Ifwe are not joyfully worshipping God, it's often because we see him as a slightly bigger version of ourselves. It is a huge mistake to bring him to our level; we need to have our minds blown!

There is a lot of human-level activity in the church and much of it is good. But God is noticeably absent. We celebrate people's authenticity and our community, but we do not center our celebrations on God.

The issues of unity and connectivity and being one in Christ are key. There is nothing more important than for a church to be bonded together around Christ and the gospel.

Paul derives motivation from the same gospel he's preaching to the Romans: spiritual fruit, futher expansion of the gospel, and most surprisingly, God-centered obligation.

God has chosen to give you great opportunites through his mercy for a reason. You might use those giftsyour brain, money, time, love, and personalityall for God.

We often think of the Bible as a random collection of quotations, but actually the Bible has a story from beginning to end, and once you see it like that, it helps open up your eyes to its true meaning.

We have to get our minds off of the idea that we're paying our dues to God when we pray or do "works." We can't give God a bill for services rendered and expect payment. Works don't work; faith does work.

Paul talks about unceasing anguish over his people not knowing Jesus and having their eternal destiny on the line.We can use that pain to search for riches.

We should care so much about the evangelization of the lost that it impacts our very lives. We are to feel emotional and spiritual pain.

We assume there are only two ways to motivate people -- the carrot to entice or the stick to threaten. Pastor Josh discusses a third way.