By examining the scourging of Jesus and His crown of thorns, we’re invited to “not look away” from the cost of our sin, as this message draws from Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 to vividly portray Christ’s sacrifice and the deep love behind it. Through the imagery of His blood as a healing force, we’re reminded of the transformative power of His wounds—cleansing us from sin and giving us hope and restoration in the midst of our struggles.

This week, we saw Jesus betrayed by those He loved and put on trial by the religious leaders. He allowed Himself to be bound so that His followers could experience true freedom. In the face of testing, He remained silent—receiving these moments as part of the Father’s plan for salvation.

Today, Jesus invites us to be "arrested" with Him—to silently receive both the Father's plan and His method for shaping us into the image of the Son.

In the first message of our new five-part series, Way of the Cross, we saw Jesus invite His disciples into the depths of His heart—only to be met with slumber. As they slept, they missed seeing Him pray; they missed His surrender to the Father. Today, Jesus is still looking for disciples who will stay awake, see His heart, and join Him in surrendering their own wills in humble submission to the Father.

Living with eager expectation for Christ’s return, we continued to explore 1 Thessalonians 5 and what it means to honor, encourage, and build one another up in faith.

The Day of the Lord is the future great and terrifying, cataclysmic, and sudden culmination of human history. It reveals Jesus as the perfect Judge, coming to set all wrong things right. The body of Christ is not meant to be surprised or caught off guard but to be ready, awake, and alert.

We all wrestle with the reality of death, but in Jesus, we find deep hope. Because of Him, we don’t grieve like the world—we grieve with hope, knowing that death is not the end but a doorway to a resurrected life with Christ.

Until you move from a set of rules to a relationship, your life will always be about a fence and you will find yourself in slavery to the law. It’s not about being on this side or that side of the fence. It's not actually about a fence at all. It’s about a cross. It’s about loving the one who went to the cross and who is coming back again. 

We are invited to take steps of insane courage as we partner with Jesus.

What does it look like to be found ready for the return of Jesus?

Bryce and Gina Harcey from Evergreen Ministries on "Maranatha Within" at our annual Summit