Acts: Seeing the Big Picture by NBCC Podcast

In this message, special guest speaker, Rev. Dr. Horace W. Sheppard Jr. shared about the various dimensions of a miracle through the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000. We are reminded that God is doing something in our hearts and lives as the miracle is being performed, so the journey is as transformational as the miracle itself.

When we wait on God for a miracle, we can limit ourselves to what we see with the human eye, but God can see so much more. God has to challenge our limited vision. When he's going to do a miracle, you need to expand your vision. Are we seeing an obstacle or an opportunity?

New struggles can induce short-term memory, forgetting all that God has done for us up to this point. It's important to remember what God has done to believe in a new miracle. Watching and waiting on God can wear thin on our patience, but we should remember that God is the only one that can do something greater than impossible.

Keep believing in God’s ability to perform miracles in your life!

In this message, Pastor Hurmon encourages us to live under the influence of the Holy Spirit to demonstrate the transformation that happens in our lives when we receive Him. We should take advantage of every opportunity to be influenced by the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us to make wise decisions in our lives. We can do this by identifying and associating with light and things that honour the Lord, allowing the Holy Spirit to change our lives by getting rid of bitterness and rage, releasing control to the Holy Spirit, and inviting the Holy Spirit into our relationships.

Take pride in the transformation you have received by inviting Jesus into your life and invite the Holy Spirit to transform you this week!

In this message, we learn how to become a godly influence, living a life that pokes holes in the darkness. Godly influence begins with the right heart posture, so it is important to live from a Spirit-shaped heart. The Beatitudes provide guidance on the heart posture we should have. We can also become a godly influence by cultivating a fruit-bearing faith, ensuring that our private devotion fuels the light we share with others. In addition, we should have a Kingdom “What” and a Kingdom “Why”, pursuing what matters to God. Cultivating a Jesus foundation produces discernment, endurance, and spiritual fruit that lasts, leading us to be a godly influence to those around us.

In this message, Pastor Dan Monroe discusses what it means to be equally yoked in the different types of relationships we encounter in life, including our marriages, dating relationships, friendships, business relationships, friendships and workplaces. We learn why being equally yoked to others who share our faith is important, how being equally yoked can benefit our walks with God, how being unequally yoked can cause hindrances in our relationship with Christ, and how we navigate the call to be equally yoked to one another while still following our mandate to be Christ's ambassadors to all. Finally, we are reminded that Christ's relationship with us is unequal: he takes on our burdens and sins and calls us to be like Him.

Pastor Ja Mell Augustin kicked off our new series, "Under the Influences," by drawing a powerful parallel between maintaining a clean pond and guarding our spiritual hearts, based on Proverbs 4:23. Using personal experiences and biblical wisdom, she explains how we can become better spiritual gatekeepers, protecting our hearts from harmful influences while making room for God's transformative presence. This relevant message reminds us that we're designed to flow with God's purpose, but we must intentionally maintain the condition of our hearts through searching, cleaning, and guarding - all while keeping Jesus at the center.

In today's gathering, we focused on praying for the miracle of healing from trauma. Pastor Hurmon gave us five specific miracles to pray for.

We can often struggle to name exactly what happened to us, so the first prayer is for “Courage to Name My Wound Without Shame”. Trauma doesn’t just hurt us—it shapes us. It can show up in many obvious and covertly destructive ways in our lives. Our second prayer is for “Insight to See the Patterns”. We heal best not alone, but in community. Our third prayer is for “A Heart That Moves Toward Community”. When we feel weighed down by our trauma, we can feel hopeless, but God can turn our wounds into witness. We should pray for “A Testimony in the Making”. Healing from trauma provides peace. We pray for “The Miracle of Peace’.

Bring all your requests from God and he will listen to your prayers. Come back on Wednesday for a prayer and worship night!

Restoration doesn’t mean erasing our trauma—it means letting Jesus redeem it, reframing our story with grace and purpose. Just as He met the disciples in their fear and showed them His wounds, Jesus meets us in ours, offering peace, healing, and a renewed calling. Through naming our pain, reclaiming our emotional truth, and reconnecting with others, we partner with God in turning our wounds into holy ground—not just for our healing, but for the healing of others.

Let grace reframe your story—and take one courageous step toward restoration.

In the second message of the “Restored” series, we called to name our wounds to begin healing. This is because we are restored not by hiding our wounds, but by naming them. We are reminded in the scripture that we are not the only ones that experience trauma, the disciples experienced trauma when hiding from persecution after Jesus’ death.

It is important to acknowledge how our trauma has has shaped us and can shape explosive, fear-based reactions to ourselves and others. Once we acknowledge trauma and let Jesus in for healing, Jesus interrupts what trauma told you would last forever. He stands with us in our trauma and helps us work through it. Through Jesus, we learn that our wounds don’t disappear—but they can be transformed into testimony and power, no longer holding us hostage but becoming tools in God’s redemptive plan.

In this week's message, Reverend Liz Walker shares her testimony regarding how we can experience restoration in our lives through a relationship with God. Reverend Walker begins by sharing how her relationships with others encouraged her call to ministry. She then shares about how seeking and abiding in God and being in relationship with others helped heal trauma that was being experienced within her community. At times, circumstances can strike even Christians so hard that it is tempting to turn away from God. It can be even harder when it feels as though our communities have moved on from trauma that we have not healed.

However, God is with us in our trauma. The life of Jesus teaches that we will experience pain, and that even when we know the promises of God, each of us will experience difficulty in life. Where we don't heal the traumas we experience, they affect our inner lives. However, God is with us in our pain. As Christians, we are called to sit with others in their trauma as well. Through our relationships, seeking God, and opening ourselves up to healing, we can experience healing of our trauma by the power of God and our relationships with others.