Flatirons Community Church Video Podcast: Recent Episodes
Darrin Graham
Weekend Messages from the Flatirons Community Church teaching team. Flatirons Community Church is located in Lafayette, Colorado, U.S.A. Lead Pastor: Jim Burgen. Teaching Pastor: Ben Foote. For more information, visit www.flatironschurch.com
This weekend guest speaker Steve Carter has us ask ourselves "Are We Running The Right Race?"
We take a look at who we are as a church, what we have been doing, and where we would like to be going.
God's love, expressed in the awesome life of Jesus Christ, is the best gift anyone could ever receive. Join us as we look at how Flatirons will share that gift with the Next Generation.
Join us as we unpack the what behind the Christmas story. If we know why Christmas is important, how does that changes us from now on?
The Christmas story is God's redemption plan for humanity. Jesus came to earth as Immanuel (meaning God with us).
What would it look like for All your life to be for Jesus? Join us as we look at what it means to give all our ambitions, hopes, and plans to Jesus.
Paul teaches us that God intended and designed sex to be something much more. Sex is the imaging of two people becoming one new thing.
Kings go to war to fight for those that they love. Jesus, the king of kings went to war for you, so that you can reign with God over your kingdom once again. Are you ready to go to war with the king of kings to win back the broken parts of your life?
We take a look at who we are, why we are here, and how we are to live our lives. Being made in God's image, our purpose is to reflect Him and His nature.
Ben asks, "Does anybody want to win this thing?" Do we want to win at dating? Relationships? Marriage? Sexuality? Parenting? Our careers? Following Jesus? Our actions are saying that we've already given up, but Jesus wants us healed and whole.
With the 35 day challenge coming to an end, we remember that day 35 is not a finish line but the start of a whole new way of living closer to God.
This weekend we look at the parable of the wise and foolish builders. Jesus said that one approach to life leads to destruction, and the other leads to a stormproof existence. How do we build our lives on a foundation that leads to a stormproof life?
Even at the moment when Jesus was being crucified, He stood up under the weight and he continued to serve people around him.
For the 35 day challenge, we've been praying daily for three things daily: what are you thankful for, what you need from God, and what someone else needs from God. As we practice this, we dive into why we pray. What if prayer doesn't change God, but prayer changes us?
What would happen if we chose life changing sacrifice? Join us as we challenge ourselves to point our limited time and resources in the direction of something that cultivates value that lasts beyond this life.
What would it take to keep going spiritually when your physical body doesn't want to cooperate? This side of heaven, our bodies are never going to want to do what we need them to do. So, we have to make a plan.
Do you want your life with God to get better? It's time to train your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The same grace that saved us, will give you the power to put in the effort towards becoming who God created you to be.
Join us as we unfold how biblical leadership and parenting require a willingness to allow God to form us first.
God's promise to us is that when we seek Him first, He will provide for all our daily needs.
We look at Jesus' instructions to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness" to remind us that intentionally and actively seeking God gives life to our spirits, just as air gives life to our bodies.
We all can react in ways that seem excessive, extreme and unreasonable. Rather than let our triggers hurt us and others, we need to have the courage to allow God's grace to make us whole, holy, and spiritually healthy.
God's invitation to rest is an idea counter-cultural to many of us. Does Jesus' way of life still make sense for the modern world?
Now more than ever, we need to not only tolerate people but go a step further to love them.
Our identity, peace, justice, and joy are often based on how we look at our culture and determines who we are going to trust.
Our identity is often shaped by social media, lack of face-to-face conversations, and many other temporary, fleeting things.
We look at how Paul went from being called Saul to Paul. Being mentored requires humility, and mentoring requires obedience.
Pray for God to show you a person to invest in and find a person in your life and be a Barnabas, an encourager.
Who in your life shows good leadership? This week we look at three ways to identify what a "Good Leader" is. 1. Good Leaders never stop learning. 2. Good Leaders go first. 3. Good Leaders do not lead from or lead in isolation.
When you're vulnerable in sharing their story, Jesus works in your life to change it forever.
What are the significant moments in life that become a foundational part of our stories? We take a look back to see where Jesus met us where we were at-no matter what, no matter where.
