A few years ago Cindy, Founder of We Want More, shared with Jeremiah that deep-life transformation occurs in environments that are 1) safe, 2) vulnerable, 3) expectant and 4) Spirit-empowered. On Sunday, we double-clicked on "expectancy," asking Cindy to share from her journey with God on the importance of "expectancy" and how God's goodness and character forms the basis of our hope. 

John 21 answers two foundational questions we find ourselves asking now and again: 1) given the pain I see others experiencing, what hope is there for the world? and 2) what about me...what hope is there for me? 

The story of John 21 opens with the disciples struggling to catch fish. They worked overnight and nothing they did worked. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Jesus shows up and at this Word and instruction there were fish - lots of fish! I know not many of us are fisher-people. But the point is larger than fish and fisher-people. The connection in the text is to a promise that all the disciples would have known from growing up - a promise from Ezekiel 47 about a coming overwhelming restoration. Jesus seems to say that the coming restoration flowed through him! He is the source.

Peter, one of the disciples, does what bold people do and he swims straight to source. Yet, the text slows down the narrative and brings us into the conversation between Peter and Jesus. And this is important because this shows us what it means to be brought into this overwhelming restoration. We see that overwhelming restoration does not look like winning lottery tickets or game-winning Super Bowl drives. It looks like deep-life heart and soul surgery. 

For Peter, coming into contact with overwhelming restoration looked like Jesus asking him to release three things: 1) to release his load-bearing failures, 2) to release his visions of a liberated-future, and 3) to release his knee-jerk inclinations to comparison! 

What would it look like if we, through the Spirit's power, released the same? How much lighter would we live? How much peace would you carry? 

Modern people don’t believe resurrection of the dead is plausible, was it just more plausible for people of the 1st century? Did people during the time of Jesus (1st Century) think this sort of thing could happen? The short answer is not at all. And the only plausible explanation for the first Christians’ belief in the Resurrection of Jesus is that it actually happened! 

John and the other first Christians were blown away because they believed that something happened “in the middle of history” that changed everything about reality as they experienced it. 

This past Sunday, we entered Holy Week by reading the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem, Matthew 21, alongside 2 Samuel 18, the story of King David entering Jerusalem after his son, Absalom, led a rebellion to push King David out of the city. Both narratives have key similarities - a donkey, a true King with an entourage, and a hostile Jerusalem! We saw the similarities are no accident, for 2 Samuel 18 provides us a window into the Father's heart for His rebellious people.

In the passage, David, standing outside of Jerusalem, learns of his rebellious son's death, and grieves saying, "my son, my son, would I have died instead of you?" David's heart was for the deliverance of his dead son at the cost of his own life. And in the same way, what David could only wish to give his Absalom, Jesus actually gives to those who trust in him. "My life for yours," Jesus embodies on the Cross! This is what we celebrate this Holy Week!

This past Sunday, we started a sermon series on the Lord's Prayer but looking at the larger context of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' most famous sermon. We dug into the phrase translated in the ESV as, "You therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." 

We (hopefully) saw together that instead of experiencing this sentence as the command of a terrifying drill sergeant, it is meant as both an invitation into a counterculture and an invitation into a promise. 

Tucked away at the very end of 1 Corinthians, the book's author grabs the pen of his amanuensis and writes the Aramaic phrase, "MARANA-THA," translated as "Our Lord, come." Pastor Eugene Peterson in his Bible paraphrase translates the phrase, "Make room for the master!" This past Sunday, we focused on this ancient creedal statement and (hopefully) saw the prayer it gives us during the season of Advent. 

Last Sunday, we started a short sermon series through the book of Hebrews entitled Unshakeable. Over these three weeks, we will see that in order to experience an unshakeable forever hope, the author invites us to 1) live from a "Mountain of Feasting," 2) trust a Perfect Priest-King, 3) strive for "Permanent Rest."

We saw last week from Chapter 12 that we can live from either a Mountain of Fear and Danger or a Mountain of Feasting and Dancing! And, because of Jesus, we have come to this second mountain where God welcomes us into his town, his party, and into his crew.