Finishing "Fit To Be Untied"
This weekend we will conclude our 3-part series called Fit to Be Untied after a brief break for Resurrection Day. In this series we’ve been examining the subject of freedom in Christ.
In the first message we looked at Isaiah 61 and saw how Jesus came to proclaim freedom to the captives and release those bound in darkness. We talked about how, apart from Christ, we are powerless to do anything about our sinful condition. We need to be delivered by someone with greater authority than the sin which holds us captive. Since all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ, then when he sets you free, you are free indeed!
In the second message we looked at how there’s more to freedom than just being set free. We have to choose to live in that freedom every day. Sometimes, in our humanity, we end up having to learn things the hard way twice, or more than twice 
We don’t have to ever go back to our old lives because we’ve been set free. We saw from Galatians 5 that we can stand firm in our freedom and resist going back into bondage. Freedom is maintained and sustained through a daily interactive relationship with Jesus.
So we’ve looked at getting free, staying free, and now this week we will be looking at freeing others. This chain reaction is not meant to stop with us. God wants to use us to spark the same reality in the lives of others!
Finishing "Fit To Be Untied"
This weekend we will conclude our 3-part series called Fit to Be Untied after a brief break for Resurrection Day. In this series we’ve been examining the subject of freedom in Christ.
In the first message we looked at Isaiah 61 and saw how Jesus came to proclaim freedom to the captives and release those bound in darkness. We talked about how, apart from Christ, we are powerless to do anything about our sinful condition. We need to be delivered by someone with greater authority than the sin which holds us captive. Since all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ, then when he sets you free, you are free indeed!
In the second message we looked at how there’s more to freedom than just being set free. We have to choose to live in that freedom every day. Sometimes, in our humanity, we end up having to learn things the hard way twice, or more than twice We don’t have to ever go back to our old lives because we’ve been set free. We saw from Galatians 5 that we can stand firm in our freedom and resist going back into bondage. Freedom is maintained and sustained through a daily interactive relationship with Jesus.
So we’ve looked at getting free, staying free, and now this week we will be looking at freeing others. This chain reaction is not meant to stop with us. God wants to use us to spark the same reality in the lives of others!
Love Ambridge
I’m very excited about an opportunity we have to reach out and love our community. Saturday, April 21 we are going to join with the Committee to Clean and Beautify Ambridge for their Spring Kick-Off! As you may have already guessed, we will be cleaning and beautifying Ambridge.
In John 13, Jesus served his disciples by washing their feet. We get to serve our community by washing it’s streets. I love opportunities like this to tangibly demonstrate Christ’s love!
If you’re interested in going with us, send me an email here. We’ll be meeting at 8:30am on 4.21 at 552 Merchant St. Love for you join us!
Love Ambridge
I’m very excited about an opportunity we have to reach out and love our community. Saturday, April 21 we are going to join with the Committee to Clean and Beautify Ambridge for their Spring Kick-Off! As you may have already guessed, we will be cleaning and beautifying Ambridge.
In John 13, Jesus served his disciples by washing their feet. We get to serve our community by washing it’s streets. I love opportunities like this to tangibly demonstrate Christ’s love!
If you’re interested in going with us, send me an email here. We’ll be meeting at 8:30am on 4.21 at 552 Merchant St. Love for you join us!
Pirate Game
I had a great time today at the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener on my day off! Today they played the St. Louis Cardinals. While I don’t think the temperature ever got quite up to 40 degrees and the Bucs lost 3 to 0, I still had a great time
I even received a sweet fridge magnet with this season’s schedule on it. Baseball is awesome. It definitely brought back lots of memories from my little league days. It also made me look forward to playing on our church softball team this year! Thanks Jesse and Chuck for giving me a ticket and letting me tag along! Had a great time.
Pirate Game
I had a great time today at the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener on my day off! Today they played the St. Louis Cardinals. While I don’t think the temperature ever got quite up to 40 degrees and the Bucs lost 3 to 0, I still had a great time
I even received a sweet fridge magnet with this season’s schedule on it. Baseball is awesome. It definitely brought back lots of memories from my little league days. It also made me look forward to playing on our church softball team this year! Thanks Jesse and Chuck for giving me a ticket and letting me tag along! Had a great time.
