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In a world filled with overwhelming problems, personal disappointments, and waiting that seems endless, it's easy to lose hope and want to give up. So how can we keep hope alive when we reach a point where we want to quit?   By maintaining a sense of gratitude and recognizing God's faithfulness, we can keep hope alive in the face of adversity and we can keep going when we're ready to quit.

When you reach a point where you're ready to throw your hands up and quit, you're also in danger of compromising your character and doing something you'd never dream of doing - like lying, or cheating, or hurting someone else.   So how can you keep from compromising your character when you're ready to quit? You have to cling to God and remember who God made you to be.

There are times when it feels like everyone has given up on you...and, when that happens, it's hard to have faith in yourself. And when you lose faith in yourself, it's easy to want to give up.   But before you give up, you need to remember that God never gives up on us. And that, no matter what we're facing, God is with us.

Whether you've received a troubling diagnosis from your doctor, or hit a rough patch in your marriage, or reached your breaking point at work; we've all had times when we've been ready to give up.   But before you give up, you need to remember that you are still a child of God, and God will help you make it through because God still has good planned for your life.

There are times when we all feel resigned to the violence and hatred, pain and suffering, sorrow and despair that we see in our world. It can feel like these problems are too big to solve and there's nothing we can do about them.   But before we give up, we need to remember that we should never grow weary of doing good. So no matter how big the world's problems may be, there is still good that we can do.

On Friday, Jesus had been betrayed and abandoned. On Friday, Jesus was convicted and sentenced to death. On Friday, Jesus was tortured and died on the cross...but that was Friday.   On Sunday, Jesus rose from the grave. And when Jesus was resurrected, the world changed. We know longer have to live in a Friday kind of world, we can live in a Sunday world.

Following Jesus demands a lot from you. Following Jesus means that you make Jesus your first priority, that you love others and yourself, that you produce godly fruit in your life, and that you serve other people.   But even though following Jesus demands a lot from you, it's worth it. Because following Jesus is the only way you can be who you were created to be.

When we first decide to follow Jesus, it's natural to want to look the part. But following Jesus is about so much more than just carrying a fancy Bible or wearing Christian clothes.   When you follow Jesus, he will change you from the inside out. And that means that you'll start producing godly fruit in your life.

We all know that we mess up and make mistakes when it comes to following Jesus. We don't love each other the way we should. We don't notice people who are hurting and need our care. We're blind to suffering all around us. And because of all these mess-ups and mistakes, it's easy to feel like God couldn't love us. But nothing could be further from the truth...God always loves us. And following Jesus means that we have to love ourselves too.

John 3:16 is perhaps the best known verse in the entire Bible, and it teaches us about a God who so loves the world. And that means that God loves the entire world and everyone in it...including people that we don't. But, if we're going to follow Jesus, we have to commit ourselves to loving everyone the way that Jesus does.

We all know that most things in life take work. It takes work to plan a vacation. It takes work to purchase a new car. It takes work to pick out a new book. But sometimes we forget that following Jesus takes work too. Following Jesus isn't just about sitting back and watching a worship service. Following Jesus is about putting your faith in action.

Time and time again, when Jesus called his disciples he said to them, "Follow me." Jesus wants us to do the same thing today, he wants us to follow him...but what does that mean? Well, Jesus tells us what it means to follow him when he says, "All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me."  But, ultimately, we get to decide if we're going to do what it takes to follow Jesus.

The biggest reason that many of us are afraid to share our faith is that we're concerned with what might go wrong. We don't want people to reject us, or think we're crackpots, or anything else. So how can we share our faith when we're afraid of what could go wrong? In this sermon, we'll be reminded that the only way to share our faith in Jesus is to act like Jesus, and trust that his love will more than make up for anything that goes wrong.

Neil Armstrong may have been the first person to walk on the moon, but this wasn't something he could've done on his own. It took more than 400,000 engineers, scientists, and technicians working together to allow Neil Armstrong to become the first person to walk on the moon. When it comes to sharing our faith, we can't do it all on our own either. Instead, we each need to play our part to help people who need Jesus find him.

After Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon he said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." And he was right. It took one small, easy step for him to reach the surface of the moon...but it took a giant, difficult leap to get him there. Sometimes we think that sharing our faith can be as difficult as putting a man on the moon. But, in this sermon, we'll see that all it takes to share our faith are a few small steps.

The theologian Elizabeth Johnson describes Jesus as "ineffable mystery" - meaning that Jesus is beyond our ability to fully understand or explain. So how can we ever hope to know who Jesus is? Well, knowing Jesus isn't about information...it's about a relationship. So the only way to know Jesus is to know him personally.

Who is welcome in the Kingdom of God? This is a question that just about every follower of Jesus wrestles with from time to time. In this sermon, we'll wrestle with an uncomfortable exchange Jesus has with one particular woman. And we'll see what this exchange has to teach us about who is and isn't welcome in God's kingdom.

The word miracle means "to marvel" and, when we read about the miracles Jesus performs, it's easy to want to marvel at how he can heal the sick, or calm the sea, or feed the hungry. But sometimes we get so caught up in the individual miracles that Jesus performs that we miss the bigger picture. In this sermon, we'll take a step back and look at the miracles Jesus performs as a whole to see what they teach us about who Jesus is.

You can't become more like Jesus unless you know who Jesus is. But if you've been a part of a church for years, it's easy to feel like you already know everything there is to know about Jesus. In this sermon, we'll be reminded that Jesus is an ineffable mystery - Jesus will always be beyond our ability to fully understand or explain. So we all still have a lot to learn about Jesus.

It's been said that the New Year is like an empty book waiting to be written...but it's not always easy to know what story you want to write. As a new year begins there are so many possibilities that it's easy to become paralyzed by them. In this sermon, we'll talk about what our first priority always needs to be as followers of Jesus. And we'll be challenged to focus on this priority as the new year begins.