New Light Audio

More cannot give us the life and security that only God can give us. The more you get, the more you want. In the first week of Enough: Finding Contentment in a World That Wants More, Pastor Dale Hester preaches from Luke 12, where a dispute over an inheritance interrupts Jesus' teaching. Greed isn't only about money. It can be more possessions, more attention, more influence, more power, more of our own opinion and more time used for me. Real, lasting satisfaction is found in one place and one person, and that person is Jesus Christ.

1. Life is more than what you own. Greed is not limited to the wealthy. It is the desire to make possessions the measure and foundation of life.

2. Having a lot can hide what you really need. When God blesses you, one of the greatest battles you'll have is forgetting about God.

3. Wealth cannot secure eternity. We are not owners but stewards, and a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.

Scripture: Psalm 107:9 · Luke 12:13-21 · Ecclesiastes 5:10 · Luke 12:31 · Deuteronomy 8:11-18 · James 4:13-16 · Psalm 49:6-9 · Mark 8:36-37

New Light Church · Sundays 10am · 307 Chestnut St, Bladenboro, NC

Growth rings tell the story of abundance, drought, damage, healing and survival. The marks are not the whole story. They are evidence that the tree is still standing. In the final week of Growth Rings, Pastor Dale Hester says God is present and faithful in every season of your life, and faith doesn't mean pretending the storm didn't hurt. It means believing the storm doesn't get the final word.

1. Life comes in seasons. Faithful people celebrate and sorrow, gain and lose. No one is exempt, and God never abandons you.

2. Some seasons leave scars. Scars are not signs of weakness. They are evidence that a wound has healed.

3. Winter does not mean you're dead. Just because growth is invisible does not mean God is inactive.

4. God can redeem what the season produced: endurance, compassion, wisdom, dependence, ministry, testimony and deeper faith.

5. You are still growing. He who began a good work in you will finish it.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 · Psalm 30:5 · Romans 8:18 · Psalm 147:3 · 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 · Isaiah 43:2-3 · Isaiah 43:18-19 · Psalm 126:5-6 · Romans 8:28 · Philippians 1:6

New Light Church · Sundays 10am · 307 Chestnut St, Bladenboro, NC

Is your eternal destiny determined by what you believe or by the fruit being produced from your life? In week three of Growth Rings, Pastor Dale Hester says the answer is both: without proper faith there's no proper fruit, and the fruit is the test. You can know Christian language, attend church and quote verses and still avoid the deeper question: what is my life producing?

1. Fruit reveals what's happening on the inside. A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.

2. The fruit of the Spirit is character, not Christian activity. Gifts can put someone on a platform, but character determines whether they can stay there.

3. Fruit grows through connection, not strain. You don't try harder to be patient. You stay connected to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit develops the fruit.

Scripture: Matthew 7:20 · Galatians 5:16-25 · Luke 6:43-45 · James 3:10-12 · Galatians 5:22-23 · 1 Corinthians 13:1-2 · Colossians 3:12-15 · 2 Peter 1:5-8 · John 15:4 · Philippians 2:13 · 2 Corinthians 3:18

New Light Church · Sundays 10am · 307 Chestnut St, Bladenboro, NC

Every ring records a season, and this one is the cutting season. In week two of Growth Rings, Pastor Cory Hester walks through John 15 to show that sometimes the next level doesn't require you to add something, it requires you to eliminate something, because sometimes God makes room before He gives us more.

1. Rely on the Gardener: He always has your best interest at heart. He's not focused on what He's taking; He's focused on what He's forming.

2. Release the Branch: Every sin is a weight, but not every weight is a sin. Yesterday's fruit might not be today's assignment.

3. Remain in the Vine: Your job isn't to manufacture fruit. Your job is to stay connected to the source of life.

Scripture: John 15:1-5 · Genesis 50:20 · Hebrews 12:11 · Hebrews 12:1 · Philippians 3:7-8 · Ephesians 2:8-9

New Light Church · Sundays 10am · 307 Chestnut St, Bladenboro, NC

Every person was created by God to belong — not just anywhere, but in His family and His church. In the parable of the lost son (Luke 15), Pastor Dale Hester shows how both sons were close to the Father yet far from Him, and how the Father runs to welcome us home.

1. You can be in the house and still be far from the Father.

2. The Father invites you to come home.

3. When you belong to the family, you have a part to play.

Scripture: John 3:16-17 · Luke 15:1-2 · Luke 15:11-30 · Isaiah 53:6 · John 3:3 · Romans 5:8 · John 14:6 · Acts 3:19 · 1 Corinthians 12 · Acts 2:42-47

New Light Church · Sundays 10am · 307 Chestnut St, Bladenboro, NC

Following Jesus is personal, but it was never meant to be private. In week two of Built for This, Pastor Dale Hester teaches from Hebrews 10 that God designed us to need one another and answers the counterfeit that says, "I can love Jesus, I just don't need the church."

1. We gather because of Jesus. The blood of Jesus opened the way, and it brings us together as a redeemed people, not a perfect one.

2. We gather to encourage each other, because someone may need our presence, our gifts and our prayers.

3. We gather to keep each other motivated, because life wears people down and the enemy wants to isolate us.

Cheap grace, sometimes called slip and slide salvation, says God's grace covers us no matter how we live. In the final week of the Counterfeit series, Pastor Dale Hester teaches from Jude that real grace does not leave us as it found us; it transforms us.

1. Contend for the faith: our faith rests in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, and without it there is no grace and no transformation.

2. Cheap grace is deadly. It gives a license to sin, but Jesus did not die so that we could stay as we are.

3. Continue to grow in your most holy faith by depending on Jesus and what He did, and the Holy Spirit will transform your life.

Do we want God, or just what God can give us? In week four of the Counterfeit series, Pastor Cory Hester takes on the prosperity gospel and reminds us that a God who can be bought is not a God we can trust.

1. The lie: God is your ATM. The prosperity gospel offers a god we can control and turns faith into a transaction.

2. The hidden fees: the love of money will cost you everything, including your peace, your rest and your faith in hard seasons.

3. The truth: God's real provision. He promises His presence, His provision of what we need, and His person, so that we get the King and not just the King's stuff.