Trusting God as a Lifestyle

It is easy in our information age to make worry and anxiety our default setting... almost a lifestyle. But God calls us to make trusting Him our lifestyle. So Psalm 37 encourages trust, delight, commit, and rest. Quite a pleasant lifestyle!

Psalm 37
1 Peter 5:7
Song of Solomon 2:15
Philippians 4:6-7
Luke 12:22-23

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• What are the main themes of this Psalm concerning:
  1. The upright person?
  2. The wicked?
• What are the root meanings of trust, delight, commit, and rest in this Psalm?
• Why should we chase out the foxes?
• Why is trust the ultimate honor?
• How can we make trust a lifestyle?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Holding Salvation in His Arms

Jesus warned us not to rest on a shaky foundation. There are many shaky foundations that people build their religion on that utterly fail when most needed. That's why it's important to remember that Salvation is a Person. And He will never fail!!

Luke 2:21-38
Philippians 1:21,1:23,1:1,1:18,2:21,4:13
1 John 2:1-2
Hebrews 4:14-16
Acts 7:56,7:59
Matthew 25:34

The belief of the testimony, or record, concerning the Son of God, our Saviour, is the porch of the building, through which we pass into the audience-chamber and meet the Living Inhabitant, full of light, and life, and love. Andrew Bonar The Gospel Pointing to the Person of Christ

Faith is not so much a disposition of the mind toward the truth, as a disposition of the heart toward Christ, produced by means of the truth. Sievewright

The faith which is most blessed is faith which deals most fully with the Person of Jesus Christ. The truest repentance is that which weeps at the sight of His wounds and the love which is most sweet is love to the adorable Person of the Well-Beloved. I look upon the Doctrines of Grace as my Lord's garments and they smell of myrrh, aloes and cassia. I look upon His precepts as His scepter and it is a rod tipped with silver. And I delight to touch it and find comfort in its power. I look upon the Gospel ordinances as the Throne upon which He sits and I delight in that Throne of ivory overlaid with pure gold. But oh, His Person is sweeter than His garments, dearer than His scepter, more glorious than His Throne! He, Himself, is altogether lovely, and to love HIM is the very heart's core of true religion! Charles Spurgeon Number 1281

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• What are some of the shaky foundations people build their religion on?
• What does it mean that Salvation is a Person?
• In what ways is having a faith in the person of Christ important in terms of sin, trials, death, and the final Day?
• How can we nurture a love for Christ?
• How does He divide?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

The King and Hope

Jesus is King, the rightful King, the forever King and the King who restores. He will have no rivals... who is your King? Are you your King?

Matthew 2:1-19
Isaiah 9:6-7
Micah 5:2
Zechariah 9:9
Genesis 49:9-10
Daniel 7:13-14
1 John 5:19,3:8,
John 12:31
Revelation 11:15,19:11-16
Philippians 2:9-10,3:20-21
Titus 2:11-14
Romans 8:18-19,8:23
Psalm 2

They all were looking for a king
To slay their foes, and lift them high:
Thou cam'st a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.

O son of man, to right my lot
Nought but thy presence can avail;
Yet on the road thy wheels are not,
Nor on the sea thy sail!

My fancied ways why shouldst thou heed?
Thou com'st down thine own secret stair:
Com'st down to answer all my need,
Yea, every bygone prayer!
George MacDonald That Holy Thing

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• What does it mean that the Baby is a King?
• What does it mean to be a King?
• What did He come to do?
• Why is He the rightful King?
• What did He restore?
• What is the proper (the Wise Men) and the improper (Herod) response to the King?
• What is your response to Him?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Reconciled to God...or... How to Experience Angel Joy!

God reconciled His enemies through the death of His Son. This amazing response to His enemies, at such an amazing cost is seen in the Angel's joy as they announced it. Do you have Angel joy?

