StoneBridge Church Sermon of the Week

Jesus is the perfect integration of compassion (motivation to act) and kindness (way He acted, and power and ability to act).

Jesus both demonstrated and proclaimed the good news and power of the gospel. We often want to show when we should be telling, and tell when we should be showing the Truth of God's Kingdom. We need the Holy Spirit to fill us with power and change us into His likeness

In these passages Jesus addresses the problem of our hearts. Following rules and traditions won't make our heart clean. We need new hearts which we can receive by believing in Jesus.

The miraculous events that Jesus performed were signs pointing to who He is-not just the Messiah, but God. He wants us to know Him, and He will put us in situations where He can reveal who He is.

We have immediate needs, perceived needs and real needs. Jesus meets all of them.

As we do the things God has created for us (our deal) we need to be prepared for: resistance, success and failure. We always need to remember that our identity, as Sons and Daughters, precedes our mission.

When we surrender ourselves fully to God and let His Spirit live in us and through us we will be transformed and bring transformation to the world around us.

There are two ditches we can fall into when approaching Jesus: "The Right Guy" approach or the "Wrong Woman" approach. Neither are good. We need to approach Him based on His grace and what He has done, not based on who we are or what we have done.

Names are significant. We live up to or are lowered down to the expectations given to us by the labels or name tags people put on us. When we know who Jesus has called us to be our lives are transformed by the new name He gives us.

When we face storms, as the disciples did in Mark 4, it can tend to seem like Jesus is asleep in the boat. In order to trust that He cares and will always take care of us we have to know Him and believe He is who He says He is.

It is not good for us to be alone. We all need people in our life who love God and love us. Small groups are a great way to form these types of relationships.

Jesus used parables to circumvent people's expectation which kept them from understanding Him and His ministry. The parables recorded in Mark 4 all compare God's activity to a seed-not a tree. God plants seeds and they continue to grow and consume. The link to the video used in this message is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo.

There are 3 possible responses we can have to Jesus: unbelief, partial belief, and belief. God chose use, adopted us as His own. If we believe fully in Him and that He chose us, obedience will be the result.

We can miss God's activity/coming in our lives because it does not line up with our expectations. To make sure we don't miss Him we need to: know Him well so we can recognize His voice, not put Him in a box, and respond to what we believe He is saying. The link to the video in this message is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0.

Jesus was born so He could die for us. We must be born again to follow Him. In order to be born again, we must die to ourselves.

The journey of our faith is all about our heart. Even when we are unfaithful and go after other things, God continues to love us and pursues us. On this journey we need people walking with us who will help us during the rough spots and pull us back on course

As we follow God we need to trust and accept the ways in which He chooses to work. We need to accept our responsibility in the work he gives and a willingness to accept on-going direction from him.

Waiting on God is hard, because we want to be in control of everything. But as we wait we need to consider who He is-that His ways are higher than ours and worship Him for all that He has done.

Two questions from this passage: Do you feel like you missed your opportunity to receive something from Jesus? Do you have the type of confidence in Jesus that you would do the same thing as the paralytic man's friends?

Family Dinner

Spending time alone with God gives us clarity and courage to do the things He has called us to do. Solitude with Him helps us to be led by the Spirit instead of driven by our circumstances.

Regular occurrences in Jesus' ministry were driving out demons and healing the sick. His Kingdom is stronger than the kingdom of darkness. We are still in a war against the power of darkness, but His Kingdom is victorious.

The "bumper sticker" for Jesus' ministry is that the "Kingdom has come near". We are all born turned away from God. If we want to enter His Kingdom then we need to repent and start following Him.

John the Baptist was doing his deal. As we step out in obedience and do our deal it will provoke a response from others. We need to wrap our lifestyles around what God has called us to do.

As we walk out our faith it is important that we know our identity in Christ, that we follow where He leads us, and know who our enemy is so we can stand against him.