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We all face various trials—from minor frustrations at home to tremendous grief; from small setbacks at work to great heartache; from slight opposition from the world to severe persecution. All of us have the need for patient endurance. But a patient endurance that glorifies God doesn’t come so easily in trial. God's word through James gives courage to persevere.

Covenant is a crucial theme in Scripture. Covenants provide the key framework to understanding God and how we relate to him and to one another. What are the major covenants in Scripture and what do they mean?

Hebrews 8 teaches that Jesus mediates "a better covenant." How exactly is the new covenant better than the old covenant?

We’ve all experienced it. Matthew 2:15 asserts that Jesus fulfills the prophet’s words. Then, flipping back to Hosea 11:1, we discover Israel coming out of Egypt. “How did Matthew get that?” we wonder. When comparing the historical, contextual meaning of an Old Testament verse with its appearance in a New Testament context, we often feel tension. How are the NT authors using the OT?

So what does preaching the gospel to yourself look like? We learned in Part 1 that amazing news that God changes the heart. Yet we also know that change comes through hearing, treasuring, and heeding his word.

I want to explore how the gospel functions in the life of the church. No matter what the church faced, the apostles wove the gospel into the very fabric of the church’s life, ministries, and mission. The gospel never amounted to a “shelved” message for the church. It has ongoing significance.

As a church, why do we give such priority to the gospel message? Answers to that question revolve around the basis for our relationship with God, the nature of the local church, and the only hope for the nations.

In The Gospel (Part 1), we looked at why the gospel. We turn now to the question, what is the gospel? At the most basic level, the Scriptures indicate that "the gospel" was employed as a label to summarize the authoritative news of Jesus Christ, which Jesus himself also entrusted to his apostles.

In The Gospel (Part 1) we asked why the gospel? In The Gospel (Part 2) we looked at what the gospel is. I now want to sharpen the lens another notch to help us behold the unspeakable riches of the gospel, as well as what all this means in terms of our relationship to God, to each other, and to the world. Stated as a question: how do the apostles unpack the meaning of God acting in Christ for us?

Our Lord has purposed to prolong the COVID-19 pandemic, and we believe it is both wise and loving to continue not meeting for Sunday gatherings or in groups of more than 10. We might experience several more weeks of temporary confinement. But God’s word remains unbound, unrestricted. As we observed from Acts, no obstacle is too great for God’s word. His kingdom marches on. The question is whether we have the spiritual eyes to see it and the willingness to participate in it. In that light, here are some ways to act…