Darrell shares Jesus’ teaching from Luke 14:23-35 on the cost of discipleship. These weighty, but liberating words are an invitation for us to step into life with Christ. The intense language that Jesus uses in the scripture is to bring conviction, remind us to check our hearts, and to help us understand the cost of following Him. In today's world, many things claim lordship over our lives, including ourselves. They impose unnecessary burden and stress because we are not created to bear their weight. To receive the freedom that God calls us to, we are to renounce the claims of our lives and let God take the place of lordship, taking up his yoke and burden that are light and easy.
In this message, Darrell begins his series on Revelation. He opens by describing the book of Revelation as the greatest guide, able to explain why the world is how it is. Throughout this sermon, we are given key steps on how to read the book of Revelation, which Darrell calls "the apocalypse of Jesus Christ". "If we read this book rightly, we will unfold the greatest comprehensive portrait of Jesus. If we read this book rightly, we will end up at the feet of Jesus every time."
Darrell sat down with a collection of Pastors from across Canada to discuss preaching and pastoring. To open, he shared a word from Matthew 11:25-30 on abiding in Christ.
This week, Darrell pulls back the curtain on the pastoral letter written by Apostle John to the seven churches scattered throughout Asia Minor. The book of Revelation unveils the dramatic description of what John witnessed in a vision given by God while exiled on the island of Patmos. John exhorts the Church to see and hear the Voice at the centre of everything, the Voice that is a Person - Jesus Christ. This Voice gives the Church two great commands: to not be afraid, and to look at Him. To listen to this Voice above all the world’s many voices is to hear and see Jesus and to become oriented to the great unseen reality of His rule and reign. In looking at the Living One, we experience a true apocalypse - the revelation that we do not need to fear the future or the turmoil of our present circumstances, because Jesus is on the throne.
In Revelations 2 & 3 Jesus blows the circuit on who we think he is and what the church is. In the form with which these chapters or ‘messages’ were written, there are prophetic and imperial statements being made about who Jesus Christ is and about what he understands His church to be in and for the world. For the first time the church gathering is described as ecclesia, a word that was reserved for when people were summoned by the King or Emperor to gather about the business of the city. This week Darryl unpacks the summons from Jesus the Everlasting King for His people to gather, share in His life and be about the business of the Kingdom of God in the city.