Jonah is in the fish. He was thrown overboard in the midst of a raging storm at sea and before he drowned he was swallowed by a fish. Then Jonah sits in the fish for 3 days and 3 nights before he finally prays to God - God now has a choice forget him or forgive him and let him continue to be a part of the story.

Jonah's rebellious disobedience contrasts with God's relentless pursuit of all people. God's actions demonstrate love towards those in need, even when they resist Him. The story challenges us to choose reaching for love over running from it, following God's example.

As we continue to talk about engaging our God and the gifts He’s given each of us we next want to look at how serving with our gifts is for the good of others and how it helps us grow deeper in out faith as we try to look more like Jesus every day.

Engaging with your faith and your faith family means connecting more with God and He’s given you gifts for both your benefit and the benefit of His Kingdom. As we grow in our faith it leads us to see ways we can serve and when we serve the church we’re using our gifts for the good of others.

This is our word for the year! From the beginning... like in Genesis, faith and humanity has always been a communal concept. In America we’re supposed to be rugged individuals, but in King Jesus we’re to be intentionally connected. In this first message of the series we’ll look at Isaiah 61 and see how it was about Isaiah, Israel, Jesus and US all at the same time - 1 passage, 4 people, 1 purpose. When we engage with Jesus on mission we're agreeing to not just be fans of Jesus, cheering Him from the sidelines, but followers of Jesus, serving with Him in the field.

You might expect the coming of God to earth to be announced in palaces and proclaimed by kings and attended by dignitaries - but then, only the wealthy, the well-to-do and the “winners” in life would feel like they were part of God’s plan and story. Instead, Jesus Himself was an outcast, born into an ordinary family. His birth announced only to the overlooked. Blessings came from the elderly and outsiders were welcomed into His families home. The coming of Jesus was for everyone and still today, only those who cast Him out find themselves on the outside.

For many hundreds of years the Jewish people lived as though God had chosen them, and only them. If you wanted to have a relationship with God, you had to go through the Jews, meaning, you had to become a Jew. This happened in spite of the fact that God had said from the beginning that He wanted to Jewish people to be a light to the nations of the world. But don’t be hard on them, we’re pretty exclusionary ourselves. So when Messiah is born it’s not at all weird that outsiders were invited early on. If you ever felt like you didn’t fit in or were being kept out, this story is for you.

If you’re not familiar, OG stands for Original Gangster 😆. It’s a slang term today for anyone who has done it before. Larry Bird is an OG. So is Terry Bradshaw and a whole host of others. The challenge for OG’s is that to be an OG you’ve got to also be old. And for many people in their retirement years life can feel like it’s slipped, or is slipping away. That might be how the elderly, widow, Anna felt. Until she got to play a part in the story of Jesus. If you’re fighting your age, don’t fight your story. God still has plans and a purpose for your life.

Do you know the feeling of being picked last on the basketball court, or being one of the many people who just feel overlooked and unseen in the world? You may be a garbage truck driver, a wastewater operator, a fast food cook or a stay-at-home parent, but you feel like nobody. Imagine what it would be like to be overlooked by everyone except God. That’s the shepherd’s story... and it could be yours.

There was nothing ordinary about the birth of Jesus, the promised Messiah. How could it be?! The God of creation partners with humanity to create a child who will save the world. Nothing about that is ordinary. But the circumstances by which God accomplished this were ordinary. An ordinary couple. A natural birth. A middle income family. A nationally rejected family line. If you feel ordinary, this is the story for you.