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In Nehemiah 4:14, God’s people are told: “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” For four chapters in Nehemiah we have read about outside challenges and struggles; the fight has been against the outside forces. But for most of us, the things that are attacking our families with the most success are not the outside forces, but are the internal conflicts and challenges. This Sunday, as we honor our high school graduates and welcome our college summer interns, we will look at what the Bible has to say about redeeming a culture, fixing the nation's problems and buying our kids back. By the grace of God we will have a lot of fun, shed some tears and leave with a clearer direction of hope for our families. Downloads

This Sunday is Mother's Day, which reminds me of one of my favorite characteristics of a great mother: the "Mama Bear" response. Even the kindest, gentlest mother becomes fiercely focused the moment she learns her child is threatened or in danger. In Nehemiah 4, the people of Israel-God's children-face threats and danger in the middle of their work to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. What should they do? How should they respond? Amidst of the danger, Nehemiah stands up and says, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome." Then he challenges them with words that should stir the Mama Bear heart in all of us. He says, "Fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes" (4:14). I look forward to learning more together about what it means to fight for our families. Downloads

Nehemiah had a problem. The wall of his home city was shattered and his people were living in “great trouble and shame” (Neh. 1:3). But even though the problem was enormous, Nehemiah didn't let its magnitude overwhelm him or consume him. Instead, he prayed and took action. But then Nehemiah did something peculiar–when he finally arrived in Jerusalem, he went for a ride on his horse at night to survey the walls. What he saw may surprise you, even if you've read the story before. But the results of Nehemiah's night ride contain one of the most important keys to rebuilding our communities and our cities in the entire book. Downloads

What’s your problem? Hopefully you have one. We will open the Scriptures and consider how God hears and heals our brokenness–not only individually–but whole communities. It is often in the broken places and with broken people God does His most audacious work. Big problems require a big God. This week we plunge into Nehemiah. This book is soaked in hope! Downloads

Jesus' resurrection initiated a fresh start for the entire cosmos, including us! On Easter Sunday, our Grace family of churches gathered in unity with believers all over the world to proclaim and worship the risen King who has triumphed over sin and death. Downloads

When I was a kid, I loved Palm Sunday because it was pretty much the only day when I was encouraged to play with sticks in church. Today, I still love Palm Sunday. But as I've grown older the reasons have changed (mostly). This week, along with churches around the world, we will remember that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a humble beast of burden surrounded by crowds waving palm branches and shouting, "Hosanna! God save us now!" Many people call this event "The Triumphal Entry." Only a few days later, however, Jesus was rejected by the same crowds. This time, Jesus left Jerusalem carrying the burden of the cross upon his shoulders. He was surrounded by jeers rather than cheers. And instead of the glad multitudes stretching out their hands to pull palm branches from the surrounding trees, this time Jesus' own hands were stretched out and pinned to the tree itself. At the beginning of the week, he was welcomed as a conquering king. At the end of the week, he was crucified like a rejected king. But the question remains: Which event was the true triumph? This week, we will learn from Mark 15 how to follow the triumphal King on the road to resurrection. Downloads

Have you ever just blown it? I mean, you meant to do the right thing. You were sincere. You knew, for once, what the right thing was. And you told several others about your good, bold plan. Maybe you even committed to God himself that you were going to get it right, quit that thing, or finally love well. But then you didn't. What happened? What happened next? We all know what it's like to fail. And often we respond to our failures with hopeful phrases like, "I'll make it up to them" or "I've gotta redeem myself" or "I can make this right." But then we read Mark 14:26-42, and we realize that every effort to redeem ourselves is lost. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, shows us beyond any doubt that there is only one way out of our brokenness--the way he made through his own suffering. The good news is that he did not blow it. Join us as we continue our journey through the week of the cross in the Gospel of Mark. Downloads

Try to remember some of the best meals you've ever shared with others. Now, think about what made those meals great. Was it the food? The environment? The conversation? The people who were there? Was it that someone else paid for everything? Many things set apart our most significant and memorable meals. One of my own favorite meals barely involved eating at all: right after Amy and I got engaged, we went to a Chinese restaurant, ordered mountains of delicious food, and hardly touched it because we were so excited to be getting married! We will be looking at Jesus' final meal with the disciples before going to the cross. Not only was this meal memorable, but it was also meant to be about remembering. But what, exactly, are we to remember about it? And how do Jesus' actions that night impact the way we think about every meal we eat together now? Downloads

