Podcasts about instead god

The News is Good, 2 of 4 from April 13, 2025 "The good news is that God Himself died to give us mercy." Genesis 3 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)SUMMARYThis sermon examines the fall of humanity in Genesis 3, explaining the process of temptation and sin. Pastor Michael emphasizes God's mercy in not destroying Adam and Eve. Instead God provides a way for redemption through Jesus Christ. The sermon concludes that "God's mercy is good news" and His justice makes this good news shine, as He Himself paid the penalty for our sin.REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” — Exodus 3:3 After fleeing Egypt in fear for his life (see Exodus 2:11-15), Moses settled in Midian. He got married and had children. He became a shepherd and learned the wilderness terrain over a period of 40 years. But then God interrupted Moses' ordinary life with the flickering light of a bush on fire that did not burn up. This strange sight caught Moses' attention and awoke his curiosity. He went closer. What catches my attention is that God called Moses from a bush. God could have spoken with a thundering voice or sent an angel to talk with Moses. Instead God used a small impossibility—a bush burning without being consumed—to bring Moses into an even more impossible situation—leading God's people out of slavery in Egypt. I am in awe at how God uses this unusual fire to rekindle hope in Moses and eventually among the people of God. God had seen their misery, heard their cries, and was moving to rescue them from their suffering and oppression in Egypt after more than 400 years. But the hope sparked by this strange sight is even bigger than Moses and Israel imagined. For, one day, God would do something even more impossible by sending his own Son to free us and all of creation from our bondage to sin, death, and decay. Lord, rekindle hope in us during this Advent season. Help us to believe the seemingly impossible good news that in Jesus Christ you are setting us free from sin, death, and decay. In his name we pray. Amen.

Pastor David continues our sermon series “The Gospel According to Abraham” with a powerful word on “Learning From Failure.” The teaching came from Genesis 13: 1-18. We learned that when Abraham made mistakes, it did not deter God's presence. Instead God used Abraham's mistakes to draw nearer to him and show His character through his grace and mercy for Abraham. 

With so much fear and uncertainty going around our world, you may have asked the question, "what does this world need now?" In this sermon, Pastor Richard Hilton answers just that. We are not in this world alone. Instead God walks with us and desires to be with us. Knowing God's heart is to love us and be with us leads us to following in the footsteps of Jesus, therefore answering His call and loving others like He does as they see Him reflected in our lives. So, what does this world need? Jesus and Christians who look like Him. -------------- Welcome to Calvary Church of Johnson City, Tennessee's YouTube channel! Make sure you subscribe so you can get updates on the newest video releases and watch our live stream! FOLLOW OUR SOCIALS BELOW Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visitcalvary/ Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/visitcalvary/ LINK TO OUR WEBSITE https://www.visitcalvary.com -------------- Chapters | 0:00 Intro 1:16 How God Sees Us 6:52 Living Like Christ 11:44 God is Walking With Us 19:10 We Have to Choose to Walk With God 30:10 What the World Needs Now

Ever seen someone speed past you and get pulled over right away? Happened to us yesterday. There's a bit of satisfaction in seeing someone get caught. But then, it reminded me of my own run-in with a speeding ticket. I was sure I'd get fined, but the officer let me off with a warning. As I drove away relieved, I felt God's message hit home: just as I was forgiven on the road, God has forgiven all my mistakes. It's a powerful reminder of grace, far beyond what we see on the highway.

When Jesus saw the woman, he read the story of her past life. Is this mountain sacred or that mountain? The church is not God. Instead God worshipping places and buildings is adultery. Jesus was the person who was to come.

"LIFE UNDER, OVER, FROM, and FOR GOD each seeks to use God to achieve some other goal. God is seen as a means to an end. For example, LIFE FROM GOD uses him to supply our material desires. LIFE OVER GOD uses him as the source of principles or laws. LIFE UNDER GOD tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity. And LIFE FOR GOD uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose.” “But LIFE WITH GOD is different because its goal is not to use God, its goal is God. He ceases to be a device we employ or a commodity we consume. Instead God himself becomes the focus of our desire. But before we can really desire God, we must have a clear understanding of who he is and what he is like. The reason most people gravitate to one of the other four postures is because they've never received a clear vision of who God is, and so they settle for something less.”In this episode Tennison and Ginelle conversation centers around what living a LIFE WITH GOD looks like, presented in the book 'WITH: Reimagining The Way You Relate to God' by Skye Jethani.   The LIFE WITH GOD means treasuring him above all else. The goal is not to use God, the goal is God.  The other four postures use God as a means to an end. Those with an incomplete or tainted view of God either want to use Him or dismiss HimUnder - tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessing and avoid troubleOver - source of principles or laws to solve problems or have a better life. From - To supply our material needs. For - used God and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purposeGod  is not a device we use or a commodity we consume.  God, himself is the focus of our desire. But if we don't have a clear understanding of who he is and what he is like we will gravitate to one of the other four postures. Those with a full clear picture of God want nothing less than to be with him. Once we see and understand who and what God truly is, He will cease to be how we acquire our treasure, and become our treasure. Listen in as Tennison & Ginelle begin this compelling discussion.  If you have been impacted by what you have heard in this podcast and would like to support us in our mission to help people experience healthier & deeper relationships with God, themselves, and others, go to: tableandwell.org/#donate For more information about the Table go to: tableandwell.org/communitytableTo start on your journey to relational health go to: tableandwell.org/introTo watch this and other Podcast go to our YouTube Channel: Table & Well co

"LIFE UNDER, OVER, FROM, and FOR GOD each seeks to use God to achieve some other goal. God is seen as a means to an end. For example, LIFE FROM GOD uses him to supply our material desires. LIFE OVER GOD uses him as the source of principles or laws. LIFE UNDER GOD tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity. And LIFE FOR GOD uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose.” “But LIFE WITH GOD is different because its goal is not to use God, its goal is God. He ceases to be a device we employ or a commodity we consume. Instead God himself becomes the focus of our desire. But before we can really desire God, we must have a clear understanding of who he is and what he is like. The reason most people gravitate to one of the other four postures is because they've never received a clear vision of who God is, and so they settle for something less.”In this episode Tennison and Ginelle conversation centers around what living a LIFE WITH GOD looks like, presented in the book 'WITH: Reimagining The Way You Relate to God' by Skye Jethani.   The LIFE WITH GOD means treasuring him above all else. The goal is not to use God, the goal is God.  The other four postures use God as a means to an end. Those with an incomplete or tainted view of God either want to use Him or dismiss HimUnder - tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessing and avoid troubleOver - source of principles or laws to solve problems or have a better life. From - To supply our material needs. For - used God and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purposeGod  is not a device we use or a commodity we consume.  God, himself is the focus of our desire. But if we don't have a clear understanding of who he is and what he is like we will gravitate to one of the other four postures. Those with a full clear picture of God want nothing less than to be with him. Once we see and understand who and what God truly is, He will cease to be how we acquire our treasure, and become our treasure. Listen in as Tennison & Ginelle begin this compelling discussion.  If you have been impacted by what you have heard in this podcast and would like to support us in our mission to help people experience healthier & deeper relationships with God, themselves, and others, go to: tableandwell.org/#donate For more information about the Table go to: tableandwell.org/communitytableTo start on your journey to relational health go to: tableandwell.orgTo watch this and other Podcast go to our YouTube Channel: Table & Well co

“LIFE UNDER, OVER, FROM, and FOR GOD each seeks to use God to achieve some other goal. God is seen as a means to an end. For example, LIFE FROM GOD uses him to supply our material desires. LIFE OVER GOD uses him as the source of principles or laws. LIFE UNDER GOD tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity. And LIFE FOR GOD uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose.” “But LIFE WITH GOD is different because its goal is not to use God, its goal is God. He ceases to be a device we employ or a commodity we consume. Instead God himself becomes the focus of our desire. But before we can really desire God, we must have a clear understanding of who he is and what he is like. The reason most people gravitate to one of the other four postures is because they've never received a clear vision of who God is, and so they settle for something less.”In this episode Tennison and Ginelle conversation centers around what living a LIFE FOR GOD looks like, presented in the book 'WITH: Reimagining The Way You Relate to God' by Skye Jethani.  LIFE FOR GOD is the fourth posture that Skye Jethani talks about. The LIFE FOR GOD posture is motivated by a fear of living an insignificant life.  The mission or the task becomes the center of the Christian life.  Join Tennison and Ginelle as they begin to untangle this very popular stance in the life of christians.  If not checked the mission controls almost everything: time, relationships, health, spiritual depth, ethics, and convictions. In advanced stages, missionalism means doing whatever it takes to solve the problem. In its worst iteration, the end always justifies the means. The family goes; health is sacrificed; integrity is jeopardized; God connection is limited. The goal is to do this life WITH God.  If you have been impacted by what you have heard in this podcast and would like to support us in our mission to help people experience healthier & deeper relationships with God, themselves, and others, go to: tableandwell.org/#donate For more information about the Table go to: tableandwell.org/communitytableTo start on your journey to relational health go to: tableandwell.orgTo watch this and other Podcast go to our YouTube Channel: Table & Well co

Forgiveness is one of the greatest needs of our world whether in personal and family relationships or in society. Nelson Mandela said ‘resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.' In contrast he said; ‘forgiveness liberates the soul, it removes fear. That's why it is such a powerful weapon.'   So many people are so poisoned by unforgiveness and carry around with them the effects of past experiences which have wounded them deeply: breakups, family trauma, or different forms of betrayal.    It can seem an unimaginably hard task to choose to let go of past hurts and pain. Yet forgiveness is something that everyone who prays the Lord's prayer must practice every day. For immediately after praying for daily bread, Jesus teaches us next in Matthew 6:12 to pray ‘And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.' Or as the old King James Version says: ‘And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.'    Jesus was insistent that we must both ask God for forgiveness and to pray that we will forgive those who have hurt us. Let's look at this teaching with some simple points:   1. We all need to be forgiven (James 4:6; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10) 2. We can be forgiven (Psalm 103:10–12; Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 1:9; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11) 3. We all must forgive (Matthew 6:14-15; Colossians 3:13)  Apply  1. We all need to be forgiven: Implicit in this instruction from Jesus is the reality that we have things in our lives that we need to be forgiven for. In other words, recognising that we have done wrong. Today, more and more, we see that less and less people are willing to admit their faults, let alone confessing that in Biblical terms that they have sinned in any way. People, whether individually or in pressure groups and political parties, are happy to highlight and oppose what they define as the wrongdoing of others, whether real or imagined. But they are very reluctant to admit that they have done anything wrong. So often today people and organisations totally refuse to apologise for wrong behaviour, or if they do so, they issue a non-apology apology saying ‘I am sorry if you have been offended by anything I said or did' but not ‘I am sorry for having been offensive or spoken offensively.' This is of course stubbornness and pride. Pride is something that we are encouraged to promote today with the idea that you don't have to be forgiven for anything. This is how many people rationalise their actions: ‘I have nothing whatsoever to be forgiven for. I have the right to what I decide what I am. I can do whatever I want to do. Since I decide what's right, I am always right, and therefore I have nothing to apologise for. Certainly, I don't need to be forgiven by God or anyone else.' Well of course all this is a very self-serving and subjective approach to life and is the complete opposite to what the Bible teaches (James 4:6). God lays out in the Scripture what is right and what is wrong, what is bad and what is good (Romans 3:23). Everyone, all of us, needs to be forgiven for our sins and wrongdoing (1 John 1:8-10). We need to look into our hearts and face up to what we need to be forgiven for, whether it is pride, anger, bitterness, sexual sin or unforgiveness. Are you prepared to do that?  2. We can be forgiven: The bad news is that sin is bad. But the good news is that sin, even terrible sin, can be forgiven (Psalm 103:10–12; Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 1:9). The apostle Paul was very clear not only of the need for forgiveness for sins but also the possibilities of forgiveness and change, no matter what your previous sins, relationships or lifestyles (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Now this is not hate language, as some would like to assert, but love language about how Jesus can make anyone clean and new from the inside out and have a new and secure identity as a citizen of the kingdom of God. Today you can be forgiven when you accept that Jesus paid the price of your sin at the cross.   3. We all must forgive: We each must forgive and not least because it is key to us also being forgiven. (Matthew 6:14-15; Colossians 3:13). Forgiveness may be a problem for you but the consequences of not forgiving are far worse. In 1944 Simon Wiesenthal was a young Polish prisoner of the Nazis. He had looked on helpless, as Nazi soldiers killed his grandmother on the stairs of her home. In total 89 of his Jewish relatives would die at the hand of the Nazis. One day in prison a nurse approached him and asked if he were a Jew. She led him to a dark room where a terribly wounded lone soldier lay, an SS officer who wanted to make a deathbed confession. He told Wiesenthal how he and his men had rounded up three hundred Jews, herded them into a house and then fired grenades at it. They shot people as they ran burning from the house, including a mother and her small child. Three times Wiesenthal tried to leave the man as he told of further atrocities. Each time the German soldier begged him to stay. He said: ‘I am left here with my guilt. In the last hours of my life you are with me. I do not know who you are. I know only that you are a Jew and that is enough. I know that what I have told you is terrible…I have longed to talk about it to a Jew and beg forgiveness from him. Only I didn't know if there were any Jews left. I know what I am asking is almost too much for you but without your answer I cannot die in peace.'  Wiesenthal stared at the helpless man. ‘At last I made up my mind,' Wiesenthal wrote later, ‘and, without a word, I left the room.' The SS officer soon died, unforgiven, and Wiesenthal lived on to be liberated from the death camp. But the scene in the hospital room haunted him like a ghost. He was trapped by his own unforgiveness. After the war Wiesenthal visited the mother of the officer, hoping to somehow exorcise his feelings. But the visit only made the officer more human as she spoke of his early childhood Christian faith which he lost in the Hitler youth corps. Wiesenthal could not bear to tell the mother how her son ended up. For decades Wiesenthal, who had himself had suffered such pain from his enemies, continued to be plagued by his refusal to forgive his enemy. In the end he wrote his story in The Sunflower and sent it to the brightest ethical minds he knew, including rabbis and priests and asked them this question: ‘what would you have done in my place?'3 Of all the people who replied to Wiesenthal, all but six agreed with what he had done. One respondent said: ‘you should have strangled him in his bed.' What would you have done in my place? Asked the anguished Wiesenthal. And it is a question for everyone to consider.  Well what would you have done if you had lost 89 of your relatives? What would your reaction be when faced with a man who had slaughtered so many innocent people?  One Jew answered this question with a very different response to that of the anguished Simon Wiesenthal, as he hung dying on a Roman cross 2000 years ago. He Himself had suffered unbelievable and undeserved cruelty. He was battered beyond recognition and abused, betrayed and tortured. A crown of thorns was rammed on his head and his hands and feet were pieced by nails. Yet as he looked down at his enemies who gloated at the awfulness of his final moments, He did not snarl at them and curse at them. There was no anger or all-consuming bitterness. Instead God's only Son prayed a prayer for them. ‘Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.' Jesus wanted the best for those who treated him the worst. His enemies wanted to harm Him but He wanted to help them. They wanted to destroy him; He wanted to rescue them. He wanted them to be forgiven. And He wants us to do the same for all who have hurt us or sinned against us. Only in this way can we too be liberated and receive the forgiveness that God extends to us. 

