Failure is a part of all our lives and when we’re in the middle of it, it can feel like there’s nothing good about it. We can be tempted to want to hide our failures and deny that they exist. Failure is one of those rooms that we want to close off and not let anyone know about. We can even try to close off our failure from God but God wants to meet us in our failure and do a powerful work in us, not in spite of our failure, but through our failure.

As we meet at the corner of success and God, let’s be careful that we don’t make a wrong turn and end up at a destination marked success that isn’t success at all. It’s easy for many of us, when we hear the word success, to think of someone who is at the top of their game and has reached the pinnacle of their profession. Success is being applauded for our achievements, success is having a lot of what the world has to offer: money, fame, power, things. Success is being impressive in the eyes of others. Success is…successful. Actually the Bible tells us it’s very easy for us to stand at the wrong corner thinking it’s the corner of success. From the Bible’s framework, success isn’t making a lot of money, or having a lot of power, or achieving a lot of fame, or possessing a lot of things or being impressive to others. Those things aren’t necessarily bad or wrong in and of themselves, but it’s wrong and misguided to equate them with success in life. Jesus puts all those things in perspective when he asked the question, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world (have a lot of power, fame, money, or possessions) and lose his soul? The answer is, it doesn’t profit that man at all. Such a man’s ledger is running seriously in the red because in the end what he gained was worth so much less than what he lost.

Loneliness is a universal human experience and we all deal with it at some point in our life. It can look different and have different intensities from person to person but in one way or another we all experience it.

The Bible offers us something that helps us make better choices going forward, both in the smaller, daily choices we make, and at those “pivotal play” moments in life. And while the Bible doesn’t offer us an “undo” button, it does offer us a path that can redeem even the past choices that we regret and help bring something good out of those choices. That something is called wisdom, and the Bible says it is more precious than silver and worth being prized.

Some people just don’t see God as being connected to their lives in any real way. Maybe they go to church, but it’s like a separate compartment from the rest of their lives. They have their “religious life” ��

Maturity is the destination, spiritual maturity is where God wants to take us. As disciples of Christ we are meant to be growing up, so that we are no longer children. The church is meant to be a place where we help one another grow in maturity.

Not only has God designed the church such that we can accomplish much more for His glory together than we ever could alone but He has also designed that the joy of serving the Lord is multiplied when we link arms and work together. Mission is not just about what God’s called us to do, it’s about who God’s called us to do it with.

The New Testament language makes it clear that loving one another is more than important – it’s a make it or break it component of true discipleship. That we love one another isn’t optional for the follower of Jesus! Pastor Snapp shares five categories that will help give us handles on what love is and what it means for us to love one another, plus, some brief points about how we can grow in loving one another.

If we were to boil down what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, at its core it means to follow Jesus. Jesus gathered his disciples with two words: follow me. Discipleship calls us into relationship with Jesus and it calls us to follow him into his mission in this world, but it also inescapably calls us into relationship with each other.

A church without love is kinda like that frozen TV dinner ��