Love, Joy, Peace, and Mercy are all prominent themes in Scripture about Christmas and the coming of Christ. Yet what many miss is that Love, Joy, Peace, and Mercy flow from justice. Justice needs to be established first. This week, we are studying the writings of the prophet, Zephaniah, a prophet that looked at the fall of God’s people into captivity and promised that one day those who do evil will be brought to justice and what will follow are Love, Joy, Peace, and Mercy. Join us this week as we learn more about who will stay in God’s Kingdom, who will go, and what that reality compels all of us to do this Christmas season.

You’ve heard the old adage “Jesus is the reason for the season.” And when you stop to reflect on what that phrase means, you get confronted with a jarring reality. Many people are celebrating the coming of Jesus without really knowing him. As the prophets spoke about the coming Lord and Messiah, hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, they also spoke about a “forerunner” to come, one who would prepare the way. Who is that person and what was his message? Join us this week as we study Malachi 3:1-4 and the messenger who was to come.

The Christmas season is full of language surrounding hope, mercy, joy, and peace, but those are ideas we only celebrate from a place of despair and hopelessness. The story of Israel’s past is a story saturated with despair and hopelessness, yet from the ashes of their captivity, God brought them a message of hope and He is a God who always keeps His promises. Join us for week one of our Advent series, Arrival, as we learn the story of Israel’s walk from despair to deliverance, from hopelessness back to hope.

The question always comes up: Why does God do what he does? Why does God perform miracles in the lives of some people and not others. In this lesson we look at God’s reason … Glory.

This week, Josh spoke from Psalm 1 and Ephesians 3, where Paul encourages the reader to “grasp” the fulness of God’s love for us, which is critical for us in terms of being able to deepen our prayer lives with Him. A deeper prayer life begins with enjoying God’s Word and being nourished by it.

Josh teaches from Matthew 6:9-13 on the Lord’s Prayer. Many people want deeper prayer lives, but struggle to have confidence in knowing how to pray. Jesus’ opening words are, “This then is how you should pray…” It’s one of the rare times the Bible makes such an explicit statement. Tune in as we unpack why this prayer is so powerful, and how to use it in your own prayer life as you grow in communication and intimacy with God.

Prayer is the most common religious practice there is, but it’s important that we recognize that not all prayer is equal. Prayer is a conversation between two persons, so who you’re praying to matters even more than how you pray. This week, Josh looks at Matthew 6 for clues about how we can make sure we are praying to the true God that is there, rather than a god of our own creation.

In this week’s message from Jonah 1-2, Josh discusses our posture of prayer toward God. Do we desire prayer with Him, or do we run away from the relationship that God craves with us? Learn how to jumpstart your desire for prayer.