We live in a culture that is absolutely enamored with heroes. Superhero movies make the most money. Sports heroes are immortalized when they make the last second shot or hit the game-winning home run. Military heroes are memorialized for winning wars and saving lives.

Most of the time, we don't ever see ourselves as the hero but it is the role we were designed by God to play.

Jesus predicted that he would start a gathering, a movement ... what we call church. And that church would spread all over the earth and outlast the Roman Empire. It would change the world. His prediction must have sounded outlandish to even his closest followers. But here we are, two thousand years later, and the Roman Empire exists only in history books, while Jesus’ gathering is still going strong. The church is the hope of the world because the church is the vehicle by which God is bringing the solution to mankind’s greatest problems: sin, sorrow, and death.

The ability to believe is the most powerful force at mankind’s disposal. Everything that has been done, for good or bad, was done because someone believed it could be or should be done. Every problem that has been solved was solved because someone believed it could be or should be solved.

We constantly look for evidence to support what we believe is true. In the case of religious belief, that means if you believe deeply enough any religious system becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If that’s true, isn't it possible that Christianity is just an example of groupthink on a massive scale?

At some point in your faith journey, you will settle into a bargaining posture with God. “God, if you will... , I promise I'll... .” We all do it. That’s just part of religion — every religion. In fact, it’s so much a part of human nature that even some atheists and agnostics do it when they find themselves in desperate circumstances.

But is that really how God wants us to relate to him? The problem with a bargaining posture is we never keep up our end of the bargain, do we?

Guilt is powerful. Shame can be crippling. We all have things in our pasts that haunt us. We have sin. It only takes a word, a picture, or a name to bring it all back. We know we can do better from this point forward, but how are we supposed to fix the past? We can say we’re sorry. We can ask for forgiveness. But some of the things we've done hang over our lives like a cloud.

What can wash away our sins?

Practically speaking, rules are often the centerpiece of religious life. Many people think the Ten Commandments are rules that make a relationship with God possible. If you follow the rules, God will be happy. If you don’t, he won’t.

But what if a relationship with God doesn't depend on our obedience? When it comes to your relationship with God, what is the role of rules?

To only know God as a Father would be like only knowing daytime but never night — to see the sunrise, but never the sunset.

In this message, Forrest Jenan looks at how Scripture tells the story of a God who, at times, takes on motherly characteristics; feeding us, nourishing us, giving us what we need to grow and thrive, taking care of us in big and small ways, knitting us back together with love and grace when we’ve been broken.

The three largest faith traditions — Judaism, Islam, and Christianity —claim the same starting point: a man named Abraham. All three agree that sin made a mess of the world and God started his clean up operation with Abraham. God made a series of promises and Abraham’s response to those promises didn't just have implications for his personal starting point or the starting points of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. It had implications for your starting point as well.