Finding your place is about taking on some commitments to serve. Where will your particular gifts make a difference here? When we serve together, we develop true friendships, sharing our lives together. Like loving parents, First Pres wants to help you figure out your gifts and where you can work to make a difference. We are on a mission to share God’s Word with a lost world. You can find a place to make a difference here. Speaker: Matt Holtzman

Just as the new believers in Thessalonica gave up their attachment to idols, we learn together how to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. Finding your people is about committing to a second hour past Sunday worship. This could be a class, or a Life Group, or a Bible Study. It is hard to find your people if you only attend worship, and that sporadically. Church feels so different when you enter a medium or small group. We learn in lines but we grow in circles. Get into a circle of people. Speaker: Tim McConnell

Life in the church begins with new life in Christ. First we respond to the gospel and come to Jesus, then Jesus leads us into fellowship with one another in the church. In practical terms, we need to know how to be a part of church. We may need to imitate others. We want to help you find your healthy worship pattern, to pick a worship service to put on your calendar every week and stick to it. That will set up all the other priorities coming along behind. Speaker: Greg Hartnett

We think of Jesus as being perfectly good, and that He is. But it took self-control. It wasn’t easy for Jesus to do right all the time. He had to choose obedience to the Father, which He did choose, every moment of every day, without the slightest variance or disobedience. But He was tempted as we are; He had to exercise self-control to not sin. Nowhere is the agony more exposed than in the Garden of Gethsemane where the olives are crushed in the mill. When Jesus submitted to His Father in prayer, accepting the suffering and death on the cross, we can see that in the face of Jesus there was self-control. Speaker: Tim McConnell

How tenderly our Lord calms our worries and concerns! Jesus often referred to His disciples as little children. It was not an insult. In fact, He wants all of us to be as little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But it is also tender, sweet and gentle. Do not be afraid, little flock. In the face of Jesus there is gentleness. Speaker: Tim McConnell

Faith is the trust by which we hold onto the promises of God. We are saved by faith, by believing in Jesus Christ. Faithfulness is holding onto that trust over time, believing the promises of God when the times are hard and the trust is stretched. Peter was excited to realize Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. Will he hold on when the going gets tough and he realizes that to follow Jesus is to lay your life down for Him as He lay His life down for you? Jesus would be faithful to the end, even when handed over to suffer. As he explained this to Peter and the disciples, in the face of Jesus there was faithfulness. Speaker: Tim McConnell

Goodness is the opposite of badness, I suppose. There is a line, a distinction. Jesus sent his disciples out from village to village to do good. Jesus involved his disciples in meeting people’s needs, from healing to feeding. But there are those who reject the goodness of God. That rejection does not diminish the inherent goodness of the character of God. God is righteous and just, his purposes are good. As Jesus instructed His disciples to stand for good and walk away from bad, I am sure they saw that in the face of Jesus there is goodness. Speaker: Tim McConnell

Jesus stopped and listened to the woman who had suffered so much for so long. He turned to her, and only her, in the middle of the crowd pressing in with so much angst and hurry. Jesus took the time to hear her story and celebrate her healing with her, one on one. Without a doubt, in the face of Jesus there is kindness. Speaker: John Goodale

What is Jesus asking the disciples when he asks, “Where is your faith?” Is he asking, “What’s the matter with you? Why don’t you have any faith?” I don’t think so. I think (following Tim Keller’s interpretation) it is more that Jesus is reminding them to use their faith in times of distress. They have faith, they are just not using it, like having an umbrella and not getting it out in the rain. Take out your faith. Now is the time to deploy it and feel its benefits. With this interpretation we see Jesus dealing with the disciples not with angry rebuke but in a display of patience. Jesus deals with us patiently, waiting for us to grow. Maybe you never looked at it this way, but this, like many other moments when the disciples were slow on the uptake, is a moment when it is clear that in the face of Jesus there is patience. Speaker: Matt Holtzman

We don’t actually know the nature of the sinful life the woman led, but it was something public. History assumes she was a prostitute. Nobody sets out to become a prostitute. How troubled she must have been inside, how much unsettled turmoil, regret and shame. We long to see peace in the world outside, but even more we long for peace within. Can you imagine Jesus’ face as he looked on her and declared, “Your sins are forgiven! Your faith has saved you! Go in peace”? In the face of Jesus there is peace. Speaker: Jim Edwards