Nehemiah, an ordinary man who heard of a far off city that was in great need, was burdened by this need and decided he was the one to stand up, step in, and make a difference. He heard God's call to be the one to bring change, and in the end he helped change a nation and has lessens for us to learn today through his story centuries later. Listen along to how Brad wraps up this story and who in the end is the "Ultimate Nehemiah."
Executive Pastor Nick Kimmet continues on in our series in Nehemiah, looking at chapter 5 on the topic of Generosity. You'd assume the message is about being generous with your money, but Nick takes us a different direction. Nehemiah 5:16 , he says,”Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall” in a city he didn't even know or from an outside perspective shouldn't have mattered to him. Listen along to this message in our series From Rubble to Return.
This week in chapter 4, we see Nehemiah face something that we will all face when we behind to step out and do something for others, on behalf of God, opposition. It seems like there are times when we start do something for God, when we start to step out and live beyond ourselves, that we face opposition. Someone else talks about opposition in the Bible, Jesus, and He gives us an answer that Nehemiah didn’t have. Follow along in the story of Nehemiah this week at Summit.
A message from Summit Executive Pastor, Nick Kimmet. The resurrection of Jesus means a lot more to our lives than a ticket to heaven after we die on earth.
We live in the most ‘me-centered’ culture of all time. And let’s be honest, it’s not working. People aren’t happier, the kids aren’t better off, mom and dad aren’t getting along better. It turns out that self-centered self-improvement doesn’t actually make us better versions of our selves, and our faith grows when we start living beyond ourselves. The third question we look at in this week's message is, Where do I begin? Where and how do we begin to move beyond self-centered living? Nehemiah 3 a...
A smashed lunchbox, a soccer ball to the face, and a cupbearer asking a king for time off so he can go rebuild a city he's never even seen before. These are a few of the funny and compelling stories Brad tells in this message in our current series. Nehemiah was burdened for people he didn't even know, a city he had never even visited, and he chose to move beyond his own comfort to make a difference in someone else's life. He chose to do something about what was breaking his heart, and the questi...
We are going to take the next few weeks and look at a story in the Old Testament about a guy named Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a very ordinary Jewish man, who did an extraordinary thing. It was so extraordinary that the Jewish people decided to include his story in the Jewish Scriptures. This is a story just jammed full of leadership lessons, life lessons, and good advice. But, more than anything, this is a story that looks surprisingly a lot like OUR story. Because this is a story about the return. ...
Brad brings this series to a close with a look at Matthew 8 and 9 and what it is to choose the kingdom of heaven. The way of Jesus is all about us choosing a way of thinking and a way of living that is unfamiliar and unknown. Following Jesus means we are willing to take an unfamiliar path and pursue unfamiliar outcomes. Following Jesus means we are going out on a limb. Following Jesus means that there will be choices, and we may make choices that go against the grain, and all of this, all of thi...
Lead Pastor Brad Williams teaches on this first Sunday of 2016, on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. This series has been about what it means to experience God's kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven, and this idea centers on the concept of being of being a disciple of Jesus and by being his apprentice, having your entire life centered around Him. It's a transformation our a Christian's life from the inside out.
In our study of Matthew Jesus has been welcoming, encouraging, inspiring, and now draws a hard line. Jesus now tells us we have to choose, choose who we're going to be, what we're going to believe, and we have to choose to live that way, period. We all learn from someone or something, anyone or anything could potentially be teaching us something. Who are you letting teach and influence you? But Jesus doesn't draw this line and leave you there to flounder, He says, "Come to me..."
Hope, Peace, Joy, Love... all things we desire to experience in life, and all things that came to being upon the arrival of Jesus into the world. Lead Pastor Brad Williams preaches a beautiful Christmas message on the 4 themes of Advent and how these 4 words: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love all come to life in the person of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Brad Williams continues on in the On Earth as it is in Heaven series and teaches out of the book of Matthew on the topic of Judgement, how and when we all participate in it and what the Bible says about it.
Our study through the book of Matthew brings us to the section where we talk about everyone's favorite topic of conversation... money. Associate Pastor Nick Kimmet disarms a lot of uncomfortable ideals connected to money. Things that matter to us truly do matter to God, he understands when finances are tight and we worry there's not enough money in the bank to make it through the week. In this passage of Matthew 6, Jesus is talking about our "treasure," storing it up in things that are everlasti...
So, we've been talking about Jesus for a while now in this series, go figure. In studying the Lord's prayer over the course of this series, we've talked a lot about the idea of heaven invading earth. The idea of "on earth as it is in heaven" in my house as it is in heaven, in Spokane as it is in heaven, in my workplace as it is in heaven. The next section of The Lord's Prayer that we come to in this series is a hard phrase to swallow, the one about forgiveness. In keeping with studying Jesus, hi...
