After Two Beautiful Chapters of Near-Perfect Existence, THE BIBLE takes a sharp turn in Chapter 3. The End of The Beginning Quickly Becomes The Beginning of The End. Defiance leads to Deception which leads to Disobedience. And, all of that leads to the Biggest Problem in the History of Humanity. Find out all about it in today’s landmark sermon… THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
Genesis 1 tells how the world, and every living creature, was made. And, when you turn the page, the Bible tells the story… again. But, this time, we get a little more detail about US. Specifically about WOMAN. She was made in a fashion that is different than every other created thing. Let’s talk about it…
Genesis 1 marks the END of The Beginning. After God gets done Creating His world, He won’t create anything else. He’ll say of His creation, “It is Very Good.” Pastor Richie Fike and his son Justus set out on this Father’s Day to answer the question… “What’s SO GOOD about God’s Creation?”
Sometimes, when you need some good perspective on the world you’re living in, you need to go back to the beginning. How did we get here? Is this how it’s supposed to be? Why does life feel like this? Is this how it’s always felt? GENESIS is the first book of the Bible for a reason. It helps us to recenter ourselves in the story that find ourselves smack dab in the middle of. And, this week is week one of our journey back to the beginning…
In week one of this Sermon Series, Pastor Fike gave us a picture of an unhealthy dashboard. This week, we’re getting a look, through the life of Jesus, at an alternative. “SP Levels” (Spiritual Practice Levels) are ways to take stock of our soul’s capacity. So, before you get too far into this sermon, go outside, grab a rock and rifle through your junk drawer to find a sharpie. You’ll want a souvenir for this sermon…
So, how are we supposed to do it? In this crazy world, running at break-neck speed, fighting against competing values and relentless opportunities... how are we supposed to live WITHIN the boundaries of our God-given, God-designed capacity? Maybe the only way to know for sure is to pay attention to how the only limitless being in existence existed while He lived within the confines of a limited space... the human body of Jesus Christ. John Wilson shared with us two beautiful secrets of Jesus' li...
Last week we diagnosed the problem - we’re all doing too much, too fast, and it’s hurting us. So, how do you even begin to start attacking a solution to a problem so systemic? How do you approach an issue that’s gotten so deep into our root system… so present in our bloodstream… that it’s hard to even separate the difference between the truth of what’s good for us and the lies that keep causing us to run at such a self-sabotaging pace? Alan Briggs, author of the book “BURNOUT”, joins us today to...
In this new Sermon Series, “ CAPACITY ”, we’ll take a hard look at the condition of our souls, the example of our Savior, and the prescription found in Scripture for how we are to approach the concept of stewarding the most precious commodity we have… the one shot we have at living life on this side of eternity. Is the Christian life supposed to be a life of “red-lining”? Are we supposed to be pushing ourselves to the absolute maximum capacity? And, if not, what is the alternative ?...
For 8 weeks in this series, we’ve listened as folks have asked Jesus the same question in their own way, and marveled as Jesus has answered each questioner in His own way. This week, as we close the series, Jesus has a question for us. He is going to flip our question on its ear. Get ready to interrogate your heart and search for the answer to one of the great questions you’ll ever hear the God of the Universe ask you…
There are several moments in the Easter Story that could have served as "THE END" of the story, and had the story ended at any of those moments, it STILL would have been a very good story. But, every one of those moments would have left us with a reason for DOUBT. Instead, the Easter story extends beyond an Empty Grave, and women racing from the tomb... all the way to where YOU are, right now, reading this paragraph. God went a long way to build a pathway from DOUBT to FAITH... and THAT'S what t...
Every Palm Sunday, (The Sunday before Easter), we are reminded of the story of a crowd of people ravenously celebrating the “triumphant arrival” of Jesus into their town. That same crowd of people, in that same town, just a few days later are just as ravenous in their opposition as they were in their praise. How? Why? And, what can we learn from such a turn-of-a-dime reversal? Could it be that Jesus wasn’t willing to meet the purpose of their praise? Could it be that His mission didn’t match the...
Most of us have lived long enough to know that there’s a lot more than “two kinds of people” in this world. But, at the onset of eternity, as it’s all getting sorted out, and Jesus Christ is asserting his authority and granting access to HIs Kingdom, that’s really all there ’s gonna be. Find out who they are, and how to get into the “right” group in this week’s sermon out of Matthew 7 & 25.
What If I told you that you don’t need Jesus to make it to Heaven, and that hidden in plain-sight of the pages of the Bible is a LOOPHOLE allowing anyone brave enough, strong enough, and righteous enough to pass through it to give it a try? What if I told you that even Jesus acknowledges the existence of this loophole? It would be malpractice NOT to share that loophole with an earnest questioner who would ask the question… WHAT MUST I DO to secure my spot in Heaven?
This is one of the most well-known, oft-told stories from the Gospels. A Samaritan woman and the Messiah meet up at Jacob’s Well at High Noon. They have a conversation about… water. But, is it REALLY a conversation about water, or is there more beneath the surface? In one of the most non-formulaic transformational moments in the Gospels, Jesus contextualizes His answer to the question, WHAT MUST I DO just for this woman, but, the reason he did was maybe not what you think… All that, and a little...