Forgiveness is one of the greatest needs of our world whether in personal and family relationships or in society. Nelson Mandela said ‘resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.' In contrast he said; ‘forgiveness liberates the soul, it removes fear. That's why it is such a powerful weapon.'   So many people are so poisoned by unforgiveness and carry around with them the effects of past experiences which have wounded them deeply: breakups, family trauma, or different forms of betrayal.    It can seem an unimaginably hard task to choose to let go of past hurts and pain. Yet forgiveness is something that everyone who prays the Lord's prayer must practice every day. For immediately after praying for daily bread, Jesus teaches us next in Matthew 6:12 to pray ‘And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.' Or as the old King James Version says: ‘And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.'    Jesus was insistent that we must both ask God for forgiveness and to pray that we will forgive those who have hurt us. Let's look at this teaching with some simple points:   1. We all need to be forgiven (James 4:6; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10) 2. We can be forgiven (Psalm 103:10–12; Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 1:9; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11) 3. We all must forgive (Matthew 6:14-15; Colossians 3:13)  Apply  1. We all need to be forgiven: Implicit in this instruction from Jesus is the reality that we have things in our lives that we need to be forgiven for. In other words, recognising that we have done wrong. Today, more and more, we see that less and less people are willing to admit their faults, let alone confessing that in Biblical terms that they have sinned in any way. People, whether individually or in pressure groups and political parties, are happy to highlight and oppose what they define as the wrongdoing of others, whether real or imagined. But they are very reluctant to admit that they have done anything wrong. So often today people and organisations totally refuse to apologise for wrong behaviour, or if they do so, they issue a non-apology apology saying ‘I am sorry if you have been offended by anything I said or did' but not ‘I am sorry for having been offensive or spoken offensively.' This is of course stubbornness and pride. Pride is something that we are encouraged to promote today with the idea that you don't have to be forgiven for anything. This is how many people rationalise their actions: ‘I have nothing whatsoever to be forgiven for. I have the right to what I decide what I am. I can do whatever I want to do. Since I decide what's right, I am always right, and therefore I have nothing to apologise for. Certainly, I don't need to be forgiven by God or anyone else.' Well of course all this is a very self-serving and subjective approach to life and is the complete opposite to what the Bible teaches (James 4:6). God lays out in the Scripture what is right and what is wrong, what is bad and what is good (Romans 3:23). Everyone, all of us, needs to be forgiven for our sins and wrongdoing (1 John 1:8-10). We need to look into our hearts and face up to what we need to be forgiven for, whether it is pride, anger, bitterness, sexual sin or unforgiveness. Are you prepared to do that?  2. We can be forgiven: The bad news is that sin is bad. But the good news is that sin, even terrible sin, can be forgiven (Psalm 103:10–12; Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 1:9). The apostle Paul was very clear not only of the need for forgiveness for sins but also the possibilities of forgiveness and change, no matter what your previous sins, relationships or lifestyles (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Now this is not hate language, as some would like to assert, but love language about how Jesus can make anyone clean and new from the inside out and have a new and secure identity as a citizen of the kingdom of God. Today you can be forgiven when you accept that Jesus paid the price of your sin at the cross.   3. We all must forgive: We each must forgive and not least because it is key to us also being forgiven. (Matthew 6:14-15; Colossians 3:13). Forgiveness may be a problem for you but the consequences of not forgiving are far worse. In 1944 Simon Wiesenthal was a young Polish prisoner of the Nazis. He had looked on helpless, as Nazi soldiers killed his grandmother on the stairs of her home. In total 89 of his Jewish relatives would die at the hand of the Nazis. One day in prison a nurse approached him and asked if he were a Jew. She led him to a dark room where a terribly wounded lone soldier lay, an SS officer who wanted to make a deathbed confession. He told Wiesenthal how he and his men had rounded up three hundred Jews, herded them into a house and then fired grenades at it. They shot people as they ran burning from the house, including a mother and her small child. Three times Wiesenthal tried to leave the man as he told of further atrocities. Each time the German soldier begged him to stay. He said: ‘I am left here with my guilt. In the last hours of my life you are with me. I do not know who you are. I know only that you are a Jew and that is enough. I know that what I have told you is terrible…I have longed to talk about it to a Jew and beg forgiveness from him. Only I didn't know if there were any Jews left. I know what I am asking is almost too much for you but without your answer I cannot die in peace.'  Wiesenthal stared at the helpless man. ‘At last I made up my mind,' Wiesenthal wrote later, ‘and, without a word, I left the room.' The SS officer soon died, unforgiven, and Wiesenthal lived on to be liberated from the death camp. But the scene in the hospital room haunted him like a ghost. He was trapped by his own unforgiveness. After the war Wiesenthal visited the mother of the officer, hoping to somehow exorcise his feelings. But the visit only made the officer more human as she spoke of his early childhood Christian faith which he lost in the Hitler youth corps. Wiesenthal could not bear to tell the mother how her son ended up. For decades Wiesenthal, who had himself had suffered such pain from his enemies, continued to be plagued by his refusal to forgive his enemy. In the end he wrote his story in The Sunflower and sent it to the brightest ethical minds he knew, including rabbis and priests and asked them this question: ‘what would you have done in my place?'3 Of all the people who replied to Wiesenthal, all but six agreed with what he had done. One respondent said: ‘you should have strangled him in his bed.' What would you have done in my place? Asked the anguished Wiesenthal. And it is a question for everyone to consider.  Well what would you have done if you had lost 89 of your relatives? What would your reaction be when faced with a man who had slaughtered so many innocent people?  One Jew answered this question with a very different response to that of the anguished Simon Wiesenthal, as he hung dying on a Roman cross 2000 years ago. He Himself had suffered unbelievable and undeserved cruelty. He was battered beyond recognition and abused, betrayed and tortured. A crown of thorns was rammed on his head and his hands and feet were pieced by nails. Yet as he looked down at his enemies who gloated at the awfulness of his final moments, He did not snarl at them and curse at them. There was no anger or all-consuming bitterness. Instead God's only Son prayed a prayer for them. ‘Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.' Jesus wanted the best for those who treated him the worst. His enemies wanted to harm Him but He wanted to help them. They wanted to destroy him; He wanted to rescue them. He wanted them to be forgiven. And He wants us to do the same for all who have hurt us or sinned against us. Only in this way can we too be liberated and receive the forgiveness that God extends to us. 

“LIFE UNDER, OVER, FROM, and FOR GOD each seeks to use God to achieve some other goal. God is seen as a means to an end. For example, LIFE FROM GOD uses him to supply our material desires. LIFE OVER GOD uses him as the source of principles or laws. LIFE UNDER GOD tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity. And LIFE FOR GOD uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose.” “But LIFE WITH GOD is different because its goal is not to use God, its goal is God. He ceases to be a device we employ or a commodity we consume. Instead God himself becomes the focus of our desire. But before we can really desire God, we must have a clear understanding of who he is and what he is like. The reason most people gravitate to one of the other four postures is because they've never received a clear vision of who God is, and so they settle for something less.”In this episode Tennison and Ginelle conversation centers around what living a LIFE FROM GOD looks like, presented in the book 'WITH: Reimagining The Way You Relate to God' by Skye Jethani.  LIFE FROM GOD is the third posture that Skye Jethani talks about.  People that live in this posture believe that God exists to supply what we need or desire. Receiving God's gifts is the entirety of our relationship with Him.  They have reduced God to a Genie to grant is our desires.  Living here Feeds into our selfish nature, it cuts off the redemptive purpose of pain, and in our pursuit of distraction by comfort we forget the One who alone is able to deliver us, and we seek lesser things.  When this happens we believe that what we want is want God wants for us. We then truly miss out on the good gifts that the Father wants to give us.    If you have been impacted by what you have heard in this podcast and would like to support us in our mission to help people experience healthier & deeper relationships with God, themselves, and others, go to: tableandwell.org/#donate For more information about the Table go to: tableandwell.org/communitytableTo start on your journey to relational health go to: tableandwell.orgTo watch this and other Podcast go to our YouTube Channel: Table & Well co

(Psalm 4) Our world is busy and full, yet our bodies were not made to run 24/7. Instead God invites us to create spaces of rest and refreshing in our lives. Tonight Gavin takes the opportunity to consider the way Psalm 4 examines the human condition and challenges us to reflect on where we are reflecting.

“LIFE UNDER, OVER, FROM, and FOR GOD each seeks to use God to achieve some other goal. God is seen as a means to an end. For example, LIFE FROM GOD uses him to supply our material desires. LIFE OVER GOD uses him as the source of principles or laws. LIFE UNDER GOD tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity. And LIFE FOR GOD uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose.” “But LIFE WITH GOD is different because its goal is not to use God, its goal is God. He ceases to be a device we employ or a commodity we consume. Instead God himself becomes the focus of our desire. But before we can really desire God, we must have a clear understanding of who he is and what he is like. The reason most people gravitate to one of the other four postures is because they've never received a clear vision of who God is, and so they settle for something less.”In this episode Tennison and Ginelle conversation centers around what living a LIFE OVER GOD looks like, presented in the book 'WITH: Reimagining The Way You Relate to God' by Skye Jethani.  LIFE OVER GOD dismisses religion as irrational superstition and seeks control by discovering how the world works and then directly implementing the right principles. Living a LIFE OVER GOD means that there is no room or need for God. Our desire to control our environment and mitigate our fears no longer require appeasing God. Instead, we view the universe as a machine that we can understand.  This reduces and limits God to a reproducible formula and worst than that you stop looking to a relationship WITH God and look to just discern the reliable principles of God.If you have been impacted by what you have heard in this podcast and would like to support us in our mission to help people experience healthier & deeper relationships with God, themselves, and others, go to: tableandwell.org/#donate For more information about the Table go to: tableandwell.org/communitytableTo start on your journey to relational health go to: tableandwell.orgTo watch this and other Podcast go to our YouTube Channel: Table & Well co

“LIFE UNDER, OVER, FROM, and FOR GOD each seeks to use God to achieve some other goal. God is seen as a means to an end. For example, LIFE FROM GOD uses him to supply our material desires. LIFE OVER GOD uses him as the source of principles or laws. LIFE UNDER GOD tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity. And LIFE FOR GOD uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose.” “But LIFE WITH GOD is different because its goal is not to use God, its goal is God. He ceases to be a device we employ or a commodity we consume. Instead God himself becomes the focus of our desire. But before we can really desire God, we must have a clear understanding of who he is and what he is like. The reason most people gravitate to one of the other four postures is because they've never received a clear vision of who God is, and so they settle for something less.”In this episode Tennison and Ginelle conversation centers around what living a LIFE UNDER GOD looks like, presented in the book 'WITH: Reimagining The Way You Relate to God' by Skye Jethani.  LIFE UNDER GOD seeks to control the world through religion; by manipulating God through rituals or morality. It's the idea of living under divine rule and following that rule for the sole purpose of avoiding calamity.  So when things go wrong or not as well as others we don't have favor with God or he is mad at us.  We live this because we fear being subject to the uncontrollable and the happenstances of life.    If you have been impacted by what you have heard in this podcast and would like to support us in our mission to help people experience healthier & deeper relationships with God, themselves, and others, go to: tableandwell.org/#donate For more information about the Table go to: tableandwell.org/communitytableTo start on your journey to relational health go to: tableandwell.orgTo watch this and other Podcast go to our YouTube Channel: Table & Well co

Friendship with the world is enmity with God, as said in James 4:4. We are called to not love the world or anything in it. Instead God calls us to draw near to Him and as a result He will come near to us. Join us today as we dive into the Word!

“LIFE UNDER, OVER, FROM, and FOR GOD each seeks to use God to achieve some other goal. God is seen as a means to an end. For example, LIFE FROM GOD uses him to supply our material desires. LIFE OVER GOD uses him as the source of principles or laws. LIFE UNDER GOD tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity. And LIFE FOR GOD uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose.” “But LIFE WITH GOD is different because its goal is not to use God, its goal is God. He ceases to be a device we employ or a commodity we consume. Instead God himself becomes the focus of our desire. But before we can really desire God, we must have a clear understanding of who he is and what he is like. The reason most people gravitate to one of the other four postures is because they've never received a clear vision of who God is, and so they settle for something less.”Join Tennison and Ginelle as they begin their new series Living With God.  This is a overview of the book 'WITH: Reimagining The Way You Relate to God' by Skye Jethani. In this series they take a look at the 5 postures, or ways Jethani says that we, as humans, relate to God. Under, Over, From, and For.  However God created us to live WITH him.    If you have been impacted by what you have heard in this podcast and would like to support us in our mission to help people experience healthier & deeper relationships with God, themselves, and others, go to: tableandwell.org/#donate For more information about the Table go to: tableandwell.org/communitytableTo start on your journey to relational health go to: tableandwell.orgTo watch this and other Podcast go to our YouTube Channel: Table & Well co

Sometimes, we hear stories of people getting healed when they were at the end of their rope and had lost hope that they'd be healed… and God healed them! We've also heard many stories, and probably have been disappointed and hurt personally because we've known people who were full of faith that they'd be healed, and they weren't. Maybe we even prayed with full confidence saying, “Yes, Lord, I believe you can do this,” and the healing never came… for us or someone we love. This is hard to reconcile, isn't it?  I am on the journey with you, friends. I hope you'll join me for a raw conversation about prayer, belief, doubt, and more... The good news is: God isn't offended by our questions. Instead God meets us right in the midst of them.  I'd love to connect with you on Instagram ⁠@carlycommunicates⁠. If there is ever any way that I can link arms with you in ministry though speaking or worship leading, let me know at ⁠carlycommunicates.com/contact/⁠. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/carly-bartlett/support

Last week we watched as the story that supplied water for the prophet Elijah dried up, and the ravens which brought him bread and meat ceased to appear. It did not take Elijah long to realize that this phase of his life, the training phase, was now over. And as he stood there gazing along the great Wadi Hareet, the voice of God spoke to him again, and this is what God said:"Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. I have commanded a widow there to provide for you."Without question, this was not the message that Elijah had expected. In fact, it appears that these instructions from the Lord left the prophet shocked and speechless.Now, Elijah would not have been shocked if God had said to him, "Go to the desert wastes of Paran," or "Go to Mount Sinai, the mountain of my glory." The truth is this: both of these locations were places where God was known to dwell. His holy presence, His KAVOD, His SHEKINAH, was found in those places.However God did not tell Elijah to go to either the Desert of Paran or to Mount Sinai. Instead God said, “Go to the village of Zarephath.” Why would Elijah be so shocked by that divine directive? There was a reason! Zaraphath was a village in the region known as Phoenicia, which was Gentile territory. In fact, it was as Gentile as it gets.This village was located in the very heart of the land from which the evil queen Jezebel of Tyre came. It was a demonized land, a land where the god Ba'al was worshiped; a place where Israel's God was scorned, so this message made no sense to Elijah. He was at war with this Phoenician god and the very last place he thought a man of God should be seen was in the heart of the enemy's stronghold.But this much can be said for Elijah; he may not have understood what God had said and what God did at times, but he was usually willing to obey what God told him to do, no matter how difficult it seemed. Pastor Harris will focus on this tendency this morning.Support the show

This morning rant to inform you that God choose you to show the world something let him do it.1 Corinthians 1:28He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast in His presence.1 Corinthians 1:19-20I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? James 2:5Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/622a9079e8fb640012cb94f3. I pray that God would "give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18I, pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance" https://plus.acast.com/s/blueprint-of-faith. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode almost didn't happen. I rewrote it three times. I had to fully record it twice. I pray it'll be useful.I want to talk about whether our tech is helping us love God well, but at the heart of that conversation is a discussion about failure. God loves to use failure to achieve his purposes. He starts in 3:15 and hasn't looked back. He isn't scared by it, but he also isn't ok with it. If God could just ignore failure Jesus wouldn't be necessary. Instead God does something else: He uses failure. This matters in talking tech because most of our Drool Tech is aimed at getting around failure. Games give fail-proof adventures, social media gives fail-proof connections, and pornography gives fail-proof intimacy (no one has ever been turned down by porn). Yet that stuff can't bring us hope or peace, and some of it brings death to the very things we're hoping to nurture.Today's conversation looks at failure, how God uses it, and how we can use tech from hope and not for hope. It's ambitious, and I pray I pull it off.

