Guelph Vineyard Church

This is an important talk from Steve Stewart, the founder of Impact Nations and spiritual grandfather of the Guelph Vineyard. We'll be distilling this talk into the practices of the Guelph Vineyard for some time to come.

"The God who in majesty, strength, and wisdom is beyond our imaginations has chosen to work primarily as a servant who is almost beneath our imaginations, so far beneath we don't even notice him"- Eugene Peterson from "As Kingfishers Catch Fire"

This week we will close out our series on Isaiah 61. We will revisit the words of the prophet Isaiah, Jesus' particular fulfilling of them, and the big story of God's invitation to and through us.

***Note*** Because of a technical glitch, the recording of this sermon isn't up to our usual standards. Our apologies.Here we move into a portion of the Isaiah 61 passage that Jesus doesn't specifically address. However, this week we continue to mine the heart of God, who is ever turned towards those who have hit the bottom, who have lost, and who have given up. He comforts the grieving, yes. But oh, there is so much more.

This was a fun morning that went off script in the best sort of way. Includes an amazing testimony of God's goodness from Dawn Humphrey. So good.

Join us as we continue reflecting on Isaiah 61:1-2 and Jesus' proclamation of this same passage in Luke 4. This week we focus on the work of God to free captives, release prisoners, and we'll also explore Jesus's apparent addition to the text... recovery sight for the blind.

This Sunday we continue exploring Isaiah 61, specifically God's promise to heal the broken-hearted. What He does with broken things isn't just about reversing the clock. It's not like a warranty that restores broken items to "original condition". No, when he takes something broken and makes it new again, the Spirit of God weaves the promise of the Kingdom into the cracks and scars, and makes something even more beautiful than the original.

Here we resume the series on Isaiah 61, "The Verbs of God". This week we dig into the what Jesus meant when read the words of Isaiah and declared that he came with good news for the poor.

Isaiah 61 lies at the very core of Jesus understanding of the Kingdom. In fact, this is what Jesus quotes from in Luke 4, immediately following his experience in the wilderness. Taking it further than anyone could have imagined, it's here in Luke that we begin to get a sense of Jesus actually being "the Kingdom in Person", the very "Action Word" of God in flesh. Over the coming weeks we're going to explore these pivotal passages, the intentions of God, and what it means for us to respond to the invitation in them.

The Body of Christ. The Bride of Christ. The Fellowship. The People of God. This is a sampling of the language sometimes used to describe the Church.But Jesus’s Church isn't simply a concept or a metaphor. It isn't a faceless group of disconnected people mysteriously joined over space and time by shared belief. For every believer, everywhere, anytime, it is a rag-tag group of specific names and faces.People we share air with. People we know and are getting to know. These are the people we sit beside at the table of God.In 1st John 4, the apostle writes: "whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen."This stuff matters. We literally can't love God alone.