It had been about four centuries since any prophet had spoken for God and any Scripture was written. The Jews had been scattered around the world while bing subject to various empires and only experienced occasional periods of freedom and independence. In the eyes of many, God seemed to have abandoned his people and his plan. During God’s “silence,” he was making preparations for the arrival of the Promised One, the Messiah. Messiah’s birth was a miracle foretold and announced by angels. As an infant, enemies sought to destroy him and foreign sages traveled for months to worship him. From the time of his birth to the beginning of his public ministry, God was faithfully preparing Jesus to fulfill his divine plan of redemption.

This message contains both a special video and an interview with two of our volunteers.

For centuries, God sent his prophets to warn his people that unless they repented and walked in obedience to him that he would judge them. Though they had seasons of revival, the southern Kingdom of Judah would continue to rebel against God. Therefore, God used pagan nations to deliver judgment against his people. They were conquered, Jerusalem leveled, and the majority of people exiled in a foreign land, many as slaves. Ahead of time, God sent prophets to say that their exile would be limited and they would ultimately return. These same prophets would also foretell of a coming Messiah and of a kingdom that would never end, where righteousness would dwell.

For a brief moment in time, the nation of Israel had shown signs of their potential glory. But like Adam and Eve in the garden, they fell. And fell again. And again and again. Like the rest of us, they sought sustenance, significance, and meaning in life. But also like many of us, they sought it in the wrong places, straying from God until he gets our attention.

The nation of Israel has inherited the land and territory that God had promised to Abraham. They are coming out of a dark period of time in their history where there was no king and where everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. Into this environment the nation comes together to receive their first earthly king. While it was a time of great accomplishment, it was also a challenging time for the leaders and the people. We can learn from their struggles and not have to experience their regrets.

Moses has brought the Israelites to the edge of the land of promise and passes the baton of leadership to Joshua. They set out to inherit what God had promised to Abraham, but it would require them to obey God and trust in his protection and power. After they defeated the enemies of God, they settled into the land. At the end of his life Joshua challenged the people to continue to follow God and walk in his ways. After Joshua and the elders who served with him died, the nation was thrown into a 350 year period where they would stray from God and experience God’s judgment on them to bring them to repentance.

After more than four hundred years of the Israelites being enslaved in Egypt, God heard their cries for help. In Exodus we see him delivering his people from slavery and rescuing them from their enemies. In Leviticus we see God giving explicit instructions on how to live and how to relate to him. In Numbers we witness God guiding, providing for, and disciplining his wayward people. In Deuteronomy we hear him patiently reminding the next generation of Israelites of how to live lives that honor him, bless the world, and bring personal fulfillment.

We tend to view the Bible as a bunch of fragmented bits of history, poetry, and moral tales, but in reality, the Bible tells a story. And it’s a true story. Ultimately, it’s a story about God and our part in the story he is writing. It’s a story that gives meaning to our existence, our daily lives, and to every other story on earth. As you read through the Bible, resist the tendency to get bogged down in the details and make sure you never loose sight of the magnificent story that is unfolding.

Many people feel intimidated by the Bible. When they've tried to read it they have been confused and found it hard to understand. In this message, you'll discover how to read the Bible, understand what you're reading, and how to apply what you're learning.

Everything Christians believe is based on the teachings found in the Bible. However, many people wonder if the Bible is a reliable source of information about God and his ways. After so many years of copying and recopying the ancient Biblical text, aren’t there many mistakes in the manuscripts? Aren't many of the events the Bible speaks of just made up fairy tales? How can you know if they really happened? Doesn’t science conflict with the Bible? In this message, James Brummett will tell you about his own crisis of faith and what he discovered about the reliability of the Bible that served to ground him in the Christian faith.

If you have ever been confused or frustrated when reading the Bible, then you will appreciate this first message which he explains how the Bible is structured, what the most readable and reliable versions are, which 13 books capture all of the stories and history in the Bible chronologically, and much more!

Most of us want this year to be better. But “better” requires a bit of honest and awkward evaluation. So what are you holding onto that’s holding you back? If you’re holding onto something that’s making a monkey out of you, maybe it’s time to let go of the banana and run away!

