In our last series, we talked about loving our neighbours, and stepped through six shifts.  From stranger to neighbour to acquaintance to partner to friend to becoming “like family”.

It’s possible to become like family with a focused group of people, where you practice loving your neighbours within that small group, and see that spill over to others outside.

This series looks specifically at this stage of being “like family” with other followers of Jesus.  It’s called the church, believe it or not.  Important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.

You probably have all sorts of preconceived notions of what that word means.  Attached you’ll find a video of some people on the street who were asked about what they think of when they hear “church”.

You can find the video here:

Question: When you hear the word “church” what do you immediately see, or think?  Make a list, there may be several.  What experiences have informed you?

Ryan Sim - May 14, 2013

Tuesday - Study It - Forgiveness

Sermon on the Mount

Today’s passage follows right after the Lord’s Prayer – a prayer Jesus prayed that asked his Father to, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It’s so important, he wants to say it again in the verses that follow: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15 ESV) What motivates you? Encouragements and rewards? Or fear and necessity? Jesus’ statement here is so important, he says it both ways for both kinds of people, in addition to including it in his prayer. Forgiveness is at the core of what Jesus is about. He came to a world of broken sinful people, and died for us. Here’s what he said he was going to bleed for: Matthew 26:28 - This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. And later, one of his followers, Paul, said in Ephesians 1:7 - In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace We’ve been studying the Sermon on the Mount for some time now, and keep warning you away from seeing it as a list of formulaic rules. Jesus wants his followers’ hearts to be changed so they don’t even need external rules, but are instead in tune with his character, living as God created them to live, in relationship with him. But this is the most direct and formulaic he’s been so far – if this, then that, and if not this, then not that. Forgiveness is such a part of God’s character, that if we claim to be followers of his son, we show it with this characteristic more than any other. All the others flow from it. We can only control our anger if we forgive those who hurt us. We can only avoid adultery if we forgive our spouse when they let us down. Question: What was your first reaction to these words? Were they encouraging, or challenging? What does this say about you?

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