One of the best traditions the Church used to do regularly is the one we need to do the most these days.

Jesus is not only greater than our Church traditions, He also lists a few that we need to stop doing immediately.

Although God calls pastors to serve, He also gives us a warning about priests and pastors.

The author of Hebrews explains to folks in his day, and to us today, that Jesus is greater than our denominational affiliations.

Jesus is greater than, more excellant than, and more useful than any angel or any other spiritual being.

In this new series walking through the book of Hebrews, we look at ways to deal with all the things that try to take precedence over our relationship with Jesus.

God is not going to judge me based on the talents that He gave you, nor you based on the talents that He gave me. Each of us will be asked to give an account of what He provided us as individuals, so it is important that we all use what He had given us to the best of our abilities!

The Apostle Paul doesn't brag about all of the things that he has done for God, because he recognizes that it is really the grace of God that does the heavy lifting. We ought to recognize that too!

Of course Jesus had siblings. The question is, were they important to Him? His appearance to James, his brother (1 Cor 15:7), answers that question for us, and James' remarkable change tells us that Jesus' appearance to him was effective!

1 Corinthians 15:2 can be confusing when ripped out of its context. Placing it back in context (with Paul's conversation about the gospel & resurrection) should give confidence to those who believe ... unfortunately, most English translations don't capture the essence of what the Apostle Paul is trying to convey, so Pastor Matt "nerds out" in the Greek a bit today to show what is really going on in this passage!