Hi everyone,
 
            I hope you are having a great week. The days are getting warmer and longer and I LOVE it! Of course, there’s no guarantee there won’t be another snowstorm coming, but for now it’s all good.
 
            I have been really enjoying the character of John the Baptist lately. He would have been an interesting cat to get to know, I bet. I love the way he stands up to the religious leaders and how clear he is to the people that came out to see him and be baptized by him.
 
            The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem heard about him, he was making such a stir. They wanted to find out who he was, so they sent the priests and Levites to question him. I love his response. John 1 says, “He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, ‘I am not the Messiah.’”
 
            Sounds like a pretty simple and obvious answer, yet how many times do we get that wrong? We get thinking that we are the Messiah. We are the ones who are going to save the day. There is no problem that we can’t handle, nothing that will slow us down. And then we lose sleep because of worry and anxiety, or we get angry because we are filled with fear. Friends, we were never meant to sit in that chair.
 
            Let’s get this one thing clear in our heads: We are not the Messiah!
 
            We can’t fix our marriages on our own or heal our diseases. We can’t raise our kids or care for our aging parents or transform our workplaces on our own. We need to rely on Jesus Christ because He is the Messiah. He is the Anointed One. He is the Saviour.
 
            And He offers Himself to each one of us. There is great peace and rest when we lean on Jesus and trust Him with our whole lives.
 
            Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG) says:
 
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
 
            Jesus is the Messiah, we are not. Let us never lose sight of that so that we can live in the grace that He offers to us.
 
            This weekend will be the second part in our Skeptics’ Questions series. On Sunday, I will be co-teaching with my friend Daniel Komori and our topic is “Why does God put boundaries on sex and sexual identity?”  Daniel has studied this and taught on it for the last fifteen years and he will bring a wealth of knowledge and understanding to the talk. I hope you can be there.
 
            Have a great weekend and we will see you on Sunday.
 
            I love being your pastor.
 
Pastor Tim