Christ Community Church Podcast

Faith is not neat and tidy; it presents a number of quandaries, which we look at here as we continue examining chapter 11 of Hebrews.

The new covenant of grace through Jesus, our great High Priest, is worth their holding onto, even in the face of hardship and persecution. How do we hold on? By faith. This week we will examine what that means, as taught in Hebrews 11:1-19.

To this point, the Hebrews writer has been working to convince his audience of the superior covenant of grace through the finished work of Jesus. Now, beginning in verse 19 of chapter 10, he shifts to what their response should be, moving from argument to application – or from talk to walk.

Hebrews 9:24-26 and 10:5-14 contain two key themes: “Once for All” and “One Sacrifice.” Jesus’ perfect, freely offered sacrifice was for all time – backward and forward – and for anyone who will believe. There is nothing more to be done, nothing that can be added to His work. It is finished and all we can do is receive it.

Today’s worship services focused on local and world missions, with a special guest speaker from an organization that takes the Gospel to some of the world’s most unreached places and people groups. For security reasons, his name cannot be shared here.

Chapters 8-10 of Hebrews express the superior priesthood of Jesus: A superior covenant, a superior sacrifice and a finished work. In this message, Pastor Keith leads us in a detailed examination of the superior sacrifice, as discussed by the writer in chapter 9.

With our summer series completed, we now return to our study of Hebrews. We pick up with chapter 8, in which the author expresses the superior priesthood (i.e., ministry) of Jesus: A superior covenant, a superior sacrifice and a finished work.

Our Culture Wars series has convicted, challenged and, at times, stirred discomfort. But these messages also have generated hope and expectation, for our God is alive and active. As we conclude the series, we must continue to live out His gospel and kingdom in our culture with confidence and compassion.

A great way to engage in honest, caring, face-to-face conversations about difficult issues is to do so over a meal. Here Pastor Derrick discusses Biblical examples of what it means to “come to the table."

In this message our two lead pastors – one white, one black – sat together before us as brothers, engaged in honest, loving dialogue as they shared their hearts and stories around the hot-button topic of race and racism.

Race relations continues to be a significant issue in our culture. Today’s message is a roundtable discusssion between Pastor Keith, and Brel and Meylon Clark. Their dialogue sheds fresh light on the challenges and opportunities of living out our “unity in diversity.”

God calls us to go beyond simply declaring His truth to actually living His ways. He calls us to be a holy people – to be different from the world. Our goal is not to get people to adopt our Christian values (right and good as they are), but rather to win them to our Lord, that they would come to know Him, His gospel and His life.

Immigration is another hot-button topic among politicians and in the media. Rather than letting our political leanings color our viewpoints, let us consider how God’s Word speaks into this issue, and how it should guide our response.

Pastor Keith presents a frank discussion of homosexuality, including arguments for it (both outside and inside the Church), what the Bible says about it, and how Christians can cut through the angry rhetoric while standing firm and showing the love of Christ to everyone, homosexuals included.

Homosexuality and same-sex marriage are much-discussed topics in the “culture wars,” and we will address them in next week’s message. But first we must deal with the broader area of sexual sin. Here, Pastor Keith discusses God’s purposes in human sexuality, and the consequences of going our own way.

God has called us to think beyond ourselves and invest our resources and even our people to advance His kingdom to the “uttermost parts of the earth.” Today we break from our Culture Wars series to hear reports from several missionaries serving in India and Bulgaria.

For more than four decades, a woman’s right to an abortion has been both the law of the land and a deeply divisive cultural issue. How are we as Christians to respond to this issue while shining the truth and light of Christ into the world?

On Independence Day Weekend, we addressed not a specific cultural concern, but a principle that underpins and drives all of the issues we will be looking at over the next several weeks. At the heart of every cultural debate we find the word “freedom.” But what does “being free” really mean?

What is the Church's role, and the Christian's role, in politics? What is my role? And have I been more influenced in my beliefs and views by my party than by the word of God? Pastor Keith looks at these and other challenging questions as we continue our summer message series.

Guest speaker Norman Dunlap delivers a fresh and unique telling of Zacchaeus’ life-changing encounter with Jesus in Luke 19:1-10.