Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. When Jesus finally delivers the verdict in this parable, He doesn't soften it and says, "The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits." And that word should stop every one of us in our tracks, because Jesus is not threatening a distant nation...  Read More

And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.' And they took him and threw him out of...  Read More

"When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit." Yesterday we saw that God gave the tenants everything they needed. The vineyard was equipped, the tools were in place, and the purpose was clear. But today we come to a moment in the story that shifts everything, because the season for fruit drew near and the master sent his servants to collect.And you kno...  Read More

"Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country." There was a master who planted a vineyard. And when He planted it, He didn't just throw seed in the ground and walk away. He put a fence around it. He dug a winepress in it. He built a tower over ...  Read More

"And he said, 'With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.'" If you want proof that Go...  Read More

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'" Look at how Jesus opens this moment. "All authority in heaven a...  Read More

"And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.'" After the fall of man and after the flood that wiped the earth clean, God comes to Noah and says something that sounds incredibly familiar. "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." On the surface, Genesis 9 looks just like Genesis 1 all over again. God blesses, God says be fruitful, God says ...  Read More

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." There is something in Genesis 1:28 that is easy to read right past, but once you see it, everything changes. Look at the order. "And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply.'" Did you catch it? God blessed them first. The blessing came before t...  Read More

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"For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things." So here's where Paul takes us. After talking about what we surrender and why we pursue and how we keep moving... he reveals what breaks his heart.People. Lost people. ...  Read More

13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. So Paul makes something clear here. He hasn't arrived.He says, "I do not consider that I have made it my own." This is the apostle Paul. That man who wrote m...  Read More

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.  This might be the most important thing we talk about all week.Our pursuit is not our effort to gain something from God. It is our response to Christ having first pursued us.Read that again if you need to.Paul says, “I press on to make i...  Read More