Great Oaks Community Church

Great Oaks Community Church Weekly Sermon Podcast.

Pastor Jake wrapped up our “Red Letters” series (week 6 of 6), going through 6 passages within the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Jesus’ sermon is kind of like a family meeting. The people listening have expressed interest in being His followers (disciples). Now He’s sitting them down and talking with them about what that means for their lives and how His representatives should compare to others in the world. He’s taking on relevant topic after topic; issue after issue – anger, lust, divorce, greed, worrying, judging, and more. And He’s saying, “Here’s how our family will act. Here’s how we’ll be different. Here’s how My follower will live.”

Pastor Jake preached week 5 of our “Red Letters” series, going through 6 passages within the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Jesus’ sermon is kind of like a family meeting. The people listening have expressed interest in being His followers (disciples). Now He’s sitting them down and talking with them about what that means for their lives and how His representatives should compare to others in the world. He’s taking on relevant topic after topic; issue after issue – anger, lust, divorce, greed, worrying, judging, and more. And He’s saying, “Here’s how our family will act. Here’s how we’ll be different. Here’s how My follower will live.”

Pastor Jake preached week 4 of our “Red Letters” series which will have us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) for six weeks total. Jesus’ sermon is kind of like a family meeting. The people listening have expressed interest in being His followers (disciples). Now He’s sitting them down and talking with them about what that means for their lives and how His representatives should compare to others in the world. He’s taking on relevant topic after topic; issue after issue; sin after sin – anger, lust, divorce, greed, worrying, judging, and more. And He’s saying, “Here’s how our family will act. Here’s how we’ll be different. Here’s how My follower will live.”

Pastor Jake preached week 2 of our “Red Letters” series which will have us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) for six weeks. Jesus’ sermon is kind of like a family meeting. The people listening have expressed interest in being His followers (disciples). Now He’s sitting them down and talking with them about what that means for their lives and how His representatives should compare to others in the world. He’s taking on relevant topic after topic; issue after issue; sin after sin – anger, lust, divorce, money, worrying, judging. And He’s saying, “Here’s how our family will act. Here’s how we’ll be different. Here’s how My follower will live.”

Pastor Jake preached week 2 of our “Red Letters” series which will have us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) for six weeks. Jesus’ sermon is kind of like a family meeting. The people listening have expressed interest in being His followers (disciples). Now He’s sitting them down and talking with them about what that means for their lives and how His representatives should compare to others in the world. He’s taking on relevant topic after topic; issue after issue; sin after sin – anger, lust, divorce, money, worrying, judging. And He’s saying, “Here’s how our family will act. Here’s how we’ll be different. Here’s how My follower will live.”

Pastor Jake kicked off our “Red Letters” series which will have us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) for six weeks. The idea is that when you look at those chapters in Matthew, you see a sea of red letters in your Bible. It’s the longest grouping of Jesus’ teaching in the Scriptures. We won’t hit every topic/passage in this series, but we will cover a lot. This sermon of Jesus’ is very direct and practical. For a while by this point, Jesus has been proclaiming to the people: “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 4:17). He has a good group of people following Him. So in Matthew 5 He sits on the slope of a mountain and begins to teach them very practically what a life that belongs to Jesus looks like. In other words, He lays out how His family should live, act, and think: “This is what you should be if you bear My name.”

Great Oaks Community Church Weekly Sermon Podcast.

Pastor Jake preached week 2 in our “Follow Me” series. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Does your life say the same thing? You can’t get around the “follow me” part of that. The truth is that everyone is involved in discipleship whether they realize it or not. It just may have nothing to do with Jesus. You are already a follower. The question is who are you following? You already have people following you. The question is which way are you leading them? Mark Dever wrote, “To be human is to be a disciple. God didn’t present Adam and Eve with a choice between discipleship and independence, but between following him and following Satan. We are all disciples; the only question is, of whom?” Whoever we are following, we are also leading others to follow. So, in the end its about what we want to leave behind. When we exit off of the highway of this life and into the next, what will we leave behind? It

Pastor Jake started our new 3-wk series called “Follow Me”. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Does your life say the same thing? You can’t get around the “follow me” part of that. The truth is that everyone is involved in discipleship whether they realize it or not. It just may have nothing to do with Jesus. You are already a follower. The question is who are you following? You already have people following you. The question is which way are you leading them? Mark Dever wrote, “To be human is to be a disciple. God didn’t present Adam and Eve with a choice between discipleship and independence, but between following him and following Satan. We are all disciples; the only question is, of whom?” Whoever we are following, we are also leading others to follow. So, in the end its about what we want to leave behind. When we exit off of the highway of this life and into the next, what will we leave behind