What does it look like to seek freedom and flee from slavery? We look at the slavery Jesus has come to set us free from, and the impact that it has on our lives.
No matter what you've done, no matter where you are, Jesus is for you. Looking at John 3:16, a "cliché" verse, we see that in God's great love he chose us. And in response, we, the Church, are called to choose, love, and serve others as well.
We are all called, male and female, to examine the voices we listen to and the things/people we use to measure ourselves; remembering our true identity can be found in the name of God.
Ben has us take a look at how we can avoid drifting apart from the people we love the most.
Jim encourages us to seek after God's plan in relationships before we encounter the storms of life."
Ben teaches about Wisdom. Wisdom is defined as "the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement; the quality of being wise."
Jim starts off a new series in the book of Proverbs, unpacking how we can make the wisest choices for all of life's decisions.
In order for something to live, something has to die. We look at the story of Jonah to help us understand what Jesus has done for us.
Ben wraps up our Storyline series. Ben talks about how all of the best stories include patient endurance: pushing through roadblocks, even when it's hard.
Jim's message this weekend centers around our need to be strategic in all our relationships; putting God first, family next, followed by friends. Whether a "good" or "bad" relationship, each holds the possibility of pulling us away from fulfilling our Compelling Vision—what God has called us to do.
This week we look at the relationship between Anointed Authority and Confident Humility. When anointed authority and confident humility are used together in our lives, we begin building better stories and step into who God created us to be.
We have all been anointed and chosen by God for His mission for us, and with that anointing comes the authority to carry out that mission.
Our lives will never really change for the better unless we take our compelling vision and relentless conviction and put them into action.
This weekend, guest speaker Shawn Johnson, Lead Pastor at Red Rocks Church, reminds us that even in seasons of uncertainty, God has a plan for your life.
Put to death and get rid of the obvious things that are interfering in your relationship with God and with the most important people in your life.
Spiritual change and formation comes from God's Spirit and is by God's Spirit. We must cooperate and place ourselves in the best position to receive the powerful, working, changing grace of God.
Jesus promises to be with you in all things: good things, bad things, holy things, and sinful things. He will be in it with you, not causing sin to happen, but using even our sinful choices and the sinful choices and actions of other people to work through you.
Let's spend this year getting to know Jesus better and begin experiencing a life worthy of our king, Jesus, a life that is pleasing to God.
Jesus had to leave the beautiful and enter our ugly so that he can make all things beautiful again.
It feels like we are waiting for God to show up in our lives, but we have amazing hope because on a day in history, Jesus was born. He brought peace, joy, and delivered promises!
The purpose of our lives is nothing other than lining up our lives with what we find in the face of Jesus. We should be getting ready to meet Jesus face to face.
God knows what you need, and it might not be what you want, but it'll be what you need.
Humbling yourself is the obedient choice to let go of the past in order to take hold of something new and better in the future.
Revival comes directly and proportionately from the posture of God's people in humble repentance.
Marriage is an institution, for both the man and the woman, that is designed to show the world what God is like. Marriage is a covenant that can't be broken without doing a lot of damage.
What if you approached dating as an opportunity to become a burden-carrier and find a burden-carrier?
Dating, falling in love, marriage, and parenthood don't just build character, they reveal character.
We believe the best way for a person to be introduced to Jesus is when someone cares enough about their friend to invite them to "come and see" what Jesus is doing in their life.
We create environments and remove obstacles so that lost and broken people can bump into Jesus.
Spiritual Formation is the process or journey of rethinking and replacing our ideas, thoughts, and beliefs with what Jesus says is true, better, and actually works for our lives.
We believe that it is possible for every person to be forgiven and reconnected back into an intimate relationship with God by grace through faith.
We exist to bring the awesome life of Christ to a lost and broken world because that's what Jesus told us to do and Biblical Authority is our number one value.
Actively seek out the things you should be thankful for in life. Be obsessive in your gratitude.
You can run aimlessly or with perseverance. If we run with perseverance, we can be content with where we're at in the race.
Joy is a feeling deep in the soul that comes from knowing that Jesus is still at work in our lives and in our world.
