January 06, 2020

Will You Seek the Lord?

January 06, 2020/ Dustin Turner

If we’re honest with ourselves, many of us have asked questions similar to those found in Psalm 77. When we look around, either at our own lives or the lives of others, we see trouble, challenges, and suffering. Where is God in all of this?

We can be quick to dismiss God altogether, assuming he either doesn’t care or is simply non-existent. But Psalm 77 does not end with these questions. Yes, the psalmist asks these hard questions, but then he returns to his memories.

December 27, 2019

How Will You Read the Bible in 2020?

December 27, 2019/ Dustin Turner

Over the last two years with Vintage Church, one thing that has excited me is our plan to read the Bible together. For the last two years, Vintage Church has utilized the F260 Bible Reading plans. In 2018, we read through portions of both the Old and New Testaments, and in 2019 we have read through the entire New Testament together. For many of us, these simple Bible reading plans have helped us read the Bible consistently for the first time. Because these Bible reading plans have been so helpful for so many, we’re going to continue to read the Bible together in 2020.

June 02, 2019

How To Break a Bad Habit

June 02, 2019/ Dustin Turner

In Vintage Church’s series, “Dependent,” we recently discussed the power of habits and even how to intentionally develop healthy habits. If you missed the kick off to this series—Redefine Yourself—visit vcnola.com/dependent to find that sermon as well as all other series resources. In Atomic Habits, James Clear outlines the “Habit Loop,” the process by which you and I develop habits.

May 15, 2019

The Power of Habit

May 15, 2019/ Dustin Turner

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about habits. This direction began with a podcast—The Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. On his podcast, Pastor Craig Groeschel interviewed James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. Originally I listened to the podcast simply as a way to grow in my leadership. However, that podcast has taken me on a journey researching and investigating the power of habit.

After listening to this podcast, I picked up Clear’s book and quickly read it. I then picked up another book, Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit and now I’m reading one more—Drew Dyck’s Your Future Self Will Thank You. After engaging all of these resources, my thinking shifted from leadership to spiritual growth. This shift in thinking led me to even adjust Vintage Church’s summer preaching series. Why this shift?

April 15, 2019

How Do You Grow?

April 15, 2019/ Dustin Turner

Recently I was reading through the F260 Bible Reading Plan, and I came across a passage I had read before but that struck me in a unique way. I was reading 1 Corinthians 8 where Paul discusses the very foreign idea of eating food sacrificed to idols. But what struck me was what Paul said first:

“Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ This ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God” (1 Corinthians 8:1–3).

January 23, 2019

How Will You Make Future Impact?

January 23, 2019/ Dustin Turner

We often fail to see how the little actions in life over a long period of time can lead to future impact in our lives and in our world. However, we’ve all seen those stories where one person did one thing for one person and it changed the world forever. We see this in the Bible. Individuals like Jesus, Peter, Paul, and others literally turned the world upside down.

A few weeks ago, Vintage Church unveiled our new 2-year ministry initiative, ANTICIPATE. This 2-year initiative is the vision and direction the Lord is calling Vintage Church to. As a part of this initiative, Vintage Church is committing the next two years to Future Impact. How will we experience future impact? One way is through Gospel Conversations.

December 27, 2018

What's Your Plan to Read the Bible in 2019?

December 27, 2018/ Dustin Turner

For many of us, 2019 means fresh starts and new beginnings. When we think about new years, new year’s resolutions typically come to mind—losing weight, quitting a habit, changing something. We all know, however, how often new year’s resolutions last or work.

Why don’t new years resolutions work? They often fail for one primary reason—lack of discipline. Anything worth while in life requires discipline—the ability to say no to certain things, yes to other things, determination, perseverance, good time management, and more. Each year many of us long to read the Bible more but fail to. What needs to change?

As we leave 2018 and enter into 2019, we must see Bible reading as a discipline, and that’s a good thing! Like any discipline, Bible reading is something we must be committed to and willing to do regularly until it becomes a habit. After we’ve carried out a discipline regularly over a long period of time, that discipline becomes easier. This reality is also true for Bible reading.

December 26, 2017

Let’s Read the Bible Together in 2018

December 26, 2017/ Dustin Turner

For so many people, reading the Bible is a daunting and seemingly impossible task. For some who have tried in the past, they feel defeated because they weren’t able to keep up and read the Bible throughout the year. Reading the Bible can simply become one of those things in life we know we need to do, but we simply never get around to doing it.

But, again, we know reading the Bible is good for us. The Bible is God’s Word to us, one of the primary ways in which God has communicated to us. Through the Bible God has shown us who he is and how we are to follow him. So, if we’re not reading the Bible for ourselves on a regular basis, we’re missing much of what God has to say to us.

November 06, 2017

Monday Morning Reflection: Why We Need Many Tools

November 06, 2017/ Dustin Turner

We’re nearing the end of our Apocalypse Series through the book of Revelation. You can find all the resources connected with this series at vcnola.com/apocalypse. Yesterday I preached on the importance of conquering in Jesus! One of the elements I believe that is connected with conquering is “pursuing Jesus’ holiness.” In Revelation 18:4, John hears, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.” Here the churches in Revelation are challenged to not pursue the sins of the Roman Empire but rather the holiness of Jesus.

The Tool Belt of Sanctification

Think about any project you’ve ever worked on, particularly if you’re building something. People who build things often wear a tool belt. Why? They need direct access to all the tools they might use—hammers, nails, screw driver, tape measure, etc. These are all tools that you might need at your disposal.

October 23, 2017

Monday Morning Reflection: What To Do with Satan?

October 23, 2017/ Dustin Turner

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to preach from Revelation 12–14 in our Apocalypse Series. One of the key elements of Revelation 12–13 is the presence of evil, in particular the Dragon and his two beasts. The dragon represents Satan whereas the first beast is the anti-Christ and the second beast is the false prophet. Rather than get wrapped up in figuring out the identity of the Anti-Christ and the false prophet, we focused our attention on understanding the Devil and his associates. One of the things I mentioned yesterday was our culture’s inclination to do one of two things: (1) Not believe in Satan and his dominion or (2) to celebrate or be hyper-sensitive to Satan.

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