We all want to win. After all, winning is better than not winning. In a game a win is defined, but life is not a game. And winning in the most important areas of our lives isn’t always clear. So, how do we win?

The Christians in the first century were filled with joy, but their circumstances didn’t get any better as a result of following Jesus. In fact, their circumstances grew worse. Following Jesus and being identified with Jesus was costly for them. And yet … they had joy. They were optimistic. What was it that enabled them to have joy?

When life is chaotic and disruptive changes come your way, is it possible to have joy? When circumstances deflate you bringing frustrations and disappointments, how can you experience joy? Mary, the mother of Jesus, has a secret that can help anyone experience joy in spite of their circumstances.

Sometimes the power of the Christmas story is found in the strangest of places. Tucked away in the small letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia is a profound truth of the joy of what Jesus came to do.

At the announcement of the birth of Jesus, the angel described this event as one that would bring joy to all the people. When Jesus came, so did joy. Why would his birth bring joy to all the people? How is it possible to have joy that endures, even when the circumstances of life don't lend themselves to joy?

What goes around often comes around. The powerless often find themselves in a position of power and the people who hurt us may someday need us. In the moments when we’ve got those people right where we want ‘em, what we say will say as much about us as anything else. If our words are stones, will we choose to throw them, or use them to pave the way forward?

Our big mouths can be destructive, but they also have the power to build others up. What we say can impact the quality, and even the direction, of the lives of the people around us. How can we use this power for good? 

Like a small spark that has the potential to scorch an entire green forest, our tongues are untamable, with the power to control our whole bodies. We have a tool that can be used to build up those around us or tear them down in just a few words. What do we do with that kind of power? We can’t lock it away. But we can, by God’s grace, learn to control it.

We all know what it’s like to be hurt by someone who just couldn’t listen long enough to understand us. Maybe in their attempt to be right, they damaged a relationship that could have been saved with a little patience and curiosity. You’ve probably been on the other side of that coin too. Taking the verbal offense may have won the argument, but you lost relationally. What if we didn’t settle for being right, but tried to make things right instead? The longer we listen, the more we learn, and the better chance we have of protecting ourselves from our own big mouths.

Sometimes church people get confused about what it is they are supposed to be doing. Jesus, however, was very clear about what he expected — commanded — his followers to do. Getting and maintaining clarity on Jesus’s mandate for his followers is essential if we desire to fulfill his mission for us in this world.

God wants us to pray. He wants us to present our needs and requests to him. God’s desire for our prayers, however, goes far beyond simply presenting our needs and requests to him. God also has a strategic purpose for our prayers. 

Christians in the first century were not content with simply gathering in a holy huddle. From the beginning, they were on a mission to spread the Gospel of Jesus to anyone who would listen. Even though they were persecuted and martyred for spreading the Gospel, they would not stop. But why? What motivated them to a continue to call people to repentance and to surrender their lives to Jesus? What can we learn from their example?

Nero burned Rome in July of A.D. 64. Shortly thereafter, persecution broke out against Christians. The Apostle Peter wrote to a scattered group of Christians to encourage them and to instruct them on how to live in incredibly difficult times. What Peter wrote to these Christians is relevant to us today, more than 2,000 years later.

Christians in the first century were not only a minority group, practicing their faith was a challenge. Sometimes they grew discouraged and simply stopped engaging in the community of the Church. This is one of the issues the writer of the New Testament letter of Hebrews was addressing. What can we learn from their experience?

People who were not like Jesus liked Jesus, and he liked them back. Since the church is the body of Christ, people should be drawn to Jesus followers. Even if they don’t agree with the message of the church, they should like the church. So, why isn’t that true?

There is an assumption that good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to sinners. But clinging to that myth will cause your faith to eventually be ground into dust. 

We live in a world of conflict between nations, political parties, classes of people, friends, and even between family members. Jesus taught that those in his kingdom would be characterized as peacemakers. So what kind of peace was Jesus talking about, and how can we grow in this characteristic?

