One of the ways that God challenges us to live differently is to respect the image of God reflected in every single person around us. Many of us, even those of us who follow Jesus, are likely to look down on certain people because of different beliefs, different cultural backgrounds, or even different interests. But Pastor Bill doesn’t want us to forget the most important thing about humanity: God made every one of us special, in His image! We all have a place waiting for us at the Lord’s supper table.

Back in Old Testament times, it was a big deal to enter into God’s presence! Pastor Bill reminds us that Moses’ face was glowing after spending a significant amount of time with the Lord on Mount Sinai! Well, that presence that was so inaccessible to people thousands of years ago is something that is available to us freely today! When we allow Jesus into our lives, He breaks down the barriers that separate us from the Father’s presence. We have been sanctified by His blood.

When you leave a loaf of bread out on the counter for too long, and one slice starts to get moldy, do you throw out the bad slice and save the rest to eat later? Of course not! You throw away the entire loaf, because the mold has probably already spread to the rest of the loaf! In today’s message, Pastor Bill reminds you that the stain of sin has contaminated this entire world. But praise God, because He offers us a way to live in the eternal light of His Son, Jesus Christ! We are forever free from sin’s shadow!

When we read the book of Ecclesiastes on its own, we can feel lost and hopeless! After all, one of the central conclusions of this book is that nothing we can do will prevent the judgment that is coming for this world that we live in. But Pastor Bill reminds us that the end of Ecclesiastes isn’t the end of our story! We learn today that God made a way for us to be saved from the penalty of our own sin. By trusting in Jesus, the burden of sin was lifted from us and placed on Jesus’ shoulders.

Jesus’ disciples were devastated after His crucifixion. All of them had left behind their families and their jobs to follow after the Lord, and they were beginning to wonder what their next steps would be. But Pastor Bill reminds you today that because you’ve already read what happens on Sunday, you can live joyfully on Saturday! You don’t have to be worried about what is coming next for you, because you have already received a promise from God’s Word! His promises never return void.

Every day we have on this Earth is a gift from the Lord! We have the opportunity on a daily basis to make an impact for God’s Kingdom, but we have to be the ones to take initiative on the opportunities we are given! Pastor Bill wants us to realize today that we don’t know when our time is going to run out. Do we want to stand before God’s throne wishing we had done more with the time we had? Or do we want to enter His Presence with the confidence that we did not let a single day go to waste?

It’s easy to think we can have faith when we look back in God’s Word and read stories about how He was faithful to people in the past. After all, we don’t have to wait very long to read the ending! But Pastor Bill reminds us today that the real challenge of faith comes in the time of waiting. Some of us will receive a promise from God whose fulfillment will take years of patience and persistence. But God’s Word reminds us that when we have faith and wait on the Lord, the end of our story will be worth the wait! 

When you learn to let your soul be satisfied by God’s presence, you are no longer afraid of the consequences the world tries to throw at you! Pastor Bill wants to teach you today about how the Apostle Paul was relentless in his pursuit to spread the Gospel, no matter what obstacles stood in his way. Not even the threat of death was enough to deter Paul from doing what God had told him to do. If the fire within you comes from the Holy Spirit, there is nothing the enemy can do to extinguish that holy flame!

Free will is a bit of a paradox! On one hand, we know that God is a loving God, and He has given mankind free will, the ability to make decisions for ourselves. But on the other hand, He has a perfect plan for the world, and He knows exactly what we are going to do with our free will, even before we know for ourselves! Well, in today’s message, Pastor Bill encourages us to not take a backseat to our own lives. God knows where we will end up, but we still have choices to make on our way there. 

One of the benefits of reading history is that you can look back on the mistakes that other people have made and avoid committing those yourself in the future. And as a Christian in the twenty-first century, you have access to the entirety of God’s Word in the palm of your hand! Pastor Bill wants you to understand today that even with all that we glean from God’s Word, the concept of salvation is still a mystery that has yet to be solved, but it is a gift freely available to you here and now!