Reading the Bible

Hebrews | Christ & the New Covenant

Near the tail end of our Year of Biblical Literacy, we come to the rich, dense book of Hebrews. It’s full of callbacks and history, threads pulled from all across the Old Testament. The author assumes intimate knowledge of the old covenant –the sacrificial system, the tabernacle, the promised land–and then shows that they were incomplete, only “copies and shadows.” 

Each is an arrow pointing to Christ, who himself becomes the mediator of the new covenant–the perfect high priest, the meeting place between God and man, the source of eternal rest for those united to him.

This series is part of our Year of Biblical Literacy initiative.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Christ and the New Covenant

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 2: The Descent and Ascent of Christ

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 3: Christ the True and Better Moses

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 4: Today, If You Hear His Voice, Do Not Harden Your Hearts

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 5: Christ the Perfect Tabernacle, Priest, and Sacrifice

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 6: Hold Fast Your Confession of Hope

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 7: The Hall of Faith (and the Vision Required to be There)

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 8: A Tale of Three Mountains

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Check out our Year of Biblical Literacy site for more articles, podcasts, and book recommendations.

BOOKS | COURSES | ARTICLES

Throughout the year, we want to know the concepts and passages you wrestle with. We'll answer some of these questions in podcast episodes throughout the year.

To submit your topic or question, text "DOWNTOWN" followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

The Gospel | The Kingdom of God is at Hand

SERMONS | RESOURCES | TEXT-IN QUESTIONS

How would you summarize Jesus’ teachings? Depending on who you ask, you’re likely to get different answers. However, Jesus’ summary statement is actually one of his first statements in the Gospels: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

In other words, Jesus’ life and teachings are all about ushering in God’s loving rule and reign on Earth as it is in Heaven. So what might His kingdom look like in our city, and how do we faithfully follow Him in our time and place?

Join us for five weeks as we examine Jesus’ teachings and consider how we can experience more of His kingdom in Columbia as it is in Heaven.

This series is part of our Year of Biblical Literacy initiative.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: The Kingdom of God Is at Hand

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 2: The Acceptance You’ve Always Wanted

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 3: The Power of Forgiveness

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 4: The King Wants Your Heart

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 5: The Pursuit of Greatness

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Check out our Year of Biblical Literacy site for more articles, podcasts, and book recommendations.

BOOKS | COURSES | ARTICLES

Throughout the year, we want to know the concepts and passages you wrestle with. We'll answer some of these questions in podcast episodes throughout the year.

To submit your topic or question, text "DOWNTOWN" followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Psalms | Ancient Songs for Modern Hearts

The Psalms are a unique collection in the Old Testament: 150 poems, songs, and prayers covering approximately 1,000 years of Israel’s history. The writers cover everything from hatred to pure joy and nearly everything in between. Some of the language and honesty in the Psalms are shocking–even uncomfortable to hear–because of how unfiltered they come across.

Amidst the raw emotions, the Psalms offer a beacon of hope. They guide us to understand what’s going on in our hearts and how to realign ourselves with reality, offering a path to transformation and spiritual growth. 

In this series, we’ll spend six weeks looking at specific chapters as we ask how God wants us to shape us as His people.

This series is part of our Year of Biblical Literacy initiative.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: A Theology of Song

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 2: The Bible as Meditation Literature

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 3: Dealing with Difficult Emotions

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 4: Arrows and Blessings

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 5: A Song for the Politically Weary

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 6: The Type of Heart that Sings

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Check out our Year of Biblical Literacy site for more articles, podcasts, and book recommendations.

BOOKS | COURSES | ARTICLES

PSALMS OUTLINE

Throughout the year, we want to know the concepts and passages you wrestle with. We'll answer some of these questions in podcast episodes throughout the year.

To submit your topic or question, text "DOWNTOWN" followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

How Long O Lord? | A Study of the Minor Prophet Habakkuk

SERMONS | RESOURCES | TEXT-IN QUESTIONS

The prophets are a diverse group of writings. They come from different periods, face different issues, and are written in different genres.

