Harvest Fellowship Teaching

Today, we looked at a passage of scripture that is known as the "how to imitate God" section. While we can't create planets or solar systems, we are invited to imitate who God is.

Today, we looked at Paul's simple words of life, a section that encourages us to walk away, to put on and to build up.

This morning, we looked at the words of encouragement Paul has for the church in Ephesus. He wants them, and us, to grow up and no longer act like children.

This morning, Chad Wormstadt (one of our deacons) stepped up and taught from Ephesians 4:1-6.

This morning, we looked at the grand, sweeping prayer of Paul that serves as a transition between the theology (chapters 1-3) and the ethics (chapters 4-6) of this letter.

Today, we spend a large chunk of time remembering that as Christians, we've been called to something more than simply living as a "gospel-community". The gospel births community, but that community is to be on Jesus' mission. That's our rhythm, that's our desire, to gather in community so that we can scatter on mission.

"Mission is lowly people, making Jesus known so that God is highly glorified."

This difficult passage reminds us that God's people often ignore the walls God establishes, and build walls that God has knocked down. These 11 verses are a continuation of 1-10 and describe the change that takes place not only in the individual's life, but in the life of a community of faith.

These verses tell us who we were before Christ (1-3) and who we are now that we are "in Christ" (4-10). These few words show us the vastness between what we are by nature and what we can become by God's grace. We are invited to be part of the Missio Dei, to live like Christ, to be merciful, grace giving and to live like we are the new creatures He has made us to be.

We continued to look at this opening chapter to the church in Ephesus and were reminded that faith in God and love for others must go hand in hand.

This morning, we began a conversation through the book of Ephesians, which is, at its core, a book about who God is and who we are as a result. This opening section of Paul's letter gives us a glimpse into this message of truth, the gospel of salvation.

This morning, we looked at what it means for us to be a people "on a mission from God." The Missio Dei is God's plan to redeem humanity and creation from the captivity of evil and sin and into the life we designed to live. That is the reason we exist.

Today we finished our "Prodigal Children" series by looking at the embrace of the father and at the things that hinder us from getting "home".

Today, it's the "other" brother's turn to come home. At it's core, this parable (Luke 15) was written to the older brother types, the religious leaders and Pharisees who criticize Jesus for associating with sinners. This brother's story is a stark realization that if you want to avoid Jesus, you can be really, really bad, or you can be really, really good.

This is the second week of our series that looks at the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). This week, we looked specifically at the son, at his addiction, at his separation from his father, and the undeniable love and devotion of this father. Our invitation is simply this: Will we remember who our Father is and come home to the place we belong?

Today, we started a series looking at the beautiful, rich story of the love of the Father toward HIs kids in Luke 15. As you enter into this story, it's good to allow our hearts engage the great measure of foolishness that the father to as he saw his child coming up the road.

Today, we looked at one verse that changes everything...1 John 4:10 is a beautiful picture of God's great love for us.

A message from Revelation 3:14-22

(Kevin Porter taught this morning)

A message from Revelation 3:7-13

A message from Revelation 3:1-6

A message from Revelation 2:18-29

A message from Revelation 2:8-11

Jesus moved through this earthly life very intentionally and explained to those around Him that the Kingdom of God was like a pearl or a net or leaven or a small, insignificant mustard seed (Mark 4:30-32). This morning, we took time to recognize and celebrate that Kingdom living is often found in the messy, small and fairly insignificant times...we just need to slow down and pay attention.