Christ Community Sunday - Leawood Campus

Ruth 1: 1-5 // Tom NelsonAdvent is a season of both waiting & expectation. A time for each of us to slow down and reflect on the story of our lives and what God is doing in our world. As we journey through this Advent season as a church, we are peering into the lives of characters in the bible who looked at the brokenness, uncertainty, and suffering in their life and saw something different. As human beings, we are hardwired to belong, to fit into a community, when we don’t experience the secure attachment of belonging we encounter the deep pain of soul-suffocating aloneness. When we don’t belong, we feel like an outsider in an insider world. God welcomes the outsider to His family and Ruth is the ultimate outsider—yet she is never outside the loving eyes of God. God sees those most unseen. God uses the most unlikely to be a part of the most impossible.Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49173779 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.12.03

Romans 5:15-21 // Ben BeasleyIn our passage today we find Paul continuing his excursus on Adam that we had last week. And he assumes that the reader knows the story of Adam. When Paul says Adam is a type, he is setting up a contrast between Adam and Christ. In our passage today we are going to see three contrasts which are: We are separated through rejection, but are welcomed through receiving; Our death comes from the first man, but our life comes from the perfect man; and our sin is great, but God’s grace is always greater. God’s grace through Jesus is a free gift. But it’s only yours if you reach out to it. You’ve got to reach. God’s grace is enough. Will you receive it?Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49170332 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.11.26

Romans 5:12-14 // Ben BeasleyWe’ve all had that moment when who you want to be and who you are is met with frustration. Where does that frustration come from? You can’t help but be hopeful that there’s more but we often experience our helplessness in our inability to change. Is this a me problem or something more? Join us as we continue our journey through the Book of Romans and see what’s really going on in the world and in us in this world.Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49167265 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.11.19

Romans 5: 5-11 // Tom NelsonWhat have we been rescued for? Paul’s good news answer in our text today is God rescued us for friendship. Paul gives three life-giving implications of God befriending us. As God’s friend, we are lavishly loved, we are sacrificially loved and we are securely loved. Paul is saying when it comes to our friendship with God there is extravagant love, lavished on us, poured out on us in unbounded generosity and in us by God through the Holy Spirit.Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49157096 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.11.12

Romans 5:1-6 // Ben BeasleyPaul names many benefits to being rescued by Jesus, including the offer of great hope even in our suffering. We have not only been rescued from something, but also for something. We are the hope of the glory of God. Suffering cannot defeat the great hope we have in Jesus. In fact, “hope will develop indirectly, as a byproduct of the persevering work we do in response to suffering. This hope that God gives us will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.Join us as we continue our journey through the Book of Romans and see three reasons why we can find hope and even boast in our suffering”.  Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49156859 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.11.05

Romans 4: 13-25 // Ben BeasleyThink with me for a moment about the last time you saw the stars on a clear night. The stars are supposed to represent a place of transcendence. The divine. A sacred place we trust to guide us, elevate us, point us higher, to order us. But, in a modern world, more and more, doubt is where we live. Not only doubt, but rising depths of despair, mistrust of institutions and we are dealing with an epidemic of loneliness. Paul has a simple message for us in our human reality of despair that we rarely speak of, but all encounter. In a dark world, trusting God is our north star.Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49156854 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.10.29

Romans 4: 1-12 // Ben BeasleyGod wants nothing more than your trust. Trust is the only way to intimacy. God wants us to live in his presence and be blameless; live in his face and be whole. Trust is the only way to see God for who he is: a God of forgiveness and grace. Trust is the way to receive what you want most because trust leads to intimacy and a real relationship. Ultimately that is what we all want. And the good news is that we can all have it! All we have to do is grow in trusting God by resting in His forgiveness and grace, being courageous, and pursuing intimacy with our loving God who wants nothing more than our trust.Sermon Notes:  https://www.bible.com/events/49153308 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.10.22

Romans 3:27-31 // Tom NelsonSermon Notes:  https://www.bible.com/events/49146488 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.10.15

Romans 3:21-26 // Gabe CoyleThere are few questions that are quite as loaded and comforting as “Are you okay?” The range of responses could be “Sure” to “Not even close.” What God has to offer us in this space is the answer we long for, but without him we don’t have the eyes to see. Join us as we continue our rescuing journey in the book of Romans and learn how we can be okay today…and forever. Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49142765 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new

Tom Nelson // Romans 3:1-20Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49139444 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.10.01

Romans 2:17-29 // Ben BeasleyOne of the longest-running complaints by the modern world of the church is. It’s also one of the greatest barriers to our witness in the modern world: Saying one thing and being another. Fake. Two-faced. Saying one thing and being another. Fake. In one sense, all humans wrestle with being fake, but this is more vibrant/clear in religious communities. Partly because the more clear your convictions, the more clear being fake appears. The more religious you are, the easier it is to spot a fake. The more clear your claims, the easier it is to see when you don’t align. I actually don’t think it's because religious people are worse than other people, it's just that our hypocrisy is more vivid. And shouldn’t we be different? Isn’t that an appropriate hope? And yet, knowing all this…this is persistent in the church…from all the way back in the first century no less.Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49139434 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/ne

Romans 2: 1-11 // Ben BeasleySermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49135914 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.09.17

