New City Church - Messages

In order to start the journey home, we need to first understand where we are. We must understand the world's pains and hard things and cry out to God. And as we do so, we are reminded of the God who leads us from the places of pain and sorrow to our true home.

In our final week in James, we discuss prayer's power. How prayer helps us to orient our eyes not on the things of the world, but rather to trust God and his work in all of life. It helps us to lift our eyes up to see what God is doing in the world, and to trust him with our plans and our pains.

James notes that words have incredible power, the tongue has massive potential, and we need practices to help us embrace wisdom. Because the tongue is difficult to tame, but bears consequences on the direction of our lives. It is an outpouring of the lives we have built. That is why we need the presence of God to help us tame the tongue. 

Our rhythms are not just for ourselves or our own betterment but also affect those around us. How do we think about our neighbors and those who are "other" than us when it comes to habits? James takes this question and challenges our perspective and questions what we should be boasting about as we follow Jesus.

When it comes to building new rhythms, it starts with asking what we want. What are the small things that will transform us? James shows us the rhythms that God invites us into, and what that means for our heads, hearts, and hands.

Over the next few weeks, we want to talk about building habits that help us follow Jesus. But what does building a rhythm or a rule of life mean for us? Why should we do it? As followers of Jesus, we build a rule of life, filled with disciplines and practices, to become more like our King.

This week, we reflect on the beautiful news of Romans 8: "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Our new life is here and not yet. There is a war between the flesh and the Spirit and wages inside of us. But we trust in Jesus to overcome even in our frailty.

When we receive Jesus by faith, our lives change. Our sins die with him and we are given new life with him. Jesus totally transforms our lives through his life, death, and resurrection.

Peace in our world is tenuous at best, typically defined as a cessation of hostility. It is often an insecure, temporary, or conditional practice. But peace with God is different. It is holistic peace, restoring our world. It is relational, restoring our relationship with God. God’s peace is far different from any other peace in the world. It is secure, active, and unconditionally extended to all of us. Peace is anchored in the love of God which is extended to all of us. 

What is it that you boast in? We all boast about something, looking to find our worth and approval. But the Gospel invites us to embrace the gift of grace. That we are not able to save ourselves, but rather we are saved by faith. Faith is the only way to receive the righteousness of God.

We are in need of an internal transformation, not merely an external modification. We are all in need of saving from our sins. The gospel is not good news about how God makes bad people good, but rather good news about how God makes dead people alive.

In Romans 8, Paul proclaims that "nothing can separate us from the love of God." Yet, we often feel like the world is trying to separate us from God. See, all of us are under a power, the power of sin. We need the power of the gospel to save us from the power of sin. We need the power of the Holy Spirit-empowered message of grace.

As we begin our journey through Romans and through Lent, we start by remembering the truth that we are mortal. That from dust we came, and to dust, we shall return. But while that is true, we also remember that while we are more sinful than we ever dared believe, we are more loved and rescued by Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.