Escalate Sermon Blog & Connection Point Questions

Have you ever attended a church worship service? Most of you who will read this post have. For some of you it is something you do every week. For others of you it is something you have only done once before. But what I really want you to consider this week is what you were thinking about in the hours the preceded your attendance. Many of you were probably thinking lik...

If you have ever seen one of the episodes of American Idol that shows individuals auditioning to be contestants on the show then you have probably heard the judges ask the individuals the question, "What makes you the next American Idol?" If you think about it, there is really only one acceptable response to that question, "I have the ability to sing extraordinarily well....

There is a good chance that if you are considering reading this post that you have participated in the Lord's Supper before. (It may not be true for all of you, but probably true for most.) And there is also a good chance that you've heard the warning not to participate in the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. But what does that mean? Many of you probably have an id...

Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians contains one of the most recognizable illustrations in the New Testament. And yet it continues to be one that many believers in Christ refuse to live out. So what's the deal? What is chapter 12 all about? Has the church misunderstood Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 12? Or is our problem one of obedience and faithfulness? This week we'll exam...

This week we take on perhaps the most difficult portion of this letter to the church at Corinth. It addresses a very specific problem in a very specific context and gives almost no supporting details. Yet in the midst of some uncertainty come some profound principles that can certainly be applied to the Church today. Both women AND men need to spend some time giving som...

Living in America - "the land of the free" - really causes us to value our rights and our freedoms. As a nation it seems like we are always working to protect our rights and freedoms. So the idea of laying our freedoms aside doesn't seem very appealing to most of us. I think many of us would be willing to lay aside our rights and freedoms, IF in the end it worked out fo...

Many of us have heard Edmond Burke's (1729-1797) famous quote, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." I'm not sure what inspired him to say/write this - if it was an original thought or a concept/idea he picked up on while reading something else. But while the quote (and variations of this quote) seem to go back to Edmond Burke, 1 Corinthians 10 sounds...

Races make sense when the runners in the race are all running towards the same finish line. But that takes great self-discipline. The runners have to train hard; they have to know where the finish line is; and they have to stain within their lanes. When runners practice self-discipline then one is able to watch a race and understand what the runners are running after. ...

I'm going to make a big assumption! I'm going to guess that none of you have eaten a meal at the temple of an idol in the last 6 months. So you're probably thinking that you can find something much more productive to do with your time than to work through 1 Corinthians 8, in which Paul addresses some in the church at Corinth who were regularly involved in the practice of...

Those who are engaged to be married will sometimes get anxious or nervous about their engagement. Usually it's because there is a lot of uncertainty about what the future will look like and what life will be like when one's relationship status changes from 'single' to 'married.' However, for many of the single and engaged believers in Corinth, they were anxious and nervo...