Escalate Sermon Blog & Connection Point Questions

One of the knocks on church and religion are the experiences that some individuals have had (and which others have heard about) with a specific church, pastor, or religious leader who has made very legalistic demands on the lives of the people. Throughout history some churches and leaders have at times abused their authority and demanded of their people things that the Bib...

Have you every heard the statement, "I don't need organized religion or the church." Perhaps that's the stance that you, yourself, have taken. It's an incredibly popular position in our culture today. But here's the thing, it might very well be the answer to a bad question formed with a faulty presupposition. What exactly does that mean? Check out this week's post for...

One of the knocks on church and religion are the experiences that some individuals have had (and which others have heard about) with a specific church, pastor, or religious leader who has made very legalistic demands on the lives of the people. Throughout history some churches and leaders have at times abused their authority and demanded of their people things that the Bib...

One of the knocks on church and religion are the experiences that some individuals have had (and which others have heard about) with a specific church, pastor, or religious leader who has made very legalistic demands on the lives of the people. Throughout history some churches and leaders have at times abused their authority and demanded of their people things that the Bi...

How would you answer the question, "Does the news of the Gospel deserve a response?" Some of you might answer 'yes' but you have never given any real consideration to the news of the Gospel or thought about what kind of response should be given. Some of you might answer 'no.' But I would argue there have been other far less important events in your life which have compe...

When it comes to building our faith, there are several different foundations upon which we can build. But not all foundations are equal! In this portion of Mark's gospel we will see that there is only one foundation which we can build our faith upon that will produce a strong and courageous faith. The sad reality though is that most of us aren't really building our fait...

The death of Jesus on the cross was one of the most revealing acts of God in all of history. In the death of Jesus on the cross we can learn a lot about God and a lot about His plan for salvation. We can also learn a lot about the role that Jesus played in all that. But unfortunately, most people will read about it or listen to the story of it and fail to spend any time...

Most of us are familiar with the idea of "getting what you deserve." And most of us are okay with that concept (at least when it doesn't involve us). But most of us get a bad taste in our mouths when we think about an innocent person getting what a guilty person deserves. We have a hard time swallowing that. But what if I said that each of us actually needs an innocent...

Have you ever found yourself in a difficult or uncomfortable situation in which you had an opportunity to bear witness for Jesus? What did you do? Did you represent Jesus well, or did you seek to protect and preserve yourself? Jesus once found Himself in one of those positions. At the same time Peter, one of His closest disciples, found himself in a very similar positi...

Do you ever find your heart desiring something outside of God's will? If so, which usually wins out in those circumstances, your desire or God's will. Most believers in Christ would probably want to say that in those circumstances God's will wins out. But if we answered honestly we would have to say that there are times when we choose our own selfish desires. When we c...