Easter Sunday
I love Easter Sunday! I love seeing new faces and meeting new people. We had a great service with about 85 people in total attendance. I spoke about the resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15:1-16.
I’m really excited to welcome Pastor Cal to lead our Children’s Ministries on Sunday mornings! Pastor Cal comes to us with 32 years of experience as a children’s minister. Today was his first Sunday with us. Really looking forward to partnering with Cal to reach the kids in the Ambridge Area.
Easter Sunday
I love Easter Sunday! I love seeing new faces and meeting new people. We had a great service with about 85 people in total attendance. I spoke about the resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15:1-16.
I’m really excited to welcome Pastor Cal to lead our Children’s Ministries on Sunday mornings! Pastor Cal comes to us with 32 years of experience as a children’s minister. Today was his first Sunday with us. Really looking forward to partnering with Cal to reach the kids in the Ambridge Area.
ACC History
Pastor Jeff from Allison Park Church is currently writing blog articles about the various churches that they have planted. Ambridge Christian Center is the second of six churches they have started in the Pittsburgh area. Jeff does a really good job retelling our story. Check it out here.
ACC History
Pastor Jeff from Allison Park Church is currently writing blog articles about the various churches that they have planted. Ambridge Christian Center is the second of six churches they have started in the Pittsburgh area. Jeff does a really good job retelling our story. Check it out here.
Undiminishable
As I was studying today, I was encouraged by the reality that God’s love is undiminishable. It can’t be diminished or changed in any way. That idea is completely different from human love. Human love at one point or another will let us down. We eventually will let down those closest to us in one facet or another. I think sometimes, because of our experiences with human conditional love, we tend to automatically think that God relates to us like everyone else does.
The truth is that God loves you as much on your worst day as he does on your best day. There’s nothing you can do that will ever change or diminish the way God feels about you. His love in not conditioned on our worthiness or loveability (thank God). If that were the case, none of us could ever dream of earning up to his love.
It’s precisely our unworthiness that makes God’s love so powerful and unique! If we got what we really deserve… … … (maybe we shouldn’t go there!)
It’s definitely not cheap grace either. It doesn’t mean that God’s cool with us living in sin. But, if we are true believers, even our mistakes don’t change the way God feels about us. In the conviction process, his arms are open wide so that when we fall or mess up we can repent and run to him rather than from him. Even in the moments of our greatest weakness his love factor never changes. “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1.9).
If we live in that reality, he will never condemn us or reject us. It’s actually his love that invites us to leave our sin and live pleasing to him (Rom. 2.4). Satan would have us believe that God’s love for us changes based on our performance. That way he could get us to run from God rather than to him when we mess up.
Thank God that when we are his, the death we deserve is completely obliterated by his unconditional, boundless, and undiminishable love!
How should we respond?
Undiminishable
As I was studying today, I was encouraged by the reality that God’s love is undiminishable. It can’t be diminished or changed in any way. That idea is completely different from human love. Human love at one point or another will let us down. We eventually will let down those closest to us in one facet or another. I think sometimes, because of our experiences with human conditional love, we tend to automatically think that God relates to us like everyone else does.
The truth is that God loves you as much on your worst day as he does on your best day. There’s nothing you can do that will ever change or diminish the way God feels about you. His love in not conditioned on our worthiness or loveability (thank God). If that were the case, none of us could ever dream of earning up to his love.
It’s precisely our unworthiness that makes God’s love so powerful and unique! If we got what we really deserve… … … (maybe we shouldn’t go there!)
It’s definitely not cheap grace either. It doesn’t mean that God’s cool with us living in sin. But, if we are true believers, even our mistakes don’t change the way God feels about us. In the conviction process, his arms are open wide so that when we fall or mess up we can repent and run to him rather than from him. Even in the moments of our greatest weakness his love factor never changes. “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1.9).
