception. But, this is not the end of the story, this is not the condition that Jesus lived, died, and rose again for his followers to experience - as we see in 2 Tim. 1:7 “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” We do not fight with our power, but with God’s authority; we cannot miss that today, God’s power and authority have overcome the world and all the schemes and deception(s) that the enemy seeks to wield against us! Do not let these forces induce doubt towards the amazing works that God has done in your life - it is this power, this trans-formative power, that he can wield to conquer whatever force may be against you.
Ps. Robbie concluded with “There is an evil force that is more wicked than you could ever imagine that wants to steal, kill, and destroy everything that matters to the heart of God. The demons want your family, your marriage, your children, your finances, your health, and your relationship with God. Bottom line is, they want you.” but we are not defeated, we are not powerless against these forces; for we have been empowered with a Holy Spirit that, when wielded, will conquer all forces that come against us. God conquers the forces that come against us for “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.” (Col. 2:15)!
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Angels & Demons - Satan and His Demons: Satan, and His Demons, are very real and active in our world.
Main Scripture Passages: Eph. 6:10-12; Mark 5:2-8; Eze. 28:12-15; Dan. 10:13; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 1:7 Col. 2:13-15.
Demons Influence the Leaders of Nations: Powerful forces come against those who have influence and power over the affairs of the world.
Demons Desire to Inflict Suffering on You: These forces desire to make you and everyone around you suffer!
Demons Scheme to Lure You Away from God: The deceptive schemes of these entities have one ultimate goal in mind - to instill doubt about who God is and what He has done through the blood of Jesus.
Demons want to Paralyze You with Fear: These schemes unto doubting the work of God are done through inducing fear in people, and that is their entry point.
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
Instagram: LegacyCityGWD
Twitter: LegacyCityGWD
Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie continues in our Angels & Demons series when we explore the subject of Heaven and Hell!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
Angels and Demons - All About Angels
Pastor Robbie opens a new series, Angels & Demons with approaching Angels.
This past Sunday we started a brand new series surrounding the incredibly fascinating subjects of Angels and Demons! Pastor Robbie opens our series by exploring who angels are and what are their roles in Scripture. We hope you enjoyed the one-off message ‘Good Vibes Only’ a comment on Christian subcultures - we learned about so many valuable half-truths in Christian culture and how to address them! If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you!
Most people, whether or not they have spent much time in the Church, have heard of both angels and demons but our culture has a very different perspective to them than Scripture. Honestly, if all of us were honest with ourselves, we struggle to realize the impact of the spiritual realm altogether in our culture. Even though we have verses like 2 Corinthians 4:28 to deal with, “…as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Pastor Robbie stated, There is this supernatural world, this unseen spiritual dynamic that we consider from time to time…but we are getting desensitized to a very real battle that waging in our minds and souls all around us! We know that there is a spiritual realm existing within our physical realm, but we may not have considered that Scripture has a lot to say about this matter.
So. who exactly are angels? Angels are beings created by God to serve him in a variety of ways, as He wills. We see angelic activity in both the Old & New Testaments in a wide variety of functions but all of them are by nature God’s servants. Angels can be invisible, or they can also manifest themselves in human form! Angels are immortal - they don’t die (Luke 20:36). Angels are incredibly intelligent (2 Samuel 14:20). Angels are holy and innumerable (Mark 8:38; Hebrews 12:22). Pastor Robbie put it well saying, “I want to forever dispel the myth that angels are fat harp-playing babies sitting on clouds. My angel is 10 feet tall and works out, ok? That might be your angel but I’m just telling you right now, my angel is buff and you don’t want to mess with my angel.” There is this idea, especially from artists’ visual descriptions that angels are passive and wholistically attractive beings - this is not what Scripture tells us Church!
