Wawasee Bible Sermon Audio

Part 5 - SERIES: Life in the Age of Outrage As we wrap up our series, we’re reminded that nothing will change in regard to the culture of outrage we live in apart from personal, loving engagement. We’ve been sent as ambassadors of Jesus, to live and love as he would and as he does. The Father sent Jesus to almost exclusively small places—small towns and villages that seemed insignificant in many ways. Our big God put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood of a small town. In the same way he’s sent our church and our people into small towns. Small places that may seem insignificant, but are anything but. God has a track record of doing extraordinary places. We’re sent to love people and invite them to follow Jesus with us, and it begins in the small places of our neighborhoods, homes, and workplaces.

Part 4 - SERIES: Life in the Age of Outrage We’re sent by Jesus as his ambassadors, and there’s not any area of life where we do not represent him—for better or for worse. A Christian’s only presence is as important as their physical presence. How are you doing at representing Jesus online? God is calling you—all of who you are—to do what Jesus commands online as it is IRL (in real life). Maybe before you post you should ask yourself, WWJT? (What Would Jesus Tweet?). We close with some principles of what it looks like to follow and represent Jesus online. As we interact with a world full of outrage—seen especially in online social media mobs—our goal must always be to win people over winning arguments.

Part 3 - SERIES: Life in the Age of Outrage What do you do when you've clearly been wronged? Or when you encounter a wrong in the world? As followers of Jesus we want to avoid worldly outrage, but what about right anger? There are things we must get angry about—the same things that anger God. What we get angry about will often reveal who or what we are worshiping. When it's right anger about things that anger God, it reveals our worship of him. But when our anger is simply worldly outrage, it's usually because an idol in our life has been threatened. Also, when we get angry we must always get angry in the same way that God does—because we're representing his kingdom. God's anger is always measured and under control, so the fruit of self-control is essential if we're to be angry in a right way. 

Part 2 - SERIES: Life in the Age of Outrage Outrage and disgust seem to go hand in hand. We get outraged about something and it often leads to disgust in the person or group that we view responsible for whatever caused our outrage. Similarly, we’ll find ourselves disgusted with someone or some group and it fuels outrage within us. It’s a vicious cycle as the two play off one another. The problem with holding disgust towards someone (disgust, contempt, derision, bitterness — fill in your adjective here) is that it halts all engagement with them. Holding on to it reveals that we view our sin to be less than the sin of someone else. We mustn’t minimize our own sin and deceive ourselves, but remember that we too are sinners saved entirely by grace. This enables us to speak the truth in love, with humility and empathy—but harboring disgust toward others blocks our ability to love. The reality is that under whatever it is that might disgust us about someone else, there is a person who bears God’s image. A person wh

Part 1 - SERIES: Life in the Age of Outrage We begin a new 5-part series called "Life in the Age of Outrage" this week. Inspired by the 2018 book from Dr. Ed Stetzer, "Christians in the Age of Outrage", this series will explore how, as followers of Jesus, we can bring our best to a world at its worst. After a lengthy introduction to the series, we dive into 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 and explore what it means to be an "ambassador" of Jesus Christ. We are sent by a King with a message of reconciliation to a foreign land. This earth is not our home, and as Christians we must live like it.

Good and Bad Anger Everyone gets angry sometime! What do you get angry about? Elections, pandemics, masks, slow drivers, fast drivers, or no one put a new roll of toilet paper on… What does the Bible say about anger? Anger may be destructive and self-centered or anger can be life-giving and God-centered and other times anger is just a necessary human response to life in a broken world where we experience pain, sorrow, injustice, sin, and death.

Part 9 - SERIES: Fruit of the Sprit Self-Control is the final fruit of the Spirit Paul lists in Galatians 5:22-23. In many ways it’s the capstone fruit, because as we grow in the others we naturally grow in self-control. However, self-control may not be exactly what you first think it to be. Self-control is not self-management. Rather, it is denying power to your old self and yielding control to your new self. It’s giving the Holy Spirit control over your “self”. If you’ve trusted Christ you have an old self (your old sinful nature) and a new self (your new identity in Christ) that are opposed to each other. Which “self” will you yield control to today?

