Northplace Church Podcast

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The promise of Heaven…if understood biblically…will actually erode our fear of death, comfort our grief, build anticipation and excitement for the life to come…and infuse our present life with worship and wonder.

Over the last several months, our church has faced loss in unimaginable ways. The last few weeks of 2016 until the present have been some of the most challenging in our church's life and ministry. The sheer depth of the struggle and the internal pain of walking through the seasons of trouble has stirred in us a longing for Jesus. A longing for a place - heaven. The problem is we don’t fully understand heaven; and our ability to survive the season of struggle we walk through in the here and now, is directly linked to what we believe about heaven. If we could move past the old wives’ tales and traditional misconceptions to a biblical understanding of heaven it would infuse our journey through the pain. So join us on this journey as we dive deep into the topic of Heaven from a biblical perspective. To watch the video visit northplacechurch.com/watch

Our prayer going into this series is that we could help you see God’s calling on your life and that your role in the market place - wherever God has assigned you - is just as significant as any role inside the church. We’ve addressed the issue of allowing our work to become an idol in our lives and last week we talked about the gift God has given us to destroy that idol in our lives - a true understanding of a biblical Sabbath.Today’s discussion fits well into our conversation about faith and work. This conversation is a challenge to any of us who follow Christ in a world that often stands diametrically opposed to everything we hold dear. How do we honor God with our lives when the values of the culture we live in are so different than those of Christ followers? How can you both follow God and thrive at the same time?

We are in the 4th week of a conversation about the alignment of our faith and our work. We strongly feel that these last three conversations have been revelation for many of us - literally an “unveiling”. We are seeing things about God and about work; things we’ve never seen before. We are seeing how our belief in Jesus should be impacting the way we view our work life. We encourage you to go back to our sermon archives on northplacechurch.com and catch up if you’re new to conversation.

What does it mean to be called? This weekend Pastor John further explores the fact that we're created in God's image and everyone, no matter what your profession is, have been called to our work.

In the context of a spiritual battle…on 4 different occasions, Paul challenges us to stand. In Ephesians 6, Paul is challenging us to persevere. Standing firm. Holding your ground is persevering. But honestly, on more than one occasion over the last few months we’ve asked God the question…How much more can we take? I know you told us to stand firm…but c’mon! Injustice can makes us weak in the knees and erode our will to persevere. God’s delays can makes us weak in the knees and erode our will to persevere. Unmet expectations can make us weak in the knees and erode our will to persevere. Yet the Paul calls us to "be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." Ephesians 6:10

It doesn’t seem fair to us but in God’s economy God used one man’s faith to shut the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, send enemy armies fleeing, women had their children raised to live again. And others, in the perfect will of God, walked in the same faith and they suffered and they died. Their faith lead them into a moment of suffering. Why did God deliver some in faith and allow others to suffer? We don’t know but what we know is what he thinks about the ones who suffer. Join Pastor Bryan, as he process out loud recent events in our church.

This messages concludes our series on the tongue. Each week we have examined what the Bible means when it says…“life and death are in the power of the tongue.” Our attention has been predominantly focused on the “deadly” uses of the tongue. Before we conclude this sermon today and ultimately this series, let's shift our attention away from the destruction our mouths can cause, to the “life” our mouths can create. Let's look at the power in our tongues to build up and edify. It’s been encouraging to see how this biblical study on the power of words has impacted so many in our congregation. The Holy Spirit is truly becoming the antiseptic to the “septic” or infected parts of our hearts and as he changes our hearts, he’s cleaning up our speech.