Pastor Scott Ross teaches about:  Generosity: The Great Hope-Builder, as we continue in our study of Ruth.  He reminds us of three key life principles for us to remember:  1.  God can redeem your family.  2.  You need to demonstrate the kindness (hesed) of God to others in your life out of your abundance.  3.  You are to remain in the place where God blesses you.

Pastor Scott Ross teaches on Ruth 2: 1-13.  He challenges us to see God’s hidden hand of favor each and every day.  Even when things get rough or outright brutal in our lives, God is and always is at work to make things “turn out.”

From Bitterness To Betterness!

Ruth Chapter 1:1

Message delivered by Pastor Scott Ross on Sunday, November 22, 2009 in Redmond, OR

Here’s The Line.  Don’t Cross It!

Ruth Chapter 1:1

Message delivered by Pastor Scott Ross on Sunday, November 15, 2009 in Redmond, OR

Join us on Sunday mornings at Impact Church as we journey through our Summer Challenge 2009 – we challenge you to join us!  We will read about one chapter a day this summer in an overview/survey of the entire Bible.  We won’t have the time to read through all 1,189 chapters but will instead read through some of the most formative and  key stories and episodes so as to gain a grasp of the whole narrative of Scripture.  What better challenge could you think of for yourself this Summer?

Join Us for Our New Fall Series

Do you ever feel like there might be more for your family – your marriage, your kids or even for your grandkids?
Join us as we explore God’s design for the family and discover the full potential of what your family could become through the Four Playgounds of Family Life:

But the problem is: I can’t have a Coke.  I’m on a strict no sugar diet.  I could reach for a diet Coke (gross enough) but I can’t have a diet Coke because I want to sleep in a couple of hours and the caffeine will keep me up all night (another pre-middle aged indicator).  So I settle for a Caffeine-free diet Coke.  The can is so cold, it has a shimmery label reminiscent of the “Real Thing” and my mouth waits in anticipation of this pseudo indulgence.  It takes merely one swig however to bring my fantasy to a stretching halt.  This is gross.  I can never finish the can and it leaves me feeling worse than I did before I cracked the can open.

You see, it has all of the trappings of the “Real Thing” but it is a striped down version devoid of the two things a carbonated beverage requires: sugar and caffeine.  It merely leaves me wanting the real deal more desperately.

Do you see similarities to the Christian life?  Jesus calls us to a life in love with Him that is nothing less than complete devotion.  It seems as though He never called anyone to follow Him without first making sure they knew what the cost would be…it was an all or nothing proposition.

In Luke 9:62 Jesus replied to someone who wanted to put following Him one hundred percent on hold, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” 

Jesus desires that you find abundant and vibrant life in Him.  But this is only possible if you make Him your true leader and guide and follow Him with seemingly reckless abandon.  Have you felt disappointed?  As though the brand of Christianity you’ve been pursuing isn’t the “Real Deal”?  Here’s a solution: stop settling for partial Christianity (that’s an oxymoron btw).  Like my caffeine-free diet coke, it will never quench the thirst your soul is striving for.  Stop settling for anything less than the fullest Christ-centered life!

You need to follow the real Jesus to make it through this life.  Will you fall in love with Him?  Will you allow Him to lead you?  If you do, you will never settle for anything less again.

In some ways, that is similar to the process we undergo of embracing our identity in Christ – you are no longer who you were, you are now a child of the King!  That is why we are engaged in our current series Discovering my Identity in Christ – this truly is a discovery process.

Today we will re-discover the wonderful truth that, as God’s children, we are loved.  Deeply loved.  Loved enough that God was willing to die for us.  Amazing!

Today, we will look at love from four perspectives:

1. The reciprocal love within the members of the Trinity

2. The love of God expressed toward Mankind

3. Our love for God

4. How to Grow our Love for God

I loved it last year when my son PJ (who has played baseball for seemingly eight years now) played catcher for the first time.  If you don’tknow, PJ isn’t the biggest kid in the world, or in 5th grade for that matter.  To see my little buddy don the massive garb of catcher’s gear was adorable – he was swimming in it.  But I was proud of him for being an amazing catcher.  You see, having the right equipment is critical for success, but the heart and attitude of the person being equipped is just as important!

It is so important for followers of Christ to understand that they are fully equipped to do the work God is calling them to.  That applies to you too!  Whatever God calls us to, He knows we will succeed because He has called us to it and will equip us in every necessary way.

Oh, and here’s one more nugget of truth: we cannot stall and wait to move in the direction God is calling us to until we feel fully equipped.  You see, God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.

