Happy Easter! What a great day to celebrate the Risen Jesus. He is alive and well, actively ministering here today. All of Scripture points to this one miracle, and he is here to helps us believer and share the story of his Resurrection! As we wrap up our series on faith sharing and evangelism, we end with the best form of outreach: Jesus' own, perfect way of revealing himself to the mind and conscience of each individual follower! We all need him to meet us directly and preach the greatest sermon to our hearts.

When we worship something or someone, we make a choice to devote our attention, time and thoughts to that object, and people around us take notice. When we worship God, we stand out to those around us who do not. God uses our worship of him to display to the world around us that there is a different way. 

In today's society, people who would slam the door in the face of an evangelist are somehow still very open to hearing a person's personal story. Our culture recognizes stories as sacred, and is willing to listen when they sense that the speaker is being authentic and vulnerable. This means that telling our stories is still an amazingly winsome and inarguable way to share our faith. If you love people and are willing to humbly share how God is transforming you, then the testimonial style may be your favorite! 

We live in a culture that has made white lies, tall tales, airbrushed images, and media spin into an art form. In a culture where people lie to themselves and others so habitually, speaking the truth in love can actually be a refreshing and effective form of outreach! Not everyone takes this risk, but this type of loving honesty may be your wheelhouse; if if you are a believer, you are called to know and proclaim the Truth Himself, Jesus Christ. May this message make you bold for the task!

God has wired us all a little differently to do outreach and to share the good news of Jesus. However, just because we may perceive that our gifts are different from another, we are not excused from sharing our faith in Christ. Sharing is one of the ways that we express our gratitude to Jesus for the salvation that he pours into our lives! This message is focused on prayer and the fact that you don’t have to be one of those spectacular prayer warriors for your prayers to be heard and to be used by God. You just simply need to pray!

As we enter into Lent together, many of us are fasting and praying. As we put our selfishness and busyness to death through self denial, it's good to ask what we hope to accomplish. This series is an attempt to use this time to learn a whole new lifestyle of intentional outreach and obedience to the Gospel. We can't do it alone. Even God exists as a perfectly unified team called the Trinity; if God does mission through teamwork, we are called to follow his example! 

A message on Malachi 2:1-9. This passage has a strong, graphic admonition to priests. It's easy to write it off as a passage that does not apply to us. However, if we belong to Christ, we are called to serve as his priests in 1 Peter, and cannot brush off this passage so lightly. Listen and be challenged to be faithful witnesses in a world that does not reward it. 

Is God numb to the problems of this world? We might imagine this because, for us, caring means hurting, and we only have a limited tolerance for pain. God, however, is a FEELING God whose capacity for pure emotions is infinite. God isn't numb - he feels more than we can imagine. The depths and power of his mercy and compassion are unreachable; because he cares, he purifies and saves! 

There are many difficult roads that the Lord calls us to walk. As God is glorified in this world through Jesus Christ, one promise we do not receive is that of a comfortable, easy life free from hardship, disease, or pain. 

Habakkuk leads us into one of those places of frustration and pain, teaching us that God is able to handle our questions and will answer us, although his response may not be what we would have expected.