Wawasee Bible Sermon Audio

Part 2 – SERIES: A Generous Life This week we look at the first two types of givers: the Beginning Giver and the Consistent Giver. A Generous Life begins with childlike faith. Zacchaeus is a great example of a Beginning Giver with childlike faith. A helpful tip to begin giving? Start giving! For an example of a Consistent Giver we look at Cornelius and also at a group of women following and supporting Jesus. The Consistent Giver is growing to give regularly at least once a month. Where are you at on the journey to live a Generous Life?

"You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9) — Because Jesus is generous, we should be generous with our time, talent, and treasure. Jesus isn't after our money, he is after our heart (our money and possessions just happen to reveal where our heart is!). All that I have to give is first a gift I receive from Jesus. All giving (good and bad) is heart-motivated, and the Lord loves a cheerful giver. Where are you at on the journey of being generous?

Today we officially launch the 30/30 Journey. During the message Pastor Josh lays out some of the vision for the coming facility renovation and expansion, as well as some of the spiritual aspects of the 30/30 Journey. We look at John 6:1-14 and invite everyone to join us on the journey of prayer and considering how the Lord might have you participate.

Dr. Rock LaGioia preaches from 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. God's grace is sufficient for our every need, at every time, in every place, under every circumstance. God's grace provides us with Christlike humility and provides spiritual strength in any and every situation. Have you trusted Jesus and taken claim of his grace toward you?

Dr. Rock LaGioia preaches from Philippians 3:1-11 challenging us to have a VERTICAL view for the new year. True believers view their lives from a heavenly perspective. They place their confidence in Christ and not their achievements. They place their confidence in Christ's sanctifying power and in their future glorification thanks to Jesus' grace.

Part 3 – SERIES: The God Who Gives For God so loved the world that he GAVE... Our God is a generous God who freely gives abundant grace and mercy. In his grace we get what we don't deserve, and in his mercy we don't get what we do deserve. This week we see God give gifts to Mary, Joseph, & the Shepherd Boys. God gave Mary & Joseph just what they needed just when they needed it. He gave the shepherds a glimpse of his glory. And to everyone, all of us included, he gives great joy!

Part 2 – SERIES: The God Who Gives For God so loved the world that he GAVE... Our God is a generous God who freely gives abundant grace and mercy. In his grace we get what we don't deserve, and in his mercy we don't get what we do deserve. This week we see God give gifts to Mary in Luke 1:26-56. God gave her faith to believe and take a risk, encouragement to keep trusting, and a part in his story. He offers all of the same gifts to us.

Part 1 – SERIES: The God Who Gives For God so loved the world that he GAVE... Our God is a generous God who freely gives abundant grace and mercy. In his grace we get what we don't deserve, and in his mercy we don't get what we do deserve. This week we see God give gifts to Zechariah & Elizabeth: opportunity (after obscurity), joy (after sorrow), and honor (after dishonor).

Part 5 – SERIES: Learning to Pray Pastor Josh shares a couple practical helps for praying consistently that he's learned from others. Pray by letting God start the conversation, realizing that reading God's Word and prayer are two sides of the same conversation. Josh shares a method for this borrowed from Buddy Owens' "The Way of a Worshiper". Another idea is to use prayer cards to track prayer and answers to prayer, borrowed from Paul Miller's "A Praying Life". Finally, all of prayer should be with an attitude of thanksgiving to the Lord.

Part 4 – SERIES: Learning to Pray A key to learning to pray continually is to remember whose story you're living in. God is continually weaving his story of redemption, and we get to be part of it. This helps us learn to pray for the right things and wait in the right way. To pray "in the story": 1) Don't demand that the story go your way. 2) Look for the Storyteller, then pray in light of what he's doing. 3) Stay in the story. Don't shut down when it goes a different way.

Part 3 – SERIES: Learning to Pray We're learning to pray, and in learning to pray we're relearning to be like a child. This week we look at why we don't always ask our Father for things in prayer. Often, it is because at a root level we don't believe God is all powerful and we don't believe he is truly personal. Because we doubt his power, we don't ask for big things only Jesus can do. Because we doubt he is personal, we fail to ask for small things assuming God doesn't care. The antidote for both is to learn again to relate to our good father as a child would!

