February 26, 2023 • Pastor Kevin Brown • Galatians 3:26–29
We live in a world of people longing and fighting for meaning, identity and belonging. We may have a family name, but it often isn’t enough to embody all we are and desire to be. When we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into a new name and family. We don’t lose our earthly ones, but we are baptized into the source and purpose for them. In the new birth and baptism, we connect to a past that predates our birth and a future that goes beyond this temporal world. We enter into the name given for God’s entire earthly family — now and forever.
Upon This Rock -- They Called Us Christians
February 19, 2023 • Pastor Kevin Brown
It was in Antioch where they first called the followers of Jesus — Christians. Never before and no where else in society had Jews, Gentiles, Men, Women, Poor and Rich gathered as one together. There were rigid social boundaries and distinctions drawn around these groups but the Church changed all of that. It became a unique expression of humanity, known for its worship of Jesus and for it’s unity with one another. They Called Us Christians.
Galatians 2:11-16
Acts 13:1
Acts 11:26
2.19.2023 Message Takeaways
Our identity “in Christ” must inform all of our other identities.
When ethnicity is supreme in our lives, we struggle with Jesus being Lord of our lives.
We will be justified by faith in Christ then and we will be justified by faith in Christ now.
Upon This Rock: Greater Than <
February 12, 2023 • Pastor Kevin Brown • Matthew, Revelation
Race and class have entrenched us in a false identity never intended by God. This defining and devaluing of ourselves and fellow image bearers has disfigured and dehumanized humanity. The Church was established to be an outpost of God’s Kingdom in the earth, redeeming us from defining and devaluing, by ushering in a Beloved Community marked by its loving esteem of one another and fellow image bearers. God has made us all greater than the way we’ve defined and devalued one another.
Upon This Rock: Are We The Rock?
February 5, 2023 • Minister Angela Brown
The business of building the Church is Jesus’ business; and from the very beginning until the very end, the Church Jesus builds comprises every nation, tribe, people and language. This isn’t to say a mono-ethnic Church is out of His will, it’s to say a decidedly mono-ethnic one is. May His Church be the barrier-breaking, bridge-building, peace-making witness described and prescribed in His word and so desperately needed in this world
