Antioch Community Church - Sermon Audio

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity." - Psalm 133:1 The Body of Christ is most powerful when it is unified and when we all feel like we have a part. There is a sense of belonging that we experience when we are adopted into the family of God and join our brothers and sisters as one body in unity. Listen to the full sermon series in the "Our Inheritance" playlist.

This week, College Pastor Austin Murray led us through Ephesians 2:1-10. As a church, we learned what it looks like to allow the old things to pass away and welcome in the new life that Jesus has for us. There is so much freedom in realizing, again and again, the joy of our Salvation paid for by the blood of Jesus. Lord, would we be a people that maintain the joy of our Salvation!

This Sunday, Dorothy Abshire walked us through Ephesians 1:15-23. This passage is packed with exhortations for how we should live–by praying for our local church body, asking God for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know Him better, setting our hearts on the hope of Jesus and not our natural world, remembering how He has valued us to exchange the life of His Son for our own lives, and remembering His supernatural power, without which nothing on earth would exist. Thank You, God, for all these things you have given to us!

Ephesians 1:11-14 can bring up some deep theological questions. This week, pastor Weston Nichols led us through an exploration of this passage's comments on election, security and love. Although every individual's beliefs on election and security need to be worked out through Scripture study and relationship with God, two things are very clear. First, God is able to do what our minds think is impossible or are unable to comprehend. Second, everything God does is driven by unfathomable love for us and a desire for us to love Him in return.

Happy Father's Day! Our Scripture for the day was fitting—Luke 15, the parable of The Prodigal Son. Carl Gulley taught on the causes of guilt and shame. Guilt is caused by the knowledge that we've wronged someone we love; shame is caused by the knowledge that because of that, we're no longer in right relationship with them. But, like the father in the parable, God not only forgives us, but likes us and wants to reconcile with us. And He celebrates us! Lord, thank you for being the best Father!

This week, Young Adult Pastor Jeremy King led us through Ephesians 2:1-10. We heard about the extravagant grace that God has made available to us. Without an understanding of Jesus' immeasurable sacrifice, though, and the immensity of how much it cost, we can't fully appreciate that grace. Lord, show us the extent to which You love us and pursue us, and mold our hearts to serve You well!

At times, evangelism may sound daunting or extremely challenging. In reality, though, the pressure is off of us. The Holy Spirit, living within us, is faithful to highlight to us each person who needs His love. When we live fully aware of the goodness, kindness and worthiness of Jesus, and when we live filled with and guided by the Holy Spirit, walking in step with Him becomes much more natural and much less challenging. Father, fill us with Your Holy Spirit and lead us to love the people who need You!

Jason Ramos shared with us this week on our calling to live a lifestyle of evangelism, as Jesus did. Rather than waiting for our next mission trip or scheduled outreach, let us be proactive to move outside of our circle of comfort and share Jesus' salvation with people who don't know God's love. God, make us bold, and give us eyes to see those You're calling us to love!

Happy Mother’s Day! Enjoy the deep wells of wisdom and encouragement shared by our panel of moms, who together have spent more than 142 years parenting their children in the Lord. Thank you, Laura Seibert, Dorothy Abshire, Melissa Wible, Tonja Carpenter and Laura Summersett. Happy Mother’s Day!

This month, we're focusing on sharing the love of Jesus and the story of His salvation with those around us who don't know Him. Two ways practically to do this are through sharing your own personal testimony and through the Bridge Diagram, which Jimmy demonstrated for us today. Lord, make us a people who show others Your love like they've never experienced!

In Acts 2, we see Jesus' followers at Pentecost obeying His last instruction to them: gather together and wait for the Holy Spirit to come to them. When He came, His power and presence was revealed through the disciples speaking in tongues so that every people group who heard them could understand their speech. This is in direct juxtaposition to the story of the Tower of Babel—when men gathered together in unity to rebel against God and were then separated, speaking in foreign tongues and no longer able to understand each other. What type of people do we want to be—a Pentecost people, or a Tower of Babel people? Lord, make us a Pentecost people!

In John 5, we see the story of a man who'd been lame for 38 years. He spent his days at the Pool of Bethesda (which means "House of Mercy" or "House of Grace"), waiting for the waters to be supernaturally stirred so that he could be helped into the pool for healing. But when Jesus visited the lame man, He asked if he wanted to be healed. When Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk, the lame man obeyed, and he was healed. Let us accept Jesus' healing and walk in obedience to His commands!

In John 5, we see the story of a man who'd been lame for 38 years. He spent his days at the Pool of Bethesda (which means "House of Mercy" or "House of Grace"), waiting for the waters to be supernaturally stirred so that he could be helped into the pool for healing. But when Jesus visited the lame man, He asked if he wanted to be healed. When Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk, the lame man obeyed, and he was healed. Let us accept Jesus' healing and walk in obedience to His commands!

Because of the trials of this life, we may often feel like Jesus' disciples that He encountered on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. Confused, grieving and blinded to the truth of Jesus' resurrection, they didn't even recognize Him when they saw Him. But as they spent time with Him and spoke with Him, and as they invited Him to stay with them, their eyes were opened, and they saw the miracle of His resurrection and salvation for them. Lord, open our eyes to see You in our lives!

This week, Jimmy Seibert walked us through Palm Sunday in Matthew 20 and 21. Like the blind men in Matthew 20, let us call out to Jesus for His salvation and healing. Like the disciples in Matthew 21, let us obey Jesus fully and immediately. Like Jesus, let us walk in profound humility. And like the crowds in Jerusalem, let us rightly worship Jesus and cry out to God on behalf of ourselves and others, "Hosanna!"—God, save us now!

In the 26 verses of John 17, Jesus speaks about "giving" 17 times. The importance of relinquishing what we hold is clear. But because of the goodness of God, in His Kingdom, surrender means giving up something lesser to gain something greater. Everybody has a place of authority or control. God is calling us to release these areas of authority so that He can give us something greater in return. After all, it's because of Jesus' surrender that we are redeemed. Lord, help us to surrender!

This week, Mick Murray taught again on John 17, where we see Jesus' prayer that we, His disciples, would walk in unity. Mick took us through the Scriptural evidence for what biblical unity is and what it is not. In the end, biblical unity is the greatest revelation of God in the earth today, that others might know Him, and conversely, our disunity is the greatest way to obscure the glory of God in our earth today. How do we unify? Repentance. God, we repent for our selfishness and divisiveness! Unify us once again!

This week, we looked again at Jesus' prayer for His followers in John 17. When we look at the world as God intended versus the world impacted by our sin, we see a huge disparity between God's perfect creation and our marred reality. It is through Jesus that we are sanctified to become more like God's original design, and it is through the Church that the world sees God's glory and goodness. Lord, we surrender—sanctify us!

Tending our lives in the areas we influence requires selflessness, intentionality and sacrifice but it brings about fruitfulness and beauty to ultimately glorify the Father. The original mandate from God to Adam and Eve is also a mandate to us. In the garden of our lives, we are called to tend to each space intentionally so that the Glory of God may be reflected unto the world through these spaces.