Grace Central Coast

Have you opened a gift only to discover it contained lots of other gifts? That's Jesus! And one more reason why Paul calls him God's INDESCRIBABLE gift.

One of the reasons Jesus is God's INDESCRIBABLE gift is because Jesus is the most surprising gift in all history. No one saw God's Savior coming the way he did. But our familiarity with the Christmas story means we often miss it's surprises.

Christmas is not a random event on a timeline. It is the epicenter of all human longing, seeking, and meaning! The interwoven tapestry of all scripture, history, and spirituality have all promised the coming of our King.

How do you see the local church? How does God see the local church? How we see the local church is vitally important, because our view of the church will determine our commitment to the church and to one another. Paul continues his fight to unite God's people in the local by teaching us who we are and all that is ours in Christ.

As we continue our MESSY CHURCH study of First Corinthians, we come to a bunch of helpful and humbling reminders for a church family and for church leaders as Paul continues to dismantle the factions and unite the church around the Gospel.

God's design and desire for his people is spiritual growth and maturity. We learn here that the Corinthian Christians aren't growing up. They are still spiritual babies. This is true for some of us, too. Paul here reminds us that God has given us all we need to grow as he challenges us to GROW UP! 

Paul reminds the Corinthians, and us, to forsake worldly wisdom and rest our faith solely on the power of the good news of Jesus Christ.

God uses a "foolish" and "weak" message, means and people to save perishing people. Why? We explore that question as we continue our "Messy Church" series in First Corinthians.

In the first four chapters of First Corinthians, Paul calls the divided church of Corinth to a renewed unity around the Gospel. In 1 Corinthians 1:17-25 he tells us WHY the Gospel is a all supreme and all sufficient basis for the unity of God's people.

Paul loves the Messy Church at Corinth because God loves the Messy Church at Corinth. It's because Paul loves the church that he won't leave them in their mess, but leads them forward to become all that God has declared them to be. And it doesn't take him long to jump write into one of the core issues plaguing the church. The church is divided.

We close out our BY FAITH vision series with Paul's extraordinary prayer for the church in Ephesians 3:14-21 and here we discover we can live by bold risk-taking faith for God!

Hebrews 11 tells the stories of everyday people whom God called to live by faith. He invited them to believe, act, and watch him move. We can take great encouragement today from their faith as God invites us to do the same. SCRIPTURE READING: Hebrews 11:1-16

The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 is both surprising and challenging as we kick off our 2025 Vision Series titled "By Faith."  SCRIPTURE READING: Matthew 25:14-30

When asked about the most important issues of the day, Jesus reframes the conversation to be about the most important issue of all: the state of our souls. With great love and patience, Jesus urges us to repent while we still can. SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 13:1-9

Jesus calls someone a fool, and it’s not because of anything they did... In doing so, Jesus teaches us that every aspect of our life can be given to the glory of God. SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 12:13-21

In this parable Jesus calls out the religious leaders for abandoning God, resulting in His bold claim to be the cornerstone. This was not received well then, how will you receive it? SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 20:1-19

In perhaps Jesus' most famous parable, he lays down a radical call to show mercy to those in need. It's a story loved by almost everyone, but lived out by very few. Today we explore what it looks like to answer this call through the power Jesus provides. SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 10:25–37