Connecting Church

Everyone wants a healthy, happy, blessed life. But what if the blessed life isn’t something we find, but something God grows?

This week we kick off our Psalms series, Songs for Your Soul, looking at Psalm 1, the front door to the whole book. Psalm 1 shows us two ways to live: one that leads to blessing and one that leads to ruin. Like plants that need the right environment to thrive, our souls flourish when we pay attention to what we let in, what we feed on, where we’re planted, and who is watching over us.

Four Ways to Grow a Blessed Life:

1. Resist the pull of bad influences (v. 1)
2. Find your delight in God’s Word (v. 2)
3. Stay planted through every season (vv. 3–4)
4. Remember who is watching over your way (vv. 5–6)

“A blessed life isn’t something we find. It’s something God grows.”

📖 Scripture: Psalm 1; Proverbs 13:20; Joshua 1:8; Jeremiah 15:16; John 15:5

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What do you pray for when life gets hard? Most of us pray safe, small, “nothing-could-go-wrong” prayers. But when the early church was threatened by the most powerful leaders in Jerusalem, they didn’t pray for the threats to stop. They prayed for boldness.

In this message from our Make Room series, we look at Acts 4 and four marks of a bold prayer:

1. Bold prayers start with who God is
2. Bold prayers place our problems inside God’s plan
3. Bold prayers ask for courage, not comfort
4. Bold prayers are answered with God’s power

Bold prayer doesn’t start with our courage. It starts with what Jesus did.

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What if God wants to do more in your life than you’ve dared to ask or imagine?

In this message from our Making Room series, Pastor Airey walks through Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14–21. Paul wrote it from a Roman jail, chained to a guard, and still could only fall to his knees at the greatness of God’s plan. The big idea: God does above and beyond what we expect when we make room for Him in our hearts.

We look at five movements in Paul’s prayer:

1. We kneel before the God who created everything
2. God strengthens us from the inside out
3. Christ comes to make His home in our hearts
4. God stretches our capacity to know His love
5. We make room for the God who does exceedingly more

If disappointment has taught you to shrink your prayers, this message is an invitation to open your heart and pray big again.

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What does it really mean to be generous? Most of us think of generosity as sharing what’s ours: our car, our house, our money. But the Bible takes us deeper. Before we ever shared anything with anyone, God had already been generous with us.

In this message from our Make Room series, we look at a group of poor, persecuted churches in Macedonia who did something surprising: they begged for the chance to give. What did they understand that we often miss?

Key Point: Grace changes what we do with what we have.

How does God’s grace grow our generosity?
1️⃣ Generosity is an overflow of God’s grace (vv. 1–2)
2️⃣ Treat generosity as a joyful privilege (vv. 3–4)
3️⃣ Entrust yourself and what you have to the Lord (vv. 5–6)

Generosity isn’t a personality trait. It’s a mark of grace. And it all points to Jesus, who “though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

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What do you do when God brings growth? In Acts 6, the early church went from 120 people in an upper room to thousands of believers, and that growth brought real challenges. Widows were being overlooked, the apostles were stretched thin, and something had to change. Their response shows us how God builds His church: not through a few people doing more, but through more people carrying their part.

In this message from our Make Room series, we look at four truths about responding to the needs that come with growth:

1. Growth brings new needs (v. 1)
2. Needs can crowd out priorities (v. 2)
3. Growing needs call for more hands (vv. 3–6)
4. When everyone carries their part, the mission spreads (v. 7)

Whether you’re doing too much or haven’t found your place yet, God has a role for you in His mission. And it all starts with Jesus, who “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45).

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What happens when we get so focused on the crowd that we stop noticing the one?

In Luke 15:1–7, Jesus tells the story of a shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to go after one missing sheep. This message challenges us to reflect the heart of Jesus by making time for people far from God, pursuing those who are missing, stepping into brokenness, and celebrating what heaven celebrates.

 If the one matters to God, the one must matter to us.

As part of our Making Room series, this sermon reminds us that making room for God to work also means making room in our lives, our hearts, and our church for the people He is pursuing.

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What happens when good things crowd God out?

In Luke 14:15–27, Jesus tells the story of a great banquet and the people who were invited but chose other things instead. This message challenges us to consider what is filling our lives, what excuses are keeping us from responding to God, and whether Jesus has first place or only the space we have left over.

God’s invitation is still going out. The question is whether we have room to say yes.

God was never meant to live in the leftover space of our lives.

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As summer ends and the pace of life picks back up, Hebrews 4:1–3 reminds us that real rest is not found in a lighter schedule, better circumstances, or finally getting everything under control. God offers a deeper rest that comes from belonging to Him and trusting Him with the weight of our lives.

In this message, we look at Israel’s failure to enter God’s rest because of unbelief and the invitation that still remains for us today. We can spend our lives carrying control, worry, the future, and the pressure to have enough or we can put that weight into the hands of Jesus. 

Rest is an act of trust, and Jesus is trustworthy.

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In the final week of our Better Together series through Ephesians, we look at Paul’s closing words in Ephesians 6:21–24 and ask one important question: What will help us keep being better together over the long haul?

Relationships can drift over time, but the church is called to something deeper. Paul’s final words remind us to take an interest in one another, intentionally encourage each other, and build our togetherness on the gospel. Our unity is not ultimately held together by personality, preferences, background, or shared interests. It is held together by the peace, love, faith, and grace we have received through Jesus.

In this message we learn.....
1) Be interested in each other
2) Seek to encourage each other
3) Build togetherness on a gospel foundation

Better Together is not accomplished once; it is something we keep choosing in Jesus.This video is about June 7

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Prayer isn’t just something we add to our plans after everything else is already decided. Prayer should shape and saturate everything we do.

In Ephesians 6:18–20, Paul shows us what it looks like to become a praying people: letting the Spirit lead our prayers, opening our eyes to the needs of others, and praying for boldness as we live on mission for Jesus.

In this message, we’ll look at how prayer moves us away from self-reliance and into deeper dependence on God—and why prayer isn’t simply preparation for the work.

Prayer is the work.

This video is about June 7

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