Guest Speaker Shane Willard.
Samson
Paint the World with Love
Fluffy Christmas (part two)
series: Fluffy Christmas
title: Part Two
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: December 11, 2016
scriptures: Isaiah 9:2-7, Matthew 2:16-20, Luke 2:1, Revelation 1:8 (mentioned), Hebrews 2:15 (mentioned), Isaiah 9:7, Revelation 2:15 (mentioned), Acts 17
#5 After an Election
FEATURED CLIP:
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: November 13, 2016
series: Jonah
title: After an Election
scriptures: Psalm 11, Romans 13, Jonah 3, Jonah 4:1-3, Psalm 56:8, Isaiah 57:15 (mentioned), 1 Corinthians 9:22, Jon 13:35, 2 Peter 1:3-8
#1 Yom Kippur
series: Jonah
title: Yom Kippur
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: October 16, 2016
scriptures: Jonah (entire book), Leviticus 16, Leviticus 16:22, Hebrews 10:8-14
This last week, those who practice Jewish culture celebrated Yom Kippur. This year it was Tuesday, October 11th at sundown, and ended Wednesday October 12th at the same time. And there is a Jewish tradition… that in their afternoon services on Yom Kippur every year, they read, in its entirety, the book on Jonah. And its a tradition that dates back thousands of years… where families would all gather around together on Yom Kippur, and they would read it together.
Which for someone who is not Jewish, the first question that I have, is why?
Because to most people, the book of Jonah is the story of a guy who got eaten by a whale. Who was in his belly for three days, and then he got spit out. Thats the gist of what most of us know about the book.
So, today we are going to start our series on the book of Jonah, exploring some of those questions…
questions like: Why is this book so significant?
Why is it considered to be one of the books known as “the prophets” when Jonah doesn't give a single prophecy the entire time… Why do the Jews, on their holiest day of the year, take the time to sit down and read the book in its entirety?
The Reconciliation Table
Courage Church 12 Year Anniversary Service
title: The Reconciliation Table
date: October 9, 2016
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Psalm 23, Genesis 31, Luke 15:22-24, Luke 14 (The Great Banquet).
is not this the fast I choose?
title: Is not this the fast I choose?
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: September 11, 2016
scriptures: Isaiah 58:1-12, Hebrew 4:15-16, Matthew 25, Jeremiah 29,
This message was given on the 15 year anniversary of September 11.
#9 Love Your Enemies
series: Red Letter City
title: Love Your Enemies
date: June 12, 2016
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Matthew 5:43-48, Matthew 16, Matthew 18, Leviticus 19:18, Proverbs 24:17, Romans 12:21, Luke 22:36, Matthew 26:52-53, Luke 23:34, Luke 6:46, Matthew 22:34-40, Matthew 10:34-36, Revelation 19:15, Isaiah 49:2, Isaiah 11:4, Ephesians 6:17 (rhema), John 1:14, Hebrews 4:12 (logos), Romans 12, Psalm 23, Psalm 23:5
FEATURED VIDEOS:
#8 Retaliation
series: Red Letter City
titles: Retaliation
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: June 5, 2016
scriptures: Matthew 5:38-42, Matthew 7:11, Exodus 21:23-25, Galatian 2:9, Matthew 7:12, Joshua
On Friday Dawn and I drove down to Ann Arbor to visit Matt and Chavonne in the hospital... Their daughter, baby Charlotte was born, and she is just the sweetest thing. She was born, I think a whole two months early, so she is just absolutely tiny and so so precious. And I just need to say this about Matt and Chavonne. I have never in my life seen two believe glow the way that they were glowing that day. The peace. The excitement, and the love in their eyes toward this absolutely precious child was just amazing.
And I can’t explain it. I know that, their pregnancy was very difficult. They went through some really hard circumstances, things that I could not even begin to imagine… and I know that the whole pregnancy was to a degree plagued with some fear and so to at the end of it all be holding this amazing child obviously was such a sign of the grace of God and an amazing hope for the future.
Jesus says something a little later in the sermon on the mount, and we will get to it in a couple of months, but he says this:
“if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”
and I thought about that when I saw the way that Matt held his daughter. and the look on his face, and the way everything toward Charlie was unconditional love… and as strange as this sounds… it made me realize something about violence. and the way that we treat each other. The same way that Matt looks at his daughter, God looks at all of his children. and I think that for most of us, we want to always know that we can come to God knowing that no matter what we have done, he still looks at us with that same twinkle in his eye. That same unconditional love.
and not only that… but there are millions of other Matt’s in the world. People who think the world of their children. Who would do anything for them. And in every situation that you find yourself in, in which you are paired AGAINST another person… that person is someone’s child. That person has a world of people that he has touched merely by being born….
and that person is a child of the living God.
and if we approach every situation and every confrontation that we are faced with from that perspective, perhaps it would be easier than you think to do what Jesus asks of us here in this revolutionary sermon.
#3 Resurrection of Hope
series: Lets talk about Hope
FEATURED VIDEO:
title: Resurrection of Hope
date: March 27, 2016 (Easter Sunday)
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: 1 Peter 3:15, John 21:3-19, John 18:15-18, Revelation 21:5, Romans 4:25.
#2 gods and murder
Title: gods & murder
Series: Realities
Teacher: Jacob Bender
Date: September 20, 2015
scriptures: Mark 12:28-34, Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Psalm 82:4, Ezekiel 33:6, Luke 22:36, John 18:10-11, Matthew 5:22, James 1:22, Matthew 3:16, John 10:30, Genesis 2:24, John 17:6, John 17:21, Colossians 1:15-17, Luke 23:21, 1 Peter 2:24, Hebrew 12:3,
Observing Jews wake up every single morning, and they quote this verse.
“Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” They say it at everything. Of course, they aren’t quoting Jesus, they are quoting the verse that Jesus is quoting, which is Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
Jesus answered the scribes question here in Mark, by quoting an old testament passage known as the SHEMA.
They ask him, “What is the most important thing?”
and he quotes Deuteronomy. He says, what is most important? Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ But Jesus adds the second part: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
and the scribe responds to Jesus, and says, “you are right. He is one. God is one. And there is no-one else besides him. You know the scriptures. We can move on now.
It seems this would sum it up. If we could just grasp this concept fully, with all of our hearts, it would solve just about all of our problems. God comes first. People come second, and you are included in the second, but you are not above it. You treat people just like you would treat yourself… If you believed this, and we lived this, we wouldn’t need the Ten Commandments. We would already be doing them.
But the problem is that we don’t grasp this. And that is why we are still hurting each other. We are still talking bad about each other, we are still gossiping and slandering, and belittling each other.
We can’t even get our mind around “love your neighbor as yourself” – and if you can’t love your neighbor as yourself, could you possibly love God with all of your heart?
Moses wrote the SHEMA in Deuteronomy six…. its the chapter right after he gives us the Ten Commandments… Its almost like he was doing the same thing that Jesus does… he is saying, “Here are Ten words to live by.” But if ten is too many, here is one.
If we understand the principles behind the SHEMA, we would automatically do the Ten Commandments.
We hope you will join as we explore the SHEMA, and why that is the way that he responded the the scribe.