Curious onlookers Skeptical Pharisees Fair-weather friends Bitter enemies Sincere but fickle disciples Enthusiastic crowds Reasoning Sadducees Dubious elders A complimentary scribe Scheming detractors The list of those who approached Jesus during his final week in Jerusalem is incredibly diverse. The ways in which they engaged him and the expectations they had for him were even more diverse still. But of all those who approached him, only one was told that her story would resonate everywhere the Gospel was going to be proclaimed.What made her approach so special? Why does Jesus single her out above all others? And how can her example help us draw closer to Jesus today? Downloads

If our measure of Jesus' skill as a gardener came only from his interaction with the fig tree in Mark 11, we would have to conclude that the Lord's thumb was far from green. But before we have time to read the end of the fig tree story, Mark interrupts us and confronts us with Jesus' bold cleansing of the great Temple itself. The passage then concludes with Jesus' teaching on the lesson from the fig. Have you ever wondered why these two stories are so close together? More importantly, have you wondered what they tell us about Jesus as King during his final week before crucifixion? Last week we began our King in the City series with Jesus' Triumphal Entry and the question, "Are we willing to follow a King who rides a donkey?" This week, we will ask the same kind of question of a King who withers trees and turns over tables. As we look more deeply into Jesus' actions here, I believe we will find them more challenging, more refreshing, and perhaps more troubling than we previously knew. Downloads

Have you ever wondered what kind of car Jesus would drive today? Would it be a van with room for twelve? Perhaps a Dodge Ram? Or maybe Jesus and the disciples would go in one Accord? (Sorry, I know that last joke hasn't been fresh since the first Accords came out in 1976!) But even though we don't know exactly what car Jesus would drive today, we do know a lot about the steed he chose to ride into Jerusalem the week before he was crucified. And just as we can tell a lot about people by the cars they drive, Jesus' choice reveals much about the way in which he chooses to be King. Since January at Grace, we've been walking through some of the great prayers of the Old Testament together. But in the coming six weeks in preparation for Easter, we are excited to shift our focus more exclusively toward Jesus and his final week in Jerusalem before the crucifixion. As we look at The King in the City, our main text will be Mark 11-16. This week, we invite you to worship together and learn from the Word what Jesus wanted us to see in his triumphal entry. Downloads

Though Daniel is best known for interpreting dreams and surviving dens full of lions, one of his most significant actions occurred while reading his Bible. In Daniel 9:2, we see that Daniel made an arresting discovery about the situation of his people in the prophesies of Jeremiah. This discovery was so important and pressing that he immediately began to pray with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. Today, the words of his prayer are one of the greatest intercessory prayers preserved in the Bible. As we continue to learn to pray from the examples in Scripture, this prayer of Daniel can serve as a deeply-needed guide for us. St. Augustine said, "Prayer is to intercede for the well-being of others before God," and we will discover deeper ways in which this is true. Downloads

In the wild pagan city of Babylon, a letter is read out loud to the people of God from the prophet Jeremiah. In the crowd is a young man who would hear those words and orient his life completely around them. In doing so, he stood firm in the midst of antagonism and depravity, bravely faced death, and yet engaged his world in such a way that a culture was impacted, a king was transformed, and the goodness of God was made known to the nations. That young man’s name was Daniel. Jeremiah’s message to the exiled people of Israel was simple. God meant them to be a blessing to the world even while they lived in Babylon. God intends the same for us. We are called to work for the shalom of the city, whatever or wherever that city is, where God has put us. We are to be a blessing in our time and place. And sometimes that requires us to face some lions. Downloads

As we continue to look at prayers that changed this crazy, messed up world, we all want to learn how to experience a powerful prayer life that alters the course of human history. The good news is, God wants to give us just that kind of prayer life. In Daniel 4, we will watch God turn a pompous and prideful potentate into a humble man of prayer. That means there truly is hope for all of us. The cost of our journey will SO be worth it, once we reach the destination of a humbled heart. Downloads

Even when we are in the Fire and going through tough times, We can Have a confident expectation of Good because Jesus is Right there with us. We can Pray Boldly and expect from God, not because of anything we've done but Because of What Jesus did. God Loves Us! Downloads