When the devil tries to tempt Jesus with all of the kingdoms of the world in all their glory and asks Jesus to bow down and worship him, the only really impressive thing he does is that he manages to aggravate the most patient person in the world. Not only isn't Jesus fooled by the spectacle before Him, but the picture Satan presents and the audacity of his demand stands in wild contrast to the one true and living God that is standing before him. Seeing the world in the kind of glory that Satan revels in is nothing but a reminder of why Jesus comes to lay down His life for us in the first place. Jesus shows us how to see the world how it really is and how we can come to Him with every decision big or small because of who He is and what we mean to Him.

Joshua teaches us how to get some perspective on who God really is and what we mean to Him. He reminds Israel and us that God is faithful, He always keeps His promises, and nothing can prevent His will from being done. When we choose to serve the Lord we are aligning ourselves with pure love, power, wisdom, and truth. We are aligning ourselves with God who is with us in everything we do, big or small.

Put these two together and it is really good news for us.

People often think that the 10 Commandments are God's rules for being a good person. And one can hear comments that "No one wants to live in a culture that doesn't honor the 10 Commandments." While this view of things is not wrong, it is a minimalist reading of things.

Exodus 19:6 invites us to understand that the 10 commandments describe a lifestyle of abundance living. As a holy nation, and as priests of God most high, a life built on the 10 Commandments reaches for dignity, respect, and a generous freedom to serve one another in love.

Can you imagine how exhausted and overwhelmed Moses and the covenant people of God must have been when they came to the shores of the Red Sea? They had been through so much leading up to their departure from Egypt, but now they were free. But, they had never been free before and just when they thought their troubles with Egypt were over Pharaoh and his army were chasing after them.

In their shock and disappointment many of them lamented leaving Egypt. In an attempt to comfort God’s people Moses told them to stand still and see the saving work of God (Exodus 14:13). However, God had other plans for His people and so God told them to get up and get moving! One problem, the Red Sea was on one side and Pharaoh’s army was on the other, so where were they to go?

God told them to move forward toward the Sea that He would open so they could cross on dry ground to a distant shore they could not see. It seems like that is what it is like when God calls us to move forward as well. We are usually facing overwhelming obstacles, with no view of where we are going or how we are going to get there. Praise God, our Savior Jesus is a big God, more powerful than all the gods of this world! When He is calling us to move forward and we don’t know what we are doing we can trust that He does. Therefore, the cries of our hearts need to stop being, “God will you take their away, or Jesus will you change this thing I am facing?” and instead we should pray, “Jesus will You come and change me so I’m different, Jesus will You be different with me, so I can handle the things You are walking me through?”

As we ponder and study the events of the parting of the Red Sea I invite you to pray asking Jesus to come and give you some of His strength, His faith, His love, His wisdom and insight so you and I can see where God is leading us. For when we receive insight from the Holy Spirit we are able to get to where God is asking us to go and accomplish the things God is asking us to do.

Joseph was someone who was able to experience God even in the darkest times. There's a lot we can learn from him and Jesus actually explains how we can understand God and look at the Joseph story with an explanation that helps it all make sense.

We'll start with a couple of verses from the sermon on the mount. Jesus tells us how we can be filled with a relationship with God. He tells us how we can be sure that God is loyal, faithful and keeps all of His promises. And, He tells us how we can see God under any circumstances.

Next we will look at how God remained present and faithful to Joseph and what Joseph did about it. We will see how God continues to keep the covenant promises that He made to Abraham through Joseph. And we will see how God continues to keep those promises, in a new and better way because of Jesus, through us. You are the light of the world because of Jesus!

God's covenant with Abraham promises to cause him to be a blessing to the nations (Genesis 12:2).

A covenant is an unbreakable promise, and God's covenant with Abraham restores much of what was lost when the first couple rebelled against God and brought the world into catastrophe.

God blesses the nations again and again through Abraham's lineage. This happens most clearly in the salvation all may receive through our Lord Jesus Christ! It will continue even in the consummation as God heals the nations with the leaves of the Tree of Life (Revelation 22:1-2).

As part of God's community, and as heirs of Abraham's covenant, we too are blessed to be a blessing. We have a mission to share truly good news with all who can hear it. When we fail, God will remain faithful to his covenant. He will bless the nations because HE IS FAITHFUL!

I believe that as we read, teach, and preach the story of Noah and the flood is guided primarily by our perception of our God who created the world. For instance, if we perceive God as being an angry God full of wrath and vengefulness then we will see the God of the flood as being a mean God who just can’t wait to come and smite His children for rebelling against Him. If we experience God as an egomaniac who needs our constant worship to feel good about Himself then we will most likely encounter the flood story through the eyes of a God who is throwing a mega temper tantrum because His children have turned their backs on His plan and are no longer worshiping Him. If we believe God to be an aloof deity who created the world and then turned His back on us when Adam and Eve sinned against Him so He went away and abandoned us then we will most likely experience the God of the flood as a monstrous God who couldn’t wait to kill everyone and everything upon returning from His absence and finding us so full of sin. However, I believe if we read, teach and preach this story with fresh eyes and hearts we will discover a loving God whose heart was completely broken and filled with pain at the thought of destroying His children. I believe this story says more about what God decided not to do than what God chose to do.

