Are we just little lumps of carbon who roam this earth for 70-or-so years, and then we are dead and forgotten? Is there any meaning to our lives? Or are we a part of a bigger story? The ending of the book of Ruth shows a God who works behind the scenes for our good. In this message, we will look at the final lessons learned from Ruth about how God is at work and how they point to a savior.
10.30.22 - Calculated Risks
Life is full of risks. We can’t always control our situations or our outcomes. So we have to step out often into the unknown. In the book of Ruth, we see a young woman, Ruth, make a risky move to secure her future with a man named Boaz. It almost reads as scandalous to us today, but there are some great principles we can get here about taking calculated risks.
10.23.22 - A Woman of Character
We all go through seasons of pain, sorrow, and even death. Some of these seasons of change are harsher than others, and we wonder if we will ever really feel hopeful again. What do we do when we can't see how God is working in our lives? How do we move forward in our lives when everything seems dark? And how can we continue to be people of noble character, even if our life situations don't make it any easier? In this message, we will continue following the story of Ruth and Naomi, and see how God continuously provides and brings us through hard times, even if we don't see or feel him.
10.16.22 - Victim of Circumstance
Life deals everyone a different hand: different families, birthplaces, relationships, jobs, and health. But does God ever actually intervene in our circumstances? Is he involved in our day-to-day, or are we just on our own? In this message, we begin our study of the book of Ruth by looking at people going through hard times and blaming God for them.
10.09.22 - Open Mouth
Should the Christian faith be kept to ourselves, or should we speak up about it? In our culture, the temptation is to stay quiet and not tell anyone what we believe. We fear being criticized or canceled, or perhaps fired from our jobs. But Jesus tells his followers to spread the word, so how can we speak up appropriately in the modern world? This Sunday, we will look at one of Jesus’s closest followers, Peter, and see his advice for how we speak up.
10.02.22 - Open Arms
It’s one thing to believe that we should love our neighbors, but it is another thing to take some action and do it. In this message, we will look at Jesus’s call on our lives to put some action behind our faith and show hospitality to those inside and outside the church.
09.25.22 - Open Mind
The idea of having "an open mind" is popular, and we generally think of it as a good thing and something all people should be. But our minds can't always be open because we eventually develop convictions on some things and stand on our principles. In this message, we will look at the idea of standing on our convictions while still maintaining an open mind, and we will look at how that applies to our relationship with God.
09.18.22 - Open Heart
There are so many things to love in our modern world. People, places, experiences, and things are all vying for our affections. Rather than complaining about that reality, we should pay close attention to it: What do we love? What is our heart drawn to? What do we desire? In this message, we will look at our hearts and desires and talk about what it means to have a heart open to God and others.
09.11.22 - W I D E O P E N
As we get older, we all tend to become a little more closed off; Closed-minded; Not open to new ideas and dreams. Maybe we’ve become cynical. Perhaps we’ve given up hope. In this series, we are going to consider the idea that God wants us to be open: to have open minds, hearts, arms, and (in some cases) open mouths.
09.04.22 - Why Work Matters
Nearly all of us have or will work for a living. For some, work is a necessary evil we only do to pay the bills. For others, it becomes how we prove our worth to the world and to ourselves. But why did God give us work in the first place? And, if work is temporary, how can it possibly matter for eternity?
08.21.22 - Everything Changes
We’ve all had times in our lives where we have found ourselves stuck in unhealthy patterns. Once the habits are formed, change can be really difficult. But change is also incredibly healthy. So how does real, authentic, heart-level change actually happen? This week we will look at a few stories where Jesus rejected the status quo and brought unexpected change to everyone who followed him.
08.14.22 - Heart of the Matter
What is your favorite story that you can hear over and over again and not grow tired of it? We all love a good story, and Jesus was a master storyteller. This Sunday, we will look at a seemingly simple story that Jesus told his disciples about a farmer who had an unorthodox way of planting his crop and the hidden meaning behind the parable, and we will ask ourselves what this simple story means for our daily lives.
08.07.22 - Evidence of Impact
None of us are perfect; that's a fact. We may try and live good lives, but we all make mistakes, sin, and fall short of God's design. But if you believe Jesus is who He said He was, then He provides a way out. This week, we will discuss an encounter with Jesus, a Pharisee, and a sinful woman, and how this controversial conversation has implications for all of us.
https://youtu.be/avopTm3LfUM
7.31.22 - True Greatness
No one likes to be told they are doing something wrong, but how we respond to constructive criticism says a lot about our character and how open we are to change. This week we will look at how two different groups of people responded to Jesus's message, and ask ourselves how we should respond to him today.
7.24.22 - Expectations VS Reality
Whether it was a super fancy dinner out that ended up tasting terrible, or someone let you down when you trusted really them, we've all had that moment where our expectations did not meet reality. What do we do when its not things or people that let us down, but God? Maybe you've been praying a prayer for years that continues to go unanswered. Or you thought following God would make your life easier, and it is still full of challenges. This week, we will be talking about the relationship between faith and doubt and how to respond when life seems to indicate that God is not in control.
7.17.22 - Overcoming Death
The idea that we will die is usually the kind of thing we try to keep far from our minds. We don't like to think about it and don't do a good job preparing for it. This fact was true in Jesus's day as well. In this message, we will see an incredibly miraculous event where Jesus raised a young man from the dead. This miracle is hard for our skeptical modern mind to believe. So if it is true, what does it teach us about death, and why does that matter?
07.10.22 - Who is Worthy?
Why is "virtue signaling" a thing? All of us are honestly probably a little insecure in our moral or political positions, and so we crave the validation of strangers to assure us that we are in the right. We want to prove we are good enough (or worthy) in some way. In this message, we will talk about what it truly means to be worthy and the key that Jesus gives us to make us worthy.
07.03.22 - Rooted & Fruitful
How can you and I be calm in the middle of the storm? I wish that question weren't so relevant, but it seems like there is a lot of "storm" in our world. In this message, we learn from Jesus as he challenges us to consider what kind of fruit we are producing and challenges us to consider where we are placing roots in the world.
06.26.22 - Clear Eyes
There is perhaps no sin in America greater than the sin of being judgmental. You hear it show up all over. But that is not a new phenomenon. Judgmentalism was a thing Jesus spoke out against also. In this message, we will look at Jesus’ very famous teaching on judging others and see what work we can do on ourselves to grow in humility.
06.19.22 - When Love Doesn't Make Sense
The word love is thrown around a lot in our culture but it is usually left pretty undefined. Love means something like a warm feeling of affection that we have for someone else. Or love means willing the good for another person. When Jesus spoke of love he took it much farther than that. He pushes us to a type of love that almost doesn’t make sense to us. In this message, we will explore that kind of love and talk about how we can practically live it out.