When we face pain and loss, they change the story we had planned for our lives. They can end our dreams. But what do pain and loss look like when we try to see the world as God sees the world, and to do as God says?

Simple question: What affect does God’s grace have in your life? Or asked a different way, how is your life different as a result of experiencing the grace of God? In this message, we will look at one specific impact that God’s grace had on the early Christians and how this characteristic can and should be true of us, also.

When it comes to family, actions speak louder than words - they echo into the next generation. Your children and grandchildren may forget what you say, but they'll never forget what you do.

Raising children is one of the biggest challenges in life. It requires all of our strengths and talents. It makes us keenly aware of our weaknesses. In this message, Andy and Sandra Stanley tell you everything they know about parenting. This isn't everything there is to know, just what they know.

All children - that's you and me - long for the approval of their parents . . . especially their fathers. It's a longing that never goes away. It gets buried or transferred to other relationships, but it's there. And we underestimate its power. Every parent wants to be approved by his or her child - to be a hero, to hear, "when I grow up I want to be just like you." As that desire grows, so does a parent's insecurity.

Buried beneath the hurt, disappointment, distance, or silence is a desire to be connected to our children and our fathers. It lasts a lifetime.

When it comes to family, the only thing we all have in common is conflict. Family conflict is like no other because when you win an argument in your family, you don't really win anything. The conflict is never fully resolved.

What if there was a way to resolve family conflict by dealing with it at its source?

In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul drew from Jesus' use of power what is perhaps the most powerful relational teaching of all - an instruction that changes everything in family dynamics. It all comes down to asking a simple question:

What can I do to help?

When the ideal is hard to attain, it's tempting to just lower the bar and redefine the ideal. This can be especially true when it comes to Jesus' teachings about family, which many of us have already fallen short of. In this message, Andy Stanley explains why aiming for God's ideal is still worth it, even when our reality makes reaching it impossible.

For many people who grew up in church, being a Christian was all about following the rules. There were things you were not supposed to do, and there were things you were supposed to do. If you kept the rules, then God would be pleased with you and bless you. If you didn't keep the rules, then God would punish you and make your life miserable. Unfortunately, this is a distorted view of what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus. It isn't about rules at all. It is about something totally different - and not only is it life-giving, it is life-changing.

We like to showcase our successes in life and hide our failures. No one brags about their divorce, bankruptcy, incarceration, DUI, abortion, or addiction. These failures create shame and we begin to label ourselves by them. Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son is a powerful lesson in the new identity that God offers us by his love and grace. When we finally understand that God’s love and grace are real - really real - it will change us and lead us into a relationship with him.

Until we admit that we are powerless on our own to find fulfillment in this life, we will never truly find our way back to God. But once we recognize our need for help, we have already made the turn that leads us home to our heavenly Father. If you are like every other person, you will try to go it on your own many times in the years to come. You'll even try to pease and serve God on your own -- and that won't work either. We can't do it on our own, and that is very good to know. Let your awakening to your need for help continue to shape your choices in the years ahead. Help has a name, and that name is Jesus. Every time you turn away from self-centeredness and pride, he will be there to rescue, strengthen, and guide you on your journey with him.

Our attempts to find purpose, love, and meaning on our own lead to an endless cycle of longing and regret. You don’t have to waste the power of your sincere regret on more self-condemnation. You can let it move you confidently in God’s direction.

We all have a longing to love and be loved in return, to find purpose for our days, and to make sense out of life when life doesn’t seem to make any sense. Those longings are from God, and when you allow those strong desires for more to draw you nearer to him, he will fulfill your longings.

Why is it some people go through extraordinarily tough times and are broken, while others are not? Check out this secret to weathering the storms of life.

Our human relationships are not independent of our view and engagement with God the Father. They are also not immune to the effects of distortion and disconnectedness from Him. Last week we talked about how filters can distort how we view God. This week we explore the idea that a bad filter can also distort how we hear him.

One of the coolest things about digital photography is using filters! Providing everything from fun enhancements to strange distortions, the use of filters can have a dramatic affect on how we view a person. Additionally, how we view a person will largely determine how we will engage with that person. Especially if that person is God. This week at Journey we discuss how a clearer view of God can make the difference between a growing relationship with him or just another religious commitment.

Everyone experiences the highs and lows of life. At some point, we all wind up in a very low spot, sometimes at rock bottom. In those times, it is easy to lose hope and to throw in the towel on your dreams and the possibility of something positive for your future. It is easy to think that we have gone too far or sinned too great to ever recover. Samson’s utter failure led him to an unthinkable low … and yet God was still gracious to him in his darkest hour.

