We can't cut anything off to keep us from sinning...and that's why Jesus was cut off for us.

Satan can dish out all the promises of health and wealth, fame and fortune. He can offer us the whole world. We don't need it. We have something better. We have Jesus. Our lives are already lost. And we are found in Jesus.

Do you feel like your life is spinning out of control? Do you feel like life is hitting you from all sides? Do you need something to hold on to--solid ground to stand on? If that's you, God has a solid foundation for you. It's a foundation that will withstand everything that is thrown against it.

"Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." The Canaanite woman believed that Jesus came to give in such abundance that there would even be some left for her. We come to Jesus with hands open--ready to receive all that He comes to give. If God is the one giving, crumbs would be more than enough. But God gives us more than crumbs. He invites us to His table as children and gives us Jesus.

When people make their beds, they deserve to lie in them...right? We love it when people get what they deserve. But here's the problem: we've made our beds too. Peter certainly made a "water bed" for himself when He doubted that Jesus. Amazingly, instead of letting Him sink, Jesus immediately reached out His hand and saved Peter. Jesus reaches out His hand to us us sinking sinners too and saves us from the beds we've made for ourselves. Thanks be to God!

The Disciples had a problem on their hands. A large crowd needed food and they didn't have nearly enough to give them. The Disciples wished that the problem would just go away. Jesus, however, deals with the problem. Jesus shows us that we don't have the power to fix our problems...but He does.

Hebrews 12:2 invites us to "look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." What was the joy set before Jesus? What was so precious and valuable to Him that He would give everything--even His life--in order to have it? You. You are Jesus' joy. He purchased and won you with His precious blood. You are God's "segulah," His treasured possession.

Our 2017 VBS, which was themed "Concrete Jungle," has come to a close. We learned that God gives and we receive. In this closing sermon, we take a look at Jesus' words about the Kingdom of God in Mark 10:13-16. What does it mean to receive the Kingdom of God like a child?