Do you ever feel like your weaknesses prevent you from following Jesus? Like no mater how hard you try, you seem to fail over and over again? In week two, Pastor James Roberson from the Bridge Church in Brooklyn looks at  the second part of Jesus’ prayer where he prays for His disciples. In this prayer, Jesus recognizes the weaknesses of His disciples and prays not for them to have strength, Instead, He asks God to protect them and to deliver them from the weaknesses that they struggle with. Pastor Roberson shows through this text that even in our weaknesses, God is the one who protects us and sustains us.

We all know the Lord’s Prayer. We call it the “Our Father”. This is the sample prayer that Jesus gave to His followers as a model for how we should pray. But as Pastor Sean begins this series, he takes a look at the actual prayer that Jesus prayed in John 17 before the pinnacle of His life came. Instead of praying for strength or endurance, He asked God to bring Him glory. He wanted the gravity of what He was going through to impress upon people so that they would understand the importance of their relationship with God.

Adoption always has a cost. When most of us think about adoption, we are thinking about the fees associated with the legal process and the money we will need to spend to care for a child. But adoption also means walking alongside and loving that child, even he they don’t love you back. It means suffering through their pain with them and allowing yourself to be the source of strength. The same is true in our adoption process with God. There was a cost that needed to be paid by God in order to us to have the chance to become adopted. But since, He freely paid this cost out of love for us, it gives us the strength and motivation to love others in this extraordinary way.

As we dive deeper into this series on adoption, we see that although everyone is created by God, not everyone is considered His child. While that might seem a little harsh, it’s actually one of the most loving things God could have done. Pastor Sean continues this series by showing that God adopts us into His family for a purpose. As spiritual orphans, we had nothing to offer God, yet He chose to adopt us, and make us His own.

There was a reason why God chose to use the word adoption when referring to the relationship He offers to those who choose to put their faith, hope and confidence in Him. Adoption is much more than simply rescuing us from the consequence of our sin. Adoption implies a deep desire and commitment to not only rescue us from our brokenness, but also to make us His very own. This week, Pastor Brian shares his adoption story and shows what it means to be adopted by God.

You can probably think of someone pretty quickly who had a big influence on your life. Maybe they sacrificed time to pour into you when you needed it most. Or maybe they were someone you could always count on to be trusted. What if God wanted you to influence someone else in the same way you have been influenced? But like most other things, this won’t happen accidentally. This week, Pastor Sean gives 3 world views that will sabotage your ability to be an influence and why they exist. And then shows how we can choose to overlook the problems and see the person to be influenced.

You don’t need to live for very long before you begin to face conflict. Even young children begin to face conflict at home, school, or with their friends. But as we get older our conflicts tend to get more complex and complicated. Conflict can lead to damaged friendships, broken marriages, and tense working environments. But just because we face conflict doesn’t mean we have to deal with conflict in average ways. In today’s message Pastor Sean unpacks the issue of conflict in our lives and helps us to see what the Bible says about handling conflict in above average ways.

Having good relationships whether you are single, dating, or married are possible, it’s just that they don’t come naturally. Most of our relationships are contractual. Meaning as long as you do your part, I’ll do mine. But once we let someone down or someone hurts us we tend to end our commitment to that relationship. But that’s not how God’s relationships with us is. God has modeled a covenant relationship with us where He has promised that He will never fail you or abandon you! When we incorporate this type of covenant into our relationships and marriages, it can drastically make them better. Pastor Sean shares what a covenant relationship in marriage looks like and gives us 5 commitments God makes to us that we can apply to our marriages in order to make them above average.

We all want healthy, above-average relationships. Nobody hopes that their marriage will fall apart, that their kids will stop talking to them, or that their friends will ditch them. Honestly, we don’t even want our acquaintances to think too bad of us. This week, pastor Ken talks about how to have not your average love. Average love carries conditions, but not your average love works to be unconditional. Pastor Ken describes 3 aspects of God’s love and give 4 practical ways you can begin loving others better this week.

Everyone says that they want to be wise. Nobody hopes to make foolish decisions that will take their life in the wrong direction. But many people choose to ignore wisdom because honestly, it’s often the harder road to take. This week, Pastor Sean shows from book of Proverbs what the outcomes of making wise choices is and what the outcomes is for those who choose to be foolish. He also gives 3 critical decisions you must make if you are going to choose to pursue after wisdom.