We live in a “Me” centered world.  While we talk about kindness towards others, we are at the same time saturated with a “Me First” mentality.  It is promoted in nearly every corner of our culture, sadly even in the church at times. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, there is no such message.  Paul’s letter is meant to counter that corrosive mentality head on.  Not only are we taught to put others first, Paul takes us to the greatest example ever of this truth, Jesus Christ.  I encourage you to explore the rich, Christ-centered text of Philippians 2:5-8 with …

It seems we live in a time marked most by disunity.  Over the course of 2020 and the years following, we as a society have become more and more polarized.  Sadly, it has been true in the church as well, and that is a tragedy. At the heart of disunity is pride.  We all think we know better and ARE better than everyone else.  I remember once, many years ago, a political cartoon mocking one of the many presidential candidates.  It showed him holding a sign that said, “Everyone else is an elitest pig”.  That about sums it up for …

Every big business has a mission statement.  McDonald’s is “to make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone.”  Burger Kings is ” “to offer reasonably priced quality food, served quickly, in attractive, clean surroundings.”  “Chick-fil-a’s mission statement is “To be American’s best quick-service restaurant at winning and keeping customers”. But Chick-fil-a goes even further.  They also give a purpose statement: “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”  Isn’t that great? Today we are going to talk about our mission and …

It is a wonderful thing that we can pray for each other in difficult times.  We hold a weekly prayer meeting here every Wednesday night and it is so encouraging to hear people praying for each other and to share in subsequent weeks how God has answered. Sometimes, however, God doesn’t always do what we had hoped.  His answers aren’t always the ones we had in mind, or they don’t come as quickly as we had hoped.  The truth is, while God loves us more than any human ever could, and cares about our suffering, sometimes our difficulties and our …

What brings you joy?  The Cambridge Dictionary defines joy as “great happiness or pleasure”.  I think we intuitively see joy as something deeper, more significant than happiness, hence the definition says, “great happiness”. The Lexham Bible Dictionary on the Logos Bible software platform says that “joy is more a state of being than an emotion”  Think about that a moment, a state of being rather than an emotion.  It is related more to our thinking, more of a choice or decision, than just happenstance, which is what happiness tends to be. This message is the first in a new series …

This is the last message in the series “Hope for Weary Souls” and speaks on how to move forward in a sustainable way.  If you haven’t heard the first 4 messages, I encourage you to do so, you can begin here. In this message we want to talk about living from the fulness of God.  Our spiritual and emotional resources are quite limited on our own but when we depend on God, our resources our immeasurable.  While we must always acknowledge that we are human with physical limitations, when doing God’s work God’s way, we are able to thrive in …

A lot of the stress and anxiety in our lives can be eliminated! Isn’t that good news? Now I am not talking about getting rid of your kids or your spouse.  I’m not talking about quitting your job or getting a total home makeover.  I’m talking about steps that we all can make in our lives to eliminate lies and negative influences that unnecessarily stress us out and weigh us down. So much of the weight that we carry is from unrealistic expectations, negative influences, and lies that we believe.  I’ve tried to already help eliminate some of those lies. …

In 1855 Joseph Scriven wrote the Hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.  In the first verse we find these words: “Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needles pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.” Today I want to talk about just that, I want to discuss prayer. So often prayer is either totally disregarded because we don’t believe it works, or it is misunderstood, as something formal or formulaic. I hope that this message will give us all a fresh understanding and appreciation for the power of prayer, especially …