“We must strive for sanctity, for holiness, to the point that we show up at Heaven's gates "squeezed out like a lemon." These words appeared in an editorial in the New Oxford Review in the July-August 1988 edition. They remind us of the need to be fully and adequately prepared when Jesus comes, to be ever decreasing so He might be ever increasing in our lives. Pastor Kevin will address this very issue as we learn what Sober Watchfulness looks like and how we can be found Blameless When He Comes.

“We, of all people, need to deny nothing true, the bad and the good. Of all people, we are most able to confess the grand proportions of death: so terrible as to defeat us all!—but defeated, rather, in Jesus.” These are the words of Walter Wangerin Jr. and they underscore the believer’s attitude about death. We do not rejoice in the pain it causes but we celebrate the truth that Christ has defeated it. 

“The problem with Christians in America is not that Christians aren’t WHERE they should be; the problem is that they’re not WHAT they should be right WHERE they are.” These are the words of missiologist Os Guinness. This truth is the focus of Pastor Kevin’s message, part six of his series Blameless When He Comes. This week we will discover the power of Brotherly Love in pointing a lost world to Jesus.

Sanctification is NOT a list of rules—it is a pursuit of Christ’s Person.True holiness is rooted in the understanding that God’s will is for us to become progressively more like Christ, not to become progressively more like the world. Pastor Kevin’s shares from 1 Thessalonians, Blameless When He Comes as he discusses what it means to be found living holy when Jesus returns.

With shifts in culture happening at breakneck speed and the influence of the Church sorely diminished by both scandal and lukewarmness, the need for a vibrant witness of the Gospel has never been more needed. That witness can come only from one whose faith is steadfast. Steadfast Faith is the subject of this week’s message as Pastor Kevin shares week #4 of His series Blameless When He Comes. Join us as we learn what steadfast looks like, how it is developed, and how it is sustained.

G.K. Beale said, “Suffering is the stadium in which we run the race of faith.” Pastor Kevin will continue his series, Blameless When He Comes by discussing the purpose and power of suffering, how we can endure, and the marvelous results when we do endure.

You will invest your life in something, or you will throw it away on nothing. These are the words of Haddon Robinson, the late president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and one of the greatest preachers of the last two centuries. Join us this Sunday as Pastor Kevin continues his series from 1 Thessalonians Blameless When He Comes and discusses what it looks like to walk worthy of Christ. The Christian life, we will come to learn, “isn’t an arrival; its an adventure” that brings with it a specific challenge to walk with an awareness of the Gospel’s implications and to embrace them daily.

19th century German Lutheran pastor Richard Charles Lenski wrote, “It is the Christlike reflection in us today that induces others to follow Christ.” This is what Paul said of the Thessalonians, that they have become examples (literally patterns) to all who were in the region of Macedonia and Achaia of what it meant to follow Christ through trial and persecution. Can that be said of us? That is the question we will take up this Sunday in the first part of Pastor Kevin’s new series, all from the book of 1 Thessalonians, Blameless When He Comes.” 

It is the desire of every Christian parent that their children grow up to know Christ and to know God as Father. But, as Austin Sorensen said, “A child is not likely to find a father in God unless he finds something of God in his father.” This Sunday is Father’s Day and Pastor Kevin will be delivering a timely message that will unpack how fathers can emulate the love and care of their Heavenly Father so that their children can grow to know Him.

Pastor Kevin’s former Bible college president, Maurice Lednicky wrote this just a few weeks ago. “Happily, we do not need to muster our own ingenuity to convince men of right vs wrong.  It would be futile. Trying to compete with the culture, or compromising with the culture, is never effective in bringing people to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit within, working through the believer, is a force to be reckoned with.  He opens darkened spiritual eyes to REVEAL the glorious hope offered in Jesus Christ. It is this Spirit-filled life that God invites each of us to and the life we will need if we are going to impact this godless culture. Pastor Kevin concludes his two part message, "The Resurrected Christ and the Outpoured Spirit" and brings to an end the series, "Because He Lives."