Salvation
God Gave

God Gave

We’ve just come through a time of gift-giving and joy. Of course, the most significant gift of all was God’s gift of Jesus to the world. We find this profound truth simply stated in what might be the most famous of all Bible verses: John 3:16. Maybe this verse is so...

Count Me In

Count Me In

It shouldn’t surprise us that through the centuries, superstitions arise and thrive even among well-meaning church people. Most of these superstitions are based on a desire for a kind of good luck charm in a life filled with uncertainty and hardship. Even the practice...

Where You Do Not Want to Go

Where You Do Not Want to Go

Saying that Jesus is Lord, implies surrendering to His will over ours. No matter how you frame it, surrender is frightening. When we surrender, we are vulnerable. When we surrender someone else determines our path and can take us where we do not want to go. Jesus...

Raised to Life

Raised to Life

No other event is more central to our finding and following Jesus than His resurrection. Without it, the Christian faith is just wishful thinking. But if Christ is raised from the dead, that changes everything. Because Jesus lives so can you! You can be raised to a...

When You Find and Follow Jesus

When You Find and Follow Jesus

Becoming a Christian and living as one are two different things. God refers to one as justification and the other as sanctification. We might also understand these two distinctions as finding Jesus and following Jesus. Blur this distinction between salvation and...

Your Life with God

Your Life with God

Salvation is often viewed as a singular “event” or moment in our lives. By God’s grace, we receive salvation by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus to save us. There is a sense in which this is absolutely true, from the moment of belief we are saved...

Your Assurance of Salvation

Your Assurance of Salvation

Is it possible to know you have a new life through Christ and are headed for heaven? If so, how? God never intends for the assurance of your salvation to be a perpetual guessing game. You can know you’re saved. Unfortunately, you can lose your grip on the assurance of...

A New Covenant

A New Covenant

God reminds us in the Bible that He gave an Old Covenant and a New Covenant. Confuse the two and you’re in for a confusing and inconsistent attempt at living for Jesus. It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that the church across the world is mired in legalistic...

New Direction

New Direction

When we find ourselves moving in a certain direction and focused on our goals, it can be jarring to feel like God suddenly is taking us in a new direction. It's hard to consider that what we are currently building is no longer necessary or worse, futile all along. We...

God’s Gift To Us

God’s Gift To Us

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Ephesians 2:8 OBSERVATION No one ever works to get a gift. Doing chores might get us an allowance and we might...

A New Heaven and A New Earth

A New Heaven and A New Earth

God makes all things new. He is about taking the brokenness brought on by sin and offering a new reality. God’s plans for a believer’s eternity are staggering in immensity and joy. We will exist forever on a new earth—a reality more alive than our present existence....

A New Song

A New Song

Songs are powerful things. The combine melody and harmony. They express both truth and emotion. They can fill us with joy and hope or with lament and sorrow. Through the beauty of song we worship, we celebrate, and we mourn. In the Psalms, the worship songs of the...

A New Beginning

A New Beginning

We all had a beginning. You entered the world in a moment of time. And just like a physical birth, so too, you need a spiritual birth. You may be a child who is only a few years old or an adult well into your later years. But you need to experience new life through a...

Kids Experience May 31

Kids Experience May 31

He didn't stop asking.The man from Ethiopia didn’t understand what he was reading when he was riding in his chariot. But he didn’t stop reading. He didn’t stop asking questions, either. He asked Philip to help him understand.  It turns out the man was reading words...

Adoption

Adoption

Adoption brings up mixed emotions. The term “adopted” can be used to show affection or insult. Our understanding of adoption comes from our picture of family. Many times we have a picture of family that limits our understanding of the truth of adoption. In this...

Enough – Easter 2020

Enough – Easter 2020

The last week of Jesus’ life began with a parade of celebration and hope. He would be dead by the end of that week. What happened? Even in darkness, God is at work; it just doesn’t feel like it sometimes. And even though there is no darkness in God, He’s never opposed...

April 5 Kids Experience

April 5 Kids Experience

Jesus put Others First When Jesus was in the garden praying, He was talking to His Father. Jesus asked if there could be another way to complete His mission. But in the end, Jesus chose to do what He had come to do because it was part of God’s bigger plan.   Jesus...

One Last Thing

One Last Thing

Last words are important words. Books have been written and lists compiled about the last things that famous and influential people have said. This week in our study of 2 Timothy, the Apostle Paul will write his last and most important words to Timothy, his protégé....

Training for Life

Training for Life

The moment we believe in Jesus for the salvation of our sins, we are ushered into eternal life. Through no effort of our own, Jesus gives us new life we receive by faith. This life has the opportunity for growth and development. So how do we develop this new life...

Live as One Approved by God

Live as One Approved by God

Approval is something we all long for, especially from the people who matter most to us. There is something deep inside of us that craves knowing that others are pleased with what we do and who we are. Approval gives us a sense of meaning and significance in the...

Suffering for the Gospel

Suffering for the Gospel

As Paul writes his last words, he encourages Timothy to remember the gospel in kind of a strange way: he urges Timothy to join with him in suffering for the gospel. Is there a different way to see suffering? In this message, we’ll see how God empowers us to maintain...