Church at the Center

Grace Anatomy: Hands, Feet and Mouth

Acts 3:1-21

Rev Jennifer A G Layte

"A truly 'saved soul' will look different—not only by telling people they’re sinners who need Jesus to escape Hell, but by reflecting a different way of viewing and responding to the world—a restorative, reconciling, life-giving way. The gospel is not summed up by the Four Spiritual Laws, helpful as those may sometimes be, but was summed up by Jesus Himself to the crowds: 'Repent [turn from your old life and trust in Jesus], for the Kingdom of God is at hand [live like you have a different King]!'"

Grace Anatomy: Out of the Fullness of the Heart

First it should be noted (and this is pretty ironic in context) that Pastor Jenn is aware of the literary misattribution she made at the beginning of this sermon. She realized it herself, but not until after she preached it...

 

Acts 2:42; 17:1-15

Rev Jennifer A G Layte

"The non-believing Thessalonian Jews didn’t actually care if the Bible and Paul’s teaching lined up with each other. They just didn’t want their own private gig, whatever that was exactly, to be threatened. And this same kind of thing is still happening today...The people opposing Paul in this passage (and in many other passages in Acts) were not, first and foremost, the surrounding pagan culture, but his own people."

Grace Anatomy: Free Hugs

Acts 2:42-47

Rev Jennifer A G Layte

"It seems like fellowship is something we all instinctively want, but what is less instinctive is knowing quite what it is."

Grace Anatomy: Blood Is Thicker Than Water

Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 11:23-29

Rev Jennifer A G Layte

"This week I’ve been reminded of Jesus’ words to His disciples that everyone would know they were His because of how they love each other. Usually when I think about that verse, I roll my eyes and say to myself, 'Yeah, right. We’re so great at that.' I think about this a lot in connection with that verse about everyone knowing who Jesus’ people are because they love each other. But this week that verse was presented to me a little differently—not as a description of what is but of what mustbe, almost like a command. Like, You will love each other, so the world will know the only possible way that could happen is because you’re My disciples.'"

Grace Anatomy: Getting on Jesus' Nerves

Acts 2:42; 4:23-31

Rev Jennifer A G Layte

"It is prayer that makes the Church supernatural. Real prayer makes the people of God do things."

 

Grace Anatomy: Hark the Heralds

Acts 1:6-14

Rev Jennifer A G Layte

"We actually get to help Jesus prepare the rooms."

A whole bunch of metaphors get mixed in this sermon, but it all works out in the end.

Citizen of Heaven

Philippians 3:4b-21 

Rev Jennifer A G Layte

"It’s strange, isn’t it, that sometimes the best way to see something, or help a situation, or fix something, is to focus or pour your energy into something else?"

Follower: I Got a Rock

1 Peter 2:1-10

Rev Jennifer A G Layte

"We’re going to see that everything Peter learned wasn’t just for him and his own transformation, but is for us and ours, too. Through it all, Peter is going to show us who, through God’s grace, we are to each other and to the world in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior."

Follower: He Has Done It!

Acts 10

Rev Jennifer A G Layte

"God may do the impossible, God may do the unexpected, God may mess with our preferences and presuppositions and make us uncomfortable, but He always confirms His Kingdom work, through His people, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of Jesus."

Do You Want to Get Well?

John 5:1-14

Rev Sheree Harrington