Weekly Update// Pastor Will

Hi friends!

This last weekend was the Super Bowl. They estimated that 114 million people watched this year, which is up 14% from last year. This could be for many reasons, but my guess is viewership has to do with which teams are playing. This year we saw the LA Rams, a newer team in the league, playing against the Cincinnati Bengals, a team that has never won a Super Bowl, despite being around for over 50 years. On paper, it seemed like the Rams were the better team, but the more I talked to people, the more it sounded like people were pulling for the Bengals. As one person said, “everyone loves a good underdog story!” Why is it we like an underdog story? Is it we often see ourselves as underdogs? Do we find it easier to relate to the underdogs? Whatever it may be, the underdogs are often the favorites.

Philippians 2:5-11, often referred to as the Christ Hymn, is a good example of an underdog story. In the text, it talks about how Jesus did not consider his divinity as something to “cling to,” but rather he gives up, or empties himself of his divinity to prove his love for us. Since we know Jesus was always God as we read in John 1, this text in Philippians reminds us of the low status that Jesus took on to come alongside us. This was especially wild for people of the Greco-Roman world, where status and power were everything. They viewed their gods as being beyond reach, untouchable. That’s why this message of Jesus was so radical back then, but it is also why the message is powerful for us, even today. A God who took on the form of a human, even to the point of death, to prove his love for us. That’s an underdog story we can all root for!

On a side note, this weekend the Youth Group is headed to the Sharing Center as part of our Serve Saturdays, our efforts to do a monthly service project in the community. We ask that you would be in prayer for us on that day! Also, this Sunday we are wrapping up our sermon series with the question, “"Why didn't God save my loved one from dying?" This is certainly a topic that hits close to home, and one that most of us have probably asked.

We hope you will join us for service at 9:30 am or 11:00 am, online or in-person as Pastor Chris explores and walks through this sensitive topic. Be blessed and have a great weekend!

Pastor Will