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Luke 15:1-32 | What is the heart of God toward those who wander? Have you ever been so focused on the task in front of you that everything else fades so far into the background and you miss something important? In Luke 15, Jesus responds to the grumbling of the Pharisees: “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Jesus tells three parables that reveal what they missed, leading us to ask: “What is the heart of God toward those who wander?” And more importantly, “Do you have it?”
Luke 15:1-32 | What is the heart of God toward those who wander? Have you ever been so focused on the task in front of you that everything else fades so far into the background and you miss something important? In Luke 15, Jesus responds to the grumbling of the Pharisees: “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Jesus tells three parables that reveal what they missed, leading us to ask: “What is the heart of God toward those who wander?” And more importantly, “Do you have it?”
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Creating a Life of Gospel Magnetism
1 Timothy 2:1-7 | Have you ever been at a restaurant when the server walks by with a fresh tray of fajitas? The steam rising off of the platter. The scent of deliciously marinated meats and peppers wafting past. The crackling sizzle of the hot plate. I swear they walk through the whole place just so everyone else wants fajitas too. Seeing that food when you’re this hungry, makes you want to choose it.
This is the call for every Christ-follower. We are called to pray and live in such a way that others are drawn to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Believers are charged to live with gospel magnetism. Open up to 1 Timothy 2 as we see 3 factors that will help equip us and motivate us to live a life of gospel magnetism.
1 Timothy 2:1-7 | Have you ever been at a restaurant when the server walks by with a fresh tray of fajitas? The steam rising off of the platter. The scent of deliciously marinated meats and peppers wafting past. The crackling sizzle of the hot plate. I swear they walk through the whole place just so everyone else wants fajitas too. Seeing that food when you’re this hungry, makes you want to choose it.
This is the call for every Christ-follower. We are called to pray and live in such a way that others are drawn to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Believers are charged to live with gospel magnetism. Open up to 1 Timothy 2 as we see 3 factors that will help equip us and motivate us to live a life of gospel magnetism.
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Relentless Faith
Mark 2:1-12 | For the past month or more, you’ve been inundated with Christmas movies, Christmas music, Christmas parties, gifts, and the celebration of the Advent of Jesus Christ. And what a tremendous celebration it is! But once the calendar flips from December 25thto December 26th, routine sets back in. The gifts are all open. The wrapping paper has been stuffed into trash bags. Things get back to “normal” and you start thinking about Monday or next week.
We’ve rightly spent most of December focused on the birth of Jesus Christ, but what comes next? In this sermon, we’ll go from the first weeks of Jesus' birth to the first weeks of Jesus’ ministry. What happens when Jesus makes an impact, not just on Christmas morning, but every morning? We’ll look at the faith of 5 unnamed men who met Jesus and walked away changed forever.
Mark 2:1-12 | For the past month or more, you’ve been inundated with Christmas movies, Christmas music, Christmas parties, gifts, and the celebration of the Advent of Jesus Christ. And what a tremendous celebration it is! But once the calendar flips from December 25thto December 26th, routine sets back in. The gifts are all open. The wrapping paper has been stuffed into trash bags. Things get back to “normal” and you start thinking about Monday or next week.
We’ve rightly spent most of December focused on the birth of Jesus Christ, but what comes next? In this sermon, we’ll go from the first weeks of Jesus' birth to the first weeks of Jesus’ ministry. What happens when Jesus makes an impact, not just on Christmas morning, but every morning? We’ll look at the faith of 5 unnamed men who met Jesus and walked away changed forever.
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The Healthy Home
Ephesians 6:1–4 | As we continue in our verse-by-verse series through Ephesians, we’ve entered a section dealing with relationships dynamics in the home. And this week, the parent/child relationship is up!
Let’s be honest – parenting is hard! Sleepless nights caring for the physical needs of infant babies turn into sleepless nights waiting up for teenagers to come home by curfew. So much of parenting is difficult, but it is so, so good. Every second you invest and every effort you make is worthy of the time and energy.
In talking with parents, most feel like they’re doing a bad job. It’s like baking a cake that you have to wait 25 years to see if you put in the right ingredients and the cake keeps deciding stuff for itself. If you open the oven and look today, of course, it’s still gooey in the middle! It’s not fully baked yet.
So let’s start with this question: how do you honestly evaluate your parenting? What is it that makes you feel like you’re doing a good job? Or a bad job? More importantly, what do you really want for your children? And what environment is going to cultivate it?
What makes the home spiritually healthy?
Ephesians 6:1–4 | As we continue in our verse-by-verse series through Ephesians, we’ve entered a section dealing with relationships dynamics in the home. And this week, the parent/child relationship is up!
Let’s be honest – parenting is hard! Sleepless nights caring for the physical needs of infant babies turn into sleepless nights waiting up for teenagers to come home by curfew. So much of parenting is difficult, but it is so, so good. Every second you invest and every effort you make is worthy of the time and energy.
