Covenant Life Church

This week, we’re kicking off a new series about marriage and talking about the joy of new beginnings. As we start this discussion, we first have to understand that our marriages are not centered around us; like other things in the life of a Christian, they’re all about serving and giving our best to the other person.

This week, Pastor John is delivering the State of the Church message, a look at various phases and dimensions of the church in an effort to be accountable and transparent. This allows us to celebrate the past, assess our current realities and set a course for the future, and together, we will cast vision for the days, weeks and months to come — while praising God for all that He’s already done.

We have spent the last couple of weeks talking about rejection, which is something that all of us can relate to at some level. We have been exploring the reasons that people rejected Jesus to ensure that those beliefs or mindsets are removed from our lives and get guidance on how to handle our own rejection.This week, as we wrap this series called Rejecting Jesus, we are looking at three categories of our lives–three price stickers if you will–that may cause us to want to reject Jesus. We don’t like to talk about these price stickers in church, but these reasons come straight from the Bible and are important for us to address.

Rejection is one of life’s most difficult — and most common — experiences. All of of us have to deal with rejection at some point in our lives, and what might surprise you is that Jesus Christ dealt with rejection constantly. When we think of Jesus, we often think of the Triumphal Entry, but we tend to forget that, within a week, that same crowd was calling for his crucifixion. Last week, we began a series called “Rejecting Jesus,” exploring the reasons that people rejected Jesus, so we don’t follow in their footsteps and can learn from Him how to handle the rejection that we experience in our own lives. This week, we’re going to look at how people rejected Jesus because He was different than expected.

Of the thousands of different ways that life can bring us pain, there are a few of them that are universal. Rejection is one of them. Every one of us at some point has dealt with rejection, and there are lots of reasons for it. Despite the reasons, though, rejection is a bitter and difficult pill to swallow. The Bible shows us that Jesus was despised and rejected, and this morning, we are starting a new three-part series to look at what caused people to reject Him, so we can guard our hearts against those same motives and learn from Jesus’s example how to handle rejection in our own lives.

In previous sermons and series, we’ve talked about all of the ways that life hurts us and discussed the importance of purpose. This week, as we kick off a new year and combine these two ideas, we can offer this fresh perspective on past events: there was a purpose for your pain, and there is a purpose in your healing. You did not suffer for nothing. The hurt, offense, betrayal, grief or abuse was not caused by God, but it can be used by Him for His honor and His glory. Not only can God get the glory from you being healed, He can also use your healing to help others. Pastor John is going to show us the Cycle of Healing, a biblical principle that – when applied – will help propel us into the future that God has for us.

We’re wrapping up our series about the ways that God spoke during the Christmas account and how we hear from Him today. We’ve already discovered that God still speaks through angels, dreams, visions and signs. This week, we’re exploring the simplest and most profound way that God speaks to us, and that is through the Holy Spirit.

As we continue to explore how God communicated during the Christmas account and the ways that He still speaks to us today, this week’s message is all about how God speaks to us through signs. Signs are another way that God speaks to help answer questions we have about His will. Many times, they will be tangible things that we can see that will help communicate a spiritual truth that we can’t see. They help answer when, where, how and why, filling in gaps along our journey of hearing, understanding and fulfilling the call of what God is asking us to do.

As we continue to explore how God communicated during the Christmas account and the ways that He still speaks to us today, this week’s message is all about how God speaks to us through signs. Signs are another way that God speaks to help answer questions we have about His will. Many times, they will be tangible things that we can see that will help communicate a spiritual truth that we can’t see. They help answer when, where, how and why, filling in gaps along our journey of hearing, understanding and fulfilling the call of what God is asking us to do.

Angels are often part of the celebration of Christmas, sitting atop many of our Christmas trees, and they play a huge role in the real Christmas story found in the Bible, too. An angel that told Zechariah about John the Baptist. The angel Gabriel told Mary that she was carrying the Christ-child, and in Luke 2, a host of angels joined the one who appeared to the shepherds to declare that Jesus had been born in Bethlehem. All throughout the Bible, angels carried the message of God to the inhabitants of earth, and this week, as we continue to explore the ways that God spoke during the Christmas account to see how He speaks to us now, we are going to look at how God used angels to communicate then - and how He still uses them today.