When we buy a book, car or home we consider it “ours.” We have the receipt, title and/or bill of sale to prove that the product, building and land is ours. When we are given an unexpected day off, that day is “ours.” Yet, a careful reading of the Bible reveals that we, who are students of Jesus and lovers of God, are not ultimately owners but stewards. “Stewardship” is the management of the property or resources belonging to another in order to achieve the owner’s objectives. In this message we discover that God, the Owner of everything, is clear to reveal both his objectives, through his written word, and to give us a perfect example of stewardship, through his Son, his living word. This is great news for all who long to hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
As we discovered last week, receiving God’s grace and forgiveness through faith in Jesus leads to a fresh start in a whole new life. Yet, this is just the beginning. After we believe in Jesus, he extends a new invitation, “Abide in me.” To abide means to live in a close continual dependent relationship with our resurrected Christ through the presence of his Holy Spirit who indwells all who put their faith in him. In this message we discover more about this beautiful way of life as well as the rewards for all who rsvp with a “yes” to this incredible invitation.
As we begin our fall series entitled ‘A Life of Love: Marks of a Disciple of Jesus’, we look directly to Jesus who demonstrates astounding love toward a notoriously sinful woman and toward all of us. Our capacity to love God and others is fueled by our understanding of God’s love for us. When we grasp our true identity as forgiven, beloved children of God, a whole new life is given to us. So in this opening message we celebrate the unconditional love of God available to you and me because of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Today’s service focuses on praising God for inviting ordinary people to join Him in bringing His love to people of every nation until His vision to be glorified throughout the whole earth is fulfilled. We are grateful for and extend a loving welcome to Don and Janet Guizzetti, as well as some of our teens, for joining us today, modeling this way of life and reminding us of this beautiful reality during our service today.
The world is packed full of hopeless, dark, desperate, dead-end situations. God’s people often find themselves in seemingly hopeless situations. But, how do God’s faithful ones see the world around them and respond? They see the world with God’s very own eyes! They see themselves, other people, and situations the way God sees them. This is how Elisha lived – by faith, by the eyes of God. If we are Christ’s hands and feet, we ought to see the world with His very own eyes.
These four verses are one of those “head-nodders” of scripture. One of these short nuggets that’s easily passed by, because it makes enough sense and sounds familiar enough on the surface, not to feel the need to go deeper. But when we engage Jesus’ words, we find more there than we first realized. Our eyes are the lens through which we perceive reality, and they’re closely connected to our hearts. What we see informs what we serve, and what we serve informs what we see. What we believe leads to what we perceive. What we choose to focus on, leads to what we become. Jesus is the light that our eyes need to be focused on, to expose our own inner darkness, so that we can become wholly bright!
The heroes of the Old Testament that Pastor Kaskubar presented two weeks ago delivered the messages God gave them for their day, but they were unable to make out the future and see clearly how God would provide salvation from sin and its consequences for the human race (Hebrews 11:13). If they stepped into a time machine and saw what happened in Acts 2, they would be amazed to find that God created the church through the Holy Spirit’s power to be the vehicle for reaching out in love to a lost world with wonderful resources at our disposal.
Maybe more than any other way, humans understand our reality through story. We just spent 31 weeks journeying together through The Story, an abridged version of the Bible from Genesis through Revelation. The last 7 weeks, we’ve been working our way through the Parables of Jesus; story was his most preferred method of communicating the Kingdom he was ushering in, to the…
After Jesus presented the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, He did something unexpected and rare. He declared the story’s meaning in a clear memorable statement: God humbles the proud and exalts the humble. Have you ever wondered how to grow in humility? In this message you will discover answers to questions like: What is humility? How does God reward the humble? Why does humility rule in the Kingdom of God? and How can we cultivate humble hearts?
Like detours on a trip, redirecting our time to serve someone in need can be frustrating. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus reminds us that, though we cannot serve everyone in need, we each can serve at least one. When we do, we embark on an unknown journey that may get messy. Yet, these types of detours are tangible opportunities to abide in Christ and join in his vision and prayer for God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven.