We have accepted that somehow we have a mostly Christian society. Because the Christian church has been somewhat connected or influential in the formation of the Roman, British, and
American cultures that have established the society in which we live, we can be tempted to think that somehow we can follow Jesus within our society while holding a place of honor and prestige and that we don’t need to be ridiculed in order to be true witnesses of the death, resurrection, and Lordship of Jesus....which leads to the third way that we embrace a worldly witness...

But Jesus promises us that the Helper is coming, and He will bare witness through us to the world.

Dinner Theatre | Vine | But When The Helper Comes | John 15:26-16:4

Living in a culture where the majority opposes God and His law makes it extremely hard to be a Christian. Even the most faithful men and women whose only desire is to please the Lord fall into the danger and sin of conformity. Jesus said Himself that He chose us out of the world. That means we belong to Him and are not just affiliated with Him.

This week Pastor Doug delivers an extremely hard and personal message; as followers of Christ, will we remain distinct or assimilate to the dominant culture? Pastor Doug gives us what our proper response should be as Christians to opposing ideas and to people who have different beliefs than we do.

Can we not lay down our life for the love of Christ? It’s a simple, but in some ways profound question. Not to minimalise the love one can have for a people, a country, but how much more then should the love of, for, and from Christ shape our lives, and our willingness to lay them down?

This is the question set before us in John’s recollection of Jesus’ continued farewell to His disciples. Jesus gives them, and us, a new commandment; love. But not the costless, feelings inspired, wavering “love” of postmodernity and movies. But a love that makes us evaluate and reevaluate how we engage one another, and if we can lay down our lives for one another.

We are inherently self-reliant. We believe we have all the answers. We believe we are strong enough by ourselves to withstand every obstacle. We believe we can do our best work without seeking help. When it comes to trials, we believe we can save ourselves. When it comes to our salvation in Christ, we believe we can earn it and that we have the power in ourselves to lose it. Naturally, we were born with the inclination that we can rely on ourselves. If you asked yourself how this belief has worked out for you and were honest about it, you’d realize it hasn’t. Luckily, Jesus knew this behavior would ultimately lead to an unenjoyable and unfulfilled life, so in His grace He provided us an alternative.

The truth is, apart from Him we can do no good thing. As Christians we must abide in Christ to live godly lives. The good news is we don’t have to do this alone. Our Father in Heaven has promised to prune us and destroy anything in us that is not of Him. Despite the lies we believe, we can not rely on ourselves.

This week, Pastor Leonce shares four keys we must understand about this process of being made like Christ and bearing good fruit, and gives us four ways we can respond to this truth.

“If you loved me, you would do what I am asking you to do.” At some point in our lives, we’ve probably heard our parent or caretaker say this to us, and if they never said it, they’ve probably wanted to. That statement doesn’t come from selfish ambition. It comes out of the desire for us to display evidence that we actually love and trust those who care for us. Furthermore, to show evidence that we love those we say we love.

Jesus ultimately tells us the same thing; “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
In our culture it has become normal to say we love God, yet show no regard to His word or His commands. When we choose to disobedient and prefer our own ways over His, what we are actually saying is “Lord, I do not trust you, nor do I love you.”

This week Pastor Leonce tells us the importance of our obedience to God, and what it displays. Our prayer is that you would accept His love, for that is where our obedience flows from.

“Jesus does not want to fix our lives. He wants our lives.” In an absolutely beautiful portrayal of the gospel, guest pastor Jerome Gay points us to Christ as not only the one who saves us, but Christ as the one who never leaves us. Many of us believe the idea that Jesus rescues and sets us on the right track. Both of those are true beliefs. He does rescue us and He does transform our hearts and set us on the right track, but what He says in this week’s passage is that He IS the way, which means that “The Way” is a person and not a direction.

For anyone who has given their lives to this savior, there are so many ways that the gospel brings comfort to our lives. This week Pastor Jerome Gay shares six ways the gospel comforts, three lies we need to stop believing so that we can experience life that the gospel gives, and three responses to Jesus’ love.

Our prayer is that this word would lead you into a relationship with Jesus Christ and believe that you are lovable by him with no performance necessary.

One of the scariest things we learn in the Bible is how close we can be to Jesus, yet never really love or serve Him genuinely. As we continue in our series on The Last Supper, we focus this week on Judas’s betrayal of Jesus.

“...Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.’” There is so much to learn about the character of Jesus in this scene, as well as implications for how we are to respond when we find ourselves having grieved the heart of God. Most importantly, we see through this encounter between Jesus and His betrayer that betrayal is real, but it does not block the gospel.

This week, Paster Doug Logan visits us from Camden, New Jersey to break down this iconic scene in a way that reveals the power of the gospel, Jesus’ heart, and our response.

In every human heart is the desire to have a clear conscience. Depending on the culture one is from, you will use different language for the same idea. But the question that our actions in this life leave us with is this, "Can we ever truly be clean?" In the opening verse of John 13 we are given a picture of what Jesus offers the world. We are given a insight into His desire for this world. He has come to make it clean.

In Western culture we believe the more we have, the happier we'll be. We even believe that more of the same stuff that has not been able to satisfy us will satisfy us. Years of discontent and hearts that are unsatisfied by the things of this world attest to the fact that more stuff will never make us happier. Why? It is all fleeting. One of the richest men to ever live once said, "I am the most miserable man on earth".

We live our lives so closed-handed that we do not see the joy in generosity when in fact, giving is the only antidote to materialism.

In the last week of The Treasure Principle, Pastor Leonce gives us the last two keys necessary to experience financial freedom and to steward our resources as God would have us to.