//James 1:26-27 | Andrew Lundy

To be religious means a lot of different things in today’s world. Some people see it as being good more than you’re bad, superstition, or being legalistic. This past Sunday we learned it’s our system of organized belief centered on worshipping God, driven by relationship with Him. Pastor Andrew talked about three characteristics of a pure religion. The first is sincerity. The world craves people who are authentic and honest, not people who are trying to hide their brokenness. Covering up your flaws may seem useful (at least to ourselves), but is actually useless. Religion needs charity, or love. God’s love for us and our love for others are intertwined; God’s love should produce love IN us and FROM us, toward the broken and oppressed, the widows and orphans. There should also be purity in our religion. Jesus makes us clean by His own blood; we can maintain this cleanness by confessing our sin and keeping ourselves unspotted by the world.

//James 1:18-25 | Andrew Lundy

God’s Word is powerful. He created using His word, Jesus raised the dead with a word; His word is truth. However, being around His word is not enough. This past week, we talked about our posture when it comes to the word of God. We need a posture of attentiveness. God is a God who communicates and loves to speak to us. We must be “swift to hear” and “slow to speak”. We need a posture of receptiveness, receiving the word with meekness. Transformation of our lives comes after reception of the Word. We hold the Scriptures high, but we do not edit them. Finally, we need a posture of responsiveness, which means we must be doers of the word, and not only hearers. God’s Word is a mirror, showing us what needs to change; it is instruction meant to be followed.

//James 1:9-17 | Andrew Lundy

In this message we look at the full scope of the temptations we face and how we should deal with them. We are tempted to pursue the desires of this world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (as mentioned in 1 John 2:16). James tells us to endure these temptations, because God will never allow us to be tempted beyond our ability (1 Cor. 10:13), and He Himself tempts no one (James 1:13). It is our flesh that brings out these temptations, and He will allow it to happen to test us and see us approved. Just as Jesus was when led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted. But even when we fail this test, we are not “expelled” from the school of God; Jesus Christ passed all the tests. We can safely (and determinedly should) lean on His grace. (This message is part of a series entitled "The New Humanity".)

//James 1:2-8 | Andrew Lundy

In this introductory sermon to the Book of James, we learned of James’ challenge to us to become a new type of “creature” in Christ. To do this, we need to change. James cuts right to the heart in telling us to count it all joy when we fall into various trials. These trials are inevitable, happen unexpectedly, and come in various forms. The idea behind joy is in the greeting James gives us. We are to greet our trials -- almost cheerfully. Pastor Andrew broke these ideas down into four points: there is a joy that comes from knowing, there is a growth that comes from letting, there is a wisdom that comes from asking, and there is a receiving that comes from believing.

A Quick 12-Minute intro to our new series "The New Humanity", a study through the book of James.

For our first Sunday Gathering of the new year, we take a moment to look back on what God did in 2018, what He's doing today in the present, and what we anticipate He will do in 2019.

Joshua 8:1-10 | Guest Speaker, Russ Kyff, teaches on the importance of how we should respond to the inevitable failures that we experience in life.

John 1:1-18 | Pastor Andrew delivers a special Christmas Eve message entitled "The Heart of Christmas".

//Matthew 1:18-25 | Andrew Lundy

Pastor Andrew wraps up our O COME series by focusing on the passion and power that Jesus has to save His people from their sins.

Matthew 2:1-22 | In this third installment of our Advent series Pastor Andrew teaches on a clash between the Kingdom of Herod and the Kingship of Jesus.