SoFo Church

05/07/2022

We'll be taking off this Sunday so everyone can spend the evening with their moms. See you next week!

05/06/2022

05/05/2022

MATTHEW 7:21
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

JAMES 2:14
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can faith like that save him?

1 JOHN 2:3-6
This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys God’s teaching, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we can be sure we are living in him: Whoever says that he lives in God must live as Jesus did.

JOHN 14:21
“The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

JOHN 14:15-16
“If you love me, you will keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.”

JOHN 14:23-24
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words.”

1 JOHN 5:3
For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden

JOHN 15:10
“If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”

1 JOHN 3:24
The one who obeys God’s commands lives in him, and God lives in him. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

MATTHEW 12:48-50
He replied to the one who was speaking to him, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” Stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

LUKE 6:46
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say?”

04/28/2022

Can you fill in the blank?

04/26/2022

Why do we expect more from young men playing a game than we do from ourselves spiritually?

You won’t find many better analogies of passages like 1 Corinthians 9:24 and Luke 14:25-33 than this video from fubo Sports.

1 CORINTHIANS 9:24
Don’t you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

LUKE 14:33
In the same way, those of you who do not renounce everything you have cannot be my disciples.

04/25/2022

Hey, everybody! It’s Shane.

I’m a big proponent of making it as easy as possible to see what actually goes on when the church meets. I don’t enjoy putting myself in a situation where I have no idea what’s going to happen, so I want people to be able to see what to expect before they show up.

Regrettably, though, we can’t do that for SoFo Church yet. While I do teach on a particular topic each Sunday, the primary focus of our weekly hang-outs is the conversation around that topic. We want to have an environment where everyone feels free to talk without having it recorded and published to the world, so we don’t record anything.

My hope is that we will have things in the future that we can record and publish, but right now you just have to be here :)

04/23/2022

M. Eugene Boring on Matthew 5:17–48 in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary:

None of this is a matter of strategy. To turn the other cheek is not to shame the opponent or win him or her over, to cause the enemy to repent. Going the extra mile is not a matter of prudence calculated to keep a low profile when you do not have power and need to “get along.” These sayings express the inherent rule of the kingdom of God, are God’s ultimate way of dealing with humanity exhibited in the life and death of Jesus, who went to the cross. All such hermeneutical considerations are not a matter of watering them down, finding a meaning that does seem reasonable and with which we can live. They are not to be made “reasonable,” for they violate the “common sense” of this world and point to another reality. They ask us whether we are oriented to the God who has redefined power and kingship in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

04/22/2022

Surely Jesus doesn’t want doormats for followers right? (Right?)

04/20/2022

Brothers and sisters, this is not the win that many think it is. Jesus told us to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” There are no others giving God glory for this.

“But Christians need to stand up for their rights!” Jesus and Paul disagree. They taught and modeled something very different (Matthew 5:38–41, 1 Corinthians 6:1–7, etc.). We should always be willing to choose advancing the mission of God over our personal freedoms (Isaiah 53:7, Galatians 5:13, 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, etc.).

And love over all (1 Corinthians 13:1–3).

University concedes to Ohio professor who declined to use students’ preferred pronouns

04/17/2022

Is it significant that Jesus’s final miracle was to heal someone who had been attacked by one of his followers?

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MATTHEW 26:47–53

While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, suddenly arrived. A large mob with swords and clubs was with him from the chief priests and elders of the people. His betrayer had given them a sign: “The one I kiss, he’s the one; arrest him.” So immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.

“Friend,” Jesus said to him, “do what you came to do.”

Then they came up, took hold of Jesus, and arrested him. At that moment one of those with Jesus reached out his hand and drew his sword. He struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his ear.

Then Jesus told him, “Put your sword back in its place because all who take up the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will provide me here and now with more than twelve legions of angels?”

04/09/2022

Hey, everybody! This week we continue our series on “Things in the Bible that We Don't Talk About in Church”.

Did you grow up in churches like I did where the primary focus was always on getting people saved? I’ve been part of more strategies and trainings and crusades and revivals than I can count. But what’s weird to me is that there’s actually a church in the Bible that was seeing people saved literally every day, and it tells us what they were doing, but we don't ever talk about it.

Well, we’re going to talk about it this Sunday! Tomorrow night at 6 o'clock. Come hang out with us. It’s a good time.

04/01/2022

Hey, everybody!

Maybe you’re someone who believes that Christians worship a magic Sky Daddy that responds to their telepathic requests. If you find out that their holy book mentions unicorns nine times — it’s game over, right? I mean, maybe some of that other stuff you could entertain ... but unicorns? Come on.

Or maybe you’re a Christian and maybe a friend at work comes up and says, "Hey, why does your Bible mention unicorns." And you go, "My Bible doesn’t mention unicorns." And they show you, right in your Bible, where it mentions unicorns.

This is one of those things in the Bible that we don’t talk about in church. We started this series last week, and we continue it this week, Sunday evening at 6: Things in the Bible that we don’t talk about in church. If we’re gonna say we believe it, we need to know what’s in it.

So come hang out with us Sunday night at 6. If you have a church, if you don’t have a church, if you’re looking for a church, if you don’t care anything about church, if you *hate* church — if you just want to be in an environment where you can talk about things and talk about them open and honestly, come hang out with us. It’s a good time.

Sunday night at 6! We’ll see you then.