This Summer, we spent our Sunday mornings looking at key themes in the letters by the Apostle Paul. The series “13 Letters” gave us a chance to look at the astounding wisdom, experience, and hope Paul shared with his friends, churches, and, even now, with today’s followers of Jesus. These invaluable letters make up half of the Bible’s New Testament.
At the highest level, the letters provide us a compelling picture of what the early church looked like, what the first followers of Jesus wrestled with in their own lives, and how they lived in light of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Majors themes of faith, hope, and love are apparent. But as we listened on Sunday mornings, we also heard of the freedom, unity, and encouragement given to us through Jesus. Through our generosity, by living the Spirit, and in our relationships with one another, we can actually bring pleasure to God. We were challenged to embraced the mystery, to see Jesus throughout the entire story of the Bible, and to “honor the emperor” while remaining faithful to the true and better King.
A great resource to help you continue walking through the 13 Letters, and even the rest of the New Testament, is the “New Testament for Everyone” series of books from N.T. Wright (you can buy them individually or as a set). Also check out the great Bible Plans from the Bible App to help you make the Bible a daily priority. And of course, you can always go back and listen to these messages below or any past messages in our Series Archive.
Lisa Ashton - March 9, 2025
March 9, 2025
Pastor Lisa Ashton kicks off a new series, Finding Hope, in which we'll be walking through several miracles of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. This sermon focused on the story found in Luke 13:10- 17. In this story, Jesus heals a woman who had been crippled for 18 years. He does this on the Sabbath and in the synagogue, much to the chagrin of the synagogue leaders, who were indignant about such a thing. Lisa challenged us to consider times when we can get so caught up in doing the "Right Thing" that we can miss doing the "Good Thing." We were challenged to pray this prayer, "God to help me to see see with Kingdom vision, that I may learn to value 'goodness' over 'rightness.' Form me to be more like you." *Note: we experienced some technical difficulties during church today. The video for today's sermon and the audio are badly out of sync by the end of the message and with the time and resources we have, we were unable to remedy this fully.
From Series: "Finding Hope"
A series about the miracles of Jesus and how we can find hope in these stories.