Well if you are a Christ-follower, your greatest sense of personal identity and history are found in being made a child of the King of Kings!  You are now lovingly considered God’s child.  Isn’t that amazing?  The God of the Universe loves you and considers you His precious child!

We refer to this reality as adoption – God has adopted us into His family.  And what a privilege adoption is.  It opens the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven to us and grants us all the benefits of being God’s kids.  It also changes our relationship to one another, we are now Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

This morning we will look closely at all of the privileges and responsibilities of being adopted into the family of God.

If our confidence comes from within ourselves as many in our culture would want us to believe, then we know we will fail.  We can only muster so much confidence in our own abilities.

A Christ-follower sees confidence through a different lens.  We know that we are still mired in sinful choices and humanness.  Therefore, our confidence doesn’t come through what we can or cannot do on our own, but rather by what Christ can do in and through us.  He will never fail us.  Through Him, we can conquer everything that life throws at us.

Turn to Jesus and you’ll find confidence today!

So how are you living?  If you are a Christ follower, you should in some sense stand out as a foreigner on earth.  Do you?  Have you simply been blending in too much lately?

Let’s take an honest look at the life Paul was calling his audience to strive for and see if there aren’t some areas in our lives that we need to rise above in – to truly find a Life Worth Living.

“Mine!”  The words we hear from the mouth of every small child.  Our perfect little angel child has become a monster!  Isn’t this a great goal of parenting: to show our children that giving and sharing is paramount?  But it sure doesn’t come easy does it?  Why not?  Our kids are very much like their parents.

So, time to come clean.  How are you doing?  Are you giving your very best?  And the ultimate: are you giving God the very best of you?

Often the most powerful words are spoken through times of pain. Painful experiences and seasnos elicit powerful words.

Today, we will find the encouragement to speak courageously as we look to the model of Paul who through the worst of times, spoke truth in love and inspired others to do the same – any many lives were changed.

May the courageous words that are stored in our hearts be set free!

What does God say about facing such times? Fortunately, the Bible doesn’t candy-coat things and tell us to smile and pretend it’s all ok. The Bible makes it clear that we will face times of fear, danger and struggle. What the Bible encourages us to do is face those times with courage – not only the courage to survive or simply endure, but the courage to continue to dream God-sized dreams in the midst of even the darkest days.

In this new series Living the Courageous Life, we will be reminded that the life lived without need of courage is a life not worth living!

In this message, we will look at the time when Jesus was twelve years old and chose to stay behind in the Temple while His parents returned home from Jerusalem. It took them a day to realize Jesus was not in their company of travelers. Oops!

How many of us mistakenly assume Jesus is in our midst? Perhaps it is time for us to make Jesus the central leader in your life and not assume anything.

We will also see how Jesus was Going to those who were wise and learned, and this led to Him Growing “in wisdom, stature and in favor with God and men”. What great goals for us as well!

The soul is too big for the body

Due to the effects of sin and death entering into humanity, we are in a sense imprisoned in this life within a body that cries out for freedom. Our spirits scream out within us for more of life than we can enjoy or express.

This morning, we will be reminded that Jesus came to set us free. We will look at the very first person Jesus set free, and it might catch you by surprise. It didn�”t happen later in his life and ministry, it occurred when he was merely days old.

He set an old man named Simeon free. The beginning of Jesus�” life ended Simeon�”s wait for the Messiah. Upon seeing and blessing Jesus, he exclaimed that he was at last able to escape the confinement of a life of expectancy.

What goal can you pursue that will bring peace in your life?

What about the promises of God?

As we continue our series Year ONE, we will begin to look at year one of the life of Jesus. Actually we will go even further back than that to look at the promise God made to Mary before the conception of Jesus and a similar promise made to the parents of Jesus’ future cousin John the Baptist.

We will see two huge promises of God, both requiring a miracle. The difference is the response of the person receiving the promise: one responds with doubt; the other with faith. Perhaps we can identify with each response!

B.C. (English): “Before Christ”
A.D. (Latin): Anno Domini: “Year of our Lord” (marks the year of Jesus’ birth)

The Council of Chalcedon and the Chalcedonian Creed: A gathering of biblical scholars in the year 451 A.D. Declared that Jesus Christ is one person with two natures (human and divine) and is both fully God and fully man.

Hypostatic Union: Term used to describe the union of Christ’s two natures, Divine and Human in one being. (Hypostasis: the subastance or essential nature of a person)

Impeccability: (Latin) “not able to sin”