Bay Area Community Church

This Sunday we are talking about hope! Someone has said, “You can live 30 days without food, 3 days without water, 3 minutes without air but you cannot live 3 seconds without hope.” All of us need hope. But the hope the Bible talks about is quite different than the way we normally use it. We say things like, “I hope it doesn’t snow again.” “I hope my presentation goes well.” “I hope I get a bonus.” Biblical hope is not a desire or wish, but a confident expectation of God’s future blessings. Join us this Sunday as we continue our series In The Name of Jesus and discover something about biblical hope that you have probably never seen. 

Faith is a term that gets used abundantly, I find a lot of the times people haven’t taken the time to carefully think through what they mean when they use the word.

As we enter into the SOULS, I would love to invite you to ask yourself, What is faith and what does it have to do with global missions? This week we kick off our Souls Season sermon series and I am stoked to share with you about the topic of Faith in the name of Jesus. I hope to see you there!

How many us use the "Reminders" app on our phones? I'm constantly asking Siri to remind me to do this or that (I'm embarrassed how often I forget to do the most basic of tasks). But the most embarrassing reminder I've ever set is a reminder to REMEMBER to set a reminder! (I know, I know, it's bad). But in our passage today, Paul gives Timothy (and us) the most important reminder to remember the most important thing of all in our journey of discipleship - join me on Sunday as we explore it together (set a reminder if you need to!). 

Metaphors. A metaphor is a way to describe one thing in terms of another. It creates a vivid image or expresses a deeper meaning. Here are a couple common ones:

“He’s a night owl.”

“She’s a walking encyclopedia.”

“He has a heart of gold.” 

Paul, in reminding Timothy of the importance of discipleship, uses metaphors to help us grasp being a disciple. Last week we looked at “soldier, athlete and farmer.” Join us this week as we explore three more metaphors that will help change you to become more like Jesus!

Paul is issuing his critical reminders to his young friend Timothy, and as he does so, he gives 3 metaphors that are meant to define the ethos of those who follow Jesus: they should how we do business. But at first glance, they don’t make a lot of sense. So let’s check them out together and learn what becoming more like Jesus requires when we’re under pressure! See you Sunday!

If you were asked to describe your great-grandparents, could you? Do you know anything about them beyond their names, occupations, or even, where they lived? Most people can’t. And based on your generation, you might even know less! Yet, what’s ironic is that without them, our very existence would be obsolete—we wouldn’t be here. This makes their role in our existence somewhat significant. The same could be said about our spiritual life as well. This is why the passing on of our lives is so crucial. Join us this week as we are reminded in 2 Timothy of the power and necessity of reaching the next generation. 

This Sunday we will look at how being in the word consistently helps us build the muscle of reliance on our Heavenly Father for all things, especially in discerning good from evil. The Scriptures are like food for our soul, and the constant practice of being in Scripture helps us grow in wisdom and discernment. One unique way Bay Area encourages people to be in the word is through our Chapter A Day journal, a 365 daily Bible reading plan, which we sill also be distributing on Sunday. Hope to see you then!

Sometimes when life is hard, we gravitate toward people who've been through the same kinds of difficulties: we want a fellow struggler. But when we need a solution, we gravitate toward a problem solver - somebody who can make the pain go away! But what if there was someone who could both empathize with AND be the solution for our deepest needs? In this passage we'll see that Jesus had the same problems as us, but he's able to approach those problems with a different purpose. See you Sunday! 

We've all been embarrassed by our family before, right? Maybe you're forced to wear matching PJs to a Movie Theater every year, or there's an uncle that insists on using a selfie stick to take a group photo at every historical plaque (studies show, there's one in every family). But how did Jesus feel, walking among his "human" siblings as the Creator of the universe? Embarrassed? Cringy? Frustrated? In our passage, we'll find out that Jesus' response to our humanity is not what we'd expect, and it should change our view of him, others and ourselves.