Romans 15:1-7. Have you walked up to the front door of a home, and the owners had a mat at the front door that said, “Welcome”? If you didn’t know the people, but saw their welcome mat, you probably assume they mean it, but you won’t know until you knock on their door, will you? It’s not until you interact with them that you actually know if they mean what they say. How do you know if you’re welcome somewhere? Because they have a sign? No. It’s based on how they treat you, right?

Galatians 3:26-29. Everyone wants to belong. In fact, God created us with a need for relationships; a need to belong.

In Romans5, there are four “therefore's”, and even though this is considered one of the more difficult passages to understand, we want to look at Romans 5 to see what we learn from these "therefore's". We won’t be able to cover every detail, but we’ll understand the big idea of God’s message for us that Romans 5 shows us the blessing of salvation we have in Jesus and makes God’s grace and love that much sweeter.

The gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, tell us about the works and words of Jesus. This morning, we’re looking at the last words of Jesus recorded in Matthew’s gospel where we find our next “therefore” and we’ll see what Jesus has to say to us.

It’s the Tuesday before the Friday Jesus would be crucified and in Matthew 21, Jesus is in Jerusalem in the Jewish temple and he’s going to tell a story about some wicked farmers who had been entrusted with a landowner’s vineyard. This parable has something to say to the religious leaders of the Jewish people, the future of God’s people, and also to us today.

In Romans 12:1, Paul has an urgent plea. He desperately wanted the Christians reading this letter to understand something and do something that was extremely important. Paul pleads with Christians to do this urgent thing because of all God has done for us.

Colossians 3:1-17. In our passage today on the theme of “Therefore”, Paul says three times, “Therefore”, and each time he has something more to say to Christians about how to live as a Christ follower.

Paul assures Christians that they have a victory waiting for them when Jesus does return. It’s because of this victory that Christians have in Jesus that we should live a certain way here on earth.

Matthew 6:19-34. Jesus gives us three choices we make and everyone makes these choices. We must choose our treasure, choose how we look at life, and choose our master. For those who choose to treasure the things of God, set their eyes on the things of God, and choose the good and perfect God as their master, they can therefore face life with faith instead of anxiety.

3 John. The apostle John wrote his third letter to a close friend and one of the main points, the main point we want to make this morning, is to “Imitate Good”. Verse 11 of 3 John simply says, “do not imitate evil but imitate good”. John makes it very clear: followers of Jesus are to imitate is that which is good, not evil. There are a lot of things to imitate in our culture, but the Bible says we’re to make sure the things we imitate are good. “Good” here means what is upright and acceptable to God. It’s not just whatever you say is “good”.

2 John. Love letters are less common today than they used to be. Today people would more likely text or direct message, but there is something nice about a written letter. 2 John is a unique kind of letter. The apostle John wrote to another congregation while he lived in Ephesus like he was writing to a woman he loved. In 2 John we find that John immediately speaks of “the truth”. John wrote in his first letter about following God’s truth and not being deceived and falling away from the truth. Truth is very important. You can’t know God without knowing his truth. You can’t be saved without learning of God’s truth. And you can’t maintain your salvation, as John has explained, without remaining faithful to God’s truth.

1 John 5:1-21. Like the last few words of wisdom you might give in a conversation with someone you care about, John closes his letter with essentially one main point: Hold on to your faith. John explains how Christians can know they have eternal life. He then reminds us we need to believe in Jesus as he is revealed by God in Scripture. And finally, John writes some things about holding on to our faith with a surprising ending.

William Chen visited us to share about his mission work with the Chinese Bible School and preached during worship on the subject of "Christian Giving". He showed us the nine different words in the New Testament Greek that are used for various forms of giving and how Christians share in the work of communicating the gospel and worshiping God in various forms of giving.

1 John 4:1-21. John is writing to Christians who have seen several fall away, believing in false doctrines, and he writes to urge them to remember the gospel they first heard, to be faithful to God, and to remember his great love. John gives us a litmus test for your spiritual condition. He says if you say you love God, the true test of that is if you love others. Loving others shows that God’s love has changed you.

1 John 3:11-24. John returns to the subject of love again and reminds his readers that they’ve heard that they’re supposed to love one another from the very first time they heard the gospel of Jesus, and he’ll prove how important loving one another is in this passage. Here’s one of the main points John makes: Loving one another proves we love Jesus.

1 John 2:18-3:10. We've all seen the TV shows where the main character develops amnesia after some trauma to the head and they can't remember who they are, their family, or what they're supposed to be doing. While it's a far-fetched depiction of amnesia, it raises a question for Christians. Is it possible for Christians to develop spiritual amnesia? In our passage today, we see that John wrote to these Christians to urge them to remember who they were in Christ and abide in him, not being deceived by false teachers.

1 John 2:1-17. Think about what you do for someone close to you to express your love for them. It could be any number of things. Do certain chores around the house, take them out to eat, buy them something special. What is it you like for others to do for you to show their love for you? In his gospel, John recorded these words of Jesus in Jn. 14:15, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Jesus says to his disciples this is how you show me you love me. John also wrote about that in our text for this morning.

1 John 1:1-10. Love and faith are two things that are very important to many people. In our last days and moments, what will matter most to us is the people we love and our faith in God. There are a whole lot of people who claim to be Christians but walk in darkness. They do what they want to do, talk like the world, and you can’t tell by looking at their life or their social media that they’ve ever heard of Jesus. In other words, John is saying, you can say you’re a Christian all you want, but if you walk in darkness you’re lying and are not in fellowship with Christ and his church. Here’s the good news, the other side of the coin. If we choose to stay walking in the light, then we remain in fellowship with Christ and his church. It’s our choice. We have continued access to forgiveness of sins.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4. In this stand-alone sermon, we look at a basic way to explain the gospel to someone and look at how people in the Bible responded to the good news of Jesus when they believed in him. There's certainly more to study and discuss, but this provides a few Scriptures and points that can be memorized and shared.

Ephesians 6:10. Bro. Robert Hall with India Mission visited this morning and preached a powerful sermon about being strong in the Lord.