In Scripture, there are so many stories involving angels, but we begin to see a pattern develop when we pay attention to what they’re doing when they are talked about. There are three main roles that angels take on in Scripture (while in actuality, there could be innumerable roles that they take on - Scripture is not explicitly clear on this). The first role that angels take on could be a Worshipper - Wherever you find God, you will always find angels worshipping Him (Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 5:11-13). Similarly to mankind, as God’s Image Bearers, angels can take on the role of eternally honoring and glorifying God! The second role that we see angels take on is that of Warriors of God, they are able and willing to carry out whatever sort of physical or violent task that the Lord requires of them (Daniel 10; 1 Chronicles 21; 2 Kings 19:35). Angels were created for God, by God - they are worshippers and they are warriors. The third role that we find angels taking on in Scripture is a Messenger - when the Lord needs information conveyed to someone specific for a specific reason, we see Messanger angels sent out (Judges 6:12; Luke 1:30-31)
Angels and everything surrounding angels is a fascinating subject to us, because, I imagine that not many of us (if any) have ever known of an encounter with an angel - what we need to understand is Church, you very well could have and not known! There is so much more about angels and even in the message from this past Sunday’s Gathering - we encourage you to go and listen to the full version!
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Angels & Demons - All About Angels: Angels are a fascinating subject, and are much more apart of our world than most people believe.
Who Are Angels and What is Their Purpose: Above all, Angels are God’s servants, charged to whatever He desires for them to do.
How Should I Think About Angels?: Angels are beings that are created for God and by God - they operate in our world in a variety of ways; we not consciously aware of them, but they are active!
There is so much more to explore!: Given that there are about 273 verses in Scripture that talk about angelic activity - there is so much more to know about their role(s) in the world than what we were able to cover!
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
Instagram: LegacyCityGWD
Twitter: LegacyCityGWD
Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie continues in our Angels & Demons series when we explore the subject of Demons!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
Good Vibes Only - Addressing Partial Truths
Pastor Robbie comments on some possible issues in Christian sub-culture.
This past Sunday we shifted gears into a message that Pastor Robbie really felt like he needed to preach on addressing the Christian sense of the common phrase ‘Good Vibes Only’. We hope you enjoyed our At The Movies Series, but some good things must come to an end! Now that we don’t have any pressing copyright concerns, the Podcast(s) for future Sermons will be available unless otherwise noted. If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you!
In our American culture today, the phrase ‘Good Vibes Only’ or some version of this can be seen almost everywhere you look, especially on social media. Scrolling through Instagram, you will see many people happy and thrilled with what is going on in their lives so they throw #goodvibes or #goodvibesonly in their caption to declare that they never want the feeling and experience they have captured to go away. Now there may not be anything explicitly wrong with this sentiment, but there different subtle versions of this idea that has seeped into Christian culture in ways that are not altogether wrong, but they are not altogether right either. When we look at what Scripture says of our lives, we see that this life is filled with blessings but it is also filled with trials. We are going to explore some of the ‘Partial Truth’s’ floating around in our Christian culture today and address them honestly and fairly.
The first Partial-Truth that was addressed is the Prosperity Gospel. You may or may not have heard of this, but basically what this idea suggests is that God, at the end of the day, wants you to be happy, healthy, and wealthy. Ps. Robbie stated ‘It's not like he is radically opposed to that, but it is not the entire truth because it sells itself short in saying, "At the end of the day, do you know what God wants for you? He wants you to be wealthy; he wants you to be healthy. If you follow God, this is what is in store for you." And that just doesn't align with the Bible. Jeremiah 29:11 is often wielded as evidence for this idea concerning God’s will for our lives “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” The context of this verse does not allow for the Prosperity Gospel; the people of Israel are being conquered by a foreign nation and there isn’t anything they can do about it! Hey, people are saying you're coming home. You're not coming home. Get comfortable. Seek the welfare of the city that you're in, but put down roots. You are not coming home. In fact, some of you guys are not even going to live for 70 years! Ultimately, the prosperity gospel creates this weird relationship where you don't actually worship God. You worship what he can give you.
