We are a resurrection people. We are asked to share that hope with others. Just because this is Easter Sunday doesn’t mean this is the only day we should celebrate. We should celebrate the resurrection every day.

Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem was met with crowds crying hosanna, which translates into "Lord please save us". Many of the people there that day had their own ideas about how Jesus was going to save them. I would venture to guess that no-one knew that it was through Jesus' death and resurrection that they would be saved. On Psalm Sunday, we are confronted with the question of how many times we have put God in a box. We are confronted with the question of how many times we've told God to do something. We still today need to cry hosanna, please Lord save us and be ready for the ways in which He will liberate us.

In Matthew 7:1-6 Jesus speaks about judging others. We tend to go to extremes in this verse either by using it to judge others harshly or using it to justify not having rules. But the heart of what Jesus was saying was that we need to make sure our vision is clear before we ever start judging others. Really we need to make sure we are loving others correctly. If we aren’t following the basic commandments of loving God and loving others as ourselves we have a log that we need to dislodge.

At the end of Matthew chapter 5 Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. This scripture is not separated from the passages around it but part of the passages around it. Leading up to this particular passage Jesus has given us direction on what the Jewish laws really mean, what is at the heart at each law. The heart of each that he touches on is to treat humans as humans, we can’t dehumanize them. So maybe perfection is a lot about how we treat others, maybe perfection is about the way we LOVE others. Maybe instead of ignoring this verse we need to ask God to show us how to love in the ways He did. Maybe that is how we can live out this verse.

We are called as Christians to live in the upside down kingdom culture that Jesus speaks to in His Sermon on the mount. Blessed are the peacemakers. How are you at peacemaking? In a world obsessed with violence are we being more like the world or are we living out as we will in the Kingdom of God?

Loran brings a message from the Old Testament and asks a few questions of us.

This week we are finishing up the fruit of the Spirit sermon series. We talk about gentleness and self-control. When we think of gentleness we think of softness or weakness but that isn’t the case. Gentleness can be powerful, it doesn’t indicate weakness. When we talk about self control most times we think about food, or our impulses but it also is self control over our behavior and emotions. We don’t have to accept every invitation we get to emotions. We also don’t have to accept every invitation we get to behave in a way we shouldn’t. We are called to be Christlike and that means we are called to be gentle and have self control.

Paul states that if we have a new life in the Spirit then we will show the Fruit of the Spirit. This week we look at kindness, goodness, and faithfulness. If we are living life in the Spirit these will be evident in our lives. One way we praise God is through showing these in our lives. We praise God not only through our words but through our actions as well.

This week we look at what joy, peace and patiences really are. These are Fruit of the Spirit that we should show if we are living a life in the Spirit. If we don’t show the evidence of this fruit in our lives then we need to pray for God to show us how to be joyful, peaceful, and patient.

John in 1st John gives us this statement that God is love and that we are to love others. How do we love? The way that Jesus did, a self sacrificing love. John told us to not love in word and speech but in actions. It might be hard and it might take work but if we allow God’s love to flow into our heart and out again we will show a really important part of the Fruit of the Spirit.

John the Baptist warns the religious people that they think they have it figured out but they don’t. Jesus once again calls the religious people a brood of vipers and that they don’t have everything figured out. Jesus however gives us one more thing to think about. If the old self leaves us and we don’t replace it with the new self that reflects the image of Christ then our old self will come back. We need to make sure we are showing the fruit of the keeping with repentance, or the fruit of the Spirit. Paul tells us what out life shouldn’t reflect and what it should in Galatians 5. We should ask ourselves what fruit we see in our lives, the first list Paul gives us in Galatians or the second.

We read about the first church in Acts 2. This wasn’t a building but a group of people who all believed in God and wanted to forward the mission that Jesus had given them. That mission was encompassed in the great commission and the greatest commandments. We as a church can’t lose focus on what the mission is!

Abraham hoped in faith that he would become the father of many nations. Sometimes in life we have to hope on in faith. Sometimes things don’t look like they are happening in the time frame we had in mind. Sometimes we have to hope on in faith.

Today we are looking at some significant things that happened in the Christmas story that we might look past when we read the account of Jesus’ birth. May we never get so caught up in our belief of what God is doing that we miss what God is really doing.

Joseph’s actions speak louder than his words within the Christmas story in Matthew. Joseph doesn’t say anything but each and every time the angel comes to him, he does what the angel says. Joseph is considered a righteous man, partly because he listens then reacts. Joseph was told to do something, to take action and he did, but several times when we are told to do things we choose not to do it. Jesus tells us to love God with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves. We are told to forgive. We are told to keep peace with our brothers and sisters, that isn’t just blood family. How do we do with those things? Are we as good at listening and responding?

The Christmas story begins back in the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter seven starts to tell us about a virgin giving birth to Immanuel. The Old Testament is full of stories of judgement but God continues to remind there is hope. Isaiah foretold the story of the virgin giving birth over 400 years before it happened. It was a long time to hold onto hope. That is part of what makes the Christmas story so amazing. That people didn’t give up hope and realized who the Messiah was over 400 years after His birth was foretold.

This week we take a look at Mary’s powerful love song she prayed after the angel announcement to her that she was pregnant. Mary sang this song that spoke to God’s power and faithfulness. The in-breaking kingdom of God was coming in the least expected way. This was the turn in the story. Mary’s song let’s us know that the narrative has shifted much like movies when the soundtrack lets us know that something we didn’t expect is going to happen.

This week we are staying in the story of John the Baptist. We talk again about repentance being a change in the inner man. This scripture shows us in so many ways that the in-breaking Kingdom looks so much different than the world. The in-breaking Kingdom isn’t coming forth through power. The in-breaking Kingdom shows the fruit of repentance, or the fruit of the Spirit. In this season of preparing our hearts we need to look and see if our actions are showing the fruit of the Spirit.

When we think of peace we often think of a picturesque scene like the picture drawn in the Hymn Silent Night. But peace is really a level playing field. John the Baptist shows us through his life that peace doesn’t always look like a Silent Night. Sometimes peace work is hard. But when we give our lives to God he calls us to turn from our self focused life and calls us to be peacemakers. People who do the hard work of fighting against injustice.

Psalms 25:1-10 reminds us that we are called to have hope no matter the circumstances. God is faithful and trustworthy. When we surrender our lives fully that leads to spiritual formation. Spiritual formation spurs us forward into action. An outpouring of hope from our lives into our community, into our families. We have hope because we know God is faithful and one day all will be made new. We show the hope we have through our actions.