The main message was entitled Mentoring Culture, continuing through the sermon series through Galatians.
But before we dove in, I felt is was important to lead the church in a public verbal declaration that no matter what Jesus' "cup" might hold for each of us this year, by God's grace, we declare that we are following Jesus; our trajectory is towards Him.
After we read Matthew 20:20-23 where Jesus asks James and John whether they are willing to drink the "cup" He had for them, we talked a bit about the cup Jesus had for each of us this coming year. Whether it be a cup of suffering, a cup of favour, or a mix of both; are our hearts towards Jesus determined to follow?
Following a time around the table celebrating Jesus' broken body and shed blood, we stood and declared together the Nicene CREED. Facing West we declared "I renounce Satan and his works and ways." Then we turned 180 degrees and faced East, declaring the CREED. Pretty cool.
I think we'll do this more often. Pretty significant action.
Then we dove into the official message for the morning.