Part 8 - SERIES: Fruit of the Spirit Gentleness is the characteristic of being even-tempered, tender, able to hold back, keeps passions under control, humble, measured. Often gentleness is equated with weakness and passivity, however true gentleness requires power and is powerful. Gentleness seems to be most visible in our words, in how we speak/write to and about people. A synonym for Gentleness is meekness which is power/strength under control. Humility is another, knowing your place. Our power is in Jesus (not ourselves) and he gives us a gentleness that is not weak and a strength that is not harsh.

Part 7 - SERIES: Fruit of the Spirit Faithfulness is being trustworthy, dependable, and steadfast over a long period time. No one is more faithful than Jesus Christ. God is faithful, and he wants us to be faithful like Jesus. Faithful to him and faithful to others. This week we look at God’s faithfulness and the example of Moses’ faithfulness to God and to the people around him. The only way to be faithful in this way is to stay close to Jesus, to keep your eyes on him, so that the Holy Spirit can grow the fruit of faithfulness in your life over time.

Part 6 - SERIES: Fruit of the Spirit Goodness is moral excellence. A close synonym is “righteousness”, which you might think of as “right-ness”. Jesus alone is good, and he is altogether good. His goodness is eternal and perfect! But what about humanity? Are we born “good”? And if not, where can we get true goodness and righteousness at the core of who we are? Jesus alone is good, and the great truth of the Gospel is that Jesus gives us his goodness. He imputes his righteousness to those who put their faith in him. But it doesn’t stop there, because he then insists that we live out this new identity and do good ourselves, bearing the fruit of goodness.

Part 5 - SERIES: Fruit of the Spirit Kindness seems to be increasingly rare in our culture, which makes followers of Jesus who demonstrate this fruit of the Spirit more and more attractive to those around them. Kindness is a general warmheartedness that is considerate, gentle, and sympathetic toward others, motivated by love. We’ll look at Ephesians 4:31-5:2 this week. As I put away my old ways (such as bitterness, wrath, anger, slander, malice) and stay close to Jesus, kindness grows and I become more like Jesus!

Part 4 - SERIES: Fruit of the Spirit Patience is a Fruit of the Spirit that grows in the life of a believer in Jesus over time. It includes endurance, steadfastness, long-suffering, and forbearance. This week we specifically look at patience in times of trial. To face trials patiently we should anticipate Jesus’ coming, recognize his judgment, follow the example of God’s servants, be confident in the Lord’s blessing, know God’s purpose, and remember the Lord’s character.

Part 3 - SERIES: Fruit of the Spirit Peace

Part 2 - SERIES: Fruit of the Spirit How's your joy? Jesus is eternally joyful and offers us his joy as we stay close to him. Paul lists it as a Fruit of the Spirit. So what is Christian joy? It's a gladness of heart that comes from knowing God personally. It's produced by the Holy Spirit as he causes us to see Jesus' glory and beauty in the Word of God and in the world. Jesus offers you and even prayed that you might receive his own joy, and it will grow in you as you learn to stay close to him.

Part 1 - SERIES: Fruit of the Spirit Anyone who is truly a follower of Jesus is going to have increasing evidence of it displayed in their lives. The Bible often uses the metaphor of fruit to describe this. Jesus told us to “bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” in John 15:8. Additionally, Paul lists out the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. This fruit isn’t something you conjure up and work hard to put on display, rather it’s something that grows naturally in your life as you stay close to Jesus in his word and prayer. This week we look at the first virtue Paul lists: love. If anything can be said to be primary, central, and essential to being a Christian and becoming more like Jesus, it’s this. In 1 John 4:7-12 we see that God is the source of love, and he shows us his love through Jesus Christ, and sends us to imitate it by loving others.

Part 6 - SERIES: Summer at Wawasee The Goodness of God - Exodus 34:6-9

Part 5 - SERIES: Summer at Wawasee The Blessed Life - Number 6:24-26

Part 4 - SERIES: Summer at Wawasee 1 Corinthians 13

Part 3 - SERIES: Summer at Wawasee Created to image God, we fell away - but can be restored!

Part 2 - SERIES: Summer at Wawasee We were created in the image of God, so we could image him to others! Pastor Knute Larson