Episodes

Matt continues our Upper Room series picking up where we left off, John 17.

Each aspect of the Sabbath day: stopping, resting, and delighting is meant to help draw our hearts and attention toward Him in worship.

The Sabbath is a day to Delight. We delight in God's world, our lives, and God himself.

The Sabbath is not just a day when we stop and rest. It's also a day meant to remind us why we can stop and rest.

The Bible encourages us to "Keep the Sabbath holy" yet we struggle to stop in our success-driven culture. This week we remember that keeping the Sabbath reminds us we have limits, our value is not based on what we do and God is good.

Jesus told us to expect trouble and crisis of faith while we are in the world, but he invites us to take heart and see our faith grow in such times by remembering that he has overcome the world.

When facing grief we must know that one way to joy is through grief. Jesus is the source of ultimate joy and in Jesus, joy is certain.

John 16:1-15. Jesus tells the disciples to expect opposition as they bear witness to him, but he promises to give them a Helper, the Holy Spirit, to speak to and through them and convict people of their sins and their need for a Savior.

Luke 7:36-40. How we relate to Jesus is determined by what we believe about who he is and how he relates to us.

Luke 24:13-24. Jesus's followers lost hope after his death, and we, too, suffer from a lack of hope. But Jesus reveals his resurrected self to his followers to give them hope, just as he does to us. His resurrection is our ultimate source of hope.

Mark 14:22-25. The Lord's Supper meal communicated the meaning and purpose of Jesus's death when he made the Passover meal about himself, the sacrificial lamb.

Luke 5:27-32. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and he did so by eating and drinking with people. He was happy to share a meal with anyone, and his followers should do the same.

Psalm 103. It's too easy to remember the negatives in life and forget the benefits of God, which is why this Psalm calls us not to forget the God who has loved us without condition.

Psalm 66. God turns our troubles into testimonies. Those with troubles should cling to the promises of God and cry out to him in prayer. Those with testimonies should praise God and tell others what he has done for them.

I Thessalonians 5:16-18. Praying unceasingly with a constant awareness of God's loving presence leads to our joy, which we can learn to do by having fixed times of prayer each day.

II Corinthians 3:18. We can enjoy being with God in prayer by recognizing God's presence, reflecting on God's beauty, and resting in God's love for us. When we do, we'll want to be with God more and become more like God.

I Samuel 3:1-10. God still speaks, and we can learn to hear his voice more and more, making prayer a two-way conversation.

Luke:11:1-13. When we pray to God, we come to him as our loving Father who delights to hear our gratitude, laments, and petitions and answer our prayers.

II Chronicles 7:11-16. God accomplishes his providential purpose in prayer, changing the world, by accomplishing his secret purpose in prayer, changing us.

John 15:26-27. Jesus said we would become his witnesses, telling others what we have seen and experienced in Jesus. To become his witnesses, we need to seek him so that we will have firsthand experiences to tell.

John 15:18-25. The world tries to get us to conform to its ways of living without God and redefine good and evil. When we don't conform, the world will hate us as it hated Jesus. Even so, we can be a light to the world when we are transformed by Jesus rather than conformed to the world.

John 15:9-17. Joy is gratitude in all circumstances in response to God's love and grace. Jesus says we can experience such joy as we abide in him through obedience, love, pruning, and fruit-bearing.

John 15:1-8. Jesus is the only source of spiritual life. When we remain in him, we bear fruit and bring glory to God.

John 14:27-31. Jesus gives us his peace as a gift. We receive and access his peace through worship, prayer, thanksgiving, meditation, and obedience.