The Branch Church

<p>“Why is it when we talk to God we’re praying, but when God talks to us we’re crazy?” (Lily Tomlin) <br><br>We’re kicking off a new series this weekend at The Branch. It’s all about the messiness, mystery, and wonder of hearing God.</p>

<p>Chris is back from his sabbatical this weekend with a one-off message taking us down memory lane. <br><br>We also are taking time in our services to bless and pray over our kids, teachers, administrators, and parents as we school begins this month.</p>

<p>This weekend, our Executive Minister of Ministry and Strategy, Josh Brake will be preaching about breakthrough in the Kingdom of God in Acts 3 & 4.</p>

<p>This weekend, Tim Ketchersid shares what God has been stirring in his heart. From John 6:1-14, he brings us a word of encouragement in the story of Jesus feeding the multitude with what a little boy had to offer.</p>

<p>Have you ever felt like giving up? How should we pray in the face of adversity? This weekend, Ryan Rainey is preaching out of Psalm 11 and talking about how to pray when you feel like giving up.</p>

<p>This weekend, Ryan Rainey explores a dream found in the Song of Solomon chapter 5 and unpacks what we're to do when we feel like God is far away.</p>

<p>This weekend, we are privileged to hear from our Kids Ministry Director, Alexis Hall. In this message from Habakkuk 1-3, she shares some stories from her life, and gives us a glimpse into her own personal experience with prayer.</p>

<p>In this lesson, our Farmers Branch Youth Minister, Hunter Wheatcraft, teaches out of Acts 17 and turning the world right-side up.</p>

<p>This July, we’ll be hearing from some of our staff ministers at The Branch. Josh Brake kicks us off with a message on what the Lord has been stirring in his heart: Pentecost in Acts, chapter 2.</p>

<p>This July, we’ll be hearing from some of our staff ministers at The Branch. Hunter Wheatcraft brings us a message on what the Lord has been stirring in his heart: “He has called me friend.”</p>

<p>This weekend, we wrap up our journey through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:13-27. Jesus paints four pictures to say the same thing. What is it?</p>

<p>“Judge not lest you be judged....”<br>It’s ironic that of all the things Jesus said which we make a judgment too quickly about when it comes to what it means – are His words about judging. This weekend, we take a look at this often quoted (but often taken out of context) phrase Jesus used.</p>

<p>This weekend, Josh Brake guides us through Matthew 6:25-34 and Jesus’s reflections on worry. What we worry about can be revealing. Jesus knew the leverage worry can have on our quality of life and our capacity to live effectively as His disciples.</p>

<p>This weekend, Hunter Wheatcraft guides us through Matthew 6:25-34 and Jesus’s reflections on worry. What we worry about can be revealing. Jesus knew the leverage worry can have on our quality of life and our capacity to live effectively as His disciples.</p>

<p>“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” This weekend we’ll take a look at Jesus’ challenging call for us to trust in God as Father and prioritization of His kingdom over our “thingdoms.” While money and material possessions can be excellent servants to the purposes of God, all too often they can wind up becoming terrible masters of our lives.</p>

<p>We have no record of Jesus teaching His disciples how to preach. We do have a record of Jesus teaching them (and us) how to pray. This weekend, in our series on the Sermon on the Mount, we’re walking through what’s known as “The Lord’s Prayer.” It’s something to be prayed and lived.</p>

<p>It’s Graduate Sunday at The Branch, and we’re starting our service by honoring our Graduating Class of 2022.<br><br>This weekend in Matthew 6:1-18 this coming weekend. We’ll be talking about a desire some of us struggle with more than others – the desire to impress and be seen. It can get us into all sorts of trouble, as well as interfere with making a real difference in the things that matter.</p>

<p>“Turn the other cheek. Go the second mile. No one can serve two masters. Do to others what you would have them do to you.” These are sayings that float around American culture today. Not many people realize they are all from the Sermon on the Mount. <br><br>This weekend we’ll see what may be the most challenging teaching Jesus did in the Sermon on the Mount. There may be no brighter light emanating from our lives, though, than when we live by it.</p>

<p>What would it be like to see your heart in a jar? People who’ve had heart transplants have. This weekend we hear a story about that and what it has to do with the next part of our journey through the Sermon on the Mount.</p>

<p>“Blessed” is the first word in the Sermon on the Mount. This says so much about the heart of Jesus. We’re beginning our series in the SOTM this weekend with Matthew 5:1-16. <br><br>Did you know it’s possible for pilots, particularly fighter pilots, to be flying upside down and not know it? We do it in life, too. Some of Jesus’s teachings seems upside down to us, and yet we might be the ones flying upside down. It’s easy to do. Because much of our world is upside down.</p>

<p>How in the world do you follow Easter? Jesus answered that. This weekend we read the end of the Gospel of Matthew. Before we back up and dive into the Sermon on the Mount next weekend, we’re first going to another mount found in Matthew 28:18-20.</p>

<p>Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead. The seal that was placed over the tomb was broken on that day. What does His resurrection mean for us today?</p>

<p>You can look at cost in terms of how expensive something is or how precious something is. This weekend we’ll be in what is likely the hardest part of the story of Jesus. The story of the cross. It’s expensive. And yet, it also tells you how precious you are to Jesus.</p>

<p>Can you think of being interrupted by something or someone that you didn’t see coming, yet you wound up incredibly blessed? Or challenged? Or both? This weekend, we’ll look at three very different people whose lives were interrupted by Jesus on the way to the cross in Matthew 27. <br><br>Some interruptions can be life-changing.</p>

<p>So much of Jesus’ ministry was around a table in the context of a meal. This weekend we’ll be in Matthew 26, and His last meal with His disciples in the midst of the most difficult week of His life. It’s at this table that Jesus, Himself, interprets what His death on the cross will mean for everyone.</p>