LifeBridge Community Church

Reaching the Lost. Discipling the Saved. Sharing the Love of Jesus with Everyone.

Tag: Sermon Series (Page 2 of 7)

“The Clothing of the King” – Advent & Christmas Sermon Series

November 9, 2023 /

For our Advent and Christmas journey we are going to look at various aspects of and the importance given to different clothes in Scripture.


Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Mark Twain

This may seem odd or trivial, but clothing in the Bible is more than a tangential detail. It often has significant implications for revealing God’s plan of redemption.

Consider: God covered Adan and Eve’s shame and nakedness. He designed and meticulously instructed the Israelites on the priestly garments of the Tabernacle. The Savior Himself was wrapped in swaddling clothes (and later was crucified naked on the cross).

We are going to look at some stories of “The Clothing of the King.” Stories that describe a wardrobe at once splendid and sin-stained, with fabrics that reveal who we are and cover us through His love and redemption. The clothing of the King is both tattered and worn and also incorruptibly glorious – which He freely gives to us!

Join us as we see texture and shape given to the threads of Scripture!

This series is © 1517 and is freely given for use here and is adapted for our use at LifeBridge. We are permitted to use this 2023 Advent Guide and its resources as we do not charge for its use and are not using it for commercial purposes. Sermons in the packet are written by The Rev. Matt Popovits and are adapted for our use.

“Love Where You Live” — Sermon Series & LifeGroup

August 28, 2023 /

Pursuing the Good of the Neighborhood.

Staring on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, we will begin a new sermon series and LifeGroup emphasis, focusing on this wonderful community where God has placed us.

The series will help us show Christ’s love and kindness in our community and neighborhood.

This fits right up our ally at LifeBridge!

The following outlines our plan:

DATE

TITLE/TOPIC

DESCRIPTION
Tuesday, Sep. 12 “Lay the Foundation” Love Where You Live begins with you and your small group defining each of your neighborhoods and getting to know your neighbors.
Sunday, Sep. 17 “Love Through Our Mission” LifeBridge was founded with a mindset of reaching and serving this community where God placed us. Our mission statement is “Connecting People to Jesus by: Reaching the Lost, Discipling the Saved & Sharing the Love of God with Everyone.” Indeed, we “love where we live” – and the people who love around us!
Tuesday, Sep. 19 “Discover the Gifts” In Week 2, you’ll learn about the unique gifts, strengths, and abilities each person in your small group brings to the table—as well as the local gifts and assets already existing in your neighborhoods. This provides a launching point for building on those gifts and assets to make a tangible difference in your community.
Sunday, Sep. 24 “Love Through Our Strategic Plan” LifeBridge has a strategic plan to help us focus our energies on how to fulfill our mission and serve the Lord and our community. It includes a focus on “strong youth and family ministries,” having a welcoming, non-judgmental environment, serving “beyond our walls” and “growing in faith.” Some of this we do better than others, but what a wonderful set of goals as we “love where we live” and “connect people to Jesus!”
Tuesday, Sep. 26 “Assess Well-Being” In Week 3, you’ll dive deeper into your community’s health and well-being, working together to assess the current state of your neighborhoods. You’ll also select a specific neighborhood or area of focus for your small group and begin dreaming about new possibilities for the community while continuing to meet and get to know the people who live around you.
Sunday, Oct. 1 “Work & Keep the Land” We all live somewhere with neighbors and it matters to Him how we relate to the people He has put around us. God values what He creates and has given a creation mandate to humanity: “work and keep the land.” As Christians, we know that Jesus redeemed us, not to escape this mandate, but to fulfill it right where God put us.
Tuesday, Oct. 3 “Imagine the Possibilities” Here’s where your small group starts bringing together everything you’ve been learning. You’ll dream together about what God can do through you to impact one of your neighborhoods, selecting one possibility to pursue. During this week, you’ll also create fun new goals and challenges designed for success.
Sunday, Oct. 8 “Become Zealous to Do Good” We are called to relate to our neighbors. But what does that look like in this fallen world? God calls His people to pursue the welfare of the people and place right around us (i.e., our “neighbors”), even when they are exiled and treated poorly. We have been made God’s people by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus, and live by Grace. Now, we use that reality to set our vision of how to live for others in grace.
Tuesday, Oct. 10 “Pursue the Common Good” This is the final phase! Your small group will work together to create—and launch!—a neighborhood action plan, complete with outcomes, measures, and goals. During your meeting time, you’ll take everything you’ve learned to design your action plan. We recommend you add an extra 20–30 minutes to your small group gathering so you have enough time to plan. Then, your focus during the week will be on executing on the tasks required to launch your project with success.
Sunday, Oct. 15 “Love Your Neighbor” Ok, so we are called to “love our neighbors,” but for some of us, we may wonder if God really knows MY neighbor and how they aren’t, well, very ‘lovable.’ Peter encourages the elect exiles in Asia Minor to “love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” This is a beautiful invitation, but the verses leading up to that invitation are profound and reveal how God works inside us to make that kind of earnest love possible.
Tuesday, Oct. 17 “Launch, Celebrate, & Look Ahead” Whether your project is complete, ongoing, or in process, Week 6 is a chance for your small group to celebrate your accomplishments, praise God for His faithfulness, and look toward future adventures and opportunities to bless your neighborhoods.
Sunday, Oct. 22 “Let Your Light Shine” Loving our neighbors is certainly ‘good, right, and salutary,’ but is it enough? Don’t we also need to “share the Gospel of Jesus” with them? Of course that is excellent and desired! But loving others is a good unto itself and shines a light that ultimately brings glory to God. Our good deeds draw attention to our good God.

