Grace Messages

This morning, as we celebrate our 42nd anniversary as a church, we want to reiterate how important our firm foundation is even when desiring to grow. Everything that we build on the foundation is intertwined and related to the foundation. In the first century the cornerstone was laid and everything was planned around it, including the foundation and the superstructure! This is our heart's desire for our own local assembly.

In chapter 11, we reached the climax of John’s seven hand-selected signs to convince and persuade his readers to put their faith in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life. The seventh sign was the resuscitation of Lazarus, and the eighth will be the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This morning, we will see an illustration of amazing love and devotion to Jesus Christ. What we will see is "first" love and what it looks like! (See Revelation 2:2-4). In contrast to the hatred that the religious leaders demonstrated (11:57) stands the love that Mary demonstrated toward the One whom she had come to believe in.

In this sermon, we'll explore the importance of working with purpose as unto the Lord. Let's discover how to find fulfillment in our work and glorify God through our daily tasks.

This morning, we are going to look at the story of Elijah the prophet, and incredibly successful prophet of Israel. He is one of only two men, mentioned in the Scriptures who did not die physically but was translated directly to heaven! He was a man who walked with God, but we are going to see that after many successes, he still failed in a miserable way. What is so incredible though is that his failure came on the heels of one of his greatest recorded successes. And what we find in the life of Elijah is that staying successful is often times harder than becoming successful to begin with!

This morning, we are going to look at another successful King, a Gentile king, the story of King Nebuchadnezzar. His is an interesting story because he was in the perfect place at the perfect time in history to be a divine disciplinary rod for the nation of Judah. He was brought to power and given incredible success by none other than Yahweh, Himself! However, it was this truth that was murky to Nebuchadnezzar. He attributed his success to himself and completely disregarded Yahweh.

This morning, we are going to look at another successful King of Israel, Joash. King Joash is the epitome of a man whose own success messed up his evaluator and made him very forgetful! He rode on the coattails of another man’s spiritual success, and he never really owned or valued what he said he believed!

This morning, we are going to look at another successful King of Judah, Hezekiah. Wow! Where do we start with Hezekiah? This man was probably only second to David in terms of raising the spiritual temperature in Israel across the board! It is what makes his failure, his fall from success, so incredible. His failure happened so suddenly and without warning, it literally snuck up and bit him!

This morning, we are going to look at another successful King of Israel, Uzziah. He was successful, partially, because of the same reason Solomon was initially successful. Uzziah pursued relational intimacy with the Lord! However, as we will see, the initial steps of success often are the first steps towards failure! In the life of Uzziah, we will see that success caused him to think too highly of himself, and it cost him.

Waiting is one of the most common tests Christians face in life. Waiting has many variations - large and small. But the bottom line is that waiting is hard. It exposes us to uncertainty, vulnerability, impatience, and much more. Biblical waiting means "...these tension filled gaps present an opportunity for faith" and its corollary - hope.

Some look at climate change and wonder if we are about to destroy the world. Some watch world events - October 7th, assassination attempt, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and wonder if we are on the brink of WWIII. Christians see these things, and many other biblical indications of the Lord's return and ask, "Is it soon?". Everyone wonders what to do, how to respond, how to be ready. I Thessalonians gives believers some solid answers these questions.