Christmas Eve message.
12.18.16 Christmas Is Not Your Birthday - Jesus' Wish List
Some people are impossibly hard to shop for. Maybe they are picky or maybe they just have everything they want. Well if Christmas is not your birthday but it’s Jesus’ birthday what could we get him? In this message we'll examine His teaching from Matthew 25 where Jesus tells us what He wants--not just for Christmas, but all year long. This Sunday we'll also honor Jesus by taking up our special Advent Offering to support the work Glocal Ventures is doing in Vietnam.
12.11.16 Christmas Is Not Your Birthday - Scandalous Love
One of the biggest things we celebrate at Christmas is that in Jesus’ birth the love of God has come to earth. God’s love for humanity is strong and there is a curious Old Testament story about a man who demonstrated how far God goes to win back us- His people. In this message we'll look at the Old Testament prophet Hosea and learn about God’s scandalous love that we can experience at Christmastime.
12.04.16 Christmas is Not Your Birthday - Giving Up on Perfect
There’s a lot of pressure in our culture to have a perfect Christmas— to get together with all the right people and purchase all the right gifts. But Christmas doesn’t have to be perfect. If you look at the original Christmas story with Mary and Joseph, you can see how it never really has been perfect. But Christmas can be good if we handle it differently than our culture does. In this message we’ll dig into the first Christmas story and learn some lessons about how we can celebrate differently in this Advent season.
11.27.16 Christmas is Not Your Birthday - Santa Claus Jesus
So many times the noise of Christmas consumerism can distort and diminish the real meaning of the season. Jesus is bigger than our narratives and expectations, and His birth teaches us some important things about God.
11.20.16 - Home for the Holidays
What does it mean to have a home and be part of a family? What does it mean when we say that we're part of God’s family? How's that true? If God has made us part of His family, what responsibility comes with that? In this question we'll look at this idea of what home really means and we'll be talking about kids in our state who aren’t able to live with the families they were born into.
11.13.16 That You May Believe - The Exclusivity of Jesus
Jesus Christ is unlike any man who has ever walked the face of the earth. He also claims to be unlike anyone else. He claims to be God. What do we do with that? Is he right about that? Is he wrong? What does that mean for other religions? In this message we will look at one of Jesus’s most bold claims and consider it’s implications for our lives.
11.06.16 That You May Believe - Bigger Than Betrayal
There are few things that cut as deeply as being betrayed by a friend. Others may hurt us, but betrayal is different. Whether we were the betrayed or the betrayer, it can be difficult to forget. Even Jesus experienced the sting of betrayal. Sunday we’ll look at betrayals from some of Jesus' closest friends and how each man responded.
10.30.16 That You May Believe - Taking the Hit
Jesus is the most powerful leader in all of history. So what does Jesus do with that power? Well in a surprising move, on the most intense night of his life, Jesus uses his power in a pretty unusual way. In this message we'll look at the concept of servant leadership and see how Jesus demonstrated it to those he loved and also see why it matters for us today.
10.23.16 That You May Believe - Politics and Power
As election season approaches, people get pretty tense and concerned about the outcome of the elections. Governmental policies affect us all. In ancient Israel the people had the same concerns. Into a tense political environment came a man named Jesus Christ who challenged the seat of power and showed the world what true power looks like. In this message we will look at a conversation Jesus had with some people in Jerusalem who were pinning all their hopes on Jesus to be a certain type of leader.
10.16.16 That You May Believe - Lose to Gain
So often we think the key to happiness or fulfillment comes when we make it all about our lives. But Jesus teaches us something very different. He teaches us what glory truly is and what it means to have glory in this life and in the life to come. In this message we'll look at how we can honor God with our lives and what He does for us in return.
10.09.16 BEYOND - Break the Jar
What does it look like to honor God with all we have and to be generous beyond reason? In this message we look at John 12 where a friend of Jesus pours an extravagant amount of perfume on him. In this account we see some principles of worship and honor. This message wraps up our BEYOND Campaign as we commit to giving towards a new future for Area 10.
10.02.16 BEYOND - Matters of the Heart
“Just follow your heart” sounds like great advice, and we give that advice all the time in American culture. But is following your heart actually a great idea? And specifically when it comes to decisions about how you spend your money, should you just follow your heart? Jesus actually teaches us the opposite. In this message we will talk about money as we examine our own hearts.
09.25.16 BEYOND - Community Impact
The message of Christ is good news, but it's not just good news for individuals, it's good news for the whole city. In this message we'll look at how the early church made a huge impact on the city of Ephesus and how we can also make an impact in city of Richmond for generations to come.
09.18.16 BEYOND - Committed Leaders
No matter who you are, someone is probably watching you to see how you do things and how you live your life? So how are you leading other people—at work, school, home or church? We need strong leaders to change the world. In this message we'll take a learn what commitment looks like from some leaders and what are three characteristics of that commitment.
09.11.16 - BEYOND - Changed Lives
Are you a dreamer? Do you have big hopes and aspirations?—or have you given up on those? In this message we will see look at how God exceeds our hopes and dreams and how he changes peoples lives both in the New Testament city of Philippi and in our own city of Richmond.
09.04.16 Facing Your Fears
Fear is a universal human emotion and experience. At times it can protect us, but more often that not it hinders us from living our lives in the way God intended. How can we learn to deal with fear?
08.28.16 That You May Believe - Losing a Friend
Most of us have lost someone close to us, and at that moment Christians say so many things to be helpful in those moments. But the truth is…death is awful and it hurts. How does Jesus handle losing a friend? We'll look at how he deals with the death of his friend Lazarus and learn some important principles for us to help navigate pain and loss in our own lives.
08.21.16 That You May Believe - Listening to His Voice
How does God communicate with us? How can we hear Him? Why don’t we often hear Him? In this message we will dive into how we can recognize God’s voice in our daily lives.
08.14.16 That You May Believe - The Good Shepherd
Despite our best intentions and intelligence, we seem to easily wander away from what is good for us. Whether it’s our health, finances or relationships, we can easily go down the wrong path. Why is that? And what can we do about it? Is it a lack of information or willpower, or something bigger? Jesus understood why we are prone to stray and shared a simple solution to what feels like an impossible problem.