Some people act before they think. Others think and think and think before they act. Both groups of people make mistakes. And mistakes often lead to regret. If you think about it, it can make you wish for some way to know the right way from the wrong way. As believers, we put our trust in the living God. But sometimes, it can feel like He is uninterested in our lives or in telling us which way to go. The story of Israel leaving Egypt is a lesson in the person of God who picks a way to lead His people so that they can’t miss Him. At the start, they could have thought that God was playing a trick on them. And as they walked, the potential danger was clear. But their experiences are a reminder to us that even when we seem to walk similar pathways, God’s presence and direction is still clear for us today. But only if we’ll look up!

How’s your memory? There are many reasons that our minds don’t work as well as we want them to, including sleep patterns and diet. But the bigger reality is that we all tend to forget over time. Even the best of us are more likely to remember things we focus on and forget the things we never think about. Of course, our Creator knows this and He has given us instructions on what to do about it for our spiritual well-being. As Israel prepares to leave Egypt, God speaks to them about some new ‘rules’. But if you look a little deeper, these instructions are really about remembering how God had rescued them. We’ll look at the nature of God’s method to help them remember, and then we’ll ask if there are any ways we can do the same.

Have you ever had enough with a particular person and just told them to go away? Or maybe you just decided to walk away… Whatever the situation, we understand the feel of being fed up and not being able to just keep enduring what was happening. The plagues over Egypt were building up to the same kind of breaking point. And the tenth plague was the moment when Pharaoh and the Egyptians told the Israelites to ‘get out’. We’ll look at the payoff of all God’s promises to Israel as they ultimately walk out of Egypt and slavery. And we’ll find that God’s deliverance was more than they could have believed. Pharaoh finally understood that he couldn’t stand against God. And Israel was finally free. In these early stories from the Bible, we see so clearly that the God of heaven is a God who saves!

Our culture is pretty familiar with Easter as a spring holiday that has religious connections. Of course, many celebrate Easter without focusing on the resurrection of Jesus or the offer of spiritual regeneration. But the nation of Israel has their own version of this holiday, and it is actually the holiday that was taking place when Jesus died. It is called the Passover. And this morning we’re going to look at the actual event – which was the tenth plague over Egypt, and the final straw in God breaking Pharaoh’s will. There are many crossovers between the two holidays besides just the yearly timing, and we want to see how Passover laid the groundwork for God’s people to understand what Jesus would do about 1500 years later.

We are living through a global health pandemic during the information age. Everyone has an opinion on Covid-19's origins, the government's handling of the response, and just about everything else. As Christians, how should we step into these muddy and often tense waters?

Pastor Mark and Pastor Dave look at how we can engage others in healthy ways and how we can tend to our own soul during, not just these but, all trying times.

This is a day we set aside to celebrate and honor the role of mother. While it can be a painful day for some, we should never allow the Enemy to destroy our opportunity to give thanks to a good Father who loves us and created motherhood. As we study today, we’ll find out that we’re all vital in this zone – those of us who are actively mothering, and the rest of us who are connected to mothers as a church family. It seems like mothering in 2020 is a bit different than in times long ago. Whether that’s true or not, we certainly feel like there are more pressures and stresses on our moms. So let’s take a look at some simple instructions from our Lord about how to step into our roles well. We can certainly apply these ideas to any vital and overwhelming role, so let’s start with some refreshment for any weary moms among us.

Has life ever gotten really dark? It’s as if someone turned out the lights and now you really feel quite lost. Sometimes it happens suddenly through some unexpected or tragic event. But other times, you just drift into that darkness. We’re going to talk about what darkness can mean and how we can find hope in darkness. The second to last plague in Egypt was the plague of darkness. For Egypt, it was a literal darkness. But it was symbolic of the darkness they embraced spiritually. Pharaoh’s response shows that the darkness isn’t just around him; it is also in him. Our prayer is that every soul walking in darkness will know the light and will embrace the invitation to walk in light!

What have your experiences with loss taught you? We all face loss as a part of this life no matter who we are. Losses can affect us, whether big or small. And many of them are just part of living in this fallen world. But sometimes, God chooses to take something precious away from us because we’re on the wrong track. He works to get our attention before it is too late by removing something important from our lives. We may feel like God is being unkind…. but He is truly being good. God brings tremendous loss to Egypt so that Pharaoh will respond to God’s command. In the end, Pharaoh loses even the audience with God’s prophet, Moses. When a big loss isn’t enough to turn us from wrong, our Lord will find a way to use loss yet again to show us what we’re hurtling towards. Let our prayer be that we will hear God in the small losses instead of needing the big ones to get our attention.

Easter is such a wonderful celebration! For many, it is a day of family and friends as well as food and fun. For Christians, it is a celebration of the greatest miracle of all time and the event that changed us to our very souls. So, for anyone who doesn’t know what we’re talking about, we’re going to answer this question today: Why Easter? Why was it needed? Why is it important? And how can something that happened thousands of years ago have any real effect on my life today? We’re going to read a few words from one of Jesus’ followers known as the Apostle Paul. And then we’ll see that perhaps we didn’t realize how big of a deal Easter really is!

Many of those who question God’s existence or goodness come back to some version of this question: Is what we’re witnessing supposed to be a reflection of a God who is in charge and is good? We see such evil and trauma in the world around us, and then we hear that God is in charge. How do we put those two together? For people who reject the premise of a Divine Being, this is almost always part of their argument. If we’re honest, there are times in every person’s life when we’d rather be in charge. So we all feel the reality of God’s claim to authority in a similar way. But what we’re learning as we go through the plagues of Egypt is that God demonstrates that He actually is the ruler of the earth, with power over nature and everything that exists. As believers, we need to take this truth deep into our souls and find the comfort that comes from embracing it by faith.