Jesus teaches the disciples a parable about a persistent widow, who seeks justice from the unjust, uncaring, and ungodly judge in her town. He told this parable to teach them to always pray and not give up.
In today's message, we will see three important aspects of persistent prayer and how it impacts our lives.

In John 21:15-19, Jesus reinstates Peter to the ministry of God by reversing his previous denial of knowing Jesus three times by asking him three times, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Jesus now offers both encouragement and a dire prediction.
Peter is once again called to follow Jesus. However, Jesus notes that one day Peter will be forcibly "led," with outstretched arms.
This is an indirect reference to crucifixion. While a terrible fate, this prophecy also confirms that Peter's faith will never again fail.
Jesus calls each one of us who have lost our way or are damaged due to sin to also find redemption and reconciliation in Him.
Are you ready to answer the call to redemption?

Just like our national freedom, our redemption isn't free; it comes at a price. Jesus Christ paid that price by dying on the cross, shedding His blood, to free us from the bondage and captivity to sin. The death of Christ was the price He paid to redeem us. It was a “propitiation,” i.e. the means of appeasing God’s holy wrath at sin. In the second message in our series, Road to Redemption, we will look at the Cost of Redemption. We must respond to His offer of redemption with faith in His blood and offer our bodies as "living sacrifices," holy and pleasing to God.

One of the closest disciples to follow Jesus was Peter. He loved Jesus and took great pride in his dedication and devotion to the Lord. He stated that he would never desert Jesus even if all others did. He would die with Jesus if need be, but he would never disown Him. Within hours of making those claims, Peter denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed, just as Jesus had predicted. Peter felt devastated at his denial of Christ and believed that he could never be used of God again, so he went back to what he knew he could do and that was fishing. Eventually, Jesus reinstated him to follow and serve Him again. Like Peter, we all are in need of redemption. Today, we will examine the need of redemption as we look briefly into Peter's life, as well as, the lives of Adam and Eve. When you fail, does it make you want to go to God, or does it make you want to stay away from Him? You can find redemption through the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of Jesus.

The main theme of the Gospel of Luke is the Kingdom of God. As Jesus teaches about the Kingdom of God, He raises some questions. First from the Pharisees and then from the disciples. The Pharisees ask the question, "When will the kingdom come?" and the disciples ask, "Where will this happen?" Jesus' teaching isn't full and detailed and contains some statements that are vague and cryptic in nature. Be we can understand that Jesus is talking about a present and future kingdom. Along with the coming of the Son of Man will come swift and complete judgement because of the sin and disobedience of mankind. The Kingdom is now in the Person and presence of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in our midst. But it is also coming in completeness and fullness and quickness in the future, when Christ's reign will be complete. The question for us is this: Are you ready for his swift coming? Are you ready for God's final judgment? If not, get things right with God now before it is too late.

In today's message, Jesus has an interaction with ten lepers as He is on His way to Jerusalem to go to the cross to die for the sins of mankind. Jesus commands the ten lepers to go show themselves to the priests before they are healed and they go. As they are going on their way, they are healed. When one of them notices that he is healed, he returns to thank Jesus praising God in a loud voice. Jesus shows us the importance of gratefulness and praise to God for what He has done for us.

Jesus expects us to show gratitude. Jesus is clearly angry at the ungratefulness of the nine lepers who didn't return. We must train ourselves to show thanks, to give thanks, to be filled with thanksgiving. Without being thankful disciples we won't be pleasing to Jesus. Gratitude is an important component in our salvation. Be the one who returns giving thanks and praise to God when the nine continue living in ungratefulness.

Jesus is warning His disciples about the condemnation of scandalous teachers who cause stumbling-blocks that lead people to sin. He then tells them about the necessity of forgiveness and the power of faith, which prompts the apostles to say, "Lord, increase our faith." An increased amount of faith is not what they need, rather, they need to use what amount of faith they already have and increase their obedience to what God has commanded. What Jesus teaches in this passage is not random, but four lessons in humility necessary for them to avoid falling into the trap of self-righteousness as had the Pharisees. Humility is a protection against falling into the sin of self-righteousness.

Jesus tells a parable describing the deceptiveness of riches and the discomfort of poverty and the reversal of conditions in the afterlife. The story centers on the reversal of fortunes that takes place after Lazarus and the rich man die. It links agony or comfort after death with how we treat the less fortunate around us. This reversal after death is ultimate. An unbridgeable chasm exists between Lazarus at Abraham’s side (Heaven) and the rich man in Hades (Hell). In this story, God’s eternal judgment has everything to do with how we use wealth in this life and whether we help those less fortunate in our midst. God will ultimately justify the cause of the poor. But the message has been clearly stated. Like the rich man’s five brothers, we have been given all the warning we need.

Jesus taught a lot through the use of parables. Today's message focuses on the Parable of the Shrewd Manager from Luke 16:1-18. This parable focuses on Jesus' authority versus the self-imposed authority of the Pharisees. He talks about the subject of being a trustworthy steward of God's resources. Jesus focuses on two aspects: Stewardship and Accountability. Are you a faithful and wise steward of what God has entrusted you?

The apostle Paul urges Christians to live a life worthy of the calling of Christ and indicates that part of that worthy life is bearing with one another in love. Sometimes it is hard for us to get along with each other; it can be a real challenge. In order for us to bear with one another we need God's help to make every effort to be humble, gentle, and patient with others. The Christian life is not something we do on our own, rather, it is something that we do together. Paul says that unity in the church is the goal. Are you bearing with people in love?

