Weekly sermons from Grace Mills River Church in Mills River, NC which is near Asheville, NC. Grace Mills River is a mission extending the Gospel of Jesus Christ to western North Carolina including Asheville, Hendersonville, Brevard and Tryon Foothills by using culturally relevant communications and the arts. Bringing Good News to the Mountains!
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The angels were sent to pronounce the best news the world has ever heard. And who was the first stop on the tour? Shepherds, which was code back then for an everyday, normal person. This is heaven's gospel for a certain kind of person, someone we...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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The first promise in the arrival of Christ is “peace on earth.” Peace plays a big part in Luke’s explanation of Jesus’s ministry, operating on several fronts. One of those: the human heart. As elusive as it is to experience an abiding peace, so the...De către Patrick Lafferty
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With due respect to our first Presidents who established days of thanksgiving–and then Lincoln who made it a regular annual national observance–there is a sadly ironic analogy to be drawn. If one day in three-hundred-sixty-five is set aside to reflect...De către Patrick Lafferty
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By it we grow, persevere, and recover. Those who offer it are like skilled surgeons, excising what’s necrotic and fostering healing. We underestimate its power and its necessity. We’re talking about encouragement. Among the many words of wisdom in...De către Patrick Lafferty
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Last week we considered from a letter to exiles what is the mandate for us all, irrespective of how this week’s election turned out. This week we consider, let’s call it, our “first executive order.” Some are elated–others angered. Still others, just...De către Patrick Lafferty
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Historians will decide whether this election season has consumed a nation unlike previous national referenda. Come what may, what is our mandate, and the promise upon which it rests?De către Patrick Lafferty
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We are familiar with the so-called “humblebrag”--the subtle attempt to prop oneself up by appealing to one’s ostensible lowliness. We are too well attuned to that move and find it galling. What Paul will say in this passage is his most self-effacing...De către Patrick Lafferty
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As we close our series through I John, we are reminded that God is the source of love and only as we see His great love for us in the finished work of Jesus can we then move in gratitude to love others and flee from idols that can never love us like Him.De către Craig Lotz
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As we look for hope and strength after the storm, Paul reminds us that as we are comforted through Christ in the midst of suffering, we can then be compelled to reach out to others with the same gracious comfort we’ve been given.De către Chip Jones
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De către Patrick Lafferty
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CENTRAL TEXT: Psalm 621 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.3 How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning...De către Andrew Shank
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CENTRAL TEXT: 1 John 4:1-6Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus...De către Gregg Stashenko
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In the second half of chapter 3, John returns to a familiar theme of loving one another but this time we hear a new counter melody featuring Cain from the tragic story in Genesis 4. Cain had a love problem. And it turns out we are more like Cain...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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CENTRAL TEXT: 1 John 2:28-3:10And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices...De către Brad Owen
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As we make our way deeper into 1 John, we hear an exhortation and a warning. The exhortation is to not love the world or the things of the world--that which goes against our Messiah's way. Then we hear a warning to not be deceived by...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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After sounding the initial notes of fellowship with God and others as the song for practicing the way of Jesus, a new theme emerges in the second chapter of 1 John: How we know we know God. The call to obedience, the call to love all others as Christ...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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On the heels of considering the person and work of the Holy Spirit for many months, we spent the better part of a year on the power and privilege of prayer. God is moving us to practice his presence in more places and spaces in our lives as a church...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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Our nagging, broken and barren hearts wake us up each morning and send us all on a perpetual quest for satisfaction, joy, fulfillment and completion. As we bounce around from thing to thing and person to person in an attempt to achieve this wholeness...De către Brian Land
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As we consider the final words of the Lord’s prayer, we will also take a quick look back at our entire series on prayer. His kingdom, power, and glory. Forever.De către Craig Lotz
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After the call to the marathon that is forgiveness, we move to the final petition in the Lord's Prayer. You don't need a pastor to tell you that temptation and evil are ubiquitous today. But we do need clarity as to what God does for those...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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This week, guest speaker Chas Morris (Pastor at Grace Blue Ridge in Hendersonville) will continue in our study of the Lord's Prayer: forgiveness of our debts and forgiving others.De către Chas Morris
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Only after we've looked up at our holy and heavenly Father does Jesus invite us to look around at what we need from him. Our daily bread is the most tangible of the petitions, which, of course, reminds us that our Father sustains us, body and...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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The final God-ward petition, “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” may be the most difficult petition for modern people to pray. When “you do you” is our basic modus operandi, doing our Father’s will may feel like forcing the proverbial...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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In light of our gospel privilege to commune with our Father in prayer, we turn our attention back to Jesus' prayer to the second God-ward petition, “Your kingdom come”. To a curious Pontius Pilate Jesus reveals that he is the King of a kingdom...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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Prayer is so much better than a duty. It is an amazing privilege to be able to come at any time into the presence of God to worship Him and to share our hopes, dreams, hurts and needs. We would give anything to have this privilege were it not already...De către Ken Downer
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As we continue to look at The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus leads us to meditate on God’s holy, beautiful, and superlative character & name; which permeates all of creation and is ultimately displayed in the finished work of Jesus. Given a new name and...De către Craig Lotz
