We don’t need to be seeking out neighbors, God will bring people to us we need to be neighbors to. In order to start asking the right questions of God, we need to first realize that we were the ones beaten and left for dead in a ditch, and God acted as a neighbor toward us, so we need to now live a life that reflects this.

These two short parables told in response to the hypocrisy displayed by the ruler of the synagogue show that the teaching and ministry of Jesus is life-giving and restorative, God’s heart in regard to humanity is for freedom, and the kingdom of God is surprising and unexpected.

How we view and understand the kingdom of God radically impacts how we navigate our life and faith. The kingdom of God is radically celebratory, so let’s take part in that celebration!

Life in the presence of God is the greatest treasure we can attain and we should be willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to live life in God's presence.

Our worth and value is found not in doing but in being - we are created in the image of God and Jesus has defined our inherent value by deciding that we are worth dying for. Understanding this heart of the Gospel will help us understand our value both as individual people and as the Church.

The why of the Gospel draws us to a lifestyle of commitment, not to an institution.

A commitment to worship, to mission, and to community.

This "why" of the Gospel is relationship - with God, with the lost, and with each other.

In Acts we see that the early Church

1. Lived a lifestyle of devotion.

2. Were intentionally active in unity.

3. Were externally focused.

This is not just a historical statement, but a theological statement about God’s presence in the community of believers, an ecclesiological statement about the priorities of an authentic church, and a missiological statement about the process by which the church expands.

Our culture as the church should not be defined by our past experiences and traditions but by the Kingdom of God. If our focus as a church is on production - everything that we do - rather than dependent worship to our king, then we have fundamentally missed the mark.

We are both an active recipient and an active agent of the Word of God. Our job as recipients of the Word is to join our King in sowing the Word with Him.

We are to love in a way that reflects the fact that our very real debt has been forgiven. The forgiving love we have received should impact how we love God and how we love others once we truly understand what it is we have been forgiven of.