JAN 21, 2024

Hope, Holiness & Heaven - Living as God's People

1 Peter 2:1-25. When you become a Christian, you are saved, but you are not yet all that God has called you to become. Peter calls Christians to become what God intends us to be – to grow spiritually and to be holy in whatever situation we are in and wherever we may live. To live lives of holiness, set apart for God’s service and his glory is what God's people are called to.

JAN 14, 2024

Man's Search for Meaning

Ecclesiastes 12:13. If you look throughout all of human history, a common thread you will find is man searching for purpose. And if we're honest with ourselves, we still wrestle with that question, because we all want to find purpose in our lives. When we look at Solomon's words in Ecclesiastes 12:13, we find what we're looking for.

JAN 07, 2024

Hope, Holiness & Heaven - God's Powerful Promise

1 Peter 1:1-25. Peter, who was very close to Jesus and with him during his ministry, wrote to these Gentile Christians to encourage them to hold on to their hope of heaven during persecutions. But Peter also calls Christians to live lives of holiness. It is our eternal hope that moves us to strive for holiness.

DEC 31, 2023

Finding your True Identity - You are His Ambassador

2 Corinthians 5:20. As ambassadors for Christ, Christians are supposed to see the opportunity to represent him wherever they go and bring Jesus into the world. When a person becomes a Christian, God gives them a ministry and a message. The ministry is the ministry of reconciliation and the message is the good news of salvation in Christ. We’re at the end of the year. Think about when you come to the end of your life, what will you want to have been true about your life? Will you want to look back and know you gave your life to be an ambassador for Christ, representing him in all you do? How can you love him more and serve him better next year? If you’ve not yet become a Christian by turning from your sins, by confessing Jesus as Lord, and by being baptized, do that today. Become reconciled with God today!

DEC 24, 2023

Finding your True Identity - You are His Servant

Mark 10:43-45. When we look at the story of Jesus coming into this world, miraculously born to his mother, Mary, and we understand why Jesus came to earth and believe in him, we can’t help but serve him. Christian's lives are to be marked by service. It's a part of our identity. The Christmas story isn’t about a cute baby, but a mighty Savior. Jesus was born in a manger, but he came for a cross. He came to serve God by giving his life as a ransom for many. So we live in service to him out of thankfulness to him.

DEC 17, 2023

Finding your True Identity - You are His Bride

Ephesians 5:25-32. When a person becomes a Christian, they enter into a special relationship with Jesus. You are added to his church, which the Bible says is the Bride of Christ. That’s what we’re talking about today. Jesus chose to use the highest expression of commitment between two people to express his commitment to you when you become a Christian. The Bible uses marriage between a husband and wife to show us the kind of relationship we have with Jesus. Your identity then, is wrapped up in his relationship and commitment to you.

DEC 10, 2023

Finding your True Identity - You are His Priest

1 Peter 2:9. The priests who served in the tabernacle had two basic characteristics: They had access to God and they offered sacrifices to God. Today, Christians are the royal priesthood of God. We no longer access God through a priest in the tabernacle, we have direct access to God. We no longer take our animal sacrifice to the priest to offer God for us, we offer God spiritual sacrifices by how we serve and worship him. Our spiritual sacrifices include our bodies, our praise and our good works. The reason God’s priests today want to offer spiritual sacrifices to him is because he has saved us from our sins, made us new, made us his children and that’s why we want to praise him and serve him with our whole lives.

DEC 03, 2023

Finding your True Identity - You are His Child

2 Corinthians 6:18. When you were conceived and then born into this world, you became a child to your parents. You belong to their family. In that sense, all people are children of God because he is the one who creates us, and we are born into this world. But a Christian is both the created child of God and the recreated child of God because they are made new, or born again, in Christ.

NOV 26, 2023

Finding your True Identity - You are His New Creation

2 Corinthians 5:17. Culture tells you, “You are what you possess, you are the image you project, and you are what your status is.” These external, worldly measurements will always shift and change. Take those away and who are you? Our true identity needs to come from something more stable and sure than that. We can bounce around constantly trying to find our identity in the fleeting and temporary or we can find our identity in God, which is true and lasting. This series is about the Christian's true identity, and we begin with understanding that a Christian is a new creation.

NOV 19, 2023

Mark: Following the Son of God - Salvation in the Son of God

Mark 15:1-16:20 The whole gospel of Mark has led up to this point where Jesus would complete his mission of bringing us salvation. Mark will fully reveal Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins and then was raised by the power of God. We learn that we have salvation in the Son of God by his death, his resurrection and by believing in him. Finally, we see in Acts 2 what people did when they believed this wonderful message of Jesus.

NOV 12, 2023

Mark: Following the Son of God - A Meal with the Master

Mark 14:12-25 Jesus and and his disciples will celebrate the Passover meal, which goes back generations for the Jewish people as they remembered God's salvation from Egyptian slavery. Except tonight is different. Jesus will change everything. Tonight he will give them the Lord's Supper which will commemorate his death that will save believers from the slavery of sin and death.

NOV 05, 2023

Mark: Following the Son of God - The Triumphal Entry

Mark 11:1-11 The triumphal entry, as it’s called, is when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a Sunday at the beginning of his last week on Earth. All that is written in the gospels has been leading up to this week. He has told his disciples three times now that this time was coming. Now it was time for this to be fulfilled. This story is called the “Triumphal Entry” because Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly as a king. But it doesn’t look like that to us, at first. So, what is so important about this moment?

OCT 29, 2023

Mark: Following the Son of God - Start Acting Like a Child

Mark 10:1-31 The Pharisees try to trap Jesus in the hotly debated subject of divorce, but he takes marriage back to God's creation and intent and shows the Pharisees the hard heartedness of the people. A young rich man asks Jesus what else he needs to do to inherit eternal life and Jesus points out something in his heart that is still holding him back. But in between these two moments is the story of the children coming to Jesus. Jesus says something to us about marriage and money in this moment with the children when he tells us unless we start acting like a child, our hearts won't be right and we won't be able to enter the kingdom of God.

OCT 22, 2023

Mark: Following the Son of God - Who is this Jesus?

Mark 8:27-9:13 Mark gives us a fascinating behind the scenes look at how Jesus was teaching the disciples to increase their faith in him, to see him more clearly for who he is and to truly believe what he says. The message also points to us. Do we see Jesus clearly? Do we listen to what he says about himself and surrender ourselves to him?

OCT 15, 2023

Mark: Following the Son of God - Treat the Problem not the Symptom

Mark 7:14-23 Pharisees come from Jerusalem to trap Jesus breaking the law. They think they found something when the disciples don't wash their hands before eating. But Jesus shows them the hypocrisy of their traditions they built around the law that actually kept people from following God. Jesus taught what truly defiles us is the sin that's in our hearts. Jesus is the answer for how to get our hearts cleaned and purified.