The 2016 “Word of the Year” according to the Oxford Dictionary is “post-truth”. Sadly, truth doesn’t seem to matter in many circles these days. Truth is a matter of personal opinion rather than objective fact. But that’s not the way Jesus understood truth. In today’s passage He calls us to decide clearly between different options, because the consequences of the decisions we make in life have profound implications. He talks about a “road that leads to destruction”, a “tree that is cut down and thrown into the fire”, and a house that “fell with a great crash”. Where are you looking for truth? Because according to Jesus, truth does exist and it really does matter!
Listen as Pastor Dave shares how thankfulness is more than just good manners, but actually part of the Christian experience. God’s people are called to be thankful, and we have so much to be thankful for.
The old Psalm expresses it like this: “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” (Psalm 103:2). It might sound somewhat quaint to the modern ear, but in our so-called “age of entitlement” we can so easily take God’s goodness for granted. We expect life to treat us well and grumble when it doesn’t. Today, the day of our Annual Church Meeting, we want to stop for a moment and consider some of the ways God has blessed us this year… and there are many! Then let’s take a moment to say “thank you”.
We all know the pain of waiting. But what about waiting for over 400 years! God’s people had been waiting for the messiah, the promised one. Listen as Pastor Dave shows how Jesus is this promised one and how all our needs are met in Him.
How does anyone become a Christian? By hearing the message of Jesus from another person (Romans 10:17). And each generation is responsible for passing that message on to the next generation. Otherwise Christianity will die out within about 50 years. Philip, the evangelist, is the classic example of a man who was passionate about telling others about Jesus. Threats and dangers didn’t stop him. And God was clearly directing and using him. Wherever he was, he had one message… and it was always about Jesus. Let’s not over-complicate evangelism. Some people have a special spiritual gift of evangelism. But for most of us it’s a matter of sincerely and simply telling others about Jesus.