Our guest speaker, Phil Stedman, shares with us from Ephesians 1. Diving into how we can grow in our hope in Christ in a way that can transform our future.

This week we look at the account of John the Baptist, someone Jesus was close to. We find him in prison, and while he’s in there, he doubts Jesus is who he knew Jesus to be. Then rather than breaking John out of prison, John is killed in prison. Why would Jesus allow this to happen? Why would Jesus not get involved? Why would Jesus, knowing John was in the dark place he was in, let his story end in such an awful way?

This week we will look at what it looks like to say “Even when I walk through the darkest valley...” We will identify the various types of valleys that we might find ourselves walking through. That 'to walk' means we are doing something simple, repetitively over and over again, and most importantly, we are not walking alone because God is with us as we walk.

This week we tackle the question “If you believe in a God who is all powerful and sovereign over the world, and at the same time, is also perfectly good and just, then why is there pain and suffering in the world?” We will see why philosopher William Alston writes (in regards to the above question being evidence that proves God cannot exist) that “it is now acknowledged on (almost) all sides to be completely bankrupt.”

Every culture through history has created a narrative to help it make sense of suffering. As we launch into this new series, we will look at some of the most common narratives and see how unique Christianity really is.

Money promises so much, security, status, approval, certainty and more. Yet it can’t deliver on these things. Unfortunately our culture pushes us to believe that money really can offer these things. Yet Jesus offers a better perspective. He helps us see money for what it really is. Enabling us to use it rather than to be controlled by it.

Our culture tells us that we should seek power and use power to serve ourselves, our interests and those like us. When we get power, that is often what it persuades us to do, even if our intentions don’t start out like that. Yet Jesus offered a different approach. One that we all admire. One that we all want to emulate, yet often fail to.