We are guilty of sin. Our sin calls for death. God loves us, but justice cannot be set aside. Therefore, God took the punishment for us. Jesus, the innocent, died for the guilty (us). He took our place on the cross as surely as He took Barabbas’ place on the cross. 

If we're going to follow the example of Jesus in the Garden then we have to surrender to our Heavenly Father.

1) Surrender begins in prayer.

2) Surrender requires trust.

3) Surrender is a daily choice.

Jesus is the great servant. He has given us an example to follow. Because the Christian life is not just about finding a seat at the table. It is about picking up the towel and serving the needs of others. 

Five keys to following the path God directs: Remember God's Words, Trust God's Plan, Walk God's Path, Steward God's Blessings, and Receive God's Correction.

Proverbs 4:20-27 gives a pretty detailed list to follow if we want to guide our lives to the right destination.

1) Listen To God's Word Attentively

2) Guard Our Hearts Diligently

3) Speak Our Words Carefully

4) Walk Life's Path Wisely

Wisdom is for everyone: simple, young, old. We never graduate from our need to increase in wisdom. We need to receive it because it is valuable. It's value is seen in that when you follow and apply it, you end up in the right place: right place in life, marriage, school, career, work, relationships, ministry, finances, etc. Wisdom doesn't start with information. It begins with the fear of the Lord (i.e. awe, reverence). Wisdom begins when we stop putting ourselves at the center of our lives and put God there instead.

The promise of hope was the birth of a Savior, a Rescuer. He has come, but has he BECOME your personal Savior. 

  be saved from the pool. 

1 Kings 22:51-2 Kings 1:17

Life is filled with Mountain Top and Rock Bottom experiences. God is with us in both. And He will use us and restore us and rejuvenated us if need be. Elijah needed Emotional ventilation, physical rejuvenation, and spiritual restoration. When we find ourselves discouraged and depressed, we will need the same too.

God is the promise keeper. Some promises are universal. Some are personal. Of those, some are unconditional and some are conditional. We claim the universal and conditional promises are of God in believing prayer. We learn from Elijah how to position ourselves alone in prayer, posture ourselves humbly in prayer, present our claim of the promise in prayer, petition God particularly in prayer, passionately plead in prayer, and persist in prayer.

The purpose for training Elijah was so that Elijah would be ready to fight, to be used of God to do the impossible in the minds of the people – prove God is not dead! 

If we're going to stand up under the weight of difficult circumstances, oppression, etc, then we must pray. Prayer is the connection to our source of endurance - God.

In Christ we have hope for life, freedom, eternity, peace, security, a forever home in heaven, and our deepest longings fulfilled.

The church is a family. As a family we have relationships and connections that are vitally important. The more deeply we connect, the better life is as we worship together, grow together, serve together, and reach "on mission" together for the glory of God.

God has a blueprint for marriage. When we apply the principles and practices that God lays out in His Word to our marriages, we move our marriage toward health, or we maintain health in our marriages. This message looks at two principles and three practices that when applied lead toward health. And healthy marriages have a natural byproduct - happiness.

John wrote his gospel to prove that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing we would have eternal life. But if we know Jesus more and more as the Word of God, the Creator, the Light of Life, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the King, we will experience life more abundantly.

The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of our faith and should be rocket fuel for our faithfulness. After the disciples knew Jesus to be the "Resurrection and the Life," their faith never failed, floundered, or wavered. And their faithfulness to follow Jesus, serve Jesus, and fulfill the commission was a faithfulness unto their own death, if need be.

The miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead is a precursor to Jesus' own resurrection and a picture of the resurrection we can experience when we believe and trust in Jesus.

In John 9, Jesus declares that He is the Light of the World, and then He performs a miracle that demonstrates He is spiritual light. He is not only the source of light; He is the One who gives the ability to receive and see the light.

God will use the storms of perfection to test, grow, and stretch our faith. He wants us to believe in WHO He is and trust Him what He will DO. In the storms of perfection we can experience extraordinary moments with Jesus, genuine worship of God, and encouragement from His successes.

Every miracle has a message, and the message of the feeding of the 5,000 is that Jesus is the true bread of life. He doesn't just sustain physical life, He provides and gives eternal life. We must feed on him (i.e. believe and trust in him) and appropriate his life and sacrifice to ourselves personally. When we believe on Him through faith, He saves us and gives us eternal life. He is the provision for our greatest need (salvation).

Every miracle has a message. The message of the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda is that only God's grace can change us and give us life. Jesus healed this man totally by grace. Jesus sought to woo this man to place faith in Him as Savior. Just as this man could do nothing heal himself physically, he could do nothing to heal himself spiritually from sin. He needed Jesus (the true Pool of Grace) to make him whole spiritually just as He had done physically.

Rules, regulations, dos, and don'ts won't make us right with God. Only God's grace poured out on us through the finished work of Jesus can make us right with God. He does it all. We simply receive it as a gift by faith.

Jesus grew the Nobleman's faith from believing in something, to believing in something more, to believing in someone (i.e. Himself). He moved his faith from believing in the "do" of Jesus to the "who" of Jesus. This man became a believer in Jesus as Messiah. The thing the Nobleman most wanted corrected (his son's illness) became the means of his greatest correction.

The first miracle (changing water into wine) declared that Jesus came to change things. His mission is a mission of change. He changed water to wine. He came to change Law to Grace, ritual and religion to relationship. He came to change you. 

One day every believer will stand before Jesus, the righteous judge, to have our works revealed and examined. Our sin was forever judged on the cross. Our salvation is 100% because of Jesus' finished work of the cross. However, our works will be judged to determine reward. This judgment is known as the Judgment (bema) Seat of Christ. It is about rewards not punishment.

God works to put believers and non-believers in proximity to one another in the context of life so that the gospel message can be shared and received.

Let's share His story.

Let's share our story.

Let's share what another's story can be.

And let's share others in need with Jesus in prayer.

Jesus saved us to serve. He motivates us with greatness to serve. And in faithfulness we choose to serve. When we choose to serve we grow. When we choose to serve we do something significant. When we choose to serve, we serve Jesus.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus talks about a farmer who goes forth sowing seed. The thing that determined if the seed would bear fruit or not was the condition of the soil. He then correlates that spiritually to the seed of God’s Word and our willingness or unwillingness to listen, receive, and act on it. If we’re willing to listen, receive it, and act on it, it will lead to fruitfulness.

If we're going to faithfully study God's Word we have to know the author of the Word, submit to the authority of the Word, feed on a "study" diet of the Word, and apply the truth and principles of the Word.