Matthew 1:18-23 and 28:18-20 both promise that our Father in heaven would send His Son Jesus, Immanuel – our God with us, to be near at all times. However, this broken life often leaves us wondering how we can rejoice and be at peace when we are on our knees in pain. In his powerful letter to the church in Philippi, we are reminded that the Apostle Paul went through an incredible journey filled with heartache, trials, and adversity before he was able to write the words, “Rejoice always…for the Lord is near.” You see, Paul didn’t stand up after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus and write this letter. No it took years and years of suffering and transformation for him to pen these words, “Rejoice!”

Yet, Pauls’ faith grew and was strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit who was Paul’s constant companion. Paul suffered greatly in the name of Jesus Christ throughout his time in ministry and it took years for Paul to be able to say, “Rejoice for the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient for all!” God’s grace is sufficient and the love of our Abba Father, the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit is sufficient for us as we too go through a process of transformation and healing.

God’s grace is sufficient because our ability to rejoice in the face of adversity doesn’t depend on what storms we have survived in the past or in our strength to handle what the world has throws at us. No, our ability to, “Rejoice in the Lord Always.” depends on our being rooted and grounded to Jesus Christ who tells us He is the vine and we are the branches.

So when the world comes against us, when we too fall on our knees because the news of the death of a loved one or the news from the doctor is beyond our ability to handle; when the tests come back positive for cancer, or the pink slip from our work is handed to us and we don’t know how we will survive or provide for our family; when the divorce papers arrive at our door; or the depression or addiction has crushed us yet once again you and I are able to get back up again – not in our own strength, not in our own power, but in the strength and power of Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus Christ our Savior who overcame sin, death and the devil for us as He reaches down from the cross, as He reaches down from heaven, to pick us up and carry us through the good times and the bad. Praise God, our “Lord is near!”

So, as we stand, arms in the air, crying Abba, come and pick me up, help me get through my pain, God sees us, He hears us, and He draws near to us – reaching down from Heaven, giving us His Son, who grew up to be our Savior. Jesus – Immanuel, our God who is with us – is our Savior who willingly crawled up on the cross, stretched out His arms to take our pain, to free us from sin, death and the evil that came and broke our relationship with our Father. For, with His last breath came hope! With His last breath came salvation! With His last breath came eternal life for all who profess Him as their Lord and Savior! With His last breath came the glorious victory of God over sin, death and the devil.

Pentecost in the Six Cs: God has never varied from his intention to show his goodness and kindness to the world through human beings. In Creation, we are blessed to serve the rest of creation. We take a short cut, and bring the world into Catastrophe. God tutors us for more than 2,000 years with a series of Covenants on how showing his goodness and kindness in the world should look. We seldom get it right, and so our Lord Jesus the Christ comes and shows us again who his Father is, how we should live, and how we should serve. After his death for us, and after his resurrection, he pours his Spirit out on his Community so that they can once again, begin showing the world what his goodness and kindness looks like. Revelation 21-22 tells us that in the Consummation of all things, the Spirit will fill the entire earth with God's glory!

Today, Pentecost reminds us that each one of us has the priesthood. Peter spoke of it in I Peter 2:9: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." Do you get it? We all have the priesthood!!! Today's confirmands leave with great lives of serving Jesus ahead of them.

Let us pray the most dangerous prayer in the church and for this world: Come Holy Spirit, and fill this place! Renew the face of this earth! Amen!

We all need joy in our lives. There are big differences between happiness and joy. In today's sermon I'm going to talk about where our joy comes from and what makes it last. Essentially, joy comes from being in the presence of God. Joy is the product of His amazing agape-love. God's love is divine. It is different from anything humans can produce. We need it His love in us to be like Him. Paul points at Jesus to show us what living in God's perfect love looks like and consequently it is not all about being happy.

Happiness and joy are very different. Joy is related to being present with someone. It is a relationship word. The joy lasts as long as the person is present. That's why our joy in the Lord can be our strength and last forever. Happiness is very self directed. It only satisfies for a little while and it is gone, sometimes leaving us even emptier than we were before. It is tragic when our lives are built on the desire to make ourselves happy when we can have joy that is complete and eternal.