Of all the Beatitudes, the statement of Jesus about “the pure in heart” may be the most difficult. It isn’t hard to see ourselves as spiritually bankrupt, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting, merciful, peacemakers, or even being persecuted. But being “pure in heart”? Probably no one goes around thinking of themselves as being pure in heart. So what does Jesus mean and how can we pursue this “purity of heart”?

Jesus said that people in his Kingdom will be merciful. This characteristic of disciples of Jesus makes Christianity attractive, for at one point or another we all need (and want) mercy. So, what is mercy and how can we grow more merciful?

Solomon, the third king in Israel, was one of the wealthiest people in world history. He pursued happiness in every way imaginable: education, work, sex, power, wealth, influence, architecture, agriculture, gardening, just to name a few. Yet he wrote that it was all vanity, or emptiness. It didn’t bring him fulfillment. So, where do we find fulfillment? Jesus promised fulfillment to those who pursued righteousness.

We aspire to be a lot of things in life: productive, loyal, honest, hard working, and generous, just to name a few. But one characteristic that is not very high on anyone’s list is that of meekness. What is meekness and why did Jesus include it as one of the defining characteristics of those in his Kingdom?

We live in a fallen and broken world where we experience loss, pain, and suffering. We appropriately respond to brokenness with grief and mourning. We understand this dynamic. What is sometimes missing is a grief and sense of mourning over our own sin and brokenness. The promise of comfort from Jesus in the Beatitudes is more directly related to this experience: brokenness over personal sin.

When it rains, it pours. You’ve probably been through a day (or a season) where you felt like whatever could go wrong, went wrong. What do you do when you feel like all sides are crushing in on you? How do you navigate through the storm? The small New Testament letter of James offers some straight-forward instructions for this very question.

It can be easy to see someone else self-destruct and think to ourselves, I would never do that. But truth be told, we’re all capable of ending up where we don’t want to be. Even Solomon's son—the heir to the throne of Israel—blatantly ignored a principle that we should all pay close attention to.

We can talk ourselves into anything. Our internal narratives justify our beliefs as well as our actions. But when those narratives are not true, they lead to destructive thoughts and behaviors. We can choose to carry around false but comfortable narratives—or we can look to destroy them.

We all face dilemmas in which circumstances point us in one direction, but our consciences point us in a different direction. At times, we ignore the tug of our consciences and sell ourselves on a questionable decision. King David found himself in such a position, and his example can help us navigate our own dilemmas.

How is your stress level these days? Are you on edge? Frustrated? Worn down? Anxious? Is your soul burned with cares? We’ve all been there. Some of us have sought the help of a counselor, psychiatrist, or doctor and have found a measure of relief from anxiety as a result. But even then, there are still things only God can alleviate.

You may not be able to avoid anxious thoughts from time to time, but you don’t have to live in the prison of anxiety. In Philippians 4:8, the Apostle Paul gives us another powerful tool that, when used, will help us rid our hearts of perpetual anxiety. 

To this point in our study of Philippians 4:4-9, Paul has been assuring us of God’s
character: his sovereignty, mercy, and presence. In Philippians 4:6, the conversation shifts
and now it is our turn to act on these realities.

Anxiety is nothing new. King David, Paul, and even Jesus experienced anxiety. While we live in a day when anxiety is on the rise, there are things we can do to lessen our anxiety. The Apostle Paul addressed this very issue and gave the church in Philippi instructions on how we can win.

We have hope that there is life beyond the grave. But it’s not just that there is life beyond the grave. The misery of this world is not the end … there is something way better!

When you are in the middle of a crisis that continues to worsen, a flood of emotions come over you. Uncertainty. Fear. Anxiety. Despair. How do you move forward when there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel?

When the world is chaotic, we wonder if God is still in control … if he really does have the whole world in his hands. But after a while, the burdens of a chaotic world are too much for us to carry and our thoughts quickly transition from the whole world to my world. Our burning question is, “Does he have me in his hands?”

When things aren’t going well, we tend to feel alone and anxious. When times are uncertain and it seems that things may get worse before they get better, what do you do? How can you maintain hope? 