Here's an illustration to start. My wife's favorite book among the Chronicles of Narnia is _The Magician's Nephew_. It is the sixth of the seven in publication order, though it's actually the creation account and so first of them all in terms of Narnian chronology. The reason she likes it the most is because of the treasure of finding out the origin of the tree from which the wood came that was used to make the wardrobe in the Professor's house. You can read the series oldest to newest if you prefer grape juice narratives; but the author has poured this round of plot wine to gladden your heart. Someone says, Who cares about where the wood for the wardrobe came from? The author did, and he thought it a thrill to reveal it at the right time. Don't you want to at least see what he cares about before deciding it's of no value to you? The same author who had an origin story for the wood in the wardrobe had an even deeper origin for the Narnian law that “if a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Stone Table would crack, and Death itself would start working backwards.” Aslan's resurrection is quite the spoiler to the wicked. Nothing beats the suffering and death and resurrection story in the gospel of Christ. That news is of first importance, the true myth at both the most woeful low and the highest peak, revealed at the right time. And what we're reading in Romans 9-11 may be next best in terms of glory stories. We're finding out things that could have been known but mostly weren't noticed, things that look one way on the surface but work together toward a perfect last page. It's more than entertainment, it's faith-food; read meat protein that builds hope-muscles. The righteous live from faith to faith. That means the righteous don't live by works, but it also means the righteous don't live by sight. We live by every word that proceeds from God. What about when we groan in a world of sin and suffering? What about when we're led like sheep to the slaughter? Will His Word hold? What about when He said that He would give Israel a new heart? What about that covenant word? His Word doesn't fail. Read the story, follow the foreshadowing, and rejoice in your part. # The Remnant - Chosen by Grace (verses 1-6)At the beginning of chapter 9 Paul pointed out Israel's privileges. At the beginning of chapter 10 Paul expressed his desire and prayer for Israel's salvation. He's talking like this because Israel, for the most part, were more like Pharaoh than Moses; they refused to obey the Lord though He gave them multiple chances. Yet “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people” (Romans 10:21). It's time to ask the hard question: **I ask, then, has God rejected his people?**The Jews, as a nation, those who shared biological descent and ethnic particulars and often specific geographical boundaries, were *God's people*. Yahweh chose them (Deuteronomy 7:6), He led them, He redeemed them, He gave them His law, He made covenants with them, He established them (2 Samuel 7:23-24). All of them were His elect people and yet not all of them were *elect* persons. It was (and is) possible for Israelites to be one of God's people in two ways, though many have only been in one way. Jesus came to His own and His own received Him not. It was not priests of pagan deities that put Him to death, but the high priest of Israel in the Lord's name. What a turn of events. Did God turn away from His Word to Israel? Is He *done* with His covenant to them, finally had too much of their apostasy, their refusal to come to Him with His hands held out? **By no means!** Paul's conversion was at least one proof. **For I myself am an Israelite, a descendent of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin,** a Jewish trifecta. To the Philippians he added that he was “a Hebrew of Hebrews” (Philippians 3:5). That at least *one* Jew confessed Jesus as Lord meant that God hadn't rejected His people entirely, and Paul had been one of the worst offenders (1 Timothy 1:15-16).**God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.** Samuel told the people as much in 1 Samuel 12:22. “The LORD will not forsake His people, for His great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for Himself.” So also in Psalm 94:14, “The LORD will not forsake His people; He will not abandon His heritage.” In context that's *Israel* (even if we Gentile believers can sing it, confident in its application to us). He chose them with full-knowledge, with full-intentions for them. “The ‘foreknowing' is the guarantee” (Murray).Paul gives an example.> Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” (Romans 11:2b–4 ESV)Speaking of great stories (that the Jews at least should have known), this conversation between Elijah and the Lord happened *after* Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal and had to have his altar drenched and a trench filled before “the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench” (1 Kings 18:38). But when Jezebel heard that the priests were killed she sent word that she was going to make Elijah's life like theirs within 24 hours (1 Kings 19:2). So he ran. And in the wilderness he prays, in an exhausted if not somewhat exaggerated self-pity, that he's alone; he says he's the “only” one left twice (1 Kings 19:10, 14). But the Lord said, **”I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal”** (1 Kings 19:18).God preserved, *for Himself* (not in the Hebrew of 1 Kings but supplemented by Paul for emphasis), some as no-compromisers. They would not give knee-service to false gods. There's application to the current situation. **So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.** Paul was included in that remnant (see also Romans 9:27). The Jews were—and are—God's people, His chosen nation (in a way that no other nation has or will be. That doesn't mean a nation can't be a Christian nation, in self-confessed allegiance to Christ as Lord. But even a nation such as that isn't foreknown like Israel.) This **remnant** has been around now through 20 centuries post-Paul; all are not lost. They will be around in every generation until the fulness of Israel is saved, more about as chapter 11 continues. But it is not by Israel's doing, or the remnant's special wisdom, that they are saved. **If it is by grace, it is no longer on the bases of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.** The gospel of grace includes justification by faith alone, for the elect alone. # The Rest - Hardened as Planned (verses 7-10)So **what then?** (*Quid ergo?*) There's a remnant, at least, but what about the rest? **Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened**. This goes back to Romans 9. God's purpose according to election stands, for nations (e.g., Israel not Egypt) and persons (e.g., Israel/Jacob not Esau), for temporal and eternal issues. Israel kept seeking, with *zeal*, a righteousness of their own that caused them to stumble (Romans 9:31-32). That the **elect obtained it** isn't meaning that they found it by their superior wisdom, but that they obtained the gift, by grace, as verses 5-6 make clear. **Hardened** here is a form (aorist passive) of the word πωρόω, with the nuance of “to petrify” or in medical terms “to cause a stone to form (as in the bladder) or a callus which unites fractured bones.” Its figurative usage means “to make without feeling, to deaden.” The text does not indicate that they were hardened because of unbelief but instead that the hardening produced unbelief. Paul quotes Isaiah and Moses yet again, then a psalm of David to corroborate. > as it is written, > “God gave them a spirit of stupor, > eyes that would not see > and ears that would not hear, > down to this very day.” (Romans 11:8 ESV)Romans 11:8 is a mashup of Isaiah 29:10 and Deuteronomy 29:4. It's one thing for God to harden Pharaoh's heart; Pharaoh was a pagan after all. This is God giving a **spirit of stupor** to God's chosen nation; they were numbed, dazed, drawing a blank. Jesus talked about this a surprising amount (see just one example in Matthew 13:14-15). > And David says, > “Let their table become a snare and a trap, > a stumbling block and a retribution for them; > let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, > and bend their backs forever.” (Romans 11:9–10 ESV)This comes from Psalm 69:22-23, originally a curse directed against David's enemies. Their daily bread become a trap; they wanted the feasting without the fear of the Lord. Their unbelief turned them out of freedom into being servants with their backs bent under heavy burdens. # ConclusionThe story is about to explode; a seed was planted, a tree grew, the tree was blown down, but more wonderful fruit is coming from it. God could have chosen full acceptance by Israel from the start, and from there a simple sequential spreading of faith to the Gentiles. Instead God chose that a majority in Israel would reject the promised Christ, then to send the good news beyond Israel so that many would confess Christ as Lord among many nations, so that Israel would be provoked to turn back to the promised Christ (see Romans 11:11-12). It's Israel's story, and it's not finished. What are you supposed to do with this? Don't pout like Elijah, don't doubt God's purpose of election, and recognize the riches of God's grace you've received.----------## ChargeHave you noticed that I've not once, not ever, charged you to go be a pastor, or a vocational missionary? That might be the calling for a few of you, but never the majority of the body. That means that whatever your gifts and whatever your spiritual maturity, *you* have good to do. Is it sharpening your intellectual acumen for the education of the saints and defense of the faith? Do it. Is it building up your hosting courage and getting outside your food prep comfort zone? Do it. Is it surviving another round of chemo, or another week of being pregnant, or seeking the Lord's help with a sadness that won't lift? Beloved, do that. Get grace for that. Give thanks for those who do what you can't do. Be jealousable where you're supposed to be, not where someone else is supposed to be. ## Benediction:> [M]ay our God may make you worthy of his calling and fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12, ESV)

Jesus Ministries, Joan Boney  ...  Here is a message from God concerning dealing in Wisdom in the iniquity of the end times.   I Corinthians 6  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate (homosexuals), nor abusers of themselves with mankind,  10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers (those who speak vile thing), nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  

At Midtown Presbyterian Church, our mission is to invite people into a transformative relationship with Jesus Christ. We borrow this language of transformation from the scriptures, where we are encouraged as Christians to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds" (Romans 12:1-2). Being a Christian isn't simply about information - it is about transformation, becoming people whose entire beings embody the way and work of Jesus in every part of our lives. With this goal in mind, we at Midtown have developed an introductory curriculum, alongside a library of resources, events, sermons, and podcasts, designed to help transform our community into Christlikeness. Listen as Pastor Clint explores the characteristics that made the early church so transformative in the world: their inclusive and diverse fellowship, and unselfish and sacrificial giving, and their connection to the ultimate source of such thing - Jesus. Learn how we can become that sort of transformative community in our own community today! Sermon Resources: 1. Letter from Pliny to Trajan in 112 CE about the early Christians: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/maps/primary/pliny.html#:~:text=These%20letters%20concern%20an%20episode,the%20second%20and%20third%20centuries. 2. Journal article on the explosive growth of early Christianity: http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222012000100076#:~:text=The%20calculation%20of%20Stark%20to,%3B%20Schor%202009%3A481). 3. “We slaughter a fierce ox; we strangle a mad dog; we plunge the knife into sickly cattle; children who are born weakly and deformed we drown.” -Seneca, early Greek stoic 4. Study on the divisiveness of American politics: https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/frenchpress/activism-and-apathy-are-poisoning-american-politics/ 5. See redlining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining 6. See John Brown University for prohibitions of interracial marriage until the 21st century: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGUwcs9qJXY&t=14s 7. “God's vision for his people is not…to form a colorblind uniformity of sanctified blandness. Instead God sees the creation of a community of different cultures united by faith in his Son as a manifestation of the expansive nature of his grace. This expansiveness is unfulfilled unless the differences are seen and celebrated, not as ends unto themselves, but as particular manifestations of the power of the Spirit to bring forth the same holiness among different peoples and cultures for the glory of God.” -Esau McCaulley, "Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope" 8. “Their founder [Jesus] taught them that they should be like brothers to one another, and therefore they despise their own privacy and view their possessions as common property.” -Lucian of Samosata, early opponent of Christianity 9. “The impious Galileans support not only their poor, but ours as well.” -Emperor Julian of Rome 10. “This was an angelic commonwealth, not to call anything of theirs their own. Forthwith the root of evils was cut out.… None reproached, none envied, none grudged; no pride, no contempt was there.… The poor man knew no shame, the rich no haughtiness.” -John Chrysostom

This final part unpacks the glorious, perfect, and certain realities of what heaven will be like for all of those that have put their faith in him. We were encouraged that heaven will see a new order ushered in. The curse of sin and its consequences will be no more. Instead God's people will be presented as a perfect, holy, spotless bride. In this new order we will have new bodies, eternal joy and participate in eternal worship of God. Nothing will ever compare to this incomprehensible future we only see glimpses of now. Therefore, we were challenged, to live everyday & face every situation in the knowledge of this glorious future that awaits. We need not fear anything we face on earth because we have a certain future. We should also be motivated to share this wonderful truth and love with those that do not have this.

                                            Coach Alisa Smedley Biography"Coach Smedley was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She shares that she was born into twenty negative barriers - teen parents, addiction, violence, incarceration, sexual abuse, and poverty among others. Her father's 15-year incarceration and the incarceration of her uncles and aunt, totaling over 75 years behind bars, had a dramatic effect on her life. A mild learning disability that went undiagnosed until her adulthood also threatened to limit Coach Smedley's opportunities. Instead God, grit, and a devotion to helping others thrust her into a favored life! Coach Smedley is a popular conference speaker on the issue of jail and prison reentry. She has assisted hundreds of men to return to society after incarceration. Her commitment to excellence, respect, and compassion deeply influence her Spirit-filled personal and professional life. Coach Smedley spent ten years working inside a maximum-security jail. Prior to that she spent years working in community corrections, treatment centers, and shelters as a contractor with the State of Ohio. In 2022 she launched a virtual reentry program for family and loved ones of the incarcerated to support their loved ones. Coach Smedley lives in New York. If you have a loved one who is currently incarcerated or soon to be released, feel free to contact Coach Smedley for assistance at (202) 630-3585 or beinspired@coachsmedley.com"

                                           Coach Alisa Smedley Biography"Coach Smedley was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She shares that she was born into twenty negative barriers - teen parents, addiction, violence, incarceration, sexual abuse, and poverty among others. Her father's 15-year incarceration and the incarceration of her uncles and aunt, totaling over 75 years behind bars, had a dramatic effect on her life. A mild learning disability that went undiagnosed until her adulthood also threatened to limit Coach Smedley's opportunities. Instead God, grit, and a devotion to helping others thrust her into a favored life! Coach Smedley is a popular conference speaker on the issue of jail and prison reentry. She has assisted hundreds of men to return to society after incarceration. Her commitment to excellence, respect, and compassion deeply influence her Spirit-filled personal and professional life. Coach Smedley spent ten years working inside a maximum-security jail. Prior to that she spent years working in community corrections, treatment centers, and shelters as a contractor with the State of Ohio. In 2022 she launched a virtual reentry program for family and loved ones of the incarcerated to support their loved ones. Coach Smedley lives in New York. If you have a loved one who is currently incarcerated or soon to be released, feel free to contact Coach Smedley for assistance at (202) 630-3585 or beinspired@coachsmedley.com" Full episode scheduled to be released Friday November 18, 2022.

It can be easy to think that God wants us to be comfortable right? I mean if he wants what's best for us wouldn't that be comfort? In this message, Pastor Phil challenges this notion that the Christian life should be comfortable. Instead God is calling us to more. Stretching us so that we can grow and accomplish more for His kingdom. Maybe the very thing you are struggling with is what God wants to use for your breakthrough. "When is the last time you got excited about who God is making you to be?"Psalms 66James 1

In this episode we continue to look at examples of what God uses to help us define and know true repentance.  Looking at the book of Ezekiel, God tells us he doesn't desire the death of anyone.  Instead God desires that all repent and live.  So what does God mean by "repent."  Well the good news is we have many examples and teachings by God in the book of Ezekiel.  God also reminds us what we must have to be able to come into the true repentance which is to "practice righteousness and justice" to turn from sin and now be able to walk in God's ways.  We must receive of the new heart and spirit that God wants to give.  Until this happens it isn't possible to come to the repentance God desires which then leads to life.Passages covered:  Ezekiel ch 2, ch 3, 5:7-13, 7:15-19, ch 9, 11:17-21, 13:1-22, 14:6-20, ch 18, 20:1-21, 20:33-38, 21:9-11, 22:15-22, 31, 24:11-14, 33:1-20, 33:30-32, 36:24-28; Galatians 1:4-10; Luke 10:10-16; 2 Peter 1:10-13

"You can only love others after you love yourself" is a common expression in today's culture. The idea that you must put yourself, your mental health, and well being before anyone else's if you could ever hope to care for others is popular in today's self help society. This "me first" mentality leads to relationships that are inherently selfish and self seeking. They force us to think that we are the most important person in any relationship. Then when things get difficult in a relationship, because you have been trained to think you are the most important person in a relationship and that your mental health comes before anyone else's, the self help culture tells you that not only is it a good idea to detox from that toxic relationship, but you MUST detox from them. Of course a toxic relationship is completely subjective and based on feelings alone. The minute you don't feel loved, supported, understood, disrespected, stressed, or the other person is ignoring your needs, then congratulations, you have found yourself in a toxic relationship. The Bible teaches the exact opposite. Instead of loving others by first loving yourself, scripture teaches that if we are to truly love other people, we must view them as MORE significant than ourselves. Only then are we truly loving others. God teaches that true love does not insist on its' own way. So when we feel like we are in a relationship where we are disrespected, unloved, unsupported and so on, then the Bible doesn't say simply leave that relationship for the sake of your mental health. Instead God tells Christians to search their heart and ask themselves if there is any sin in their own life, then confront the other person and let them know how they feel. If there is sin in the other person's life, then they are to be confronted over that as well. God tells us this is the most loving thing we can do in relationships. Not only does it protect ourselves from sin and those around us, but it also teaches us to love others the way that God loved us. We love like God loved when we sacrifice ourselves, our self interests, desires, wants, and even needs for the sake of others. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/biblebashed/support

Neh 9:16-21 ESV 16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed great blasphemies, 19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. 21 Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. THE GREAT MERCIES OF GOD For the good that God has showered upon them, they acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey His commandments. It was a horrible response to the great works of God on behalf of Israel, wasn't it? God had been so good to Israel, but they and their fathers acted proudly. Isn't God good to us today? We don't want to classify sins for all sins are distasteful to God. But, the sin of pride or presumptuousness appears worse. Hence, it is done boldly when experiencing the goodness of God. The Jews sinned greatly during the time of blessing – when they have seen the wonders and signs that God has done. Yet He loved them despite of what they've done. They made a golden calf to substitute God. But, He did not abandon them in the wilderness. Instead God was pursuing them with His goodness. As they confessed, “you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed great blasphemies, you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.” God has completely pardoned them. Instead of God requiting them for their rebellion, He showered them with unconditional graces – protection and provision in the wilderness. For forty years , God gave them the pillar of cloud and fire to protect them by day and night, supplied them manna everyday except during the Sabbath, and made their clothes and shoes not to wear out. Simply said, He patiently sustained them in the wilderness. We are often impressed at how patient God is with us, sinners. He held back His terrible judgment against them who deserve it so badly. Yet, in reality, it seems to us todaythat His patience toward us is even more, is it not? In our dispensation we have Christ and the Spirit who is in us, but are still no different than Israel in a lot of ways. Indeed, its by His mercies that we are not consumed. [Lam 3:22,23] -------------------- Visit and FOLLOW Gospel Light Filipino on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram

Up and coming artist running alongside Creative Culture Co. and Integrity Music, singer-songwriter, Yamaree brings a unique sound to the Christian/Gospel genre. A local talent to Tri-Cities, Washington, Yamaree, started writing and recording her own lyrics early in life. Though she loved spending time in the studio and worship sets, she learned that pursuing her dreams in music also came with sacrificial cost. As a young adult Yamaree moved to Redding, California with her lungs full of sound, ready to worship. Instead God lead her into a season of unexpected surrender and silence. This story is full of plot-twists I cannot wait for you to take in. Yamaree's is voice is beautifully authentic. Her lyrics are hopeful, but honest, and her heart is open to writing songs that God can use and breathe on. To speak to the young and old, the “Christians” and the “secular.” To draw people to the table with her songs. A table that leads to healing, purpose and Jesus. After listening to our conversation my prayer is that you will look at light a little differently. That you would be deeply moved as light reflects off ripples of water or pours through an open windows. God's presence has a beautiful manner of meeting with us and often it's where the light dances.  Official show notes available atwww.kohliebrowning.comMusic, "Where the Light Dances" by Yamareewww.instagram.com/yamareeofficial/"Wrong" by Dan Henig"Jindupe" by Lauren Dunski

We would all love a 5-10 step plan of fruitfulness for a Godly woman and I wish it was that easy. Instead God has good works prepared for us to do that Glorify our Father in Heaven. What are those good works? How do we attain them. You  may be surprised, they are way less glamorous than you might think.Follow on:Apple,Spotify + Amazon Music for  Podcast: wifemotherfriend (weekly post)Youtube Channel: wifemotherfriendInstagram: @wifemotherfrndScriptures Referenced:Matthew 5:16Matthew 5:17John 8:12Ephesians 2:10Colossians 3:23-24Music:Music by Grace Chiang - sleeping on the floor - https://thmatc.co/?l=8D0541FB

