Beltway Weekend Services (Audio)

We live in the middle of a spiritual battle between two kingdoms: the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of God. As Jennie Allen reminds us, these kingdoms are opposed, but they are not equal. Jesus has already won the decisive victory over darkness! Through Him, we have been rescued and brought into His Kingdom. But we still face lies and deception that try to pull us away from God’s truth. We walk in authority over darkness as we daily surrender to the authority of God, choosing His truth over our own and His will over our own.

Lies rarely announce themselves as lies. They often sound reasonable, feel true, and may have been part of our thinking for so long that we no longer question them. But what we believe matters because the lies we believe shape the lives we live. Jesus invites us to look beneath the “cracks” we see in our lives and discover what we believe underneath them. As we remain in His Word, He reveals what is true and leads us into freedom. The battle for our lives begins with the battle for what we believe.

Following Jesus is a lifelong journey of growth. None of us has arrived, and God does not expect us to have everything figured out. But He loves us too much to leave us where we are. Paul reminds us that spiritual maturity includes recognizing our need to grow, letting go of what is behind us, and continuing to press on toward becoming more like Jesus. We don’t grow to earn God’s love; we grow because we are already loved by Him. “It’s okay not to be okay, but it’s not okay to stay not okay.”

We often think of worship as the songs we sing at church, but worship is much bigger than music. Worship is about what has our attention, affection, trust, and obedience. Something will always sit on the “throne” of our lives. Romans 12 reminds us that because of God’s mercy and all He has done for us our response is to offer our whole lives back to Him. God gets the throne, and we place our lives on the altar. We were built to worship God with ALL of our lives.

God didn't just save us from something; He saved us for something. Scripture describes the church as a body with many different parts, and every part matters. God has given each believer gifts, abilities, and opportunities to serve others. Our role may not always be visible, but visibility does not determine value. When each person faithfully plays their part, the whole body becomes stronger. We don’t serve simply to fill a need; we serve because we follow Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve. Every believer has a part to play in the body of Christ.