Grace Church NOLA

A message based on Luke 10:25-37:  An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.  “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?  What do you read there?”  He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.”  And Jesu...

A message based on John 15:12-17: Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made kno...

A message based on Matthew 20:1-16: [Jesus said to the disciples:]  “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.  When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You also go into t...

A messaged based on Matthew 18:21-35:  Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if my sibling sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.  When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten...

A message based on Exodus 12:1-14: The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its clo...

A message based on Matthew 16:21-28:  From that time on, [after Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah,] Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord!  This must never...

A message based on Matthew 16:13-20: Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  And they said, “Some say John the Baptist but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”...

A message based on Matthew 15:10-28:  Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”  Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”  Jesus answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father...

A message based on Matthew 14:22-33:  [Jesus] made the disciples get into a boat and go on ahead to the other side [of the Sea of Galilee,] while he dismissed the crowds.  And after Jesus had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.  When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them...

A message based on Matthew 14:13-21: Now when Jesus heard about the beheading of John the Baptizer, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.  But when the crowds heard it, they followed Jesus on foot from the towns.  When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.  When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This...

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52:  Jesus put before the crowds another parable:  “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” Jesus told them another parable:  “The kingdom of heaven is like...

A message based on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43:  [Jesus] put before [the crowds] another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away.  So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.  And the slaves of the householder came and said...

A message based on Luke 19:1-10:  He entered Jericho and was passing through it.  A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.  He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature.  So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.  When Jesus came to the place, he...

A message based on Matthew 11:16-30: [Jesus spoke to the crowd saying:] “To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and th...

A message based on Matthew 10:24-39:  Jesus said to the twelve, “A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master.  If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncov...

A message based on Matthew 9:35—10:8-23: Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the la...

A message based on Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26:  As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.”  And Matthew got up and followed Jesus. And as Jesus sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples.  When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus’s disciples, “W...

A message based on Matthew 28:16-20: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw Jesus, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy...

A message based on John 20:19-23: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you...

A message based on John 17:1-11: After Jesus had spoken these words to his disciples, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you h...

John 14:15-21:  Jesus said to the disciples:  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and the Father will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees the Spirit nor knows the Spirit. You know the Spirit because the Spirit abides with you, and the Spirit will be in you. “I...

A message based on John 14:1-14:  Jesus said to the disciples:  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be al...

A message based on John 10:1-10: Speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brou...

A message based on John 24:13-35:  Now on the day of Christ’s resurrection, two disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.  While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,  but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.  And he said to them, “What are yo...

A message based on John 20:19-31: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After Jesus said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Fa...