Speaker: Jeff Hoenshell

The world is full of artists who have created beautiful masterpieces. However, we forget the greatest masterpiece of all – us!  If we are living in Christ, then he has redeemed your story and created a beautiful testimony for each and every one of us.  We are His masterpiece. This is who we are.

We are continuing our series through the book of Ephesians. The apostle wants to hit home the fact that God does not value us based on our performance for Him. Our hope, value and power come from who we are in Christ. 

Have you have ever had a moment where you came to grips with the fact that your life was a mess? No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t fix it. In Christ, your story doesn’t stop there. We have hope. By the power of the gospel and the promise of the Holy Spirit there are better days ahead. This is who we are. 

The book of Ephesians serves as a mirror for us to see the reality of WHO we are in Christ and HOW we live in light of that reality. Our first look in the mirror is a foundational truth: we are chosen by God. That gives us incredible assurance and we can stop looking in all the wrong mirrors. And best of all, God gets all the glory!

In sports, half-time is used to assess the first half and look forward to a strong finish in the second half. The theme for church this year has been in the form a prayer, “God, work.” This Sunday we took a look at how God has already been answering this prayer and how we are going to continue to seek God’s will for our church in 2017. 

Forgiveness is not always easy. In fact, it’s usually quite difficult. But the Bible is very serious about God’s people choosing to forgive. At Harvest, we want to be a church that forgives without limits. Jesus gives us very clear instruction in Matthew 18 on how to do this. So, who do you need to forgive? 

We end our worship service every Sunday with the words, “You are loved.” Every church wants to be and considers themselves a “loving church.” But we want to be a church that loves without condition.  Wouldn’t it be great to be a part of a church like that? This is what we do. 

How do we respond to people coming into our church community that are different? We want to be a church that welcomes without judgment. Are we that church? Christ challenges us through his example in Luke 7 to examine ourselves in this area. This is the first sermon in our three-part series entitled, “This is What We Do.”

Last week we looked at the Lord’s Prayer and asked, who are we praying to? Once you know WHO you’re talking to, you know WHAT to pray for. What we pray for is not simply a matter of personal application but our prayer life impacts the whole church. If our church is to grow, we need to grow in our prayers as well.