In Ephesians 4:15, Paul tells us to speak the truth in love to one another, thus helping us to grow spiritually in Christ and uniting the body of Christ, the Church. Today, we will look at the need for us to know the Truth, speak the truth, and speak the truth in love. The signs of spiritually immature people are either a loveless truth or a truthless love. It is so important for Christians to combine truth and love if we are to be more and more like Jesus.

Sometimes life beats you down, but the question is whether or not you’re going to get back up again or stay down. In our main text, Paul encourages us that even though bad things happen to us, God is with us and helps us to get back up and into the fight, we call life. Today, we will examine the life of Joseph and see how he was able to get back up and reverse the tragedies in his life.

In our fourth message, in our Love More; Love Better series, we look at the Christian's need to love the truth in addition to loving God and loving people as they live out the purpose of God in their lives. Loving the truth is necessary for us to be saved. The truth will overlook how we act. If we love the truth, we will obey it. Today we will examine why the truth matters and how we can become people of the truth.

Jesus taught that the whole law and the prophets were fulfilled in obeying the two greatest commandments: "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength" and to "love your neighbor as yourself." In today's message, the Apostle John writes about loving your neighbor (brother) in
1 John 4:20-21. He states that if we claim to love God, but hate our brother, we are a liar and the love of God is not in us. He also writes that love is an action and is demonstrated by what we do for people.

A teacher of the Law has an interaction with Jesus asking Him, which is the most important commandment in God's Word. Jesus answers with two commandments, which summarizes all of the prophets and the Law. Today, we're going to focus on the first command, which is to love God. In our desire to Love More and Love Better, Jesus points out five specific actions to loving God. We can increase our love for God by applying these five actions. Our love directed towards God is the first and greatest commandment.

We start the New Year by focusing on the purpose and reason why the Crescent City Church of Christ exists: "to love God, love people, and love the truth." This is the first message in the "Love More; Love Better" series, which urges us to love one another more and more. The apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonian Christians in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 to exhort them to increase their love, to lead a peaceful life, to mind their own business, and not to be idle. By obeying these exhortations the believers would establish a good testimony before their non-Christian neighbors, and they would be reliant on nobody except God.

On December 25, we celebrate the birth of Jesus coming into the world, but what was the ultimate purpose of His coming?
In today's message, we seek to address and answer three questions: Why did Jesus come to Earth? Why should we think about His death when we celebrate His birth? Why did Jesus need to die? Watch the video to find out the purpose of Jesus' birth.

Peace is something we all desire. It is one of mankind’s greatest needs and desires. We struggle with fear of the future, conflicts in relationships, financial stress, health problems and so much more. During this time of the year, and in this day and time when anxiety is at an all-time high, peace can seem unlikely. However, God promised to send the Messiah, who would be the Prince of Peace. Jesus Christ is that Messiah. In order to have peace within ourselves and with others, we first needed peace between ourselves and God. The foundation for peace with all of creation is in having a restored relationship with God. So God sent Jesus to restore our relationship with Him. Jesus came as the Prince of Peace to be the One who would finally bring peace to the world, but He would give us peace in a way that the world could not give peace. Jesus came as our Prince of Peace to bring us wholeness, perfect unity between us and God, and other relationships, and a victorious sense of well-being. Jesus Christ is the only reason we can truly live peacefully with God and others. The peace Jesus brings is one that transcends all understanding. It is a peace that comes from knowing that God has everything in control, even when it doesn’t look like it. Jesus brings a peace that helps us to live at peace with God, with mankind, with ourselves, with family, with Christian brothers and sisters, with churches, and even with our enemies.

Jesus concludes His three-part parable, which expresses the desire of God the Father for the lost to be saved. In this third part of the parable, Jesus responds to the mutterings of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law over the fact that Jesus welcomed and ate with tax collectors and "sinners", by telling about a man who had 2 sons and one leaves home squandering his money in rebellious living. After spending all his money, a severe famine hits the country and he becomes so desperate that he hires himself out to a citizen of that country feeding pigs. The young son becomes so hungry that he desires to eat what he is feeding the pigs. Coming to his senses, he realizes how his father's hired men had plenty of food and here he was starving to death.
He decides to go back home, face the consequences, and beg his father to take him back as one of his hired men. This parable has more to do with the father than it does the son and we see how the father compassionately receives his son, but not everyone is happy about his return, his older brother is upset.
The father encourages the older son to celebrate and be happy for his brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. Not only do we find out about the love of God for those who are lost and His joy for those who repent, but we are also challenged to have the same attitude toward the lost as God and to rejoice when sinners are saved.

Jesus expresses, through a three-part parable, the desire of God the Father for the lost to be saved. In the second part of the parable, Jesus responds to the mutterings of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law over the fact that Jesus welcomed and ate with tax collectors and "sinners", by telling about a woman who had 10 silver coins and loses one. Jesus, in an attempt to challenge their hypocrisy and inconsistency, asked them if they would consider doing anything differently than the woman who lit a lamp, swept the house, and searched carefully until she found it, and invited her friends and neighbors to celebrate with her over finding her lost coin.
We see that the lost have value to God and He seeks to find them and greatly rejoices over one sinner who repents. Not only do we find out about the love of God for those who are lost and the joy of God for those who repent. We are also challenged to have the same attitude toward the lost as God and to rejoice when sinners are saved.