the line – a movement of the people of god in chicago

The Line is exploring the birth of faith in Abraham and Sarah this fall. The following sermon was preached on November 15th, 2009

Preached by: Pastor Aaron Youngren
Text: Genesis 17

God’s promises to Abraham reflect His promises to all who trust in Christ. God’s covenant with Abraham is in the very least a foreshadowing of (if not identical to) His covenant with the church in Christ.

We see this parallel in the terms of the covenant given in Genesis 17. As with Abraham, God asks that we have faith in His power to accomplish His purposes of grace.

We also see this parallel in the sign of the covenant. As with Abraham, God does not require our obedience without giving us the means to be obedient. Rather, according to scripture, God has performed a delicate, life-giving surgery on our life-giving organ: our heart.

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The following story was read to accompany the sermon, “fist and mouth,” on November 8th, 2009. The audio link can be found at the end of this post.

My Grief Observed
Written and read by: Sarah Lee

She was riding the train back home when it happened. It was 28 minutes into the commute, 2 days into the week, 4 years into a life of quiet despair. She had been holding a book, lovingly dedicated to the author’s wife, and absentmindedly caressing the cover when the sudden urge to read had tickled her mind.

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The Line is exploring the birth of faith in Abraham and Sarah this fall. The following sermon was preached on November 1st, 2009

Preached by: Pastor Aaron Youngren
Text: Genesis 16, 21:9-21

Compassion towards the oppressed that results in real acts of mercy are born from faith in Jesus’ compassion and mercy.

The plight of the oppressed in the world raises several questions for us:

1. How are we to reconcile a world full of atrocity and oppression with God’s claim to be loving and just?
2. How are we to reconcile our own inaction toward oppression with our belief that we are loving and just?
3. If we are apathetic towards understanding injustice in the world, how do we not that we aren’t its perpetrators?

Ultimately, scripture tells us that we all share in blame for the injustice in the world. And though we seem to be motivated by many factors, ultimately our sin results from unbelief. Shame refuses to believe that God has power over past and identity. Fear refuses to believe that God has power over present circumstances. Pride refuses to believe that God has power over the future.

The miracle is that even when we are in rebellion against Him, God patiently humbles us and meets us in the desert to make us His chosen ones.

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The way that his family talked about him, you would think that a Google search for “Reverend Jefferson Davis” would conjure a panoply of deep-blue links to flashing fan-sites and meticulously recorded exploits, crowned with a Wikipedia entry that would stretch down deeper than any scrollbar could plunge.

Apparently, the number of jewels in one’s heavenly crown is not a variable in the Google algorithm.

God’s promise to Jefferson happened like this:

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The Line is exploring the birth of faith in Abraham and Sarah this fall. The following sermon was preached on October 25th, 2009

Preached by: Pastor Aaron Youngren
Text: Genesis 15:7-21

God makes promises, and those promises are His to keep.

Although many of God’s covenants with man throughout scripture require men to do certain things, God’s promise to Abraham does not. The implications of this are astonishing: No matter how much Abraham rebels and sins against God, God will still keep His promise to “bless the nations” through Abraham.

This becomes even more astonishing when we take into account scriptures that say that these promises of God to Abraham speak not only of God’s plan to redeem Abraham and Sarah, but also to redeem us (Galatians 3:8, 16).

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The Line is exploring the birth of faith in Abraham and Sarah this fall. The following sermon was preached on October 18th, 2009

Preached by: Pastor Aaron Youngren
Text: Genesis 14

Faith in Jesus not only responds with generosity, but also initiates generosity. In doing so, it reflects the generosity of God.

Biblical generosity might be defined as the unconditional, relentless pursuit of joyful sacrifice for those who are in need by those who can give. It is critical that we don’t limit biblical generosity to generous reactions because our generous God is always initiating with us and for us.

Clearly, if we are going to give generously at all, we need someone to give us both the love and the resources to do so. The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek. The implication is this: Jesus is both our Priest who sacrificed himself generously for us on the cross, and our King who rules over creation and generously gives us every good thing. Through His unconditional, relentless pursuit of joyful sacrifice for us, we can now become His generous initiators.

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Last night we unveiled our new paradigm for discipleship, growth, and mission at The Line. Learn how Jesus is found as the foundation for our church and our values as we explore Movement, Dwelling, Thriving, and Longevity in our Foundation for the City class. Foundation for the City starts this week!