Part 2 – SERIES: Learning to Pray One of the great enemies of childlike prayer is cynicism. The opposite of a childlike spirit is a cynical spirit. We become cynical when skepticism becomes the attitude of our hearts. It affects not only my relationships with others but my relationship with the Lord and my ability to pray. This week look at 6 cures for cynicism and returning to a childlike trust in the Lord.

Part 1 – SERIES: Learning to Pray Prayer is an essential part of the Christian life. Yet it can also be incredibly hard for many of us. As we learn to pray, the first key is learning to pray like a child. Asking like a child. Believing like a child. Helpless like a child. Prayer is not about approaching God in the right way with the right words according to the right method—it's about knowing and loving and talking to your good Dad who designed you for relationship with him.

Part 6 – SERIES: Wawasee Core Our final Core Value is No Sacred Cows. Jesus is sacred. God's word is sacred. But our opinions and traditions and preferences are not. We look at Scripture this week and identify 3 types of "sacred cows" we must guard against: 1. Loving tradition more than we love Jesus; 2. Following people before Jesus; 3. Choosing my preference over Jesus' mission.

Part 5 – SERIES: Wawasee Core Our fourth core value is We All Need Friends. We're not designed to go through life alone. In fact, God created us lacking and needing relationship, even before the Fall. There's one aspect of bearing God's image that is impossible for you to do by yourself: You cannot image his relational nature without being involved in community. Our need for friendship is rooted in the Trinity, where the Father, Son, and Spirit have existed and continue to exist in an eternal loving friendship with one another. Are you pursuing friendship and biblical community? Or are you simply hiding and isolating yourself? We All Need Friends.

Part 4 – SERIES: Wawasee Core Our third core value is that All People Matter. To borrow a statement from another church, "All people matter to God; therefore, all people must matter to us." The bible is clear that all people matter to God. No matter their age, skin color, status, intellect—all people matter to God. This is because all people bear God's image, making humanity the crown jewel of God's creation. Because all people matter to God, they must matter to us. No matter who they are, where they're from, what they've done, or what's been done to them—All People Matter.

Part 3 – SERIES: Wawasee Core Our second core value is that God Wrote It All Down. God wrote a book. Everything we need to successfully live the Christian life and have joy is written down for us in the Bible. God has revealed everything we need to know about him and salvation in the Bible. Our Bible is reliable, authoritative, and sufficient. We are to believe it in all that it teaches, obey it in all it requires, and trust it in all that it promises.

Part 2 – SERIES: Wawasee Core Our first core value is this: "It's All About Jesus!" Why? – Because IT'S ALL ABOUT JESUS! Paul makes it very clear in Colossians 1:15-23 that it's all about Jesus and that he must be first in everything. Our lives are to be all about Jesus. Creation is all about Jesus. The Church is all about Jesus. Salvation is all about Jesus. It is ALL about Jesus! Until Jesus is first in every area of my life, I will never experience the joy I was created to know.

Part 1 – SERIES: Wawasee Core We start a new series this week, "Wawasee Core", exploring the core of who we uniquely are as a church family. This week we begin by celebrating 30 years of God's faithfulness to our church and looking forward to the next 30. Pastor Josh introduces and unpacks our new mission statement: "We are sent to love people and invite them to follow Jesus with us." He also gives a brief overview of our new core values: 1) It's All About Jesus! 2) God Wrote It All Down. 3) All People Matter. 4) We All Need Friends. 5) No Sacred Cows. We'll be unpacking each value from Scripture over the next five weeks of this series.

Part 14 – SERIES: Summer Psalms 2016 We wrap up our Summer Psalms series this week by looking at the last three Psalms: 148, 149, and 150. Each has as its focus the praise of Jesus Christ. Everyone and everything worships. The question is what/who do you worship FIRST? You were designed (and are commanded) to worship JESUS first. When you do, it yields great joy!