1. Lame Feet, Dead Dogs, And A Saved Seat At The King's Table

"Church, we have been called to forgive everyone, always; completely. Not on the account of who they are or what they've done. But whose they are, and what Jesus did."

2. Coming Home

Pastor Joel asks us, when was the last time we prayed for the salvation of someone we know?

We know from God's Word that God, "wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). It's God's desire for people to be saved. So as God's people we ought to be burdened for and praying for the salvation of people in this world, both near and far.

3. Prayer Full Relationships

In the middle of living out the most important mission of bringing salvation to people through His eventual death on the cross, Jesus takes out some time to attend a wedding for a couple in Cana. Why, would He do that? One important reason is because He cares about relationships.

Jesus cares about our relationships. He cares about your relationships. If you've got empty relationships in your life, than take them to Jesus. He's able to do what we may feel is impossible. Jesus is able to fill them back up again.  

4. What's Your Why?

On the cross, Jesus cries out to the Father saying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" or in other words, "My God, why?" He felt the crushing feeling of abandonment.

What's your why? For some of you, it may be at a cemetery. Why was your family member taken early? Or maybe it's why am I losing this job now? Why is my marriage in the shape it is?

Jesus isn't surprised by the suffering that came upon Him on the cross. But he was crushed by it. He was not paying for just one of our sins. He was paying for the sin of the world. When we look at this prayer of Jesus on the cross, we see that Jesus gives us room to ask God, why? 

Paul writes and says in Romans, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." - Romans 8:18. There are things that are very difficult that happen in our lives in this world. Our why's can literally bring us to our knees. But with God, there's a hope that we can have that will go on for eternity that will outweigh the sufferings from the why's that we have today.

5. Our Deepest Thirst

Our deepest thirst is something we might not think it is. That's the question that we look to find the answer to with this sermon.

When Jesus was on the cross, He said that He was thirsty. Why did He grow thirsty on a cross? Jesus came into this world fully God, and also fully human. 

That's huge, because that means that Jesus can relate to us. He knows what it's like to suffer. He knows what it's like to experience pain in relationships. He's a personal God and He's able to fulfill your deepest thirst.

6. Tale of Two Trees

Each of us is born into the world with a deep sin problem, and when left to our own devices, we can't do anything about it. As hard as we may try, we can't knock it on our own.

Hear these three words that signified the saving of mankind, and terrified hell: "It is finished."

The sermon, "A Tale of Two Trees," looks at the stories of what happened between two trees: the tree that held the body of Judas Iscariot who hung himself in remorse for his sin, and the tree that Jesus Christ was nailed to for the sins of the world.

Judas decided he was finished before Jesus said "It is finished." What's tragic is that we may feel that we are finished even after Jesus said "It is finished." But the thing is, the cross can handle our sin. We can't fix things and remove our guilt on our own, but the cross can.

What Jesus did for us on the tree can change everything.

Which tree will you choose?

7. Commitment Shouts

A lot of us want a Savior. We want to be saved. We want Jesus to save us. We're good with that part.

But when the cross is introduced; when the sacrifice of God becomes a potential reality; when the thought of Jesus not just becoming Savior, but becoming Lord happens, that's when we tend to turn on the One who's never turned on us. That's when things get hard.

And when things get hard, sometimes we flee. Sometimes we give up.

But commitment, the ability to finish, the ability to do what God requires, the ability to say, I am giving you my life, that shouts. Commitment to God shouts.

If we would be committed; lay our lives down, lay our time down, lay our pride down, lay our ego down, lay our money down; if we  would be committed, the world will hear because commitment shouts.