Grace Chapel Knoxville Sermons

Often, the week between Christmas and the New Year can be lost in a bit of a fog. But as we approach this New Year, let’s spend some time reflecting, looking back, and looking ahead. The journey of the Magi is a great guide to help us consider how we might treasure, trust, and hope in Jesus as we enter the year ahead.

Today, we finish our Remember series with a reminder of the vital importance of intentionally engaging in church community. The scripture gives some powerful examples of what a church community is like, may we all learn and embrace this truth and find our place in the family of God.

This week, we focused on the importance of living as disciples of Jesus. It’s vital that we understand what a disciple is, and that we live with intentionality in our personal lives and as a church community. Let’s commit ourselves to follow Jesus, be changed by Him, and live on mission with Him in our everyday lives.

Prayer is the foundation of our church and of our faith. Without prayer, we lose the intimate relationship we were gifted when Jesus died on the cross. In Matthew 6, Jesus taught us how to pray with the “Lord’s Prayer.” Prayer positions us to have the proper posture before the Lord, practice living in surrender to him, and rely upon his faithful provision and protection.

Happy Thanksgiving! It’s not just a yearly holiday; gratitude is such an important part of our daily walk with Jesus. The lesson we learn from the lepers in Luke 17 and 2 Kings 7 teaches us to express our gratitude, enjoy the presence of God, and move from grumbling to generosity. May we all grow in gratitude!

On Sunday, we celebrated that we passed our final inspection, and discussed plans for moving into the new building! We also continued in our Remember series discussing the Sabbath. The idol of busyness has become so ingrained within our culture that we now wear it as a badge of honor. God created us in His image, and part of our identity in him is rest. We are commanded to rest in the 10 commandments, but how often do we overlook that as a necessity for our lives? Instead of working to earn rest, let’s work from a place of rest, pacing ourselves to avoid burnout, and ultimately creating a church body that can be a place of healing and rest for others.

This week, we focused on the importance of not becoming isolated in just our local church life, but intentionally living with a greater awareness of the larger body of Christ. We are called to consistently pray for, refresh, love, and bless the church. Let’s look for ways to walk this out in our lives personally and as a local church body. Let’s pray for and encourage those who serve and expand the Kingdom of God all over Knoxville and around the world.

In part 3 of our series, we focus on the importance of each of us living with purpose as we go about our everyday lives. A big part of who we are as the people of God goes beyond our time of “gathering," as we are called to be intentional in our “scattering,” too. Let’s purpose to make disciples in our day-to-day lives right where we live and work.

This week we are continuing our Remember series, by going through Deuteronomy chapter 8. Moses encourages the next generation to intentionally remember the Lord and his faithfulness to them through the wilderness years before they enter the promised land. As we prepare to move into our new church home, it’s important that we reflect on key moments from our time together meeting in various places to worship God over the years.

On Sunday, we kicked off a new series called, Remember. Over the next few months, we’ll be going through scripture and exploring the importance of remembering God’s faithfulness, what he has done for us, and remembering who we are called to be as his people. Throughout this series, we will share stories and memories of our church history and key characteristics of who we are called to be as the people of Grace Chapel.

This week we had the privilege of hearing from Mark McComas as he spoke on some very big questions: Who am I? And why am I here? It is human nature to question our purpose on earth, but what information and sources are we using to answer these questions? We are created to bear the image of God, and through beholding him, being ourselves, and being in communion with other believers, we can fully embrace the life and plan that God has for our lives.

As we enter the election season, it is crucial that we remind ourselves as believers where our true loyalties and faith should lie. It is easy to get caught up in the panic and emotions that get so intense when politics are discussed, but as we discussed this week, our hope is with the one true King, so let us pray for our country, vote with intention, and integrity, but remember that he is in control.

Today we celebrated as a church family with several people who were water-baptized. In Luke 15, Jesus tells several stories highlighting the celebration in God’s Kingdom when he redeems people. We are all invited to return to Jesus no matter the extent of our sin and separation from God. Jesus also calls his people to participate with Him in inviting, welcoming, and celebrating when the lost come home to Him. Let’s respond to Jesus’ invitation to live a life of celebration!

This week Pastor David taught us the values of the fruits of the spirit as he learned them from a childhood friend, his neighbor’s dog Prince. Sometimes the Lord teaches us the most valuable life lessons from the most unlikely places.

This Sunday, we wrapped up our series in First John by looking at John’s final warning that the church guards herself from idols. At first glance, this might not seem like a modern problem, but our hearts and our eyes are very easily enticed by the idols that permeate our culture. May we learn to be careful not to comfort ourselves with idols, get drawn into complacency, or allow ourselves to compromise. Instead, may our hearts be pure, and in love with Jesus.

Prayer is vital to our walk as Christians. Through prayer, we grow our relationship with the Lord and strengthen our faith. John encourages us in these verses to come to the throne with boldness; not because of our own merits, but because we can trust the sacrifice that Jesus made for us to give us the gift of intimacy with him. While prayer can seem intimidating at first, we are assured through his example that we can bring our requests to the Father, but we can also trust that whatever the outcome, he has our best interest at heart.

In today’s message, we reflect on John’s words of encouragement to the church that we can have great confidence in knowing we are secure and victorious in Jesus! The water, blood, and spirit testify in a powerful way to who Jesus is, what he has uniquely done for us, and the life we now live in him. We have these sacraments of the water and the blood as an anchor and reminder of the reality of the spirit life we now live! Our lives are to be a “living” sacrament. The outward visible “us” revealing the inner grace of the Holy Spirit.

This week we continued our discussion of 1 John in part 16 of our series. Kristen Panella shared from 1 John 5:1-5 on the part that we are called to play as we live in the light that John is calling us to. By using the example of Jesus’ life, we looked at three categories of neighbors that Jesus loved in his time on earth. Looking at people around us who are different from us through the eyes of Jesus is how we can love like he loved and therefore carry out his commands. If we can do that, these verses tell us that we will live in victory over the world.

As John concludes this portion of his letter on the love of God, we see the wonderful power of God’s love to defeat fear. While fear can be a great source of torment in our lives, God’s love is the ultimate source of power to defeat fear. Praise God that we can be set free from the bondage of fear, as we are immersed in receiving and sharing His great love.

Today as we continue exploring the Love of God, we see the Holy Spirit’s unique and active role in helping us abide in God’s love. The gift of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives gives us confidence, speaks powerful truth, and pours the love of God into our hearts through all the circumstances of this life. May we all be anchored in the abiding presence of God as we rest in what he has given us of His Spirit.