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WISDOM | Wisdom and the Fear of the LORD | April 7

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Jake Blair on April 7, 2024.

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.

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

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Stand-Alone | Easter Weekend 2024

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Good Friday sermon by Adam Gibson on March 29, 2024.

Our church family spent Good Friday looking towards the cross and Easter Sunday celebrating our Risen Savior! The Good Friday sermon, baptism videos from the Easter Gathering, and this weeks LifeGroup Guide can be found below.

Baptism Stories

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Ruth | The Story Behind the Story | March 24

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Adam Gibson on March 24, 2024.

As we conclude the book of Ruth, we find out there’s more to the story. It’s not just about God’s faithfulness to Ruth and Naomi but about God’s faithfulness to His people throughout all time.

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

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Ruth | The Risk of Hope | March 17

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Jon Ludovina on March 17, 2024.

Last week in Ruth 2, we were introduced to a new character: Boaz, Ruth’s "kinsman redeemer." In chapter 3, we’ll see the risk Ruth takes to make sure God provides for her and Naomi.

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

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Year of Biblical Literacy | A Deep Dive on Leviticus with Dr. Jay Sklar

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For this episode, we interviewed Dr. Jay Sklar. Jay Sklar is vice president of academics and professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary. He has written commentaries on Numbers and Exodus (forthcoming with Crossway), and two on Leviticus (TOTC and ZECOT). He has also published a website of resources to help those preaching or teaching in Genesis through Deuteronomy.

Timestamps:

2:22 - What were your initial impressions of the Bible?

6:24 - Why did you decide to pursue doctoral work in the Old Testament?

9:08 - Why did you decide to specialize in Leviticus?

10:12 - How would you broadly summarize Leviticus?

11:59 - What makes Leviticus so tricky to understand?

17:35 - How do we make sense of impurity laws?

28:42 - Is the Day of Atonement really the centerpiece of understanding Leviticus and the Torah?

33:22 - How do we understand Leviticus in light of the New Testament?

37:24 - If Jesus fulfilled Leviticus, why should we even bother reading it?

40:32 - How do we extrapolate and practice the wisdom principles from the commands in Leviticus?

43:15 - What does abiding with Jesus in Scripture and prayer look like for you?

Resources

Sermons

Ghosts and Ancestors: Torah Stories sermon series - Lexington | Downtown | Two Notch

Ruth sermon series - Lexington | Downtown | Two Notch

Text-in questions

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 either "DOWNTOWN", “LEXINGTON”, OR “TWO NOTCH” followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Music by Levvy and Midtown Music

Find out more at Weird Tower Collective

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Ruth | God’s Faithfulness in Your Faithfulness | March 10

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Jon Ludovina on March 10, 2024.

Last week, we looked at Ruth chapter 1 and how, in roughly ten years, Naomi’s dreams of a better life are ruined. Chapter one then implicitly asks the reader, “How will God provide?” In chapter 2, we’ll see God’s invisible hand at work through seemingly ordinary faithfulness.

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

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Ruth | Compromise, Bitterness, or Faithfulness? | March 3

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Jake Blair on March 3, 2024.

Stories have the power to move us. They have the ability to affect us like facts, and bullet points can’t. A good story doesn’t leave us where it found us. That is especially true of biblical stories.

Over the next four weeks, we will journey into the true story of Ruth. Ruth is a story with ups and downs, conflict and loss, joy and laughter. There are compelling characters who we are meant to learn from both in good and bad.

It’s in this story that we are faced with a question we must all ask in our lives at one point or another, will we entrust ourselves to a sovereign and faithful God?

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

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Ghosts & Ancestors | Joseph | February 25

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Jake Blair on February 25, 2024.

If you knew God was with you no matter what, what do you think your life look like? As we’ll see in our final week of the series, Joseph goes through pain, suffering, and exile, yet the Bible says, “The LORD was with him.”

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Ghosts & Ancestors | Aaron | February 18

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Jake Blair on February 18, 2024.

This week, we look at Exodus 32: God's people have left Egypt, but as we'll see, there's still a lot of "Egypt" left in God's people. So, how can we faithfully follow Jesus when external and internal pressures compel us to make God in our image?

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Year of Biblical Literacy | A Deep Dive on the Torah with Dr. Gary Schnittjer

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For this episode, we interviewed Dr. Gary Schnittjer. Gary Edward Schnittjer (PhD, Dallas Theological Seminary) is distinguished professor of Old Testament in the School of Divinity at Cairn University in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and author of Old Testament Use of Old Testament (Zondervan Academic, 2021), Torah Story, 2nd edition (Zondervan Academic, 2023), and Old Testament Narrative Books: The Israel Story (B&H Academic, 2023).

Timestamps:

8:20 - What were your initial impressions of the Bible and what changed?

11:44 - What made you want to pursue PhD work in the Old Testament?

16:10 - Why did you want to write a textbook on the Torah?

20:06 - What do you think people have to know about the Bible before reading it? How does the Torah fit into it?

