How we think, what we believe, shapes our world. Our thoughts and beliefs are very powerful. Our world shapes what we think and believe. Yet, the world we live in also shapes our beliefs and thoughts about things. The location is important. Jesus is in Caesarea Philippi the capitol of pagan worship,…

Bridges are important. As you drive around this week notice how many bridges, of many kinds, you go over. My guess is we will all be surprised by the number. Our text this morning serves as a bridge. As you look at our world what do you see? I think it is important for us to answer this question often.…

We want to be right. No one likes to lose or to be wrong. Failure seems like the worst experience. This goes along with the first point. We do not want to fail and we have started to experience that failure means we are “worthless”. Our culture has become so toxic in this way we have given rise to anxiety…

Who/What gets the last/final word? When determining matters of faith, life, and relationships what gets final say? How do we determine what is right and wrong? How do we determine what is best from good? Everyone has traditions. All of the world has a tradition. Every culture has their own. Every religion.…

A single event can change everything. We know this to be true from our lives. Weddings, births, moves to a new location all change everything. In those moments we may find ourselves no longer “belonging” into the crowd we used to. Now this is even more true when tragedy strikes. The unexpected death…

The journey is over. Can you imagine the relief of knowing the journey you have been on is over? Our text this morning with some of the OT quotations you are used to hearing, if you grew up in church, were those indicating the long awaited journey to Jerusalem and Passover was over. Just because the…

We need reminders. We do not always get things right the first time. We must continue to be reminded of what we should know and do know in order to live out our faith well. Life can be exhausting. As a church we know this to be true right now. We have had a long 5 weeks hosting 4 funerals. Church we…

Who is Jesus? This is the question of the gospel of Mark. We must remember the stories and miracles, the teachings and interactions all point us to an answer. What does faith look like? The point of understanding who Jesus is to illicit a faith response in us and the hearers of the Gospel. This is the…

What is faith? How we define faith will help us understand our passage this morning. For we live by faith, not by sight. We know this passage and we like to quote this passage. But sometimes I wonder if we unintentionally, at least I am almost certain I do, think of this out of context. Faith is not…