God’s vision church didn’t start with the church building, or even with Christian environments: it started with the world! In John 3:16 we learn that “For God so loved the WORLD…”. Many times we view the world as broken, but, in reality, they are lost and wounded.
When God places donkeys in our lives, do we pay attention? Or do we convince ourselves that our actions don’t really matter and so we can do whatever we want?
Unlike most things in life, family is the one thing we don’t get choose and it is certainly an institution God calls us to honor. But is “Family everything” as the old saying goes?
As we continue exploring the story of Balaam, a man who teetered between listening to the Lord and listening to the world around him, we consider how God uses people (and donkeys) like us.
Talking donkeys? Paid prophets? What’s going on here? Balaam and his donkey (Numbers 22) help us to think about facing temptations and living faithfully as we start a new series tonight. In the series, we’ll look at this man who teetered between listening to the Lord and listening to the world around him and see the ways we struggle with the same.
When the Gospel advances, it always advances past me and my preferences and past my “Old Time Religion.” The Holy Spirit isn’t done with His mission when He’s reached me; instead, He invites me to join in His mission.
Jesus calls us to have a gritty faith. Do we press forward in faithfulness when challenges come or do we instead cower out of fear? Do we trust in the mission of proclaiming the Gospel or do we add our own “Gospel additions”?
What does real courage in the Lord look like? Melanie Haynes takes us to the Book of Joshua to better understand that question.
In the early church there was an overwhelming culture of sacrifice. There was an assumption that the needy should be cared for, and it was our job to do so. It wasn’t the role of politicians or city policies. And they believed that what the Church could do together was more powerful than any one individual, could do. Ananias and Sapphire are an example of loving self above loving God and loving their neighbor. It’s easy to make a commitment to sacrifice, until you start to feel the sacrifice. Then we want to crawl off the altar, but still get the praise.
Pastor Tim continues our series in Matthew 24-25, looking this week at persecution, its results and our hope in the midst of it.