26:36 - How exactly does the gospel begin in the Old Testament?

30:34 - How do we read Old Testament narratives?

38:18 - How do we think about the biblical laws?

40:09 - What have been helpful Bible reading practices and resources for you?

Resources

Sermons

Ghosts and Ancestors sermon series - Lexington | Downtown | Two Notch

Text-in questions

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 either "DOWNTOWN", “LEXINGTON”, OR “TWO NOTCH” followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Music by Levvy and Midtown Music

Find out more at Weird Tower Collective

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Ghosts & Ancestors | Moses | February 11

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Jake Blair on February 11, 2024.

This week, we study one of the most prominent characters in the Torah: Moses. In Exodus 3, we'll see how Moses' commissioning raises many doubts and objections and how God replies in a way we may not expect.

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Year of Biblical Literacy | Torah and The Story of Everything

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Timestamps:

2:35 - What does the word “Torah” mean and what’s its purpose?

7:45 - How do we read the Torah as a unit?

11:55 - Breaking down the Torah book by book

12:31 - How Genesis fits into Torah

13:32 - How Exodus fits into Torah

16:11 - How Leviticus fits into Torah

22:24 - How Numbers fits into Torah

26:40 - How Deuteronomy fits in Torah

30:52 - What are the main themes of the Torah and how does it point us to Jesus?

32:05 - Tool one: Biblical Theology

36:15 - Tool two: Typology

Resources

Sermons

Ghosts and Ancestors sermon series - Lexington | Downtown | Two Notch

Text-in questions

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 either "DOWNTOWN", “LEXINGTON”, OR “TWO NOTCH” followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Music by Levvy and Midtown Music

Find out more at Weird Tower Collective

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Ghosts & Ancestors | Leah | February 4

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Jon Ludovina on February 4, 2024.

This week, we examine an oft-overlooked ancestor in the Torah, Leah. As we'll see in Genesis 29, Leah teaches us something profound about viewing reality outside of one's circumstances.

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Year of Biblical Literacy | So What is the Old Testament About….Really?

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Timestamps:

1:40 - Why does the Old Testament even matter?

8:22 - Ok, but what is the Old Testament about?

10:48 - What about the Christian vs the Hebrew order of the Old Testament?

19:15 - What makes reading the Old Testament so difficult?

 28:25 - How do I start reading the Old Testament?

Resources

Sermons

Ghosts and Ancestors sermon series - Lexington | Downtown | Two Notch

Text-in questions

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 either "DOWNTOWN", “LEXINGTON”, OR “TWO NOTCH” followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Music by Levvy and Midtown Music

Find out more at Weird Tower Collective

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Ghosts & Ancestors | Jacob | January 28

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Jon Ludovina on January 28, 2024.

This week, we look at Jacob and the question that seems to haunt his life: “Who am I?” As we’ll see in Genesis 32, God answers that question in a surprising way.

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Ghosts & Ancestors | Esau | January 21

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Adam Gibson on January 21, 2024.

This week, we look at our first ghost in the series: Esau. As we will see, the Torah provides us with a cautionary tale -  the danger in trading what you want most for what you think you want right now.

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Year of Biblical Literacy | So What’s the Bible About?

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Timestamps:

4:15 - Our one-sentence summary of what the Bible is about

6:22 - How do we understand that the Bible is written by both God and man?

12:00 - How exactly does all of the Bible point us to Jesus?

 21:00 - How do I get started when it comes to reading the Bible?

32:43 - What are good resources to get started reading the Bible?

Resources

Sermons

Ghosts and Ancestors sermon series - Lexington | Downtown | Two Notch

Text-in questions

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 either "DOWNTOWN", “LEXINGTON”, OR “TWO NOTCH” followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Music by Levvy and Midtown Music

Find out more at Weird Tower Collective

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Ghosts & Ancestors | Abraham | January 14

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Sunday
Sermon

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY overview

Sermon by Jake Blair on January 14, 2024.

How would you define "faith"? Church culture throws that word around a lot, but it's pivotal in understanding what the Torah and the rest of the Bible want to communicate to its audience. The Bible answers this by showing us the life of Abraham, "the man of faith," in the book of Genesis.

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Year of Biblical Literacy | What We’re Doing and Where We’re Going

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Timestamps:

1:20 - What makes this different from what we normally do? Why now?

4:20 - How will we be approaching Sundays this year?

9:20 - What can we expect regarding the supplemental resources for this year?

11:40 - With all these resources, where’s the best place to start?

14:20 - What are you most excited about for this year?

Resources

Sermons

Ghosts and Ancestors sermon series - Lexington | Downtown | Two Notch

Text-in questions

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 either "DOWNTOWN", “LEXINGTON”, OR “TWO NOTCH” followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Music by Levvy and Midtown Music

Find out more at Weird Tower Collective

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Ghosts & Ancestors | The Two Paths | January 7

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SUNDAY
SERMON

YEAR OF BIBLICAL LITERACY

Sermon by Jon Ludovina on January 7, 2024.

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.

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