Damascus Road Community Church

Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt—and the LORD your God redeemed you.Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ…without hope and without God in the world.But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Remember therefore what you have received and heard—and keep it!In the great story of human redemption, God makes crystal clear again and again how important it is that we “remember.” Who we were before Christ. What God has done for us in Christ. Often the shortest route to repentance and renewal is to remember what God has done for us. G. K. Chesterton said: “If the Gospel is true, the primary characteristic of a Christian should be gratitude.” The Christians faith centers in “the Gospel,” which is not good views or good advice—it is good news! It is remembering what God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) has already done for us as the basis of our identity and hope. Join us this weekend as we prepare to take the next right step together in our journey, this day we will pause and rehearse—remember together—how God has led us.

Over the last three weekends, we have been journeying through this idea that a lot of people in our country and our world are living a different story from the ones they were meant to live. We have considered the claims of Christ against that of many others. And we looked at how God is broadcasting our lost lines in a nonstop global simulcast. This weekend, we will look at how do we actually go about discovering and inhabiting the story we were meant to live. The Bible gives us lots of clues and we will look specifically at four things we need in our lives if we are to unearth and live out our lost lines.You are also in for a treat this weekend. My brother-in-law, Daya Rao, who is a well known Christian artist in India will be worshipping with us (some of you may remember him from his previous trips with us). Come early so you don’t miss this.

Imagine a situation when suddenly all eyes were on you—and serious questions started coming at you: “Who are you? Why are you here? What is your mission in life? What group or community do you define yourself by? What is your story?” Those are key questions in any life and Jonah faced them while on the run from God. That led to a terrifying ride in a submarine of grace—that brought him right back to where he began when he first said “No” to God. Come join us as we sail into a life-defining storm this weekend, in week two of: Running from God, a Deep Dive into the Book of Jonah.

When many think about grace they think of it as the vehicle for which we begin a personal connection with Jesus Christ. However, grace is also the source of strength that enables us to walk in the way of Jesus Christ. Join us this weekend to discover how grace fuels our path into a deeper relationship with Him.

Lord Acton hit the nail on the head: “Power corrupts…and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Moses was right in Deuteronomy 8, when he explained why the LORD often has to hold back from blessing us the way He desires: “You may well say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this prosperity for me… then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God!” Jesus never said: “Take up your mirror and follow Me.” We have finished our gallery of ordinary heroes who became extraordinary by their obedient trust in God and answered ‘yes’ to the question: Can God be trusted? In our last message in our series on Hebrews 11 we turn to the deeper issue: Can God trust me? What person can be trusted by God with meaningful or powerful gifts in her/his life?

“Can I trust God?” Perhaps that seems like a simple question to answer when life is smooth and we generally believe God is loving and good. But for every one of us, truly living a consistent “yes” to that question it is the challenge of a lifetime. God exposes layer after layer of our self-controlling, fearful clinging, my-way-is-better-than-God’s-way choices. But our real choice is whether or not we will seek and obey His will above our own, even when it seems so costly. This weekend our one text tells us to be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see! Both are odd phrases. So our goal is to answer two key questions: 1) what exactly is it we are to hope for? and 2) on what basis can I be so certain of something happening that I stake my life on it; even though I haven’t ever yet experienced it? See you then.