Pastor Jake preached the last message in our Summer series on the book of Colossians. This week’s message was on Colossians 4:7-18. Pastor Jake shared that he’s been learning the guitar this year. He said on Sunday, “Here’s something I’ve learned about my guitar. It’s worthless if no one who knows how to play it ever picks it up. It just sits in the corner. It can’t do tricks. It can’t sweep the floor. It can’t answer questions like Alexa. It’s useless. If no one with even a little skill is ever going to play my guitar, it’d be better used as firewood, or maybe home defense. But...as soon as someone with the tiniest bit of skill picks it up, tunes it, and starts playing it... When they start using it to worship God and lead others to worship God, this guitar’s worth shines through. It’s no longer just wood and string. No longer just decoration. No longer worthless. And in the right hands, it’s...incredible. In th

Pastor Jake continued our Summer series that will take us verse-by-verse through the book of Colossians. This week’s message was on Colossians 4:2-6. In this passage, the Apostle Paul give us direction about something we all struggle with: communication. He writes about communication with God (prayer) and communication with “outsiders” and unbelievers (evangelism).

Great Oaks Community Church Weekly Sermon Podcast.

Pastor Jake continued our Summer series that will take us verse-by-verse through the book of Colossians. This week’s message was on Colossians 3:1-17. In this passage, the Apostle Paul does what many modern churches never do – he gets very specific about sin. He draws lines and gets detailed about what it looks like to be a Christ-follower and what it looks like to not be one. He warns, rebukes, and raises the standard. We may take this kind of correction from a doctor or a coach, but we’re rarely open to it at church. And yet, the Bible is constantly going from lofty, theological concepts to real life. In other words, God is very concerned with not only what we believe, but how we behave.

Great Oaks Community Church Weekly Sermon Podcast.

On Sunday, Pastor Jake continued our Summer series that will take us verse-by-verse through the book of Colossians. This week’s message was on Colossians 2:8-15. It is amazingly easy for people to be deceived and rest their lives on what will ultimately be nothing. We are so easily tricked! We’ll get distracted by whatever is new, shiny, and different. When someone runs up to us, points into the sky, and says “look!”, we almost always look. Some of us stare for hours at nothing. Some of us base our lives on it, chase after it, prioritize it, and expend energy on it. It could be an idea or concept we hear from our friends or family, a theology or doctrine we hear from a teacher, or just a way of life pushed by our culture (like materialism, activity-based parenting, me-centeredness, etc.).

Pastor Jake continued our Summer series that will take us verse-by-verse through the book of Colossians. This week’s message was on Colossians 2:1-7. In this message, Pastor Jake gave us 3 questions to ponder and reflect on that naturally rise to the surface from studying these 7 verses. The problem is that we live in a culture and a time that has sacrificed reflection for convenience and efficiency. Technology promises us that we will have more time, because tasks will take less time to complete, but instead it just causes us to fill our lives with more. We’re never able to quietly reflect because we’re either doing another task or distracting ourselves with noise (shows, music, social media, etc). It’s easier to avoid questions that would cause us to feel conviction and change.

Pastor Chris continued our Colossians series with part 4. He explained that as we find out what our thing is, we need to ask ourselves if we are using that thing to point people to Jesus.

Pastor Jake continued our Summer series that will take us verse-by-verse through the book of Colossians. This week’s message was on Colossians 1:19-23. Pastor Jake told a story in his message on Sunday about a great and generous king whose people were evil, rebellious, and hated him. He sought peace with them, but everyone who carried his banner of peace was murdered. Finally, the king decided to go to the people himself to make peace. Some responded to his display of love and kindness, but the majority didn’t. He was murdered by his own people. The king’s followers expected this to be their end. Surely the king’s home would be conquered by the rebellion. But to their surprise, one-by-one people began showing up at the castle weeping over their sin, turning their back to the castle in order to defend it, and being lit up by a strange light. The light was coming from the royal tombs where the king was lain. People were changing because of his great sacrifice. The rebellion continued

Pastor Jake continued our Summer series that will take us verse-by-verse through the book of Colossians. Last week covered verses 1-14 in Colossians chapter 1. This week’s message was on just four verses – Colossians 1:15-18. The Apostle Paul is writing this letter to the Colossian church because Epaphras has come to him for help. There is a group of false teachers (Gnostics) attacking the new little church and it’s causing confusion among these young believers. They’re saying that they have special knowledge that the Colossians need in order to be saved by God. They’re teaching that Jesus isn’t all of the answer, but only part of it – just the first rung on the ladder. The book of Colossians is about how that is not the case. It’s about the supremacy of Christ – how He is the fullness of all things. Jesus plus nothing. These 4 verses are at the core of the letter in this respect.