Join us Tuesdays at 6:30 PM and Sundays at 10:00 AM for this important focus for LifeBridge and for the benefit of our wonderful community!

Contact Angie Wolfe about the LifeGroup and Pastor Scott about the messages.

HOSEA – Living in the Good Law of God

July 30, 2023 /

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (ceb)

Israel’s destruction will take place. It’s punishment will happen. Pain and suffering will be inevitable.

But that won’t be the end.

They will repent and God will restore!

This will happen with a remnant in their return, but ultimately in the sending of the Messiah, Jesus; through Whom all is restored!

Praise God for His goodness, His love, His restoration, and His Chosen One, Jesus!
May we seek and see His haling and restoration in Him all our days!

SCRIPTURES

  • Hosea 14

HOSEA – Judgement Made, But Victory Through God, the Savior

July 23, 2023 /

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (ceb)

Hosea 13:14 is quoted in 1 Corinthians 15. There part of the passage is explained and fulfilled: yes, death and the grace have some success, but the ultimate victory is ours through Jesus!

The kingdom of Israel didn’t know that ultimate fulfillment, but they did know that God was their Savior in Egypt, and that should have guided their heart and actions.

Yet, they didn’t, and they paid a heavy price.

Victory over death and the grave – and everything else – has been given to us through Jesus! Let us live in that joyful, glorious, and everlasting reality!

“Thank You, Lord, for that victory in Jesus!”

SCRIPTURES

  • Hosea 12-13
  • Revelation 2:10
  • 1 Corinthians 15:54-58

HOSEA – The Heart of the Father

July 16, 2023 /

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (ceb)

Chapter 11 is the most tender one in the book. It shows a loving Father whose heart breaks at the rebellion of His beloved Israel and what is in store. It shows that He loves and will restore His people in the end.

We see this restoration not just in the return of the remnant later, but ultimately in Jesus, who restores with right relationships and for all time!

“Heavenly Father, create in us new hearts, like Yours, and remind us of the joy of our salvation in Jesus, where the results of our prodigal hearts are forever reversed.”

SCRIPTURES

  • Hosea 11
  • Luke 15:11-32

HOSEA – Beware Prosperity!

July 9, 2023 /

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (ceb)

There is something to be said for the strength that comes from a persecuted Church. In times of distress, it’s much easier to call upon the name of the Lord. Conversely, when times are prosperous and good, we often forget God. We forget His goodness; His grace; His blessings. We can easily fall into complacency and loose sight of Him.

This happened during some of the prosperous times in Israel and, in it, they forgot God (just as He warned).

“Lord, in good times and bad, may we always Call upon and depend upon You!”

SCRIPTURES

  • Hosea 10
  • Deuteronomy 8:11-20
  • 1 Timothy 6:6-10

HOSEA – Sow the Wind? Reap the Whirlwind!

July 2, 2023 /

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (ceb)

It seems too harsh for us to consider God punishing the ones He loves. But most of the time, this punishment is simply the natural consequences of our stubborn idolatries, allegiances, desires, and addictions. They are the result of God “giving us over” to what we say we want.

