The Power of the Invisible God

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2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Hospitality

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Genesis 18:3-15

An Invitation to Love, Period

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Matthew 28:16-20

“The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God himself at the very center of this community as its prime sustainer and most glorious Inhabitant.” –Dallas Willard

Welcome to the Priesthood

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1 Peter 2:1-17

Hebrews 4:14-16

Romans 12: 1-3

Wreck the Routine

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Exodus 3:1-6, 12

Rules vs. Relationship

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Galatians 2:21

Galatians 3:13a

James 2:10

Galatians 4:4-6

Galatians 5:1

Summer Selah

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Genesis 16:8; John 4:13

1 Timothy 4:12

1 Thessalonians 5:17

Proverbs 3:24

2 Corinthians 9:6-7

What Does God Want From Me? Grasp Reality, Get Humility

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2 Corinthians 10:1

Philippians 2:1-9

“Given the crabby side of my own spirit, my irresistible urge to seek my own interest at the cost of others, my comfort in the teeth of other people's suffering, my envy of other people's success, and given my urges to smash the nose of any driver who cuts in front of me, given such flaws, am I not more in tune with reality if I accept my shame as the cost of failing to be the self I ought to be, the self I am meant to be, and the self I really want to be? This is healthy shame, and we are closest to health when we let ourselves feel the pain of it and be led by the pain to do something about it.” –Lewis Smedes

”Stanley Hauerwas has argued that “the failure to live with humility, a failure common to Christian and non-Christian alike, results in a distorted understanding of the way things are.” I agree with that, of course, but I think the converse is equally true: a distorted understanding of the way things are results in a lack of humility. My theory is that we will get humility if we grasp reality.” –Jack Wisdom

”Jesus makes it clear that there are no big shots in his kingdom, at least for now. Ultimately, when the Kingdom is fully consummated, some will be exalted. Humility is the sole criterion he will use to decide who is exalted. This is a strong word to all who aspire to be big shots now, and particularly to those who actually obtain some measure of celebrity in the bizarro Christian subculture. Those who will be recognized as great in the Kingdom probably are not famous now; those who will be recognized as great in the Kingdom probably are serving in relative obscurity in distinctly unglamorous ways.” –Jack Wisdom

What Does God Want From Me? Don't Be a Jerk

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Micah 6:6-8

Ephesians 4:23

James 3:8

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

1 John 3:18

“And even though there are occasions when being a (jerk) helps people and companies “win,” my view is that if you are a winner and a (jerk), you are still a (jerk) and I don’t want to be around you!” –Robert Sutton

“Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.” –Warren Buffett

“In less enlightened times, the best way to impress women was to own a hot car. But women wised up and realized it was better to buy their own hot cars so they wouldn't have to ride around with jerks.” –Scott Adams

“In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks.” –Bill Watterson

“… the kind who is completely oblivious to how he sounds, the kind who is impossible to argue with because he doesn't allow for a worldview outside of his own.” –Sloane Crosely

What Does God Want From Me? Justicia

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Luke 18:9-14

Matthew 6:31-34

Micah 6:6-8

2 Timothy 3:16

Isaiah 58:7-10

Proverbs 12:25

“Instead of dealing with the timeless issues of being and becoming, of matter and form, of definitions and demonstrations, [the reader of the prophets] is thrown into orations about widows and orphans, about the corruption of judges and affairs of the market-place. Instead of showing us a way through the elegant mansions of the mind, the prophets take us to the slums. The world is a proud place, full of beauty, but the prophets are scandalized, and rave as if the whole world were a slum ... To us a single act of injustice—cheating in business, exploitation of the poor—is slight; to the prophets, a disaster. To us injustice is injurious to the welfare of the people; to the prophets it is a deathblow to existence; to us, an episode; to them, a catastrophe, a threat to the world.” –Abraham Heschel

“The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom.” –Cornelius Plantiga

