- Pastor Dan Schilke from Northgate Fellowship joined us this weekend to teach us about maintaining extraordinary faith on our walk with the Lord. A message the Lord put on Dan's heart for us, he taught about how growing our faith isn't simply the grand things done in the sight of many, but the faith we have in ordinary spaces of life. We studied Luke 17:5-19 and Mark 9:14-29 to find that having extraordinary faith looks like a daily abiding walk with God with prayer and fasting and obedience to His commands.

Speaker: Dan Schilke

Keywords: Faith, Obedience, Prayer, Fasting, Miracles

- In Matthew 21, Jesus makes what has been termed the "Triumphal Entry" into Jerusalem. All of it is fascinating, as Jesus is fulfilling prophecy, involving two of the disciples in obtaining the donkey's colt, cleaning out the money-changers from the temple, healing people, and having his first interchange with the chief priests and the scribes. It's his first day in Jerusalem and it's helpful to see how Jesus' actions here are consistent with his declaration about coming to serve instead of being served, being a servant-leader.

Keywords: Prophecy, Promises, Servant-leader, Humble King

- Here at the end of Matthew 20, Jesus heals two blind men outside of Jericho. This is an interesting event, especially as you compare Matthew, Mark and Luke. Matthew includes details that are significant for his theme of teaching us to observe everything Jesus commanded, so that we can be disciples.

Keywords: discrepancies, compassion, servant-leader, greatness

- We were back in Matthew 20, this time looking at verses 17-28, where Jesus again predicts his arrest and death, and then because of James and John's mother's request describes for all of us how greatness in the kingdom of God is achieved. I told the church that this was something that I really didn't have a picture of what it looked like in our lives in North America for a long time. I referenced a book that I found helpful. It was "Every Man's Marriage" by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker.

Keywords: Servant-Leader, codependent, passive-aggressive, Savior Complex

Matthew 20a - Late-Comers

- Jesus explains to the disciples what "the last will be first, and the first last" looks like in the kingdom of God. Here we talk about ministry, and how we aren't to be jealous of God's generosity and graciousness and blessing on others, instead we are to relish in our good Father.

Keywords: Ministry, Jealousy, Serving, Purpose

This week, we had Kenny Wallace come and share with us about adoption, sin, the Holy Spirit, life and walking with God.

Speaker: Kenny Wallace

Keywords: Sin, Adoption, New life, Holy Spirit

- The last half of Matthew 19 contains a conversation between Jesus and a rich young man about eternal life. When that conversation ends, Jesus gives the commentary on it, making some statements about the rich, and what's possible and impossible. Jesus answers this young man, in a different way than He does with Nicodemus, choosing to take him the long way through the Law. Why is that? And, what does it mean for us?

Keywords: Rich, Law, Money, Idols

- There's one more topic in verses 10-12 that we should examine. It's the unmarried life as a Christian. We read Jesus' words, and then go to 1 Corinthians 7, to look at what Paul wrote about it. From there, we hit some highlights from church history, specifically the Reformation that has shaped our ideas of marriage and serving the Lord. Christianity holds up both the married and the unmarried life as good, holy, and right. But, Paul makes no mystery, he wishes everyone was unmarried.

Our reference for church history was the podcast by Pastor Lance Ralston called Communio Sanctorum.

Keywords: Singleness, unmarried, church history, community

- Here is the last of the tough questions from our study through Matthew 19:1-15, and here we are asking if Jesus words in verse 12 about eunuchs would also apply to transgender persons.

Keywords: Transgender, Gender Dysphoria, Eunuchs, Love

- Alan Gilman builds on Pat Sieler’s message from last week, continuing the theme of experiencing God’s grace in and through our weakness.