The second Partial-Truth Pastor Robbie addressed is the Positivity Gospel. This movement towards self-help and overwhelming declarations towards positivity in one’s life has its benefits, that are Scripturally based, but sometimes it is taken way too far. God promises blessings in our lives, as we come alongside what He desires for our lives - but where it gets distorted is it begins to make promises that God never made. God does not promise you a promotion at work, the right relationship, or that you will be free from pain and suffering of any kind. Philippians 4:13 is probably one of the most well-known verses in Scripture because of this misunderstanding, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me”. Paul writes this from a prison cell to the church in Phillipi not to suggest to us that we can conquer the world - it suggests that no matter what happens, if I win or if I lose, if I'm rich or if I'm poor, that no matter what I face I can handle it all because of Jesus. He is enough. Positivity is one thing, but the peace that passes all understanding in Jesus Christ is truly transforming; positivity can bring you happiness, but Jesus brings you peace and joy!
The last Partial-Truth that was addressed this past Sunday is Promised Upgrades. This one that we probably hear often, ‘Oh you’re boy/girl-friend broke up with you? That’s because God has someone out there that s better for.’ This partial-truth basically tells people that bad things are only happening in your life because God has something better in store for you in the future - this feeds off of the idea of both the Prosperity and Positivity gospel points mentioned before. If God only desires good for our lives, well this bad thing that I’m going through isn’t actually bad, its actually good and I should lean into that. Romans 8:28 is often used to fuel this idea, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”. We must get away from this idea that God’s goodness in our lives is always about making us more like Jesus, Ps. Robbie said it well in that “The specific good that God is at work. What’s this good? It's that in every situation that you face, God is going to bring about the good goal of using it to make you more like Jesus. That's the specific good in every situation.”
Consider what Partial-Truth’s you may believe in your life - dive into Scripture and pray that the Holy Spirit continues to illumine your mind and heart towards God’s will for your life. God’s Word and what He wants us to understand is the whole truth, while the subjects discussed this past Sunday have partial-truth, we are called to understanding whole truth and living our lives as such.
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Good Vibes Only - These partial truths, when misapplied can be damaging to our lives.
Main Scripture Passages: Philippians 4; Jeremiah 29:8-11; Romans 8:28
The Prosperity Gospel: God does not will that you should always be happy, healthy, and wealthy.
The Positivity Gospel: God does not will that we place our source of peace and joy on anything other than our relationship with Him through Jesus.
Promised Upgrades: Every unfortunate situation in our lives is not something better waiting to happen - take the good with the bad, all by leaning on the work that Jesus has done in your life.
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, please head over to Legacy City’s Podcast here.
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Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie begins an exciting and mysterious new series: Angels & Demons!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
At The Movies - Avengers: Endgame
Pastor Robbie concludes our At The Movies series with Avengers: Endgame!
For the last week of our At The Movies series, Pastor Robbie brought an incredible word bringing out biblical themes from the worldwide phenomenon, Avengers: Endgame! If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you! Unfortunately, due to some copyright concerns, we were not able to record sermons for this series. Be sure to continue to check back in at Legacy City’s Blog going forward - this was the last week of our series, we hate to see it go but we hope you enjoyed all of the different movies we were able to cover!
This final week of our At The Movies series we decided to cover a movie that has become the biggest box-office hit in history, bringing in a whopping 2.79 billion dollars - that’s right billion! Don’t worry though, there are not any spoilers in this message, for those of you who may not have seen it yet and were planning to. It would take 10 or more different dedicated blog posts to really sum up what has led to the events of Endgame but we’ll do our best to summarize the story for context’s sake. Ps. Robbie summed it up best by saying, '“Avengers: Endgame is set after Thanos used the Infinity Stones at the end of the last movie, Infinity War - He put all of these super-powered, super-mystical stones into his gauntlet, which gave him the power to randomly wipe out half of the population, not just on Earth but in the whole universe. They called this event The Snap, because he snapped his fingers to make it happen. So half of all life, vaporized.”