Unexpected Blessings A meditation shared by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC June 13, 2021, third Sunday after Pentecost, Confirmation Sunday and Pride Sunday. “The Call: Good Trouble” series.     Text: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 Jesse didn't expect the prophet Samuel to come calling. And he certainly wasn't expecting Samuel to come with a horn of oil to anoint one of his sons as the future king of Israel. Jesse didn't expect that his youngest son, the one who shepherded the flocks, would be required at the family gathering for the sacrifice since the youngest—and shepherds generally—weren't included in such things.  But God has a way of challenging our expectations. God sent Samuel and his horn-full of oil to Bethlehem, to the house of Jesse, to anoint NOT the first-born, the one who may have looked tall and kingly, Eliab. Instead God chose the youngest, David the shepherd, who had to be fetched from among the sheep. And, of course, young, handsome David didn't expect ANY of what happened! God challenges expectations. And in this story God does that in two very specific ways. First, God breaks the family expectation of giving blessing or honor to the first born son. And second, God breaks the cultural expectation by lifting up a youth—who even though described as handsome—perhaps didn't have the physical appearance or “stature” that people of the time would consider “kingly.”  God explains these surprising choices by saying to Samuel, “God doesn't look at things like humans do. Humans see only what is visible to the eyes, but the Lord sees into the heart.” (16:7, CEB)  Samuel, in response, models faithfulness through trusting that God knows what they're doing, that God perceives things that Samuel cannot, and then through being obedient to the spiritual leading to anoint the least likely future king in Jesse's family. On this Sunday when we celebrate both Confirmation and Pride, I give thanks for this story that affirms God's habit of breaking our human-made, cultural rules in ways that lift up, celebrate, and anoint the gifts of unexpected people. We know all too well that human rules have demonized and excluded LGBTQ people and that legislated discrimination continues to be supported in many places in both church and state. Limited human perception has silenced, ignored, or belittled the leadership and insight of children and youth. Human ways of discerning a person's worth or leadership capacity, based on “stature” or appearance have meant that countless people have not been allowed to fully share their gifts or contribute as meaningfully as they could. But God isn't limited by human ways of perceiving or discerning. Centuries after David was anointed the future king of Israel, on the day of Pentecost, God's intention was made plain and the prophecies were made manifest: Spirit fell upon ALL FLESH and the human gatekeeping rules and old assumptions and expectations were consumed in the fire of new creation and new community.  And Spirit continues to fall not just upon the “usual suspects” according to human ways of perceiving. Spirit falls on all flesh… and where hearts, hands, and minds are open, She stirs us to get into “good trouble” as we love and serve and are formed by the Way of Jesus Christ in union with the church and in advocacy and service to the world. We see Spirit's stirring in the ways that members of Foundry youth group have formed brave space and are building Beloved Community together. Throughout the pandemic, they have met regularly on ZOOM. Recently, the grandparent of a transgender teen found Foundry online and—encouraged by our welcome and message—reached out to see how their grandchild might connect. The youth joined the next ZOOM, at first with their video off. After five minutes, they showed their face. Within 20 minutes, they felt safe enough to share their journey as trans. The youth group surrounded and celebrated their sibling and new friend. Think for just a moment about this. A church youth group… We see Spirit stirring as, even with the UMC in the unjust tangle we're in, more and more queer clergy are speaking up and out, and LGBTQ siblings are being affirmed by churches, boards of ordained ministry, and annual conferences, not just locally but in places across the connection. We lament and renounce the continued attacks and cruel rejection of LGBTQ pastors, clergy candidates, and allies here and abroad. But we celebrate the breakthroughs and the blessings we receive through the gifts of our own queer clergy here at Foundry. We celebrate those at turning points in the ordination process. T.C. Morrow will be preaching next week the sermon she will submit to the BWC Board of Ordained Ministry for her final examination toward full membership as an ordained Deacon in the UMC. And Foundry member Chet Jechura, recommended by the BOOM for commissioning as a provisional Elder this year, has received an appointment to serve as pastor of Good Shepherd UMC in Baltimore beginning in July.  We see Spirit stirring in the curiosity of our youth about the work of Foundry's Board and larger ministry. The Board is actively creating ways for our youth to engage at that level, bringing their ideas, concerns, and leadership to our shared ministry. And again this year, we see Spirit stirring as our Confirmation class will bring specific additions to their confession of faith and their commitments to God and to the church. And this amazing group of confirmands has requested to continue their study together and Pastor K.C. is working on making that happen. Thanks be to God that we are given opportunities to continue to witness the ongoing revelation of God's barrier-breaking revolution of love and grace. May God give us eyes to perceive, ears to receive, and hearts brave enough to follow the unexpected leadings of Holy Spirit. And may we be open to receive the unexpected blessings of Jesus Christ who is determined to shake us to keep stretching and growing, to stir us to get into good trouble, to love us so much that we might finally be free enough from fear that we can create communities and ultimately a whole world where no one is afraid to show their true face, to tell their story, to offer their gifts. What a wonderful world that will be! https://foundryumc.org/

The Christian life is not about self-help and trying to be good. Instead God brings change at the deepest level when we put our trust in Jesus. Transformed by a generous outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the church reflects the goodness of God to the world.

A friend of mine recently asked me: Is God a jealous God? Isn't jealousy a sin? If we are not supposed to be jealous of one another, what does the Bible mean when it says God is jealous?I thought, “Wow! This is a challenging question, isn't it? But it is a very good question.Several times in the Old Testament the Bible says God is a jealous God. Consider these verses.Deuteronomy 4:24 - “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”Exodus 20:5 - “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God”Exodus 34:14 - “for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”So, this is a bit confusing, right? What does all of this mean?When we think of the sin of jealousy we define it as resentment at what some one else has. When we want what someone else has we might covet, be envious, and be jealous in a desire to have what they have. Instead of being grateful for what God has given us, we want what someone else has whether that be their house, their car, their vacation time, or whatever.Sinful human jealousy has been the cause of countless difficulties and heartache in human relationships. But this is not the jealousy God experiences. God is not jealous or envious of anything we possess. The jealousy of God is seen when someone gives to another something that rightly belongs to Him.When God tells the Israelites in Exodus to not worship other gods because He is a jealous God, He is saying do not give the the worship and allegiance that belongs solely to Him to false idols.He is saying that it is sin to worship or to serve anything or anyone else but God. Worship, praise, honor, and adoration belong to God alone, for only He is truly worthy of it.Pastor John Piper explains it this way… “God is not jealous like an insecure employer who fears that his employees might get lured away by a better salary elsewhere. God's jealousy is not the reflex of weakness or fear.Instead God is jealous like a powerful and merciful king who takes a peasant girl from a life of shame, forgives her, marries her, and gives her not the chores of a slave, but the privileges of a wife—a queen. His jealousy does not rise from fear or weakness but from a holy indignation at having his honor and power and mercy scorned by the faithlessness of a fickle spouse.”Because of His love for us, God is not content to allow us to worship and serve false gods, whether they be other religions, materialism, or even ourselves. If he does not care when we love idols more than him, he would allow himself to be dishonored and let us settle for so much less than he intends us to have from life.God is a jealous God meaning that we belong to Him.  He has a rightful claim to the highest level of our love, attention, affection, and especially our worship.1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”Today's Challenge: Let's make time to today to give God the glory, honor, and praise that belongs to Him. Let's give him our allegiance and make him the Lord of our lives.

Luke 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? God isn't talking about a cost the we have to count. Instead God is talking about a cost He has already counted The cost was 30 years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal and hatred, and deep agony in the garden of Gethsemane, in the suffering at Calvary – the turning point of all time and eternity. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. Men are not going to laugh at him at the end and say- “this man started to build, and was not able to finish.” The condition of discipleship laid down by God in verse 26 2733 26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. mean that the men and women he's going to use in building the kingdom are those who God has done everything. “If any man come to me,and hate not…, He cannot be my disciple. God implies that the only men and women he will use in building His Kingdom are those who love him personally, passionately and are loyal to Him beyond any of their closest ties on earth. This is the ultimate requirement, only the One who gave everything is worthy of in return. All that we build is going to be inspected by God is God going to detect in his revealing fire that we have built on the foundation of Jesus some enterprise of our own? These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and There in is the trap. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for his enterprises, His kingdom blueprints alone, and no person has any right to play the role of the Holy Spirit or redifine the perfect blueprints God has laid out for His Kingdom. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mybestforhimtoday/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/mybestforhimtoday/support

