There are a lot of passages in the Bible that seem harsh or even offensive to us at first glance. But in this series we’ll see that as we dig into those difficult sayings, we find real truth that applies to our lives and leads us to a deeper understanding of God’s love for us. Today we look at Jesus' words: "I have not come to bring peace, but division."

There are plenty of times in life where we're faced with situations we can't see the way out of. That was the case for Jehoshaphat and his army in 2 Chronicles 20. As we wrap up our People of Prayer series, we look at Jehoshaphat's prayer for guidance, which is a prayer that teaches us what to do when we don't know what to do.

As we continue our People of Prayer series, today we look at David's prayer of thanks from 1 Chronicles 29. In this prayer, we learn that the secret to living a generous life is recognizing the giver behind our giving, the attitude behind our giving, and the gift that enables our giving.

Times of darkness are inevitable in life. There are going to be times we feel like everywhere we look, there's only darkness with no hope for a brighter future. That's where Heman found himself when he wrote Psalm 88. From this prayer of darkness, we learn three things about times of darkness in our lives: times of darkness will come, they serve a spiritual purpose, and they are not the end.

This week in our People of Prayer series, we looked at Elijah's prayer for fire in 1 Kings 18. This story teaches us that there is a right way to pray, that how we pray shows who our God is, and that knowing who our God is enables us to pray the right way.

As we continue our People of Prayer series, we look this week at the story of Hannah praying for God to give her a son. This story shows us how God changes our hearts and brings us through our silent struggles stronger than we were before by reorienting our hearts toward him.

This week we're starting a new series called People of Prayer. We'll be studying different stories of prayer in the Bible with the goal that as we learn from people of prayer, we become people of prayer. This week we look at Abraham's prayer for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. From this story we learn that in prayer, we want to emulate Abraham's humble audacity that comes from knowing who we are and who God is.

As we wrap up our Reconstructing Church series, we look at Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple, and we see the amazing grace contained in these three words: God dwells here.

As we talk about Reconstructing Church, it makes sense that we take a look at our foundation. Today in our sermon from Jeremiah, we see the results of building on the wrong foundation. God encourages us to build on the foundation of his Word, and his Word will work from the inside out to change in our hearts and our actions.

There's so much in this blessing that God gives us. He gives us insight into his nature as our Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He tells us what he promises us as his children. And he shows us that he has a blessing for each and every one of us.