A New Year With God

A New Year With God 

Phil Woodman- 1/1/2023

Key Passage: Matthew 5:3-6

Hungry For God 

• Matthew 5:3-6

• Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, for they will be filled. 

Deeply Rooted in Faith

• 2 Timothy 1:5

• Who has poured into you. Who are you pouring into?

• Spend time in God’s word.

• cbcjoy.org/bible

• Psalm 42:9-11

• David puts his hope and trust in God, even when he feels discouraged and distant.

Hungry for the Presence of God 

• Psalm 27:4

• David asks and desires for one thing above all else… to be with God and to dwell in his presence.

• Exodus 33:18

• Moses has seen God and met with him on multiple occasions and yet his request to God is still, “Please show me your glory”

• Ruth 1:16-17

• Ruth’s willingness to leave everything behind.

• Philippians 3:7-8

• Paul considered all of his accomplishments as meaningless compared with knowing God.

Are You Hungry to Experience the Presence of God?

• When was a time when God felt near? A time when you felt the presence of God?

Upside Down View of Ourselves

Message begins around 33 minutes

Upside Down View of Ourselves

03/13/2021 - Dave Riddle 

Key Passage: Psalm 37:5

Ralph Waldo Emerson - “trust thyself”

• Proverbs 3:5 - don’t do that…

  • Self-reliance limits our spiritual growth

  • Psalm 37:5 - “Depend on the Lord. Trust in him, and he will help you.”

  • Jeremiah 9:23 - Don’t boast about yourself

  • Philippians 4:11-13 - it’s not about our strength or ability.

Spiritual growth is not about personal willpower, it’s about surrender.

What do we trust in?

His Forgiveness

• Luke 18:9-14

  • …everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

• Romans 3:11-12

  • Our own goodness will never be enough.

• Philippians 3:9

  • Our righteousness comes from him!

• It all goes back to what God has done for us.

His Empowerment

• 1 Chronicles 16:11

  • Seek God

• Acts 1:8a

  • Empowered by the Holy Spirit.

  • dynamos (δύναμαι)= able. to be able, have power whether by virtue of one's own ability and resources, or of a state of mind, or through favourable circumstances, or by permission of law

• The same power that raised Christ from the dead empowers you today!

His Wisdom

• 1 Corinthians 3:19

  • The wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.

• James 3:17

  • The wisdom from above is pure, peace loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy, unwavering, without pretense…

His Provision

• Psalm 34:19 - “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues from them all.”

• 1 Peter 5:7 - cast all your anxieties on God..

• 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

  • We even despaired off life itself!

  • …so that we would not trust ourselves.

• His provision is better than our attempts at self preservation

His Kingship

• Psalm 18:2

• Psalm 113:4-6

• John 6:68 - where else would we go? Only you have the words of eternal life.

What Are You Seeking?

Message begins around 31:00

What Are You Seeking?
02/20/2021 - Dave Riddle 
Key Passage: Colossians 3:1-2

Keep Seeking Christ

• Colossians 3:1

  • zēteō (ζητέω): to seek by thinking, meditating, or reasoning. As a Hebraism: to worship God.

• Colossians 3:2

  • Stay focused, set your attention.

Don’t Seek After The Things of Earth

• Colossians 3:2

  • phroneō (φρονέω) To direct one's mind to a thing, to seek, to strive for

• What has your truest, deepest, most foundational affection?

• Philippians 3:17-19

  • Enemies of the cross focus on earthly things.

• Matthew 16 - Peter rebukes Jesus.

  • 16:23 “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns, but man’s.”

Pick up your cross and follow Jesus

• Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

• Galatians 5:24 - Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh.

• Galatians 2:20 - I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me.

  • Bonhoeffer- “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die”

Jesus flips the tables of our lives

• Matthew 21, John 2, Mark 11, Luke 19

  • Symbolic of what he does in our lives.

Why Celebrate? Grad Sunday

Why Celebrate?

Grad Sunday 6/6/21 - Phil Woodman

Why do we celebrate?

It’s a Natural Response

• Luke 15

  • Celebrate finding what was lost

  • Celebrate the returned prodigal

God Tells us to

• Romans 12:15

  • Rejoice with those who rejoice!

“Celebration is central to all the Spiritual Disciplines. Without a joyful spirit of festivity the disciplines become dull, death-breathing tools in the hands of modern Pharisees.”

• Richard Foster - Celebration of the Disciplines

To Recognize God’s Work in our Lives

• 3 John 3-4

  • I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth

• Philippians 1:3-6

  • Paul celebrates the work of God in the lives of these believers.

• Milestones

  • Stones from the river

  • Nehemiah and the wall

• Supportive community

  • We don’t celebrate alone.

Motivation to keep us going

• Philippians 3:12 - I have not yet reached my goal.

  • Press on.

• Hebrews 10:23-25

Spiritual Formation Pt. 2

Vitals - Spiritual Formation Pt. 2
Dave Riddle - 07/14/19
Key Verses: Philippians 3:10, Galatians 4:19

ginōskō (Greek: γινώσκω) - to know by experience, in contract to an intellectual or intuitive type of knowledge.

• it’s one thing to know what sunburn is, it’s another thing completely to ‘experience’ sunburn.

symmorphizō (Greek: συμμορφίζω) - to receive the same form as; to be conformed to.

• Luke 6:40 - ...everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

• We are being transformed, not by our own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Practices & Rhythms

• Not obligations, but invitations!

Study

• Philippians 4:8 - “...dwell on these things”

• Repetition, conversation, reflection

Meditation

• Psalm 63:6 HCSB): When I think of You as I lie on my bed, I meditate on You during the night watches

• On scripture, on the works of God, on the things we see happening around us.

Prayer

• “Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. Of all the spiritual disciplines, prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the father.” -R. Foster ‘Celebration of Discipline’

Fasting

• Luke 4:1-2 - Jesus fasted.

• “More than any other discipline fasting reveals the things that control us.” - R. Foster ‘Celebration of Discipline’

• Matthew 6:16 - not a requirement, but it does appear to be an expectation. “when you fast”

Solitude

• Mark 1:35

• Solitude =/= loneliness

• Let him who cannot be alone beware of community... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone... Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.” - Bonhoeffer ‘Life Together’

Simplicity 

• “The central point for the discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and righteousness of his kingdom first and then everything necessary will come in it’s proper order.” - R. Foster ‘Celebration of Discipline’

Submission

• To God, to the cross, to scripture, to our family, our neighbors, to the needs of others, to the body of Christ.

Service

• John 13:15 - "For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you. "

Up (Our Father)

A Family on Mission - Up (Our Father)

Dave Riddle - 06/16/19

Key Passage: Acts 13:22

The most important thing

• Mark 12:28-30

Captured by the concept of worship

• Romans 12:1

A rhythmic response to God’s self-revelation

• 1 John 4:19 - “we love because He first loved us...”

A matter of our hearts

• Mark 7:6

—-—-—-

David

• 1 Samuel 16:7

  • “...the Lord looks at the heart”

• Acts 12:22

  • “...a man after my own heart”

  • We are called to align our hearts with God’s heart.

Allow God to be first

• Philippians 3:7-14

• Make God the object and pursuit of your life.

Rely on God’s power

• 1 Samuel 17

• Romans 8:11 - the same power that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in you!

Rest in His authority

Live in full transparency

• Psalm 139 - you have searched me and know me.

Two Outcomes

1. We are loved

   • The creator of the universe loves you!

   • 1 John 3:1 - his love is so great that we are called His children!

2. Called to live in obedience!

   • John 14:15 - if we love God we will desire to keep His commands.