First Methodist Carrollton: Recent Episodes
First Methodist Carrollton
God calls us friends, not just servants, so we can be together in the Church for the world.
Our Youth Pastor, Tim Thompson, starts off the new year by celebrating Epiphany and teaching on the three magi and King Herod.
The resurrection demonstrates four sweeping principles that affect all of life: truth is stronger than falsehood, good is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hatred, and life is stronger than death.
Jesus came to set us free from the chains of this life to live fully in God's presence.
Creation continues to exist because it is sustained by the power of the personal God who created it.
As we have been love and accepted, we need to love and accept each other. This is the way to a full and meaningful life.
Those who walk in this light discover lives that are knit together by God's forgiveness and redemption.
The worry of keeping up with everything is poison to our souls, but Jesus wants us to know we are not alone.
In God’s family you are connected to every other believer, and we will belong to each other for eternity.
For the godly things in our heritage, we give thanks. For the not-so-good things, we ask God to break the pattern.
On this Mother's Day as we honor our mothers, also remember the spiritual support of God that is passed from generation to the next through the eternal family of God.
The closer we walk with God, the clearer we can see and experience the goodness of God.
God could have removed free will and solved the problem, but not only would that close the gates of hell, it would have destroyed our ability to live as children of God.
Easter sings of what Christ is doing in every situation to bring something more wonderful than we could ever imagine.
On the night he was betrayed, he took time to mark what he was doing with a meal that would remind us the forgiveness and grace that God poured out through Jesus Christ
We care about missions because God cares about missions. It’s His mission, and He lets us participate with Him. God’s ultimate goal is for every tribe, every tongue, every people group to be represented before the throne in heaven, worshipping together.
We can move beyond what others think about us to claim the person God has created us to be.
We can take the steps to tear down the spiritual dams that separate us from the living water of Jesus.
There is no limit to what God can do with the person who completely, without reservation offers themselves to God through Jesus Christ.
James make the point that when we proclaim faith and accept Jesus as Lord of our lives, our behavior changes. Commitment is a life long journey of growth development.
Christian maturity is a process of growth and development. We need to both coach others and be coached to grow in faith.
The first step in finding our place is to remember we all have a place; we all have a job; we all are on the same mission.
God reminds us in the most loving ways, that all of creation, all we have, all we own, comes from God.
In the Lord's Prayer when we pray: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," we are not only praying for a way out of the holes of life but asking God for the deliverance to never fall in them.
Both are critical needs for every person: to be forgiven of our failures and separation from God and to follow God's example by forgiving others.
When we pray for God’s provision in faith, asking God for help, we give our control and our worries to God.
We are praying that the things of heaven will come to be on earth. How many of us pray this prayer with confidence and hope for the Kingdom of God that is both now and in the future?
The Lord’s Prayer is about seeking God’s will. The importance of prayer is listening as well as asking. It is an alignment of our wills with God's will for our lives.
Jesus calls us to live not for ourselves but for others - not only on an individual level, but to change society as we share and serve the good news of God's love.
So Jesus uses the parable of the landowner to address the generosity of God’s grace that goes beyond what we deserve. At the same time Jesus points the way to what is really important in this life.
Do we value Jesus as much as the woman who poured out perfume worth a year's wages? Are we willing to offer ourselves fully to Him?
God has a different measure for success. It is not always the first who gains the place of honor in God’s Kingdom. God examines the heart, the passion, and the effort of the soul. This is where God’s victory lies.
Sometimes we need community to help unbind our wounds so we can fully walk in the freedom and new life God has given us.
Martha and Mary told Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died," but they still trusted him even in the midst of their pain and grief, just as we need to do when we don't see the healing or redemption we're...
Just like the Good Samaritan bound up the wounds of the Israelite, we are called to receive healing from God and be agents of healing for others.
Pastor John Allen, youth pastor Josh Crawford, and senior graduates Noah Bales and Cristian Palacios dialog about life and faith.
We are not like the other organizations in our community. How we do what we do is as important as what we do. Our connected community should reflect the claim that God has put on us through Christ.
The truth of this life is that we are lost. We cannot save ourselves. We don’t deserve the grace and mercy of God. But we were created for a relationship with God. And nothing will be held back when it comes to God’s grace.
The writer of Hebrews uses the image of running a race to give us direction for our life as a fully developing disciple of Jesus Christ.
Pastor John Allen and District Superintendent Ron Henderson talk about racism, systemic injustice, and ways the church can help change our culture.
It is clear our culture has deep-seated problems, and we all have different opinions on how to solve them. But for the Church to make a difference with issues of racism and injustice, we need to do justice, love mercy, and humbly walk in step with God.
In times of turmoil, perhaps we should ask the same question the new believers asked the apostles at Pentecost: "What shall we do?" and look for the new ways God is moving among us today.
Jeremiah gives us a promise, perspective and a blueprint for finding our way when times are tough and unexpected.
Jesus both lived and taught servant leadership. He expected no honors. He needed no compliments. He desired no position of authority. Jesus knew who He was.
While our identity comes from our parents, from our family, our true identity is found in God. He calls us His own. He calls us by name.
We need God-led leaders. Leaders with a heart for others, praying first, leading with humility, working for the common good, and single minded in working for what God wants.
In crisis, the most asked question begins with “Why?” Why is this happening? Why me? Why now? Instead, the greatest question we can ask is “What is God going to do with this?”
Like traveling in a canoe, we keep going, navigating the rapids that are ahead of us, depending on Christ Jesus as our guide, keeping our eyes ahead to what God is doing, and staying on our knees in obedience.
Jesus is calling us by name on this Day of Resurrection. Every day is resurrection day. Every day Jesus calls us by name. Calling us to be the person God has made us to be
At the Passover Parade, people laid down palm branches and their coats. What will you lay down before the King of Kings?
