We have all been called by God to be involved in His desire to reach our world with the hope of Jesus! The church doesn't exist to be a spiritual checkmark on our to-do list, but instead exists to make an impact in our world and community! If we're going to be effective for Jesus, we have to realize we have responsibilities to be involved in ministry, even within our own church!

As we seek to be approved by God we have to be willing to give Him every aspect of who we are, the good, the bad and the ugly. As we give him everything, He uses it all for His glory. As we look at the story of Abraham, we see he did this very thing and God used him as a result of it!

Joseph was tested and approved all throughout his entire life - he could have been tempted to throw in the towel and give up on God's plan as it seemed to get him into trouble, but he would have missed out on the ultimate plan for his life! We learned from the life of Joseph that what the enemy means to harm us, God intends for good! We just have to stick it out and trust that God's plan is good!

Often times approval happens after a time that we would describe as one of testing. When we are stretched or tested, it shows where we stand with God and whether or not we are worthy of being stamped as approved by Him. Here's the great part though - it's only through the work of our Heavenly Father that we can overcome the tests we experience in life!

Even though Jesus is the Son of God, His approval by God came through His obedience to His Father! Unfortunately for Jesus, His obedience came through suffering, but fortunately for us through His obedience we are forgiven!

Tests are no fun, whether in school or in life. However, on the other end of that test you get results. Pass or fail we can grow from testing in our lives and ultimately we are looking for God to stamp us as "Approved"!

If we're looking at the Biblical significance of Israel, we can't ignore what Scripture says about the future of the nation of Israel and why that's important for us as Christ followers.

Our heritage is important to us - it influences who we are and what is important to us! This morning we get into the why the heritage of Jesus is so important to who He is as the Messiah and the Son of God!

The importance of the nation of Israel is a large part of the narrative of Scripture, but why? At the end of the day, the people of Israel were in fact God's Chosen People - this morning we look at the story of His people.

The importance of the nation of Israel is a large part of the narrative of Scripture, but why? At the end of the day, the people of Israel were in fact God's Chosen People - this morning we look at the story of His people.