When the Lord is your shepherd, no one can take or end your life, because your life already belongs to Him.
What needs to change or occur before you can say, "my soul is restored, I know who I am, and who I am is good and enough"?
You can look back on what happened to Joseph and what happened to you and see how God was faithful, but it still hurts. You can't change what happened. You're left with the question: what are you going to do now?
Because we believe that God goes with us, we don't avoid or deny the impossible problems in our lives. Instead, we face them and walk into them with God.
Every member of the human race is an image-bearer of God and the perfect Kingdom of God includes diversity. The solution for racism in America will only be found in Jesus.
Faith comes from shared experiences over time as you are walking with God in the same direction. We look at Noah's faith when he was asked to build an ark.
Faith is the confidence that Jesus is who He says that He is and the assurance that He will keep every promise that He has ever made.
There is room for you in this world, and you are needed. Because Jesus is the light, you are the light bulb. So let's get to work.
The condition of your marriage is a primary indicator of the condition of your relationship to God. Crisis doesn't build character, it reveals it, so in this crisis ask yourself if you're trying to get something from your spouse that you can only get from God.
While we're in quarantine, let's try to embrace the mundane and show grace in the insane.
What if in the midst of this strange season of life, God has lovingly hit pause on the madness of the old normal. What if God is trying to get our attention right now?
Faith is confidence that even in the chaos, Jesus is who He says He is and will keep every promise that He's ever made to you.
Those moments when we say, "God, where are you?!" And the response is just silence, we feel abandoned. The word for it is actually forsaken. We feel like, if there is a God, he's forsaken us.
Do the most important people in your life know that they matter to you, and that you care about their problems (big and small)?
It doesn't matter how or why you got lost; Jesus is still looking for you, waiting for you, and he wants you back.
Jesus' top priority is not punishment, it's forgiveness. He has the road map to get us un-lost.
The key to a good life is that all of the pieces of your life come together and act as one. What is it that you really want for yourself?
Slow is Fast. The most important things that are built to last, always require you to go slowly.
Christmas isn't magical, because magic can't be explained. Christmas is a miracle, a time when God did the impossible. Christmas is about hope.
Just because your label feels true, doesn't mean it is true. God sees through the label you've taken on, and He sees you
Satan knows your name, but calls you by your sin. God knows your sin, but calls you by your name.
We are anti-heroes. We are broken, messed up people that Jesus will work in and through.
Women were created to co-rule with God and men as allied sources of strength and reinforcement.
When you don't know what is really true, it's a matter of time until you become a victim of a lie.
You cannot move most mountains through will-power. There are some mountains that only move because of faith.
Weapons and armor, on their own, can't do anything. You must actively reach out, pick them up, put them on, wear them, practice, and prepare how to use them.
If God is the one who defines what is true and what is a lie, what is your plan to be strong and fully armed so that you are ready to go to war?
Our sovereign God has commanded and empowered us to provide and protect all of the parts of His Kingdom that He has entrusted to us.
Let's go back to the Operator's Manual to rethink what it means to be a good, wise man, husband, and father, and start or continue building a home, marriage, or life.
Our Campus Pastors look back on the past few months of teaching from The Sermon on the Mount and challenge us to rethink our preconceived ideas about God.
Jesus gave us a goal, a purpose, a kind of life to pursue which is worth giving the rest of our lives to.
Offering forgiveness is about declaring victory. The only person suffering from the anger, hatred, and desire for revenge that I've directed toward my enemies is you.
What kind of person sees a legitimate need that they could meet and does all that they can to meet the need and more?
What kind of person of would you be if your first response wasn’t to immediately hit back when you are hit?
God cares more about the kind of person that we are and are becoming than a set of rules.
What would need to change in me to give myself and my (future) spouse the greatest chance of experiencing a marriage that reflects what God originally defined as "very good"?
Divorce is not a person's biggest problem. Having a hard heart of anger, contempt, and uncontrolled, unchecked desires is the bigger problem.
We all want things that are good and righteous. We're just looking in the wrong places.
We are not responsible for another person's response. We are responsible for seeking first the Kingdom of God, and His goodness.
