FOUNT

This weekend we heard from Vapor Ministries founder Micah Mcelveen. Our hearts yearn for meaning-filled lives. Our hands call us to make the difference we were designed for. We were made on purpose for a purpose, yet we are tempted to waste our lives. So how do we uncover the purpose we are all dying for?

Faith puts the first things first. This Sunday, Pastor Filmore unpacked the faith of Abel from Hebrews 11:4-6. It takes no faith to give God leftovers, but rather we're called to love God with all of our hearts, minds and souls so that we can love our neighbors well.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. This Sunday, Pastor Filmore kicked off our new series in Hebrews unpacking the power of faith, a personal trust in God that results in obedience. Faith isn't a life of perfection but a life of growing in trusting relationship with a perfect God.

In the finale of our BETTER NOW series, we heard from 6 tag-team preachers on better relationships. Focusing on the later chapters of Romans, the writings of Paul call us to see how salvation transforms not only our lives but the relationships and people around us.

"The Holy Spirit comes and prays for us — instead of praying for a thing to be fixed, He wants to fix us." This Sunday, Pastor Ryan Schlachter shared a message on Better Hope, and how hope helps us make sense of the world around us, because we can look ahead to eternity to endure our current circumstances.

Author Philip Yancey once said, "If I could sum up the whole Bible in one statement it would be this: God gets his family back." From Genesis to Revelations, the entire biblical drama involves what was lost being found, like the parable of the lost son in Luke 15. This Sunday, Pastor Filmore unpacked our perception of identity and how the truest thing about us is our identity as a child of God.

This week, Kevin Smigielski shared on the power of having a Better Mind in Christ. What are we setting our minds on? Are we setting our minds on the flesh, the circumstances of our lives and the opinions of others, or are we setting our minds on Jesus? As his followers, we have the mind of Christ, and we are no longer bound by our circumstances and other people. So let us set our minds on Jesus, and let the Holy Spirit transform us by renewing our minds daily.

What will you choose? Romans 6:16 points out that we can surrender to sin or surrender to God—but we're all surrendered to something. In this message, David Chan shares the beauty of surrendering fully to God. There is no limited to what God can do in and through a yielded vessel.

"Freedom is free, but it takes work to walk in it. Our automatic is to let sin reign - we have to retrain ourselves in the things of God so we can step into practical freedom."

After salvation breaks us from the penalty of sin, how do we become free from the power of sin? This Sunday, Pastor Janel Navran shared a message on how we can walk in true freedom and the process of sanctification — what it takes to unlearn our automatic patterns of living in bondage.

Join us in our new BETTER NOW series as we kick off in Romans 5, looking at the good news of how humanity's ruin is followed by Christ's rescue and a new reign of grace. Our old life, inherited from Adam's sin in Genesis 3, is nothing in comparison to what we've been given freely in Christ!