Sermon Rewind - 4/17/2011 - Ruth: Receive Like the Beggar

Benjie Kim ends the Benchwarmers series with his take on Ruth. She was from the hated land of Moab and yet God still used her to demonstrate the beauty and wonder of hesed - an extraordinary act of kindness, love, and self-giving. Our calling as followers of Christ is to not only demonstrate hesed, but to also take on the posture of the beggar - in order to receive God's love with openness and humility.

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Sermon Rewind 02/27/11 - Freedom in Christ

Colossians 2:8-12 (NIV)

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. ⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Benjie Kim continued the One series by paraphrasing Colossians 2: “Jesus is the only way for us to experience freedom.” No human philosophy, tradition, or pursuit can achieve this, certainly not our pursuit of the illusion of safety. We have darkness within us that no amount of piety or good works can counter. Only Jesus and the cross can free us from our darkness.

Sermon rewind: 12.26.2010 (Benjie Kim)

Matthew 6:25-34

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Benjie Kim ends the year with a message from Matthew 6:25-34 - a familiar story for most, about not worrying. However it comes when we seek His kingdom first. His kingdom matters more than ours. Our own little "kingdoms": career, ministry, self identity, family...all must be put on His altar. He will always provide for our needs and not necessarily all our wants. To not worry, a command of Jesus, is a reminder that He is enough. Nothing else. His glory is where you will find peace for the years to come.

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http://noc.newsong.net/grow/resources/message-archives/