March 9, 2025 "How Does God Shape Us?"

It's Lent time, baby! It always starts with an examination of this particular story in Luke. Today we're talking about how we can approach it - from an individual perspective - how does this impact each of our lives? AND from a communal perspective - how does this impact us as a community? Temptation one is to go after the short-cut - to take the easy way - to go after instant gratification. We're always looking for instant gratification. But the slow, hard work of building relationships, establishing trust, and invitation is the only way things go well. Temptation two is to compromise in order to grasp after power. Yeesh, this one is tempting all the time - compromise our integrity in order to get ahead. But there's a flip side to this. We hold a different view about human sexuality and gender. It would be easy for us to be self-righteous about it - to be militant about it - to try and force others to come to the same conclusion - but that's not how God works. Temptation three is to make fear the basis of faith. This can be used to manipulate and control. If we just have to believe the right things and believe in them hard enough then God will protect us. You can be coerced into believing some pretty crazy things if fear is the basis of faith. But the cross teaches us something different. God's beloved still get hurt and ache and bleed and die. But we have a God who suffers alongside us. This is good news - because we also have a God who resurrects. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Luke 4:1-13 https://www.bible.com/events/49403199