If you’re like the rest of us, your mom brought you into the world. How else, right? Actually, what began at birth continued. Before you were old enough to drive, you were brought to school, the movies, the doctor, even church. Do you remember the first time you were “brought on” at a job? Has anyone ever brought you to a members-only Country Club for an exclusive round of golf? Or

You get the idea. Some things in life can’t happen unless you’re brought. In our self-made world, that may be hard to accept. We’d like to think that given enough time and resources, we can make things happen on our own. And sometimes, we can actually make that happen.

But it’s not going to happen when it comes to a relationship with God. The Bible just comes right out and says “you must be brought” to God. There’s no other way, as we’ll see today.

If you are a Christ-follower and anyone were to ever ask you why you believe what you believe, would you feel very prepared to give an answer? If you stop to think about it, how is it even possible to be ready to defend something as profound as our faith, and to do so with the right amounts of conciseness, clarity, wisdom, and boldness? Where are you supposed to even begin?

On top of these concerns, what if no one ever asks why we believe what we believe? Is that an indictment on our Christian witness? And if no one ever asks, does that mean we’re off the hook or that people in our culture simply aren’t interested in Christianity?

This Sunday's text will help us to find answers to these important questions.

In the 1744 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.”

While many of us might reasonably scratch our heads at that statement and wonder why in the world a person would ever want to attract flies to begin with, the point of his statement is simply this: The more kind or gracious you are or the more appealing and persuasive you are in your approach towards others (as opposed to being mean-spirited or argumentative), the more likely you are to be successful in winning the other person over and to achieving your goals.

The same principle holds true for Christ-followers. We live in a world that is often hostile towards Christianity. Therefore, if we are to enhance our Christian witness with those around us and improve our chances of being heard, we should absolutely be concerned with the approach we take towards others and how we conduct our lives on the stage of this world.

Wherever you go these days, someone is talking about ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder. It’s a concern because it impacts so many people, both young and old. Those with ADD have a much harder time than the average person staying focused on one thing at a time.

The fact is, in our modern world that is filled with a myriad of distractions, even those of us without ADD struggle to some degree to stay focused on what matters most. Husbands and wives, moms and dads, boys and girls, friends and co-workers. It’s very easy to get distracted by all the other things that are trying to get our attention, and neglect the things that are truly important.

Lack of focus on things that are important can make life much harder. But it also can have other consequences that we might not readily see. Today we’ll be talking about one of those areas that could be standing in the way of God hearing your prayers.

We’d like to think that with convincing facts, skillful persuasion, and just the right words and tone of voice,

The fact is, most people aren’t going to be talked into believing what you want them to believe. Even when it’s something you really think everyone should believe. But that’s not a cause for despair. Though as we’ll see this Sunday in our continuing message series in the book of 1 Peter, it may be a signal for a change.

A few times a year, we as a church community gather in one worship service. Today is one of those days. We’re all together for a special time of celebration and anticipation as we kick off our summer ministries here at Bridges.

The past nine months of ministry were amazing, and as we anticipate what’s ahead in the coming months and

The book In His Steps has sold over 30 million copies. Even if you’ve never read it, you may have seen or owned a WWJD bracelet that’s based on the same Bible passage found in 1 Peter 2, which we’ll be looking at this Sunday.

Though you may be familiar with the “What Would Jesus Do?” question that this passage surfaces, you may be surprised by the context. We’ll see that it can move that question even deeper into our lives than we may have imagined.

Christians claim that God has begun a work in them and they are, therefore, being changed to look less and less like the rest of the world. Meaning, the hopes, dreams, and goals of a Christian should be different from those of the neighbors across the street. More deeply, the neighbors should notice this difference and be so captivated by the beauty of Christian faith, that they are drawn to it instead of repelled from it.

This week, we’ll look at what some of those differences are, and what has happened to Christians to make them so (supposedly) compellingly different.

We all build our lives around something. We all make sacrifices in order to achieve the goals that we value most. But what is actually worth sacrificing for? What is the best cornerstone on which to build our lives?

In today’s message, not only will we see Jesus as worthy of this position, but also as the only one who fills it without failing.

We all know that we need food to survive and to grow. And we also know there are some foods that are better for us than others. Yet we often gravitate toward the things we really like (Chocolate? Ice Cream?) instead of the things we really need (Broccoli? Apples?). And that can cause all kinds of problems for our bodies.

The passage in I Peter that we will be looking at today tells us about a food that we all need. And it’s not something we can just pick at. God wants us to devour it. All of it. Because it can fill our hearts and our souls. It can make us better at loving each other.

Find out what that amazing food is today.