Recap from last week a. Mike started a new series on discipleship. b. Jesus calls us to be his disciples as: i. Followers of Jesus ii. Apprentices of Jesus iii. To become like Him Discipleship and Lordship a. What is Lordship and how does it relate to discipleship? My special interest in the topic. Share from my own story: a. Saved at 14 at a youth camp, I had an understanding and desire of Jesus now being in charge of my life. b. Faith during most of my teenage years was

John 15:5-17 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be m

To grasp what Jesus is doing in this passage we need to look back to the very first book in the Bible, to Genesis 2:7, to the moment when “ the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into His nostrils the ruach of life (the breath of life); and the man became a living being.” The moment that started it all for humankind — God breathing life into a mound of soil and the soil became flesh. It is this moment that Jesus is building upon and adding to i

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King (John 12:12-19) 12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” 16 At fi

From “Our World Belongs to God:” 23. Remembering the promise to reconcile the world to himself, God joined our humanity in Jesus Christ— the eternal Word made flesh. He is the long-awaited Messiah, one with us and one with God, fully human and fully divine, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. The ONLY ONE, who emptied Himself like this: Philippians 2:6-7 “For though he was in the form (the very nature) of God, did not count equality with God a

If you were to summarize the whole Old Testament with just 4 people/4 stories in addition to Adam and Eve, what would they be? In these weeks leading up to Easter, we've been using "Our World Belongs to God: A Contemporary Testamony" as a framework for what leads up to Easter's great celebration. Two weeks ago we started with Creation. 8. In the beginning, God—Father, Word, and Spirit— called this world into being out of nothing, and gave it shape and order... and everythin

13. In the beginning of human history, our first parents walked with God. But rather than living by the Creator’s word of life, they listened to the serpent’s lie and fell into sin. In their rebellion they tried to be like God. As sinners, Adam and Eve feared the nearness of God and hid. Genesis 3:1-8 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in t

“Our church has been motivated to see that we owe this world a clear witness to our Lord, a contemporary statement of our hope and of the light of the gospel. Therefore we have taken as our theme for this testimony, ‘Our World Belongs to God!’ by this theme we wish to proclaim God’s rule in a world that thinks it is out of control or that it’s controlled by human technique.” CREATION: 7. Our world belongs to God— not to us or earthly powers, not to demons, fate, or chance.

Good morning. Today I have been tasked with our final teaching on Epiphany with an emphasis on the inclusion of outsiders. And if I’m being honest, this has been the hardest teaching to write for me so far – and it’s not because the topic isn’t interesting, or because I’m not particularly passionate about what I’m going to speak to, but because it feels so enormous that I’m nervous I won’t get it right, or that I’m going to miss big chunks of this important story because ther

I offered to share at one of the Advent readings, and I probably should have paid more attention to the selection process, because if I had picked one, it would not have been a meditation on God’s love. Perhaps this seems strange as it must be the commonest component of Sunday school lessons. But it is precisely the depth and breadth of the topic which feels overwhelming to me. Where to start? However, as with many things, the hardest things are often the most rewarding. I am