Advertising this time of year kicks into high gear. We are encouraged to go out and spend big to "capture the magic" of the Christmas season. Yet the first Christmas came with no such magic (or at least, not magic that money could buy). In this message, we will look at King Herod and the culture of Israel that Jesus was born into and see how we can resist the dark parts of that culture in our modern world.
Listen to this week’s message here:
The holiday season is upon us, and our schedules are starting to fill up. So how do we focus on the real meaning of Christmas: Jesus coming to earth amidst all the noise? In this message, we will look at someone who sought and worshiped baby Jesus to see what we can learn as worshippers today.
If someone said they had the gift of prophecy or they were going to bring a prophetic word, would that freak you out? The idea of prophecy often kicks up weird ideas of fortune-telling and predicting the future, but in the scripture, prophecy doesn’t necessarily function that way. In this week's message, we will look at prophecy and how God gifts us to be prophetic.
Sometimes in life, we know all the right things, say all the right things, do all the right things, but if we are missing one essential thing... it can all count for nothing. In this week's message, we will talk about how none of our accomplishments, good deeds, or virtue signaling matters if love is not what is driving all that we do. And in a day and age where we would rather define love in our own way, Paul lays out how God defines love in 1 Corinthians 13.
God gives spiritual gifts to his people, but what are they? How do they work? What is the purpose of these spiritual gifts? In this message, we look at how the community of faith functions best when everyone is doing their part and using their gifts.
One of the earliest accusations against Christians in the Roman Empire is that they were cannibals - that they actually ate flesh and drank blood during their worship gatherings. In this message, we will look at that awkwardness around the Christian celebration of communion and how vital communion is for us to keep a "common union" in a world that is splitting apart.
Sometimes when we come to the Bible, we expect an overwhelming sense of peace and security, but when we actually open the pages we find stories that can be awkward, uncomfortable, or confusing. In this series, we are wrapping up our year-long journey through the book of 1 Corinthians, and we are tackling some issues that can make us go, “Huh?”
In this week's message, we will look at Paul's notes to the Corinthian church about the role of "headship" in the church, and what a healthy relationship between men and women and husband and wives look like in the church and home.
It seems almost every week someone else gets "canceled" in our culture for something they said or did recently or a decade ago. (Remember, kids: the things you say online last forever!) And this environment kicks up the fear of rejection in many of us - fear of rejection from friends, family, or employers. In this message, we will look at the long history of followers of Jesus being rejected and see what we can learn from Jesus about how to handle that.
In this week's message, we will look at this genuine fear and see how the gospel offers us purpose and direction for our lives.
You can also watch the service in full by clicking here >>
There seems to be a high level of angst in our culture. Maybe that can be blamed on a virus. Maybe it’s employment challenges. Maybe the media is making us crazy. Maybe we are too glued to our screens. Some of this angst manifests as a sense of purposelessness. Does anything really matter? Is anything worth spending our time on?
In this week's message, we will look at this genuine fear and see how the gospel offers us purpose and direction for our lives.
All of our days are numbered. At some point, we will pass away and be gone from the earth. Why do we have a hard time talking about that? Why are we so afraid to die? This message will look at the genuine fear of death, talk about what God has taught us about life and death, and how that can give us comfort and peace.
We all seem to have a common fear of running out of something: food, employment, money, relationships, or time. We tend to believe all of those things are finite, and we get panicky if it looks like we will miss out on some of that. In this message, we looked at the genuine fear of not having enough and look at a parable Jesus taught to show us about the reckless generosity of God.
You can also watch the service in full by clicking here >>
What are you afraid of? What thought makes your heart sink to the pit of your stomach the moment you think of it? There are certainly plenty of obvious things to be afraid of, such as heights, death, failure, and more. But these days, it seems like culture is pushing to make us fearful of everything. We began our new series, Facing Your Fears, this past Sunday where we are looking at our greatest fears and how the teachings of Jesus help us combat those fears.
You can also watch the service in full by clicking here >>
We all face the temptation to do things halfway. We put in half-effort at work, our health, or our finances—to "kind of" do something, and we end up getting halfway good results. In this message, we will look at Jesus's final letter to a church from the book of Revelation, where he challenges them to stop doing their faith halfway. This letter, written nearly 2000 years ago, is a compelling message for Christianity in America today.
You can also watch the service in full by clicking here >>
You may have heard it said that "When God closes a door he opens a window." But does that really ring true? Sometimes it can feel like God closes a door and he makes sure all the windows are locked too. We can feel stuck and wonder what good God could possibly bring from our current situation. In this message, we talked about Jesus's message to the church in Philadelphia and how to respond when it seems like all of the proverbial doors of our hopes and dreams are getting slammed in our faces.
You can also watch the service in full by clicking here >>
It’s popular today to refer to people as woke. Although we have all sorts of opinions on whether someone is "woke" or "woke enough," the idea that we should be wide awake and not sleepwalking through the world is a good one. In this message, we will look at Jesus’s words to the church in Sardis and how he challenges them to wake up and notice the threats around them.
You can listen to the audio version of this message here:
Or you can watch the service in full here:
“Influencers” might sound like a new social media term, but we’ve always had influencers, good and bad, since the beginning of humanity. Whether we like it or not, what and who we choose to listen to has a huge impact on our faith. This week, we will look at the church of Thyratira and how they allowed the wrong influences to speak into their church, and how Jesus is calling all of us to evaluate who we allow to speak into our lives.
You can listen to the audio version of this message here:
Or you can watch the service in full here:
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
What is in your core? What are your deepest convictions? We don’t often think about that much in our culture because we are busy chasing after the next thing. In this message, we will look at things like conviction and purpose and examine how God calls us to something more significant in this life. We will also investigate the role of repentance in getting ourselves back on track.
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Throughout history, the Christian Church has suffered under periods of intense persecution. Yet, followers of Jesus have actually thrived in some ways during these times. In this message, we look at the church in Smyrna, that Jesus warns about coming persecution, and we will see how his warning can also encourage us when we feel the pressure.
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
In the book of Revelation, John records a vision: a message from Jesus Christ to seven of the churches existing in modern-day Turkey. His message to those churches still applies to us today. This past Sunday, August 1st, we began a new message series, SEVEN, where we will listen for what the Spirit is still saying to believers today.
So much of life gives us options, not between good and evil or right and wrong, but between better and best. How do we sort through those kinds of choices? In this message, we will wrap up our series from I Corinthians 10 and look at Paul’s framework for his life. How can followers of Jesus choose what is best consistently? What principles can we look to when making those decisions?
You can watch the service in full on our YouTube channel by clicking here.
