Murphy Church Sunday Messages

It's one question that can change everything.  Asking shifts perspective brings focus to confusion, and leads you to faithful prayer.  James teaches us that when we ask this question authentically, God will give generously without finding fault.  Join us Sunday as we continue our series Authenticity with part 2:  The Best Question Ever from James 1:5-8

"Perception is the reality." How we perceive things often determines whether we enjoy, learn from, and seize the opportunities in our lives.  In life, God uses trials to grow us and use us.  Often, the most significant moments of growth enter our world disguised as adversity.   This week we begin a new series entitled Au-then-ticity with a sermon entitled Perspectives from James 1:1-4.  

What is Jesus’ plan to share his message of grace and truth with all people and how does it involve you?  Jesus calls us to be a part of something larger than ourselves.  Being a disciple is more than just coming to church and self-growth.  Disciples replicate Christ and his gospel in the lives of others.  It starts small, but, when we learn to share what we have witnessed; the gospel changes the world.  Join us this week as we finish our study of Luke’s gospel with a message entitled Replicate from Luke 24:45-53.  

The disciples stood there with their wide-eyed and drop-jawed thinking they saw a ghost. But it was no ghost; it was the risen Christ. God had brought answers to their doubts and proof to their skepticism. Jesus had risen from the dead, and none of this was an accident. God had been at work all along. 

There are times when God invades your heart, opens your eyes and changes you. Often you don’t even understand that it was God at first.  But, it was; the king of the universe has set your heart on fire and called you to follow Him.  That’s exactly what happened to Cleopas and his friend one morning as they walked down the road to Emmaus, and that can happen to you too.  

There are times when we don’t understand what God is doing.  The events of life don’t fit the script of life that we envisioned.  HOWEVER, when we keep pressing forward: doing the next right thing one moment at a time, eventually, we arrive at that moment, WHEN God reveals His will.  It is THEN that we see that, even in our confusion, the sovereign hand of God was at work all along, and our hearts filled with praise for the One who loves us through it all.  We look forward to celebrating Easter with you this week.  Lash will be preaching a message from John 12:16 and Luke 23:50-24:12 entitled,  "However, When, Then." 

The mind is a powerful thing.  In our minds, we create sovereign worlds of imagination and write scripts of what should be. Then, when our imagined scenarios of life collide with the reality of what is, we often find ourselves trapped in a sad world of “what if’s” and "should be’s.”  Sadly, we often miss the joy that God has given you because it’s not what we envisioned.  As Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the people imagined him to be the liberating king who would free them from Rome.  Jesus was indeed a king, just not the one they envisioned.  Sadly, many missed the joy of the now, because they just couldn’t see how God was at work.   

The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the most significant events in human history. Why are these moments so meaningful?  Because of who it was that died and rose again. Many people in antiquity were crucified, and the Bible even tells of other people being raised from the dead.  But there is only one Jesus: the eternal son of God!  This week we continue to look at the meaning of the cross in a sermon entitled This is Love from  Colossians 1:15-20 and I John 4:7-11.  

The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the most significant events in human history.  Why are these moments so meaningful?  Because of who it was that died and rose again. Many people in antiquity were crucified, and the Bible even tells of other people being raised from the dead.  But there is only one Jesus: the eternal son of God!  This week we will be looking at Luke 23:44-49 and Colossians 1:15-20 in a sermon entitled Reconciled. 

The cross is a victory disguised as a defeat.  Through Christ’s suffering, salvation was made available for all people.  God took the initiative to ensure that no one has to live separated from Him.  Woven into the story of the cross are the scarlet threads of grace seen in the lives of three men:  Barabbas, Simon of Cyrene and the thief on the cross.  Each of these men came face to face with Jesus, and like each of us stood in the shadows of the cross in need of God’s grace.  

Pontius Pilate was a man of great earthly success.  He was a powerful person commanding a province of Rome.  Pilate was wealthy: able to live well and travel enjoying the fruit of his labors.  Yet, Pilate was also a man of great inner struggle.  He struggled with doing the right thing versus doing the easy thing.  He struggled with truth, and he struggled with God.  One day his inner struggle faced a reality check, when the son of God came face to face with Pilate.  Join us this  week as we look at Luke 23:1-24 in a sermon entitled Reality Check.  

