God knows. What does that statement mean to you? Is it terrifying? Is it comforting? Both are right and reasonable responses. God knows us in our sin, our brokenness, and our rebellion. He also knows us in our pain, our suffering, and our loneliness. How can you find comfort and hope in a God who knows? The answer is in His Son who came and who knows.
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Born under a cloud of darkness. Placed in a basket in the Nile River. Saved by an Egyptian Princess. Moses’s story feels so distant and removed from us today, but his story is a picture of our own story and the gospel.
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What does it look like to be #blessed by God? Do you get money? Security? Friends? A job? A great spouse? Beautiful kids? What happens when you get those things, and it starts to feel more like a curse? In God’s timing and plan, it can be nearly impossible to tell the difference between pain, suffering, cursing, and blessing. It’s in these times we have to remember that God is always at work.
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It can be easy to think that we have accomplished great things when great things happen. So often though, it is God standing right over our shoulder that really is driving our accomplishments. It’s by His help that we are able to claim so many victories. As we open our new building, we celebrate what God has done and consider what it means for us today- and for our future.
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A continual theme of scripture is the importance of remembering. Time and time again we are told- “Don’t forget…” We have to be told this repeatedly because our nature is to be a forgetful people. We look at how the book of Exodus prompts us to remember Joseph, and then we take time in our final gathering at the community center to remember what God has done in our midst over the last few years.
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Making a promise is a big deal. As circumstances and situations change, it can make keeping those promises next to impossible. So what happens when God makes a promise bigger than anything we can imagine and way bigger than anything we could bring about? God keeps his promise. Every. Single. Time. As we start a new sermon series on the book of Exodus, we take a look back on some massive promises God made to an ordinary guy.
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On the brink of a new year, what will the next 12 months look like for you? Do you have resolutions? Goals? Big plans? Whatever the turn of the calendar looks like for you, it’s a certainty that you don’t know exactly what the next 12 months will bring you. So how do you plan for what you can’t know? You plan to be obedient. Jesus tells us that when we are- we’re family.
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Mary’s role in the Christmas story is unquestioned. She’s the leading lady and at the heart of the drama. Mary’s role is so synonymous with Christmas, we forget just how unlikely it is that she’s in this story at all. How do you handle it when you find yourself feeling like you don’t belong- like God is making a mistake? Mary’s obedience is a beautiful example of what it looks like to trust God even when His work is completely unexpected.
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The prequel has become a popular tool for box office success. It allows storytellers to develop characters we already know well; it helps us to know what makes them who they are. Matthew begins his gospel by giving us a sneak peak at the backstory of Jesus. In doing so, he provokes all kinds of questions about who and why God uses the people he does. The answers we find tell us a little about the people in the backstory but a lot about the God over it all.
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The Christmas Story is full of great characters and drama-packed moments, but the Christmas story is a lot bigger than those days surrounding the manger. The story of Christmas is woven all throughout scripture, and that story can be told in some unexpected ways- like the lineage of Jesus where we find some names that just don’t belong there.
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Things look bad just a couple of chapters into the Bible. Sin has plunged the world into darkness and death and little hope is found. But a little hope is all God needs. There at the very beginning are the first signs of the miracle of Christmas – God sending his Son into the world to redeem us from the curse of sin! It’s a story God has been unfolding throughout all human history, because Christmas is bigger than just Christmas day!
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Thanksgiving usually means turkey, parades, family, and football. The
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Our culture is built to maximize it’s definition of happiness. The results of this pursuit is often times the exact opposite- stress, busyness, anxiety, and loneliness. How do we fight against this constant undertow of our culture? Paul gives us our battleplan to win the fight against this constant pull that pulls us under.
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The number one rule in grocery shopping is that you never shop hungry. Why? Because our appetites can control us in ways we don’t fully appreciate. Paul warns us that the same thing can be true of us on a much larger scale- where we can let our appetite be our god. Fortunately, Paul gives us a way forward from this trap. We must let our appetites be for things this world can never supply.
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“Oh yeah, life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin’ is gone.”
These lyrics can resonate in new ways as we go through life. Life is hard, but our pain serves the purpose of conforming us to Jesus. When we find ourselves in the midst of that pain, it can be hard to know where to turn. Paul, though, gives us a path forward in order to pursue Jesus even as we share in his sufferings.
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