Humans tend to do a bad job of encouraging dreamers. We are much better suited towards the proven path than road less traveled. But, the God of the Bible is pretty keen on dreams and visions. He tends to cast vision into the hearts of leaders that send them into the unknown. Joseph was a dreamer… but, did he handle God’s dreams with appropriate care? If not, what does that kind of care look like?

Genesis 37

It’s all been leading up to this…
The “Slick Heel” & The “Hairy Face” reunited…
Like an Old West Showdown… 
Nowhere to Run, and Nowhere to Hide…
But, it’s not gonna go down like you might think.
 
What this moment in Genesis does for us is set the table for a conversation about Healthy Conflict Resolution. What do you do when it’s time to fight? Who do you become? What does Scripture have to tell us about the way that Christians are to approach Conflict?

One of the most famous moments in the book of Genesis happens in the crescendo of Jacob's life... as he is preparing for what could either be the next or the last conversation he'll ever have with his brother Esau, he "wrestles" with God. But, what led to that WRESTLE? And, what are we supposed to learn from it?

As we continue to track with this Chosen Family of God… 
A family that puts the “mess” is “messiah”…
We have made it to the story of Isaac’s two famous sons:  Esau & Jacob.

Pastor Fike had some fun relating the world of Professional Wrestling and the drama of Hollywood storytelling to the two major deceptions one of the boys pulled on the other.  What can be learned from a “Hairy Babyface” and a “Slickster Heel”?

By the time we get to the end of the book of Genesis, the God of the Bible is referred to as "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob". But, at the onset of Genesis Chapter 26... that hasn't happened for Isaac just yet. So, how did the God of Abraham BECOME the God of Isaac, and how does the God of the Bible BECOME the God that YOU will put YOUR faith in?

-When God makes a promise, what’s YOUR responsibility to it?
-Is there anything YOU can do to SPEED up the process?
-Is there anything YOU can do to MESS up the Promise?

The answers to THESE & a few more questions await you in this week's message from Jeff Rudder about GOD'S DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY

It's an astonishing revelation... 
Not only was the promise God gave to Abram & Sarai a wild one for them to comprehend...
that they would bear a son in their old age, and that he would spawn many generations of Nations and Promise... 
But, that EVEN IN THAT MOMENT, God was considering YOU and ME. 
His Covenant with Abram & Sarai wasn't just a Covenant with a faithful, elderly couple. 
It was for ALL.

What if the story of Noah and the Ark isn't quite the "children's story" we've made it out to be? What if it's quite a bit more "adult"? What if it actually requires an extreme amount of maturity, complexity, nuance and theological depth to make sense of the story of a World-Wide Flood, a Great and Holy God, and an Average Human Being who was hand-picked to reset humanity? What if this isn't quite as simple of a story as we've made it out to be?

We all love the passages of Scripture that maker perfect sense the very first time we read them. We also love the ones that edify us right away. We’ll even put up with the ones that convict us as soon as we read them.
 
But, there is a category of Scripture that many of us have a really hard time knowing what to do with… the WEIRD ONES. The ones where we’re not sure what they’re talking about, and even if someone explained it to us, we really might not like the answer, because it would mean that the story we’re a part of is a little, well, weird. 
 
Welcome to GENESIS Chapter 6, and the “Sons of God” marrying the “Daughters of Man”, and the Giants called Nephalim that are inhabiting the Earth, apparently despite God’s best intentions. Oh, boy… have we got a SERMON FOR YOU!!!

After Two Beautiful Chapters of Near-Perfect Existence, THE BIBLE takes a sharp turn in Chapter 3. The End of The Beginning Quickly Becomes The Beginning of The End. Defiance leads to Deception which leads to Disobedience. And, all of that leads to the Biggest Problem in the History of Humanity. Find out all about it in today’s landmark sermon… THE BEGINNING OF THE END.