One thing is true of every follower of Jesus, regardless of how you discovered Jesus or when you started following him: We all have a past. Your past is a significant factor that helps explain the person you have become and the person you are becoming. It has an invaluable role in forming your new identity in Christ.

Things go better for us in just about every area of life when we have a design to follow. To God, human beings are a masterpiece of great worth and value – including you. God created you with intention, thought, care, and, above all, love. We believe it is essential to understand that your identity is found in Christ. It is the first of the seven marks of a disciple, and it is the project that will occupy our attention for the next six weeks as a church family.

God gave His people the practice of hospitality. The word means "love of the stranger or outsider." But hospitality is more than just a disconnected act. It's a posture of the heart that helps you see, feel, and act. You have no idea what that little gesture of hospitality will do in light of eternity.

In a highly individualistic society where we can be our own person and fight for independence from the time we learn to tie our shoes until it slips away from us in our old age, we often overlook the undeniable reality that everybody needs somebodies to live.

If prayer is communion with God, then we not only need to learn how to talk to Him, we must also learn how to listen to God. Listening begins when we recognize our need, know God’s word, and approach through Jesus.

Prayer is a lifeline to life change. Unfortunately, many followers of Jesus struggle with this practice. But, as is so often the case, the practices that expose us initially are the same ones that change us eventually. You just have to keep practicing.

The church at Laodicea is typically recognized as the "lukewarm" church. Jesus had absolutely nothing good to say about them. And the crazy thing is that the church of Laodicea did not see themselves the same way Jesus saw them. Jesus was calling this church back to Him, and the same could be said about the church today. He desires His church to be effective, vibrant, and useful in expanding His kingdom.

The church of Philadelphia stands out as different because Jesus has nothing negative to say about them. Jesus wanted the church to see its position differently. Through salvation, He held the keys to the eternal kingdom, dispensing his riches, grace, and love to everyone. As a result of the open door of salvation, the church of Philadelphia had the opportunity to bring the good news of Jesus to those around them, and we still have that same opportunity today.

The issue for the church at Sardis was spiritual apathy. They were coasting off their experiences of the past and had settled into a complacent place - not moving or sinking, simply existing. And it was killing them, whether they realized it or not.

Have you ever been in a fight or conflict knowing you are at fault? You may begin to excuse, justify, or try to craft a narrative in your head that you are right. In pursuing being "right," you often don't look for information but affirmation. And this is precisely what we see happening in the church of Thyatira in Revelation. The tendency that we have every day is to look for the voices that align with our desires and bypass what Jesus says.