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From how not to pray—masquerading as someone else before God and others—Jesus shifts gears: “Pray then like this,” he says, “Our Father in heaven…” These potent first four words will be supplemented with his teaching later in his sermon about a...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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Our final focus in our sermon series on prayer shifts to the Lord's Prayer. Right out of the gate, Jesus shows us how not to pray. Jesus reveals how a certain sin can lurk subterranean in our prayers, one that is so mainstream in our culture...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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We’ve tried to explain a sadly too prominent kind of necessary prayer: the prayer of lament. It is our desperate act of appealing to a good God amid what often feels anything but good. We’ve said it is at bottom a longing, and also a journey. But we...De către Patrick Lafferty
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Those who place their trust in the Lord are not immune to hardship, nor to the loss of hope we might associate in our day with depression. The experience of hopelessness is reportedly on the rise in many places and among several demographics, and with...De către Patrick Lafferty
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Psalm 88 is the bleakest of all the psalms. It shares the same sorrow as other psalms of lament, but it lacks any of the resolution or hope. What does such a darkened word of prayer have for us? From it we learn what we will all have the occasion for...De către Patrick Lafferty
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st week we asked what Jesus wants for us. In that we find His prayers for us. And in what He prays for us we find not only what to pray for ourselves also, but perhaps a new motivation, born of him endearing himself to us in what he wants and prays...De către Patrick Lafferty
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You can learn something about a person by what they want from you. Even more by what they want for you. For the next three weeks we will look at what is known as Jesus’s High Priestly Prayer, in which we will hear what he most wants for His own by...De către Patrick Lafferty
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Easter changed everything. How did Easter impact the prayers of God’s people? By exploring the first recorded corporate prayer after the resurrection, we are (re)oriented to the kind of prayer the risen Jesus intends for his people.De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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The idea of resurrection is, contrary to conventional thinking, not confined to religious tradition. It has found its way into human intuition among even the most formidable minds with commitments to rationality just as strong. We’ll hear from one and...De către Patrick Lafferty
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We’ve said there is no true repentance without praying. To that we add a corresponding truth that how you pray, the heart you cultivate in your praying, will have bearing on the life you then manifest. How you pray and the heart that is formed in the...De către Patrick Lafferty
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Isn’t it curious that one thing we might most fear is precisely the way into new freedom? I’m talking about the confession of sin. Psalm 32 is a sinner’s prayer, highlighting the path from the place of sorrow and inner strife to the place of gladness...De către Patrick Lafferty
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Prayer is a learned conversation. What is our goal in prayer, God's goal in prayer?De către Jim Pearce
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Lent is that season in the church calendar meant to underscore what has no season, what is necessary in every season–namely, repentance. It is a life. During these next weeks of Lent until Easter we’re going to look at several prayers that are...De către Patrick Lafferty
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Prayer is in right now. In fact, prayer and meditation are on the rise even as the American church is in decline. While most of us pray, we need a refresher course on what prayer is. In Psalm 27, God is out to redefine, reclaim, and rekindle our...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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We do not pray for the sake of praying. It is ordered to an even greater end. It is part of a good life. While Psalm 1 begins the prayerbook of Israel it is the only utterance that is not a prayer. But as it describes the fact, the character, and the...De către Patrick Lafferty
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The first recorded address of God by humanity--the first “prayer”--comes in the context of humanity’s tragic choice–what we know as the fall from grace. And while that moment offers no explicit or intended teaching on the warrant, substance, or...De către Patrick Lafferty
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What was it all for? Why devote close to a year learning from and about the Holy Spirit? So much of what we considered focused on his purposes for us personally and communally. We want to conclude our particular attention to the Spirit with a focus on...De către Patrick Lafferty
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Humans have always been ritual-making creatures. We establish patterns, habits, and traditions which form our sense of identity and offer us meaning. The Lord’s Supper is one more example of our inclination to meaning-filled ritual. But its power lies...De către Patrick Lafferty
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The sacraments of baptism and Lord’s Supper are neither magic nor are they mere moments that invoke a memory meant to move us. If not like those, what are they? What are they for? And if they involve something inward–something spiritual–then how, if...De către Patrick Lafferty
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We round out our study of the Holy Spirit with a final stretch of sermons on the activity of the Holy Spirit in our private and public acts of worship. This week we consider what the Spirit is “up to” in the human act of preaching.De către Patrick Lafferty
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Spiritual renewal and revival are buzzwords both inside and, in recent times, outside of evangelicalism. What is spiritual renewal and what is it for? We’ll turn to one of Paul’s final letters as we seek spiritual renewal for ourselves and for the...De către Andrew Kerhoulas
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This time of year the impulse to make changes for the good is high. And like the morning frost that impulse disappears in the sunlight. We are not saved by change, but we are saved for it. What kind of change and what motive must be behind the change?...De către Patrick Lafferty
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**Please note: There will be no regular Sunday morning worship service on Christmas Eve. We invite your family to join us for our Christmas Eve service at 4:30pm on Sunday, December 24. We look forward to celebrating the Incarnation with our GMR...De către Patrick Lafferty
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This season solicits merriment–some might say almost mandates it if you wish to fit in. But often the mirth belies the burdens so many of us carry. We all naturally seek comfort in such times. The glory of God, far from being an abstract idea, is...De către Patrick Lafferty
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