You want to serve other gods? Go, be in their care!

You want to lust after others? Deal with the failed relationships and diseases that follow.

Should we choose our way rather than God’s, He won’t stop us; and woe to us if that happens!

“Lord, forgive us when we demand our own way and bring us back to Yours – always!”

SCRIPTURES

HOSEA – True Repentance & Trust

June 25, 2023 /

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (ceb)

Chapter 6 looks promising: God’s people repenting!

But this repentance is neither heartfelt nor long-lived.

And right after we see that their trust is grossly misplaced: not in God but in the strength and allegiances they have with other nations.

This is idolatry!

Trust in God! He is the only One who can, has, and will continue to save! He is the only One in whom we are to trust; and He is always faithful!

For us the question becomes: “will we trust in the One He sent us, Jesus, or is the seeming strength of other people or things?”

May our Trust in Jesus be ever true – and our repentance sincere when we fail!

SCRIPTURES

  • Hosea 6 — 7
  • Psalm 51:16-17
  • Deuteronomy 10:16-17
  • Deuteronomy 30:1-8

HOSEA – Consequences of Unfaithful Priests

June 18, 2023 /

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (ceb)

Before getting to the unfaithfulness of the people, God has some choice words of judgement to His priests.

They are not interceding for the people to God, but interceding for themselves to false gods! They are oppressing God’s beloved rather then helping them. They are leading people astray rather than to God.

And the results are disastrous; not just for the priests, but for Israel, too!

“O LORD, send us faithful leaders who point people to Jesus! Point people to You!”

SCRIPTURES

HOSEA – Generational Consequences of Unfaithfulness

June 11, 2023 /

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (ceb)

God commands Hosea to marry a “wife of whoredom” and have “children of whoredom.” And the children’s name are…harsh.

Yikes!

But God is using the prophet to show Israel how they are acting and what the results of their actions are in regard to their relationship with Him.

Bad. Unfaithful. Idolatrous. Deserving, not only divorce, but death.

But there is hope, because where Israel (and we) is unfaithful, God continues to be faithful. And that is what saves!

Thank God for His faithfulness amidst our lack of it!

SCRIPTURES

“HOSEA – Introduction

June 4, 2023 /

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (ceb)

Hosea is the first of “The Book of the Twelve” or the “Minor Prophets” (though not chronologically first).

It shares a shocking command from God for the prophet in regard to his family in the first three chapters and then a series of collected “sermons,” warning Israel of God’s coming punishment and their exile; pleading with them to repent.

Yet they won’t and what is prophesied will come to pass.

Yet, even then, God’s love and grace will prevail and restoration will take place.

Through it all, God is good and faithful, even if His people aren’t.

SCRIPTURES

  • Hosea 1:1
  • 1 John 1:8-10

“HOSEA – A Call to Faithfulness” Sermon Series

May 18, 2023 /

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (ceb)

Hosea is one of those Bible books that often gets overlooked. There are some difficulties in it and, like most prophets, some of the things he has to say, well, don’t sound nice!

It’s as if what God has to say isn’t what we want to hear!

But it is something we need to hear – and then obey!

Hosea speaks to a people who have been grossly unfaithful to God, “whoring” after other gods and nations; being appallingly unfaithful in every way to the God to loves them.

He also warns Israel of the coming disaster – being conquered and deported to Assyria.

Yet, the story does not end in Assyria, but with the assurance of a coming Messiah, through Whom God’s loving covenant will be renewed – forever!

Our faithlessness as a people and as the Christian Church has plenty to heed from what God says through Hosea. Although we do not fear deportation again, we are called to be faithful in our love and commitment to God and His good, righteous Word and Law!

May we be so faithful!

Thank You, Lord God, for Your faithful and never-ending love for us!

Join us, starting June 4, 2023!

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Phone / Email

(979) 885-7270 [Church]
(713) 965-6761 [Pastor Scott Heitshusen’s Cell]

info@lifebridgesealy.com

Location // Mail

2162 FM 2187 Rd (location)
P.O. Box 934 (mail)
Sealy, TX 77474

Connecting People to Jesus by:
Reaching the Lost.
Discipling the Saved.
Sharing the Love of Jesus with Everyone.

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