We receive joy by grace. It is that gift that only God can give, and he wants to give it to us. Like any gift we should want it and reach out for it. A little child that is helpless and scared reaches out for his or her daddy. It is the comfort of a strong and loving parent that brings strength and joy to their tender hearts. That's how we need to be with God, reaching for our Dad who loves us and wants to hold us.

The most important this we can do before we tell God's Story is to listen to them. What are their fears? Their dreams? What do they already know about God? Paul himself began by listening... and he heard about an Athenian passion for knowledge (Acts 17:16-21). This doesn't mean that they are ready to hear the entire Bible! Paul limited himself to some very key points.

He began with a bridge into the conversation that honored them (Acts 17:22-23). Here are his main points:

Our Creator God is Lord of all (Acts 17:24). God needs nothing from us (Acts 17:25a). God provides for us (Acts 17:25b-26). God wants a relationship with us. He provides for us so that we will seek after him (Acts 17:27-28). Our relationship with God is not mediated by idols (Acts 17:29). God looks past our times of ignorance, but now commands that we repent (Acts 17:30). God will judge the world with justice through our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 17:31). God proved he accepts Jesus as Savior and judge by raising him from the dead (Acts 17:32).

Praying about all of this, what Story will you tell? We are attempting to help you give your own account of the hope that is within you to your friends and neighbors with the six C’s: Creation, Catastrophe, Covenants, Christ, Community, and Consummation. Let us tell God's Story well!

In Luke 6 Jesus models what walking in the Spirit can look like. We shouldn't be afraid of what God wants us to do. He said, "greater things than these you will do in my name." Jesus taught His disciples to come to him, hear what he said, and do it. We can do the same.

Paul was walking in the Spirit, hearing and obeying Jesus, when he went to Macedonia. But, as Jesus taught His disciples, when we're living out our love and trust in the Lord the enemy won't like it and we will experience trouble and persecution in the name of Jesus Christ. Paul and Silas were no exception. Satan tried to derail their efforts to obey the Lord and in the end they were beaten, bloodied, and cast in prison. Even though Satan thought he won, God had other plans.

One of the best things about walking in the Spirit is that, when we are walking in the Spirit, no matter what happens to us, Jesus is bound to be glorified. There is nothing better. Walking in the Spirit begins with us falling head over heels in love with our Lord, Savior, and King Jesus Christ.

Saul’s life changed on that dusty road to Damascus because the Risen Christ, who is the Son of the Living God, suddenly stopped Saul from accomplishing his mission of hate and vengeance. Saul’s life changed because Christ Jesus called out his name saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul asked, “Who are you Lord?” and Jesus, the Son of the Living God, revealed Himself to this wretched sinner saying, “I am Jesus, who you are persecuting.” In those words, Saul heard, he saw, and he understood that it was the very Jesus whom the Jews had rejected and crucified, Christ Jesus – whom the Father had exalted to glory – who enveloped Saul in His light and glory.

Jesus had laid down the Law in His charge against Saul as Jesus swept away all the lies Saul had believed. Saul’s mind was opened as Jesus preached the Law to Saul and confronted him with the entirety of his sins and his crimes. Upon being blinded by the glory and light of Jesus Saul was taken into Damascus to the home of Judas and there Saul lay upon a bed, blind, unable to eat or drink for three days while he suffered for the sins of his past, suffering for the persecution of Jesus, suffering for the murder of innocent men, women and children, whose only crime was their love and devotion to Jesus.

Saul’s life changed again when in God’s perfect timing, Jesus our Savior of mercy and grace, sent Ananias to preach the peace of the Gospel to Saul’s heart and to pronounce the assurance of God’s forgiveness and absolution to this frightened broken sinner. From the moment Jesus restored Saul’s sight and transformed his heart, the proclaiming and professing the death and resurrection of the Risen Christ became the first and foremost priority of Saul’s life.

