Cobblestone Church - Paris

Everywhere we look we see the effects of sin in our broken world. Every system is in one way or another broken, even in the church. But Jesus is bringing a new system, His kingdom, restoring things to the way they were meant to be. His desire is that we would be set free from the broken systems to a full and free life in him. 

You might have a knowledge of who Jesus was, you may even have a positive opinion on what He did, but that only means you are close to the kingdom of God, but close to the kingdom is not in the kingdom. Recognizing and submitting to the sovereignty of Jesus, making him Lord of your life is the only way to be a part of the Kingdom. Jesus is the Son of God, saviour to all those who trust in him, and needs to be Lord of your life.

How many times have you fallen into te rut of going through the paces? So often we fall prey to faithless function, though from the outside looking in it seems we have everything running smoothly we are in fact where off course. Jesus does not accept our faithless function. What Jesus desires is for us to tap into the very power and pressence of God as we worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. The best way to maintain a life giving relationship with God is through faith. We can exercise that faith through prayer. Gd desires a relationship with us that is based on faith and transformed by His grace. Don't let your functional relationship or your unforgiveness harden your heart, forgive others and let go of your lifeless function.

Jesus invites us to follow him, to follow him to the cross. Discipleship always happens in the shadow of the cross, when we are following Jesus joining others in His mission we get squeezed, its in these moments that discipleship really happens. Humbly following Jesus is how we can be freed from our blindness and enjoy a discipleship relationship with him. Mark 10:1-31

When it comes to following Jesus many of the things we hold dear need to be left behind. That includes our opinions and traditions, even our relationships. Anything that stands in the way of Jesus being King needs to go! But whatever we have to sacrifice to follow him pales in comparision to the rich rewards we find in following him both now and for eternity. 

Many things in the economy of God's kingdom are opposite those of this kingdom, especially when it comes to getting to the top. Our human desire for prominence stands in the way of our ability to freely follow Jesus. Jesus calls us to give up that desire and instead to become the least, serving others instead of ourselves. 

This Sunday we joined up with Grace Gospel Church in anticipation of our upcoming Easter Celebration. Kevin took us through the account of Jesus' intimate and symbolic act of washing his disciples feet. Knowing that the Father had put all things under his authority he got up, poured water into a basin and washed the disciples' feet! Jesus has done so much to serve us and in return he asks us to serve one another. Will you engage in intimate service of others as an act of service and worship of your king Jesus?

Randy takes us through the book of Zephaniah and reminds us of God's imminent retrun and the righteous judgement that comes with it. The encouragement in all of this is that God truly wants people to be saved from the penalty of sin and be restored to himself. For those who have not yet turned to God the encouragement is to do so, for those who have the encouragement is to reach out and let others know of the love God has for them.

Cobblestone Church is a local expression of a global and eternal body known as the CHURCH. Every year at Cobblestone we remind ourselves of why we are here, in Paris, to proclaim the truth about Jesus and point people to Him. Each year we again commit ourselves to one another and to God to be His people in this place, committing ourselves to the journey together growing as disciples (followers of Jesus) in Community on Mission. Tom Haines gives encouragement to the commitment we make with one another as he leads us through a 30,000 foot fly over of the book of Romans.

Jesus laid out for us in the Bible the best way to structure the local church, our best chance at becoming a healthy church is to follow the pattern laid out for us there. Healthy Strcutures produce healthy churches and healthy churches produe healthy and growing disciples. We want to honour Jesus in everything we do especially in how we structure Cobblestone Church, and that is why we are an Elder Lead Church.

How could a loving God send people to Hell? Isn't it a contradiction to say that God is love and that He judges us? Isn't Hell a little overkill? What is Hell anyway? All of these are great questions, tough questions to wrestle with, but that shouldn't stop us from asking them. Listen and find out why Hell actually shows us that God is a loving God.

How can God exist when there is so much evil and suffering in the world today? If He really was all powerful and all loving why would he allow such evil and suffering to go on? Q/A follows the message

Presenting the evidence for the veracity of the Bible with the intent to show that what we have in the 66 books of the Bible are Trustworthy in that we can be confident that we have the right information, to be True in that we can trust what the Bible says, and to Relevant in that we can rely on it today. Q/A follows at the end of the message.

Presenting the arguements for the existence of God with the intention to show belief in God to be reasonable and that a relationship with Him is attainable. Q/A follows at the end of the recording.

Often times we are plagued with a faith that produces no results. Sometimes that is due in part to a lack of belief in the thing in which we place our faith. We think it is our faith that is weak when in fact we don't fully appreciate or believe in the supreme power of the one in whom we place our faith. The glory of God is beyond comprehension or comparison, and it is in God that we put our faith. The only way to continue to walk in a faith that fully appreciates and experiences the full glory of God is through a consistent life of prayer, a life in close connection to the source of power.

Many people have an idea or an opinion of who Jesus is, even some who claim to follow Jesus don't have a really clear understanding of who Jesus is. We often talk about how grateful we are that Jesus saved us but not often enough about the fact that Jesus is King and he rules over the heavens and the earth and me! Do you take Jesus on his terms or your own. Are your thoughts focussed on the will of God or on your own will? Its not until we see Jesus as King, until we believe it in our hearts, that we will experience a truly free life.

Sometimes it can be hard to believe, and if we are honest sometimes we dont really want to believe, faith can be a struggle from time to time. We often times see God working but dont understand it, or we ask God to work and we dont understand how he is working. If we are not careful our hearts can become hardened toward the things of God, but there is a solution - Jesus.

Everyone is entitled to believe what they want to believe, but if you were really honest with yourself would you say that waht you are putting your faith in is satisfying you? Do the answers you hold onto really give sufficient hope, understanding, or insight? Jesus took a little hiatus from his mission to the nation of Israel and along the way came across a number of opportunities to express his compassion and grace through his divine power and authority in the lives of those outside the nation of Israel. And guess what? There was plenty of compassion and grace to go around, and his compassion and grace was more than enough to satisfy the needs and longings of the people. Something he can do for you as well.

The reality is, yes there are hyporcites in the church, but not the way you might see it. In fact outside of the work of Jesus in our lives we are all just play actors. Playing at life, playing at faith, even playing at following Jesus, all the while trying to clean ourselves up, making ourselves to be good people. But only Jesus can make us the real thing, really cleansed on the inside. *Recording issues resulted in bad audio, our apologies*

Are you hoping that you have been good enough this year so that Santa will come through for you? Is your hope that 2018 will be better than 2018, that this is the year that things will go your way? The good news of Christmas is that it gives us Hope beause it reminds that God kept His promise and that He will keep His promise!