This sermon we delve into two realms of existence, seen and unseen.  The defining properties of those realms, temporary and eternal; and the reward Jesus mentions seven times.  

In this week’s B Side, Matthew takes the very esoteric, intangible conversation from part one, to the tactile through some biblical, historical, personal and examples.

This week we began talking about the section in the Sermon on the Amount pertaining to personal piety.  We discovered that the actual acts of piety within this section are secondary to how we practice piety.  In today's sermon begin this section not simply talking about how or where we practice these acts of but rather, we begin with where we find God, in the place of Silence. 

This past Sunday we had our quarterly business meeting; however, this time we did something a bit different.  Our pastor, Matthew Hansen, did a short talk about leadership structure, the four major identities of the institutional church, and a peek into where we plan on heading in 2025.

A deep dive into Matthew 5:27-32, a text about marriage, adultery, and divorce, as mentioned in the Sermon on The Mount.  We decided to assign this topic to the B Side to allow us the needed time to dig deep into these complex issues.  In this talk we set the stage and context that allows us the understanding to hear and better understand Jesus' words on divorce, which we will talk about in part 2. 

Today we continue our study through the Sermon on the Mount. Within Christianity we throw around a lot of phrases without deeply seeking out the deep meaning of those phrases.  Since the beginning, we have been told that the vocational identity of humanity is to be the image of God, to mirror God to the world.  In today's message Jesus makes it clear what that means to be like God. 

Through Moses, God gave a law to his people.  The law was not about simply obeying a rule, but rather had a purpose beyond itself.  It was to be a shaping mechanism, a system that helped Israel become God's people to the world around us.  Today we will begin a miniseries on God's law through the voice of Jesus. 

Before the church is called to do something, we are given an identity.  The doing is how we express that identity, and that identity is our vocational calling.  In today's sermon, we are going to spend some time talking about the original vocational call of Israel and its expansion beyond borders into the church.

Jesus is the new Moses giving a new law to a new people.  Today we took some time to identify, define, and explain who the people of God are.

Today begins a new series on Jesus' most well known sermon, The Sermon on the Mount. Today's message introduces terms, creates framework, and gives thought to what it means to engage this sermon in a more practical way. 

James’ junk drawer (the remaining sections of the book) contains what I believe to be an ancient version of what we call the first rule of resiliency - be here now. As we wrap up our series on James, the sermon serves as a call to our church specifically and the importance being and living deeply right where we already are.

If the previous three sermons were a mini series on wisdom, today is the spin off.  Today we read the text, travel in to the esoteric, and then back into the tactile.  Using our limited words, we dive into the idea of what it means to live on into the world to come. 

If any book in the New Testament can be categorized as wisdom literature, it is the book of James. For the past three weeks, we have been discussing the idea of wisdom as God's creative power creating order out of chaos. In today's message we get into the nuts and bolts of the wisdom of the world vs. the wisdom of God.

We dive into how wisdom was understood in the ancient world, a world that understood wisdom to be much more than good decision making skills, but rather the literal power of God to create a good order.  Furthermore, this wisdom was not simply God's to use, but an energy that God assigned to his people in order to follow in his footsteps as his image bearers to create the order of God out of the order of chaos.

Wisdom is often reduced to a thought process, but for the ancient Jews, true wisdom impacted the world you lived in with creative power. Join us in this first part as we recap the first half of the book and set the foundation for a discussion on Wisdom.

Typically in life, we judge people based on their differences. James will challenge us to use a different matrix through which to judge people. James will challenge us to replace oursevles as our standard for judgement and replace it with an idea that should lead, not to more confrontation, but peace.

Today we take a look in the weight attributed to works of justice, peace, and mercy. We are going to attempt to decouple the reformation idea that works follows faith, in favor of the Biblical idea that faith and works are partners working together as we are being saved.

Prayer, scripture, community, and a life of service are among the basics of following Jesus. When Jesus was asked about how we should pray, Jesus gave an answer.

While Paul and James may use the same words, and in the words of Scot McKnight, they use different dictionaries. While that maybe true, in this section of Scripture, James is talking about works of peace, mercy and love while Paul is talking about works of the law. James is clear; faith is not merely a confession, it is action.

The economy of this world, also called the economy of chaos, values people based on their access to wealth, power, and fame; it will always devalue those with less access to those things. James invites us into a new economy where the script is flipped. In the economy of God’s kingdom, the poor are, in fact, the rich. The economy of God’s kingdom is based on the currency of faith and mercy, and begins with the investment of loving our neighbors.