We hear another word of the Lord from Genesis 43. 43 Now the famine was severe in the land. 2 And when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little food.” 3 But Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.' 4 If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. 5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.'” 6 Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?” 7 They replied, “The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?' What we told him was in answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down'?” 8 And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. 9 I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. 10 If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.” 11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. 12 Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. 13 Take also your brother, and arise, go again to the man. 14 May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” 15 So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them, and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.” 17 The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph's house. 18 And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house, and they said, “It is because of the money, which was replaced in our sacks the first time, that we are brought in, so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys.” 19 So they went up to the steward of Joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house, 20 and said, “Oh, my lord, we came down the first time to buy food. 21 And when we came to the lodging place we opened our sacks, and there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us, 22 and we have brought other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks.” 23 He replied, “Peace to you, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.” Then he brought Simeon out to them. 24 And when the man had brought the men into Joseph's house and given them water, and they had washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder, 25 they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there. 26 When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed down to him to the ground. 27 And he inquired about their welfare and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?” 28 They said, “Your servant our father is well; he is still alive.” And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. 29 And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son!” 30 Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there. 31 Then he washed his face and came out. And controlling himself he said, “Serve the food.” 32 They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. 33 And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. 34 Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him. Genesis 43:1-34, ESV This is the word of the Lord. If I had unlimited time, unlimited time to work on puzzles, the puzzle that I have always wanted the ability to solve is the Rubik's Cube. The Rubik's Cube, you probably know is a cube and it's sort of three by three and there are different colors, red, orange, yellow, white, and blue. The goal of the Rubik's Cube is that it's all scrambled and twisted in different ways and your goal is to try to put all the colors back on their respective sides so they're together. Now every time I come across one, and they're sort of scattered everywhere you can still find them, I've never been able to come close to sort of cracking it or solving it. I know however that some people can solve the Rubik's Cube. In fact I talked with someone after the first service who informed me that he has solved the Rubik's Cube in less than one minute. The world record however is 4.22 seconds, it's incredible, you can watch it on YouTube. Now as I understand it, and I did get a gracious offer after the first service to learn how to do this, but as I understand the reason I haven't been able to solve the Rubik's Cube so far is that I focus on one color at a time. Apparently you're not supposed to do that. I focus on one color and I'm doing whatever I can to to turn, or I was informed it's to spin the Rubik's Cube, that's the right terminology. To spin it in such a way where I'm trying to get all of the color that I'm fixated on onto the right place. Now real Rubik's Cube players know that what you're actually supposed to do is think about the whole cube all at once and not get fixated on one color, but to sort of work from the whole cube and to look at the patterns. Then the patterns tell you which way to to make your next spin. If you watch a skilled Rubik's Cube player, or at least when I watch a skilled Rubik's player, their moves don't make sense to me, their moves seem purposeless and counterproductive because they are working and operating on a level that I just don't understand. Then all of a sudden, faster than I think it'll happen, all of a sudden everything comes together. I have no idea how they've done it, I can't replicate it, but the effect is stunning. Well God's work of providence is his holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing of all his creatures and all their actions. So God's work of providence, where he orders all things that come to pass in this life is something like a Rubik's Cube at an infinitely higher degree of complexity. In our lives, as we look around in the world, many things seem to us purposeless, they seem counterproductive. Yet what the Bible tells us at every point in time is that none of the moves that God is making, none of what God is ordaining in this world, is so because God never wastes a spin. Instead God wants us to know that in everything he does, God is setting right all that has gone wrong in the world. That's our big idea for today, that God is setting right all that has gone wrong with the world. We see here in Genesis 43 a prime example of God's providence. We are dealing with a great deal of suffering that Joseph has undergone for decades in his life. Now he is faced with his brothers and he's trying to figure out how to work with them and interact with them. We're seeing that as God is working through the details of this story, that God is setting everything right. Not just for Joseph, but for Joseph's brothers and their father Jacob as well. So three parts to this sermon this morning. Trusting Through Fear Treasure in Uncertainty Testing for Sin Trusting Through Fear We start here with the theme of fear. We read in verse 1 that the famine was severe in the land. Joseph, many years before, had interpreted the dream that God had given to Pharaoh. The dream foretold that there would be seven years of great prosperity in the land, that would be followed after by seven years of deep hardship, of a severe famine in the land. We read that this famine is dragging on, so that Jacob's family has run out of food. Now this isn't the first time that Jacob's family has run out of food. We know that in the last chapter, in chapter 42, Jacob's family had once run out of food. So much so that Jacob sent his sons down to Egypt to buy food. That was when they met Joseph, although they didn't know that it was Joseph. Joseph interrogated them and they told him that they had a brother at home. So Joseph said I believe you were spies, but to prove that you are not spies, bring back your youngest brother to prove that your story is true and until you do I am going to keep one of your brothers as a guarantee that you will come back. So, Simeon, one of their brothers, has been in prison this whole time as Jacob's family have been eating this food that they brought down to Egypt. Well, now this food has run out again and so Jacob, very casually, at the end of verse 2 says go again and buy us a little food. Now Jacob is here in the middle of denial about the situation that his family is facing. He does not want to release his beloved son Benjamin to go back down to Egypt because he is worried for the welfare of his son. So he is trying to ignore this problem and he's treating this, as one commentator puts, as though it were just a simple trip to the market to pick up some food. Jacob's other sons, especially Judah who comes to the forefront to speak on behalf of his brothers, haven't forgotten the stern man that they spoke with in Egypt. Again it was Joseph but they didn't recognize him as such. So they remind him that this man insisted that you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. So, Jacob is trying to ignore the problem but Judah reminds him that they must send Benjamin if they're going to have any chance of getting this extra grain that they need now. Jacob, as we saw in the last chapter and still see now, Jacob is in the bondage of fear. He is completely in the hold of fear and he doesn't know what to do with it. In the last chapter he tried something of an ultimatum, at the very end he said essentially in verse 38 of chapter 42, over my dead body will Benjamin go down with you. He said in verse 38, 38 But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.” Genesis 42:38, ESV Now Jacob is trying to deny it. He's just saying why don't you just go buy food? Don't worry about those problems that you have. Then when Judah reminds him of the problem, Jacob tries a third tactic that is of a counter-attack. He strikes back at his sons and so in verse 6 we read that Israel, now remember Israel is just another name for Jacob 6 Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?” Genesis 43:6, ESV Very literally this is, “why did you do this evil to me, as to tell him that you had another brother?” Now what's happening here with this word evil, and we're going to see this throughout this chapter, is that this word evil is bringing us back to the very beginning of this story. Right from the beginning in Genesis 37 and 38, when the trains started running off the rails, when everything started to go wrong, this word evil is echoing us back to the beginning of this story to show us that God has not forgotten anything that has happened. He has the whole picture in mind, he's not fixated on one problem or another but he is at work putting everything right. He is especially at work to set right all that has gone wrong in the nation of Israel, with Israel or Jacob and his sons. We are seeing here with these echoes back to the beginning of this story, the hand of God's providence at work. This word evil, again, is the first echo we hear back to the beginning of this story, because this word for evil is the same word that was used by Joseph about his own brothers. We read in Genesis 37 verse 2 that Joseph brought an evil report about his brothers to their father. We see Joseph bringing an evil report to his father in the beginning. Then knowing that in Genesis 37 the brothers truly were evil, later they will attack Joseph and sell him into slavery, now Jacob or Israel is the one accusing them of evil. The question is, have they changed at all? Are they saying they are still the same evil brothers or have they transformed in this time? The first part of the answer that we get is in verses 8 through 10 with the soft answer that Judah gives to his father's harsh words. Judah tries to coax Israel, his father, to try to say I will take Benjamin under my wing, I will personally extend to him protection. Then in verse 9 we get another word that echoes us back to the beginning of this story, in verse 9 Judah says I will be a pledge of his safety. Now this same word pledge occurred earlier in Genesis 38, it's the same word that described the pledge that Judah gave to his daughter-in-law Tamar. Now she was his daughter-in-law, but he didn't recognize her to be his daughter-in-law, in the same way that Joseph's brothers don't recognize that he is Joseph. So Judah did not recognize Tamar and he gave her a pledge of his signet, his cords, and his staff. That is the ancient equivalent of all your credit cards and your driver's license. He gave them to Tamar as a pledge, a down payment, to secure her immediate services as a prostitute, with the promise that he would then send a goat as the payment for these services. So when Judah was first making a pledge, he was doing so for very selfish sinful reasons. Then here you can see a dramatic reversal; Judah is not making a pledge for sinful, selfish gain, he is offering to make a pledge on behalf of his brother Benjamin to take sacrificial responsibility. Now Reuben, you may remember the firstborn of Jacob, had also tried to coax his father to send Benjamin with them, back in Genesis 42:37. He had done so by offering his sons as collateral, if anything happens to Benjamin you can kill my sons. What grandfather would be satisfied to avenge the death of one of his sons by putting two of his grandsons to death? He doesn't want this at all. So Jacob rejects that. Where Reuben had offered his sons in chapter 42 reuben, Judah here in 43 is offering himself. By offering himself as a pledge, Judah persuades their father Jacob. When Jacob finally agrees to send Benjamin to Egypt, he offers a suggestion, or he says if you're going to do it, this is the way you must do it. So in verses 11-13 Jacob insists that they take down a present to this man. Jacob, you may remember, had to smooth things over with his own brother Esau. They had been estranged for many many years and when Jacob came back to the land of Canaan, he sent a present ahead to his brother Esau to try to smooth things over. Well Jacob is now doing the same thing with all of the the choice fruits of the land of Canaan; a little balm, a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. He wants these gifts, these fruits, to help curry favor with this man in Egypt. Now what's interesting about this list is that three of these elements, the gum, the balm, and the myrrh echo us back to Genesis chapter 37. In Genesis 37:25, we read that the Ishmaelite traitors who bought Joseph from his brothers and who carried Joseph down to Egypt, were taking with them gum, balm, and myrrh to trade down in Egypt. So, in the first trip down to Egypt one of Jacob's beloved sons, Joseph, is going down with the traitors who have gum, balm and myrrh, as Joseph is being brought down to Egypt. On the second trip, it will be Jacob's beloved son Benjamin who's making this trip down to Egypt, again with gum, and balm, and myrrh. Jacob also knows that this present is only going to go so far. Ultimately he knows that God alone will determine the fate and the outcome of the safety of his beloved son Benjamin and of all his children. So, in verse 14 Jacob prays, 14 May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” Genesis 43:14, ESV Now there's probably a reason that Jacob prays to God Almighty, El Shaddai is the Hebrew phrase here. It's probably because when God established his covenant with Abraham back in Genesis 17, God presented himself and said, “I am God Almighty”, and as a part of that covenant God promised that he would multiply the offspring of Abraham. Well the offspring of Abraham is to be multiplied through Jacob, through Israel, that is the nation of Israel would be the multiplied offspring of Abraham. There's the fulfillment of the promises of God Almighty. So Jacob is then praying that God would, at this fragile delicate moment, do exactly what he has promised to do, to preserve his children, especially his child Benjamin as they go back down to Egypt. Notice that Jacob also prays specifically for mercy, “may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man.” Now I want to make note of that because that word will become important later but then finally Jacob recognizes if I am bereaved of my children I am bereaved. He is entrusting himself to God Almighty. Now maybe you are someone who spends a lot of your time and your energy trying to set right the fearful blue side of the Rubik's Cube of your life. As you spin and try to work through all the details of your life, you're trying desperately just to get the blue side of your life to match up, to work for you. If so, you're probably using one of two strategies; either you're trying to find some way to eliminate the object of your fear or you are trying to do some kind of personal development to help you rise above your fears. If this was the tactic that God was taking, sort of a fixated direct strategy on that problem alone, then God's moves in this world would often seem purposeless and counterintuitive. God, in his providence, does not always answer our prayers by eliminating the objects of our fear. He doesn't certainly give us a bolster of courage in the moment. Sometimes God, in his providence, organizes and orders the circumstances of our lives to push us into situations where the only option we have is to trust him, to entrust ourselves to God Almighty. He forces us to deal with our fears by putting us in something that we would never choose for ourselves, because God is not just trying to align one side of the cube. God is working to address all the issues in our lives and all the issues and all of creation, as he works all things together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. Jacob here then has been forced into a situation where he has had to do the thing that he fears most by sending Benjamin to Egypt. The brothers in verse 15, as they head down to Egypt, are just beginning in their fears they have to be asking on their journey down to Egypt. What will happen to them? How will they be treated? It's in the midst of this deep uncertainty where they don't know what's going to happen that God provides them with the treasure of his mercy and his grace. Treasure in Uncertainty So this brings us to the second section treasure in uncertainty in verses 16 through 25. Look at verse 16 where we read, 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.” Genesis 43:16, ESV Now Joseph gave a stern outward appearance to his brothers back in Genesis 42. He treated them roughly, he spoke to them roughly, but the narrator wants us to know right at the beginning of this scene where they're going to be interacting with Joseph, the narrator wants us to know Joseph's heart in all of this. He's not trying to be cruel to his brothers, he loves them. He is trying by whatever means necessary to find true reconciliation with his brothers. The brothers however do not know this. They're not told the orders that Joseph had been given. We read simply that a steward does exactly what Joseph has told him to do and brings the men into Joseph's house. Now they're already worried about this man, but they're hoping to sort of get their grain and go back as quickly as they possibly can, hopefully with Simeon with them. Now they're brought into this ruler's house and they're totally disoriented and they're freaking out and they can't stop talking about this money. Twice they say, “we've got the money, we don't know how it got back to us, but we've got the money, take the money, we brought more money in fact to buy more grain.” They're really worried about this money. Now again this is an echo back to the beginning of this story. God is working all of these details together as he's bringing the brothers back to a previous financial indiscretion, a financial sin that they had made earlier back in Genesis 37. The only reason they didn't kill Joseph was because they realized that they could make profit from him. That's actually Judah's brainstorm in Genesis 37:26. He said, “Hey we can make profit if we sell him to these Ishmaelite traders.” Now, even though they're talking about this money that they think that they got back and they're not sure how they got it, they were innocent in all of this. They want more than anything to be honest and open about their finances and try to make financial amends. Whereas earlier they would have had to hide the profit they made from selling Joseph from their father, whom they lied about the situation. What must have surprised them then is in response to this Joseph's servant gives a response they could have never expected. In verse 23 he says, “Peace to you.” Now again, this word peace is a dramatic echo that brings us back to a reversal of what happened in Genesis 37. In Genesis 37:4 the brothers could not speak peace to their brother Joseph, they hated their brother so much that they could not speak peace to Joseph. Nevertheless later, in Genesis 37:14, Jacob sent Joseph to seek the peace, or to seek the welfare of his brothers. The word there is literally peace. Even though Joseph knew how much his brothers hated him, he obediently and willingly went to seek their peace. When he did so they captured him and attacked him and threw him into a pit and eventually sold him into slavery. In spite of all of that, Joseph does not respond with violence against the violence that's been perpetrated against him. Instead he instructs his servant to speak peace to them, a word of peace to them. Why would the servant do this? Why would Joseph instruct his servant to do this? Well, the clue comes at the end of verse 23 when the servant says, “Do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you.” Now this idea of do not be afraid and then the reference to their God and the God of their father echoes something that Joseph said just in the last chapter. When Joseph was talking to them about how they're going to get out of this mess where they're captured in Egypt and Joseph isn't trusting them yet. Joseph says, “Okay do this and you will live for I fear God.” Joseph's servant says, “Do not be afraid for your God has given you treasure.” Jacob says, “You're going to do this and live because I fear God.” The idea being that because Joseph fears God, Joseph's brothers have nothing to fear. That in spite of all that they deserve because of their great sins, God is giving them this treasure, not just of their money but of the grace and mercy that they are receiving from God and from Joseph. Well maybe fear isn't your thing, but maybe you spend a lot of your time in your soul, in your heart working on the dark sinful red side of the Rubik's Cube of your life. Maybe because of your guilt and your shame, every move that you make, every spin of your Rubik's Cube is designed to set right that dark red splotch in your life. Either you are trying to fix what has gone wrong, in whatever way is possible. Or you are trying to do enough good to offset and make up for the evil of your past. That's the way that people try to handle their sin. That's what the brothers are trying to do. They're trying to offer this money back so that they can gain forgiveness for whatever financial thing they may have done, but they're not sure how they got the money back. The gospel tells us something different. The gospel tells us a paradox, a paradox is something that does not seem to be true but yet is true. At a very deep way the paradox of the gospel is that the only people who find true atonement for their sins, the only people who can secure real lasting forgiveness for their sins, and the only people who can be made truly righteous before God himself are the ones who acknowledge they cannot set their sin right. They cannot make enough twists and spins of their life in order to set their sin right. In fact they need nothing more than grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What's the word that we begin every service with here, because the New Testament announces that great gospel hope that we have. That through nothing we have done, but only because of what God has done for us, through Jesus Christ we have grace and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph, because he fears God, he has graciously extended peace to his brothers in the midst of their fear. Rather than returning violence for violence, God has enriched them with the treasure of his mercy and grace. We might ask, well does this mean that God is going to let these scoundrels off the hook? The answer is no. The final section shows us an opportunity to test the depth of their transformation from their former sin. Testing for Sin So, in the third section we see testing for sin, in verses 26 through 34. In verse 26 we read about when Joseph finally comes home and they bring this present to him that they had brought. We read in verse 26 that they bowed down to him to the ground, and again in verse 28 they will bow down to him and prostrate themselves. Now to see the brothers bowing down to Joseph again echoes and brings us back to Genesis 37. In Genesis 37, when we first met Joseph, Joseph had these dreams where he dreamed that his brothers would come and bow down to him. Now his brothers hated these dreams, this is why they hated him for his dreams and for his words. This is what led directly to their violence against Joseph, to sell him into slavery in the first place. Yet here they are doing exactly what was foretold, them bowing down to Joseph. Joseph for his part doesn't take advantage of this, but the first words out of his mouth are words of peace. In verse 27 we read, 27 And he inquired about their welfare and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?” Genesis 43:27, ESV Again, the brothers could not speak peace to Joseph, but the only word that Joseph is speaking to his brothers is a word of peace to them and to their father. Well, after answering about their father Joseph, in verse 29, he lifts his eyes and he sees his younger brother Benjamin. Now seeing the younger brother also echoes back to a particularly dark moment of Genesis 37, when the brothers saw Joseph coming and again Joseph was coming to seek their peace, but when they saw him coming that was when they plotted to kill him, in Genesis 37:18. The exact opposite happens with Joseph. When Joseph sees his brother Benjamin, compassion overwhelms him. Now earlier I talked about the importance of that word in verse 14, the word mercy. It's translated differently in the English Standard Version, but this is the exact same word in both places. The same mercy that Jacob had prayed for is the mercy, or the compassion, that overwhelms Joseph so much that he has to leave the room in order to find a place to weep. Jacob's prayer is absolutely answered. After Joseph composed himself in verse 32, he commands the food be served and Joseph eats with his brothers. The text is very clear that they were separated one from another. It's kind of a strange story to hear about these Egyptians being separated from the Hebrews. Why is this here? Well in part this is foreshadowing the hatred of the Egyptians against the Hebrews. They found the Hebrews to be an abomination and that hatred is only going to grow, especially at the beginning of the next book of the Bible, Exodus. That will lead directly into the Israelites enslavement and their eventual delivery from God from the Egyptians, who hated them. In part, again, this also brings us back to Genesis 37:25. After Joseph was captured by his brothers, after they attacked him and threw him into a pit, after stripping off his clothes, we read that then the brothers sat down and ate a meal in Joseph's presence. We're getting an echo of this story here, but it's very much a reversal. Joseph is eating, but yet separated, with his brothers. Victor Hamilton wrote about this that last time Joseph was the helpless victim, but here he is the victor. He does not however deprive his brothers of food, as they had done to him. This moment, even though they are eating together and they're drinking and they're merry together, this isn't just a kumbaya moment where everyone just forgets that anything has gone wrong in the world. Joseph is using this moment to set up a test. He's setting up a test where he seats the brothers according to their birth order, in verse 33, and the brothers are amazed by this. Then he gives his youngest brother Benjamin five times the portion that any of the others of them had. Now what Joseph is doing here is he's saying okay, in the past when our father lavished extra grace extra favor on me, you hated me and sought to kill me. What will happen now when you have this other beloved son of our father, Benjamin, and he once again receives more favor than you according to the portions given. Will that cause you to slip back into your old ways of sibling rivalry? The text is raising this cliffhanger we're left at will Judah follow through with his pledge? He's promised to be a pledge for his brother Benjamin. Now maybe for you guilt or fear are not your main focus, but maybe you spend most of your time like Joseph, on the high alert yellow side of the Rubik's Cube of your life. Maybe you're someone who has been hurt in deep ways and because of that hurt you are constantly vigilant, ever distrusting, ever willing to read the worst possible motives into other people. To continue to push people away. Now to be clear, this test Joseph designs here isn't giving us a model for how we can sort of put our loved ones through trials to test whether we can trust them again. That's not to follow Joseph's test here on the whole. Rather what Joseph is doing is showing us his heart, the heart that we should follow. A heart that is seeking true reconciliation. A heart that on the one hand does not want to cast people away, that if at all possible wants to bring people back into reconciled fellowship with them. But a heart that on the other hand also doesn't dismiss or overlook sin. A heart that recognizes that real sin has to be dealt with in real ways. So in terms of this test itself, we don't find this kind of test really anywhere in the rest of the Bible, but we do see this heart for true reconciliation all over the place. We see this heart for reconciliation when Jesus speaks to Peter after Peter denied him three times. He deals with the problem asking three times, do you love me, a time for each time that Peter had denied him. He's dealing with the situation, but he is welcoming Peter back into fellowship with him and commissioning him to his work as a shepherd, feeding Christ's lambs. We see this also with Paul at the very end of his ministry where he seeks out to bring John Mark back to him. He insists that John Mark must come because he is useful to me for ministry, even though John Mark had abandoned Paul on the mission field. Paul wants to deal with this. For a time he would not allow John Mark to come, but now that that has been settled and resolved he wants John Mark back in the fold. We, like Joseph, should seek true reconciliation, even though his test isn't a pattern for us to copy. If we spend all of our life working on just a high alert yellow side trying to make sure that we are perfectly protected we will never enter into this pattern of seeking true reconciliation, which God wants to bring us into. Application Well from this text let's take a few minutes to apply to our lives this morning. I have essentially one application from this passage, but again following our theme like a Rubik's Cube, it has or it has multiple sides and we'll look at three of those sides. So, the application to take from this text is that we must trust the Lord to set right what has gone wrong in our lives. 1. The first side of what this looks like is that we must trust the Lord to set right our fears. Maybe this week you had to face deep fear. Well we see all of the strategies, Jacob unloads all the strategies possible for how to deal with fear. He tries giving an ultimatum, he tries ignoring the problem, he tries a counter attack of defensiveness, but ultimately the Lord providentially puts him in circumstances that press him into a choice that he is terrified to make. God is here giving us this story to teach us how to trust God, just as Jacob was led in how to trust the Lord. Jacob is something of a guinea pig who has to go through this clinical divine trial in order that we can look at the results of this research and gain confidence in our fears, when we must learn to trust the Lord. So we see here the two things that Jacob does. Number one he entrusts himself to God Almighty. Whatever you fear in this world, your fear is not greater than God the Father Almighty who created heaven and earth. You see when there's nothing to fear in our lives, God's almightiness can seem fairly small. How almighty does God need to be when my life is easy? When we are in the midst of our fears and God puts us in these places, these are the context in which our view of God Almighty is stretched and expanded as we are led to entrust ourselves to him. So entrust yourself to God Almighty. Second, pray for mercy. Remember Jacob's prayer here was directly answered. He prayed for mercy and Joseph was overwhelmed with mercy or compassion for his brothers. Because God answers prayer, to entrust ourselves to the Lord means that we are actively entrusting ourselves to him in prayer, especially for prayers for mercy, to be treated far better than we deserve. Trust the Lord to set right your fears. 2. Well the second side of this application is to trust the Lord to set right what has gone in our life that has to do with our sins. Trust the Lord to set right your sins. We're seeing in this story a number of providential details that God is working together to force Joseph's brothers to face the sin that they had perpetrated against their brother decades earlier. We see so many echoes here from Genesis 37 and 38, but we also see that in the midst of their sin God is ever speaking a word of grace and mercy to them. He is giving them unexpected treasure when they are only expecting to be dealt with harshly. Maybe this week you were faced with the brunt and the full reality of your sin and maybe you're scrambling to figure out how do I set this right? The Bible calls us to trust the Lord to set right our sins. Remember the paradox of the gospel, it doesn't seem true, but it is we cannot fix our sin by trying to fix our sin. We can only fix our sin by recognizing that God has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The promise of the gospel is that God has set right the sins of all those who trust in Jesus Christ. In Christ God judged and punished your sin on the cross. He died in your place. Because Christ has endured the fullness of God's wrath against you, God can now speak a word of peace to you. That's why all of Paul's letters and all of our worship services begin with, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ.” It's not because we deserve it, it's because God has made peace through his grace by the spilled blood of Jesus Christ. Don't try to ignore your sin, don't try to just excuse it or sweep it under the rug or explain it away, don't try to pile up good deeds that you think will offset your sin. Instead go to God and entrust yourself to the shed blood of Jesus and the broken body of Jesus Christ who was crucified for you. 3. Well the third side of this application is to trust the Lord to set right the wrongs done to you. Maybe this week you had to face people who have hurt you. Trust the Lord to set right the wrong done to you. The Lord knows your pain, furthermore the Lord promises that he will by no means clear the guilty. If we understand the weight of our sin, we can understand that justice cannot be fully executed in this life. Yet the Lord, the just and righteous one, will bring all things wrong to a righteous conclusion at the judgment at the end of the world. We see here the heart of God. That in the midst of this, even though he is the righteous God who must punish sin, who can by no means clear the guilty, but nevertheless he is slow to anger and he is abounding in steadfast love. He is a God who does not wish that any should perish, but that all should come to salvation through repentance and faith in Christ. Joseph here is then showing us the heart of someone who knows how to love his enemies. He's not extending them blind trust, but he's extending them a readiness to forgive. He's not dealing with them in a vindictive way, but he is guided at every turn by a desire to extend peace. How does Joseph do this? Well, as we will see in the chapters to come, Joseph understands what his brothers meant for evil God meant for good. Joseph understands what God is doing is to providentially set right all that has gone wrong in the world, including his story, including the famine in Egypt, and every detail that leads all the way even into our own lives and until Jesus returns. Joseph doesn't understand all of this, we don't understand all of this. The moves of God's providence in this world seem purposeless and counterintuitive and yet when it happens God will bring everything right in a moment and we'll see it in great glory and splendor. In the meantime trust the Lord to set right all that is wrong in the world. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would teach us to trust you. That you would, by the power of your Spirit, give us faith in God Almighty. That we would entrust ourselves to him as we look in faith to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior through faith. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Galatians 3:15-29 (ICB)15 Brothers, let me give you an example: Think about an agreement that a person makes with another person. After that agreement is accepted by both people, no one can stop that agreement or add anything to it. 16 God made promises to Abraham and his descendant. God did not say, “and to your descendants.” That would mean many people. But God said, “and to your descendant.” That means only one person; that person is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: God had an agreement with Abraham and promised to keep it. The law, which came 430 years later, cannot change God’s promise to Abraham. 18 Can following the law give us what God promised? No! If this is so, it is not God’s promise that brings us the blessings. Instead God freely gave his blessings to Abraham through the promise he had made.19 So what was the law for? The law was given to show the wrong things people do. It continued until the special descendant of Abraham came. God’s promise was about this descendant. The law was given through angels who used Moses for a mediator[a] to give the law to men. 20 But a mediator is not needed when there is only one side. And God is only one.21 Does this mean that the law is against God’s promises? Never! If there were a law that could give men life, then we could be made right by following that law. 22 But this is not true, because the Scriptures showed that the whole world is bound by sin. This was so that the promise would be given through faith. And it is given to people who believe in Jesus Christ.23 Before this faith came, we were all held prisoners by the law. We had no freedom until God showed us the way of faith that was coming. 24 So the law was our master until Christ came. After Christ came, we could be made right with God through faith. 25 Now the way of faith has come, and we no longer live under the law.26-27 You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 28 Now, in Christ, there is no difference between Jew and Greek. There is no difference between slaves and free men. There is no difference between male and female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus. 29 You belong to Christ. So you are Abraham’s descendants. You get all of God’s blessings because of the promise that God made to Abraham.Think back to playing games as a kid after school. Remember the arguments that ensued over an out-of-bounds call in basketball or a safe/out call in kickball? We knew the rules, but our selfish desire led us to yell, and even fight, over calls that didn’t go our way. It often took a mediator, like a teacher or parent, to correct the dispute.The same way we needed a mediator for kickball and basketball, we need a mediator in our spiritual lives. Sin caused a rebellion between people and God, and we cannot restore the relationship on our own.Jesus is the mediator who brings God and His people together. When God chose Israel to be His people, He gave Moses a set of commands called the law. The law established guiding principles for God’s people to follow. The law didn’t save people from their sin; it taught them how to be holy until a mediator arrived who could settle the dispute between our desires and God’s desiresSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/yourdailybible)

