We have been immensely blessed to know God’s blessings in this life. We have experienced in this church what it means to be part of His family. We have experienced his care as he provides for us through our work and world. We have experienced His love as He never gives up on us. In all of these things we have experienced real and lasting Good News.

We have been learning over the last 6 weeks how he wants this to be good news for everyone and how we are a family purposed to welcome. This Sunday we look at how we are meant to be God’s good news in the world. We can care for, love, provide for, and welcome others in ways that image the same way God has cared, loved, provided and welcomed us. By knowing God we know this is a way we love him, but it is also a way that God builds up his love for us, because as we show God’s love and care it builds up around us and we soon realize that we are surrounded by it. In this way, through caring for others we build, grow and live in the Kingdom of God.

With so much going wrong in our world, I have often asked myself, “well what can I do?” What could a little action, or a little money do to change the war in Ukraine or the earthquake in Turkey and Syria? Though giving and support in these situations are important, I think we get lost in the seeming massiveness.

The reality for Christians and Jews throughout history though is that faith and trust in God can make a giant difference. Faith and trust make a difference because it means we can follow God and live in His Kingdom, even while others don’t. Through faith and trust, we can become a vision and an instrument for creating God’s splendor in our midst. You might think of people like Mother Teresa or Schindler, but there are plenty more that go unnamed.

This Sunday we look at 1 story and 3 commands of God, each of which presents a way in which we can be different. So, different that people see and be welcomed into an otherworldly vision of God’s splendor. It is not so beyond our reach as we might first think.

I think most of us have been blessed by people that are not Christians or Jews. We know that in some way or another God shares his grace, love, and purpose through people that still are getting to know him. Yet, we know that people who follow God are meant to be and often are different from the world.

This Sunday we look at the story of Jethro, a Midianite Priest, and Rahab, a Jericho Prostitute, to see how God uses, purposes, and empowers people outside of the church to help, guide and strengthen His ministry here and outside. We must be discerning, but God is creating partners for his work all around us.

What’s in a name? It might be true that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but we know that names are important, that there is something significant held in a name. You can see this both when someone wants to change their name and when someone holds onto it and protects it.

It should be no wonder then that God wants to protect his name. As Christians and bearers of God’s name, we have a large responsibility to hold up his name and not to bear it in vain. Sadly, we have not always lived up to that great call and so we see that the world doesn’t know the love and mercy that God’s name should be synonymous with. Yet bearing God’s name is more than just a responsibility it is also a privilege that has power. God’s name carries with it God’s own character, so through carrying it well we can live out God in this world, becoming the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Join us this Sunday as we look at God’s name.

I don't have to look far to see how blessed I am. Whether it is having you as my brothers and sisters in Christ, the birth of my son, or the amazing love that I experience daily from God. I hope the same is true for you. I hope, every day you wake up, you can see all the ways that God has blessed you.

This Sunday we will be looking at two stories where God calls people: the story of Abram and the story of Jesus and the 4 fishermen. In these stories, we will explore why God blesses us even when we don't deserve it, how we experience even greater blessings, and how God has an even greater purpose behind blessing us. Ultimately, through a relationship with God, we are blessed, so that we too might bless.

Last Sunday Merv also started our next sermon series, “A Family Purposed to Welcome”, showing us the paradise that we are meant to spread and share. This Sunday we look at how we are made in image of God to be a part of one great family and how we as a church are meant to be a place and people where others might meet and know God their Father.