Ridgepoint Sermon Audio Ridgepoint Church

For this Mother's Day message, Pastor Brent shares a story from 2 Kings 4 about the prophet Elisha miraculously reviving a wealthy woman's son from death. Like the mother in this story, many of our mothers tend to have a fierce love and perseverance, and the invaluable impact of a Godly mother can't be understated. Moms, your role is crucial, so THANK YOU, don't give up, and stay anchored to God's purposes for you and your family.

In the conclusion of this series, Pastor Brent looks at Jesus' prayer in John 17 that we would experience God's perfect, boundless love for us. God's love for us is *equal* to His love for Jesus. While this surpasses human comprehension, Brent encourages us to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal this truth and help us grasp the depth of Christ's love demonstrated at the cross.

This week Pastor Brent teaches on spiritual growth, the long-term process of becoming more like Jesus. In John 17, Jesus prayed for His followers' sanctification, which Brent explains as a progressive process of being made holy over time. To become more like Christ, we should regularly practice self-reflection, prayer, and active cooperation with God.

John says that Jesus' victory over Satan is all but sewn up. Yet, there is still danger in God's world. In a stunning move, Jesus prays for his Father to keep his followers in the world and to give them protection from the evil one. What might that protection look like? And why would Jesus keep his followers in this world even though they are susceptible to the evil empire's influence? Through observations from the Gospel of John, a story from American baseball, Article 4 of the USMB Confession of Faith, a timeless observation from a Russian novelist, and a quick reference from a treasured Disney film, Pastor Joe will "try to make it all make sense."

As we kick off this new teaching series, Pastor Brent explores Jesus' prayer for unity among believers in John 17, unpacking the concept of "What Would Jesus Pray?" Drawing parallels to the "What Would Jesus Do?" movement, Brent challenges the church to emulate Jesus' fervent desire for His followers to be unified in their mission of helping others find and follow Christ. Despite differences, Brent encourages choosing humility, patience, and preserving the hard-fought unity that serves as a powerful testimony to the world.

Without the resurrection, our faith is useless. In order for Jesus to pull off the greatest of all rescues, He needed to die AND rise again. Thankfully, He did (!), and He offers to take all that is old and make it new.