Mosaic Church | Winter Garden Audio

As Jesus prepares to leave His disciples, He promises that the Spirit inside them will be better than Himself beside them. The Spirit coming is to our advantage because He has been sent to fill our hearts into order to push out the realm of hell and it’s power in our lives. Hell is evicted where God’s presence moves in. Knowing we have the indwelling of His presence and power, we can pray, “Spirit of God, transform the Hell out of my heart.”

The inhabiting God in a building now becomes the incarnate God in a body. For hundreds of years, the temple served as a means of the glory and grace of God in the midst of sinful people. Now a new temple has arrived: receiving worship, fulfilling the law, and extending forgiveness. This new and greater temple is embodied in the person of Jesus, the lamb who was slain for us, to gather all kinds of people from all nations to receive the worship and glory due Him for all eternity.

After the Tabernacle, The Temple became the permanent structure where the presence of God dwelt with His people. Despite the staining power of humanity’s sin, the Temple showed God inviting His people into His presence of concentrated goodness by showing them how and providing the way for them to come close. Jesus is the spotless lamb of atonement whose life addressed our sin problem and made the presence of God a constant reality. His life and death on the cross provided the ransom for our life and our purification so that we can run to His throne of grace without fear.

The Tabernacle serves as a tangible representation of life with the God who dwells with His people. The layout and furniture of the Tabernacle were patterned after the realities of God’s merciful rule and reign over all of creation, His invitation to fellowship with Him through His provision, and the light and life that we have in Him now and forever. The story of the Tabernacle reminds us that despite our rebellion, God’s heart is to move in among us to redeem and restore us.

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth, overlapping one another in the beautiful life of the expandable garden of Eden. In this narrative, we glimpse God’s life-giving presence and his human image-bearers living in right relationship with one another. However, very quickly, the beauty in the garden shattered through our rebellion. And yet, God is clear that his plan is not undone, and in no way over. The garden points to the better end where Home comes for eternity, where the two realms overlap and God dwells with His people as their God, in their midst, forever.

For centuries, the church has begun journeying toward Easter on Ash Wednesday with a call to repentance. The beauty of God’s merciful invitation to repent is that it is not only an invitation to turn from sin but a call to return to where you belong – to return home. The perplexing reality of grace is that throughout the unfolding story of the Bible, we see that the call to return home isn’t one-sided because Home has been coming for us all along. We are participating in a lenten season fast this year. Many of us are fasting for breakfast and lunch on Thursdays, and you can join us or participate however you feel led. Please use the guide below as a resource:

As we come to the close of Paul’s first letter to Timothy, we are reminded that the aim of everything we do as Christians is love, and are amazed that God has chosen us to be vessels of His love on the earth. We recognize our deep need for grace to accomplish this mission. Additionally, 1 Timothy reminds us of what matters as we fulfill this calling: love, truth, the Church, and our faithful perseverance in godliness, contentment, and generosity. As we live these things out, we are truly “guarding the deposit entrusted to us”- the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The God, who owns all and is the Giver of all, invites His people into the adventure of generosity. Those with an abundance of God-given resources are especially called to be rich in good works rather than setting their hope on what is passing away, sowing into gospel stories that endure into eternity.

In Paul’s third poetic praise toward God in writing to Timothy, we get another glimpse of where the power to walk in godliness comes from. We walk in the fight of faith, fleeing gain in this world in order to pursue godliness, because we have been made outposts of God’s kingdom, both for the benefit of others and ultimately for the glory of our King Jesus. In essence, awe of Jesus empowers faithfulness to Jesus.

We can discern false teaching when it conflicts with sound doctrine, the teachings of Jesus, and what accords with godliness, producing people who are depraved, deprived, and deceived. A common false teaching, both in Ephesus and in our culture, is that we can use the appearance of godliness to gain worldly things, such as money. But content, genuine godliness is gain in itself because of the incomparable worth of knowing and having King Jesus in this world and the next.

In our varied roles and relationships, those in Christ have the incredible opportunity to both represent and participate in bringing the Kingdom of God. So whether people are over us in authority or under our authority, our aim is always love and to honor all people for the sake of the Gospel, rather than for our own selfish gain.

In a culture that both idolizes and crushes its leaders, we in the Kingdom of God treat our leaders differently. Knowing that character holds more value than talent, we are not quick to elevate leaders to a platform based on talent alone. When established leaders lead well, we extend double honor. When a leader persists in unrepentant sin, we extend loving accountability. We do all of this trusting that God will bring everything unseen into the light, whether sin or good works.

Being close to Jesus, our Rabbi-Teacher, means being covered in the dust of the path He walks. This path is marked by finding Him in the rhythm of the same few things. If He’s not eating or sleeping, you might find Him proclaiming and demonstrating the Gospel. You might find Him sitting fireside, teaching truth to those who would listen. Or you might not find Him at all as He disappears into the quiet with His Father. Jesus invites us to find rest in journeying with Him by His Spirit along this light and easy path.

As we enter a new year with new goals and ambitions, we remember that Jesus always calls us to pursue the freedom of child-likeness in the way we express curiosity, simplicity, and wonder at the majesty of our God through the world He made.

In this special installation of the Sent series, we’re reminded that Christmas Day presents a unique opportunity to enjoy the wonder of Jesus’ coming, sent to bring life where there is death, light where there is darkness, and freedom where there is bondage. We, who are awe-inspired recipients of this incredible work of God in Jesus, are compelled and sent into the world to “sing loud for all to hear” so everyone may know that the One who is good at what we needed most has come!

Before Christmas Day, we prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of our Savior by remembering not only the events surrounding His birth, but also the fullness of who He is and why He came. Jesus, through His life, death, and resurrection, came to show us and make us the kind of weird this world needs most; a kind of weird that brings light, life, and freedom to all who believe!

In the second installation of our Elf-themed Christmas series, Sent, we centered around the “weirdness” of our Sent Savior, the One who is light that came into the darkness. We may have become so acquainted with the Christmas story that we have lost our wonder at the amazing absurdity of a Savior King, born in a stable. He who called those with influence to give everything up, and promised those with nothing everything. This Christmas we reflect with awe and gratitude on the beautiful absurdity of the God-man, who came as a baby to save the whole world.

Our new Christmas series, Sent, will use the iconic movie, Elf, to illustrate the wonder of what God accomplished for us in Christ. We kicked off the series today by looking at the true need of our world: not to be removed from the naughty list or to have Christmas cheer, but ultimately to be rescued from the power of sin and death. When we had no hope, Jesus was sent to and for us! He is good at overcoming death because He is life, abolishing slavery because He is freedom, and casting out darkness because He is light. So, this Christmas season and forevermore, we celebrate that Jesus alone is good at what we need most!

So as not to be tempted into pride after being instructed to “not let anyone look down on you because you are young,” Paul opens 1 Timothy 5 with a reminder for gentleness and humility when correcting others, whether they be younger or older. Paul reasons that we are all family in Christ and ought to treat one another as such. Then, in a passage that seems at first to be all about widow care, Paul gives practical guidance for leading and loving any who have true need within the family of God. If we are going to love the Church like family, we must be willing to humbly admit our own real needs in order to receive, and sacrificially lay down our own preferences in order to serve.

Paul continues to emphasize to Timothy the non-negotiable value of sound teaching always being matched with mature character. Despite what culture thought in Ephesus or even today in America, mature character isn’t ultimately marked by age or talent, it is seen in immersing ourselves in the progress of becoming more like Jesus. As we become more like Jesus, stewarding our gifts to serve others, we get to have the unfathomable privilege of joining God in His work in the world.