This sermon was preached on March 14, 2021 during our 10:15 a.m. Worship Service. Got Fellowship? Affirmation: When the child of God looks into the word of God and sees the Son of God, they are transformed by the Spirit of God into the image of God for the glory of God! -Warren Wiersbe The Christian faith is never presented in the Bible as something to be lived out alone! Instead God saves us to live out our faith with “One Another!” We are going to start this series off with the foundational one another, the only true way any two Christians can have fellowship with one another. The Foundational statement: God does not sin (at all!) 1:5 Then Jesus spoke to them again: “I Am the Light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” -John 8:12 But we have sinned…and we do sin…and we probably will sin 1:6, 8, 10 Verse 6 helps us define walking in the light – to walk in the light is to live according to the truth. Verses 8 and 10 help us further define walking in the light – to walk in the light is to live according to the truth of God’s word, the Holy Bible. Now thank God the fact that we are sinners who sin is only half of the story in these verses. But it is part of our story – if we try to deny our sin natures we will continue to be part of the problem in the world, not part of the solution! The godliest people you ever meet are the most aware of their own sinfulness. Jesus HAS saved believers 1:7 Jesus IS saving those who believe 1:9 Before you became a Christian you just had the old sinful nature around. But when you received Christ, you received the indwelling Spirit, and the fight is on for the rest of this life between the old nature and your new spiritual nature. Jesus WILL save those who believe 2:1 If you are His by faith in Jesus, one day you will be free from the very presence of sin – that’s called glorification, and along with justification and sanctification it was all guaranteed the moment you were born again! Our commitment to living by biblical truth is the basis of our fellowship 1:7 The basis of our fellowship with One Another is total commitment to the Bible as the word of God, our instructions for belief and behavior!

December 16, 2020 | Pastor Nathan Elms • It is easy to be sick of waiting. • Simeon & Anna were promised that they would see Messiah before they died. • It's easy to be religious & miss what God is doing. • When Jesus did great things, many criticized instead of what God is doing. • Instead, we want to get it right. • What does it mean to wait on the Lord? • What if we serve God instead of God serve us? • Waiting can be likened to moving at God's speed instead of our own. • Why would God rest when He wasn't tired? Instead God reflected on His work. • When we rush instead of living at Spiritual speed, we lose the ability to reflect with God and allow God the ability to make us what He wants. • When we stop the frantic we make space for the eternal. • When we wait upon the Lord, we make space to become the people God created us to be.

REFLECTION QUOTES “For my name's sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” ~Isaiah 48:9-11 (ESV) “Were we imagining a God, then naturally we should ascribe to him only characteristics which we admired, and jealousy would not enter the picture. Nobody would imagine a jealous God. But we are not making up an idea of God by drawing on our imagination; we are seeking instead to listen to the words of Holy Scripture… There are two sorts of jealousy… ‘Vicious Jealousy' is an expression of the attitude, ‘I want what you've got and I hate you because I haven't got it…' But there is another sort of jealousy: zeal to protect a love relationship or to avenge it when broken… Scripture consistently views God's jealousy as being of this latter kind: that is, as an aspect of his covenant love for his own people.” ~J.I. Packer, Knowing God (Chapter 17) “God is not jealous like an insecure employer who fears that his employees might get lured away by a better salary elsewhere. God's jealousy is not the reflex of weakness or fear. Instead God is jealous like a powerful and merciful king who takes a peasant girl from a life of shame, forgives her, marries her, and gives her not the chores of a slave, but the privileges of a wife – a queen. His jealousy does not rise from fear or weakness but from a holy indignation at having His honor and power and mercy scorned by the faithlessness of a fickle spouse.” ~John Piper, “The Lord Whose Name is Jealous” “You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the ‘lord of terrible aspect,' is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work and despotic as a man's love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes.” ~C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain SERMON PASSAGE Deuteronomy 4 23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Hosea 2 16 “And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,' and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.' 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. 21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, 22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, 23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, And I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people'; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.'” John 4:7-26 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink... 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water…” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father… 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

The first three petitions of Jesus's model prayer call upon God's holy name to establish HIS kingdom as HIS heavenly will is done on earth. This petition of the Lord's Prayer is actually a prayer of evangelism. God's kingdom is not a political overthrow of opposition parties in the government. Instead God's kingdom is established in the hearts and lives of sinners. The prophecies of Jeremiah and of Daniel call for a future kingdom that will be more powerful than any earthly kingdom. This kingdom is God's kingdom of heaven established in the hearts of sinful humanity. God's kingdom comes partly through the preaching of HIS Word and partly by the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. Please remember that the Lord's Prayer is a fervent prayer of reverence and of evangelism. May God's will be done as he establishes the kingdom of heaven in the regenerate hearts of his people. Amen.

The first three petitions of Jesus's model prayer call upon God's holy name to establish HIS kingdom as HIS heavenly will is done on earth. This petition of the Lord's Prayer is actually a prayer of evangelism. God's kingdom is not a political overthrow of opposition parties in the government. Instead God's kingdom is established in the hearts and lives of sinners. The prophecies of Jeremiah and of Daniel call for a future kingdom that will be more powerful than any earthly kingdom. This kingdom is God's kingdom of heaven established in the hearts of sinful humanity. God's kingdom comes partly through the preaching of HIS Word and partly by the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. Please remember that the Lord's Prayer is a fervent prayer of reverence and of evangelism. May God's will be done as he establishes the kingdom of heaven in the regenerate hearts of his people. Amen.

When we look at the story of Job we discover that he doesn’t get the answer he thinks he will get from God. Instead God presents Job with a completely different perspective. Sometimes God needs to change our perspective to ask the right questions.

Greetings! Welcome to the show today. I hope all of our listeners today are faring as well as you can during this very unusual time. And I hope today's message of hope will be an encouragement to you.  Intro To Esther— Today we will be beginning a journey through one of my favorite books of the Bible, a book that has a message that is very relevant to some of the things we are facing right now. It is a story filled with plot and intrigue; love and passion; danger and courage. God's people are faced with annihilation; and yet they are saved by God's mighty hand through one of history's most important heroes; a young Jewish girl who, because of her obedience and trust in God's plan, saved God's people from certain destruction. And of course we know her as Esther. Mordecai— Now just to give you a little bit of background, God had sent the Jews into captivity for their failure to keep themselves free from false gods. But at this point they have been released from exile; yet there are many who still remain. And among these was a man by the name of Mordecai, a Jew whose great grandfather Kish was very likely carried away into the Babylonian captivity. And Mordecai (as elder cousin to Esther) plays a very key role in this story.  Authorship— Now we don't know who wrote the book of Esther (it is anonymous). However it had to be someone who had access to the records taken in Persia, and someone who also had a very strong interest in Jewish affairs. This as unusual combination, leading some (myself included) to think the author could very well have been Mordecai himself, who seems to have had some position in the king's palace. And his most important role in this story is the fatherly role he takes on for a young Jewish orphan girl named Esther. Hadassah the “Star” of God's Presence— Now Hadassah is her Jewish name. But the Persian name she is given is Esther, which means “star.” And this makes sense because in Persia (where this story takes place), astrology (using the stars to practice divination in order to learn the future) was a serious thing. Even today, the number of people who check their horoscopes is staggering. Paganism is very much alive today, let me tell you. Now the Wise men (the Magi) of Media and Persia were very into this kind of thing. And remember Daniel not too long before this was actually head of the wise men of Babylon/Media/Persia. And because of his faithfulness to God, God gave him understanding of visions and dreams, some of the very gifts that the Magi claimed to possess. And so Daniel rose to become head of the Magi. And in that position he no doubt was an ambassador on God's behalf, teaching the other wise men about the one true God, Yahweh, and may have revealed to them signs of a coming Messiah, using their own astrology to do it.  The Magi and the Star— And so when we come to the birth of Christ, it says Wise Men (Magi) came from the East, following a star; these men whose ancestors had most likely been influenced by Daniel back in his Babylonian captivity, and whose influence could still be felt in the Medo-Persian empire, which was still alive and well during the time of the birth of Christ. There was still a strong Jewish presence there even at the beginning of the New Testament; Jews who never left even after the exile was over. Many chose to stay, Esther and Mordecai being among them. But back to the Magi; that is most likely how they (the Magi) knew of the coming Messiah. And I want to make that connection for you because that star the Magi followed revealed the presence of God; there “with us”. That is the meaning of “Immanuel”; God with us. God Not Mentioned— But in the book of Esther, one of the perplexing things is that the word "God" is not mentioned anywhere in the book. We have the pagan Persian king Ahasuerus mentioned at least once in ever chapter, but God is never mentioned. Yet despite that we find that God is in fact the main character. Yet He is not revealed on a mountain; in a pillar of fire; or in a voice from heaven. No, we see His presence revealed in Esther and in how He moves and directs the events in her life to save His people from destruction. God doesn't speak through prophets in this book; we have no divine revelation; there are no miracles or signs from heaven. Instead God is behind the scenes, quietly guiding these events towards His purposes. And Esther (like the star of the Magi) is in a sense that star that reveals the presence of God; that reveals to Israel that God is still with them and is still their deliverer. Post-exile in Persia— And this was easy for them to forget. They had been carried into exile in Babylon. Then Babylon fell to Persia and Cyrus the Great came to power, the founder of the Persian Empire. And miracle of miracles, he allows Israel to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple. And not only does he allow Israel to return home to rebuild the temple, but even allows them to use the resources of Persia to do it!  Now Cyrus had a bit of strategy here. From what we know of history, his sending former captives back to their homeland was actually part of his overall strategy to help him strengthen his authority in those more remote parts of his empire. But regardless, it served Israel well. And it goes to show how quickly God can bring redemption and restoration to a people that truly repents. Looking Back to Egypt— Now you can say God was harsh in sending them into exile. But remember that this was an issue that God had wrestled with them over for hundreds of years, ever since He delivered them out of Egypt and that whole pagan culture. We know that there were times that they looked back in physical hunger, longing for what was familiar to them in Egypt. And that included paganism and idolatry. But God knew that though He delivered them out of slavery in Egypt, they would never be free (even after reaching the Promised Land) until they forsook their false gods and embraced Him (Yahweh) as the center of their reality and the sole recipient of their worship. And the same is true of us. You may not bow before a statue; an idol. But I am telling you, there ARE things we worship other than God; that we give ourselves to other than God that will bring us no life and will in fact produce death in us. And God knows it, which is why He fights so hard (even being willing to allow us to suffer for a while) in order that we might let go of those things and come to experience life in His very presence; before His very face. Lechem Panim (the bread of the presence of God in the tabernacle) was a reminder to them of that reality.  They Are Cured!— And one of my mentors pointed out to me that after this Israel never again fell into idolatry. God's judgment in sending them into exile worked. And the God who was holy enough to send them into captivity was also loving enough to bring them out. You can never separate God's holiness from His love. You can never separate God's holiness from His love. And that is how we ought to see God's judgment; as an extension of God's love. It is always redemptive; it is always constructive. In fact, it proves to us (as Hebrews 12:5-11 says) that He has accepted us as His children. Now some say America is too far gone to make any kind of significant spiritual turnaround. But I don't believe that for a minute. There is hope for our nation. But that hope lies not in our being able to sway major institutions, though we should always strive to do so. Our hope lies in the salvation, obedience, and consecration of normal everyday people; in the individual rather than the institution. Individuals, Not Institutions— One scholar I read often said something that has always stuck with me; and which is very important for us to remember in and throughout our study of this book. He says: We live in a day when most people believe that institutions are the determining factors. They declare that if we could just change institutions, then we could change society. This is the appeal of the politician. Scripture tantalizes us with the amount of space it devotes to individual people rather than institutions. People seem to be the tools that God uses to bring change. The implication is clear. Ultimately, persons determine institutions; institutions do not determine persons. The decisions that are made deep in the heart of an individual in the intimacy of aloneness with God are the decisions that will be historically significant for deciding the future. What God Can Do Through One Obedient Person— Herein lies our hope. It isn't going to be institutions that have the greatest impact on turning our country around; it's individual people like you and me who, as the darkness closes in, will choose to remain faithful to God. Nowhere in scripture is it more clearly shown to us what God can do through one obedient person to affect the course and the fate of a nation than right here in the book of Esther. An insignificant Jewish girl, through the providence of God and her obedience, changed the fate of a nation.  Our Potential Power— Now many of us may feel powerless when it comes to affecting change; I know I do; at least significant change on any kind of large scale. But what God wants you to understand today is that you have a power you can't even fathom; power that is released through your personal commitment to Christ to remain consecrated to Him. John Wesley said an amazing thing. He said, “Give me ten men that hate nothing but sin and love nothing but God and we will change the world.” It is important to note that he did. And there is no telling what God can do through you if you (like Daniel and Esther), even in the face of leadership that is telling you it is okay to do something else, still choose to do and to stand for the right thing. God can do great things through us. God is Present— And even when God may seem absent (like in the book of Esther, where His name is never even mentioned; and maybe that's the point), He is never more present even when we can't see Him. This is the message of the book of Esther. And it is His message for you and for me this week.  This week, may we live a lives that are characterized by true repentance. May we seek God with all of our hearts. And may you and experience (in every way) His redemption, His restoration, and His love for Us. Amen.

