The Cost of Eternity

In the last training session before our departure from project, Matt Reagan shared about heaven. He encouraged us to live with our heads in the clouds, never giving up the hope for more we have in Christ. He illustrates the splendor of our new body and souls to encourage us to see that the prize is worth any cost. As a practical, he pushes us to play the “heaven game” on the way back with others to remind each other the hope we have.

A Good Life at No Cost - Family

“Our main goal is not to build awesome families, nor is it to build a Christian nation… our main goal is Christ going forth in our lives.” Matt Messerly talks about the theology of family, how Jesus values family but also how we can let family become an idol if we are not careful.

Evangelism and Mercy Ministry

Larry Martini describes mercy ministry as, “alleviating physical needs to point people to Christ.” Instead wallowing in guilt or becoming desensitized to the needs in the world around us, we are encouraged to engage the world with passion and with intense acts of love (Luke 10:30-37).

A Good Life at No Cost - Time Management

“Your time is redeemed. So redeem it.”

Matt Messerly makes a five-step outline of how we can redeem the time that has been wasted in our sinfulness by actively pursuing the redeeming wisdom of Christ.

  1. We waste time.
  2. We are foolish.
  3. Jesus redeems our time.
  4. We are made to be wise.
  5. We actively redeem our time.

Encouraging vs. Flattering Your People

From 1 Thessalonians 2:5-12 Jack Thompson begins by showing us the two pitfalls of flattery: saying what we don’t need to say in people pleasing and refraining from saying what we need to say because of our fear of people. Encouragement is different from flattery because it is not self-seeking or even other-seeking, but because it is gospel-seeking. True encouragement points people towards God.

How Do You Avoid This Summer Being a Mountaintop?

In this RET session, Paul Poteat encourages us to make the most out of our time and our resources in order to avoid spiritual amnesia. STP is not a mountaintop that you climb and then coast down for the rest of the year until next summer. Instead it is a continual fight to battle our compulsion to forget the impact of the gospel on our lives.