Resurrection South Austin

What does it mean to be rooted in the Gospel, in a people, and a place?

We’re in the 4th week of a series, “Heaven & Earth” where we have been studying the book of Hebrews. Specifically, we’ve been meditating on this one idea: Jesus, our high priest. Scripture tells us that Jesus, as our high priest, brings the presence of God to the people of God and brings the people before the face of God. God and his people, together. Think about that. What does it mean that the Incarnate One, Jesus Christ, who walked around in a body on earth, now sits at the right hand of God the Father in heaven praying for us, working for our good, and directing the course of history? Even for Christians, this is a lot to imagine. But the real scandal is this: God is not somewhere else. We are in His presence. And Heaven is breaking in to South Austin, right now, because of Jesus Christ our high priest. That’s what we’re considering this morning in Hebrews chapter 7:23-28.

The book of Hebrews is all about the priesthood of Jesus, who mediates the presence of God to the people of God and who brings the people before the face of God. What does it mean that the Incarnate Jesus, who walked around in a body on earth, is now in the throne room of God itself, bringing God to us and us to God? How might it change our lives in south Austin if we were aware that heaven is breaking in right here, right now because of Jesus Christ?

We are in a series called “First Fruits” where we have been rediscovering the generosity of God. Psalmist tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,” which means that all that we have, every last bit, is a gift from God entrusted to our care. So we’ve been asking, what does it mean to be good stewards, caretakers of these gifts from God. Last week Fr. Jonathan talked about how God invites us to be stewards of others—the poor, the “outsiders.” This week we see that God has given us a great gift and power in the use of words. They have the power to build up or destroy, to give life or to mislead.

We’re beginning a series titled “First Fruits” where we will be rediscovering the lavish generosity of God. As a young church, we know this personally as we prepare to launch our church, God has given us this beautiful gift of Resurrection South Austin. If you have an imagination for what a “church” really is—that is the Body of Christ in our neighborhood where God is setting things right—you realize that this gift is the first fruit of God’s goodness. If that wasn’t enough, now, you and I are made His stewards of it. Taking all of this in, it’s good for us to ask, how do we steward this gift according to the Lord’s desire? In the next weeks together, we’ll be looking at the different ways we can become good stewards of the gifts of God. To begin, this week, we’re going to explore the phrase “first fruits,” in scripture. We’re going to see that God invites us to prioritize Him in what we value, and ultimately recognize that our wealth is a gift from God that we are responsible to steward well. In other wo

We are in a series called “First Fruits” where we have been rediscovering the generosity of God. “The earth is the Lord’s,” the psalmist tells us, “and everything in it,” all that we have, every last bit, is a gift from God entrusted to our care. So we’ve been asking, what does it mean to be good stewards, caretakers of these gifts from God, “whose good pleasure it is to give us the kingdom.” Last week we talked about the phrase “first fruits,” giving God the first, best, portion of our wealth. We saw that worshipping God with our money and practicing acts of generosity frees up our hearts, so that we can truly lift them up to the Lord. This week the picture of God’s generosity in the book of James gets much bigger. We’re going to see that in Jesus, we have become God’s first fruits, and we’ll ask what it means to be good stewards of this gift? That’s where we are headed, let’s look at our reading in James 1.

This is the last week in our series called “First Fruits” where we have been rediscovering the generosity of God. The psalmist tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,” which means that all that we have, every last bit, is a gift from God entrusted to our care. So we’ve been asking, what does it mean to be good stewards, caretakers of these gifts from God. To wrap up our series, this week we are considering how we can be good stewards of the gift of prayer.