In talking with parents, most feel like they’re doing a bad job. It’s like baking a cake that you have to wait 25 years to see if you put in the right ingredients and the cake keeps deciding stuff for itself. If you open the oven and look today, of course, it’s still gooey in the middle! It’s not fully baked yet.
So let’s start with this question: how do you honestly evaluate your parenting? What is it that makes you feel like you’re doing a good job? Or a bad job? More importantly, what do you really want for your children? And what environment is going to cultivate it?
What makes the home spiritually healthy?
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The Process of Progress
Ephesians 4:17–32 | They say a tiger can't change his stripes. That a leopard can't change his spots. These sayings (actually derived from an Old Testament passage) are used to mean that one cannot change his or her essential nature.
Tigers are always tigers and will always act like tigers. Leopards are always leopards and will always act like leopards.
We think this about ourselves and other people sometimes. "I'll always be like this." "This is just who I am." "He'll never change."
In many ways, it's probably true...but what if a tiger was no longer a tiger? What if a tiger became something entirely different? What would it do then?
And what if WE became something totally different, what would we do then?
Open up to Ephesians 4 this week and find out.
Ephesians 4:17–32 | They say a tiger can't change his stripes. That a leopard can't change his spots. These sayings (actually derived from an Old Testament passage) are used to mean that one cannot change his or her essential nature.
Tigers are always tigers and will always act like tigers. Leopards are always leopards and will always act like leopards.
We think this about ourselves and other people sometimes. "I'll always be like this." "This is just who I am." "He'll never change."
In many ways, it's probably true...but what if a tiger was no longer a tiger? What if a tiger became something entirely different? What would it do then?
And what if WE became something totally different, what would we do then?
Open up to Ephesians 4 this week and find out.
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The Heart Wants What It Wants
Matthew 5:8 | "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
The sixth Beatitude statement from Jesus' Sermon on the mount.
Matthew 5:8 | "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
The sixth Beatitude statement from Jesus' Sermon on the mount.
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Fortunate are the Unfortunate
Matthew 5:4 | Consider for a moment those times in life when you feel alright –when you feel at peace. What are the conditions that cause that or allow for that?
Next, think about the times in your life when you don’t feel alright –when you don’t feel at peace. What’s gone wrong?
Now, for our final query, how much time do you spend trying to be in the first category and not the second? If you’re like most of us, you spend much of your waking energy trying to build a life that keeps you feeling alright and at peace. We want to be ok. We want to live at peace.
So imagine the shock and surprise you’d experience if Jesus walked up to you and turned that all around by saying, “Happy are those who experience deep sadness.” It’s counter-intuitive and it goes against everything we’re striving so hard for. How could it possibly be true?
Matthew 5:4 | Consider for a moment those times in life when you feel alright –when you feel at peace. What are the conditions that cause that or allow for that?
Next, think about the times in your life when you don’t feel alright –when you don’t feel at peace. What’s gone wrong?
Now, for our final query, how much time do you spend trying to be in the first category and not the second? If you’re like most of us, you spend much of your waking energy trying to build a life that keeps you feeling alright and at peace. We want to be ok. We want to live at peace.
So imagine the shock and surprise you’d experience if Jesus walked up to you and turned that all around by saying, “Happy are those who experience deep sadness.” It’s counter-intuitive and it goes against everything we’re striving so hard for. How could it possibly be true?
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A Terrible, Terrible Story (Teaching on Genesis 34)
Genesis 34:1-31 | Walkthrough Genesis 34 with Pastor Brian. A terrible, terrible story but the grace of God abounds.
Genesis 34:1-31 | Walkthrough Genesis 34 with Pastor Brian. A terrible, terrible story but the grace of God abounds.
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Faith in the Uncertainty
Genesis 22 | We hate uncertainty. Uncertainty can be disorienting, confusing, and discouraging. We long for clarity! We long for certainty!But where then, if everything is clear, easy, and certain, is faith?
Sometimes God takes us down a path where we know the destination, but we have no idea how we're going to get there. Even worse, it can sometimes feel like obeying God will take us further from the blessings He promised.
If you've ever experienced that, you're in good company. After finally giving him the child of the promise in Isaac, God is going to test Abraham's faith. We'll see how he responds this week as we continue our study in the book of Genesis.
Genesis 22 | We hate uncertainty. Uncertainty can be disorienting, confusing, and discouraging. We long for clarity! We long for certainty!
But where then, if everything is clear, easy, and certain, is faith?
Sometimes God takes us down a path where we know the destination, but we have no idea how we're going to get there. Even worse, it can sometimes feel like obeying God will take us further from the blessings He promised.
