We think, “If only I had enough money, my life would change forever,” yet even a life-altering jackpot can't easily eliminate the old self. Romans 6:10 tells us the death Christ died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God.
Being in the right group, studying the right things, living a decent life—it feels like that ought to be enough. But in Acts 13, Paul announces to a synagogue full of people who had done exactly that: there are things the Law of Moses simply could not free you from, and being part of the in-group won’t close that gap.
We are right to realize we can’t do it all and that we need God’s Word to guide us. But if in our pursuit of doing things right before God, we miss Him, what have we accomplished?
Lots of things claim to be of value — but which ones really are? Which ones are just so much “Monopoly money”? Pastor Tim explores the question as we continue in John 5 tonight.
We need something that won’t break right away, but everything in life seems to. Jesus addresses what we need and then gets to the deeper thing we need below that.
Pastor Tim talks about extravagant gifts and what the Bible says about the truly extravagant gift we receive at Christmas because of the very first Christmas.
We keep wanting peace now—the right circumstances, the right outcome, the right person in charge—and that hunger is not wrong, just misdirected. In Luke 19:41–44, Jesus weeps over a city shouting for peace while blind to the only kind that lasts, and his tears raise an uncomfortable question about what we're actually seeking when we seek it.
It’s easy to look across the room and thank God we’re not like *that* person—the failure, the compromiser, the obvious sinner. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable to confront such self-righteousness in us.