A city-wide power outage doesn't stop Summit Spokane from holding church services. Generator power, hot coffee, and people are all that's needed to put together a special and memorable Sunday service that will be remembered for years to come. Jesus truly meets us where we are, in the middle of our mess. And maybe after this past week, that promise has been made that much more real in our lives. Whether it's in the midst of the aftermath of a natural disaster, as we pick up the pieces of fallen t...
All of us, at some level, wrestle with the idea of whether or not we are living a life of significance. Every human has an innate sense of wanting their life to matter and make a difference. However, we live in a world that is obsessed with success, everything you do and are in life is measured by this one word. But, success is a poor substitute for this thing we call significance, because success is all about the self. Brad teaches through Matthew 5:21 -48 and the distinction Jesus sets between...
There is an unimaginable crisis in our world today, the fact that there are children in our cities, counties, and our very own neighborhoods who are in danger in the homes where they live. What is our responsibility as Christ followers in this case? In any situation we should always turn to the Bible for guidance, and what does the scripture say about orphans? Repeated in multiple places in the Bible it says it is our responsibility to care for orphans, all of us. Guest Speaker and Social Worker...
In this series so far, we've learned a lot about Jesus, and now we are taking the discussion to a new level of learning how to live "in" Him. God has come near to us in the person of Jesus Christ, God came to humanity, and how are we to respond to that? Lead Pastor Brad Williams opens up the discussion of unseeing the Bible as a book of rules and our human tendency to do and be "good," and helps us see the freedom that comes from looking beyond behavior, to instead a total heart change. It takes...
Last week's message was a pre-cursor to this week's message. This week we looked at the Beatitudes which is also the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes can actually be quite confusing as each verse seems contradictory to what we'd put together of a list of what it looks like to be "blessed." The world tells us that you're blessed when you're self reliant, self confident wealthy, and healthy, but when we're able to realize that we are all poor and broken - that is when we can se...
There are times in the Bible where you can read and re-read something and it just doesn't make sense. The dots just don't connect. In this series we've been talking about how these kinds of moments when we struggle to make sense of our faith, impact our ability to live out our faith. One of the greatest challenges to our faith growing, is our lack of ability to connect these dots. There's a very real difference between having faith, and blindly ignoring things we don't understand. The hope in th...
Christians have come to gain a negative reputation in the world today. But, before we draw the conclusion that what Christians need to do is chill out and quit being so intense, let's propose that just the opposite is true. The issue here is that we're not intense enough, intense in the matter of discipleship, of following Jesus with our whole lives and living that out. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Jesus was a teacher, a rabbi, and he had a reputation....
As we walk through the book of Matthew in this series, we see John the Baptist and Jesus both announcing that something big is about to happen. The world is changing, there's a new way of understanding and living life. They both use this phrase, "The Kingdom of God is at hand." We dive into Matthew 4 and look at how Jesus was tempted by the devil, how he handled that interaction, and what we can learn from in it our own interactions with the devil.
We dive into Matthew 3 where the story of the life of Jesus takes an interesting turn. Another individual enters the scene and takes the lime light in this biography. We look at kind of an intimidating word: Repent. In this message; however, Brad helps us change our way of thinking about this word, about Jesus' life, and in the end about our lives too.
This Sunday began a new teaching series on the book of Matthew, looking at the life, words, and purpose of Jesus. Why? Because we need an awakening, we need a resurrection of our own faith. We need to test whether or not we've allowed our faith to become polluted with a religiosity that it was never intended to have. And most of all, we need to re-discover the source of our own life, to have purpose and meaning restored.
We all have tough things going on in our lives, whether it's a difficult situation happing to us personally, a friend, or family member. Sickness, financial struggles, marital issues, rebellious children, and the list of struggles goes on and on. Jesus, the Son of God saw all kinds of impossible situations in his time on earth; Executive Pastor Nick Kimmet opens the Bible and teaches out of the book of John to see what Jesus does in the midst of a trying life situation and we see how we can lear...
Student Ministries Pastor Grant Bruscoe teaches on Matthew 26 and the last days of Jesus' life here on earth. The prayer we focus on in this message is Jesus talking with God His Father as Jesus faces death. Jesus is the perfect example for us to follow in how to pray, He withdrew from His followers often to pray - that shows us to pick a place, get away, and pray often. Grant leads us though the passion Jesus has for prayer, and how vital it is in our every day lives.
Praying can be an intimidating thing, what is the right thing to say? How long do I pray for? What if I get distracted and my thoughts wander? Jesus gave us the perfect example to follow for how to prayin Matthew 6. Pastor Nick Kimmet focuses on "The Lord's Prayer" in the first week of the 3 week series Red Letter Prayers.
Jon Pemberton and his family have attended Summit for 3 years and we were honored to have him preach at Summit this weekend. Jon is a husband and father of 3 girls who recently received his Masters degree in Theology. Jon preached out of Exodus and gave us a passionate and historical look at the glory, majesty, and mystery of the name of God.
