In the men’s bible study this morning, we looked at the 5th chapter of Acts. In it, the apostles are arrested by the high priest and thrown into prison because they keep talking about Jesus in the temple and surrounding areas. They’ve been told NOT to talk about Jesus there, and as his witnesses, they can’t help but speak of what they’ve seen and heard (4:20).  Then, something amazing happens: an angel breaks them out of prison and tells them to “Go, stand

On Sunday, I spoke about – and challenged us – to “be great”.  And by “great”, I didn’t mean what we typically think of as being “great”.  I meant “great” in the way that Jesus showed us and leads us on: Compelled by great compassion, we are called to be a great commission people, in the way of the great commandment. But if we want to “be great,” there’s two more “greats” I want to mention to you.  The first, by way of warning.

I hope you’re doing well on this second Wednesday of Lent. Lent is the season where the church traditionally looks back at Jesus’ journey to the cross in the final days of his life, as it looks ahead to his resurrection at Easter. I’m not sure what Central has done historically in regard to Lent, but this year, we’ll be looking at Lent through a different and very particular lens: love.As I introduced last week, this Sunday we’ll be kicking

Here’s something I’m realizing about myself: I could preach on the church – and the mission of the church – forever. As I’m preparing any individual sermon on any given week throughout our current “What in the World?” series, I continually want to break up what I’m writing into 2 or 3 new sermons…or series (for instance, on Friday, I briefly considered breaking up last Sunday’s sermon into 3 different sermons…which I had already broken into 2 different sermons!). I guess

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together