Please join us as Pastor Patrick Joyner begins a new preaching series on Ephesians. Ephesians 1:1-10. In Ephesians, we see the apostle Paul lay out profoundly foundational doctrine and then describe the application, answering the question, “What now?” based on the truths of God.

We continually need to hear an accurate description of the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done.

“In Christ” is a concept brought up eight times in the first ten verses of Ephesians. We see that redemption draws us into the person of Christ. Not by way of absorption but by being united to God, a forever change. This is counter to our own fleshly inclinations of being turned in on ourselves.

Humanity was designed to have the greatest joy when focusing not on themselves. Until we can create a habit in which it becomes natural for us to look to others and entrust ourselves to a loving Savior and delight in Him, we will continue to rob ourselves and the future of the sweetness of God’s glory and being used in His kingdom.

Every benefit we receive is because of a special union relationship with our Redeemer, an expression of Christ’s love for us. You were personally selected by God, predestined to adoption, to be holy and blameless. This union brings the redeemed into a relationship that will be explored and delighted in throughout eternity, never ceasing to bring wonder and praise.

Please join us as Pastor Patrick Joyner preaches on conforming to Christ and the mission of God. 1 John 3:1-3. Every church has the exact same mission from God. A mission completely associated with our understanding of the nature of God: proclamation.

As we look at 1 John, we see the idea of God’s nature, our joy and conformity to it as we observe it, and the mission of the church. It’s vital for us to see that evangelism is an expression of the mission of the church; it’s what God has called us to do and should be a normal activity of the church.

When we think about the mission God has tasked us with, to share our faith, and as we are drawn into this mission as a result of more clarity on our part of the nature of God, we see God doesn’t motivate us out of guilt, and our involvement in mission is not out of desire to grow, or as a method to gain His favor. God’s purposes in mission is a direct reflection of His character and as we become more like Him, we will joyfully involve ourselves in mission.

The apostles experienced the Lord Jesus Christ and the result of that was proclamation. They had come to understand their own personal enjoyment of the gospel is directly associated with this proclamation. The only way to have a complete joy is when we proclaim the truths of Christ.

Why are we not so compelled? Why are we not experiencing Christ in this way?

The church has a singular mission, a direct means to God’s ultimate purpose - to glorify His son through the worship of the church.

It’s urgently important for us to know who Christ is. This is why our church and churches like ours have devoted themselves to the proclamation of the word of God. If we don’t know Christ we can’t proclaim Christ and if we can’t proclaim Christ then no one is saved and if no one is saved then the church doesn’t worship and if the church doesn’t worship the son isn’t glorified.

Please join us as Pastor Patrick Joyner continues the series on 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 11:1-33. In this section, Paul is concerned about a different spirit and a different gospel. There are false Christs, heresies, and proclamations that are not Christ and do not save. Because of the cunning aspect of those with a different spin on the gospel, Paul was afraid that the outcome and characteristic of the church would be different. Through cunning, lack of conviction for the truth, and their needfulness to grow in maturity, the Corinthians were beginning to understand the person of Christ, the apostle of Christ, and, ultimately, the ministry of Christ differently.

Our perception of the person of Christ will determine our perception of the entire Christian religion. To be like the real Jesus, we need a real picture. It’s vitally important for us to understand the right image of Christ and biblical ministry. Churches must be shaped on as accurate an image of Christ as possible.

Could we describe our relationship with the Lord Jesus as one devoted to Christ? If we think of our salvation as simply a rescue so we can live a worldly life, that is a poor image that will affect how we think and how we share the gospel.

Please join us as Pastor Patrick Joyner continues the series on 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 10:1-18. Paul introduces the idea that the Christian life and ministry is a type of warfare. Spiritual warfare is a battle of the mind, so the spiritual weapons have to do with the mind.

Don’t be drawn into innovations in spiritual warfare. We don’t need innovation with the things of God; we need conviction. Do you believe God? Do you believe what God said? Heart change is brought about through the mind.

Prayer is a profound weapon of spiritual warfare. We see that God generally helps those who ask for it. Ask for God’s help.

Spiritual warfare is raging. We fight these battles by continuing to submit to the authority of the truth and by knowing God.

Please join us as Pastor Patrick Joyner continues the series on 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 8:16-9:15. This passage of scripture has an overarching phrase in 9:11, “You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way…” When Paul talks about giving, he brings it into the category of the graces of God; often considered to be the last grace.