People are reeling from the COVID-19 health pandemic. Our nation is grinding to a halt. Schools closing. Sporting seasons cancelled. International travel bans implemented. Healthcare system strained. Healthcare providers bracing for the worst. The public paralyzed with fear. But why?

Falling in love is easy; staying in love is hard. What do you do when the intense emotions of the honeymoon are over? How do you navigate through the different seasons of challenge every marriage encounters? What do you do when you’ve “lost that loving feeling?” 

Every marriage will end in one of two ways: through divorce or through the death of a spouse. The end of a marriage is always heartbreaking. What do you do when a marriage ends? How do you deal with the shock? How do you cope with the pain? How do you move forward?

People have a lot of different ideas about sex and human sexuality. Sex is a source of great pleasure, but it can also be a source of great pain. How can we avoid that pain and regret? Knowing and living according to the truth about sex will help you avoid pain and regret.

On the wedding day you blissfully pledge to be married “till death do us part.” But after a few months or years of marriage things aren’t so blissful any more and one or both partners begin to have “buyer’s remorse.” What do you do then?

All of us have received in-depth training in relationships. We constantly learn from our families, friends, and even strangers. Perhaps the most pervasive training we’ve received is from our culture: movies, magazines, YouTube, Netflix, books, reality TV, and advertisements. This week’s message identified our culture’s popular recipe and contrasted it with God’s recipe for lasting relationships. The good news is that you have a choice in establishing lasting, healthy relationships. 

You’ve accomplished a lot and had a lot of wonderful experiences. Why, then, does life sometimes seem so difficult and frustrating, even unsatisfying? Could the reason be that the “more” we are chasing doesn't fully satisfy is because we’re striving in the wrong direction?

It may be the first truth we learned about Christianity—so simple it’s the theme of Sunday school songs. But really grasping this truth can transform your life. Understanding that God wants to give you immeasurably more starts right here. Immeasurably more is possible for you, but not until something happens in you. 

When we’re kids, we dream big. Life’s possibilities seem limitless. As we grow older, setbacks and disappointments in our careers, marriages, and family life can wear us down and cause us to pursue contentment in all the wrong places. In this series, we’ll explore a passage in Ephesians that tells us how God’s plans for our lives are immeasurably greater than we can imagine. We only need to trust him. 

An angel announced “peace on earth” at the birth of Jesus, and yet the season of Christmas can be anything but peaceful. So what was the “peace” that the Angel proclaimed? In what ways can we experience the peace that was promised?

During the Christmas season, some people find it easy to be happy while others struggle with loneliness and sorrow. Yet some who are in the midst of suffering still find joy. How is that possible? What if there was a way to find joy regardless of your situation? There is, and it’s found in God’s favor and grace.

Christmas may be the most loved and most dreaded season all at the same time. People look forward to seeing some family and friends, but dread seeing others. Each of us probably has someone we have bitterness towards, but part of God’s desire for us this Christmas involves trading in bitterness for something far better. 

The Bible did not create Christianity. Christianity is the result of an event (the resurrection) that created a movement (the church) that produced sacred and reliable texts that were collected and bound into a book (the Bible). But how do we approach not being at peace with everything we read in the Bible? Paul—the apostle, Pharisee, author, preacher, and church planter—offers us clarity and confidence to move forward. 

The Old Testament chronicles God’s redemptive, sequential activity in history. It’s a fabulous, gritty, epic history of the Hebrew people in which, over and over, Israel is reminded that they are a divine means to an end. So, maybe instead of seeing the Old Testament as a spiritual guidebook or a storyline that needs to be tidied up, we should see it as something even better: the history of God preparing the world for a Savior.

“In the beginning...” can be a loaded phrase - one that forces us into debate and doubt. But maybe we’re missing the point of Genesis 1:1a point Moses made to a world where the violence and injustice of the gods justified and legitimized the violence and injustice of human rulers. Moses introduced a radically different, unparalleled, and untested worldview. 

Most of us know some Bible stories, but very few of us know the story of the Bible. And
you may be surprised to discover it’s a story that doesn’t actually begin in the beginning. It
begins with the accounts of a few men who sat down to record the death and resurrection
of Jesus. It begins with the words of his followers who were compelled to document the
events that had changed everything for them—because they knew it could change
everything for us.