Anger and contempt have a way of backfiring and hurting and destroying you to a much bigger degree than what you were hoping to inflict on someone else.
We do whatever we really want to do, and what we want to do comes from the overflow of our heart.
There is no one who has sunk too low or who is in too poor of a financial situation that they are beyond the reach of God.
You might want to rethink how you think about everything, because there are no throw-away people in the Kingdom of God.
Look at the excuses or the rationalizations you are putting up right now for not stepping into a small group or circle as a strategy for aligning your life with God. It's a risk wether you join or not so choose the one that makes sense for your life.
We are to learn from Jesus how to align all of the parts of our lives with what Jesus says is true, not just believing the right stuff, but training to put the right stuff we've learned into actual practice in our daily lives.
Nothing changes without a vision for your life. But your life will not change until that vision is intentionally and strategically pursued (you decide to do something different).
As we follow Jesus down this trail, we need to know what's important to Jesus so that it can become important to us.
In all of the metaphorical trails of life, the places you go and things you experience, acknowledge Jesus and He will make your literal trails straight.
Jesus died, so that we could be recreated and redefined. We are now the King's sons and daughters.
How can we help each other get to know the real Jesus better so that we can become the kind of people He wants us to be?
We can't all go to the mountains or on a retreat every time we want to hear from God, but we can find quiet places where we can hear better and intentionally go there.
Nothing is mundane if it is lived out in the Kingdom of God because what God wants done can be done there too.
Our image of God makes our intimacy with God impossible. We become like the God we adore.
Our image of God makes our intimacy with God impossible. We become like the God we adore.
What if we began to trust Jesus not just to get out of Hell, but also to removed our condemnation so that nothing would separate us from living life with Him?
What idea about God are you hanging onto that you might want to rethink because when you look at the image of Jesus, He's very different?
Jesus is a God of love who keeps His promises; He’s keeping His promise to shine light into a dark place so that people He loves can read a new Word.
You can give up on shaming yourself and your fruitless attempt to pay off your own debt and, instead, give into what Jesus earned for you.
Take off the camouflage and ask God to search you, get inside of your head and your heart, lead you away from the lie and back to His truth.
All you have is today. If there is something that you need to do, say, give... do it. If it lines up with what Jesus wants, want it too.
All you have is today. If there is something that you need to do, say, give... do it. If it lines up with what Jesus wants, want it too.
How much would God have to give you before you valued him enough to generously give back to Him?
The main thing that we're told to do, individually and as a church, is to continue taking in God's Word so that we can continue to know who Jesus really is.
We don't always want the same things that Jesus wants desperately enough to reprioritize things in our lives.
We celebrate 2017 and take a look at the families we were able to impact through your support.
We have a good Father who doesn’t leave us to run this race alone, we have a good Father who comes alongside us and gives us the strength we need in our time of weakness.
Instead of sprinting right into 2018 and risking burnout, we're going to slow our pace down for a few weeks. We're going to take a breath, celebrate some wins as a church, and fix our eyes on Jesus, so we can run the next leg of this race with perseverance.
When it feels like it's taking God a long time to keep his promise or it doesn't seem to be happening how and when we thought it would, we are tempted to lose hope and faith. What is the sign we can look for to know God is good and keeps his promises?
Christmas is about Jesus, God in the real human flesh, just like the human flesh that we have. He came to suffer with us and for us.
If Mary and Joseph were just like us, how does that change our typical Christmas story?
When Christ is formed inside of a person, he changes an Occupation (job or school) to a Vocation and a Mission.
Guest speaker, James Henderson, explains how viewing God as our friend can change us spiritually.
Jim interviews Flatirons CFO, Michael Koehn, on how we can change our financial habits.
Broken minds lead to broken lives. Changed minds lead to changed lives. But where do we begin?
Jesus taught that the spiritual life and the physical life cannot be separated or lived in isolation from the other.
Does God care about changing our society, at large? And does God care about changing our individual social circles? If so, what does that change look like?
If your vision for a better family is going to become a reality, the path to change and freedom is always the same. Grace, Vision, Intent, Strategy.
