Continuing in our series, What Has God Done for You? Troy reminds us, and encourages us to believe wholeheartedly, that everything God does is motivated by His love for us and His desire to do what is best for us. Jesus paid our penalty and offers us salvation as a free gift of His grace, but it only applies to us if we have faith that Jesus really did this on our behalf. On a practical level, when we’re tempted, and struggling, and really wanting to do what we want to do, instead of what God says, will we still believe that God’s way is better?

Followers of Jesus often struggle to determine whether or not God is calling us to do something. In fact, the only time we should feel 100% certain that God is speaking directly to us is when we read the Bible. However, discerning God's calling is really not some super-mystical process. What’s more, God will sometimes give us unmistakable confirmation that He’s at work leading, guiding, and yes, even calling us to do something.

In this week's message from our Finding Favor series, Bob teaches us about the concept of "Strategic Failure." We can have a new definition of success: “Finding Favor with God.” Why settle for earthly success when you can have God’s favor? And even our pain and suffering have a purpose; our failures can actually be our successes. With this in mind, Bob closes with a challenge for us not to be the ones yelling at God for the pain that's in our life.

(Note: This recording picks up a few minutes into the message.) For our Mission Sunday, Salonique Adolphe, the director (and one of the founders) of Living Water Christian Mission in Gonaives, Haiti encourages us to refocus our efforts as a church and achieve our primary objective of seeking and saving the lost. Each one of us is called to go into our city, our country, and our world to make disciples of all nations. And when we go, Jesus promises to be with us always, even to the end of the age.