We all have places we want to end up in life. Yet the paths we choose often lead us away from our intended destinations. Poor decisions over time can send us down the wrong road leading us to a place we never wanted to go. In this message, we will discover the missteps Samson made, over time, that cost him dearly.

What drives your actions and behaviors can be, and often is, driven from feelings of low self-worth. But knowing who we are in God’s eyes is the key to living from a strong core.

Attitude is a powerful influence in the direction of your life. Positive attitudes can see us through difficult situations. If we aren’t careful, attitudes can also lead to our downfall.

 Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. But that’s easier said than done. Which people qualify as neighbors . . . and which don’t? How far does our responsibility to others extend? If we make the effort to move toward the messes in other people’s lives, how inconvenient is too inconvenient? How unsafe is too unsafe? How dangerous is too dangerous? What are the limits to loving others as we love ourselves?

How should you respond when others face a bottom-of-the-9th moment? It's not about saying something or doing something. It's about being someone.

What happens when there is no bottom-of-the-ninthcomeback? What happens when you lose? Where can you find hope when hope disappears?

When you're facing a bottom-of-the-ninth moment, doing this one thing can bring light to the darkness.

Have you ever felt behind financially, relationally, or emotionally? What do you do when you feel like your life is trailing in the bottom of the ninth?

Life is full of surprises - some good, some not so good. But each unexpected event that comes our way is actually a divine opportunity. In this installment of Five Things God Uses To Grow Our Faith, we will discover the role that pivotal circumstances play in the development of our trust in God.

Have you ever attempted to do something for God you felt unqualified to do? Why would someone even attempt something they aren't qualified to do? Well, sometimes people see a need and believe that acting on that need is the right thing to do. Other times people feel "called" to do something, even though they don't feel qualified. 

Have you ever considered why God may call people to do something outside of their comfort zone - outside of what they feel qualified to do? That's the question that we will wrestle with in this message.

If you are like most people, you can’t tell your life story without referencing people who played significant roles along the way. The same is true of your faith story. In this third message, James explains the role that providential relationships play in the development of our faith.

Discipline. Most people think of that word in a negative sense. To be disciplined means to be punished. Or "to be disciplined" could be something positive. For example, some people are self disciplined to exercise every day. Others are disciplined to eat healthy. These choices, when made consistently, yield positive results. In the same way, there are some spiritual disciplines that we can exercise to have positive results in our relationship with Jesus. That's what we'll unpack in this session as we draw (in part) from Jesus' teaching from the Sermon on the Mount.

When our acts of faith intersect with God’s faithfulness, our faith grows. From Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders, we find that hearing and learning are not enough. The value is in the application. Because in the end, it’s obedience that makes all the difference.

Your faith in God matters to him. In fact, God is most honored through your living, active, death-defying, out-of-the-box faith.That being the case, he's committed to growing it. BIG.

Imagine how different your outlook on life would be if you had absolute confidence that God was with you? Imagine how differently you would respond to difficulties, temptations, and even good things if you knew with certainty that God was in all of it and was planning to leverage it for good. In other words, imagine what it would be like to have explicit faith.

For generations, Fred Rogers has been a beloved television personality among children who have been mesmerized by his calm and inviting presence and his positive and encouraging message of friendship. Everyone loves and admires Mr. Rogers. Some people see Jesus as a version of Mr. Rogers. While Jesus was certainly a model for Mr. Rogers, who himself was a Presbyterian minister, it is a mistake to view Jesus as simply meek and mild. By combining the biblical text along with the geographical and political realities of Jesus’ day we learn that he was much more than meek and mild.

When you go through a difficult circumstance, there is one thing that keeps you going - the expectation that something better is in front of you. We call that expectation “hope.” At some point in life, each of us has our hopes dashed. However, because of the resurrection of Jesus, our hopes can be renewed day-by-day.

Happy couples decide they owe each other everything but are owed nothing in return. But that requires effort. Every married person makes a choice every day. That choice feels more like a reaction, so most people don’t think they have a choice at all. But they do. Happy couples make the happy choice.

As long as you think your spouse owes you, your marriage will be all about keeping score. That destroys intimacy. It destroys love. But what are we supposed to do about our hopes, dreams, and desires?

We all enter into marriage with hopes, dreams, and desires. They create expectations. But when you put those expectations onto your spouse, it turns your marriage into a debt/debtor relationship. Your relationship becomes marked by the belief that your spouse owes you something. So, how do you keep your hopes, dreams, and desires from becoming expectations?

A great marriage doesn’t happen by accident. It requires care and regular maintenance. But sometimes we don’t want to make the effort. As long as it’s not broken, do we really need to talk about it?