The chief end of man is not compliance to God’s law. It’s to glorify and enjoy God; it has to do with communion. The Christian life is about communing with the Father. It is the enjoyment of a real, interactive, loving relationship with God.

Giving isn’t ultimately about money.

It is possible to give much in a stingy way and little in a bountiful way. Coinage isn’t the only variable in the equation. John 3:16 tells us that the defining action of love is giving. If our giving isn’t right, then our loving isn’t right. The disposition or characterization of our gifts is directly related to the disposition of our hearts.

The heart savingly touched by a savior, persuaded of His care for us, will transition the experience of giving from something compulsory to something about enjoying communion with God. And as we express this last grace of financial giving, God will make all graces abound.

Do we value communion with God?

This passage is primarily about enjoying a loving relationship with the Heavenly Father.

Please join us as Pastor Patrick Joyner continues the series on 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 8:1-15. In 2 Corinthians 8, the Apostle Paul talks about the tender subject of giving. The main idea in this passage is to be released from the bondages of the things we depend on, except for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul talks about giving not as money but as a grace and considers the main idea from three perspectives: 1) the example of the Macedonians, 2) the example of the Lord, and 3) the method by which God estimates gospel generosity.

The underlining message in this passage is much larger than giving, it simply has to do with this question: Can we trust a warm, loving Father to take care of us?

Please join us as Pastor Patrick Joyner continues the series on 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 7:2-16. What we have here is a look into the apostolic ministry and the corresponding need of the church.

Apostolic ministry was unique and had a unique authority. Were the Corinthian church to reject Paul, they would reject Christ.

What the apostle Paul is doing with the Corinthian church is applicable to our churches today. As we involve ourselves in the concept of relational ministry, we grow in our love, intimacy, and friendship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Corinthians needed to repent. If at any point they stopped repenting, they would have ceased to exist as a church. A churches vitality depends upon repentance, which is only made possible through union with Christ. We cannot rightly repent until we are made alive in the Lord Jesus.

When the recognition of my sin causes me horror in that I have grieved a holy God and fallen away from His friendship, this is repentance.

Please join us as Pastor Patrick Joyner continues the series on 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1. In this passage, we see a very important image, this idea of a temple. We know the location of the temple has changed as well as its realities - now the temple is living. Believers are described as the temple of God.

There is a relationship between holiness in our own lives and a delight in the Lord as our God. It seems, because of our sinful flesh, most believers struggle for long periods to distinguish between the realities of our justification and our pursuit of holiness.

One of the most challenging concepts of the Christian life is the recognition of this overwhelming joy that is at our fingertips, but it involves our own holiness and real righteousness.

Paul asks five questions in this passage to which the answer to all is “None”. These things he compares, beginning with righteousness and lawlessness, have nothing to do with one another.

Paul isn’t telling us to remove ourselves from the world but to remove worldliness from ourselves, the temple of the living God.

There is a direct proportion to our own earnestness in casting off the old man and the joy that we have in Christ.

Please join us as Pastor Preston Hoffman concludes this sermon series on the Beatitudes. Matthew 5:7-12. Jesus Himself embodied the beatitudes before He would ever command them of His people.

The first four beatitudes describe the root of the Christian life. Today, Jesus moves to the fruit; from the heart that God blesses to the life that God uses. The kingdom of God is not only internal transformation, it’s external demonstration.

These final four beatitudes describe the public life of a disciple, the visible evidence of the invisible work of God. The outward life of Jesus’ disciples is not optional - it’s our faith made visible. The inward life gives rise to the outer life.

Does your life display what your heart claims?

Last week we asked what kind of heart does God bless; this week we ask what kind of life does God use? Jesus will show us what that life looks like lived out.

Please join us as Pastor Preston Hoffman discusses the Beatitudes. Matthew 5:1-6. At the beginning of His sermon, Jesus answers the question: What kind of heart does God bless? The kingdom of God and the role you play in it does not begin with what you do but begins with what you are.

The Sermon on the Mount is a portrait of those who have been transformed by the true gospel. The kingdom life begins with a transformed heart - humbled, broken, surrendered, and hungry for God. These qualities are not natural; they are the spirit-wrought foundations of true discipleship.

The Sermon on the Mount is not a path to earn salvation, it is the life of those already saved by the King. In His portrait, Jesus describes the inner posture of every true citizen of His kingdom.

This sermon explores the first four Beatitudes - poverty of spirit, mourning over sin, meekness, and hunger for righteousness - as the inner life of a true disciple. It is a call to examine the heart, embrace Christ’s sufficiency, and pursue the righteousness only He can give.