If we live in that reality, he will never condemn us or reject us. It’s actually his love that invites us to leave our sin and live pleasing to him (Rom. 2.4). Satan would have us believe that God’s love for us changes based on our performance. That way he could get us to run from God rather than to him when we mess up.
Thank God that when we are his, the death we deserve is completely obliterated by his unconditional, boundless, and undiminishable love!
How should we respond?
Recommended Podcast
In my line of work, preaching is very important. Therefore I try to surround myself with good preaching. I typically listen to anywhere from 1-4 sermons a week. One of my favorite preachers is John Piper. John is the Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. He’s also the author of numerous books including his best known, Desiring God.
If you’re looking to listen in on some great preaching, Check out John Piper’s podcast here. You can also get it by going into the itunes store and typing “john piper” in the search engine and click subscribe to Desiring God Sermon Audio. If you don’t have itunes, you can download it here for free. Enjoy!
Recommended Podcast
In my line of work, preaching is very important. Therefore I try to surround myself with good preaching. I typically listen to anywhere from 1-4 sermons a week. One of my favorite preachers is John Piper. John is the Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. He’s also the author of numerous books including his best known, Desiring God.
If you’re looking to listen in on some great preaching, Check out John Piper’s podcast here. You can also get it by going into the itunes store and typing “john piper” in the search engine and click subscribe to Desiring God Sermon Audio. If you don’t have itunes, you can download it here for free. Enjoy!
Fit To Be Untied
Today we concluded the second message in our sermon series called Fit To Be Untied, exploring freedom in Christ. This week’s message was called “Living Free.” We discussed that there’s more to freedom than being set free. Sustaining freedom requires a living, daily relationship with Jesus Christ. Our main passage was Galatians 5:1.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let ourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
We talked about how God created us to be free, but we are all born slaves of sin. Since we are free in Christ we can and must choose to stand firm in that freedom. The world, the flesh, and the devil will all try to drag us back into slavery, but we can live free as we live by the Spirit through daily dependence on Christ.
God created us to be free and slaves to nothing. The free you is the true you.
Just as we were under the influence of sin, the good news is that we can live under the influence of the Holy Spirit every day.
We can walk with God every day. He calls us to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Stepping implies walking, and walking implies motion. As we are moving through life, we can stay free by walking in step with the Spirit of God.
Just like when Peter was walking on the water with Jesus, he was all right as long as he kept his eyes on Christ. When he looked away from Jesus and focused on his impossible circumstances, he started sinking. There’s nothing we can’t overcome as long as we are walking in the Spirit with our eyes fixed on Jesus.
We also got to hear a testimony from Kim Berger, one of our young adults who was a former drug addict who found freedom in Christ and the power to stay free. I never get tired of hearing real stories of the life-changing power of God!
Fit To Be Untied
Today we concluded the second message in our sermon series called Fit To Be Untied, exploring freedom in Christ. This week’s message was called “Living Free.” We discussed that there’s more to freedom than being set free. Sustaining freedom requires a living, daily relationship with Jesus Christ. Our main passage was Galatians 5:1.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let ourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
We talked about how God created us to be free, but we are all born slaves of sin. Since we are free in Christ we can and must choose to stand firm in that freedom. The world, the flesh, and the devil will all try to drag us back into slavery, but we can live free as we live by the Spirit through daily dependence on Christ.
God created us to be free and slaves to nothing. The free you is the true you.
Just as we were under the influence of sin, the good news is that we can live under the influence of the Holy Spirit every day.
We can walk with God every day. He calls us to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Stepping implies walking, and walking implies motion. As we are moving through life, we can stay free by walking in step with the Spirit of God.
Just like when Peter was walking on the water with Jesus, he was all right as long as he kept his eyes on Christ. When he looked away from Jesus and focused on his impossible circumstances, he started sinking. There’s nothing we can’t overcome as long as we are walking in the Spirit with our eyes fixed on Jesus.
We also got to hear a testimony from Kim Berger, one of our young adults who was a former drug addict who found freedom in Christ and the power to stay free. I never get tired of hearing real stories of the life-changing power of God!
