Will I ever truly find happiness, contentment, or joy? In Philippians 1, Paul gives the context and purpose that are critical to being able to answer that question for yourself, as well as being able to keep that discovery alive.
Joy. It's not getting what you want. It's appreciating what you have. Joy isn't always the easiest choice or the obvious choice, but joy is a choice. The Apostle Paul said, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice!” And his life is louder than his words. Paul writes his letter to the Philippians from a prison cell. You can choose joy anywhere, anytime, anyway!
Dr. Foth continues our series on the Holy Spirit!
When Paul the Apostle wrote to the Christians in Galatia, he wanted to address a debate about the evidence of righteousness. Circumcision was at the center of the debate and it was both a theological and cultural issue. Paul makes a clear case that our only hope for righteousness is God's spirit. And the fruits of the spirit are the evidence of his spirit at work in us.
Pastor Heather Zempel continues our series on the Holy Spirit. Big moves of God often begin with small steps of obedience. But small doesn't necessarily mean easy. If we tune our ears to the voice of the Holy Spirit and train our wills to move in obedience, our lives will take turns towards adventure. Sometimes, that adventure may take us along a desert road, but if we partner with him, we get to be a part of new life springing forth....
Dr. Mark Batterson kicks off our new series on the Holy Spirit. We find ourselves in a Hebrews 12:27 moment—everything that can be shaken will be shaken. God is shaking false securities and false identities, false assumptions, and false narratives, false idols, and false ideologies. But we are STIRRED, not shaken. Why? We are grounded in God's word, standing on God's promises, and filled with God's spirit. We don't take our cues from cultural talking points. We don't put our trust in horses and ...
Pastor Robb Schmidgall wraps up our series on doubt. Doubt is inherent in all our lives. The question is are we allowing it to work FOR us, or against us.
Doubt is more emotional than it is intellectual. There are many examples of this in our lives. This message shines a light on how emotional trauma, sustained oppression, and the degradation of identity causes people to walk away from Christianity. Fortunately, the scriptures, written by the poor, people of color, and the oppressed show us God's true intentions, despite the misrepresentation of that hope.
Life is infinitely uncertain and God is infinitely complex. The net result? Doubt. We think of doubt in negative terms, but it's a key catalyst when it comes to faith. Doubt breaks down our false narratives, false assumptions, and false beliefs. It forces us to deconstruct and reconstruct our faith by digging a little deeper. How do you deal with doubt? Seek Wise Counsel Keep Asking Questions Create a Deuteronomy 29:29 File Take a Field Trip When all else fails, Eat A Watermelon. Yes, eat a wate...
In the first century, death by crucifixion was not uncommon. Lots of people died on Roman crosses, but only one person predicted their own resurrection and then pulled it off. His name is Jesus! The foundation of our faith is an empty tomb. That is where heaven invades earth, eternity invades time, and life defeats death. Faith is not the absence of doubt any more than courage is the absence of fear. But that is when and where and why we RUN TO THE TOMB. If the tomb is empty, all bets are off an...
This weekend, our multicultural team (Lora Batterson, Joel Buckner, Pastor Dave Schmidgall, and Pastor Marion Mason), help us explore what it practically looks like to journey towards becoming a Beloved Community.
Dr. Dick Foth continues our Beloved series! We are discovering, through the letter from JAMES, the cohesive power of GOD'S Word to shape our words in building a house called The Beloved Community.
“This is the marvel of marvels,” said C.S. Lewis, “that he called me Beloved.” We are beloved by God. His love is where we find our identity, our security, our authority. Then, and only then, can we become what Dr. King called the beloved community. We lead with love - we love because He first loved us.
In order to step into our belovedness, we must first encounter and be transformed by the unimaginable, inconceivable, incomprehensible love of Jesus. In 1 John, the disciple reminds the churches of Asia Minor of the final teachings of Jesus in John 13-17- that God is love, that God demonstrates his love towards us at the cross and the empty tomb, and that we demonstrate God to the world around us when we love one another....
