Canton United Methodist Church

Sunday Message: God Meant It for Good

Scripture: Genesis 50:15-21, GNT

Series: Joseph: A Life of Character and Grace

Joseph's life story is so full of pits and valleys and sometimes leaves us wondering what could possibly happen next. But we have finally reached the end of the story. The economic policy he proposed to the nation of Egypt is running smoothly, but the famine spread farther than anyone could have imagined, just far enough to affect Joseph's family. When the brothers showed up back in the story, how would Joseph react? With character and grace, of course. How does his response inspire our own?

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Sunday Message: Understanding the Famine

Scripture: Genesis 41:14-40

Series: Joseph: A Life of Character and Grace

After weeks of saying that Joseph's story isn't going to get any better, it finally does when Egypt's Pharoah has a dream he cannot understand. Who better to interpret the dream than Joseph? As life-changing as this is, this moment is Joseph's story is just that: a moment. There's so much left in his story. As we confirmed our freshmen during worship, they too experienced something life-changing, but it was only a moment in a much larger story of faithfulness. What have some milestones along your journey been?

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Cut for Time: Deep, Dirty Stuff

What do you think about the Bible? Is a nice, clean story about God's love? Is it a list of rules that we have to follow...or else? In light of our sermon series on Joseph, Eric recently re-read the entire Book of Genesis and learned that the Bible contains some deep, dirty stuff. Join Eric and Pastor Clay as they unpack that reality, especially in Joseph's story.

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Sunday Message: Spiritual Vision

Scripture: Genesis 40, GNT

Series: Joseph: A Life of Character and Grace

Chastised, beaten, left for dead, wrongly accused, falsely imprisoned, trapped. This has been Joseph's story so far, and if you are ready for the story to change, you're going to have to keep waiting. What is Joseph supposed to do in the meantime? God is still with him and is presenting Joseph with opportunities to use his skills and talents while he waits. As we live our own lives and find ourselves waiting, God's going to do the same thing. How will we respond? 

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Sunday Message: Avoiding Fatal Attraction

Scripture: Genesis 39

Series: Joseph: A Life of Character and Grace

Joseph's story is going from bad to worse, and it is not going to get any better, at least not today. Joseph is presented with the opportunity to spend some time with Potiphar's wife, the wife of his master. But rather than betray his master and his God, Joseph resists temptation and reveals the strength of his integrity. While that sounds great, it lands him in prison. Are we willing to exhibit that same integrity when we face temptation in our own lives?

 

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Sunday Message: Shattered Dreams

Scripture: Genesis 37:18-35, GNT

Series: Joseph - A Life of Character and Grace

As we continue our series on the story of Joseph from the Old Testament, we look at how the brothers ultimately decided to respond to Joseph's favoritism and God-given dreams of greatness. It does not go well for Joseph, yet Joseph continues to hold onto hope in God. Life does not always go well or how we intend for it to go; how can we hold onto hope like Joseph does?  

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Cut for Time: Biblical Gossip

Pastor Clay and Eric met up to discuss our new message series based on the life of Joseph. On Sunday, Pastor Clay mentioned that Joseph was Jacob's favorite son but did not dig into the reason why that favoritism existed. The answer feels a little bit gossipy but is important to understand the full story of Joseph's life. Check out this week's episode and get the whole story, warts and all.

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Sunday Message: Dysfunctional Family

Scripture: Genesis 37:1-11

Series: Joseph - A Life of Character and Grace

We begin a new message series based on the life of the Old Testament hero Joseph who dreamed of greatness and lived into God's call on his life. Joseph may have thought that his dysfunctional family may have been a reason why God couldn't use him, but God was up to something. We may think of certain things in our own lives as disqualifying, but God has a way of using those things for divine purposes. What's God up to in your life?

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Cut for Time: Practical Paul

Pastor Clay and Eric met up to talk about the metaphor from Sunday's message relating our Christian faith to the training an athlete or musician does to improve their skills. Paul's practical advice helps us when our faith training is hard and maybe we feel a bit stuck. Paul's practical advice becomes a diagnostic for what we can improve in those times. What part of Paul's advice sticks out to you?

 

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Sunday Message: A Race You Can’t Lose

Scripture: Romans 12:9-21

As Paul begins bringing his letter to Rome to a close, he breaks down what it means to live a Christian life in a way that could sound like a list of things to do, a list that is long and maybe even overwhelming. But Pastor Clay helps us dig into the heart of what Paul is saying and realize that Paul is helping us run a race we cannot lose as it is a race that leads us closer to God no matter how we do it. And what could be better than that? 

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