Formed: Affliction - Suzy Silk

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson continued our Formed series with a teaching on vivification. Vivification is the process by which the Holy Spirit imparts new spiritual life to a believer, animating them with the life of Christ and empowering them to live in obedience, faith, and love. It's the positive aspect of sanctification, where the individual is not only turning away from sin (mortification) but is also being energized and renewed to live a life of righteousness and holiness. As Christians, we want to build an inner world that can handle the pressure of anything happening in the outer world.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Formed series with a teaching on mortification, the practice of subduing one’s sinful impulses, desires, and passions to grow closer to God and lead a life of holiness. Mortifying our sin is not self-hatred, but rather an embrace of God’s love that purges impurity through the conscious denial of sin, the deliberate restraint of the flesh, and the nurturing of one’s spirit to align more closely with the will of God.

This week, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our series on being Formed into the image of Christ with a teaching on affliction. Affliction is suffering that we undergo, often not of our own volition, but that the Holy Spirit can use to further His purposes in this world. The Bible tells us that while suffering is an inevitable part of this life, Jesus also suffered greatly for us so that we would not have to suffer forever. The goal of this life is to be transformed into the image of Jesus, the Suffering Servant, we need to understand not only the concept of affliction, but how to respond to it.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson continued our Fall sermon series, Formed, with a teaching on the doctrine of sanctification. Sanctification is the ongoing process by which believers, through the work of the Holy Spirit, are progressively transformed into the likeness of Christ (Titus 2:11-12). God faithfully sanctifies His people because He wants us to reach our full potential in Jesus.

This Sunday, guest teacher, Pastor Guy Mason from City on a Hill church in Australia, continued our Fall sermon series, Formed, and explored the doctrine of regeneration as outlined in Ephesians 2. By believing in Jesus, we are made alive through Him; the Holy Spirit takes what is decaying and breathes new life into our spiritual deadness. This renewal fulfills our deep hunger for true life—significance, peace, and belonging—which can only be satisfied in Christ.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our Fall sermon series, Formed, with a teaching on the doctrine of justification and being made righteous before God. The reality is that there is nothing we can do to justify ourselves or make ourselves holy. We are unable to perfectly follow the law, and therefore unable to earn our own righteousness. Only by faith in Jesus Christ can we receive the righteousness He won for us, and freely come before the Father.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson continued our Fall sermon series, Formed, with a teaching on how the act of confessing Jesus is Lord and believing in His resurrection in our hearts forms the foundation of salvation for Christians. Pastor Jon unpacked the heart of the Gospel story and its profound implications for our lives today. The Gospel reconnects us with the God we were made for, explains the beauty and brokenness of the human story, deals with the deep problems of sin that we cannot solve ourselves, and gives us hope for the future. Our salvation allows us to be formed in Christ's image, and live our lives in a way that brings the Kingdom of God into this world.

This Sunday, we had the opportunity to hear from guest teacher, Mark Sayers, with a teaching out of Revelation 3 on how to become a pillar for God despite living in a "platform society”, and our culture’s need for spiritual revival.

This Sunday, Pastor Tim Brown continued our Fall sermon series, Formed, an exploration of the key doctrines surrounding a believer’s transformation from being dead in sin to being alive and formed in the image of Christ, with a teaching on election. This has been considered one of the most controversial and unsettling doctrines of the Christian faith, but Pastor Tim’s goal was to present the Scriptures with clarity, and allow his teaching to orient us around what God says instead of human opinion. Being rooted in truth, he encouraged us to go forth and seek God on this topic for more understanding.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson kicked off our Fall sermon series, Formed, where we will be journeying through the key stages of a believer’s transformation process from dead in their sin to being formed into the image of Christ and sent out as His image-bearers. We are all being formed in one way or another into someone, and Pastor Jon called us to begin this season by leaning into intentional, not accidental, formation in the way of Jesus. Out of His love for us, Christ invites us into a life long journey of being transformed into His image by His power, not our own.