Rules are pretty useful, but they can never give us real rest and real relationship with God and others. This week we see from Matthew 11:25-12:14 that true rest isn’t found in keeping the rules under our own strength, but coming to Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, who frees us to truly love God and truly love others.

God wants you to complain to Him. Sounds weird, but it’s true. This week we see from Psalm 77 that in our suffering and sorrow God encourages us to cry out to Him and to remember his faithfulness.

Now that we’ve decided to live in God’s Kingdom, let’s keep going.  We see from Haggai 2:1-23 that we can be strong for the Lord is with us.  Be Strong for God’s Spirit dwells with us.  Be Strong for God will bring about His Glorious Kingdom.

It’s Time to be more faithful in living in God’s Kingdom.  We should Consider our ways.  We see from Haggai 1:1-15 that as we’re more faithful our Lord promises to be with us and to make our lives more satisfying.

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus, but who are we really dealing with? This week we see from John 1:6-13 that Jesus is the light of life who came into the world so that those who receive Him can become God’s children.

Christmas is about God with us.  John tells us God has always personally communicated to us like a father with his family, especially at Christmas.  We see from John 1:1-5 that Jesus is the Word who created everything and so has the blinding power to create unquenchable new life for us.

How is adoption the climax of the Bible and the ultimate blessing of Christianity? This week we look at our last and ultimate Big Word in God’s Big Plan: Adoption – Sinners Made God’s Sons. We see from Galatians 3:23-4:7 that in Christ, we are adopted as God’s sons so that we may live as His children.

What do you need to see real, long-term change in your life? Just trying harder won’t do it. Guilt and shame won’t work long-term. It’s only God’s grace that can do it… This week we look at our next Big Word in God’s Big Plan: Redemption – Sinners Bought by God. We see from Titus 2:11-14 that in Jesus, God paid the price to redeem us from sin so we live for Him, able to turn away from sin and grow in Godliness by his grace.

If you’re united to Jesus by faith, then you get a new life now and a new body in the future.  In our new life we consider ourselves as dead to sin and we conduct ourselves by presenting ourselves to God as instruments for doing righteousness.  This week we look at our next Big Word in God’s Big Plan: Resurrection – Raised from death to eternal life.  We see from Romans 6:1-14 that because Jesus has been raised from the dead, we’ve been given new life to live for Him.

Starting over with a clean slate is a wonderful thing. But the problem with a clean slate is that you can mess it up again pretty quick! When it comes to our relationship with God we need something better than a clean slate… This week we look at our next Big Word in God’s Big Plan: Imputation – Jesus’ Righteousness is Mine. We are going to see from Philippians 3:1-11 that God counts us as righteous in Jesus through faith, not through anything we do.