The road from prison (my life is stuck) to freedom includes steps that you cannot do alone and steps that you alone can do.
Unless (until) you want to become the kind of man that God created you to be and then start building an intentional strategy to do the work to become that man, it will never happen.
Everybody buys into, believes, and lives out of whatever sales pitch that they have accepted as true about them.
The "con" behind the temptation is always the same; "You can’t trust God so do something else."
No matter who you are or what you've been through, Jesus doesn't throw stones at you, and neither will we.
Sometimes, it's tough to trust God's grace when He makes us a promise but He doesn't give us the details or the timeline.
Usually when we hear or bump into truth that we don't like, we respond in one of two ways. We either embrace it and adjust our lives or we reject it and attack the one delivering the truth.
Forgiveness starts when you step into faith. But healing starts when you step out from your hiding places.
We have a dilemma: God demands perfection from us, but we're incapable of being perfect on our own power. So what's our strategy for perfection?
We are afraid of Grace getting carried away but that's what grace does, it carries you away.
If we wrap our minds around the magnificent fact that God created us and calls himself Father, will this help us trust him more?
Jesus was very clear about what reveals the presence and level of influence that the Spirit is having on a person who claims to be rooted in, filled with and producing good fruit.
When we are rooted in Jesus, we begin to see the world differently and begin to ask different, better questions about what is going on and what God may be telling us to do.
Faithfulness is a choice we make that reveals our level of confidence in who Jesus is and what he promises to do.
If we've rooted our lives in Jesus, we WILL grow. But it doesn't always feel like we're growing. Why is that?
Jesus taught that, just like a good tree, what a person's life is rooted in is revealed by the fruit that they produce.
Jesus is a good king who leveraged his strength and intentionally pointed his anger to provide and protect those he came to seek and save.
Jesus is always giving us what we need, the problem is we don't always know we need it.
Following the example of what Jesus did, Flatirons must remember that lives begin to change AFTER a person is accepted, friendship is offered and forgiveness is extended. It's Truth AND Grace.
Most of the time, we want Jesus to deal with the pain and urgency of the latest external crisis in our circumstances rather than address what might be broken on the inside of us. What if Jesus wants to deal with both?
We often create a picture in our mind of how Jesus should resolve the circumstances of our lives but Jesus has this tendency of doing things in unexpected ways at unexpected times.
God gives us markers to remind us that what was true about God in the past is and will be true moving into the future. So don't be afraid. Go.
Begin training right now so that you can do in the future what you cannot currently do by direct effort.
You have been uniquely, strategically and specifically positioned by God to have a certain level of influence in someone's life.
It is time to get strategic and go to war FOR Jesus and FOR our friends and take back both ground and people that Satan has stolen who don't belong to him.
If we claim to be under the authority of Jesus, our Lord and Commander, then we must strategically engage in His mission.
If something is true, then it is true for all people at all times in all circumstances or it isn't really true at all.
Often out of very good motives we fall into the trap of trying to do the one thing we have no ability to do in the lives of our children.
When things get difficult and painful often our first reaction is to isolate ourselves. This is true in life, and especially in parenting.
When we live out of our identity as God's children, we don't try to get our identity from our children.
When you are facing something that you don't know how to fix, change or survive, what needs to happen for you to make it to the "finish line"?
Why is it that as soon as we decide to follow a new strategy, the road gets rougher before it gets better?
When the party is over and there is nothing left to look forward to except cleaning up it's easy to find yourself in a funk. The new year can feel much like that for many of us. What does the Bible tell us to do when we find ourselves somewhere between "unexplainable funk" and flat out depressed?
Christmas is a holiday full of style, but all the style is meant to point to the substance which is Jesus.
At some point in everyone's journey, their life will intersect God's truth and we will have to choose if we are going to continue our current life or turn our life in God's direction.
A tree that has been chopped down no longer has hope of bearing fruit. Yet God brings life from dead places.
God uses the metaphor of a tree and a piece of red thread as one of his most common pictures of what He has done for us through Jesus.
Many times we mistakenly confuse the absence or avoidance of conflict as being the same thing as "peace."
If we're not ready, our enemy waits and watches for a weak spot then he comes at us in a very specific, calculating and effective way.
