In Luke 15 Jesus continues by telling a story about a lost son. In doing so He provides a description of what God is like. Because God loves us He gives us freedom to make decisions (even bad ones) and refuses to resort to control or manipulation to gain our love in return. Like the father in the story - God waits for us to turn around (repent) and return back to Him.

Our relationship with God is deeply affected by how we see Him. If we see Him as angry and demanding we will respond with apprehension and fear. But, if we see Him as Jesus reveals - as a jilted lover desperately searching for us - we will notice He is upside down from how we have always understood Him to be.

As we continue our series through Luke 14 & 15 we examine the familiar parable of the Lost Sheep. In it Jesus reveals 2 opposing reactions to His mission - one "mutters" and one celebrates - all while challenging us to celebrate as well.

The Kingdom of God is open to all of us, but Jesus reminds us that it will cost us everything to live in it. This is a radical invitation that extends beyond simple desire if circumstances are right. It requires a complete reorientation of our lives.

Blessed are those who will feast with God in the end - but who will that be? As the dinner party in Luke 14 continues - Jesus reveals that those who think they are IN may actually be out and those who think they are OUT may actually be invited in.

God does not run His kingdom the way we would usually expect. In fact, many times He flips our expectations completely upside down. At a dinner party in Luke 14, Jesus demonstrates this upside down kingdom in action as a lesson for us all.

In preparation for our new series which begins next week, Pastor Kevin engages the topic of true repentance as demonstrated by the church in Corinth after Paul's rebuke in 1 Corinthians.

Stuart shares from the book of Ecclesiastes regarding the power of our spoken words.

Amy shares 3 ways that the enemy steals our joy and encourages us to keep moving forward in our walk with the Lord.

We wrap up our brief discussion about the Church by examining how Jesus viewed things in Mark 2.