StoneBridge Church // Sermon of the Week

Jesus used parables to circumvent people's expectation which kept them from understanding Him and His ministry. The parables recorded in Mark 4 all compare God's activity to a seed-not a tree. God plants seeds and they continue to grow and consume.

The link to the video used in this message is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo.

There are 3 possible responses we can have to Jesus: unbelief, partial belief, and belief. God chose use, adopted us as His own. If we believe fully in Him and that He chose us, obedience will be the result.

We can miss God's activity/coming in our lives because it does not line up with our expectations. To make sure we don't miss Him we need to: know Him well so we can recognize His voice, not put Him in a box, and respond to what we believe He is saying.

The link to the video in this message is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0.

Jesus was born so He could die for us.

We must be born again to follow Him. In order to be born again, we must die to ourselves.

The journey of our faith is all about our heart. Even when we are unfaithful and go after other things, God continues to love us and pursues us. On this journey we need people walking with us who will help us during the rough spots and pull us back on course

As we follow God we need to trust and accept the ways in which He chooses to work. We need to accept our responsibility in the work he gives and a willingness to accept on-going direction from him.

Waiting on God is hard, because we want to be in control of everything. But as we wait we need to consider who He is-that His ways are higher than ours and worship Him for all that He has done.

Two questions from this passage:

Do you feel like you missed your opportunity to receive something from Jesus?

Do you have the type of confidence in Jesus that you would do the same thing as the paralytic man's friends?

Family Dinner

Spending time alone with God gives us clarity and courage to do the things He has called us to do. Solitude with Him helps us to be led by the Spirit instead of driven by our circumstances.