In Ruth 2 we are welcomed into the story of Boaz welcoming a Moabite outsider into his field. He protects her provides for her, and associates himself with her by feasting with her. Listen and hear how the gospel is the great news about the Lord of the Harvest who invites sinners to feast with him as a family.

In Ruth chapter 1, we are invited into a story of sorrow and tragedy. Yet, despite such hardship, we see a God who is with His people every step of the way as he directs every single second of history towards its intended destiny. Hear and see how the Gospel invites us into a life where we can trust God in bitter suffering and unmeasured delight.

Waiting can be hard for us. The command to wait is the second most used command in the Bible. If God sees waiting as a good thing, why do we struggle to wait? Listen and hear how the first appearing of Jesus creates in us the ability to wait for his second appearing with eager expectation.

Have you ever found that your circumstances made it really hard to believe some of God’s promises? Well you certainly aren’t the first person to feel that way. Consider Joseph, his fiance is pregnant and all that he knows for certain that he is not the father. And then an angel comes and calls Joseph to trust God and take Mary as his wife anyway. That would be hard. In this sermon we will see that just like Joseph the hardest thing God is calling us to do this Christmas is to trust him. We will also see that because the Christmas story is true and God really did come in the flesh you and I have all that we need to trust God even against the most impossible odds.

In Matthew 1 Jesus shows that there is room in his family for outsiders. In a male dominated culture Jesus made room for women, in a Jewish culture Jesus included foreigners and in an honor/shame culture Jesus welcomed the sexually exploited. Matthew's genealogy is Jesus way of saying to each of these groups "I see you, I know your stories and you matter to me."

The crowds in Mark 11:1-11 declare Jesus to be the Messiah and worship him as their true king. Nevertheless, five days later when Jesus stood on trial before Pilate these people who once threw down their cloaks in front of him where nowhere to be found. What happened? Why was their loyalty so light and their faith so fickle? This is a question each of us needs to ask because the last thing we want to do is to follow in their footsteps.

We know that God is good to unworthy sinners but how does feel about being good to us? Does he like it? Is he just going through the motions? Is he biting his lip in order to get through it? Does God enjoy being good to people who don’t deserve it or is he just doing it because its right or because he made a promise? In Jeremiah 32 God confronts his people with how unworthy they are but then he tells them that he loves them anyway. In fact in verse 40 he promises not to turn away from doing good to his people. But then in verse 41 he tells us how he feels about being good to his people. I can assure you what he says in this verse will blow you away.

Jesus was on his way to do the most important work ever accomplished on this earth. He was headed to Jerusalem to give his life on the cross when a poor blind beggar began to call out his name. The crowds tried to silence him because they knew that Jesus was focused and that he had more important things on his mind. But they were wrong; Jesus stopped. On his way to Calvary the Son of God stopped to take care of a poor blind beggar along the way. Not only does Jesus heal this poor beggar but he uses him to show us things about the discipleship that neither the crowds nor the disciples have yet been able to grasp.