Date: 6/10/2018
Title: The Lesson of the Fig Tree
Speaker: Pastor George Gracie
Scripture: Matthew 21:18-22
By its very nature a fig tree is to bear fruit. However, once it stops bearing fruit it stops being what it has been intended. Likewise, Matthew 21 reminds us that God has made his people to bear his fruit.
Date: 6/3/2018
Title: Temple Encounter
Speaker: Pastor George Gracie
Scripture: Matthew 21:12-17
The Temple was to be a place of healing and worship, a place where people would be able to come close to God. However, the Jews had turned it into a commercial venture. In Matthew 21 Jesus calls us to again make his Temple a place of healing, praise, and worship.
Date: 5/27/2018
Title: The Triumphal Entry
Speaker: Pastor George Gracie
Scripture: Matthew 21:1-11
Jesus came to Jerusalem riding on a donkey, fulfilling the Bible’s prophecy of the Messiah. Although the people of Jerusalem would initially praise him as such, one week latter they would reject him and demand his death because he did not come in a way they expected the Messiah to come. The Triumphal Entry reminds us that not only is Jesus Messiah, but also reminds us that we need to respond to that truth.
Date: 5/20/2018
Title: Insatiable Appetite
Speaker: Pastor George Gracie
Scripture: Joshua 1
We often find ourselves unsatisfied and unfulfilled. The reason is that we have an appetite for the wrong things, those things that will not satisfy our true hunger. We can only truly be fulfilled when having an insatiable appetite for God and his Word.
Date: 5/13/2018
Title: Living a Life of True Greatness
Speaker: Pastor Darryl J. Stalter
Scripture: Matthew 20:17-34
A life of true greatness. This is something we all truly desire, but often seems to slip from our grasp. God’s desire is for us to live lives of greatness, but greatness as He defines it. In Matthew 20 Jesus challenges us to realign our idea of greatness to God’s ideal: greatness that is eternal rather than temporal.
Date: 5/6/2018
Title: God’s Controversial Grace
Speaker: Pastor Darryl J. Stalter
Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16
“That’s not fair.” This is a phrase we hear and use all the time. We see God apparently working in or blessing someone else and we feel it is unfair. As a result we often struggle to see the goodness and fairness of God. The main reason that we struggle is that we truly do not understand the controversial nature of grace. Grace is “the free and unmerited favor of God.’Because it is free and unmerited, it will be controversial because our performance does not necessarily determine the outcome.
