What does it means when Jesus calls us to the Kingdom of God?

We begin our series in Matthew's Gospel by learning how Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil.

The more we understand how much grace we have been shown, the more we are able to give grace to others. But the surprising thing is that Jesus also teaches that the more grace we give to others, the more grace we are able to experience. This is a mysterious but wonderful truth.

Even when we start to understand that God really loves us, often there is a part of us that doubts that He actually likes us. But when we really begin to understand how God sees us as His sons and daughters, that doubt begins to dissolve and we can begin to be the person that God created us to be.

When we discover that we have been saved from something terrible, the response is joyous celebration. But we easily forget the joy of the grace that God extended to us. In order to recapture that joy, sometimes it’s helpful to observe others experiencing it for the first time.

If we're honest, we can all be a little apathetic toward God at times. The truth is, if we’re not bowled over by Christ’s love, we won’t love Him as much, obey Him as much, serve Him as much, honor Him as much, or even rest in Him as much! One of the ways we really form a deep understanding God’s love is to develop our understanding of the sacrifice He made for us. The clip in this film is from the 2001 movie "To End All Wars" (it begins at 1 hour and 28 minutes into the film and runs for 6 minutes)

Guilt can cause all sorts of misery in our lives. It weighs on us like a heavy burden. But nothing sets us free from guilt like grace.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is an incredible claim. And we might wonder whether we can really believe it, since we weren't there when it happened. In this message, we see that we actually can "believe without seeing" and there is great blessing of Joy and Peace when we overcome the irrational hurdles to a rational belief.

In this message we see that God has called the church to be a Kingdom of Priests. Therefore, we have a responsibility to pray for our communities and the world; to point out immorality and injustice; to minister to the hungry, the sick, and the outcast; and to share the life changing Gospel of Jesus with as many people as possible.

In this message, we see that the church is a living body. When it is healthy, it grows. When it is unhealthy it decays. Because Jesus gave His life for the church, it is to be nurtured, protected, and kept healthy, so that it grows in size and in maturity. *We apologize for the poor audio quality during the first minute of the recording*