The fear of rejection is something that most of us encounter through different seasons of life. We have a need to be liked, loved, and wanted. And in and of itself, there is nothing wrong with this desire, but the problem comes when the fear of others matters more to us than what God thinks. We want to follow God, but as soon as it begins to cost us social status or hinders the pursuits of our career, we bail. We’ve all seen negative things happen to other people and we chose to not do anything because we didn’t want the negative attention focused towards us. But this fear will be a stumbling block for us becoming the person God intended us to be. This week, we look at two things that can help change our perspective and recenter our focus on the life God is asking us to live.

When it comes to faith, a big barrier that many people have is that science seems to have proven the Biblical account to be inaccurate. So in order to be a Christian, does that mean you must ignore what we learn from science and only accept what the Bible says, or is there evidence that points to the validity of the Biblical narrative? Can you believe in evolution and be a Christian and can you still believe the account of creation as the Bible tells it as a rational, intelligent adult. In today’s message, Pastor Sean shares the views of scientists on both sides of the spectrum and how we must look at the evidence that exists to point towards the validity of either theory.

The number one instruction that God gives throughout the Bible is “Don’t Be Afraid”. In fact, that instruction shows up in the Bible 365 times! But it’s a lot easier to say than to do isn’t it? Some fears and worries last only a little while and some never seem to leave us. Some cripple us to the point where it affects our health, our relationships, and our decisions. But what can we do to get a handle on our fears and worries? How can we begin to move past them and live the life that God has intended for us? While the first week of this series won’t be able to fix you fears, worries, or anxiety, what God tells us in the Bible may be able to help take some of the sting out of them and give you some room to breathe.

For Christians, the holy book that shapes their faith and beliefs system stems from the Bible, which claims to be God’s words to mankind. But if we are going to pursue  in our faith with God, and rearrange our lives, our beliefs, and our values around it, shouldn’t we be sure that what’s in it is true in the first place? I mean, the Bible was written thousands of years ago in another language and then translated into what we read today. So how do we know that the Bible really is from God, that it wasn’t changed when it was translated, and that the things written in it are in fact true. In the last week of our series, Pastor Stephen puts the Bible through multiple tests that are commonly used to evaluate the validity of ancient literature and sees how the Bible stacks up.

In today’s message, we look at quite possibly one of the biggest barriers that many of us when it comes to faith and our belief in God. If God is really there, why does such bad things happen to good people? And how could a good God sit by and allow all the evil, hate, and brokenness exist in the world. If it were up to us, we would prevent evil from happening, so why doesn’t God? Pastor Stephen addresses why evil exists, why God seems to tolerate the evil in the world, and how we can begin to process and move beyond the evil that has existed and impacted us.

Sexuality is a big topic in our culture today and history shows that it has always been. It’s used to sell everything from cars to chewing gum. It’s talked about in our circles of friends, our work, and at our schools. But why does it seems that churches and Christians have such a big problem with sex? In today’s teaching, we take a closer look at how our culture approaches the topic of sex and how it affecting us. And by taking a look at what the Bible actually says about sex, we work to clear up confusion around this topic and explain why God even cares about how we handle ourselves sexually.

If you’ve ever hosted a party at your house, you know that you have different responsibilities than everyone else. Yes, you might ask your friend to pick something up at the store on the way, but you wouldn’t ask a friend to go pick up your bedroom or clean your bathroom. That would be an expectation of a family member. In this week’s message,  we talk about how the church has different responsibilities and expectations for those that attend as well. The church is to be welcoming, loving, and generous to everyone but the church has a much greater responsibility to those who are a part of their local body. But in order to do this, there must be a distinction between who is in that family and who is not. This check in week also allows those who attend to give us an update on how they are growing spiritually so that we can work to help them take their next steps

We can often forget and get distracted a from the life God intended for us to live. Isn’t it easy to live life distracted and before we realize it, months have gone by? Maybe you’ve realized that the things you say are important to you, aren’t reflected in the way you spend your time. Well what if there’s a possible that you are living your life distracted from the one thing that God intended your entire life to revolve around? Would you want to know? Maybe the better questions would be, if you did find out what that one thing is, would you care enough to rearrange your life around that one thing? In the last week of our series At The Movies, we take a look at what this “one thing” is and help you measure the importance that this has in your life as you seek to follow after Jesus.

Sometimes life just doesn’t turn out the way we envisioned it. Maybe our plans didn’t go according to plan or maybe life just seemed to throw us a curveball. Oftentimes, we find ourselves in the same place when it comes to our relationship with God. Have you ever felt that God threw you a curveball that you just didn’t see. Or maybe you feel Him prompting you to do something that just doesn’t make sense at the time. In the third week of our series At The Movies, we look at what do you do when the story God is writing just doesn’t seem logical. How do we keep moving forward and what is God trying to teach us through this?

Faith is kind of this ambiguous word that we use and is often used when it comes to religion and our belief in God. But it’s also something that is pretty hard to put your finger on. We talk about someone being a person of great faith or we say that we want to grow in our faith, but what is is really? In this week’s message, we take a look at what the Bible says about what faith is and what we might be believing about our faith that is actually a myth. And to top it off, we’ll be looking at some examples from the movie Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade to help us remember and relate.