God hasn't called us to fit in and be moulded by the culture around us. Instead God wants us to RIOT - be Rebels in Our Time. Youth Pastor Bayanda Moyo shares at the very first RIOT Night at the Lighthouse Manchester on Sunday 9th February 2020

“We are beggars who are trying to show other beggars where we have found bread.”[1] It is impossible to speak directly about God. When it comes to God we have no choice beyond the language of paradox. You may have heard someone say that God does not exist. Most people today mean this in a dismissive way, that God is not real. But faithful theologians also point out another sense of this phrase. They explain that God does not exist as a thing in a world of things, in the way that a toaster, Rockridge Station, a California Poppy, or a fragment of serpentine rock does. Instead God is the creator, the source of everything, the active energy, the condition that constantly makes possible the world, and everything new. The twentieth century theologian Paul Tillich calls God “the Ground of Being.”[2] The other day a pattern of sand on my shoe reminded me of the shape of the constellation Orion and I had this thought. Rigel, one of Orion’s stars, could be as much as 363,000 times as luminous as our sun. And yet those massive stars are more insignificant in relation to the expanse of the entire universe than are these grains of sand to our planetary home.[3] Imagine what it is to be God for whom worlds are just specks you find on your shoe after coming in for a walk. Imagine what it is like to be God who comprehends and encloses centuries, millenia, light years, the origin and the outermost limits of all time and space. Of course, we cannot. We can never come close to grasping this mystical, enchanted, interconnected existence of ours. And we will not be satisfied. In our hearts we experience a striving, a yearning, a longing to be complete or whole or fulfilled. One of the most important ideas for the authors of the gospel is “fulfillment” (or in Greek plēroō). They write about the scripture being fulfilled in what is happening now. They say that Jesus came to fulfill the law. For them fulfillment is what happens when something that is an idea becomes real or is brought to life. To fulfill a responsibility means to do the thing we implicitly promised to do. Being fulfilled means becoming who we were created to be. The ancient writer Irenaeus says, “the glory of God is the human being fully alive.” This is the challenge of being human. Several months ago the Swiss Consul General invited me to speak about this at the premier of a new German language film about Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531). Zwingli was one of the primary leaders of the Reformation in the sixteenth century from his Grossmunster Church in Zurich. Deeply influenced by humanism and the thought of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) Zwingli had a passion for getting back to the sources of truth (ad fontes). For him this meant the Bible. In 1519 Zwingli had what we would call a near death experience after becoming sick with the plague. He wrote “Pestlied” or “Plague Song” about what had happened. He fervently believed that his life had been spared for a purpose. He finally understood what would fulfill his life. Zwingli believed that holy scripture is utterly distinct from anything else in human experience. So he abandoned the regular schedule of readings and began preaching his way through the whole Bible. In today’s reading the Prophet Isaiah denounces religious hypocrisy that cares more about ritual observance than how we treat the poor. Isaiah writes, “Why do we fast, but you do not see?... you fast only to quarrel” (Isa. 58). This was part of what radicalized Zwingli and led him to strongly oppose the city’s right to impose fasts on the citizens. Zwingli saw life in black and white terms. For him worship is an interior matter. Outward actions are only distractions from true worship which takes place in our hearts. He came to detest repetitive prayers, vestments, art, relics, ornament and even ritual. Imagine his Carolingian church Grossmunster completed in the year 1215 with interior decorations that had been only finished by 1518. Then between June 20 and July 2, 1524 Zwingli and his committee removed all art from the church.[4] Of all the reformers Zwingli loved music the most and had the greatest skills as a musician, but because he could find no evidence in the Bible of music as part of worship, music was banned in his church for a hundred years. Zwingli tragically wrote, “Farewell, my temple-murmurings! I am not sorry for you. I know that you are not good for me. But welcome, O pious, private prayer that is awakened in the hearts of believing men through the Word of God.”[5] All week I have been haunted by the mental picture of an organist weeping as the church organ was removed and destroyed. You might dismiss some of the Reformer’s actions as fanatical, but they were trying to answer the question how can we know God, how can our life be fulfilled? And although there is so much I disagree with them, they continue to help me to grow more deeply into God’s grace. For instance, John Calvin (1509-1564) writes that, “You cannot in one glance survey this most vast and beautiful system of the universe in its wide expanse without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of its brightness.”[6] He points out that in every moment God’s magnificent glory is obviously present to us and yet something about us makes it hard to see God. Something has gone wrong in us which he describes as sin. But that is not the end of the story for Calvin. Although we are lost and cannot hope to understand God on our own, we have Jesus who shows us God’s true loving nature. Calvin writes that the Bible is like a thread that we can follow to find our way through the vast maze of our life. For Calvin, a moment of instanteous conversion is far less important than a life of gradual sanctification as we grow closer to God. During our remaining time I want to show an example of how in the face of deep mysteries, God’s word helps us to navigate life. Just as the people of Zwingli and Calvin’s time had blindspots that we recognize as glaring shortcomings, we too are enthralled to myths that are invisible to us. One of the most powerful illusions of our time is what we call meritocracy. This is the belief that we are entirely responsible for what we become. David Brooks points out the way that this belief distorts our language as economic ideas come to describe non-economic experiences, so that “Character is no longer [about] love, service and care, but a set of workplace traits [such as] grit, productivity and self-discipline.”[7] Many people around us are “swallowed whole” by this illusion and cannot find meaning in anything other than their work.[8] In the face of our deep tendency to believe that we will only be acceptable or loved if we work hard and succeed, Jesus offers another way, a paradox that holds two truths together. This week at my clergy group we talked about what we had learned as priests. One of my younger colleagues talked about her cousin who never did anything for anyone else and then died of a drug overdose. We talked about how it is possible to waste your life, that what we do matters and has irrevocable consequences. In today’s Gospel, as we look for a way out of our illusions, Jesus holds this truth together with another, the truth that God loves us just as we are, without exception, no matter what. Jesus says that we are like a tiny bit of salt that has a larger than expected effect on the whole meal. No matter who we are, our life is like a light, that can be seen from a distance and can help someone find their way home. This goodness is so evident that it can no more be hid than Sutro Tower or the skyscrapers of downtown San Francisco. And yet the corresponding truth holds also. Jesus has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it “until all is accomplished” (Mt. 5). Our goodness is not what will save us, but we cannot dispense with it either. The Ten Commandments still hold. We are not loved because we are good. Our goodness is deepened because we know that we are loved. When the children’s television actor Mister Rogers was in seminary he and a friend went out of their way to go to hear a famous preacher. It was not until after the service began that they realized that the famous preacher wasn't there. Instead the sermon was given by a supply preacher who was in his eighties. Although Mister Rogers said that he had heard great sermons by octagenerian preachers this was not one of them. He called it one of the most poorly crafted sermons he had heard in his life. When he leaned over to his friend to express his relief that it was over, he noticed she had tears in her eyes. She whispered to him, “He said exactly what I needed to hear.” Mister Rogers thought about that moment for a long time, about how he had come to church in judgment and she had come in need, about how the Holy Spirit was able to take that weak sermon and speak to the heart of his friend. Rogers said, “That experience changed my life. Ever since then, I’ve been able to recognize that the space between someone who is offering the best he can and someone who is in need is Holy Ground.” We have always been seekers on our way to being fully alive. The oldest human-made image of Orion was carved 38,000 years ago by our ancestors on Whoolly Mamouth tusk discovered in Germany. It is impossible to speak directly about God. But this is the Holy Ground we inhabit. We are beggars trying to show other beggars where we have found bread. We are the salt. We are the light. We will be fulfilled. [1] D.T. Niles from David Brooks, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life (NY: Random House, 2019) xxii. [2] “Every understanding of spiritual things (Gesteswissenschafte) is circular.” Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, Volume One (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951) 9. [3] Wikipedia, “Orion” and “Rigel.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(constellation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigel [4] Margaret Ruth Miles, The Word Made Flesh: A History of Christian Thought (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005) 257. [5] “Farewell, my temple-murmurings! I am not sorry for you. I know that you are not good for me. But welcome, O pious, private prayer that is awakened in the hearts of believing men through the Word of God. Yes, a small sigh, which does not last long, realises itself and goes away again quickly. Greetings to you, common prayer that all Christians do together, be it in Church or in their chambers, but free and unpaid; I know that you are the sort of prayer to which God will give that which He promised.” Cited in Jeremy S. Begbie, Resounding Truth (Engaging Culture: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007). [6] “The universe is for us a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God, who is otherwise invisible.” John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion tr. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 52 (I.V.1). [7] David Brooks, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life (NY: Random House, 2019) 23. [8] Our belief in meritocracy is why we were so offended by last year’s college admissions scandal.

Nik Arezina, Pastor Matthew Perot, & Pastor Wade Sutherland ignite hearts with this message entitled, "The Path of Victory". When the Israelites were on the edge of the Promised Land... on the edge of receiving what God had promised, they grumbled in their tents and their hearts thinking that God hated them and wanted to destroy them. Instead God was carrying them all the way to victory! Our God is the one who leads us all the way to victory! We must become experts at following Him all the way even if we have never been "this way" before. God gives us the authority and power to trample our enemies...those that are internal within our own hearts and those enemies that are external! The God of Peace will soon crush satan under your feet (Romans 16:20). This Way of Victory...this Way of Holiness demands that we purify ourselves as we perfect holiness out of reverence for God (2 Corinthians 7:1). Listen to this sermon now and begin to trample your enemies as you follow Him all the way to victory!!

Nik Arezina, Pastor Matthew Perot, & Pastor Wade Sutherland ignite hearts with this message entitled, "The Path of Victory". When the Israelites were on the edge of the Promised Land... on the edge of receiving what God had promised, they grumbled in their tents and their hearts thinking that God hated them and wanted to destroy them. Instead God was carrying them all the way to victory! Our God is the one who leads us all the way to victory! We must become experts at following Him all the way even if we have never been "this way" before. God gives us the authority and power to trample our enemies...those that are internal within our own hearts and those enemies that are external! The God of Peace will soon crush satan under your feet (Romans 16:20). This Way of Victory...this Way of Holiness demands that we purify ourselves as we perfect holiness out of reverence for God (2 Corinthians 7:1). Listen to this sermon now and begin to trample your enemies as you follow Him all the way to victory!!

Nik Arezina, Pastor Matthew Perot, & Pastor Wade Sutherland ignite hearts with this message entitled, "The Path of Victory". When the Israelites were on the edge of the Promised Land... on the edge of receiving what God had promised, they grumbled in their tents and their hearts thinking that God hated them and wanted to destroy them. Instead God was carrying them all the way to victory! Our God is the one who leads us all the way to victory! We must become experts at following Him all the way even if we have never been "this way" before. God gives us the authority and power to trample our enemies...those that are internal within our own hearts and those enemies that are external! The God of Peace will soon crush satan under your feet (Romans 16:20). This Way of Victory...this Way of Holiness demands that we purify ourselves as we perfect holiness out of reverence for God (2 Corinthians 7:1). Listen to this sermon now and begin to trample your enemies as you follow Him all the way to victory!!

Nik Arezina, Pastor Matthew Perot, & Pastor Wade Sutherland ignite hearts with this message entitled, "The Path of Victory". When the Israelites were on the edge of the Promised Land... on the edge of receiving what God had promised, they grumbled in their tents and their hearts thinking that God hated them and wanted to destroy them. Instead God was carrying them all the way to victory! Our God is the one who leads us all the way to victory! We must become experts at following Him all the way even if we have never been "this way" before. God gives us the authority and power to trample our enemies...those that are internal within our own hearts and those enemies that are external! The God of Peace will soon crush satan under your feet (Romans 16:20). This Way of Victory...this Way of Holiness demands that we purify ourselves as we perfect holiness out of reverence for God (2 Corinthians 7:1). Listen to this sermon now and begin to trample your enemies as you follow Him all the way to victory!!

Nik Arezina, Pastor Matthew Perot, & Pastor Wade Sutherland ignite hearts with this message entitled, "The Path of Victory". When the Israelites were on the edge of the Promised Land... on the edge of receiving what God had promised, they grumbled in their tents and their hearts thinking that God hated them and wanted to destroy them. Instead God was carrying them all the way to victory! Our God is the one who leads us all the way to victory! We must become experts at following Him all the way even if we have never been "this way" before. God gives us the authority and power to trample our enemies...those that are internal within our own hearts and those enemies that are external! The God of Peace will soon crush satan under your feet (Romans 16:20). This Way of Victory...this Way of Holiness demands that we purify ourselves as we perfect holiness out of reverence for God (2 Corinthians 7:1). Listen to this sermon now and begin to trample your enemies as you follow Him all the way to victory!!

It is fortunate for us that Jesus did not come confined by preconceived expectations of judgment and wrath. Because there aren’t too many ways for an implacable God to respond to a misguided, stubborn self-determination. Imposing our own free will be done, puts God in a box, allowing now room for divine flexibility. We may just end up sentencing ourselves for everlasting life to some kind of self-made Kafkaesque prison, a hellish metamorphism with no exit. Fortunately, again, for us God fails to conform to popular expectations. Instead God surprises us. Jesus did not come to create an earthly empire. Jesus came to establish God’s reign.

It is fortunate for us that Jesus did not come confined by preconceived expectations of judgment and wrath. Because there aren’t too many ways for an implacable God to respond to a misguided, stubborn self-determination. Imposing our own free will be done, puts God in a box, allowing now room for divine flexibility. We may just end up sentencing ourselves for everlasting life to some kind of self-made Kafkaesque prison, a hellish metamorphism with no exit. Fortunately, again, for us God fails to conform to popular expectations. Instead God surprises us. Jesus did not come to create an earthly empire. Jesus came to establish God’s reign.

Galatians 3:15-29 (ICB)15 Brothers, let me give you an example: Think about an agreement that a person makes with another person. After that agreement is accepted by both people, no one can stop that agreement or add anything to it. 16 God made promises to Abraham and his descendant. God did not say, “and to your descendants.” That would mean many people. But God said, “and to your descendant.” That means only one person; that person is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: God had an agreement with Abraham and promised to keep it. The law, which came 430 years later, cannot change God’s promise to Abraham. 18 Can following the law give us what God promised? No! If this is so, it is not God’s promise that brings us the blessings. Instead God freely gave his blessings to Abraham through the promise he had made.19 So what was the law for? The law was given to show the wrong things people do. It continued until the special descendant of Abraham came. God’s promise was about this descendant. The law was given through angels who used Moses for a mediator[a] to give the law to men. 20 But a mediator is not needed when there is only one side. And God is only one.21 Does this mean that the law is against God’s promises? Never! If there were a law that could give men life, then we could be made right by following that law. 22 But this is not true, because the Scriptures showed that the whole world is bound by sin. This was so that the promise would be given through faith. And it is given to people who believe in Jesus Christ.23 Before this faith came, we were all held prisoners by the law. We had no freedom until God showed us the way of faith that was coming. 24 So the law was our master until Christ came. After Christ came, we could be made right with God through faith. 25 Now the way of faith has come, and we no longer live under the law.26-27 You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 28 Now, in Christ, there is no difference between Jew and Greek. There is no difference between slaves and free men. There is no difference between male and female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus. 29 You belong to Christ. So you are Abraham’s descendants. You get all of God’s blessings because of the promise that God made to Abraham.Think back to playing games as a kid after school. Remember the arguments that ensued over an out-of-bounds call in basketball or a safe/out call in kickball? We knew the rules, but our selfish desire led us to yell, and even fight, over calls that didn’t go our way. It often took a mediator, like a teacher or parent, to correct the dispute.The same way we needed a mediator for kickball and basketball, we need a mediator in our spiritual lives. Sin caused a rebellion between people and God, and we cannot restore the relationship on our own.Jesus is the mediator who brings God and His people together. When God chose Israel to be His people, He gave Moses a set of commands called the law. The law established guiding principles for God’s people to follow. The law didn’t save people from their sin; it taught them how to be holy until a mediator arrived who could settle the dispute between our desires and God’s desires (

Today we read Exodus 30:1-Leviticus 4:26, and there were so many scriptures to choose from, but I settled on Exodus 31:3. There, we are told that God has filled a man (Bezalel) with the Spirit of God; and this is the first time we see that language in the Bible. Bezalel is what some would call an ordinary man. He is clearly not as holy as Moses because Moses is invited up to the mountain to talk with God, and it is because of his holiness that he is permitted to go up. But Bezalel is at the bottom of the mountain. This text reveals how God can use unholy people to do a holy thing. Moses is entrusted with the details of the ark but God doesn’t let Moses build it himself. Instead God places his Spirit in/on Bezalel so that he can create what Moses could only conceive. Bezalel shows us the power that happens in a person when God breathes His spirit on their skill. Moses shows us the importance of leading without micromanaging. And this text shows us how God will sometimes connect us with people that most wouldn’t assume we should connect with—because they don’t come dressed in the garb of holiness and righteousness. But they have the skill to make it happen.  Lesson: Look for divine partnerships in unexpected places. Who knows what God is up to? Perhaps the person you hire, or the company you partner with, will come into the knowledge of Christ because of your willingness to work together. Who knows what happened to Bezalel as he built the ark of the covenant? And lastly Bezalel and others were competent to do what you can’t do. There are some things we don’t need to worry about, when we trust God and trust the people God sends our way!!!

An encounter with God in His holiness produced the fear and confession that brought Isaiah redemption and then made him a messenger of that redemption to others. Facing the holiness of God seems unsafe and people suppress coming before this fearful holy God. But they do it to their own hurt. The people refuse to turn to this holy God. They will not confront their own sin. So they do not find Him as their redeemer. Instead God lets them be worn down under the consequences of their own selfish, sinful pride and rebellion-worn down to the roots, cut down to the stump. But there God says a holy seed will be in the stump. God, even in hardships, was pursuing bringing redemption to the people. It is painful to watch the suffering of those who fight against God's encroachment on their lives. They suffer- If they are His they suffer- until finally they are broken and ready to cry out their confession to Him.

Download an MP3 of this message July 6 & 7, 2019 - The pace of life seems to get faster, more agitated and less peaceful. This is not God’s design for us. Instead God instructs us to set aside one day a week, a Sabbath. Why? To rest our minds, refocus our hearts, and most importantly, replenish our souls with Him and His community.

We all get offended. Jesus, however, did not bring any offense to anyone except to his Father. The message of Jesus was one of forgiveness and peace. He told stories to explain the extraordinary degree of forgiveness for which we are given and expected to give others. Even through his death on the cross, Jesus was not offended by those who crucified him. Instead he asked God to forgive for them acknowledging they didn't know what they were doing. (See Luke 23:24) Through the sacrifice of Christ, God gave up his right to be offended by our behaviors. Instead God's grace flows down and we are forgiven, We are called to do the same. How and who we forgive or do not forgive is what we will receive in return.

The story of Jesus and the ‘rich man’ is a sad one. The man struts up to Jesus thinking he has it all together but goes away sad because he has great wealth. If only he had stuck around to hear the rest of Jesus’ teaching. Wealth and the Kingdom of God are something Jesus regularly talked about because our wealth is an integral part of who we are. Our bank accounts, jobs, and mortgages all inform our decisions but Jesus taught us about wealth not because he wanted us to get rid of these aspects of our lives but because he wanted us to reprioritise them.Following Jesus is about putting him at the forefront of your life. It’s easy to pretend you follow God; the rich man was great at doing this, but Jesus easily exposed where his heart was at by challenging him to give it all up. Could we live without our possessions? Yes, definitely! Can we live without Jesus, definitely not!The story of Jesus and the ‘rich man’ is sad for the man but should fill us with joy. If our citizenship in the kingdom of heaven depended on our ability to give up our possessions, then like a camel trying to go through the eye of a needle, we would all fail. Instead God has made it possible for us to enter his presence despite our failures and this is the good news. If salvation depended on us we’d be stuffed. Instead God has made a way for us to come into his presence. That’s why it’s vital that we put him ahead of anything, including out wealth, because when we do so everything falls into place! DBQuestionsWhat do you value more than Jesus?How can you put Jesus at the forefront of your priorities? How can you encourage others to do the same?PrayerGracious God, thank you that you have given me everything I have. Help me not to let my possessions weigh me down or distract me from you. Help me to put you first and use all I have to reflect your glory to others. Amen!