If you've ever experienced that, you're in good company. After finally giving him the child of the promise in Isaac, God is going to test Abraham's faith. We'll see how he responds this week as we continue our study in the book of Genesis.
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And Then There Were Eight
Genesis 6:1-22 | It seems like the world is getting worse by the year. More compromise. More sin. Fewer and fewer people following God. Even those who used to follow God have been falling away.
Sound familiar?
This is the world in Genesis 6. We’re now 10 generations after creation and the world is getting worse with every passing one. What is God going to do? And how should we respond? Come this week as we dive in and continue our series in the book of Genesis.
Genesis 6:1-22 | It seems like the world is getting worse by the year. More compromise. More sin. Fewer and fewer people following God. Even those who used to follow God have been falling away.
Sound familiar?
This is the world in Genesis 6. We’re now 10 generations after creation and the world is getting worse with every passing one. What is God going to do? And how should we respond? Come this week as we dive in and continue our series in the book of Genesis.
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The Parable of the Good Samaritan
Luke 10:25–37 | Have you ever used the phrase “where the rubber meets the road?” It’s a fascinating idiom. It’s first credited to Firestone Tires in the 1950s, though it’s possible it was used earlier than that. It couldn’t have been too much earlier though, because the automobile manufacturers hadn’t been too concerned about traction or tires until around this point. Cars were getting bigger. Faster. More powerful. More maneuverable. Yet, all that power and engineering came to a single (or four) point(s) of contact - the tires. Literally everything about a car is channeled to where the rubber meets the road. If there’s a failure there - no amount of horsepower matters. In our final parable of this series, Jesus encounters a brilliant expert in the law. He knows everything that he’s supposed to know - and can parse it out at a moment’s notice. What Jesus will ask him next, however, will reveal whether he’s got it where it counts. He’s got the knowledge. But what happens when the rubber meets the road?
Luke 10:25–37 | Have you ever used the phrase “where the rubber meets the road?”
It’s a fascinating idiom. It’s first credited to Firestone Tires in the 1950s, though it’s possible it was used earlier than that. It couldn’t have been too much earlier though, because the automobile manufacturers hadn’t been too concerned about traction or tires until around this point.
Cars were getting bigger. Faster. More powerful. More maneuverable. Yet, all that power and engineering came to a single (or four) point(s) of contact - the tires. Literally everything about a car is channeled to where the rubber meets the road. If there’s a failure there - no amount of horsepower matters.
In our final parable of this series, Jesus encounters a brilliant expert in the law. He knows everything that he’s supposed to know - and can parse it out at a moment’s notice. What Jesus will ask him next, however, will reveal whether he’s got it where it counts. He’s got the knowledge. But what happens when the rubber meets the road?
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The Parable of the Talents
Matthew 25:14–30 | Imagine you’re a teenager. Your mom has just left you at home alone for the weekend and you’re in charge of the house. You can’t believe you finally get to decide for yourself what to do. The possibilities are endless! Mom has just a few chores for you. Of course, you can decide when to do them, but they will obviously need to be done before she gets back. What’s your first move? Do you get right to the chores? Do you go off and have a good time and hopefully remember in time? Or do you just decide to forget about it and hope you don’t get into too much trouble? We’d all probably agree which of those is the most responsible choice. We’d probably also agree that we wouldn’t all have chosen that one! But what do you think you would choose today? And what does that have to do with your faith in Jesus? Join us this week as we continue our study in the parables with “The Parable of the Talents” from Matthew 25.
Matthew 25:14–30 | Imagine you’re a teenager. Your mom has just left you at home alone for the weekend and you’re in charge of the house. You can’t believe you finally get to decide for yourself what to do. The possibilities are endless! Mom has just a few chores for you. Of course, you can decide when to do them, but they will obviously need to be done before she gets back.
What’s your first move? Do you get right to the chores? Do you go off and have a good time and hopefully remember in time? Or do you just decide to forget about it and hope you don’t get into too much trouble?
We’d all probably agree which of those is the most responsible choice. We’d probably also agree that we wouldn’t all have chosen that one!
But what do you think you would choose today? And what does that have to do with your faith in Jesus? Join us this week as we continue our study in the parables with “The Parable of the Talents” from Matthew 25.
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How to Live As A Believer
1 Peter 2:11-25 | Have you ever been in a situation where you felt abnormal - like you’re the odd one out? Maybe it’s when you were in-line at a coffee shop and didn’t understand the specifics of each drink. Maybe it was when you were traveling and it seemed like everyone else understood the language and customs. Or perhaps it was when you saw many people making poor choices and you decided to stand up for what was right.
Last week, Pastor Brock showed us from 1 Peter “who we are + what we do” as believers. This week, Peter is going to take that same idea of “who we are” and apply it to living in a world that doesn’t yet believe. As believers, we’re going to be the odd ones out. When you come to Christ, you become part of His family, a citizen of heaven - and citizens of heaven have very different priorities.