What Does God Want From Me? Confessing Our Sins to One Another

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James 5:16

Psalm 32:3-5

Galatians 6:1-10

1 John 1:1-10

“Confession is a difficult Discipline for us because we all too often view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We cannot bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore, we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy. But if we know that the people of God are first a fellowship of sinners, we are freed to hear the unconditional call of God's love and to confess our needs openly before our brothers and sisters. We know we are not alone in our sin. The fear and pride that cling to us like barnacles cling to others also. We are sinners together. In acts of mutual confession we release the power that heals. Our humanity is no longer denied, but transformed.” –Richard Foster

”A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person. As long as I am by myself in the confession of my sins everything remains in the dark, but in the presence of a brother the sin has to be brought into the light.” — Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

”It is the will to be delivered form sin that we seek from God as we prepare to make confession. We must desire to be conquered and ruled by God, or if we do not desire it, to desire to desire it. Such a desire is a gracious gift from God. The seeking of this gift is one of the preliminaries for confessing to a brother or sister.” –Richard Foster

”I could dismiss half my patients tomorrow if they could be assured of forgiveness.” –Jack Winslow

”Sixty percent of patients in Scottish mental hospitals are suffering in some degree from a guilt complex.” –George MacLeod

”The 'sins' of non-Christians tend to be rather puny. For Christians, sin is not so much inherent in the human condition, though it is that; rather, sin is the problem we have between us and God. It is rebellion against our true Sovereign, an offense against the way the Creator has created us to be.” –William H. Willimon

“It sometimes happens, that he who hears the general promises of God, which are addressed to the whole Church, nevertheless remains in some suspense, and is still disquieted with doubts as to the forgiveness of his sins. But if he discloses secretly to his pastor his distress, and hears the pastor applying to him in particular the general doctrine, he will be straightly assured where formerly he was in doubt, and will be liberated from every trepidation, and find repose of conscience.” –John Calvin

What Does God Want From Me? Sin, Humility, Relationships and Rules

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Proverbs 6:16-19

Romans 7:15-18

Galatians 5:13-14

“Should we not at least consider the possibility that this poor result is not in spite of what we teach and how we teach, but precisely because of it? Might that not lead to our discerning why the power of Jesus and his gospel has been cut off from ordinary human existence, leaving it adrift from the flow of his eternal kind of life?” –Dallas Willard

”The current situation in which faith professed has little impact on the whole of life, is not unique to our times, nor is it a recent development. But it is currently at an acute stage. History has brought us to the point where the Christian message is thought to be essentially concerned only with how to deal with sin: with wrongdoing or wrong-being and its effects. Life, our actual existence, is not included in what is now presented as the heart of the Christian message, or it is included only marginally. That is where we find ourselves today.” –Dallas Willard

”It is clear that all humans (other than Jesus) do in fact perform acts which constitute a refusal of the vocation to be genuinely, God-reflectingly human, and which therefore “miss the mark” of that lovely, fully human life which is not only glorifying to God in itself but which reflects that glory powerfully and creatively into the world.” –N.T. Wright

“Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.” –Mark Twain

What Does God Want From Me? Understanding Scripture

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Colossians 3:1-4

Galatians 5:1-2

Easter 2014: Easter People

Palm Sunday: We Want a King. We Don't Want a King.

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The Gospel of Matthew

Isaiah 56:4-7

Midweek Lenten Teaching, Week 4

Resurrect Me: Embracing Our Weakness

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Luke 10:33-37

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Midweek Lenten Teaching, Week 3

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Philippians 2:5-8

2 Corinthians 8:9

John 13:4-5

Mark 1:15

Matthew 6:10

2 Corinthians 5:17

Revelation 21:5

Mark 1:35

Luke 5:16

Luke 11:1

John 5:19

Matt. 26:42

Resurrect Me: Who's My Neighbor?

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Luke 10:29-37

Mark 10:35-45

Midweek Lenten Teaching, Week 2

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Matthew 16:24-27

Leviticus 19:1-4

Ephesians 5:1-2

Romans 8:14-18

Romans 8:28-30

Philippians 2:5

Colossians 3:12-13

1 Peter 2:21-23

1 John 2:4-6.