Fear can fuel our limitations, and as a result, we can often live lives that are not filled with the potential God has given us. I want to make very clear, I am not advocating fearlessness. Jesus wasn't fearless -- look at his interaction at the garden of Gethsemane with God. I believe fear is an important instrument and can fuel safety.
While I don't want to downplay the impact C-19 has, there is a disease that has been plaguing this entire globe that goes back to the beginning of humankind. Like C-19, it, too, is a disease that originated within one man. Like C-19, it is incredibly contagious. It's a disease that infects us while we are still in the womb. Like C-19, many people walk around asymptomatic, utterly unaware that they are infected. But unlike C-19, this disease has a 100 percent mortality rate if left untreated. Tha...
Pastor Dillon and Brian along with our excellent classic Worship team invite us to celebrate a classic Easter service. We want to celebrate the impact of Easter with you. Let’s review three clear ways Easter impacts you personally.
Pastor Phil and Brian along with our worship team invite have put together a great service to celebrate The Risen King, Jesus. We want to celebrate the impact of Easter with you. Let’s review three clear ways Easter impacts you personally.
Pastor Sam and Doug and sit down to fellowship with members of Foothills Church on ZOOM and reflect on the Passion of Jesus. This is a time to think through what Jesus' suffering and death truly represent as we look forward to the hope of Easter.
This morning, the author of Hebrews presents a tale of two mountains. The two mountains of Sinai and Zion while real places are meant to represent two different ways of living life in relationship to God.
Now…today…I want to talk about blood. Why does it matter so much to our faith? With just a bit of insight into the dynamics of man’s relationship with God, I think you’ll see why blood matters so much.
Obviously, in four weeks we can’t begin to cover the whole of Hebrews. So, let me bring you up to speed to texts I’ve chosen for this series. I’m calling this series The Superiority of Easter. This is because the purpose of book of Hebrews is to show Christ’s superiority as a savior—that he was the only one qualified to accomplish true, legitimate salvation for you and me.
The Bible clearly teaches that there is this sort of cosmic ultimate conflict between good and evil, between God and his followers and Satan and his followers. Our passage today in Ephesians addresses the reality of this “spiritual war in the heavenly places.” As “Included ones” in our new standing with God “in Christ,” we do our best to live in godly ways. As we seek to do good, evil does its best to attack and destroy us. How can we fight back? This passage helps us understand that our human e...
Today, we’re going to pick up right where he left off because this text is an extension of last week’s which is tied to Ephesians 5:21, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” So, open up your Bibles to Ephesians 6 because, in just a minute, we’re going to take another look at the impact of being be included in Christ can have on our relationships.
Submission in marriage is a topic where conflict, tension and confusion abound. I hope to clear some of this up today. I don’t believe that Scripture was given to confuse and frustrate. Rather, it is given to enlighten, illumine and guide us towards the best that our creator has in store for us.
I say this frequently, but want you to be aware of another assumption I’m making today. Since God is the creator of our lives, he knows best out of anyone how we can achieve our best, maximize our potentials and make the most of our lives.
It seems from today’s verses in Ephesians, as those included IN CHRIST—through faith in him, and in his death and resurrection—we need to be “Motel 6” type people. Included ones are called to leave the light of God on in our lives. Read verse 8
Merely, we all at some point were hopeless, in bondage to disease, destructive patterns of living, and death was the end. We were all once excluded, but because of Jesus, we are included, no longer in bondage, but enabled to experience health, freedom, constructive patterns of living, and life is the end. For those of us in a relationship with Jesus, we are considered the sons and daughters of God by Christ’s blood. No longer do we possess the DNA of Sam, Brian, Karri, etc. but the DNA of Christ...
Today, we are going to explore the calling and empowerment for growing up into all God designed us to be. We’re going to talk about change and how change can happen in your life.
This week, as we step into the next part of Ephesians 4, Paul carries another important theme over from verses 1-6. It’s the theme of unity. This is a critical value for the included ones.
