God has spoken through his word. Followers of him must allow the word to form us and change us rather than imposing our own values upon the word and upon God.

The Age of the Church is God doing a new thing in the world - all peoples, all tribes, all tongues - everyone can have access to salvation, God, and the Kingdom. This turns peoples and cultures on their heads. It creates tensions, problems, and persecutions. This was true in Acts and its true for us today because we’re living the same story. 

Pastor Sam walks through chapters 1-12 qnd showes us how we are a part of the same story as Jesus and his apostles.

Pastor Jim Preaches a message on unity from the book of John.

The leper was a captive of both sin and the law. He was experiencing the effects of the curse of sin in his illness and the law had left him literally isolated and alone. Jesus steps into his mess and frees him from his illness and frees him from the prison the law has made for him. This is an amazing picture of Romans 6-8 and Jesus setting us free from the power of sin, death, and the law. 

Matthew has taken this famous healing story of Jesus and put it in a different place than the earlier Mark places it in the narrative. This is because Matthew wants us to see this aspect of Jesus’ ministry in connection with what surrounds it (the sermon on the mount) and the other authority narratives. 

Pastor Jesse, filling in for Pastor Sam teaches on Luke 12:13-21.

The kingdom of God is upside down. It inverts the expectation of everything in this world.  Luke uses this scene to exemplify the truth of the accusation made against Paul and company - these people are turning the world upside down - the kingdom of God is wrecking the systems and ideas of this world. 

The Lord is calling all kinds of people unto himself. His missionaries must go to great lengths at great sacrifice that all might be brought in. The gospel is for everyone. God’s desire is for all people to find life in his gospel and he is working in the world to draw all peoples unto himself. 

The Spirit of God guides his church and guides his mission. We can trust him, risk for him, and follow him for the sake of the kingdom.

Conflict and disagreement, even passionate conflict, are not a basis for division. The gospel means we can be diverse and joyfully unified around the kingdom of God. We must strive for unity even in the midst of conviction, disagreement, conflict, and diversity.