When life gets painful and the days grow dark we need a strong and mighty God to run to, lean on, and trust. His strength is displayed in our weakness. Who can we lend our strength to this Christmas season?
A counselor comes alongside someone in their time of need and imparts truth and wisdom. In a culture saturated with counselors we have the perfect counselor in and through Jesus who came alongside us in our time of need. Who can we come alongside during this Christmas season?
No church is perfect because there are not perfect people in the world. That shouldn’t stop us from serving within the church. None of us can do everything, but all of us can do something.
Living in community can be scary, but not as scary as being alone, especially when trouble steers our way. We need each other, but we don’t have to be perfect to be a good friend. We already have the perfect friend in Jesus.
What you do is simply that, it’s what you do. It is not who you are. Working is a good thing but it’s not an ultimate thing. Our ultimate purpose is to honor and glorify God with who we are and what we do. This means our job doesn’t have to provide us with fulfillment, satisfaction, or joy because God is the source of those good things in life.
We have a purpose far higher than the latest election. We have a mission far bigger than any political platform. We are called and commanded to love God and love people and if we will remain faithful to that mission God promises to strengthen us in the process.
When the world moves towards chaos we can choose to move toward order. When everyone and everything is dividing and isolating we can choose to remain united. This means we have to choose harmony and listen well to each other.
Our culture has taught us that whatever we feel is not only real, but should be expressed. The Bible teaches us to control ourselves and stay calm. We don’t know what is ahead, but we can choose ahead of time to keep our heads.
No one ever plans to be an addict. It happens incrementally as we indulge in unhealthy behaviors and repeatedly make bad choices. “I can handle it” is the lie we perpetually choose to believe. Eventually, we realize that we can’t handle it. Such is the roller coaster ride of addiction. This message will suggest ways to overcome rather than submit to unhealthy behaviors.
Few words elicit more emotion than the word “divorce.” We all evaluate it differently, but when we experience it, there are no words. In this message, we will learn how to help everyone involved in the emotional tug of war get to a place of healing.
There’s a great story in I Kings where Elijah challenges a group of 450 false prophets to a “duel” of sorts and wins a resounding victory. In the very next chapter, we watch Elijah run 100 miles into the wilderness, where he sits under a tree depressed and begs God to take his life. In this message, we’ll learn how God can minister to us in the dregs of depression.
“Fear.” Just the sound of the word brings a variety of emotions. It asks the question, “Fight or Flight?” Fear can unnerve us or empower us. Spur us on or hold us back. Everyone struggles with fear, and there are all kinds of fears to stare down in life. In this message, we’ll look at ways to pray away fear’s slimy grip on our lives.
The level of fear, worry, and anxiety we experience is connected to the amount of time we spend staring at and scrolling through images on screens. What we’re looking for in technology can be found in God’s love for us and the joy it delivers when we surrender to it and train our minds to think about it throughout the day.
In many ways, convenience has replaced common sense when it comes to our eating habits and our physical bodies pay the price. Instead of neglecting physical health, we should do everything we can to respect and strengthen what God has blessed us with.
Our cultural mantra is, “If it feels good, do it.” We’ve compromised purity for the sake of pleasure. God loves us enough to give us sexual boundaries that are meant to protect us from emotional and physical harm. True sexual freedom is experienced in the safe confines of a committed marriage relationship.
The laundry room is where we turn dirty clothes into clean clothes. The same is true in the church. It’s a safe family where we don’t hide our hurts, habits, and hang ups, rather we surrender them to the transformational power of Jesus.
In the construction world, a foundation has to be solid before anything can be built on it. The same is true with the Christian faith. Everything we believe is grounded in the reality that every word in the Bible is true because it’s author is trustworthy.
We often live as if doubt is the opposite of faith. But what if doubt is a gateway to greater faith? Today, we'll ask "What to do with doubt?" And discover, to struggle with one's faith is often the surest sign we actually have one.
If you want to get stronger you only need one thing. Resistance. In Paul’s second letter to Timothy he continues to challenge him to get stronger by giving him three vivid pictures. Soldier. Athlete. Farmer. All three know a lot about facing resistance. Soldiers fight. Athletes compete. Farmers work. If we want to become stronger followers of Jesus we have to embrace the resistance we face on a daily basis as an opportunity to become stronger and more effective.
How vulnerability transforms a broken church into a church for the broken.
In Mark 12:12-17, the religious leaders of Jesus' day tried to trap him saying something he shouldn't say. Jesus refused to fall prey to their polarizing options. Instead, he brilliantly found a middle ground in his response giving us a blueprint for how to navigate difficult conversations. Loving one option doesn't always infer that we hate the other option. Sometimes our choices aren't between right and wrong, but between better and best. In this sermon, we will learn how to find the middle gr...
Student Celebration | Connor Hall
Leading hundreds of thousands of people for 40 years in a desolate wasteland was no picnic in the park for Moses. As a leader, he had to improvise, overcome daunting obstacles, deal with difficult personalities, and push past personal insecurities to be effective. In this message, we will learn some simple principles to help us deal with the complex problems we often face in life.
In a fit of rage, Moses let his temper get the better of him and he killed an Egyptian soldier. For the next 40 years, Moses had to live in seclusion to avoid being punished for his crime, but God used that season of his life to prepare him for an important task. In this message, we will see how God can take our worst decisions and use them for good purposes.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” is definitely a phrase that applies to the first few years of Moses’ life. He was born into slavery, the government tried to kill him before he could take his first steps, his mom gave him up for adoption, and he was raised by foreign people in a foreign land. In this message, we will see that in spite of his challenging childhood, Moses became a man that God could count on and the same can be true for us.
Jonah’s Anger (Jonah 4) Ever get angry because God didn’t do what you thought He should do? Unrealistic expectations and unmet needs produce anger in all of us. The root of it all is pride; the need to be in control. In this message we’ll look at how Jonah reacted when people whom he considered to be unworthy were given God’s mercy and grace. In the process we may recognize some things about ourselves that we need to change.
The most likely time to appreciate God’s mercy is when we’ve made a major mess of our lives. Bad choices and foolish decisions usually create horrible circumstances that leave us in a state of desperation. One of the advantages of being desperate is that we’re likely to understand our need to turn back to God and obey Him. In this message we’ll see ourselves in Jonah as he came to his senses and found his way back to God.
I’ve heard it said that we can run faster when we lose our way. Ever been there? Me too. Our tendency toward rebellion is part of the fall of humanity and persists to this day more than any of us care to admit. In this message we’ll look at some of the consequences of stubbornness and disobedience that leave us swimming in a sea of regret.
A transformed heart leads to a transformed life that results in loving people out of our love for Jesus.