In order to engage in spiritual warfare we have to know who we are fighting against, what he is capable of and what he is not capable of.
Relational Evangelism. The primary way that God invites people to dwell in His house forever, is through the invitation of one person to another, saying simply, "Come and see."
Excellent Environments. We will create excellent environments that leverage everything that we have at our disposal so that more people can bump into Jesus and experience his truth, grace, goodness and mercy.
Gifted Service. Out of the overflow of what God has done in me, I 'set the table' so more people can taste and see that the LORD is good.
Authentic Community. One of the ways the LORD walks through the valley of the shadow of death WITH US is by placing us in an authentic community of people to walk through the valley WITH US, too.
After I am saved by grace through faith, it is time to get to work becoming the person God created me to be.
Relational Intimacy. The LORD restores our soul back into Relational Intimacy with God.
Biblical Authority. While many of us like the idea of Jesus being our Savior, Friend and Comforter, thinking of him as the LORD, Commander of our lives, brings up some tension.
God as the author of life created pleasure and invites us to experience an abundant life.
Not only does God provide a path that leads to life, but He makes that path known to us.
While followers of Jesus are to help those around us who, like the man in the parable, have fallen into a ditch, we must work upstream to help prevent others from falling into the same ditch.
Two of our most overlooked neighbors are our immediate family members and the governing authorities that God has established.
What difference does being "saved by grace through faith"” make in how you live out your everyday life with the people that you bump into?
In the parable that has famously been called "the Good Samaritan", Jesus creates an opportunity for us see how He has taken care of us and how we have the opportunity to care for one another.
No matter how you got to where you currently are, what if your life has all been leading up to "for such a time as this"?
Faith in God does not guarantee an absence of conflict. It guarantees more than enough grace in the conflict.
The Bible teaches that just because we can't see what God is doing, doesn't mean He isn't doing something and whatever God is doing is good.
Nothing can stop God from accomplishing His will but lots of things can stop us from having the life God makes available to us.
God can use anyone that He chooses, to do anything that He chooses for them to do, because God looks at the heart, not the external qualifications that we typically do.
The most important thing that a church will ever do is announce that it is possible to be saved by grace through faith in Jesus. After that, all things are now possible.
While it "takes a village to raise a child", nothing will ever replace the role of a parent in the life of their child.
God has not been silent about how marriage works best. It is up to us to pursue His plan or not.
There are two primary threats to our marriages: what we bring in from before we are married and what we allow in after we are married.
The reason that marriage and gender are under such attack in today's world is the same reason that they have been under attack since the beginning of time.
Too many of us have surrendered pieces of our lives and we don't know how to get them back.
When Jesus rose from the dead, He proved that He will be able to keep His promise to give us an unshakable life inside of His Kingdom.
Everybody has a faith system that they lean their lives against. Some hold up. Some fall apart.
Confidence in yourself grows only when confidence in God grows. But how is that possible?
Jesus redeems (purchases) us out of slavery and into freedom. But, it is possible to BE free, and not ACT free.
Under the New Covenant, King Jesus gives us the power to put our faith into action and crush the enemy.
Jesus, as our Great High Priest, brings us into a right relationship with God the Father, and we find rest.
Many of us walk around with a profound sense of shame from the things we've done, the things we didn't do or the things done to us. How does Jesus remove our shame and make us clean?
Much of our lives are marked by a distinct sense of separation from our Creator. We might believe that He exists, but it feels like He is distant or like there is something in the way. What we need is someone to remove the wall, to take us where we could not go on our own. In this series we will explore some of the most significant things we find when Jesus takes us "behind the curtain" that separates us from living in a relationship with our Creator.
Jesus taught that everything that we do to or with our bodies on the outside is a statement about what is going on inside our heart.
We must take an honest look at who we have invited to speak into our lives and shape our decisions.
Today, we will put our treasure (money) under review and the role that it can and can't play in our lives if we want to end up with what God described as a "life that is truly life" and not something very different.
Actions reveal what we truly believe. But, what if what we truly believe isn't true? Especially when it comes to who we believe that God is and who we believe that we are to God.
