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 …

Successful Parenting – Part 2

Last week we dug into the question, “What is success in parenting?” (watch here if you missed it) and we looked at God’s teaching on the matter.  This week, with that target in mind , we will discuss strategies for teaching our children’s life’s most valuable truths. Now if that statement brought and eye roll because you think I will suggest adding some formal program to your already packed schedule, don’t tune me out yet!  That is not the purpose of this message.  Rather, I am suggesting that we take a look at many of the things we are already doing …

Successful Parenting – Part 1

What does it mean to be a successful parent?  So often we are just caught up in surviving that we forget to consider the end goal.  We are so focused on what we are doing that we don’t think about why we are doing it.  In this message we want to address the question of our goal as parents and begin the process of looking at how to reach it.  I hope you will join us for this important mini-series.  I believe it will be helpful for everyone, whether you are currently a parent or not.

Removing Barriers

What are some barriers that prevent people from hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  What are some barriers that prevent us from sharing the Gospel with certain people? Today, we want to discuss some of the answers to these two questions and address them with a third question: “What would Jesus do?”  You see, Jesus gave us a great pattern to follow in the Gospel of John.  We want to look at that account and learn from the Master.  Join us as we hear the call to address the barriers holding people back from meeting Jesus.

Overcoming Fear

What prevents many Christians from sharing the life-giving, world-changing news of the Gospel?  What is it that keeps us from sharing God’s grace in personal, powerful ways?   It is fear. Now sometimes fear is a good, God-given gift  for the purpose of preserving our life.  More often than not, however, it becomes an excuse to keep us from doing what we should.  Fear holds us back from so many good actions and thereby prevents us and others from experiencing God’s blessings.  In the Bible, in the book of Proverbs we read ” The lazy man says, ‘There is a lion …