The Importance of the Letters to the Churches

For many, church is something they go to.  It is “that building with the big steeple” or maybe it’s “that gathering we attend each Sunday”.  Some have it more correctly when they refer to the church as a group of people who meet each week to worship God.  The question is, do we realize how important the church is?  Church should never be seen simply as a building, a place, or just a casual gathering.  The church is the heart of God’s plan for the world. In our age of celebrating the individual it is easy for us to miss …

The Gospel and the Pro-Life Movement

The issue of abortion is difficult, no matter how you look at it.  It is emotionally and politically charged.  All to often, when it is talked about, people get mad and hurt and for that reason, we tend to avoid discussing it.  That is unfortunate. Today I want to address this difficult topic by beginning with the Gospel.  I believe that we as Christians should have the Gospel shape all our conversations.  We should look to God’s Word and the example of Jesus when confronting these issues.  In God’s Word we find truth, to make sure we are speaking what …

Seeing the Lord of the Church

The most important part of reading the book of Revelation and seeing the Lord.  For this reason, John begins by telling us his vision of the risen and glorified Savior.  Today we will focus on this part of chapter 1 as we continue studying chapter 1 of Revelation. As mentioned before, this study of the book of Revelation will not be full of sensationalism, hype, contemporary identification of political leaders,  or date setting.  It will be a verse by verse study focused on seeing the message God intended us to read and know AND applying that message.  At the heart …

To the Church – The Revelation of Jesus Christ

What do you know about the book of Revelation? What do you think of when someone mentions this book of the Bible? Do you think of weird symbols and creatures? Do you think of bizarre predictions and failed attempts to determine the exact date of the return of Christ and the destruction of the world as we know it? Do you think of a book that is impossible to understand and of little value to people to today? I’d like to ask you to set aside all your preconceptions, all your attempts to connect the Antichrist with Donald Trump, Barak …

Obeying the Christmas Mandate

In Acts 20:35 we read the words of Jesus, where He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”  (The New King James Version).  The last two sermons have been spent looking at what we receive at Christmas, but now we want to talk about what we should be giving.  God sent us many wonderful gifts that first Christmas in the form of the Ultimate gift, Jesus Christ, but we were never meant to hoard these. In this message I want to look at the commands of Christ, what He tells us to do in response to are …

Knowing the True Love of Christmas

This is not about some kind of sentimental love based on feelings. This isn’t a romantic love or a Hallmark moment.  True love goes far beyond feelings and magical moments.  True love has one true source, one ultimate example.  This message seeks to highlight that example and help us to not only know what true love looks like, but to actually experience. If you have had your fill with empty, short-lived examples of love, come find out what real love truly is.  Come see its source, come know its giver.  Come find out how to be filled.

Knowing the Hope of Christmas

What is Christmas to you?  Just another holiday?  A fairy tale?  An important historic date? If you are a follower of Christ, you would probably say it was the day the Savior was born, the day many prophecies were fulfilled.  You might say it is the most important day on the church calendar, or at least of the most important days.  That is all true, but I hope the this message will help you see even more.  The goal of this message is to help you see Christmas as much more than a remembrance of a historic event, I trust …

Dwell Orphan Care Presentation

Being a foster or adoptive family can be a beautiful thing. It can also be brutal.  God never intended for us to make this journey alone. We were created for community. The foster and adoptive community needs an army of love and a network of support around them so that they can best love on the ones that God has entrusted to their care. Dwell believes that everyone can do something.  They are helping families remain committed.  The journey can be challenging. Dwell is here to empower and equip the community to be involved with defending the cause of vulnerable …

Successful Parenting – Part 3

Training is always happening.  That can be a very good thing or a very bad thing.  We all want our kids to turn out the best; better than us.  Unfortunately, what we are is what is being imprinted on them.  So in training them, we have to begin with training ourselves to be the people we want them to be, to be the people God wants us to be. In this message I will not only explore those concepts, I will talk about some intentional steps that we should be taking, first to train ourselves, and then to train our …

The Danger of Ungratefulness

Complain or give thanks: which is more typical for you?  There are always things we could wish were better.  There are always struggles we will face on this earth.  Ignoring them doesn’t make them go away, but neither does complaining about them.  Unfortunately, complaining can be a bad habit we fall into and it begins to color every thing we see and say. Have you ever considered what complaining says about God? Have you thought about how an attitude of complaining begins to change your view of God? In this message we are going to look at the connection between …