Knowing Our Story - April 7, 2021

Now that we have had a chance to celebrate Easter and the incredible gift of life that comes in Jesus’ resurrection, it is time to live into the privileges of that gift. We get to live in a world of hope because we have seen and tasted new life.

The next series of sermons will continue on the theme “Learning Missional Practices”. We have learned about gifts and begun to think about what particular mission we are called to that will allow us to use those gifts. Now we are going to learn some specific things we need to know in the sense of “knowing how to do.”  Apprentices learn a skill or trade by working with a master. Disciples also learn by following the Master and doing the things He did. The first three messages in this series will be about Knowing Our Story as it connects with God’s story so that we can practice telling or testifying.

Small group questions will continue to be made available each week. Each group that is already meeting can decide if they are going to continue meeting and how often. You can use whichever questions fit with the sermon of the week you are meeting. The questions can also be used at home through the week. The question-making responsibility has shifted to me, and so you may notice a shift in the nature and style of the questions.

Your life verse may come back into play in this next series as we think about our faith story. For some of you naming a life verse was simple because you have had one for some time. For others it was a challenge, and often for the good reason that you have many verses that shape your life. Let me suggest that the process of thinking about it was a good thing either way. It was interesting that as I tallied the nearly 150 responses, they were pretty evenly split between Old and New Testament with the Psalms being the most common book in which people found their life verse. The most common single verse was also from the Old Testament:

Proverbs 3:5-6  “Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

was sent in by nearly 1 in 10 respondents. The New Testament book of choice was Paul’s letter to the Philippians and the most commonly chosen verse was:

Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Thank you again for participating in sharing life verses with me. May God bless us with opportunities to share those verses and how they have shaped us with someone new in the near future.

Pastor Erick