Luke 1:26-38,2:8-20
2 Corinthians 5:18-21,4:18
Romans 5:5-11,8:7,1:30,8:31-32,5:1,8:1,10:17
Colossians 1:21-22
Isaiah 59:2

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• How do your enemies treat you?
• How do you treat them?
• Who are God's enemies?
• How does God treat His enemies?
• What is reconciliation?
• Why would God go to such great lengths to be reconciled to His enemies?
• What effect should all of this have on us?
• Do you have angel joy?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: The Substance is Christ

The devil loves religion and encourages it. If it will take us away from Christ. This is Paul's warning to the Colossians and to us today.

Colossians 1:13-19,2:6-3:5,3:12
Hebrews 10:1
Galatians 5:1,5:3

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Why does the Devil love religion?
• What kinds of religions did Paul warn the Colossians about?
• What is so dangerous about those types of religion?
• Why is it so key to be rooted in Christ?
• What dangers, like these Paul warned about, do we face today?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Facing Fear

While we would face death with anxiety and fear, Jesus sees glory. Where we would be self-concerned, Jesus compassionately prepares His disciples for His departure. As we would turn in on our own mourning, Jesus turns His disciples towards a new commandment: loving one another.

John 13:31-35

Chris Bowser
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: The Paradoxical Victory of the Cross

What appears to be Christ's greatest defeat... is actually His greatest victory and our victory too!! Paul is describing the victory scene to the Colossians.

Ephesians 1:18-2:10,6:10-20
Colossians 2:9-15,1:16,1:13-14,3:9
1 John 5:18
Genesis 3
1 Peter 5:8-9
James 4:7
Romans 6:6,6:11-12,8:12-13,8:3,16:19-20
John 6:37

These powers, angry at his challenge to their sovereignty, stripped him naked, held him up to public contempt, and celebrated a triumph over him. In one of his most dramatic statements of the paradox of the cross, and one moreover which shows in what physical detail Paul could envisage the horrible death Jesus had died, he declares that, on the contrary, on the cross God was stripping them naked, was holding them to public contempt, and leading them in his own triumphal procession - in Christ, the crucified Messiah. When the 'powers' had done their worst, crucifying the lord of glory incognito on the charge of blasphemy and rebellion, they have overreached themselves. He, neither blasphemer nor rebel, was in fact their rightful sovereign. They thereby exposed themselves for what they were - usurpers of the authority which was properly his. The cross therefore becomes the source of hope for all who had been held captive under their rule, enslaved in fear and mutual suspicion. Christ breaks the last hold that the 'powers' had over his people, by dying on their behalf. N.T. Wright Colossians and Philemon

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Who are the principalities and powers?
• How do they impact the world?
• Can we break free?
• How are we delivered?
• How did God turn the tables on the principalities upon the cross?
• How was Jesus' greatest defeat His greatest victory?
• What are the implications of all of this for us today?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: Paid in Full

When a debt is paid off the bill may be stamped Paid in Full, or even a mortgage may be burned. In Colossians Paul writes of a handwritten debt being nailed to the cross. A dramatic word image of what Jesus did for us.

Colossians 2,1:15-19
Proverbs 11:15,17:18
Acts 12:23
Hebrews 10:31,8:12,7:22
Psalm 103:12

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• How in debt are we before God?
• How serious is that debt?
• Why is it so difficult to take on someone else's debt?
• Why is our salvation like burning a mortgage?
• What specific encouragements were we given so as to not desecrate the cross and what God has done through Christ?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

True Greatness!

We live in a Celebrity Saturated Age. We (as a culture) love celebrities, and wish we could be one. We try, on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, to get that chance to go viral. Most all of us fail to reach the allusive status. Woe are we... the losers in the celebrity lottery, never to be great. But then, Jesus comes along and so radically redefines what greatness is that He calls us to completely change the way we think. And, He gives us a true shot at greatness in the sight of God!!! What is True Greatness? This will be our study. It will be both challenging but also powerfully liberating!!!

Matthew 20

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: You Have the Upper Hand

Why does knowing that in Christ you died to the reign of sin give you an Upper Hand in your war against your personal remaining sin? Let's let Paul tell us from Colossians.