At the beginning of each year many of us focus on what lies ahead, what we want to accomplish or do in the future but it's vital that if we want the future to look any different from the past we must be willing to put our lives "under review." We have to look back before we can move forward.
Our final stop this Christmas weekend is the dining room where we'll look at the idea of "Food reflects a true theology of grace."
If a home is to survive the storms of "not enough time, not enough money, too much to do", Jesus teaches a principle of intentionally making room for someone else in your life that He really cares about.
Most of the time, our problem is not what happens IN the bedroom, as much as everything that we bring INTO the bedroom with us.
Parents are charged with the task of training their children to become the kind of people who are right at home in God's kingdom.
The "Living Room" is a symbol of "living together." The problem, though, is too many of us have settled for something much different than "living together."
A home that will not fall apart must have protection, clear boundaries and distinct roles for each member.
If you were to complete this mission statement regarding the CURRENT state of your home, what words would you use? "As for me and my house, we ..."
Because of what Jesus has done for us we believe the most loving thing we can do for others is to go to them and invite them to come and see who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for them.
Using our spiritual gifts, talents, abilities, resources, passions and creativity, we believe that it is our role and responsibility to create excellent environments and eliminate any and all obstacles so that people have the best opportunity to encounter (bump into) Jesus so that He can do what only He can do.
We are committed to being the kind of people who reflect both the purpose and the personality of Jesus by leveraging the gifts Jesus has given us for the benefit of others both inside the church and outside the church.
We believe that living life together in a safe "me too" community is the best opportunity for pursuing truth and grace through intentional apprenticeship to Jesus.
We believe that following Jesus involves implementing a strategy to enthrall yourself with God and eliminate any obstacles or responses that stand against God's good intentions for you.
No matter what you have done wrong, we believe that by grace through faith in Jesus alone, it is still possible to be reconnected back into an intimate relationship with God.
The Bible is God's Word and it is our authority for life. If we will adjust our lives (submit) to it, we will find a better way to live.
A man wisely engages in all that God has commanded him to do, empowered by the Grace of God.
A man is willing to perish to his own wants and desires to provide and protect the needs of others.
A man of honor spends his life on the things and people that matter most as God defines "most important."
Before anything else is in place, courageous submission to God's Word, even when it is hard, painful and inconvenient, must be the first characteristic in a man's life.
In this introductory message, Jim explains why we are doing another series on this particular subject.
Since the beginning of time, God has been doing completely impossible things in the hearts of completely average people like us. He won't stop now.
Today we will take a time out to rethink and remember communion, a symbol of the event that made it possible for us to be free from sin and death to live everyday in the kingdom of the heavens.
The road to life, a life that bears fruit, a house that stands up, is a life that puts into practice (action) what Jesus says is right, true and better.
Jesus's definition of the Gospel, His message of "good news," was simply this: the Kingdom of the heavens is here and is available to any and all who will believe.
Right judgment is the ability to correctly judge a situation or a behavior without condemning people.
If we trust Jesus enough to remove our sins and reconnect us back to God, why do we not trust Him to be able to tell us the best way to live our entire lives?
The conventional wisdom of Jesus' day was that there were three big things someone had to do well in order to be good, to be enough. Jesus turns all three of them upside down and inside out.
While it's never "right" to do something wrong, NOT doing "wrong" things does not necessarily make a person "right."
In the kingdom of the heavens, Jesus is clear that we can expect all kinds of difficulties, but we don't have to be afraid of them.
The kind of king always determines the kind of kingdom, who is a part of it, and how it works.
If we believed that God's Kingdom was right here and available to anyone regardless of the circumstances of their life, good or bad... that belief, put into practice, would change everything.
Everyone has a strategy for life and that strategy will determine the direction of a person's life and how a person's life stands up under the storms of life WHEN they come.
Would your strategy for how you lived your life change if you really believed the same things Jesus believed?
There has to be a better way to live than continuing the cycle of "hurt people hurt people." Nothing changes until something changes INSIDE of a person, redefining what KIND of person they are. Once that happens, all things become possible.
What "kind" of people do we find in the bloodline of Jesus and what difference does that make today in people like us?