- The story of the cross, of Jesus’ death and resurrection, lies at the center of human history. What seemed like a victory for satan at first glance was really the moment of ultimate triumph for God and His plan to redeem humankind. In this message, Pastor Doug breaks down the resurrection story and the tremendous meaning associated with every detail of what happened during that time. This is much more than just a great story - our lives and our futures are made secure by the sacrifice of Christ and the empty tomb.

Sermon Notes

- The Plot Thickens

God chose to use Abraham and Sarah as His partners in starting the nation of Israel and furthering the divine lineage that would lead to the birth of Christ, who would become the “offspring” of Eve and lead to Satan’s ultimate defeat, as promised by God in the Garden of Eden. There are many parallels between the story of Abraham and the nation of Israel and the spiritual story and journey we continue to take even today. In this message, Pastor Doug explains how what started way back when is relevant in our lives, our society, and on the world stage, as Israel continues to be at the center of God’s plan to set matters right, once and for all.

Sermon Notes

- Sometimes, the stories of the Bible, from the Garden of Eden, through Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, (and so on) can seem like a loose collection of incidents. In truth, each of these stories and more are part of the same story of God’s plan of salvation, as He made good on His promise and plan spoken to the serpent as he was cast out of the Garden of Eden: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). In this message, Pastor Doug explains how the spiritual conflict that began with Lucifer’s fall is woven throughout the events of the Old Testament, leading to the birth of Christ, the “offspring” of Eve. We should be comforted by the fact that ultimately, as God said way back in Eden, Satan will be defeated for once and for all.

Sermon Notes

- The story of the Garden of Eden and man’s fall (see Genesis Chapter 3) shows how the same sort of rebellion that Satan led among the angels spread - with his involvement - to mankind. God created us with free will, and the ability to choose whether or not we would follow His will for our lives or decide that we didn’t really need Him (in an exercise of pride), and do things our own way. Knowing that we would choose to go our own way, though, He provided a plan of redemption; but, in our everyday lives, we still feel and fight the spiritual battle between doing things our way or God’s way. Pastor Doug encourages and instructs us in this message regarding how we can fight the everyday spiritual conflicts that we face.

Sermon Notes

- In the opening message of this series, Pastor Doug goes back to the very beginning of the story, and discusses the biblical portrayal of what happened in Heaven even before man was created. When Lucifer and the other angels rebelled against God, it was the start of a spiritual conflict that will continue to the end of this age, when Satan will be defeated once and for all. In the meantime, though, we need to understand where we fit into this conflict and what we need to do in order to effectively fight the spiritual battles that we inevitably face throughout our lives.

Sermon Notes

- In this inspiring message, guest speaker Roger Huang shares his story of how he came to live in San Francisco as a non-believing teenager, and ended up taking an unlikely path to leading a significant and enduring mission effort in the Tenderloin District of the city. Roger came to Christ through listening to a televangelist. After witnessing the bullying of a young boy as he waited for a flat tire to be fixed in a desperate neighborhood - and not having the courage to take any action - Roger and his wife decided that it was time to get off the sidelines and get involved where there was work to be done. They made 50 sandwiches and took them to the neighborhood, going door to door. And that was just the beginning, some 30 years ago...

- As we try to live our lives under God’s grace, there are some important things to consider. No matter how hard we try to hold onto grace and the freedom from guilt and shame that it brings, grace’s (God’s) hold on our lives is even stronger. Grace finds us and works on us as long as we are open to it. However, we need to resist the temptation to continually look at our own performance - which inevitably goes up and down: when we’re not doing so well in following God, we are easily discouraged and deflated; when we feel like we’ve been doing pretty well, we tend to become proud and self-focused. Instead, we need to hold onto the perfect performance that Christ turned in on our behalf, and accept the peace and joy that is possible when we know that His performance is what we will be judged by.