Romans 1:24-2:1 // Tom NelsonAs thoughtful readers of the text, let’s remember that rabbi Paul who wrote the book of Romans writes from a coherent biblical worldview.  A worldview is an attempt to make coherent sense of our lives and the world. All worldviews are built on faith assumptions that cannot be absolutely proven with certainty whether they are atheistic, (there is no god), pantheistic (everything is god or a force), or theistic (There is a God, distinct from us.) Worldviews, we all have them–whether they are carefully thought through or not, all of us wrestle with life’s biggest questions and the most challenging experiences of our lives. Questions like where did we come from, is there meaning to our lives, what is wrong with the world, what about suffering and evil, and where are we heading? For Paul, the heart of the problem is the problem of the human heart. Since that fateful day long ago in the Garden of Eden, humans have chosen to embrace a lie, worshiping created things rather than the Creato

Romans 1:18-25 // Ben BeasleyOur passage gives us three reasons why we need to be rescued. And that we need to be rescued from the things that God’s wrath is directed against. When we refuse to acknowledge God for who He is, when our gratitude goes somewhere else when we show a lack of gratitude, or when we give our attention to false idols or counterfeit gods. Paul’s claim here is that if we refuse to acknowledge God as the creator…then our gratitude is inclined to go somewhere other than to God. Paul is essentially saying: that if you don’t start with God. If you don’t start with the reality that God made the world….Then you are doomed from the beginning. What Paul is alluding to, is that sin from the beginning of its entrance into the world continues on the path of self-deception.Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49128953 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.09.03

Romans 1: 8-15 // Ben BeasleyEverywhere we look we see division in our world. We live in a divided world. The myth is that today we are more divided than ever before, but division has always been part of the human story. Paul’s letter to the Romans was written to a city, to a church, and to a world that was experiencing great division. Paul is clear in his message that our division is overcome and a new kind of family takes its place through faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus gives us three things: an identity, a longing, and a binding. Faith in Jesus gives us an identity as beloved. Some of us need the simple reminder that God loves you. He knows all of you. He loves you. And when you place your faith in Jesus, he fully commits to you, gives you an identity, and welcomes you into his new family.Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49122073 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.08.20

Romans 1: 13-17 // Tom NelsonChristianophobia is defined as a growing cultural phenomenon marked by an increasingly intense animosity against Christians and the Christian faith. Christians face increased discrimination and greater hostility in many sectors of society including media, the academy, business and government. How should we as followers of Jesus live in the context of a culture of growing hostility to what we believe and our moral commitments? Some today are choosing to separate from culture, more it seems are changing their beliefs and moral commitments in order to accommodate to culture. Yet I find an increasing number of Christians who are living in the shadows of a kind of fearful silence. Tragically separation from culture or accommodation to culture is not the answer to navigating an increasingly hostile culture, nor is a fearful silence. A better and more biblical way of navigating our contemporary culture is what Christian sociologist James Hunter has rightly called, a faithful presence wit

Romans 1: 1-7 // Tom NelsonSermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49117558 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.08.13

2 Samuel 24 // Ben BeasleyThe question isn’t if we’ll fall. It’s when. Some can ignore it for a while, but eventually, we come to terms with our own proclivities, areas of brokenness, and destructive behaviors. If we’re honest with ourselves, everyone has moments and sometimes seasons when we’ve intentionally made destructive decisions toward ourselves, toward others, and God. Where do you fall, when you fall? One of the key dynamics throughout the whole Samuel scroll is comparing Saul and David. Fascinating: David and Saul both fall. David is — in many ways — recorded as falling harder and farther…but the difference is that David knows where to fall. When Saul was faced with his sin, he blamed others, and tried to just avoid consequences. When David was faced with his own sin, he owned it. All of it. And he fell into the Lord’s hands…because he trusted that God’s mercy would get the last word. When we fall on the LORD, his mercy gets the last word. What about you today? Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/ev

2 Samuel 16: 5-12 // Ben BeasleyI understand that there are people here who have lived more life than me. Who have experienced much more than me. I’m well aware of that fact. But in my years, I’ve lived enough life simply to say this. Losses change us. They make us different. We don’t come out the other end the same. If we are honest, the wounds are often there, lying underneath the surface. Losses, whether it’s the loss of a child, a relationship, a dream, or whatever it may be - losses are defining moments in our lives. I would like us to recognize three ways in which suffering changes us; suffering humbles us, suffering leads us to pray, and in suffering, we find compassion for others. We are not alone in our suffering. God enters into our suffering and is the only one who can redeem the mess to offer hope in our suffering.Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49111478 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.07.30

Hebrews 11: 1-3, 6 //  Tom NelsonWhen you hear the word faith, what first comes to mind? What may come to mind is a kind of wishful thinking, an irrational blind leap, or a last resort option when all other options have vanished. But what is faith as the Holy Scriptures reveal it? And why is it the key that unlocks the flourishing life God intends for us? Properly understood, faith is the currency of the Christian life, informing, shaping, and empowering every moment, and every aspect of daily life. Faith remembers the past, informs our present, and looks forward with hope.  Faith revisits and remembers its rootedness. May we increasingly see with the eyes of faith for as the writer of Hebrews reminds us;  Without faith, it is impossible to please God! Sermon Notes: https://www.bible.com/events/49108759 Prayer Requests: https://ccefc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/2509/responses/new23.07.23