Seaside Church Sermons

So it's going to come. The end is near. But how near is one of the greatest questions never answered. Oh, we know, many books have come and gone, many preachers and teachers have postulated, invested in lots of chart paper, and invested their whole future in what is essentially unknowable. It's not unthinkable, unworthy of discussion, or un-valuable. But having a unhealthy view of the ends times can be..well..unhealthy. Instead Peter asks the question, "What sort of person ought you to be?" in light of all that is coming - in light of the coming return of Jesus and judgement of the earth. That means today. How are you going to live today? If we are not promised tomorrow - why are we focused so much on it? What would look like to live for Him today, in His Kindgom? If it's all gonna burn - how ought you to live?

Balaam Funny story about a guy & his donkey. A donkey that was more aware of God than he was. Peter takes us to the story of Balaam as a reminder of the false prophets who he calls little more than root animals. These false prophets & teachers basically ran after 3 things - food, drink and sex. They saw life as little more than that. Anyway, back to Balaam. Here was a man who is known as a prophet of God, and so he is enticed with a offer to do some outside work. and the results of that request present us with some instructive help in how we live our lives as well, both personally and in the world around us.

Peter continues his look at the stories of the Old Testament, this time specifically looking at the story of Lot. Often Lot is scripted as a selfish guy, who chose the best land for himself. He is remembered as the guy who volunteered his daughters to the crowd seeking the angelic messengers that were sojourning in his home for the night. Or maybe you remember the story further down the line where those same daughters get him drunk and sleep with him to get pregnant. This guy, this obviously flawed guy, is called righteous by Peter. What?? This is where His story gets complicated. Shoot, it's all complicated. Whereas we want tidy lives and tidy folk leading us, this ongoing story of God continues to involve some crazy twists and turn woven together by a great storyteller - the greatest storyteller. It is too easy, far too easy, to just point at Lot and be disgusted by his action (or lack of). But we are not altogether different. He is not unlike us - just change the actions and we are not so far f

Lies. They are all around us. They pervade our conversations - both inside & outside our heads. As Peter starts to dig into the meat of the purpose for his 2nd letter, what we find is that there is a subtly to the lies we hear, process and believe. The only way to fight the lies, to fight the untruth about who we think we are (versus what He says to be true about us) is through His Word. To reinforce the fight against false teaching, Peter references the stories of the Old Testament - specifically the stories of the fall of angels and of Noah. Through looking at those stories through the lens of the broader story of Scripture, we gain insight into the work that God is doing in our lives and in the lives of others, and how to stand firm against the lies of the world.

Communion. It's a tough biblical topic. This is often due to our viewing it from a single perspective - from our history and heritage, rather that from His view - the view of His story in the Old & New Testaments, in the work of His people Israel, in & through the work of Jesus. This has led to many misunderstandings and even ruination of the original intent and purpose. We have made the symbol, too often, the purpose rather than essential value in the redemptive work of remembrance.

As we wrap up the 2011 Advent Celebration's first stage, we are looking back at the story of the incarnational work of Jesus. It's far too easy to exclude folks that are on what we would call the fringe, and yet, when we look at the example of Jesus we are faced with the reality of His incarnational life. In order to grow & mature out of who we are in Him, we must not only recognize this, but also respond.

Growing. It often is something that we want, but either we plunge ahead, just randomly trying to work this life out, or we sit back, stoically waiting for God to make us perfect so that we can get out there and not screw it up. As we dig into 2 Peter 1/5-7 we find a list of virtues. And at first glance, the doers say "Let's get going!!" And the thinkers, the feelers, they can default to just being overwhelmed. But there is a great balance here. We need to be diligent in our faith - in trusting in the promises of God that we have everything we need for life and godliness. Even if failing-ly moving forward in seeking to be like Him, we are identifying both our kingdom belonging and our need. diligence, peter, grow, jesus, david, seek, father, the will of god, moral excellence, cupcake girls, advent, seaside church, bremerton, self-control, endurance, godliness, hope, knowledge, change, failing, grace, sin, mercy

This Sunday's gathering we focused on laying out the details of our Advent Celebration project - working with The Cupcake Girls [http://www.thecupcakegirls.org] to reach and build relationships with the Strip Clubs and Brothels in the Las Vegas area. We also spent a chunk of time reading/talking through the ongoing story in the 2nd Letter of Peter - specifically the 1st chapter and even more specifically verses 3-4. In this passage Peter is continuing to emphasize not only the incredible value of knowing God, but also the order in which He has called us. It isn't - stop sinning, the Jesus will accept you, and then He'll save you. Instead it is - Jesus called you, loves you, and through that you can seek to fight against the lies that Satan continues to throw at us with the truth of who He says we are. Not who we were, but who we are should drive our responses and our decisions in life.

Starts with announcements. Figures huh? We have quite a few cool things coming up over next months - so don't jump over that part. This week @ Seaside we looked at the ideas of grace & peace. This is only the start of what will be a ongoing digging into these ideas. This week we are primarily dealing with growing in these areas. For some of you, this will not be exceptionally new info (lots of new folks in this recorded service, so our bent was toward getting them caught up - not just just pushing on for pushing on's sake). The primary means of us growing in the knowledge of these things is through the Word. Why do we read the bible? Why do we seek Him in this way? Why is The Word a taproot of Seaside?

It's true - we didn't even make it through 1 verse last week. So we took that on this week. One of the wonders (and there are many) of the Word is that it runs deep. We too often run through it looking to check it off. not here tho - that would be for our loss. Here Peter is continuing to show us the nearness of our relationship with God. "Where??" you say? Here. Here in the words - "a faith with equal standing as ours". This was a faith based on the righteous, obedient work of Christ. He didn't only forgive us our sins - He makes us Just - declared innocent of all the crimes we have ever loved, lived and bled for - past, present, and future. He has set us not on the same level of the apostles - but instead, in response to our typical need to over or undershoot our value, has put us on the standing of Jesus - something far beyond anything we can imagine or think of. This means something remarkable - because He no longer sees anything but His Sons standing in us. He who knew no sin became all thos

Summary of our time in and the final verses of 1 Peter