How does God grow us spiritually?  Often God uses relationships, spiritual disciplines, and and trials to grow us in faith and prepare us for service.  As believers, we usually run to godly friendships, Bible study, worship, and other spiritual disciplines, but when it comes to trials and pain we often run the other way.  Yet, even Jesus faced the pain of rejection, lies, and struggle. Without the struggle of the cross, the resurrection never happens.  This week we look at one of humanity’s darkest moments, when the Son of God was placed on trial in Luke 22:63-71 in a sermon entitled Lessons from the Trial.  

Peter grew up in a community where everyone believed in God and everyone went to synagogue each week. He was taught to love God, love the Scriptures, and love his people. Yet, he was also raised in a generation when there was much false teaching and corruption which led to much confusion.  When he met Jesus, his heart was changed.  He became a man willing to leave everything behind in search of the real thing.  Yet, Peter remained a complex man: the confusion from his past often conflicted with his hope for the future.  Jesus’ arrest brought crisis to Peter’s soul.  His denial in many ways mirrors Judas’, but unlike Judas, Peter’s story ends in faith.  Join us this week as look at Luke 22:52-60 and Matthew 16:13-16 in a sermon entitled In Search of the Real Thing.  

As Jerusalem slept, Jesus prayed.  Beneath the twisted canopy of ancient olive trees, Judas and his ban of soldiers arrived. The man Jesus had trusted to be part of his inner circle; the man the disciples had entrusted to manage their money was now betraying Jesus with a kiss.  How does the kiss of love become the kiss of betrayal?  How did those who truly loved Jesus want to react?  How did Jesus react?  Where was God in it all?  Join us this week as we answer these questions in our return to Luke’s gospel with a message entitled Betrayal's Kiss from Luke 22:47-53.  

One time Jesus was asked, “What is the greatest commandment?”  Jesus immediately answered love God and love your neighbor.  All the spiritual disciplines are built on our love for God.  When we love God, we desire to grow closer to God.  Love drives us to spend time with Him and grow in His word.   This  love for God also leads us to love others.  In fact, Jesus said it is by our love for one another that people will know we are his disciples.  Love for one another is the end result of our love for God. 

A healthy church loves one another and appreciates the strengths that each person brings to the body.  We realize that we are many parts but we are one body in Christ. The Bible teaches that God has given “a measure of faith” to each one of us that we call a spiritual gift, and these gifts are to be used to build up the body of Christ.  Church health fades when we abuse our gifts: taking on an attitude of exclusivity and forgetting our basic call to serve and love one another.  Join us this week as we conclude our series on the Spiritual Disciplines looking at Romans 12:3-9 in a sermon entitled “Gifted for Service.”  

Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship (Romans 12:1).  Worship is vital to our spiritual growth.  Yet, worship is often one of the most misunderstood ideas in our faith. In Romans 12:1-2, the Bible reveals to us what it looks like to live the life of a worshiper.  Join us this week at 9:45 or 11:00 as we continue our series on the Spiritual Disciplines with a sermon entitled "Living Worship.”

Is the dream of life to reach a place where all of life is safe and comfortable, or is there more? In Luke 12:13-20 and Matthew 25:13-30, Jesus tells two parables designed to teach us the importance of generosity, faith, and hope in a Christian’s life.  The call of Christ leads us to invest our lives in the few things that last forever.  This investment stretches me to reshape my thinking, trust God, and see the finish line through the lens of eternal hope.  Join us this week as we continue our series on The Spiritual Disciplines with a sermon entitled Changing Perspective.  

One of the ironies of life in the “google-age" is that all the things we bought to make life easier, make life exhausting. There are so many choices, so many inputs, and so much awareness that it’s often hard to just stop and listen. Yet learning to stop is an important spiritual discipline that is taught throughout the Bible.  When we stop, we can listen and hear the still-small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking God’s truth into our lives.  Join us this week as Lash discusses the spiritual disciplines of resting, praying, and fasting in a sermon entitled “Stopping to Listen ” from Matthew 6:5-18 and Exodus 20:8-11.  

Join us as we hear from Shannon Hopkins, Missionary to Honduras, as he brings a message titled "Walk With Me." We were not designed to walk alone on this journey alone.