Weekly Messages

Pastor Rick Chitwood walks us through the goodness of God's grace. He shows us examples of where our goodness falls short and that only what Jesus Christ did for us is good enough to satisfy God.

Just one quick glance at your Newsfeed and it should be as obvious to you as it is to everyone else: Something is wrong–with the world, with people, with all of it. No one would suggest otherwise. We ALL know something is terribly wrong, which begs the question: what–or who–can set it right again? 

Have you ever heard of the expression, “Two sides of the same coin?” It refers to a situation where two things appear superficially to be opposites of one another, but they are in fact fundamentally alike. I think last week’s message and this week’s message are a great example of this.

Last week we read about a conversation that Jesus had with a social, moral, and religious outcast. “The outcast of outcasts”, we said, right? She was a woman, five times married and was now living with a man who was not her husband, who went to the water well to draw water at noon because she would rather brave the heat of the day than face a crowd. She was obviously desperate…

This week we will read about a conversation Jesus has with not an outcast but an insider in every way imaginable–socially, morally, religiously, you name it. We might say he was “put together” or he had life “all figured out.”

Superficially, these two could not appear to be any more different than they are, but spiritually, they were one in the same. And if these two, who were as different as we could imagine, had this in common spiritually, I think it is likely many of us share this same spiritual diagnosis as well.

Every person in the world wants what will make him or her truly happy. As a result we are all desperately searching for the person, place, or thing that will meet our expectations, needs, and wants; searching for that which will fully and forever satisfy our deepest desires.

What–if anything–can satisfy this never-ending thirst? 

Pastor Rick Chitwood helps us to see when sacrificing our freedoms for others is loving.

This Sunday we begin a new series titled, Come & See, where together we will look at centuries old life-changing conversations that individuals had with Jesus from the gospel of John. My prayer is that we would experience life-changing encounters with Jesus like these individuals experienced.

The first conversation will address perhaps the most fundamental question: Where should we look for answers to life’s biggest questions?

This past Friday was sarcastically referred to as “Quitting Friday” by those among us who study people and our predictable New Year’s Resolution patterns. I read an article last week that suggests that nearly half of us (43%) expect to fail by February. This is not saying that 43% of people DO fail in the first month, that number is closer to two-thirds (64%) – No, this says that 43% of people who start resolutions in January, START EXPECTING TO FAIL one month into their resolutions. It’s almost as if we know–even in our resolutions–that our priorities are out of order.

Matthew 6:25-34

This Sunday we are going to talk about… wait for it… investing wisely. No need to adjust your screen. You read it correctly. We are going to talk about our investments, BUT I PROMISE YOU it will not be anything like the investment conversations you have with your financial team if you are into that sort of thing.

Jesus will help us invest wisely by teaching us the reality that what we invest and where we invest it is determined by at least two things: 1) how clearly we see and 2) who we choose to serve.

Pastor Rick Chitwood teaches from Romans and challenges us to accept others no matter what their convictions may be.

Pastor Rick Chitwood challenges us to take our faith in Christ seriously and make some changes this year, starting today.