Covenant Life Church

The longer that a person lives, the more he or she realizes that lots of things in life are complicated. Things seem so simple when you’re young. For the most part, life will be full of good things and, occasionally, bad things. You’ll have great relationships with wonderful people. You’ll learn to avoid the people who will bring you pain. You’ll be very careful about the decisions you make and the people you choose to be around. Then, you reach a certain age and realize that not everything or everyone will fit neatly into your categories of good things and bad things. It is disappointing and confusing to realize that there are a whole lot of things in life about which you just have to say, “It’s complicated,” and this week, we’re going to explore what the Word says about dealing with these complicated situations and relationships.

In Mark 12:18-27, Jesus is responding to a question from the Sadducees and say, “You have made a serious error.” Jesus was plainly pointing out an error in their belief system, and because He is clearly the expert in this situation, it’s important that we pay attention. Jesus’s rebuke was clear, true and brutally honest. He said, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.” There are many people in the modern American church that fall into one of these ditches, so this week, we’re going to look at the mistakes that Jesus pointed out and make sure we stay far away from them.

Many who attend church on Easter may walk away wondering what difference the death of a teacher or prophet 2,000 years ago makes on their lives today, and if He did actually rise from the dead, they don’t see how that does anything for them now. To understand the impact of those events on our lives today, we need to realize what Jesus did in the weekend that we know as the first Easter was not a one-time event. He established a pattern that will lead us to a satisfying life — one of freedom that is completely different from the old life. In this week’s message, we’re going to talk about this pattern and how we can all go from Chained to Changed.

Although "passion" originally came from the Latin lord for suffering, the word has evolved over many centuries. Now, the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as an intense desire or a strong and barely controllable emotion. In this week's message, called The Passions of the Christ, we will look at the events of Jesus' life that got Him fired up. From the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday to the hours of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, we will experience the intense desires and barely controllable emotions of our Savior, and we will spend some time reflecting on our passions too. Why? Because passions reveal priorities. After all, we are only passionate about the things we really care about.

Next week, Christian churches around the world will celebrate Palm Sunday, and look back on the week that led up to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. It began with the crowds of people lining the streets, waving palm branches, praising God and expecting Jesus to overthrow the Roman government and set up His earthly kingdom. Jesus knew that the crowd in Jerusalem - and even his own disciples - were confused about the kingdom He came to establish, so He told a parable to clear up any misconceptions before Passion Week began. To ensure that we fully understand His kingdom, it's important for us to look at what He said and what it means for us today.

In February, the House of Representatives passed a bill called the Equality Act, which seeks to extend protections of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to sexual orientation and gender identification. A similar bill passed the house last year; this version includes a provision that states there can be no exemption based on religious objection. In light of what this legislation could mean for churches around the world if it passes the Senate, we will explore this issue in the context of what God created in the Bible and learn how we can uphold our religious beliefs while treating every single human being with the upmost respect.

As we near the one-year anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pastor John is helping us "press reset" and rediscover the mission of the church: to go and make disciples. By unpacking scripture and the words of Jesus following the resurrection, we'll be reminded of our purpose and learn how we can continue to be real, relational and reaching for the sake of God's kingdom.

This week, we’re ending our Marriage Series with a special message called “Unveiled” by Cindy and Raul Diaz. Together, they will explain how 2020 was a breakthrough year in their marriage and share with us the lessons that they learned along the way. As we’ll discover, we have to seek inner healing and allow Jesus to remove our veils — of fear, rejection, pain, depression and more — in order to see Him and our spouses clearly. Removing these veils and inviting the Holy Spirit to be active in our marriages will allow us to have unity and show each other God’s unfailing love.

We’re continuing our Marriage Series this week, looking at what it means to choose the Tree of Life in our marriages. The Bible talks about four different things that are trees of life, and we looked at one of them last week: words. Now, we’re going back to the Garden of Eden one more time to see that choices change lives. It was not a sin for Adam and Eve to look at the fruit or contemplate the sin, so when did they ruin their lives and their marriage? When they actually made the choice and acted on it. It was true then, and it’s true today.

Adam and Eve had the greatest marriage in the history of mankind because they are the only couple to experience marriage without the influence of sin. This week, we’re going to examine their relationship to see if there is any wisdom we can glean from their story that will help us in our marriages. To do this, we have a choice to make—just like Adam and Eve. We can take the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or we can choose to take the fruit of the tree of life to heal our marriage. The million-dollar question is: are we willing to make a different choice if it will make our marriage better?