So how should we live as believers in an unbelieving world? How should we interact with people, with our government, and with our employers? Find out this week as we continue our series in 1 Peter, Grace + Peace.
1 Peter 2:11-25 | Have you ever been in a situation where you felt abnormal - like you’re the odd one out? Maybe it’s when you were in-line at a coffee shop and didn’t understand the specifics of each drink. Maybe it was when you were traveling and it seemed like everyone else understood the language and customs. Or perhaps it was when you saw many people making poor choices and you decided to stand up for what was right.
Last week, Pastor Brock showed us from 1 Peter “who we are + what we do” as believers. This week, Peter is going to take that same idea of “who we are” and apply it to living in a world that doesn’t yet believe. As believers, we’re going to be the odd ones out. When you come to Christ, you become part of His family, a citizen of heaven - and citizens of heaven have very different priorities.
So how should we live as believers in an unbelieving world? How should we interact with people, with our government, and with our employers? Find out this week as we continue our series in 1 Peter, Grace + Peace.
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The Generations Must Know
Deuteronomy 6:4–25 | Every family is different. We all grew up with different traditions and different norms. Our childhoods taught us what was normal, what was expected of us, and even what to believe. We’re doing the same for our children. We’re teaching them by what we say and by what they observe in us. So what are they learning?
It is the responsibility of every generation of believers to pass their faith along to the next generation. This isn’t limited to parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. This is a responsibility that each of us have as followers of Christ. It’s a call to all believers in our church. So how do we help the next generation (either by age or by maturity), become like Christ?
This week we are going to see Moses instruct the people of Israel - and we’re going to listen.
Deuteronomy 6:4–25 | Every family is different. We all grew up with different traditions and different norms. Our childhoods taught us what was normal, what was expected of us, and even what to believe. We’re doing the same for our children. We’re teaching them by what we say and by what they observe in us. So what are they learning?
It is the responsibility of every generation of believers to pass their faith along to the next generation. This isn’t limited to parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. This is a responsibility that each of us have as followers of Christ. It’s a call to all believers in our church. So how do we help the next generation (either by age or by maturity), become like Christ?
This week we are going to see Moses instruct the people of Israel - and we’re going to listen.
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Breakthrough Love
1 John 5:1–5 | Breakthrough (noun): a sudden and important development or an instance of achieving success in a particular activity.
I'm sure you've noticed that one of the recurring themes in the book of 1 John is love. Truthfully, it’s nearly impossible to study a chapter in 1 John without hearing about the love of God and a love for others. We’ve seen this beautiful picture of love presented throughout this series - a deep, selfless, unshakeable love that God commands and exemplifies. But how do we get to the place where we love like that?
1 John 5:1–5 | Breakthrough (noun): a sudden and important development or an instance of achieving success in a particular activity.
I'm sure you've noticed that one of the recurring themes in the book of 1 John is love. Truthfully, it’s nearly impossible to study a chapter in 1 John without hearing about the love of God and a love for others.
We’ve seen this beautiful picture of love presented throughout this series - a deep, selfless, unshakeable love that God commands and exemplifies. But how do we get to the place where we love like that?
APPLICATION GUIDE | SERMON SLIDES | SUBSCRIBE IN ITUNES
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Grow And You'll Know
1 John 2:3–6 | When we were young, it was much easier to know that we know things. The confidence that comes from simple knowledge is undeniable. As a child, you didn’t say, “I think my daddy is a doctor.” You were confident, “My daddy is a doctor.” But as we age, it’s much harder to have that same confidence. We move from “I know I know.” to “I think I know.” to simply, “I think.” This happens as our world gets more complex and the explanations get harder to understand. And, unfortunately, this also happens with our faith.
I know that I know God. I think that I know God. I think about God.
This week as we continue our study in 1 John, we’re going to look at the marks of a true believer. What should be true of all of us, if we are truly in Jesus Christ? And most importantly, we’ll answer the question: How can you know that you know God?
1 John 2:3–6 | When we were young, it was much easier to know that we know things. The confidence that comes from simple knowledge is undeniable. As a child, you didn’t say, “I think my daddy is a doctor.” You were confident, “My daddy is a doctor.” But as we age, it’s much harder to have that same confidence. We move from “I know I know.” to “I think I know.” to simply, “I think.” This happens as our world gets more complex and the explanations get harder to understand. And, unfortunately, this also happens with our faith.
I know that I know God. I think that I know God. I think about God.
This week as we continue our study in 1 John, we’re going to look at the marks of a true believer. What should be true of all of us, if we are truly in Jesus Christ? And most importantly, we’ll answer the question: How can you know that you know God?
APPLICATION GUIDE | SERMON SLIDES | SUBSCRIBE IN ITUNES
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