Podcast
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Hosted by Church at the Cross · EN
Welcome to the weekly podcast of Church at the Cross in Grapevine, TX, led by Pastor JR Vassar. Our mission is to help people and places encounter Jesus. Wherever you are today, our hope is that you would be encouraged, challenged, and inspired to take the next step in your relationship with Jesus.
For more info, visit churchatthecross.com!
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Episodes
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The Lord is in this Place | Genesis 28
1w ago00:42:05Tap to summarizeScripture: Genesis 28 "From about half-past ten in the evening until about half-past twelve, FIRE. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars. Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace. God of Jesus Christ." – Blaise Pascal, November 23, 1654. + An Encounter with God is always by the Grace of GodI am the LORD God and I will be your God… I will include you in my deepest purposes… I will always be with you, and I will never give up on you… Philippians 1:6 NIV+ An Encounter with God creates the Fear of GodJeremiah 10:7 NIV Psalm 112:1 NIV Jeremiah 5:22 NIV+ An Encounter with God leads to Transformation by God John 1:49–51 NIV
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Partnering while Parenting | Ephesians 6:1–4
2w ago00:36:34Tap to summarizeScripture: Ephesians 6:1–4+ From a Child-Centered Home to a Christ-Centered Home + From Outsourcing to Owning. “All this that we here suffer is through you: you should have taught us the things of God, and did not; you should have restrained us from sin and corrected us, and you did not; you were the means of our original corruption and guiltiness, and yet you never showed any competent care that we might be delivered from it...Woe unto us that we had such carnal and careless parents, and woe unto you that had no more compassion and pity to prevent the everlasting misery of your own children” – Richard Mather, cited in Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were by Leland Ryken. + From Controlling to Cultivating Proverbs 13:24 NIVProverbs 19:18 NIVPhilippians 2:13 NIV + From Moving Them Out to Sending Them Out. Psalm 127:3–5 NIV
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Gospel Fueled Marriage Skills | Ephesians 4:29-5:2
3w ago00:29:00Tap to summarizeScripture: Ephesians 4:29-5:2+ De-skilling = unlearning or never learning basic relationship skills + 5 Directives:Communicate ConstructivelyStay In Step With The SpiritTake Out The TrashCommit To KindnessFreely ForgiveDirective #1: Communicate ConstructivelyProverbs 12:18 NIV+ What you speak to people, over time, they will start to live up to, or down to. Directive #2: Stay In Step With The Spirit + Challenge: Pray for your spouse.Directive #3: Take Out The Trash“Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontation still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back; in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.” - Fredrick BeuchnerDirective #4: Commit To KindnessDirective #5: Freely Forgive
Transcribe →The Church that Sends | Acts 13:1–5
4w ago00:30:44Tap to summarizeScripture: Acts 13:1–5Acts 1:8 NIVActs 8:1–3 NIVActs 8:4 NIVActs 11:22–26 NIV+ Gifted by the Spirit + United in Jesus Acts 11:26 NIV + Vibrant in Worship+ Attentive to the SpiritActs 14:21–23 NIVRomans 15:14–20 NIVActs 14:26–28 NIV
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Comprehensive Oneness | Genesis 2:15-25
Apr 2000:44:56Tap to summarizeScripture: Genesis 2:15–25 “So, in the one-flesh union of marriage... the married couple comes together completely, as long as they both shall live. In real terms, two selfish me’s start learning to think like one unified us, building a new life together with one total everything: one story, one purpose, one reputation, one bed, one suffering, one budget, one family, and so forth. Marriage removes all barriers and replaces them with a comprehensive oneness. It is this all-encompassing unity that sets marriage apart as marriage, more profound than even the most intense friendship.— Ray Ortlund, Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel. + Relational Oneness: A Superlative Love“A husband must do his best to see that no one know his wife’s faults but himself and God. He should be unwilling to voice them to anyone but God, to pray that she may be pardoned for them and reformed from them. Likewise, a wife must do her best to keep her husband’s struggles and sins to herself, as matters of prayer and not gossip. Neither spouse should be surprised by the sins of the other, for each of them is well aware of their own sins. Can it be helpful to uncover faults in public and fling mud in each other’s face? Will this help a husband reform or a wife to repent? And which is more displayed in such a case, the spouse’s faults and weaknesses or the gossip’s unkindness, indiscretion, backbiting, and folly? Does not the family dog behave better than this when it barks at strangers but not at members of the family?” – Joel Beeke, Purtians on Marital Love. + Spiritual Oneness: A Spiritual LoveHebrews 3:13 NIVHebrews 10:24 NIV“…especially to be helpers of each other’s salvation: to stir up each other to faith, love, and obedience, and good works: to warn and help each other against sin, and all temptations: to join in God’s worship in the family, and in private: to prepare each other for the approach of death, and comfort each other in the hopes of life eternal.” – Richard Baxter + Physical Oneness: A Sexual Love Matthew 12:20 NIV Proverbs 5:15–20 NIV
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Marriage: What Is It For | 1 Timothy 4:1-5
Apr 1300:42:40Tap to summarizeScripture: 1 Timothy 4:1-5Acts 20:29–30 NIV2 Corinthians 11:4 NIV+ Marriage is Proof of the Goodness of God. + Marriage is a Picture of the Gospel of God. CompanionshipProcreationSanctificationProclamationEphesians 5:22–32Marriage is a Covenant not a Contract. Marriage is a Covenant of Grace not Works.Colossians 3:12–13 NIV
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Life Forever and Full | John 5:21–29 | Apr-05-2026 (Easter)
Apr 700:31:01Tap to summarizeScripture: John 5:21–29+Jesus gives Forever Life.Acts 17:31 NIV+ Jesus gives Full Life.John 11:25–26 Ephesians 2:4–5 NIV John 17:3 NIVJohn 3:36 NIV
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Paying Attention to Hope | 2 Corinthians 4:16–5:10
Apr 100:42:42Tap to summarizeScripture: 2 Corinthians 4:16–5:10+ We will be made glorious like Jesus.+ We will be at home with Jesus.Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, our longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I'm speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such thing as water… If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. John 17:24 NIV+ We will be rewarded by JesusRevelation 20:11–15 NIVColossians 2:13–141 Corinthians 3:10–15 NIV
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Attention to the World | Romans 1:18-25
Mar 2400:40:30Tap to summarizeScripture: Romans 1:18-25+ Creation reveals God’s glory Acts14:11-17“The universe, which to the atheist is full of darkness and confusion, to the Christian, is resplendent with light and glory.” – Archibald Alexander + Jesus reveals New CreationRomans 8:20-23+ The Church reveals Christ to the World
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Paying Attention to Others | Matthew 22:34-39
Mar 1600:33:12Tap to summarizeScripture: Matthew 22:34-39 1 John 4:19“But what uniquely frightens about Putnam’s work on social capital is the dramatic trend line he unearthed through his analysis: across all these diverse contexts for human connection, Putnam found that from the mid-twentieth century onward, participation in every sort of collective activity was going down.” – Matthew Bingham, A Heart Aflame for God.3 Tips to Better Love Others 1. Be Present2. Be Listening3. Be Serving
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