At Harvard University, you can take a course in happiness. This popular class helps students discover, as the professor states, “How to get happy.” I'm not against being happy. I actually like to be happy. Sometimes, though, we take the search for earthly happiness too far. If we're not careful, we'll even begin to believe that our happiness is God’s highest goal for us. That’s when our thinking gets confused. If we seek happiness alone, we will run the risk of becoming selfish. That's why the challenge of Romans 8 is to seek holiness, not simply happiness. Happiness and holiness are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but it does matter which one is your primary focus -- your ulimate pursuit. There is no true happiness apart from holiness and no holiness apart from Christ.
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Our new teaching series at Mountainview is based on Romans 8 and is called "More than Conquerors." Coming out of our UNSTUCK series, "More than Conquerors" will explore what the God-filled life is to look like. In this theologically rich chapter, the apostle Paul explores the transforming power of God to change a person's life. If you're interested in a few resources, these should give you a good overview of Romans. RESOURCES ON ROMANS A Commentary on Romans by FF Bruce Tim Keller Commentary on Romans 1-7 A Small Group Guide to Romans Featuring It's been said and John Ortberg
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WAY BACK in 1997, Leith Anderson wrote these words: "As soon as people walk into a church, they can tell if it is oriented toward the past or the future. They don’t discover that by what they see as much as by what they hear. When I visit a church or catch conversations in my congregation, I listen to how people talk about one subject: the greatest days of the church." That is so true. If you've been around a church for any length of time, you probably have heard someone refer to the "good old days," usually in a conversation about how good things used to be compared to how bad they are today. It's not always malicious; in fact, it rarely is. Often it's the result of nostalgia mixed with memories and a desire to recapture a feeling. The "good old days" might have been when a child…
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Here is the promo video for our new series based on Romans 8 - "More Than Conquerors." We'll examine the question: What kind of life does God offer the person who follows Jesus? It is truly an alternative lifestyle compared to the one the world offers. Using Romans 8, we will explore what it means to life a God-filled, God-directed life.
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Without a sense of destiny, we will get stuck living for the mundane rather than the magnificent. Not only does God have a plan for your life, he has a purpose as well. To keep moving forward through good times and bad requires a deeper motivation than temporary circumstances can provide. Let’s take a moment and learn from the example of Apostle Paul. We’ll let him introduce himself … 1 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh — 4 though I myself have reasons for…
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