Pastor David Cay
How do we become healthy, balanced people? The Bible can really help us here. I think it’s important to note that the Bible isn’t a mental health manual. But it has principles and tools that help us have a great relationship with God and in turn it helps us with our mental health.
Pastor David Cay
Today we are starting a new series on mental health and in this sermon we are going to talk about how God gives us a better foundation for our mental health.
My question today is: How can we have a healthy self-image? How can we be secure and self-respecting without being arrogant? Our answer comes from our passage today is Matthew 3:13-4:4.
When we understand this passage fully we find two things about ourselves:
At first glance, these two attitudes look like a contradiction, but Jesus shows us that we can have the best of both worlds.
Pastor David Cay
Our Bible passage today gives us one of the keys to a great mindset. It teaches us to entrust God with our deepest desires. This commandment is not so much about our actions, but more so to do with the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts.
Pastor David Cay
The way we handle our possessions is vital for our mission and fortunately God has given us a plan for our possessions.
Today we are unpacking another one of the Ten Commandments, it’s found in Exodus 20:15. It says:
“You shall not steal”
When we understand this commandment fully we’ll see that God wants us to start with fairness, but he wants us to go on to generosity.
Pastor David Cay
In our culture today, there is not much of a consensus of what duty means especially when it comes to our duty to our neighbors. The Bible, however, tells us pretty clearly what our duties are, especially for our neighbors. So my question today is this: what is our duty to our neighbor?
Our passage is a very short one- it comes from Exodus 20:13: “You shall not murder”. So today we are going to unpack this verse in light of the whole Bible and all of its nuances. We’re going to see that this commandment applies to us much more than we think.
But simply put, our passage today tells us that our most vital duty to our neighbor is to safeguard both their physical and spiritual life.
Pastor David Cay
We are starting a new series on the 10 Commandments, but we are starting out of order, we are going to start with commandments 4 to 10 which talks about loving your neighbor and then in February we are going to finish off with Commandments 1-3.
Many of us have schedules that are so busy that it’s taking a toll on our lives: mentally, physically and emotionally. We are in hurry all the time; we’re filled with anxiety and fear because we feel there’s not enough time. Our schedules are so busy that it’s unsustainable to continue to live this way.
We know deep down in our souls that something is terribly wrong. Life has to consist of more than just hurrying to do one thing after another. There has to be a better way to live- that’s better for ourselves and better for our neighbors. So my question today is: What is God’s plan for our schedule?
Pastor David Cay
Christmas can provide great moments like getting good gifts and spending time with loved ones. But there is something even greater than this! It’s found in the Christmas story; it’s found in God’s words to us where he tell us that God has come to rescue us so that we can truly live
And like the Shepherds, there is always an initial fear at what this means for our lives. But when we truly understand God’s words and what it really means for us, we will see that Jesus is truly the best gift.
And when we truly understand what happened on this first Christmas we can’t help but respond!
Pastor David Cay
Pastor David Cay
How does God want us to represent him? This is a very important question because God has put us on Earth to represent him. This is what it means to be made in the image of God: we represent and mirror God to this world.
So if we take this role seriously, it’s the greatest thing we can do for other people – showing God’s love for them and also great for ourselves. But like almost everything it doesn’t come easily, which is why the Bible keeps encouraging us to keep going.
Our Bible passage today was written to people who were a lot like us – they were a minority in a culture that didn’t believe the same things as them. So Peter’s instructions to them also applies to us as well.
According to our passage, the first key to representing God well is to:
Pastor David Cay
A race, or a marathon, can be a metaphor to describe the Christian life. It can be hard and painful sometimes. Our walk with God will have struggles like we have to give up our comfort to follow him. There are times when we struggle with sin and temptation. It can be really frustrating that a lot of us just want to quit.
This week we are starting a new sermon series in 1st Peter. This book was written to people who were going through hard times. The surrounding culture was mistreating them because they were Christians. They were wrestling with the personal cost of following Jesus and they wanted to quit.
Peter writes this letter to encourage the church and implores them to keep going despite the trials they are facing.
My question today is: Why should we pay the price to follow Jesus? Our Bible passage tells us that it worth it because: