“Shining in the Darkness” on Matthew 5:13-16 by Joe Ellis — September 25, 2022
“You are the Light of the world." This is what God’s people, Israel, were always meant to be — Israel was always meant to be a Light, telling the other nations about the one True God. Take Isaiah 51: “Listen to me, my people, hear me, my nation: Instruction will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations." This calling is repeated again in Isaiah 60: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers
“The Beatitudes” on Matthew 5:1-12 by Joe Ellis – Sept. 18, 2022
If you’re joining us for the first time this Sunday, we are beginning a walk through of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” This is the title given to one of Jesus’ most famous collection of sayings found in chapters 5 through 7 in Matthew. For the past few weeks we’ve been looking at the events that happened right before Jesus preached his famous sermon. The reason we did so, was because those stories help us understand what the people listening to Jesus would have been expecting
“Following the Voice of Jesus” on Matthew 4:1-11, 4:18-25 by Joe Ellis — September 11, 2022
We are preparing to climb the Sermon on the Mount, but last week and this week, we are doing a little training in base camp work first. The Sermon on the Mount refers to the collection of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5-7. Last week, I brought a map to help orient us around what the sermon is all about. It was the acronym VIM: Vision - Intention - Means. Which is basically a framework for working towards a goal you want to achieve. In order to set about accomplishing any dif
“Vision Behind the Sermon” on Matthew 4:12-17 by Joe Ellis - Sept. 4, 2022
In his book “Reformation of the Heart,” Dallas Willard talks about how three things are necessary to pursue and achieve a goal. First you need a Vision, then you need an Intention to pursue it, and then you need a Means of accomplishing the vision. You can remember it with the acronym VIM: Vision, Intention, and Means. In order to reach a goal, you need to have a compelling vision of what that goal actually is. How will things be different if you actually achieve this goa
