Advent reminds us of our poverty. Our spiritual condition is one that is bankrupt before God and we are helpless except for his kindness and generosity towards us. The Advent Season is the reminder that our God is generous beyond measure, he sent us a King that would take on flesh and rescue his people. Yet, we often continue to live in the poverty of our own autonomy, instead of submitting our lives to our King.

Advent is when we prepare for the coming of the Lord. It’s a season where the Church recognizes the world is not what it should be and we long for a Savior to come and make all things new. The certainty of the first coming allows us to look forward in hope to the second coming of Christ. In Advent, we cry, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”

The story of Esther forces you to think that maybe Christianity is way more than you signed up for. You might have even been taught that following Jesus was supposed to make you healthier and wealthier. Or maybe that the gospel was there to make you cozy and happy on this side of heaven? But the gospel message in Esther looks less like comfort and a lot more like a cross.

The story of Esther points back to Eve and Bathsheba, but it also points forward to Mary! They were put in just the right time and place to deliver God's people!

The story of Esther is reaching a boiling point. Esther and Mordecai bide their time waiting for exactly the right time to make their moves. But the story of Esther is connected to the rest of Scripture in a unique way. The only way to understand the significance of this story is to find Jesus in this passage.

Esther 4 is one of the most epic passages in the Old Testament. We see a radical transformation in Esther as she goes from being a complicated bride to a consecrated queen. Her transformation and courage stem from her decision to consecrate and devote her life to God and God transformed her to be used in her time and her place.

In Esther 3, Haman gets the power to kill all the Jews. He sends out an edict to proclaim that every Jewish man, woman, and child, is to be killed, and everything they own is theirs for the taking. The Serpent is still at work trying to stomp out the seed of the woman before the one who will come and crush the serpents head can be born. But the Lord is at work too. And in the face of total annihilation, He is miraculously preserving them through this woman.

Esther is one of the most misunderstood characters in the Bible. Most think she is either a victim, a coward, or a sellout. The author of Esther gives us a complicated and compromised view of Esther. But those typical views of Esther look at her in isolation from the rest of the grand story of God. Maybe we should ask what does God think of Esther and what does he think of us?

As we begin a new series in the book of Esther, we consider the story in the context of the whole Bible and consider how it ultimately points to Jesus.

The kingdom of God is built with perfectly hewn stones fitting perfectly together crafted by God. And we are the stones. What does this have to do with The Lord's Prayer? The answer is... Everything!

The devil is real, and he's at work. Waiting for just the right moment to attack. He is patient, motivated, personal, and he seeks to devour you. The Lord's Prayer shows us that this life is a battle, and this prayer is how we prepare for that battle!

Jesus teaches us to pray. And He teaches us about ourselves.

Forgiveness is hard. But Jesus' teaching on forgiveness is even harder. Jesus challenges our ideas about forgiveness in these passages, but the question you have to answer is "Is hanging onto that grudge worth your relationship with God"?

The Bread Makes All The Difference

What does it mean to pray for God's kingdom to come in the Lord's Prayer? The kingdom of God can be something mysterious to us, yet Jesus puts it at the very front of our prayer. When we see the gospel in light of the kingdom, it reveals how Jesus was teaching us to pray for the power of the gospel to be at work in our lives, especially when life gets hard and we struggle to know what to pray.

Prayer is the means of leading us into communion and closeness to God. But sometimes the more we pray the more distant we feel from Him. How can prayer make us feel so close and so far from God at the same time? What really is the purpose of prayer? We search deeper into The Lord's Prayer this week in search for the answers!

Where is God? Is God dead? No, He is surely with us. And He is redeeming our world. We continue our Lord's Prayer sermon series and take a deep dive into the first section of the Lord's prayer. "Our Father who art in Heaven"

Prayer is not something we do naturally. It’s difficult to make a regular part of our lives and we often struggle to feel like it does anything. Even the disciples wondered about prayer and asked Jesus to teach them to pray. So at least we know the disciples weren’t chosen because of their amazing prayer life.

"Mea maxima culpa" is traditionally used in a prayer of confession, and is most emphatic expression of guilt. In Luke 18 Jesus reveals what He's really after!

We close our sermon series on the seven deadly sins this week with Anger. Looking at Absalom in 2 Sam 13 we see Absalom's desire for justice turn into a lust for vengeance. When he gets his vengeance, instead of his anger being quenched, it is only kindled until it destroys him. Stop planning your revenge and turn your eyes upon Jesus.