Is a baptism "fire insurance?" Is it a "get out of hell free" card? Is it a one time washing that somehow pays off after you die? If it isn't any of these things then what is it? In John 3 Jesus talks to Nicodemus about what it means to be born both of water and the Spirit and how our whole lives can be radically transformed because of that. Jesus tells Nicodemus how a person can be born of the Spirit through Him. He talks about God's love for the world and His plan of salvation, but He also addresses what a person, born in the Spirit, can expect.

We can expect the Holy Spirit to lead us and drive us. We can expect that when we submit to the Holy Spirit that Jesus is lifted up so the world can know where to look to be saved. We can expect the Holy Spirit to lead and drive us into the light where we can be transformed and the world can see the love of God in action.

In this sermon we will look at how life, immersed in Jesus Christ, can mean for us and for the world around us. We will have a guest share his story of how the immersed life has changed him. Why should we live as baptized Christians? Because in Jesus everything is possible.

We were created to be in an intimate and wonderful relationship with our Abba God. As we are loved and as we are transformed by His love to become loving like Him, we are prepared to show the world God’s goodness and kindness in this world.

God loves each of us as much as God loves Jesus (John 17:23). God loves people in the world enough to give Jesus into this world to doe for them (John 3:16).

We need to have the courage to both live and speak the good news in this world! Only if we both speak and live it will people understand God's offer of new life.

One of the most powerful parts of our worship services on Sunday mornings is our time of confession where we pause to cry out to our Father asking Him to forgive us and to help us forgive other people. After we do this we hear the sweet words of the assurance of our forgiveness that tell us, “In the mercy of Almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us!”

Jesus Christ was given to die for us! Our hearts should be lighter as Jesus reminds us that He loved us so much that He willingly came to pay the price demanded by our sins. So who are we to harbor un-forgiveness and resentment to others?

Have you ever thought about the fact that forgiving ourselves and forgiving others is not about us? It’s about Jesus. God reconciles us to Himself for the sake of Jesus Christ and for the sake of the Gospel! My dear friends in Christ, the words of absolution spoke each week by the pastors also say: “For His sake that is for the sake of Jesus Christ God forgives you all your sins.”

God not only forgives us when we repent, but for all those who believe In Jesus Christ, our Abba – who is Almighty God our Father – gives us the power to become children of God and He bestows on us the Holy Spirit. Our loving, grace filled, Abba Father, sends the Holy Spirit to live within us to drive us to the cross where we cry out, “Jesus forgive me.” On a daily basis the Holy Spirit is given to us to guide us, to comfort us, and to give us the ability to forgive ourselves or each other.

As forgiven sinners, God sends us to the world to tell others about His forgiveness and the freedom Abba gives us through Jesus. Because we are forgiven we can/are sent to do the spread God’s goodness and kindness to the world. God’s sends us to model for others what living a forgiven redeemed life that is filled with the real presence of Christ living within us looks like.

I know it sounds easy, but it’s not for we are all holding onto the wounds of our hearts that we are not able to forgive because forgiveness seeking is not an easy process. However, when we harbor un-forgiveness in our hearts and minds we “blow up” God’s plan. That is one of the reasons Jesus came to the Upper Room after He was resurrected and stood in front of His disciples who had rejected Him, abandoned Him, and denied Him on the day He was crucified.

Jesus knew if He didn’t come and bring forgiveness to their hearts and heal their wounds they would never be able to forgive each other. God knew that if they didn’t forgive each other, the Gospel of Jesus Christ would have never been able to be taken out into the wilderness of this broken world where it transforms lives and heals relationships – not just between us and God – but between us and each other as well.

When we harbor un-forgiveness in our hearts and minds we “blow up” God’s plan. That is one of the reasons Jesus came to the Upper Room after He was resurrected and stood in front of His disciples who had rejected Him, abandoned Him, and denied Him on the day He was crucified. Jesus knew if He didn’t come and bring forgiveness to their hearts and heal their wounds they would never be able to forgive each other. And if they didn’t forgive each other, the Gospel of Jesus Christ would have never been able to be taken out into the wilderness of this broken world where it transforms lives and heals relationships – not just between us and God – but between us and each other as well.

My dear friends in Christ, on the day Jesus died on the cross; the temple curtain was torn so there would be no division between us and God! When that happened God invited all of us invited into the presence of our Holy Abba Father so that we could bring all our pain, all our wounds, all the filthiness, the heaviness of our un-forgiveness to his altar where he washes it clean and takes the burdens of it all away so that we can be restored.

First, we will set about looking at the nature of our relationship with God. He came that we would have abundant life and complete joy in Him. If that isn't happening, maybe we can see why and fix it. We will reveal the truth of the myth of "righteousness" and see that righteousness is not about rules and anger and rigid morality. It is about relationship, faithfulness, and JOY. James connects righteousness to making a friend. We'll look at the difference between the world's definition of righteousness and what the Bible says about it. James shows what the religion that God accepts looks like. We'll take a look at what that word, "religion," really means compared to how the world defines it and why the righteousness and religion that God loves is good for us because it is overflowing with joy in Him.

Finally, we'll look at the scripture of the sheep and the goats and see what Jesus is telling us about how He sees us and what gives Him joy in our relationship with Him. We'll give you a beautiful example of what happens when God takes a life of fear and turns it into a life of hope and promise, full of the joy of loving Jesus and living out the joy of being with Him.