If you grew up in the church, you know the song about the "wee little man", but, there's a lot more to the story than a short guy in a sycamore tree. Jesus was teaching us about THE POWER OF INVITATION, and flipping our THESIS QUESTION on its ear. WHAT MUST I DO isn't just a question for the lost... it's a question for the CHURCH, too.
The most famous verse in the whole Bible is an answer to a question that was never intended to be asked. As we "Diagnose the Dialogue" between the Greatest Teacher of all time and one of the Greatest Learners of his time, we'll see that the question... WHAT MUST I DO... wasn't on the front of Nicodemus' mind, but it was at the very center of his consciousness, and Jesus found a way to bring it Front & Center. How can it be that one of the most broad and relevant scriptures in history is actu...
For the next several weeks, as we journey towards EASTER SUNDAY, we’ll be spending time with Jesus as He has conversations with people in the Bible about the pathway to Eternal Life, and we’ll be looking for clues as to how these very individual, very contextual conversations coalesce into some kind of cohesive conduit for us to find our way there. It’s gonna be a blast, as we ask and answer the question… WHAT MUST I DO?
2025 has already proven to be a topsy-turvy year for so many people, including many in our church. Pastor Fike had no intentions of adding this set of "TWO WORDS" to the series, but, God did. Sometimes, God brings us low to show us how HIGH He really is. It is only in our weakness that we can understand His Strength... and that's what this particular set of words serves to articulate. There is a stark contradiction between the way the WORLD defines these two words and the way the Lord does.
All of the other TWO-WORD-PHRASES we've covered are up against a common enemy... a basic human instinct that keeps us from taking God at His Word, walking out in faith, choosing to "one-another", and living a life of stillness. The reason we know this is because God laced throughout the Word of God a TWO-WORD phrase that speaks to this basic instinct 366 times... FEAR NOT. What does God know about FEAR that we don't?
The world we live in has a tendency to cheapen the values, notions & words of God. Sex, in our culture… cheap. People… expendable. Obedience… negotiable. For this week’s TWO-WORD sermon, we’re gonna Cross-Examine a HEAVY phrase that our world has done its best to LIGHTEN. The poison has surely gotten into the bloodstream, so it’s high-time we reclaim the high ground! What does it really mean when Jesus Christ compels you and to take Him up on His offer? What would it require of you to say ye...
There are TWO WORDS that are spoken in tandem more than any other combined phrase in the NEW TESTAMENT… (OTHER THAN JESUS CHRIST). These TWO WORDS are the marching orders for the CHURCH. They are a WE-directive, and not a ME-directive. Jesus introduced them, and the New Testament Writers spent a great deal of effort making sense of what He meant. The TWO WORDS? ONE ANOTHER. (Here’s the List we promised:) Love one another (John 13:34 - This command occurs at least 16 times) Be devoted to one anot...
What if you're only TWO WORDS away from a breakthrough? What if the only thing standing in the way of major change in your life is the integration of TWO WORDS... CEASE STRIVING.
What if you're only TWO WORDS away from actual, real-life breakthrough? What if all that's standing between you and the change you've been longing for is the implementation of TWO WORDS? What might those words be? Find out in this 5-week series... Week One is a Doozy!
In 1962, Vince Lombardi gathered his Green Bay Packers team together in the locker room before they ever held a practice and reminded them of their mission. “This is a football”. For our first Sunday of 2025, Pastor Fike did a similar thing. What is “the football” of the Christian experience?
One of the great mysteries in all of human history is the choice God made to a teenage girl to birth the Messiah. What can we learn from the unusual ways God tends to do what He does? What does His methodology mean for us? How much did Mary really understand about what God was planning for her?
1792 years is a long time to wait for anything. But, if you've waiting that long, sometimes, the thing you think you're waiting for gets twisted into something else... something just slightly askew. Christmas Morning was the morning when everything changed. But, it wasn't exactly the morning that everyone was waiting for...
One thing our Pastor loves is “Christmas Magic”… that moment when a gift can produce the look of gratitude in a person’s eyes that almost nothing else can. The Christmas Story is what inspires the pursuit of that moment. We go through a lot of trouble to make it happen, but not nearly as much effort as God went through to bring the Savior of the World from the hallways of Heaven to an Manger in the dirt. The lesson? TRUST THE PROCESS
December marks the beginning of Advent, and Advent marks the beginning of the greatest story ever woven through the pages of history by the hands of our great God... a story promised and threatened through the life of one very old, very unlikely, very faithful man. Find out about how the manger scene we celebrate at Christmas almost never happened...
The Apostle Paul has spent the bulk of the letter to the Church at Galatia stressing what NOT to do. Now, "Pastor Paul" is going to turn the corner and give some counsel to them, and to us, on what we SHOULD be doing...
If you knew there was a way to make Christian Living just a little bit easier... just a little bit better... just a little less frustrating...If you knew there was a "Cheat Code" to Christianity, would you use it?
