Mosaic Boston

When people usually think of the word "blessing," they think of "prosperity" in terms of material things like health and wealth. The word for "blessing" in the New Testament is makarios, which actually means "the highest level of happiness." Therefore, God's greatest blessings are not material, but spiritual. God longs to give us makarios --inexpressible joy. One of the clearest paths to experiencing more makarios is generosity. Therefore, the way we experience a more blessed life isn't getting more, but giving more.

The question isn’t whether we are going to be worshipers. Rather, it is, what are we going to worship? To worship anyone or anything less than the all-powerful, all-knowing God, we sell ourselves short. But what does true worship look like in our daily discipline? Mosaic Boston Jamaica Plain Pastor Ivey Rhodes brings us the message this week to discuss a true life rhythm of worship.

When Scripture talks about community, it doesn't talk about a social club of peers or a Meetup interest group. Godly community is Gospel-centered community on mission with God, for His glory! The early church committed (devoted) itself to gathering together corporately, and in small groups in homes for studying the Scriptures, prayer, and fellowship.

God hard-wired humans to both work and rest, in a healthy rhythm. If we stop doing either, we stop living full, flourishing lives. This is why God actually commands us to rest physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and this is meant to be a blessing, not a burden. In fact, regular rest is so important that God put it in the Ten Commandments, right up there with "Don't commit adultery" and "Don't murder." Thus, resting every seventh day isn't just a nice suggestion, but actually morally binding. If we break this commandment, it breaks us.

When every day becomes a feast, no day truly is. We've lost the rhythm of feasting (celebrating God's bounty and kindness), because we've lost the rhythm of fasting (celebrating God). We don't fast to fast, but fast to pray--and we don't pray to pray, but pray to fellowship with Our Heavenly, our greatest need, even greater than that for food. By looking at the spiritual rhythm of fasting, we can feast on fellowship with God.

In the same way that God has designed our bodies to function optimally when aligned with circadian rhythms, He has designed our souls to function optimally when aligned with spiritual rhythms. For the next six Sundays, we are devoting our attention to the spiritual rhythms the Lord has prescribed for us in Scripture as a means of grace for spiritual flourishing: Scripture, Prayer & Fasting, Sabbath, Community, Worship, and Generosity. Once these rhythms are a natural part of your life, you will be on your way to a successful 2019 (and beyond)!

In Isaiah 9, Jesus is prophecies to be the "Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore." Despite the lack of Shalom in the world, we can still experience Shalom in our hearts, as "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

Even in the most ecstatic moments of happiness, there's always a caveat or asterisk–there's always a catch. There's always the deep awareness that this delicious moment will come to an end, and we're sad about it. We're sad about our happiness ending, because it isn't happiness that we're after; we're after everlasting joy. Do you have this elusive everlasting joy?

The best part about the Christmas season is the Christmas spirit. The Christmas spirit infuses the air with generosity, grace, and love. Everyone seems to be a little nicer–even in Boston. People don't push quite as forcefully on the T. They don't lay on the horn quite as long. They don't tailgate quite as closely. Why? What is it about the Christmas Spirit that changes people? And why can't we live like this year-round?

What is that thing that if you lost it, would make your life no longer worth living? We all put our hope in something––whether it's the God of the Bible or something else. This week, we investigate God's method of providing hope to all people as we kick off our four-week long Advent series.

When God grants authority, it is always for the blessing and protection of those under authority and never for the selfish advantage of the one in authority. The conclusion of Colossians examines godly authority in the family, marketplace, and church.

In last week's text in Colossians, the Apostle Paul said that asceticism and legalism are impotent in stopping the "indulgence of the flesh," meaning external changes won't stop the raging fire of sin within. We need something else. We need to fight the internal fire with fire, by fighting desire with desire.

The number one spiritual growth secret: do not focus on growing your own faith; focus on helping someone else grow theirs.

Deep down we all long for a perfect kingdom. We all long for a perfect king. And to a certain extent we’re all upset that neither of those seem to exist. What if that perfect kingdom does exist? What if we could be a part of it? For the next four weeks, we'll dive into the book of Colossians and begin a new four-week series entitled, “Supernaturalization: Heavenly Citizenship for the Here and Now.”

Just a casual google search for the "occult in Boston" opens a whole world of Boston's spirituality. Astrology, horoscopes, Ouija boards, yoga, the occult, signs of the zodiac, psychics, witchcraft, parapsychology, magick, palmistry, tarot cards, numerology, séances, necromancy, channeling, voodoo, charms, hexing, etc. Why the prevalence of "spiritual" groups in a bastion of secularism like Boston? How are Christians to think about these things? Join us as we look at Jesus among New Age Spirituality.

Since our culture has rejected even the idea of ultimate meaning in life, the only point that is left is to have a good time, the pursuit of personal happiness. Since we have no idea what leads to ultimate happiness, we conflate happiness with pleasure. The pursuit of happiness becomes the pursuit of maximum pleasure, which paradoxically leads to maximum pain.

What is truth? Which one? Our culture worships the unholy trinity of pluralism (all truths are true), relativism (it's true for you, not for me), and humanism (you are the definer of truth). What do we do with Jesus among the Pluralists?

Modern atheists are not content to just personally believe in no God; they want to do everything possible to convert you to their godless religion. Their main weapons are not reason and science but ridicule and cynicism. It's hard to win many over to full-fledged atheism, because it's nearly impossible to live out the dark implications of this faithless faith. However, what they are successful in doing, is giving millions of young people intellectual cover to be agnostic (or "nones").

Scripture distinguishes between the nonbeliever and the false teacher. While Scripture commands us to be hospitable and to share the Gospel, Scripture is also abundantly clear that we must "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). In this week's sermon, we examine the four characteristics of Christian cults, so we can grow in spiritual discernment.

The Hindu teacher Swami Sivananda writes, "The fundamentals or essentials of all religions are the same. There is difference only in the non-essentials." Many today have passively accepted this sentiment. It's the mood of our city and age. We long for unity amidst diversity. However, pretending our real differences don't actually exist leads to superficial unity, which is tenuous at best, and dangerous at worst. The major world religions are not all the same. They do not point to the same God. In this week's sermon, we dive into Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, and look straight at the facts.