Parkside Mission

During our Athens days, (Athens, GA that is!) Trent met a fascinating singer songwriter named Bill Mallonee. Bill wrote songs from a Christian point of view that spoke at times with a haunting voice:       "I heard a sneer outside the garden,         salutation, so well-heeled.        Final Stop! No points beyond Struggleville!        Welcome all you suckers to Struggleville." If we read the Apostle Paul's great letter to the Romans carefully, we will hear the same haunting voice. In Romans chapter 7, God speaks to the fact that Christians do in fact continue to struggle with their faults and failures even after they begin to trust the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we know ourselves, we know we struggle too. And like Paul, we want to know how the grace of God ought to help  us in our struggles. In Romans 8:1-15, The Apostle Paul shows us how Christ and the Gospel offer the help of God's Holy Spirit rig...

This summer Trent has been preaching a short series of sermons from Romans chapters 5-8. The first is a message from Romans 5:1-11 called Surprise by Joy Here are the notes in a varied outline form: Surprised by joy: Romans 5:1-11 The surprising power the Gospel brings us to rejoice Intro Story about the power of surprise to bring us joy. Whenever we experience a relationship that is free from expectations they are full of surprise and they have the power to bring us joy… Fallen Condition Focus - Why we need to look at Rom 5?  We all struggle to find joy in our lives. Especially when we stress out to find whether we get the promotion…as we wonder why we are still suffering physically or financially. You might be miserable. You may just be bored, but we all struggle to find joy What I hope you take away from this? If you not yet believer? Usually some lack of joy has prompted your spiritual quest. You have tried to find satisfaction in work, jobs, travel, things…b...

This Christmas "I myself will" ___________.  1. This Christmas I myself  wil l not put on 5 pounds . 2. This Christmas I myself  will  not buy my wife a small kitchen appliance . 3. This Christmas I myself  will  love my neighbors well. What would you write in the blank space?  Would you write something like my examples:  1. Which is doable but not likely to change the world or spread love to others. Or,  2. Which also doable, but is the least a decent person in your situation should do. Or,   3. Which is wonderful, but honestly, we won’t do it nearly as well as we should.  Then I remember how Christmas came to be in the first place. An ancient scripture prophecy of the coming Messiah, Ezekiel 17:22, " ‘This is what the Sovereign  Lord  says: I myself will take a shoot  from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a h...

How does God speak to your desires? Desires might be the difference between humans and any other creature. Never content to have just what we need, we are driven by desire. Call it a thirst for something more. Call it a hunger for more than bread, more than meat. The ancient revelation of the scriptures ask us to not just control desire, but to listen to our desire.  For example, the Hebrew prophet Isaiah poetically related our desire to an invitation from God. Listen to how God wants to meet us in our quest: “Come, all you who are thirsty,   come to the waters; and you who have no money,   come, buy  and eat  .  Come, buy wine and milk   without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread,   and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,   and you will delight in the richest  of fare.   Give ear and come to me;   listen,  that you may live. 1 Did you not...

2 Blessing Him for blessing us. Ephesians 1:1–14 Purpose: To know God better and praise Him for His glory and grace This letter launches right into praising God. But Paul is not trying to write a formal essay on the glory of God, this is a letter to you about God and us. 1.   Complete the following statement. God is:                 In light of these things, why do you think we still struggle to consistently worship God? 2.   Read Ephesians 1:1–14. According to verses 3–6, what blessings are ours from the Father? What other blessings, according to verses 7–12, do we have in Jesus Christ? 3.   Which of these is most significant to you? Explain. 4.   Ephesians 1:1–14 uses words like the will of God , chose , predestined , according to the plan and the purpose of his will . Much emotion can surround the discussion of such words. What is Paul's emotional reaction to being chosen ...

4 Amazing Grace Ephesians 2:1–10 Purpose: To see how God has brought us from death to life by the riches of his grace. To be gripped by the Gospel. One of the best-known verses in the book of Ephesians is 2:8, “By grace you have been saved, through faith.” Probably the most famous Christian hymn of all time is "Amazing Grace" but unfortunately we usually live like it might be "Decent" grace, "If all else fails" grace, or sadly "cheap" grace. In this study we want to rediscover what is so amazing about grace. 1.   Read Ephesians2:1–10. In verse 1 Paul says, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins.” How do dead people function? What must this mean about our spiritual state before we knew Christ? 2.   In verses 2–3 Paul mentions three deadly forces on our lives. According to Paul, how did each of these affect our lives as non-Christians? 3.   How have you seen these influences at work? 4.   According to verses 4–7, what mo...

Here are the exact notes I printed out for a recent sermon that I gave at my church. The audio and video recording of the sermon can be found on the church website. http://www.christchurchatlanta.org/ Sunday, April 11, 2010, Trent McEntyre – preached at ChristChurch Presbyterian Atlanta, GA Personal, light-hearted greeting Last week was Easter. We are going to be talking this morning about two important ways the resurrection can make a difference in our lives. Intro – church staff answer question When Paul Gardner asked me to teach this morning he asked me to do something as a follow up to Easter. So, this week at our church staff meeting I asked the church staff, the basic question of this message, what difference can the resurrection of Jesus Christ make in our lives? Everyone starts chiming in, from our Greg our music director to our Robin administrator. Then Pete Jackson, our associate Pastor, tells us that he read this week that a recent poll found that nationally 77% of America...