The book of Habakkuk, in particular, speaks to us on our journey to Christian maturity. It mirrors the moments we all encounter—when our understanding of God’s character seems at odds with our current circumstances, when we question God’s plans, and when injustice, both individually and collectively, seems to prevail.

When that happens, what do we do? How do we respond? How can we trust God is still in control of it all? We’ll spend the next four weeks in Habakkuk exploring these questions.

This series is part of our Year of Biblical Literacy initiative.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: How Long O LORD?

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 2: How Can This Be?

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 3: The Cup That Is Coming

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 4: Wrestling Toward Maturity

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Check out our Year of Biblical Literacy site for more articles, podcasts, and book recommendations.

BOOKS | COURSES | ARTICLES

HABAKKUK OUTLINE

Throughout the year, we want to know the concepts and passages you wrestle with. We'll answer some of these questions in podcast episodes throughout the year.

To submit your topic or question, text "DOWNTOWN" followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

W I S D O M

SERMONS | RESOURCES | TEXT-IN QUESTIONS

How do we become people who build our lives on God’s wisdom rather than ruining them? How do we navigate life and all its complexities? How do we make sense of death and suffering? How about friendships, wealth, and decision-making? What about sex and marriage? 

These questions are where the Old Testament’s wisdom books come in. Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs depict how to navigate life’s complexity. Through poetry and narrative, the Bible shows us following Jesus is more than just acquiring knowledge. It’s about seeing reality the way God sees it and learning how to live within it—in short, it’s about becoming a person of wisdom.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Wisdom and the Fear of the LORD

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 2: Wisdom and Decision-Making

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 3: Wisdom and Pride

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 4: Wisdom and Wealth

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 5: Wisdom and Sex

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 6: Wisdom and Friendships

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 7: Wisdom and Conflict

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 8: Wisdom and Work

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 9: Wisdom and Words

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Check out our Year of Biblical Literacy site for more articles, podcasts, and book recommendations.

BOOKS

VIDEOS

Throughout the year, we want to know the concepts and passages you wrestle with. We'll answer some of these questions in podcast episodes throughout the year.

To submit your topic or question, text "DOWNTOWN" followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Ruth

SERMONS | RESOURCES | TEXT-IN QUESTIONS

The story of Ruth centers around one of the most vulnerable and marginalized figures in the Old Testament. This series examines God’s sovereignty over all of life and how God uses unlikely people to bring hope and healing to the world.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Compromise, Bitterness, or Faithfulness?

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 2: God’s Faithfulness in Your Faithfulness

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: The Risk of Hope

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: The Story Behind the Story

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Check out our Year of Biblical Literacy site for more articles, podcasts, and book recommendations.

BOOKS

PODCASTS

This will be updated as we progress through the series. Stay tuned!

VIDEOS

Throughout the year, we want to know the concepts and passages you wrestle with. We'll answer some of these questions in podcast episodes throughout the year.

To submit your topic or question, text "DOWNTOWN" followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Ghosts & Ancestors

It’s often said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 

As we look at the first five books of Scripture, stories abound of those who trusted God and those who did not. Some, through faith, went on to be ancestors who blessed those after them. Others proved to be ghosts that haunt their lineage with heartache and pain. 

As we learn to interpret the narratives in the Torah, both the negative and the positive, we’ll see how God works in the midst of it all and calls us into his story, inviting us to walk in the steps of our ancestors who came before us.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: The Two Paths

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: Abraham

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Esau

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Jacob

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5: Leah

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 6: Moses

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 7: Aaron

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Week 8: Joseph

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Notes)

Check out our Year of Biblical Literacy site for more articles, podcasts, and book recommendations.

BOOKS

PODCASTS

This will be updated as we progress through the series. Stay tuned!

VIDEOS

Throughout the year, we want to know the concepts and passages you wrestle with. We'll answer some of these questions in podcast episodes throughout the year.

To submit your topic or question, text "DOWNTOWN" followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

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