Have you ever visited a different country? If so, then you might be familiar with the disorienting experience of navigating an unfamiliar culture. As Christians in a modern world, we can often feel like foreigners who are under pressure to blindly accept the morals of our age, even when they are in conflict with the gospel. Today, we're beginning a new series called Daniel: Clash of Cultures. When we step into the world of Daniel, we find ourselves in a land known for its excess, sin, and violence. How could God’s people remain loyal to Him under the pressure of a culture that directly opposed worshiping the Lord? This was the reality faced by Daniel and the Jewish exiles of his day. This is also our reality in the world we live in. The key to their survival and ours is to recognize the influences of our culture, remain dependent on God, and receive the Lord's divine favor through faith. Listen in as we discuss how to remain loyal to God in a hostile culture — by holding fast to the truth that God is sovereign over our circumstances. 

As we head into 2024, we look at the question of Why Doesn't God answer Prayer.  We will see in Matthew 6:5-15, that God answers prayer for our good and his glory.

Everyone enjoys being free, having the choice to do and say as one desires. Our country is full of freedom. Some might say our country loves freedom. We may be free in several ways—but what about being free from sin? A lot of individuals chose to indulge in freedoms that are encircled with sin, thinking it’s okay to do this because I have the freedom to. However, the Bible is contrary to that logic, stating that most of the passions of our flesh lead us into greater sin and darkness. We are concluding our sermon series, Emmanuel: God with Us, looking at the incarnation of Jesus; and how His birth and resurrection saved the world. Through God sending His Son, Christ has given us freedom—if we believe in Him. We can embrace God’s redemption in Jesus alone; by recognizing our condition, trusting in Gods saving action, and receiving His adoption. True freedom is found in Jesus—not the kind that allows us to do whatever we want; but the kind of freedom that releases us from sin, shame, and darkness. Join us in the final sermon of this series, The Incarnation of Redemption, and be encouraged as hear about redemption through Jesus. Merry Christmas church family! 

We live in an “all about me culture.” We are dominated by self-image, individuality, how to best serve ourselves, and often leave others out of the equation. In a world that is very self-centered, as the body of Christ, who have been called to humility—it is vital that we reject this mentality and strive to put on humility. It is not always easy to deny ourselves and put others before our own desires, but when we are struggling with this we can look to the example of Jesus. Today, we journey on in our series, Emmanuel: God with Us, looking to the incarnation of Jesus and how it impacts us today. Jesus led by His example of humility; we can follow Jesus’ example of humility in our personal lives. To embody humility in our own lives we can consider our position, consider our mindset, and consider our example. By denying Himself, Jesus took on the fullness of humility. Join us today in the latest sermon of our series, The Incarnation of Humility, and learn how to follow Jesus’ example of humility. 

Words hold a lot of weight. Scripture states that the ‘tongue holds the power of life and death.’ The word of God contains many words, all from God, it is His written story to us—His creation. Through the incarnation of Jesus, we can see that Jesus brings the Word to life. As John 1:14 reads, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We are moving forward in our Christmas series, Emmanuel: God with Us, seeing the impact Jesus’ incarnation brought to the world then and how it's still impacting us today. Jesus is God's creating word, revealing word, and saving word. We have the ability to hear from God through His word, through others, and through what He has created. We can hear God's ultimate word, Jesus is the ultimate word, He saved us and continues to save us daily. Listen to the latest message of the series, The Incarnation of the Word, and pay attention to what He is saying to you.

Through the years, many have pondered the question, “What if God was one of us?” There have been songs and books that asked this question and tried to answer it. But it seems as though we have forgotten what Christmas is all about. Each year, we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus, where God made Jesus flesh among us. He sent Him to save us from ourselves, from this broken world, from our messy sinful lives, to take on the cross and die for us, eventually. We are beginning our Christmas series, Emmanuel: God with Us, looking at the person of Jesus, and how when we know Jesus, we know God. Today, we will look at the question, “How can we see the glory of God?” As we look at the gospel, we will see that looking at the life and ministry of Jesus’ time here on earth we can behold the person of Jesus and behold the work of Jesus. We can see the glory of God by embracing all that Jesus accomplished and all He was in the flesh. Join us as we jump into a new series looking at the glory of God through the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  

As we walk this earth there will be pain; it is inevitable. Our pain may be physical or emotional and could come from a fellow brother or sister in Christ. Perhaps they sinned against you, said hurtful words, or brought harm upon you. When these circumstances occur, it can be difficult to forgive. We may wrestle with forgiveness for years, only being able to come to a place of forgiveness by the grace of Jesus. As we close out our series, Conflict[ed]: Pursuing Peace in a Cancel Culture, we will dive into why forgiveness is necessary in the body of Christ. Looking to Jesus as an example, as He forgave those who persecuted Him, beat Him, and mocked Him, yet still went to the cross to die from them. His model is inspiring for us as we look to love those who hurt us. Forgiveness is necessary as followers of Christ because we have been forgiven much and because forgiveness is the way of the kingdom. Join us in the final sermon of the series, The Absurdity of the Unforgiving Christan, and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart. 

Have you ever been caught in a conflict with someone? Maybe it got heated and things were said, and you walked away thinking, “I’m done with them.” In today’s society, it can be easy to walk away from moments of conflict with a flight response, to cancel that person rather than reconcile the conflict. Jesus calls us to a higher standard; He desires for His children to not be at odds with one another, but to work things out in a God-honoring way. In our series, Conflict[ed]: Pursuing Peace in a Cancel Culture, we are continuing to address the topic of conflict within the church and our personal lives. Today, we will learn that to reconcile our conflicts with one another, we should do so in a way that honors Jesus, following His words straight from scripture. He calls us to amend our conflicts by going to win personally, communally, and congregationally. God cares about how we treat our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, enough to equip us with guidelines to approach those we have been conflicted with. Tune in to the latest message of the series, Making Up Instead of Breaking Up, and hear how Christian relationships should pursue repentance and reconciliation. 

When we are in Christ, we are called to look different from the world. In that, how we act, speak, and treat others should not be like how the world does. More importantly, we must treat our family of Christ with respect and intentional care. We are to treat them with the same love that Jesus has shown us. We are continuing our series, Conflict[ed]: Pursuing Peace in a Cancel Culture. We will hear from the gospel of Matthew the importance of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ well. Jesus has called us to lift one another up, rather than tear each other down; and to chase after the one who strays from the faith rather than mock or cancel them. Join us in the newest sermon of the series and learn how God values and pursues us as if there was only one of us.

Our actions matter. How we speak, act, and represent ourselves, holds much weight. When we are representing Christ, we should act and speak in ways of giving life, love, encouragement, and correction when needed. We are continuing in our new series, Conflict[ed]: Pursuing Peace in a Cancel Culture, today, we will look at the importance of our personal role in building up the body of Christ. As members of the body of Christ we should look to build others up and not hinder their faith. In the scripture, Jesus lays out the necessity of not leading our community of believers into sin. It can be a slippery slope, it is easy to not have a handle on our words or actions, but when we claim Christ that is a high calling, we need to steward that gift well. Christians should look to build up the faith, not hinder the faith of others. Join us today in the next message of the series, Hinderance not Helpful, and hear the importance of not leading others into sin and leading by removing our own sin.