In week two of City on a Hill, we look at Luke 10 and the story of the Good Samaritan to ask what Christian witness looks like in a world where the Church no longer has an assumed voice. Trust in institutions may be declining, but spiritual hunger has not disappeared. Jesus has not lost his power, even if the Church has lost its assumed platform. So how do we respond? Not by getting louder, winning arguments, or demanding influence,…
In the final week, we look at Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well and the deeper thirst beneath our desire for more. Money can do many helpful things: pay bills, create options, and reduce pressure. But money cannot make us known, loved, valued, dignified, or whole. Like drinking sand to quench thirst, asking money to satisfy the soul only leaves us wanting more. Jesus meets thirsty people at the wells that aren’t working and offers himself as…
“Firstfruits” taught God’s people to trust him before they knew how much they would have, while the tithe gave structure to that trust in Israel’s worship and community life. But in Jesus, the invitation goes even deeper. God is not asking for a religious percentage of an otherwise self-directed life; he calls us to offer all of ourselves to him. That means what we give, what we save, and what we spend can all become ways to honor God. Because…
In the first message of the Never Enough series, we look at Jesus’ warning in Luke 12 about the subtle danger of believing that “just a little more” will finally make us secure. Money matters, but when more becomes our strategy for peace, our plan for security, or our substitute for God, it quietly takes hold of our hearts. Through the parable of the rich fool and the story of the widow’s offering, we see that “rich toward God” has…