Each one of us will at some time face the same Risen Christ on our own type of “Road to Damascus” experience. When He comes, Jesus will preach the Law to our hearts and convict us of our sins so that the Holy Spirit can proclaim the grace of God’s love over us and raise us to new life in Christ. As we study the story of Saul’ life we all must ask ourselves the following questions: “Has the Risen Lord come to preach the Law to our heart? Has the Holy Spirit come to convict us of our sins?” If so, has God sent the preacher to proclaim to peace and hope of the good news of the Gospel to our hearts so that we can be set free, so that we can receive the forgiveness of your sins and so we can be raised to new life through Christ? My dear friends, God is calling – can you hear Him? God is calling you to go out and do great things in His name! God is calling you, today, right now, to be His Saul for this generation! What say you?

One of the strangest things about the resurrection report from the Gospel of John is how Mary Magdalene is treated by Peter and the Beloved disciple. We will look at why is so important the Mary Magdalene was the first person after the resurrection of Jesus calls my name.

We will explore how God keeps all of his promises. There are over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in his arrest crucifixion and Resurrection. God has been keeping his promises since the dawn of time. One that we will look at is a promise he made to Abraham that through Abraham All Peoples will be blessed.

When we come back to Mary Magdalene and look at why Jesus called her by name we will see that it wasn't anything that she did. She was the last in line. She was by every standard the worst of the worst. There was no way she could earn her salvation or God's favor. But she is exactly who Jesus died for. Her value is not based on her performance but her worth as measured by the Priceless blood of Jesus as it is for us.

When the people of Israel cried out save us now they were hoping for a Moses archetype. Our modern version of that is probably closest to Superman from the 1938 comic. It's not hard to see why the people turned on Jesus so little time after they had hoped that he would be there King.

Jesus didn't save us by being a Superman, or Moses. He saved us by pouring himself out and by dying for us on the cross to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

When Jesus saved us by dying for us he proved the absolute truth that he is the king of kings and that this world and everyone in it belongs to God. The LIE is that Satan is the ruler of this world he does not want us to cry out to Jesus to save us now. But when we cry out save us now, Jesus always comes to our Aid and he saves us. He is what we need all the time.

Isaiah 5:1-7 provides the background to John 15. Israel failed to produce good fruit as God's vineyard, and God laid them low in the Babylonian Captivity in 587 BC. IN many ways, they never recovered.

Psalm 146 describes the fruit God is looking for from his people: justice, mercy, and right-relationships!

In John 15, Jesus instructs his disciples about staying close to him" I am the vine, and you are the branches." Apart from Jesus, we can do NOTHING! As we remain in him, we can do all that he asks and all that will give us great joy! He elevates us from servants to friends and he commands us to produce "fruit that will last."

The clearest way to do this is to invest in relationships--in our families, in our congregation, and in our spheres of influence. Let's bring glory to the Father in all that we do!

The difference between the world's news and God's news, good or bad, is that the world's news is predicated on selfishness and lies. God's news is based on ultimate love, which is ultimately selfless, and absolute truth. Because it is based on God's selfless love it is always good for us, even if we have to hear the bad news which is the diagnosis of our human condition. The good news of God astronomically outweighs the bad news if we'll receive it.

When anyone confronts the truth two things happen. There is a trial - I've experienced the truth, now will I believe it or not. If I believe it I have to change my mind and my life. If I seek to save my life I will lose it, but if I lose my life for Christ's sake I find it. Am I ready to walk in the truth. Also, there is an invitation - My kingdom is not of this world (John 18) and I want you in it (John 14). If you want to be part of the kingdom that is not of this world and be with Jesus forever there is one way. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

We get lost in the world's lies, but Jesus is the way. We get bound by the world's deceptions and selfishness, but the truth of Jesus strips the lies and selfishness away from us and sets us free. The world says we can look good and stay young, but we will all grow old and die. But Jesus says He is the life. "If you believe in me, though you die, yet shall you live." (John 11)

Let Jesus set you free and be a God news spreader