Colossians 2:11-13
Romans 5:14-6:12,8:3-4,6:16,8:8-9,8:12-13
1 Corinthians 1:14-17
2 Corinthians 5:14

...to recognize a broadly attested New Testament theological concept dubbed by James Dunn "conversion-initiation." The New Testament connects our coming to Christ (being converted and initiated into the new covenant community) to faith, to repentance, to the gift of the Spirit, and to water baptism, in various combinations. Any of these, in a kind of metonymy, could be used to connote the whole experience – implying, of course, in each instant, the presence of all of the others. Water baptism, then, as a critical New Testament rite intimately connected to our conversion experience, could be used as shorthand for the whole experience. But it is also striking that it is just in the two most important Pauline passages about our being buried "with Christ" that baptism is brought into the picture in this way (when it is not frequently referred to elsewhere in Paul in this fashion). This may indeed suggest additionally, that early Christians associated the waters of baptism with Christ's burial. Douglas J. Moo The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• What does it mean that the believer was crucified, buried and risen with Christ?
• When did this happen to the believer?
• How does this change our relationship with sin as a power and a reign?
• What are the practical implications of this in my battle with remaining sin?
• What am I supposed to reckon?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

United in Christ

What does it mean for us to be united in Christ? Especially as a corporate church body? Christ breaks down the barrier that separates us, no matter if the division is race, gender, wealth, power, or religion.

Ephesians 2,1:3-7,1:11
Romans 9:4-5

Chris Bowser
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Acts: The Finish, but Not the End

As we finish our study of the book of Acts, the book concludes with Paul's ministry in Rome, but the mission continues today through God's people. Paul had hoped one day to find himself in Rome as a missionary, instead he finds himself imprisoned. This did not hinder Paul from teaching and preaching. Just as Paul was used by God to proclaim the salvation message, so we, regardless of roadblocks and detours in life, can be used mightily as His ambassadors. Nothing can stop the message of salvation from going forward!

Acts 28

Jonathan Powell
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: Circumcision of the Heart

In Colossians, Paul takes up the Old Testament call for Heart Circumcision and shows it's New Covenant fulfillment; encouraging us all in our battle against remaining sin.

2 Corinthians 3
Colossians 2:16-17,2:9-11,3:1-12
Deuteronomy 10:12-11:1,30:6
Jeremiah 4:3-4
Acts 15:1,15:24
Romans 2:25-29,6:6,6:11-12,8:13
Philippians 3:2-3
Galatians 5:24,5:6,6:15
1 Corinthians 7:19
Colossians 2:11

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• What does circumcision of the Heart mean?
• How is this tied in with Christ as the second Adam?
• How does this impact a person's life?
• How does it make them different than someone who is not circumcised of the heart?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Acts: A Dangerous Journey

It is not unusual when folks think (and reasonably so) they are doing God's will. Then when things get hard or don't go as they expected or unforeseen challenges arise, they despair and think that they have misunderstood God's will. They think God's will in their life will always go smoothly. For the Apostle Paul... nothing could seem further from the truth at times. In Acts we will witness a clear call from God to journey to Rome turn into what we would call a nightmare. With setbacks, trials, disasters... even a bite by a poisonous snake. Yet, Paul never questions whether he is in God's will. We have much to learn from such a man!!

Acts 27-28

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: Heart Religion

As we continue with our study of Colossians, we need to lay the foundation for the next section. Christianity is Heart Religion. It involves a pervasive transformation. That begins with the salvation brought about by the Second Adam.

Romans 5:12-21
Colossians 2:6-23
2 Corinthians 5:14
1 Corinthians 15:20-22,15:44-49
Ephesians 2:3,5:22-33

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Why should we not simplify the concept of salvation?
• What is Heart Religion?
• What is the alternative?
• How did the first Adam mess everything up?
• What does it mean that he was a Corporate Head?
• How can his mess be fixed?
• How did the Second/Last Adam fix it?
• How can I benefit from this?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

While Surrounded by Meanness and Ugliness, How Not to Become Mean and Ugly

In a world of such political, personal, and many other animosities, we can be surrounded by meanness and ugliness... the Bible speaks powerfully into this so that we do not become mean and ugly ourselves. But rather we are powerful agents of change and redemption.