Striving, self effort and human effort should have no place in the life of a Christian. Instead God wants us to live in divine rest that comes out of a place of intimacy with Him

Striving, self effort and human effort should have no place in the life of a Christian. Instead God wants us to live in divine rest that comes out of a place of intimacy with Him

Striving, self effort and human effort should have no place in the life of a Christian. Instead God wants us to live in divine rest that comes out of a place of intimacy with Him

Striving, self effort and human effort should have no place in the life of a Christian. Instead God wants us to live in divine rest that comes out of a place of intimacy with Him

In today’s study, Pastor Gary examines the problem Judah had of turning to Egypt for help against the Assyrian army instead of turning to God. It wasn’t until they had depleted their resources and exhausted their own efforts that the people of Judah finally turned to God. When they did, God wasn’t angry and did not shame His people. There were no “I warned you” or “you should have listened to me” or “I told you so” comments. Instead God had been waiting for them and eagerly helped them because he is a gracious and compassionate God. And that’s how he treats us too. If you’ve been estranged from God, or if you’ve become exhausted trying to do life without Him; if you have a hard time trusting God and surrendering to Him, then follow along in today’s study entitled, “God is Waiting for You.”

In today’s study, Pastor Gary examines the problem Judah had of turning to Egypt for help against the Assyrian army instead of turning to God. It wasn’t until they had depleted their resources and exhausted their own efforts that the people of Judah finally turned to God. When they did, God wasn’t angry and did not shame His people. There were no “I warned you” or “you should have listened to me” or “I told you so” comments. Instead God had been waiting for them and eagerly helped them because he is a gracious and compassionate God. And that’s how he treats us too. If you’ve been estranged from God, or if you’ve become exhausted trying to do life without Him; if you have a hard time trusting God and surrendering to Him, then follow along in today’s study entitled, “God is Waiting for You.”

Daniel's enemies attempt to entrap him by making his integrity work against him rather than for him. Instead God uses their lack of integrity to entrap them. What can we learn from Daniel's integrity and how can we grow in integrity?

Daniel's enemies attempt to entrap him by making his integrity work against him rather than for him. Instead God uses their lack of integrity to entrap them. What can we learn from Daniel's integrity and how can we grow in integrity?

Daniel's enemies attempt to entrap him by making his integrity work against him rather than for him. Instead God uses their lack of integrity to entrap them. What can we learn from Daniel's integrity and how can we grow in integrity?

A homily preached by Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC December 24, 2017, Christmas Eve. Note: The homily begins at 51:00 in the mp3 file.   Text:  Luke 2:1-20   Imagine that you are a composer who has gained a faithful audience over the years. Though some haven’t heard or don’t pay attention of your work, the harmony and rhythms, the tension and resolution in your music are loved by many. But you are determined to reach different audiences, to bring people together around your music.  So you break out of the normal mode, you use different instruments, perhaps, or play with old melodic themes in new ways and create a whole new kind of sound and music.  It’s a risk to do something unexpected.  Will people get what you’re trying to do? What you’re trying to communicate? //  Then it comes time for the new work’s big debut.  Opening night.  Your creative vision and passion have been poured into what you will share.  It’s your heart behind the curtain.  And it is pounding…anticipating…hopeful…  And when the curtain rises, what you have conceived in your heart is out there in the world to be received or rejected.  To be taken in and cherished or ignored and forgotten.    Tonight, we commemorate an extraordinary opening night, we remember when the curtain rose on our creator, composer God’s most ambitious performance ever.  A whole new movement of love.  It’s an inspiring risk.  This opening night is God’s heart laid bare, vulnerable and breathing in the world—and not some ideal world, but this world, the same world we inhabit tonight.  This offering is a profound act of hope…God’s hope that we will receive and nurture the gift, that we will shield it and help it grow, that we will share its beauty and power with others.  The curtain rises tonight on the birth of Jesus, the light of the world, the perfect love of God in flesh, the hope of God for the world…the hope of the world for God… //   The ones first invited to this premiere were out in the fields, shepherds minding their own business when, all of a sudden, the world is invaded with messengers and messages from God. They hear news—good news—about a child who has been born, a child who will be a Savior.  They’re told where to go to find this child.   The shepherds have a choice at this point.  They can either believe the mysterious and wonderful news that they have just received and accept the invitation to go or they can talk themselves out of it…. “after all it was probably just my eyes playing tricks, my ears imagining music, my heart yearning so much for some good news that I made the whole thing up, and why would I be invited to witness such a thing?”….  But instead of allowing mere rationality or cynicism to rule, those shepherds let hope win.  I once read that what happens next is that the shepherds “rush off in pursuit of hopefulness.”   And, as the story goes, they weren’t disappointed.  They found everything just as the angels had said.  In that humble place were Mary and Joseph and a baby boy.  The spot of starlight fell upon the scene. And from the manger, in that new life, there radiated love and truth and hope and grace, the very heart of God on the world’s stage. //   And here we are, responding to the invitation to come and watch the curtain rise once again on this simple and glorious scene, this movement of God’s love for us, the act of God’s yearning and God’s hope.  Why do we come again and again?  I imagine that, like the shepherds, we are in pursuit of hopefulness.    We want to hope.  We need to hope.  And we live in a world overrun with realities that inspire anything but hopefulness.  Every year we travel the long road from Bethlehem to Bethlehem, those twisting and turning 12 months that separate this night from the next Christmas Eve.  And in the course of that yearly journey, the hope that supposedly “springs eternal in the human breast,” gets battered and bruised and chipped away and used up so that by the time we wander into a sanctuary on Christmas, we need to be filled, we need our hope to be born again so that it can carry us through the journey of another year—or even another day.   The shepherds set out in pursuit of hopefulness with the promise of the angels still ringing in their ears.  They would be given a sign that they had found the source of their hope:  the sign was that baby of Bethlehem lying in a manger.  And they found their sign.  They got to see him, maybe even hold him.  Their pursuit of hopefulness was not a vain search.  Hope came to life in that baby.   Where is our sign?  What will be our sign that our hope-thirsty souls have found what they seek?  On this night, I hear the angel chorus speaking to all of us gathered here saying, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people”…for tonight in Washington, DC and in towns and suburbs and villages and hillsides around the world, people are singing God’s song, are gathering to worship God, to pray for peace, to be filled with grace through Jesus Christ.  And this will be a sign for you:  you will find yourselves in the midst of this world-wide congregation, maybe not even certain of why you are there.   In a world where fear and anger and distrust and greed and brokenness often seem to be the dominant powers; in a world that often seems bent on its own destruction, it is no small thing to pursue hopefulness.  And yet tonight and tomorrow millions of people will gather to sing, to tell the story, and to be filled with the hope that is born in and through Jesus.  This is our sign, our flesh and blood reality that confirms that our own pursuit of hopefulness is not in vain.  Because when people in drought-stricken, AIDS and Malaria-stricken Africa gather in hope; when people in the Middle East gather in hope; when people in South and North Korea gather in hope; when people standing in the rubble left behind from fires and hurricanes and floods sing the songs of Christmas; when people who are standing on the brink of disaster and despair and deportation gather together and light candles and drink from the well of Christian hope even in the face of every other kind of hunger and thirst, then it’s hard not to see at least a glimmer of hope ourselves.  Christian hope does not deny the circumstances of the present, and hope doesn’t help us get out of our difficulties.  But hope does give us the vision for God’s future, a future we can pursue, a song we can sing together.  In the book of the prophet Jeremiah, God speaks to the people when they had lost everything—their homes, their faith, their traditions, everything.  God speaks to them saying, “I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer. 29:11)   A future and a hope.  That is the promise.  And the claim we make however insufficiently or awkwardly, is that God did not abandon that promise.  God does not abandon hope in the world.  Not then.  Not now.  Instead God entrusts to the world God’s own tender son.  God has enough hope in the world to share the most precious life with us.  And because of that gift, the world has never been the same; because of the transforming power of the love that beats in that baby’s heart, the world has the possibility of hope forever.  Because of the love of God in Jesus Christ, we walk through even the darkest, longest night, across the most uncertain, frightening terrain, clinging to our hope in the God who clings to us.  Don’t give up on hope.  God hasn’t given up hope in us.   All around the world tonight the curtain has risen again, starlight shines, and the movement of love and grace and justice moves out into the world afresh.  Will you receive this most precious offering from our God? Will you, with God’s help, sing God’s song of love not just tonight but throughout the coming year?  O beloved ones, sing…sing and be the sign that others seek.   Let us pray: Loving, composer God, may we have the courage to hope, to receive your outpouring of love, to cradle and shelter the Holy One, to sing your song, and be worthy of your astonishing hope in us. Amen.    

As we begin to delve into today’s readings, I invite you to look at the beginning words in your bulletin.  There we read: Open a newspaper, turn on the TV, read online – everywhere we look, the world is crumbling about us.  War, violence, natural disasters, hateful words, anger, and hostility litter our cultural landscape like so much garbage along a highway.  Even within our own homes, sin, death, and the devil seem to have the upper hand.  Anger, betrayal, mistrust, and manipulation hang rotting on the vine, rather than the lush, sweet grapes of love, care and forgiveness we expect and desire.  And if we take but a moment for self-reflection, we notice that it is our own selfishness and hard-heartedness that contribute to this state of affairs.  We are indeed “captive to sin and cannot free ourselves” as we confess in worship.            These words were not written this past week.  They were written almost two years ago for this Sunday by a handful of leaders in our denomination as they formed and created ELCA resources for this church year.  Yet, how fitting they are on this day as we reflect upon the events of this past week, let alone the events of these past few months and all that we have experienced.  In fact, over the past week, following the massacre in Las Vegas, I have been feeling the weight and sadness these printed words express.  They are timely words and they connect to our readings because today we hear something about judgement and lament.           In today’s readings we hear a lot about vineyards, a metaphor used many times in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  We are invited to consider the “vineyard” as God’s dominion and we, by virtue of our baptisms, are the tenants of the vineyard.   In our first reading, the prophet Isaiah begins by singing a love-song concerning his beloved’s vineyard.  When looking at Isaiah’s words, I think he gains the attention of his listening audience when he begins to sing this love-song.  And, like us, the people who listened to Isaiah’s song likely expected to hear of a ballad with a happy ending.  Isaiah sings of how God, his beloved did everything possible to set up a healthy, thriving vineyard. He tells of how God spared no effort to create an environment conducive to success.  The soil was fertile and cultivated; the stones were removed; only the finest quality vines were planted; a watchtower was built in the middle of the vineyard; and a wine vat was built in preparation for the harvesting and processing of the grapes. The love-song is most pleasant to the ears, and listeners’ heartstrings are touched by the nurturing care of the beloved. Yes, the prophet Isaiah is serenading us with such a beautiful love song.          But wait, before you fall asleep with these tender words; listen to what follows. As the iconic Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” Isaiah’s love-song is transformed into song of hard-hitting judgement and lament. Maybe we can gain the sense of such an unpleasant surprise by thinking of the love-song as a gentle, bedtime lullaby which is suddenly transformed into a condemning, raunchy, deafening heavy-metal rock-and-roll song.          In any case, the irony of the song comes to the forefront when Isaiah, speaking for God, asks the people of Jerusalem and Judah to “judge between me and my vineyard.”  In other words, the people are asked to judge between God on the one side, and Jerusalem and Judah on the other.  In an agonizing song of judgement and lament, God tells his people that there was nothing more God could do to guarantee the success of God’s own vineyard.  God had done everything that could possibly be done. And, quite honestly, implied here in the song is the human freedom that God gives us. In the song, God the beloved expects the best from God’s people: “God expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” And, by the way, a more literal translation of “wild grapes” would be “stinking things.”  So, the consequences of freedom being misused or abused is that a well-cared for vineyard becomes neglected and turns into a dried-out wasteland of briers and thorns and stinking things.          The concluding verse of the song makes it abundantly clear that the vineyard represents God’s chosen people. God expected and hoped the people would ensure that there was justice for everyone in the nation. Instead of justice, the wealthy class of politicians and business people were killing society’s weakest and most vulnerable citizens. Blood was on the hands of the rich and powerful members of society, since their wealth was gained by cheating and robbing society’s poorest class. God expected and hoped for righteousness from God’s very own people. Instead God heard a cry from the poor and oppressed. God expected God’s own people to look after the poor and oppressed; after all, those who were now blessed with wealth and the good life – had they and their ancestors not cried out to the LORD when they were poor and oppressed slaves in Egypt?  Had God not heard their cries and delivered them from Egyptian slavery? Why now had they abused their freedom and become selfish and greedy? They, with their blood money and ill-gotten riches were no better than their former enemy oppressors – the Egyptians.          In our day and age, has anything really changed?  Don’t we hear stories of injustice and ill-gotten gain today? Our planet is moaning and groaning due to the selfishness and greed of a minority of the world’s population. 795 million people in this world experience hunger every day.  Increasingly, hateful, venomous words are spoken to others as our words become weapons.   Countless numbers of people are hurting following recent hurricanes and earthquakes.  And, we have just experienced the largest mass murder in our country.  Do we hear the cries of suffering and how do we respond?  Are we really a caring society?          God’s love, care, and protection come with an expectation:  justice and righteousness.  These are the fruits God longs to see flourish in us.  The blessings and nurture we receive are meant to result in right social relationships.  Justice and righteousness are not things we practice for extra credit; they are the main point.  God is not content until the blessings we receive are shared fairly with all.  If this fruit is not produced, the consequences may be that God allows us to have our own way and leaves us to our own devices.          In today’s gospel reading, Jesus borrows Isaiah’s words when he tells the allegorical parable of the Wicked Tenants.  God, the landowner, has called us to work in the vineyard of the world.  But, we decide we want the fruits of the land for ourselves and we refuse to give back to God that which is rightfully God’s.  And we beat and mistreat and murder those who would call us to be responsible.  And what does God the landowner do in response?  God keeps sending servants, until finally God sends God’s own Son, who also is mistreated and ultimately killed.  But, the point of this story is that God goes to such great lengths for us because God never gives up on us.  This is the amazing part of Jesus’ story, and the part that is too often missed.  Like the crazy landowner in this parable, God is constantly working to establish a relationship with us and God never gives up, no matter how many servants are treated badly.   And, that’s the thing about God’s grace – it isn’t sensible, it isn’t logical – it just abundantly is!          This parable Jesus tells is about the abundant and extravagant grace that God has for us!  In this parable Jesus is illustrating how God goes to extravagant, excessive, even illogical and crazy extents to shower this love and grace upon us.  And no matter how many times we reject God, God keeps at it.  God keeps working on establishing a relationship with us!          So, as I continue to reflect upon the events of this past week, today’s readings not only call me to repentance and grieve the evil in our present culture, they also remind me of a God who never gives up on us.  The Son is continually redeeming creation and this God never lets us forget that we are the characters in God’s divine love song. God is always showering us with immeasurable grace and love.  And, as a tenant in the vineyard, I can only respond by working to bear good fruit.  As people of faith, we respond to God’s immeasurable grace by bearing the sweet grapes of love, care and forgiveness and letting God use us as we work for peace, righteousness, loving kindness, mercy and God’s restorative justice for all. 

In our Gospel this Sunday we hear that God does not always want to uproot the weeds (evil) in the midst of our community. Evil insinuates itself so that if it were to be uprooted, we would be uprooted along with it. Instead God turns the weeds in an opportunity for grace and sainthood. This is the genius of our God, who can turn something as ugly as a cross into something that becomes a symbol of love and forgiveness.

After 70 years of ministry, Morris Cerullo became so sick he begged God to take him home. Instead God healed him, then sent Morris to help YOU walk in the “rhythm of miracles”!

After 70 years of ministry, Morris Cerullo became so sick he begged God to take him home. Instead God healed him, then sent Morris to help YOU walk in the “rhythm of miracles”!

After 70 years of ministry, Morris Cerullo became so sick he begged God to take him home. Instead God healed him, then sent Morris to help YOU walk in the “rhythm of miracles”!

After 70 years of ministry, Morris Cerullo became so sick he begged God to take him home. Instead God healed him, then sent Morris to help YOU walk in the “rhythm of miracles”!

As we enter Acts 16, Paul is setting out on his second missionary journey, and due to his falling out with Barnabas, he is taking Silas with him this time. They meet Timothy a young believer at Lystra, who Paul also includes in their journey, and from the language, we believe Luke, the writer of Acts joins them as well. It is at this point that they seem to hit opposition to their plans and directions. Instead God seems to have a plan for them to go over to Greece and bring the gospel into the continent of Europe. Pastor Steve teaches through this passage the importance of listening to God and being able to submit ourselves to his plans, even giving up good or godly plans that might just not be *God's* plan for us!

In the midst of a broken world, with bad news surrounding us we can't be a paralyzed people. Instead God has called us to do something in the midst of the chaos. To be a people that please Him. Taught by Kenny Stone

The criteria for being a Christian is not about being religious. Instead God calls us into a personal relationship with Him so that He can be involved in every area of our lives. In this message Jean-Louis focuses on the book of James, showing that it's God's desire for us to draw closer to Him, so that He can then draw ever nearer to us.