We are used to seeing our heroes win, and triumph over evil right? Well, this time it doesn’t quite go like that, we are faced with what seems like overwhelming circumstances. When we take a look at what’s going on in our own lives we can begin to feel like a failure - like nothing is going our way everywhere we turn. One of the hero-like characters that we find in much of the New Testament is Paul, but so often do we forget that he used to be Saul; as Ps. Robbie said, “In the midst of his most zealous act yet, Saul falls flat on his face. He set out on a mission to wreak havoc on the Christians hiding in Damascus and he failed.” Saul was blinded on his way to persecute the Christian in Damascus and hearing the thundering voice of Jesus address him ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ (Acts 9:4), he is left powerless! The first step in Saul/Paul’s journey shows us that Failure is for certain - we all fall short of the glory of God.
People deal with failure in their lives in very different ways, as the many characters in Avengers: Endgame do; from ‘Black Widow, she can't relax, she has to take control and try to fix what went wrong - we might term that a workaholic; the character HawkEye, He’s so angry and heartbroken and frustrated that he tries to take revenge on people who are still doing wrong in the world - like he’s trying to say if I can’t fix what went wrong, I am at least going to try to make something right.’ Just like Saul who has been blinded by the very one he sought to go and persecute, our heroes are struggling to deal with what has occurred - but there is good news! Failure is not final, and what we do in dealing with our failure matters! Saul was directed into Damascus and is brought into their Christian circle - at his lowest, Saul chose Jesus! Saul took his failures and he laid them down at the feet of Jesus. He didn’t come up with a new strategy.
Laying his life down at Jesus’ feet opened Saul, now Paul, into a whole new world of possibility - a world that Paul took to very quickly and seriously. In Acts 9:19-20 we see ‘and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” Could we name somebody that has had a bigger impact on spreading the faith? All of his greatest feats came after his failure because he let his failures push him forward. Paul experienced failure in his life, but he did not stay a failure - it was not his identity, and it doesn’t have to be yours either! Our Bible says that we are more than conquerors in Christ, we are joint-heirs! In Romans 8:28 we see that Jesus is working all things together for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose; your failure doesn’t have to be final! When your SIN and your failure separated you from him, Jesus said, “Whatever it takes! I’m going to get them back, even if I have to die in the process.”
What will you choose - Failure or victory in Christ?
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Avengers: Endgame - literally the most successful movie ever made, go check it out if you haven’t!
Main Scripture Passages: Acts 9:3-20; Romans 8:28; John 3:16
Failure is for Certain
Failure is Not Final - What we do with Failure Matters.
Own your Failure, don’t let your Failure own you!
Unfortunately, due to copyright concerns, we will not be able to record audio sermons for this series - but if you would like to explore what sermons we do have recorded, visit here.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
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Join us next Sunday for Pastor Robbie to speak on something special that God has laid on his heart!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
At The Movies - The Sandlot
Elder Adam Weyer shows us how to Conquer our ‘Beast’ from The Sandlot in Jonah 1!
This fourth week of our At The Movies series, Legacy City Church gathered together to see what biblical themes we could find in the sports and 90’s classic The Sandlot. Elder Adam Weyer brought the word this past Sunday out of Jonah 1 - we are so thankful to have such passionate and able Elders who are willing to preach the Word! If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you! Unfortunately, due to some copyright concerns, we will not be able to have recorded sermons for this series. Be sure to continue to check back in at Legacy City’s Blog going forward - next week we will be finishing the series!
If you haven’t seen The Sandlot before, the plot essentially is a coming-of-age story about a boy coming into a new environment that brings him into their group through baseball. At first, there are some growing pains about being ‘the new kid’, but the group embraces him as their own! On the field that they play baseball, the Sandlot, there is a big wooden fence that separates the kids from a junkyard with a big scary dog - the Beast. Eventually, they have to overcome their fears by going over the fence to retrieve a really valuable baseball and they’re met with very different circumstances than they ever would have thought!
The Sandlot is a fun and whimsical story, but there are a lot of really biblical themes that we see play out through some days at the Sandlot. The whole story surrounds the danger that the big wooden fence suggests - this is closed off area to the kids and all they hear are big scary growls of the Beast on the other side. El. Adam hit the ground running with the first chapter of Jonah when God prompts Jonah to go and minister to a dangerous people who have a history of being against the things of God (Jn. 1:1-3). The history of the Ninevites was Jonah’s big wooden fence - his fear overcame his faithfulness towards God and His plan for Jonah and the people of Ninevah.
Just like in The Sandlot, the story of Jonah is only getting started - the fence is meant to be acknowledged and it is meant to be conquered. It isn’t always fun or pretty to have to face, but Jonah eventually comes to embrace his calling to go and minister to the people of Ninevah; maybe your journey has felt similar to Jonah’s, I mean, he had to get thrown overboard during a storm to realize what he needed to do (Jn 1:4-17)! In the Sandlot, the kids eventually build up the courage to scale the fence and go after the baseball hit over it. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but that big bad Beast, wasn’t at all what the kids thought it to be. In our walks with God, we have to identify what our ‘Beasts’ are - we can conquer them because our faithfulness comes from a mighty and powerful God!
Where is your faithfulness towards the ‘Beast’ in your life? Are we still gazing at our big wooden fence wondering how we will ever build up the courage to scale it - or are we seeking after the faithfulness we see in Scripture of great men and women of God like Jonah? Seek the Lord in prayer, in studying His Word, and community in His Church; the powerful acts of faith we see in Scripture are meant as more than an example to us, they are testaments to God’s faithfulness towards our faithfulness!
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
The Sandlot - such a great sports and 90’s classic, go check it out!
Main Scripture Passage: Jonah 1:1-17
What Beast is on the other side of your Fence? (Jonah 1:1-3)
Go, and Face the Beast! (Jonah 1:4-17)
Where is your faith in your situation?
Unfortunately, due to copyright concerns, we will not be able to record audio sermons for this series - but if you would like to explore what sermons we do have recorded, visit here.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
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Join us next Sunday when we conclude the At The Movies series with Avengers: Endgame! We have one last week, and it’s going to be awesome - We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
At The Movies - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Pastor Robbie covers Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone through Exodus 17!
We just finished our third week of our At The Movies series where we covered Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone! The whole Harry Potter series is a grand adventure of conflict and resolution as we walk through the years with Harry, Ron and Hermione - we were so excited to be able to go through such an impacting series to so many of us! If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you! Unfortunately, due to some copyright concerns, we will not be able to have recorded sermons for this series. Be sure to continue to check back in at Legacy City’s Blog going forward in this series!
If you’re not familiar with the plot of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or any part of the whole - there are 7 books and 8 movies by the way!), it first and foremost is not a story that invokes ‘evil practices or demonic worship’ in any way. Harry Potter, on a core level, is a fictional story about a boy (Harry) who comes into a world of wizardry and is thrown into an epic adventure to combat evil forces that are coming against him and his friends. This first movement in the story is an introduction to the world Harry is now living in, where we see him being assimilated into a community and a particular ‘House’ that will become his ‘home away from home’. We are also introduced to the evil wizard causing tremendous problems in their world (Voldemort) who Harry is empowered to fight against.
Pastor Robbie used three different clips from this first movie that showed us some very specific points that have been true ever since the days of Moses in the book of Exodus. In Exodus 17, we see that after Moses has brought the people of Israel out of their oppression in Egypt, a truly demonic force comes against them in Amalek and his people. An epic battle ensues at Ex. 17:8 and we see something very specific from Moses concerning the battle. In Ex. 17:10-11, Moses’ hands are raised before the Lord, and while his hands are raised, the battle goes in the people of Israel’s favor! We all have different forces come against us, be that various issues in our lives or very real demonic oppression, but we can know that God’s Hand moves when we pray to him!
Now Moses is an awesome guy, someone that God chose to use for the benefit of his people, but he (like all of us) needed people surrounding him that were willing to assist and build him up. In Ex. 17:12-13, Aaron and Hur hold Moses’ hands up in the air when he grows weary from his task. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I could hold my hands up for the entirety of a military battle! I would need help, I would need to have people around me to pick me up when I need it!