Pastor Joshua Symonette kicks off our new series! Many years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described his longing for a beloved community. It was not something he created or came up with on his own. It was what he read throughout the Gospels and reflected in his pursuit to bridge a segregated America. God's beloved is what he calls those who are submitted to him wholeheartedly. The Apostle Paul, repeatedly in his writings to the early Church, both encourages and clarifies for them what it mean...
Dr. Mark Batterson gives our annual State of the Church message. Together, we'll look back at all God has done in and through NCC in 2020 and look ahead into 2021 and beyond. The church ought to be the most CREATIVE place on the planet. The church ought to be the most DIVERSE place on the planet. Those two things are not unrelated. In fact, you can't have one without the other. Unity does NOT mean uniformity! Unity is CORPORATE HUMILITY. Maturity does NOT mean conformity. Maturity is UNITY in DI...
As we conclude our Win the Day series, Dr. Foth riffs on Pastor Mark Batteron's "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Win the day!" Through the lens of Hebrews 13:8—"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever"— Dr. Foth helps us explore what we believe about what really matters.
Sow today what you want to see tomorrow. Over time, one of two things happens. Either MEMORY overtakes IMAGINATION or IMAGINATION overtakes MEMORY. The difference? Prophetic imagination. It's seeing the invisible, hearing the inaudible, and believing the impossible. Add to it patient persistence and bold prayer, and it's game on.
Dr. Mark Batterson continues our Win The Day Series with Habit #6! Time is measured in MINUTES, but life is measured in MOMENTS. You don't FIND TIME, you have to MAKE TIME. How? For starters, curse the barren fig trees. These are the things that waste time, waste energy. How do you curse the barren fig tree? You establish boundaries and establish priorities. If managing minutes is a science, then managing moments is an art form. It's recognizing teachable moments and making the most of them. It'...
How you do ANYTHING is how you'll do EVERYTHING. The good news? If you do little things like they're big things, God will do big things like they're little things. The key is kaizen—an uncompromising commitment to continual improvement. It starts with a growth mindset, and there is no finish line. You keep setting stretch goals until the day you die!
When it comes to goal-setting, problem-solving, and habit-breaking—GRAND GESTURES are key. They are defining decisions, calculated risks, and selfless sacrifices that double as defining moments. Grand Gestures are often the tipping point, the turning point. They are the point of no return. The idea is as old as Old Testament altars.
There are weeks when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen. This felt like one of those weeks. This weekend we hold space—we catch our breath and collect our thoughts after a difficult week in Washington, DC. We are here for such a time. We are here for such a place as this. We stand in the gap as peace makers, grace givers, and tone setters. We believe God for racial reconciliation and political healing. We remind ourselves of who we are, where we are, and why we are as a chu...
If you want to change your life, you have to change your story. You can't just flip the calendar, you have to FLIP THE SCRIPT. It's the first of seven habits in Win The Day, and it's a high leverage habit. In the science of cybernetics, there are two kinds of change. First-order change is behavioral—it's doing something more or less. First-order change can facilitate a quick-fix, but second-order change passes the test of time. Second-order change is conceptual—it's mind over matter. At the end ...
When Jesus was born into the world, He didn't just bring hope with Him. He WAS and IS hope and is a revelation to every person that encounters Him. To one, a revelation of hope brought confirmation, to another joy, to another redemption. He was the fulfillment of prophecies of old. He was the embodiment of comfort in the now. But what we found in the incarnation is that He is a God who reveals His presence in any and all circumstances. We believe that He still reveals hope today – even in the mi...
Pastor Joshua Symonette continues our advent series with a celebration of Hope! Hope is a powerful force that can propel us forward like a canon or a rocket. But there are times when our hope fades or takes a hit. It is usually in the "in-between" times or in the middle of our current reality and our anticipated reality. In Matthew 2, the Magi, who are on their way to find baby Jesus, give us an example of the celebration of hope and what it looks like to pursue with only a revelation and no evi...
