The Mission and the Missionary
Covenant Renewal
January 22, 2023 • Michael McCracken • Exodus 24:1–8
The People of God are the greatest proof of His faithfulness. God, throughout redemptive history has made it a point to ensure that the glory of His grace be displayed in the lives of His people. We gather together as those who display the faithfulness of God and in so doing we encourage one another to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For He who promised is indeed faithful!
Experiencing the Christian Life
January 15, 2023 • Michael McCracken • Romans 12:9–21
Doing life with our Christian brothers and sisters should be more compelling, more hopeful, more exciting, more redemptive, more profitable than with anyone else in the world. It would seem that even the structure of this text gives the impression that if we will live out the true marks of a Christian together, it will inevitably bleed over into our lives with those of the world. Our community in here very much impacts our mentality as we walk out there! May the Lord use our community of faith to add to the number day by day those who are being saved!
Equipped for Every Good Work
January 8, 2023 • Michael McCracken • 2 Timothy 3:16
Scripture itself attests to both its transcendent value as well as its pragmatic value for everyday life. Paul is working out the action verbs that outline the ways in which scripture equips us to live a life from faith in Jesus Christ. Every time we open scripture, scripture itself is leading us towards repentance and faith. We desire our DNA groups at ARCC to be a context where our people gather around the word and disciple one another towards a life that experiences this on a regular basis.
The Devotion
August 28, 2022 • Michael McCracken • Psalm 130
Right now. Could you go “be” with Jesus? Jesus’ mission was to reconcile us to God. Christ put on flesh and came to us that we might be His people and He would be our God. As a part of making disciples at ARCC we desire to equip the saints with a yearning to take advantage of the welcome we have in Christ to come into the presence of God and simply be still and KNOW Him. We believe that Discipleship must come forth out of this regular “being” with the Lord.
The Lineage
August 21, 2022 • Michael McCracken • 2 Timothy 1:1–7
Outside of Jesus and His twelve disciples the relationship between Paul and Timothy might be regarded as the most explicit example of mentor discipleship that we have. In essence, young Timothy was invited to join Paul on his missionary journey. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul reminds Timothy of the primary purpose for getting to be with Paul for all these years. By the power of the grace that is in Christ Jesus Timothy was to join Paul in the lineage of training up faithful men who could then turn and train up more faithful men. We will see that being a part of this mission of making disciples who make disciples is, in itself, one of the great ways that we ourselves are discipled. Understanding comes after faithfulness. Once again, discipleship happens as we walk in spaces that require us to be both the mission and the missionary.
The Priesthood
August 14, 2022 • Michael McCracken • Galatians 5:6, Ephesians 4:15–16
Jesus, the Son of God, has been in community from all eternity. We believe that He has been satisfied completely by and in and through the eternal presence of the Father and the Holy Spirit. When Jesus came to earth He did His ministry alongside others. He knew them and they knew Him. There is an important aspect of Christian discipleship that cannot happen outside of community. Living life in community is a large part of the process of “growing up into Christ” as Paul would put it to the Ephesian church. Jesus told His disciples that the world would know them by their love for one another. In Christ, we have a new identity bought and paid for by His blood. He calls us a priesthood unto the Lord. This being the case, we have the privilege of doing life with people uniquely gifted to present Jesus to us over and over again. The Apostle Paul gives wonderful vision for what this life with “one another” looks like and what it was meant to accomplish for God’s glory and our sanctification as those being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus.
The Assembly
August 7, 2022 • Michael McCracken • Isaiah 6
What would you do if you believe you were going to meet with God? Certainly what you believe about who God is and where you are in relation to Him would make a difference. At ARCC we desire to reclaim the meaning and depth and value of the privilege that it is for the people of God to gather together for worship on Sundays. Not only are we experiencing a foretaste of what it will be like when Jesus returns and we get to actually stand around the throne, but we are also being formed by and in and through this experience for a life that pleases God. Indeed, a life that seeks to see to it that the earth is filled with the glory of God. In meeting with the Lord together our identities are solidified in who God is and what He has done for us that we might be holy and blameless. In meeting with the Lord together our purpose becomes clear as we are sent out as holy ones to declare to the world who the truly Holy, holy, holy One is.