Central Baptist Church, Portsmouth, Virginia

Sometimes the language we use in the church sounds a little funny. Maybe it’s seemed strange to you that you’d call people brother and sister who never showed up when it was time to clean the house, or bathe the dog, or take out the trash. Well, this week Jesus will talk about family and we’ll see just how meaningful those terms truly are. So, come celebrate with the family of God this weekend. It really is a special thing.

This week we will continue our Empowered study through the gospel of Mark. We will see that Jesus is the ultimate authority.

Have you ever noticed, that most of the time as people become more and more popular they become more and more isolated. Not so with Jesus. He was always ready to teach, always ready to heal, always ready for the needy, for the outcast, for his critics. I hope you’ll fall a little more in love with the Savior as you see that he’s always ready for you.

We often live our lives rushing from one event to the next, feeling captive to the demands of our schedules. We’ve been conditioned to believe this is just what a “normal” family does. But you weren’t made for this constant spin cycle. This year we will be studying through the gospel of Mark. It is fast-paced and action packed. We see Jesus constantly on the move demonstrating both his power and compassion. And yet, this gospel teaches us how to slow down and rethink our suffocating, breakneck pace so that we truly see people and develop genuine relationships with them. We’ll see that we were made for more than the hamster wheel of life. Jesus empowers his church to live sacrificially as we serve others. So, join us as we discover what the Empowered life is all about.

This is a special week! We will have Jeremy and Carissa Lynn with us. They are missionaries who we support in Ethiopia. I'm so excited for you to hear from them. In addition to that we will be asking the question, how should we think about sanctification. This topic is often debated and I hope we'll see that just as justification is the need of the hour for our culture, sanctification is the need of the hour for the church.

As we continue our series, what were you thinking?, we turn our attention to the doctrines of justification and adoption. These seemingly straightforward settled doctrines are so extremely critical that we think rightly and often about them. During this message we will examine both the Scripture and our culture to see just how timely these doctrines really are.

So many books, tv shows, and movies delve into the topic of the spiritual world. There is a certain curiosity, intrigue, and fascination with the unseen realm even in broader culture. One lady explained her gardening success by getting to know the spirits of each of her plants. While that certainly sounds silly, often times the church doesn’t know quite how to respond. In Christianity, there tends to be a fog and confusion related to these issues. So, this week we are asking the question - how should we think about angels, Satan, and demons. It is sure to be provocative and thought provoking.

Potential. There’s a lot wrapped up in that word. It’s fulfilling when we see someone live up to his/her potential. On the other hand, it’s disappointing and sometimes even tragic when we think of what could have been, when people fail to reach their potential. When God created the first humans, potential was bubbling and bursting everywhere. But things didn’t work out as planned. And we can still see the damage clearly today. So what are we supposed to think about that? Revise our expectations? Give up? Try harder? This week we’ll be talking about what it means to be human and how God has made a plan for our lives with more potential than we could ever imagine!

Are you well known? I don’t mean whether you’re famous or not. I mean does another person know you well, inside and out? Is there somebody in your life who knows all your secrets, who has full access to the details of your life, and who still loves you for who you are? That kind of closeness is rare in our society. Even people under the same roof often don’t know much about what makes each other tick. And it can be lonely when you feel like nobody knows you. But we’ve been designed for more than anonymity and being unknown. We can be well-known—even fully known—and we can have those kinds of relationships with other people too.

In a changing and confusing world have you ever had questions? Maybe questions about God, questions about the Bible, questions about humanity and sin. During our next series titled What Were You Thinking? we will be asking and answering some big questions like those. The fact is, there are certain questions that every Christian should have answers to because what we believe affects how we live. So, whether you are curious about Christianity, a new believer, or a mature disciple-maker I hope this series will bring clarity of thinking so that you live lives of impact.

In life we all need reminders. How many reminders do you have set for each week? As Paul finishes his letter to Titus he knows the church will need reminders as well.

Maybe you are familiar with the definition of grace that says grace is giving us what we don’t deserve. That is a good and accurate definition. However, what can sometimes be lost is everything that grace that gives. This week, as we taking one small step at a time toward right living by studying the book of Titus we will the different ramifications of grace. So, come be encouraged by this undeserved gift that God gives.

In the family and in the church everyone has a role to play. So, Paul isn’t letting anyone off the hook as tells Titus to call a family meeting with the diverse group of people. He wants to make sure that everyone knows what they should be focused on. These pointed instructions remain a great source of accountability for all of us. Come learn what every family and every church needs from every member.

We all want good leaders in every aspect of life. Yet, all too often it seems as if good leaders are hard to find. Paul understood for Titus to effectively make disciples on Crete he would need to appoint good leaders. So, Paul gave Titus and now he gives us the qualities we should look for when choosing our leaders. The amazing thing is these probably aren’t the qualities we would have produced.

Increasingly, people seem threatened by the whole concept of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. We don’t like the idea of someone telling us what to think, how to feel, or how to act. Moral relativism seems to rule the day. During our next series, One Small Step, we’ll see how Paul confronts these same issues during his day as he encourages Titus to take one small step at a time toward right thinking and right living. Titus is a small book full of practical theology that reminds us grace does not give us the freedom to sin… it gives us the freedom not to.

We have reached the end of our study through the minor prophets. One of the things we’ve seen throughout this study is that while God is personal with His people, He is not private. He forms a people for Himself, but God’s people living together is the most powerful testimony to the character of our God. Malachi exposes why this reality is sometimes missed.

Throughout our journey through the Minor Prophets we have seen God’s love on display. We have seen his love in his blessings and we have seen his love in his judgment. Through our study, we have also been challenged as a people on the importance of genuine worship and faithful commitment to our Lord.  We have learned and been reminded that God takes His covenant relationship with us seriously. As we start our study in the book of Malachi this Sunday, the last book of the Minor Prophets, we will see that despite how lethargic we can be towards God at times, we are called to be a committed people to God and also honor our commitment to others.  

We all have burdens, don’t we? Those things that cause our heart to be heavy. Sometimes it’s knowledge that we want so desperately to convey. Other times it’s a pain that is so difficult to express. Zechariah concludes his prophesy with two oracles or burdens that he wanted so desperately for the people of Judah to understand and live. Come, hear what those burdens are and be challenged by the heart of this prophet.

This week we jump into the crazy and confusing minor prophet of Zechariah.

There are so many loud voices telling us how to think, how to feel, how to live. We might recognize that only God has the say, but sometimes we wonder will the other voices ever stop? Will they ever get quiet? This week, Zephaniah will help us deal with those voices now and we’ll see how God will quiet everything down for us in the end.