Coming Up Sunday, July 25

On Sunday, we conclude our series "What God Wants for You." This week's sermon, "Life," provides both a comprehensive conclusion to the entire series and to specific themes begun in last week's sermon, "Purpose."

Last week, we explored the question of why God created us and what God's hopes were for us in the beginning. The crux of that was that God intended us to enjoy proper relationships with the created world, with each other, and with God. The implication of this, as demonstrated throughout creation and even within the Trinity, is that we each have unique gifts and interests that feed our relationships.

Of course, God's creation did not practice such proper relationships long. Instead, sinfulness crept in, destroying most of God's dreams for us, leaving God's hopes for us to only be partially realized in this world.

The purpose of Christ's incarnation was to counter this sinfulness. Through his life on earth, Jesus demonstrated that we could still enjoy many of God's dreams for our lives in this world, despite the pervasiveness and destructive quality of sin. More than this, though, Jesus the Christ is a sign that God intends to restore human beings to the existence He created us for. As Jesus says in the Gospel of John, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." We will explore some of the implications of this promise, both for our lives now and our lives to come.