Long before there were Christian Scriptures, there were Christians—men and women whose faith began with an empty tomb. These eyewitnesses to the resurrection experienced an event so extraordinary that it changed their lives, and what they gave their lives to, forever. But now a generation is walking away from their faith as their confidence in the Bible is dismantled. They assume that as the Bible goes, so goes Christianity. Maybe it’s time we learned from the faith of those early eyewitnesses—faith that’s undeniable and ultimately, irresistible.

Is the church still relevant today? Well, try to imagine a culture without the Church. What would that culture look like? Better yet, would that be a culture in which you would want to live? In this final message of the series, the case was made that Christianity, unlike any other religion or civilization, offers not just a different way of living, but a better way of living. We explored how Christians - and the Church - have been on the forefront for the most positive, liberating advances known to humankind. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not only a message that saves people for eternal life, but a message that restores a broken world. It’s a message that has shaped cultural values and national identities. With that in mind, it’s time for the Chruch to re-engage at every level because our message is a message of life.

People are willing to talk about spirituality, faith, and God. When Jesus is introduced into the conversation, however, the mood generally changes and people are less receptive. This isn’t new. So what are followers of Jesus to do? Just talk about love, peace, kindness, good deeds, and helping the poor? These are all good things, but they can’t bring salvation. This is why can’t keep quiet about the one name that brings salvation to everyone: Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Your body has many different parts, each with different and unique functions and yet they all work together for the purpose you choose. Did you know that Christians are a part of what the Apostle Paul called “the body of Christ”? As a follower of Jesus, you are a member of his body - the Church. Just as your body has different members with different functions, so the body of Jesus has different members with different functions. As a Christian and a member of his body, his agenda becomes your agenda. You are called to function in his body to accomplish his purposes. He has given you gifts and abilities to be used in building up his body, which includes you!

As Christians, we believe God is calling us to have a positive impact within our
community and around the world and we are committed to clearly communicating the love and grace of God to everyone we meet. There are a lot of things we could focus our efforts upon, but none as important as our ministry to the next generation.

We all believe exercise is good for us, but we don’t always head to the gym or go on a run. But to get in shape we have to exercise. We have to get off the couch and do it. And, isn’t it easier when we have someone to keep us accountable? The same is true of our faith; we can only get so far on our own.

Certain experiences in life mark us and set us on a new path. There are events that impact the world in a similar way. In this message, we will explore one event that stands out more than any other and how it can impact your life.

Life gets busy. Priorities compete. We loose focus on what is most important. About that time, we read the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and we are called into focus on what really matters. Jesus’ words cut through the noise and cause us to pause and take inventory.

Only one person can ensure that we end up somewhere on purpose. And that person isn’t in the House of Representatives or the White House. They’re in our house. In fact, we look at that person in the mirror every morning. The reality is that we face our greatest leadership challenge every morning when we face ourselves.

The first step to finding peace in a relationship is to repent if you’ve done wrong or to forgive if you’ve been wronged. But no matter how badly you want peace, there are some relationships that may never be fully restored. What do you do to find peace about a relationship when you can’t find peace in the relationship?

When there’s bad blood in a relationship, the easiest thing to do is to let resentment and bitterness grow without addressing the issue. That’s the path of least resistance. It doesn’t make the conflict go away, but it avoids the relational mess of having to deal with the other person.
Jesus calls his followers to a higher standard. He says that if we have a problem with another person, we should go and have a conversation with him or her. But why should you go, when should you go, and how should you go?

What do you do when you have bad blood with someone who owes you something? Bad blood is costly and complicated. It costs you peace and complicates your other relationships. If you don’t find peace in that “bad blood” relationship, your other relationships will suffer. The good news is that you can have peace about the relationship even without peace in the relationship.

Check out this secret to finding peace about a difficult relationship even when you can't find peace in the relationship.

If there's a gap between where you are and where you wish you were, this simple principle can close that gap.

There is something that prohibits many of us from getting to where we want to be, or to where God wants us to be. It is something we all struggle with and most of the time we don’t even realize it. It just happens. Unfortunately, we don’t think we have any control over it … but we do.

