1. A pastor shares his own experience of loneliness and hope
  2. Human solutions to problems, important as they are, are inadequate to meet our deepest needs
  3. The goodness of God's grace is also offensive to our egos
  4. God gives good gifts to underserving workers. God gives good gifts to all of them.
  5. The Lord has remembered to help his servant Israel, to fulfill his promises to Abraham and to his offspring forever, not mostly or mainly because of his mercy, but exclusively so.
  6. The issue is not the existence of so-called inner rings, but our desire and willingness to spend our lives in order to gain from an inner ring what is freely promised in Christ: hope, security, and identity.
  7. I’ve experienced firsthand the promise that God never leaves a congregation empty-handed.
  8. In the tumultuous sea of information, opinions, and ideologies that break over us each day, we hold fast to the anchor of our faith—Jesus, the true prophet.
  9. God’s published will offers us anchorage, the anchorage of Jesus Christ, in the midst of chaos, reminding us that there is a greater purpose to our lives than the pursuit of worldly success or fleeting pleasures.
  10. While we wait in tribulation for our white robes (or pants) to be washed in the blood of the Lamb, we confess to one another our seen and unseen stains.
  11. The Holy Spirit unleashes his power through us, his vines, and we then get to watch as his fruits blossom and ripen.
  12. Everything in Scripture is God revealing himself to his people, you and me.