Dear Church Family,
This week we begin a preaching series on the Parables of Jesus. The reason we want to study these stories is because Jesus used them to reveal certain truths about the Kingdom of God. Truths that are often counterintuitive to the way we think and live as a society and as individuals. The Kingdom of God is completely different from the kingdoms and governments of this world. And more often than not, the Kingdom of Heaven operates a lot differently than even the religious or spiritual groups that we call home.
This was the case for the people of God in Jesus’ time. The Jewish nation believed that the religion they had built and propagated over the centuries was in direct alignment with God’s Kingdom. And in so doing they assumed that how they were living and teaching were totally acceptable to God. But was this true? Jesus came to show them that God’s Kingdom actually operates almost the opposite of the way their nation and religion worked. This was a shock to the religious leaders and even the common people of the time.
This Sabbath will will study a parable of Jesus that informs us about how God changes people and even whole societies for the better. And we will find that it is vastly different than the way we think He should do it. May God bless us to know Him and His ways more through His word this week.
God bless!
Pastor Michael Hayes