Working on a Sunday? Mowing your yard? Eating at a good fast food restaurant? The Sabbath is an issue that has been debated since Jesus’s day. Just what did Jesus have to say about it? His answer is less about the details of our Sundays (or Saturdays) and more about the gospel itself. http://media.blubrry.com/provjeff/providencejeffcity.com/media/Lord_of_the_Sabbath.mp3Subscribe: Apple…
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Part of faith is knowing how to wrestle with the questions that will inevitably come. Sometimes they are a nudge and sometimes they can overwhelm us. What do you do when there seems to be no answers? When life has taken you to a place you didn’t expect? In those times, there is no magic…
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John the Baptist is about as radically committed to the cause of Jesus as you’ll find anywhere in history. Yet even he had moments where he just wasn’t sure. What does that mean for us? What does it look like to struggle with doubt and fight for faith? We spend a couple of weeks looking…
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Jesus’s words in Matthew 10 are clear and our mission is laid out before us. These words have remarkable bearing on us today as we consider the world around us. How are Christians to respond (note: not our country) to this crisis and the evil that has caused it? We can’t ignore the clear instructions…
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When Jesus sends his disciples out, he doesn’t give them the most encouraging message. Full of warnings and promises of persecution and suffering, Jesus is honest about the mission that lies ahead of his disciples. However he ends with a note of encouragement that is intended to make them look beyond the things this world…
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Sometimes the Bible can be confusing. As Christmas approaches, we’ll hear of the Prince of Peace and Peace on Earth. Yet Jesus proclaims in Matthew 10 that he didn’t come to bring peace at all. Have we gotten Jesus all wrong or is there more to this message? It all depends on how you define…
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Fear is a reality for every one of us. No matter how much we try to run from it or hide it- we all have fears that hold sway over our lives. How do we fight those fears? Jesus had disciples that would have been rightly afraid, but he knew how to fight those fears….
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Jesus continues to rally his team, but his message isn’t really the inspiration you’d expect. Instead he tells them that things are going to be hard on this journey, and it may cost them everything. How can a man call anyone to a mission that may cost them their life? It only makes sense if…
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The pregame speech is a Friday night staple all across America. A good coach can use a carefully crafted pregame speech to motivate and inspire his team to play at their best ability. In Matthew 10 Jesus gives something of a pregame speech to his disciples. As he sends them out, he preps them for what…
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As Jesus teaches and preaches the message of the Kingdom of Heaven, his message is marked by his love and compassion for the crowds that followed him. Too often, our picture of Jesus looks nothing like this. In this familiar passage, we see that Jesus was driven by grace. Which begs the question: Are we?…
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Jesus and his disciples didn’t always play by the religious rules of the day, and it made people ask questions. When people wanted to know why his disciples didn’t fast, Jesus made it clear that there were more important things at hand. When Jesus is around, things change and his disciples celebrate. It was true then,…
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As we study the book of Matthew, I think there is no one more surprised that this book exists than Matthew himself. A tax collector and outcast by the religious, Jesus sought out men like Matthew to be his disciple. Why would he do this? What is it that makes Jesus surprise us at every…
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As Jesus continues working and performing miracles, people are confronted with the reality that this Jesus is no ordinary man. Their response, just like ours today, varies greatly from person to person. How we respond to Jesus will tell us a lot about our hearts and our view of Jesus. How do you respond to…
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Our lives are usually built around a routine that gives us both structure and the illusion of control. The nature of life is that our routines will be disrupted, and all of us will be blindsided at some point. How do your respond when your control is lost and you are tossed around at sea?…
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The call to discipleship is not a road many choose to walk. Yet the church today sees afraid to admit this. Jesus didn’t hesitate. He knew that a cross was at the end of our journey, and it must be a part of ours. http://media.blubrry.com/provjeff/providencejeffcity.com/media/Foxes_Have_Holes.mp3Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Faith is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the bible and around churches. But do we mean the same thing the bible does when we talk about faith? Jesus’s miracles in Matthew 8 give us a peek into the biblical view of faith. Does your definition line up? How about your life?…
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Jesus final words of the Sermon on the Mount are sobering. The weight of eternity hangs in his teaching. And it all leads to the question: Do you know him? http://media.blubrry.com/provjeff/providencejeffcity.com/media/I_Never_knew1.mp3Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Jesus words carry a weight that is unparalleled. When he finishes the Sermon on the Mount, the crowd leaves “astonished.” If we are to call ourselves disciples, we must have the same view of Jesus- a man with authority. That is the rock our lives are built on. http://media.blubrry.com/provjeff/providencejeffcity.com/media/Astonishment_and_Authority.mp3Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
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“The week that changed the nation.” That was CNN’s take on the past week in America. We live in a unique moment in history as we watch our nation shift to a post-Christian culture. How are Christian’s to respond? Is it really all doom and gloom? Well it may be hard to watch, but it…
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Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. A statement we know to be true- but only in the past. Each day we convince ourselves that today’s desires are the right ones and we know best what we need. Jesus shows us in the Sermon on the Mount that we don’t truly…
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