Harry Potter is a gifted boy, but in his epic quest to defeat Voldemort, he needed his friends around him to help him with his task; Harry found this friendship in his assigned House at Hogwarts. When we come against various issues in our lives, things are going to be tough, things are going to seem impossible to go through - we need to have a strong ‘House’ around us to help keep us going!
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Harry Potter (the whole series) is just incredible - still totally worth watching right now!
Main Scripture Passage (Exodus 17)
You will be under attack at different points in your life, but always remember that God’s Hand moves when you pray! (Ex. 17:10-11)
‘I don't care how smart you are, how strong you are, how resolved you are, to win your battle - you need other people.’ (Ps. Robbie)
We are meant to be together in community, we were made to be in a common House together - find your Ron and Hermione!
Unfortunately, due to copyright concerns we will not be able to record audio sermons for this series - but if you would like to explore what sermons we do have recorded, visit here.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
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Join us next Sunday as we jump into our next installment of At the Movies! We are so excited to be back in this series - We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
At the Movies - The Lion King
Guest Speaker and Pastor Michael Bayne dived into The Lion King and 1 Samuel!
This past Sunday was our second installment of our At the Movies series! This past Gathering, Guest Speaker and Pastor Micheal Bayne brought to light The Lion King! If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you! Unfortunately, due to some copyright concerns, we will not be able to have recorded sermons for this series. Be sure to continue to check back in at Legacy City’s Blog going forward in this series!
The Lion King is a grand story of wonder, mistakes, betrayal, and overcoming difficult odds. It’s a story many of us know well, and it has so many scenes that have likely stuck with us long after seeing them!
Ps. Michael started his message off with such an impacting scene from The Lion King - Mufasa’s death! We can’t believe he broke our hearts so early, but the emotional fuel got us going right out of the gates! Simba idolized his father, and expected him to be around to help him come into maturity as he succeeded his father as Ruler of Pride Rock. So often in our lives when we are confronted with unexpected (and particularly painful) situations we can begin to doubt God’s path and plan for our lives. We stayed in 1 Samuel for most of the morning, and learned some very important lessons. 1 Sam. 16:1 tells us, “The LORD said to Samuel, ‘How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.’” Even though Simba could not see what his life would look like going forward, his adventure would ultimately lead him exactly where he needed to be! In our own lives, no matter what the circumstances, we know that God is always working ahead of our pain and problems with restoration and redemption.
1 Samuel 16 has a lot of different lessons that we can learn from; especially v6-7 and v11-13.
With the Lord having rejected Saul as Israel’s king (1 Sam. 15), Samuel was concerned for the people of Israel not having a king who sought after right relationship with the Lord. In 1 Sam. 16:6-7 we see Samuel believing ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him (Eliab) (v6); the Lord has other plans saying to Samuel in v7, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ Declaring to us that God longs for different things than what we long for. Our human hearts sometimes look for the wrong things in people, but God is always looking at the core of their hearts.
Ps. Michael concluded his message by hitting on 1 Sam. 16:11-13 encouraging us with two very critical points. No matter what position we find ourselves in, just like David who would not have expected what came about in his life, God goes with us into struggle as much as he rescues us from struggle! We are God’s people, and he is with us! It doesn’t matter where you are in your life or your walk with Christ, God is in the business of using broken people to accomplish His goals for His Kingdom! Just like David, sometimes the most unlikely candidate is God’s primary choice for the job!
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
The Lion King - such an incredible classic, you should totally watch it (if you haven’t already!).
God is always working ahead of your pain and problem with restoration and redemption. (1 Sam. 16:1)
God longs for different things than you long for. (1 Sam. 16:6-7)
God goes with us into struggle as much as He rescues us from struggle. (1 Sam. 16:11-13)
God chooses and uses unlikely people to make a difference in this world.
Unfortunately, due to copyright concerns we will not be able to record audio sermons for this series - but if you would like to explore what sermons we do have recorded, visit here.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
Instagram: LegacyCityGWD
Twitter: LegacyCityGWD
Join us next Sunday as we jump into our next installment of At the Movies! We are so excited to be back in this series - We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!