How do you get from where you are to where you wish you were... or even where God wishes you were? Even the thought of pursuing the life God wants for you can be scary. It can stir a fight-or-flight response in you. That’s because the greatest obstacle to getting to where God wishes you were is how you see you. You see the problems of your past. But God sees the potential for your future.

Whether blowing out candles or throwing a coin in a fountain, we’ve all made wishes. They seem like fantasies, but some small part of us holds out hope that they could come true. Some of our wishes are silly and frivolous. But some of them are huge. Sometimes we feel stuck in life. We know where we are, but wish we were somewhere else. How do you turn those big wishes into reality? How do you get from here to there?

God promised us that "we would face trials of many kinds", but he also promised us that, "He would be an ever present help in our time of trouble". We were not promised perfect circumstances, or a perfect world. We were promised an imperfect world with imperfect circumstances and a God who would remain perfect to us in those
circumstances. God is who he says he is. He isn’t less God when things are bad at home. He isn’t more God when we have joy and things are going well. You can trust him when it
doesn't make sense.

So you’ve been redeemed. Now what? To answer that question we have to explore the dual intent of Jesus’ grace: Redemption & Transformation. Jesus didn't come to harm us. He came to save us. God's grace is an extraordinary intervention to anyone's story. When we don't allow him to use our redeemed story for the potential benefit of someone else then there is a loss. So what role does God want to you play in someone else's story?

We are all born with dreams and endless potential. Then life happens and our stories become less simple, more dynamic. When it feels like not every day has purpose and not every year produces progress, it’s not uncommon to begin to wonder: does my life really matter, how many times can I fall and still get back up, does my story still have a chance to be a great one? In this message, you’ll be reminded that Jesus – who is full of grace – never backs away from the dynamic patterns in our lives.

When it comes to finances, it’s normal to go into debt so deep that you can’t see the way out. But there’s a better way. If you want to live with financial peace you have to flip the script to your financial story.

What is the wise thing to do? That simple question is very powerful in every aspect of life - even in the area of finances. When it comes to financial decisions, what if you were to simply ask, “Is this the wise thing to do financially?” And how would you know if it were? You might be surprised to know that the best financial wisdom comes from the Bible.

Our financial stress, worry, and obsession is less about our external experiences and more about what is going on inside of us. Is it possible that a shift in internal perspective would greatly reduce – or eliminate – our worry and stress?

Money strikes an emotional response in everyone and plays a significant role in our lives, in our nation, and in every government around the world. In fact, nations have gone to war over it. In our own lives we’ve stressed about it, fought about it, and obsessed over it. Imagine what it would be like to never worry about it again, never fight about it, and have a sense of peace in this area of your life. All of these things are possible with a mindset reset.

Jesus has been dividing people since the days of his ministry. His claim to be the Son of God and to be “the only way” to the Father was and still is startling. Interestingly enough, 42% of the Gospel of the John focuses on Jesus’ last week of his ministry; before the crucifiction. John provides vivid detail of Jesus’ last days. Why, because Jesus was predicting his own death and resurrection. And, anyone who can do this is someone we should pay attention too.

Jesus was a rabbi, but he was different than the rabbis of his day. During his ministry, Jesuswas available to people and was very approachable. The culture of his day avoided peoplethey deemed “unclean” - people who had diseases, despised tax collectors, sinners, andGentiles in general. Jesus broke down barriers and gave free access to all those who wouldcome to him.

Jesus talked a lot about love and forgiveness, but his message was more bold than what people think. He was an equal opportunity offender that challenged the actions of every group during his ministry. And we learn through the scriptures that anytime the Kingdom of God clashes with the kingdoms of this world it is dangerous and costly.

The best way to predict your future is to pay attention to where you’re headed. But sometimes it’s easy to get distracted by what’s on the path. The appeal of money, acceptance, or security can lower your defenses and lead you away from the path you want to be on. So is there a way back? How do we change course when we realize that we’ve chosen a path that leads us to what’s appealing instead of what’s ultimately satisfying?