Peoples Church | Fresno, Ca

On Sunday, we began Missions Week. We welcomed Ron Brown (Executive Director of Teen Challenge, SO CAL) and the Teen Challenge Choir. Teen Challenge is a discipleship ministry for men and women, teens to adults, who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. It was a true blessing to have them with us and to hear them share with us their powerful messages of God’s redemptive story. Through the Teen Challenge programs, Jesus Christ is transforming lives. Beyond My World: Pursuing Our Commission is our theme for Missions Week this year. It is a reminder for all of us that we need to get out of our comfort zones from time to time.

We continued our series called ReMastered: The Message in High-Definition. In Matthew 16 Jesus took his disciples up to an out-of-the-way place to ask them some key questions. The answers to these questions will determine their future when Jesus is gone. Peter answers the first question from Jesus correctly – sort of. He then proceeds to show how wrong he really was. Dale used these two questions as the basis for his teaching on Sunday and showed how Jesus cuts to the core of all issues by asking them.

We’ve all experienced looking so hard for something that it becomes hard to find, even in plain sight. We get this idea of where it might be and what it looks like where it might be – and when it isn’t there, our minds have a hard time “seeing” anything else. It is called a visual bias and it blinds us to anything other than what we think we should “see.” It is also easy to miss Jesus even when he is right in front of us. There were groups of people in Jesus’ day that were looking very diligently for the Messiah. Their bias as to what Messiah would look like blinded them from seeing Jesus, even though Jesus fit the exact description of Messiah. Even the disciples had a difficult time grasping all that Jesus was communicating with them. We continue our ReMastered series on Sunday – a series that shows the message of Jesus in high-definition. We explored both of the above scenarios- the religious mindsets of the Pharisees and Sadducees as well as the disciples’ mindset toward Jesus. We explored truth to keep us

On Sunday we continued our new teaching series from the New Testament called: Remastered: The Message in High Definition. The series will focus on the life of Jesus and how the New Testament brings into clarity what the Old Testament pointed toward – a view of Jesus. Dave shared a verse from Matthew 5 (The Sermon on the Mount) where Jesus teaches us to go an extra mile (go “above and beyond”) in our service to others.

On Sunday we began a new teaching series from the New Testament called: Remastered: The Message in High Definition. The series will focus on the life of Jesus and how the New Testament brings into clarity what the Old Testament pointed toward – a view of Jesus. Dale gave an overview of the Old Testament to show us how it has been broadcasting us a picture of Jesus that has only become clear through the New Testament. The focus of Sunday’s message was that the more clearly we see Jesus, the more clearly we see ourselves, and our need for him.

The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) is not an encouragement, suggestion or advice. It is a command. These are some of the final words Jesus gave us before he left earth. Jesus’ message is very simple and very clear, “I’m leaving. Now, here is what I want you to do.” And God calls us to a sense of urgency for this mission. On Sunday, Doug Lowenberg shared about his vision to transform Ethiopia (The African Horn) by making disciples of Jesus.

On Sunday, Dale shared the final installment of Agenda: A Study in the Prophets. We looked at the message Malachi had for the people of Israel. They had returned to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon. You would have thought they would approach their freedom with zeal for God and a passion to know him and make him known. That was not the case. They were utterly bored with God. And it would show up in every area of their lives. God had a loving word of warning for them through Malachi. Maybe their warning can help us today guard against any indifference we may have toward God.

Sometimes God wants us to do something that doesn’t fit into what we feel we know about God. God does strange things sometimes that we cannot put into categories; like Abraham being puzzled that God would want him to sacrifice his son Isaac after he had waited many decades for Isaac to be born. The story of Hosea – is one of those crazy – “I can’t believe God told him to do that” – type stories. Dale talked about this story in a very unique way. And, instead of reading about the story, Dale showed us the story of Hosea.

On Sunday, Kaci shared from John 15 that we are loved and chosen by God. The overwhelming desire to be liked and accepted is an all consuming, soul strangling and life stopping force. In a moment a switch flipped in the apostle John’s heart and mind when he realized that Jesus didn’t just like him, but that Jesus also outrageously loved him. And the moment we have this same realization, we will be empowered to do more for Jesus than we could do before.

The Guinness Book of World Records has awarded the title of “The World’s Oldest Game.” Any idea what that game is? The Blame Game. It feels very comforting to hold other people responsible for the problems and issues we face, but it is not productive at all. On Sunday, we continued our AGENDA SERIES: studying Old Testament prophets, we heard from the next spokesperson of God – Ezekiel. In Chapter 18, Ezekiel speaks directly to the issue of THE BLAME GAME. God doesn’t buy into the Israelites spiritual problems being blamed on a previous generation so He speaks through Ezekiel to make sure they know. The point that Pastor Dale challenged us with is the fact that each person is responsible for their own behavior. This is the key to living your life in grace and freedom.

On Sunday, we continued our series, AGENDA: A Study in the Prophets, with a look at Jeremiah. He spoke for God to a people who had to live with the very people who had defeated them and now hold them captive in a foreign land (God’s people in exile in Babylon). The instructions God gave through Jeremiah may not match the very way we approach living in our culture where people hold different values and views.