The topic of abortion is a divisive one. But, it's one the church must engage in to be a light in our culture. Is this a political issue or a spiritual one? How do we bring grace, compassion and truth into this topic? How do we offer a soft landing to women embroiled in this battle? How can men step in and be a positive force of grace and truth? Bryce sits down with Tanelle Forgy of Pregnancy Counseling Services and OBGYN Dr. Ali Tobin-WIlliams and have a discussion about this and much much more...
In Paul’s letter he has been reminding us of the Truth of our salvation and what that means: that we’re now heirs, by grace and that we are the INCLUDED. Now, he moves in his letter to reveal to us what that means in practicality. What it looks like to live our lives from the perspective that we are the INCLUDED. Heirs of the King of kings. Recipients of a grace that is nearly incomprehensible.
Now, Ephesians 1-3 describes the firm foundation of a Christian’s standing in Christ, and then Ephesians 4-6 describes the Christian’s walking IN CHRIST. You have to understand your standing before you can effectively do your walking. Understanding your standing impacts your walking!
In our text today, I want you to ride along with me as we go and tour some homes. As we tour, we are going to watch people choose to reject the home Jesus provides and stay put in the house of status quo. In Matthew 2: 1-8, we will witness one individual who is repulsed by Jesus and doesn’t want to have anything to do with him.
All month long, as a church, we’ve been talking about the advantages of coming home for Christmas: not just physically coming home to be with family and friends, but spiritually coming home to God through faith in Jesus.
Today we come to the finale of our series. Today I want to talk about the One…the only One who makes coming home to God possible. He’s the One who unlocks all these advantages and makes available to us. They are only possible because Jesus was born in the flesh at Christmas.
When we come home to a relationship with God that comes with all sorts of advantages as well. Phil highlighted the benefit of the community with God and his followers. Dillon, last week, talked about the foundation that a relationship with God provides through his Word. Today, we will discover the benefit of empowerment.
Today we are going to shift gears a little bit and talk about how coming S04 Home for Christmas means coming home to a strong foundation in God’s Word. We are going to talk about the Bible as the preservation of God’s word; we are going to talk about the power of God’s word and the person of God’s word. And how these three aspects of God’s word give us a strong foundation.
Today we begin a new series of messages designed to tune our hearts to the profound significance of the Christmas season. It’s our hope to cut through the glitz and commercialism of the season and refresh ourselves in the significance of Christmas…not just during the month of December, but the significance for every area of our lives. What happened at Christmas was literally the initiation of the fulfillment of God’s hopes and dreams for us.
let me invite you to keep a couple things in mind. Paul’s prayer opens our eyes to what God is eager and willing to do in us and through us, but also what he is capable of doing. It’s good to understand both. Paul’s prayer grows out of his awareness of all that God is doing in, and through the included ones. His prayer is a kind of fuel on the fire of God in and through his Church.
As an Apostle Paul was a steward, appointed by God to be a voice piece of the riches of Christ to all humankind, especially the non-Jewish people in the regions he traveled. And he was the steward of what he called a “mystery of Christ.” A mystery in the NT sense does not mean something fuzzy, or unclear, or uncertain. Instead, “mystery” is a technical term that refers to a truth that has not previously been made known, and in many cases a truth, which because of its character, can never be gras...
God’s grand purpose is that all things in heaven and earth become included in Christ. One commentator put it this way, "Christ came into the world, ultimately, to reunite, to head up again, in Himself all things both in heaven and in earth" (pg 152). In chapter 2, Paul wants to demonstrate to the readers that God is already at work in accomplishing his purpose of "inclusion."
Before we were Included in Christ we were essentially walking dead people, zombies of sorts. Men and women looking like we were alive on the outside, but inside there was only death and decay. We were trapped in bondage to our natural, godless way of doing things. We lived with spiritual blinders on, literally unable to comprehend spiritual things and spiritual life, with a complete inability to change our ways.
Being “in Christ” has tremendous, life-changing implications for those who believe in Jesus. Last week learned being “In Christ” means the believer becomes the recipient of blessings like being holy and blameless in God’s sight, being adopted as God’s very own child, and being sealed by the Holy Spirit, who serves as a deposit guaranteeing the inheritance of every blessing Jesus makes possible. There is tremendous assurance for us (S06) IN CHRIST. There is tremendous security for us IN CHRIST. T...
