Exit Church Teachings

Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. Luke presents the account of Jesus entering Jerusalem to kick off the first holy week. At that time, Jesus affirms that He is King and He will be glorified as such. In this message, Forrest takes us through Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, to unpack the weight of that claim in the through-line of biblical history.

As Jesus narrows the focus of his ministry toward Jerusalem (and the cross), he overtly prophesies his disciples that he will be abused, killed and raise again on the third day. And yet while he is looking into the eyes of his own death, he takes the time to respond to a blind beggar and a tax collector. This shows us Jesus' tremendous patience, his care for seemingly insignificant in society as well as traitorous sinners (whom we often think of as the worst of the worst). If Jesus takes time out of his schedule for these two people, does he not care for the same today? This passage shows us that no one is too insigificant to receive Jesus' affection and that no one is too sinful to experience his grace.

The story of the rich, young ruler is both widely known and often misunderstood. The Holy Spirit found it fitting to pair the stories of Jesus inviting little children to come to him while the wealthy ruler walked away in sadness. In order to come to Jesus, we must become like little children with nothing in our hands, nothing that we depend on for our righetousness. The stark contrast between these two (children and those with wealth/power) is a warning to us to trust fully in Jesus' life, death and resurrection to save us. 

What do we actually trust in for our righteousness--in our own ability to perform or in Jesus' performance on our behalf? The longer we are a Christian, the better we get at hiding how we depend on ourselves, which makes this passage all the more timely.

God's desire for his people is that they continually come to him in prayer and not lose heart. In this passage, Jesus uses the example of a sinful judge's treatment of a vulnerable widow in order to contrast that with God's character as a perfect judge. And Jesus is in search of those that have faith to continually plead for God's kingdom and justice to come in fullness.

What is the kingdom of God? Jesus talked about it more than anyone. He responds to the Pharisees by telling them that the kingdom is already here and yet it's also to come (some call this the already/not yet kingdom). In this text, Jesus gives us clues as to what the end times will look like and he challenges his hearers to be all-in for the kingdom.

Tim Carpenter preaches a Christmas message on Christ's presence being the real gift of Christmas. He walks through a biblical theology, from Genesis to Revelation, showing that's God's design was always to be with his people and that even now (prior to heaven) we can walk with Jesus each day.

In this passage, the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. We can see that faith is the foundation for sanctification. And faith, when it is carried through, results in gratitude for all that the Lord has done for us. At the end of our best days, we are still dependent children on the work of the Spirit in us. And we serve a God that generously gives his Spirit to help us.

We invited Bob Petty, our District Superintendent, to preach at our Sunday gathering because of the significance of the day--we commissioned college students graduating from Indiana Wesleyan and Taylor Universities. Additionally, we commissioned Dave Lloyd, our bookkeeper of 7 years, and we also ordained our pastor Forrest Brown. Bob preached on the mission to which we are all called to complete--the high call to be ambassadors of another kingdom, to make disciples of all nations.

Jesus gives some of his strongest language in all of Scripture as he addresses sin, temptation and faith.

Commonly referred to as " the rich man and Lazarus," this parable sums up that last four chapters worth of Jesus' focus on money. His emphasis is to highlight how short-lived finances are in light of eternity. Rather, we are to spend our lives in pursuit of Jesus' kingdom.

Jesus continues pressing into the Pharisees and challenging their values by how they approach money. This shows us that money reveals our true values. Jesus' concern is that they (and us) will justify their own actions and deceive even themselves into thinking that they are in right relationship with God when they were actually out of alignment with him.

As disciples of Christ, we submit all things to Him. This includes what we believe and how we engage in this world. The word of God says a lot about the value of human life and how we are to treat one another. Abortion is common in our nation and our culture is passionate about it. Between the clarity of the word of God and the emphasis of our culture, it is fitting that we take the time to thoroughly think through the implications of our submission to Jesus in regards to abortion. This was recorded during a Discipleship Training session at Exit Church.

In this puzzling parable, Jesus tells the story of a rich man and one of his managers who was deceptive and dishonest. And while there is no overt protagonist in the story (both the rich man and the manager have significant character flaws), Jesus purposefully includes this story in his teaching to provide picture for us to learn how to walk in wisdom in our finances. This is incredibly relevant today as it speaks into the need for all Christians to use their finances intentionally with prayer and discernment to move forward the kingdom of God.

In this iconic text of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son, Jesus puts on display the heart of God towards repentant sinners. For those that have been a Christian for some time, this paradign-shifting text can seem mundane and commonplace. But when we truly see that it is aimed at us, it completely tranforms the way that we think about God, his affection for us and how we view ourselves in light of his affection.

Unlike cults and secret societies, Jesus is overtly clear and up front with what it entails to follow him. He is open about the fact that the cost to follow him is incredibly high. It costs us everything that we have, even the people and things that we have the highest affections for. And when understood properly, this incredibly high cost is a good thing--it helps us see God as holy as he truly is, it protects us from hypocrisy, and it keeps our eyes on what is eternal.

In this passage, Jesus is at a dinner party hosted by a prominent Pharisee. Jesus challenges him and the others at the party, telling them to focus on what is eternal instead of simply being preoccupied with day-to-day life and getting married and making a living. While those are good gifts from God, they are never meant to be the heaviest thing in the room–the thing that our lives orient around. Jesus is telling the religious leaders (and us) that he is the only thing worthy of being the top priority in our lives. 

The religious leaders continually invited Jesus to dinner parties and watched him to see how he would act. Jesus takes the opportunity to address the issue of pride and how to put it to death.