Titus 2:11-3:11
1 Timothy 2:2
2 Thessalonians 3:11-13
1 Thessalonians 4:10-12
Matthew 5:16,6:3
2 Corinthians 10:1
Galatians 5:23
Ephesians 4:2
1 Timothy 6:11
2 Timothy 2:25
1 Peter 3:5
Matthew 5:5,11:29,21:5

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• How are we surrounded by meanness and ugliness?
• How do we tend to be affected by this?
• How are we supposed to respond?
• What are the reasons the Bible gives as to why we should respond this way?
• This is really hard... what help and hope does God give?
• What were the practical suggestions made in the sermon?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: Complete in Christ

Paul states it quite plainly and powerfully in Colossians: all of the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ... so when we are in Christ we have all we ever need... ever and forever!!"

Colossians 2:1-10,1:27-28,1:19
John 3:34,20:28-29,1:1,8:58,10:30-33,14:9,1:16
Romans 9:5
Titus 2:13
Ephesians 1:22-23
1 Corinthians 1:30

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• What does it mean that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus?
• What does it mean that we have complete fullness when we are in Him?
• What are some of the cheap (false) substitutes offered today?
• How does being in Christ answer these?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Knowing That What We Know is Truly True

Even if we didn't know there is a word for it, epistemology, we all have a theory about deciding what is the truth. And how do we arrive at that truth? There are several ways, depending on the circumstance. We will look at some sufficient means of knowing the truth about Jesus and some that are not.

Luke 24:13-35,24:3,6:46
John 20:11-16,21:1-7
James 2:19
Matthew 11:25-27,13:10-11,16:13-20,17:1-5,27:54
1 Corinthians 2:14,12:3
Hebrews 2:14-17
Romans 4:25,1:3-4
1 John 4:2-3

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Read Luke 24:13-35. Cleopas asks the stranger, "Do you not know these things?" What things does he mean?
• What is epistemology?
• Explain why physical senses alone are not sufficient for knowing the truth about Jesus. Give an example from Scripture that demonstrates this truth.
• Why are facts and Bible study insufficient for knowing the truth about Jesus?
• What is the one infallible way of knowing the truth about Jesus and the resurrection? Consider whether this is the basis for your epistemology.
• Why is it important for us to understand that Jesus came in the flesh?
• Despite the testimonies of Simon Peter, God the Father at Jesus' transfiguration, and the centurion at the cross, the disciples still did not grasp that Jesus is God's unique Son. What had to happen so that they could understand this truth?
• Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement: Jesus can be a person's Savior, yet not his Lord.

Scott Graubard
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: Walking in Him

Paul tells the Colossians, and is ultimately telling us, to walk in Christ and explains this by being rooted, built up, established, and thankful... we will explore these two verses which are a great summary of what a Christian's life is to be about!

John 15:1-8
Colossians 1:24-2:7

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• What does it mean to walk in Jesus?
• What does it mean to be rooted in Him?
• What does it mean to be built up in Him?
• What does it mean to be established in the faith?
• Why is thanksgiving a quality control?
• How can we do these things?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: Christ - The Wisdom of God

The Bible in Colossians says Christ is the Wisdom of God. Knowing Him makes us rich because this wisdom answers the big questions of life.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Colossians 1:24-2:5,1:9,4:12,4:16,4:7-9,3:14
2 Corinthians 11:28-29
1 Peter 3:15

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• How did Paul live out his striving for the churches?
• What is the Christians wealth in this text?
• What are the big questions and some of the answers offered today?
• How is Christ the Wisdom of God?
• How does He answer the big questions?
• How does that make us rich?
• What is our calling to those who do not have Christ?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA