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Something is always shaping us. Our work, our success, the approval of others. Most of the time we don't even notice the things shaping us because we've been so accustomed to it. In week two of our "Flourishing Grace" series Josh Brown invites us to look closer at what our lives are being shaped by. Not so that we can try harder to become a better version of ourselves. He shows us that the invitation of the Gospel it to be shaped by the mercies of God. Real transformation doesn't come from changing our behavior from the outside in, but from allowing God's truth and His Spirit to renew us from the inside out. The world will keep trying to press into you, but God invites us into his renewal. Something is going to shape you. Let it be the mercy of God. Come and Seek the Lord with Us! www.flourishinggrace.org.

Pastor Benjer kicked off our new "Flourishing Grace" series by inviting each of us to look at what's on our plate. We live at a frenetic pace, constantly consuming things we hope will satisfy, restore, or sustain us. But what happens when the things we're feeding ourselves can't actually give us life? Jesus doesn't give us a checklist, activity, or another way to improve ourselves. He gives us Himself. Today's teaching text from John 6 and Jeremiah 17, show us what it looks like to be rooted in Jesus, the true source of life, and how abiding in Him produces resilience and fruit even though seasons of heat and drought. We don't flourish by trying harder. We flourish when we abide in Jesus. Come and Seek the Lord with Us! www.flourishinggrace.org.

This year's Sunday in the park teaching is from Ephesians 2 and Pastor Benjer walks us through an important question. How do we actually gain access to God? Most of us instinctively reach for our resume. We build a case that we've been good enough, gone to church enough, prayed enough or somehow earned our way into a relationship with him. Paul tells the church in Ephesus it's only through Jesus. The good news of the gospel is that those who were once far off have been brought near through Jesus. Access to the Father isn't based on what we've done, but on the finished work of Christ. God is rich in mercy, great in love, and His grace is not in short supply. You cannot out sin the depths of God's mercy. Through Jesus, you're invited to come into His presence. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visit

In this week's teaching from Acts 3, church planting resident Joshua Niyokwizigirwa walks us through Peter's message after the healing of a man who had been unable to walk. Peter doesn't point to himself or his own power. He points to Jesus the Author of Life who was killed, raised from the dead, and is still at work through His Spirit. So what do we say to the bad news of life? Sin is real and it destroys, enslaves, and eventually devours the things we love. But the good news of the gospel is that through Jesus our sins can be wiped away and times of refreshing can come from the presence of the Lord. This refreshing isn't something we manufacture through better performance. It comes as we repent, surrender, and come to Jesus. And when we drink deeply of Him, that living water doesn't stop with us, it overflows into a thirsty world. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visitwww.flourishinggrace.org.

What do you do when you blow it with God? In this final teaching from our series in Exodus, guest speaker Dave Nelson looks at Exodus 34 alongside the book of Hebrews and the contrast is striking. At Sinai, the people stood at a distance. Moses alone went up the mountain into the presence of God. But Hebrews tells us that because of Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, we are invited to draw near. We don't come hiding, pretending, or trying to make ourselves worthy. We come through Christ. And when we come, we discover the God who revealed Himself to Moses: merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. The good news is not simply that God forgives us when we fail. Through Jesus, He brings us near, makes us holy, and gives us His Spirit to transform us. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visit

In this week's teaching from Exodus 33, Israel is offered everything they could want: a land of their own, provision, safety, security, and victory over their enemies. There is just one problem. God says He will not go with them. And for the first time, Israel begins to understand that the gifts of God are not enough without the presence of God. How many of us would, or have taken that deal? This week Pastor Benjer walks us through Moses response... “If You’re not going with us, we don’t want to go.” We're reminded that the Christian life is about wholly treasuring Jesus more than the good gifts He gives. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visit

In this week's teaching from Exodus 32, we look beneath the golden calf at the conditions where idolatry begins to grow. While Israel is at the bottom of the mountain tired of waiting, God is on the mountain with Moses designing something for glory and beauty so that He can dwell among His people. Israel became impatient and manufactured an idol to satisfy them, sinfully misusing God's gifts going outside of His design, and timing. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus doesn't just forgive us for our idolatry. He intercedes for us, interrupts us, invites us to come to Him, and gives us His Spirit to make us into people who reflect His glory and beauty. We don't have to manufacture our way out of uncertainty. We can receive Him, wait with Him, and trust that what He is making is better than anything we could make for ourselves. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visit.

In this week's teaching from Exodus 24, we look at the beauty of Jesus, who fulfilled the old covenant and is the Mediator of the new covenant! Israel enters into a covenant with a Holy God, a covenant they could never perfectly keep. And neither can we. We cannot achieve our way into the presence of God or prove ourselves worthy of His love. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus has already done it. He fulfilled the law on our behalf, paid the debt we could never pay, and through His blood has reconciled us to God. Praise the Lord we don't have to achieve what Jesus has already accomplished. The invitation is to surrender–to trust Him, receive what He has done, and walk with Him. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visit

In this week's teaching from Exodus 20, guest speaker Josh Gardner walks us through the Ten Commandments not as a list of rules, but as an invitation into the flourishing life God created us for. Before God tells Israel what to do, He reminds them of what He has already done. He rescued them from slavery. He brought them to Himself. The relationship comes before the rules. The Ten Commandments aren't a way to prove ourselves worthy of God's presence. They show us who God is, what we were created for, and ultimately how much we need Jesus. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus has done what we could never do. He fulfilled the law, made a way for us to draw near, and gives us His Spirit to form in us the kind of life we could never manufacture on our own. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visitwww.flourishinggrace.org.

In this week's teaching from Exodus 19, we look at how God didn't simply to rescue Israel out of Egypt, He rescued them to bring them to Himself. At the Mt. Sinai we stand at the bottom of a mountain climb on our own. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus is the greater Mediator. In Exodus 19 Moses went up and down, and up and down, and up and down the mountain on Israel's behalf, Jesus goes to the cross, opening the way for us to draw near to a holy God. We don't come by proving ourselves worthy, we come because Christ has made a way. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visit

In today's teaching text Pastor Benjer walks us through Exodus 16, where beneath Israel's complaint about bread was a deeper longing for safety, predictability, and control. Yet instead of simply satisfying their hunger, God gives His people daily manna—revealing that beneath every need is an even deeper need. The manna in Exodus points us to Jesus, the true Bread of Life, who meets the need beneath the need: Himself. The invitation of the gospel isn't to place our trust in predictable circumstances, but in the God who faithfully provides exactly what we need, one day at a time. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visit

In today's teaching from Exodus 15, we walk through the first song recorded in Scripture. Before God gave Israel the 10 commandments or led them into the Promised Land, He gave them a new refrain: "The Lord is my strength, my song, and has become my salvation." The song of Moses reminds us that worship isn't just expressing what we feel it's rehearsing what is true. God replaces the songs that our past, our culture, and the enemy sings over us, by becoming our strength, our song, and salvation. Like every story in Exodus it points us to Jesus, the greater Deliverer who leads us into His healing. Come and Seek the Lord With Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visit

In today's teaching from Exodus 12, guest speaker Josh Gardner walks us through how Passover is not only about Israel's rescue from Egypt, but points us to Jesus and the greater Passover.. In Exodus the blood of the spotless lamb was the sign of God's mercy, foreshadowing Jesus, the true Lamb of God, whose sacrifice delivers us from sin and death. The invitation of the gospel isn't to trust in our own strength, but to trust in sufficiency of Christ. Josh closed the sermon by invited us to examine in our hearts if our lives are marked it's marked by gratitude and worship. One of the ways we can practice cultivating this is by being a community of believers who encourage one another to practice daily gospel rhythms that keep our hearts anchored in Christ, who has rescued us. Come and Seek the Lord with Us www.flourishinggrace.org/plan-your-visit

In today's teaching text from Exodus 7:1-7, Pastor Benjer walks us through the first nine plagues and reminds us that beneath every act of judgment is the heart of a God who is pursuing His people. The Lord reveals Himself as the One who cannot be ignored, the One who draws near and calls a people His own, and reveals there is none like Him. Every false king, every competing allegiance, and every idol eventually will fail to deliver, but the Lord invites us to lay down our own rule and surrender to His. Often in our lives, what feels like disruption is, in reality, God's mercy awakening us to the freedom, life, and rest that can only be found under the loving reign of Christ. www.flourishinggrace.org.

What does God do with a broken spirit? As we make our way through the book of Exodus this summer, Pastor Benjer walks us through chapters 5 and 6. Moses and the Israelites discover that the road to freedom and God doing what He's promised often go through a deeper disappointment. Yet it's in the middle of their grief, and Moses complaints to the Lord that God reminds them who He is, what He has done, and what He has promised. Ultimately this story points to Jesus, who invites every weary and burdened soul to come to Him and find the rest our hearts have been searching for.