In Philippians 3:8–12, Paul describes knowing Christ as more valuable than anything else. Bill Hays explores what it means to know Jesus through the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, challenging us to pursue Christ intimately through His Word, His presence, and a life centered on Him and others.

In Luke 9:18–26, Jesus calls His followers to take up their cross daily and surrender their lives to Him. Through the Hebrew word nephesh, we discover that loving God with all our soul means offering our whole selves — our lives, bodies, and everyday choices — to the One who gave everything for us.

This week we explored what it means to love God with all our heart, discovering that the heart is the control center of our lives where our desires, thoughts, and choices are formed. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus doesn’t simply call us to obey better—through the New Covenant He gives us a new heart and His Spirit so that we can truly love God from the inside out.

In Matthew 22:34–40, Jesus reminds us that the greatest commandment is to love God wholeheartedly and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Biblical love is both inward devotion and outward action—a response to the perfect love God has already shown us through Jesus Christ.

This past Sunday, we continued our SHEMA series by exploring God's personal name, Yahweh, and what it reveals about His character.

In Exodus 34, God describes Himself as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Jesus is the clearest picture of that same God. As we come to know Him more, we grow to love Him more—and we begin to look more like Him.

This Sunday, we launched our new series, SHEMA, by exploring one of the most important prayers in all of Scripture. 

Throughout the message, we saw that this has always been God's desire for His people. Jesus Himself identified the Shema as the greatest commandment, reminding us that loving God is more than a feeling or belief—it is demonstrated by the way we live. Following Jesus is neither empty religious rule-keeping nor a relationship with no expectations. True devotion is a relationship with Christ that is expressed through obedience to His way.

In the closing benediction of 2 Corinthians, Paul reminds us that the gospel creates a new family where people from every background are adopted into God’s household through the grace of Jesus Christ. As citizens of God’s Kingdom, we are called to live as a distinct community marked by the Father’s love, the Son’s grace, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit while faithfully serving the places where God has planted us.

In the closing verses of 2 Corinthians, Paul reminds us that the church’s greatest hope is not that people are perfect, but that God is still transforming imperfect people through His presence. The gospel gives us confidence that as we walk with Jesus, the Holy Spirit continues to form us into a community marked by joy, maturity, encouragement, unity, and peace.

In Romans 8:12–18, Paul teaches that through faith in Christ we are no longer slaves to fear but adopted children of God, called to live in the freedom, security, and hope of our new identity in His family.

In Acts 17:22–31, Paul teaches that our greatest spiritual problem is not a lack of spirituality but misplaced devotion, and that true life is found by turning our attention to the God who has made Himself known through Jesus Christ.