Cornerstone Church - Atlanta, GA

God not only sees our fatigue and hardship but he can identify with it and he responds to it with grace and mercy. The main idea of this text is providing Christians with at least 3 reasons why we can endure the race of faith till the end.

Jesus offers much more than just a remedy for our problems, He offers us a relationship. While that's great news for the man in Mark 7 that can't hear, it's better news to those of who won't listen.

Religion (as a system of trying to gain peace with God by our works) looks like it protects the truth, but it only really perverts it. It doesn't fix old problems, it merely creates new ones. This happens because religion addresses the symptoms of our problems instead of the source. In Mark 7, we see that Jesus cleans up what religious systems can only call out.

Sometimes it can seem that our expectations fall way short of our theology. We say with our lips that we serve a great God, but find that we have very small expectations. Jesus reminds us that when we approach God we should approach Him with expectant hearts. And expectant hearts witness extraordinary power.

Every story we've every interacted with is made up of a struggle between good and evil. Often, we're left in suspense, not knowing who's going win. It's easy for us to look at Jesus the same way, we look at other good guys in stories. In so doing, we miss out on the fact that he is not like other characters. He's the Lord of all. There is no struggle when he faces storms, demons, or sickness. We can go to him knowing that victory is only and always found in Him.

“Do you listen to Jesus?” In answering this question we shouldn’t be so quick to utter a yes, nor should we be too quick to dismiss it. Rather, we all should ask god to search our hearts for the true answer. In todays text Jesus will make it crystal clear that His word sorts people out into two categories, disciples or opponents. He also provides the pathway for our true joy if we would just listen closely.

What does it mean to be close to Jesus? Sometimes being content with being around Jesus can actually be our biggest obstacle to being with Him.

Every relationship has conflict, and our relationship with Jesus is no different. He sees our hearts the way they are, exposes them so that we see the same things, ultimately so that He can heal them.

Pastor John starts our series in the gospel of Mark by unpacking the Good News of the Gospel: God's Perfect Son

Pastor John encourages us to be mindful of how we use our Christians freedoms 1 Corinthians 10:1-13