Hope is contagious. Now is the time to say with the ship. Hang on to the direction and life vest of our lives together. We may be separated and isolated, but we are joined through God’s spirit through our hearts.
Jesus stands before you today and asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” You can’t pray specifically until you are willing to admit your point of need.
Jesus asks two questions that are eternal in nature. The first question has to do with what others say about Jesus. The second has to do with our personal opinion of who Jesus is.
We can all participate - 100% - in God's mission with the habits of praying, giving, going, and welcoming.
Because of God's great love for us, we want to share it with others - the people in God's family who don't even know it yet.
We can trust the Bible because it has historical confirmation, textual accuracy, and it has the power to change our lives.
God wants to connect with us. Jesus uses the metaphor of a vine with branches. Jesus is the vine; we are the branches. As we are connected to the vine, so we received the life giving spirit of God through Christ.
So much of what people say about the church today is true. We can be judgmental. We can be hypocritical. For all our faults, we are the church. At our best, filled with the Holy Spirit, we are a place of growth, renewal and redemption.
Let’s look at what is forgiveness. First: what is not forgiveness. Second: our need to forgive. Third: How can we find true forgiveness for others?
The world is broken, but God suffers with us. Christ, the eternal Son of God, has lived on earth as a human being and has endured hunger, thirst, temptation, shame, persecution, nakedness, bereavement, betrayal, mockery, injustice, and death - and He...
The Spirit of God empowers us to take down strongholds and change as we surrender to God and surround ourselves with community.
The best gift we could ever receive is Jesus coming to dwell among us, both as a baby and when He will return and make all things new.
We are invited into obedience, like Joseph, with the same promise: as we obey, we will know the joy of participating with the God of the Universe in His incredible plan of salvation.
God takes ordinary people like you and like me and God calls us to share an extraordinary message of love, grace and mercy that begins with the birth of the Savior.
God can do far more than we can ask or imagine - we just have to prepare the way and receive Him.
There are great benefits to being grateful, and God gives us grace as we pray and give thanks in everything.
What if we saw the church and its future as Jesus sees? It’s not anything new. But it will be if it's all we do. We will pray. We will worship. We will teach. We will serve. We will share the good news of Jesus.
To pray in Jesus' name is to pray with confidence that God is at work, no matter the answer to our prayers.
Giving is about being obedient, putting God first in our finances and training our hearts to trust Him at His word.
God chooses to use ordinary people like you and me. God touches us, changes us, gives us hope and then He sends us out.
When we are persecuted, we should recognize the source, refuse to retaliate, respond positively, and recognize that persecution is only temporary and there is a reward for those who follow Jesus faithfully.
Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, to work for the wholeness of others and the transformation of our world's systems of hate and injustice.
People with a pure heart will continuously see God at work in their lives now and in the future.
True Righteousness = A Right Relationship with God and as we show mercy, our hearts are open to receive mercy.
Meekness is not weakness, but strength under control that enables us to be content in all circumstances.
We have to admit our deep need of God (poor in spirit) and truly regret and repent of our sin (mourn) to enter the kingdom of heaven and allow God to heal and restore us.
We have to remember we're in a battle, and we need to keep our priorities straight, as we pray and repent and turn back towards God.
We cannot wait for a crisis to begin prayer, but it should be the foundation of our lives. Prayer is the practice of becoming familiar with the hand of God.
As we remember what Jesus did for us, we can become people of encouragement and live out our faith - which is what really makes communion matter.
Peter's confession, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God," is the foundation and the reason why church matters.
There are stages as we grow in faith and trust that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
When we admit who we are and submit to whose we are, we can embrace God's new way of life and receive His grace.
Bread in our hands might not be much, but in Jesus' hands, a few loaves can feed thousands.
The change of leadership the Israelites experienced from Moses to Joshua must have been quite traumatic. But it was probably no more traumatic than the transition many churches have to make after a long pastorate. This morning, I want to share with...
As we remember what Jesus did through his death, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we are empowered to witness, pray, and receive healing.
Today is Confirmation Sunday. This morning we’ll be confirming our confirmands. One of the things these confirmands have done is examined the Christian faith. Now I would invite each of you confirmands to examine yourselves to see if Christ is present...
We are called to be faithful in love of God and neighbor so that we may take hold of the life that is truly life.
The Good News of Easter is that we needn’t fear the future. In His company, we’ll be more than conquerors!
As we think about Jesus coming down the road to Jerusalem, we must be aware of the decisions we are forced to make.
We all shed tears. Jesus knew what it was to shed tears, but he promises us a kingdom where tears of sorrow will never be shed again. Do you believe this?
To get to heaven, everyone needs the ticket of God's salvation in Jesus, and then we do everything we can to help others know Jesus, too, like what is happening now in Cambodia.
An attitude of gratitude can sweeten the sourest of situations, it can strengthen us to endure the worst of calamities, and it can help us find something good in even the most miserable of circumstances.
One of the hardest tasks any of us has is to forgive someone who has hurt us. But Jesus offered a new teaching on forgiveness.
Encouragement is the key. We encourage others when we stand with them in their challenges, never minimize their problems, and always maximize the power available to them.
Paul speaks a lot about discipline in 2 Timothy. He uses three guiding images at the beginning of chapter two that are great to use in organizing our thoughts. In 2 Timothy 2:3-6, he speaks of a good soldier, a competitive athlete, and a hardworking...
Communication is an important component for our spiritual vitality and relationships. The question though, is not so much the importance as the improvement of communication. There are three major steps James suggests we can take to improve our...
Building balance in our lives is more than something that’s nice. It’s necessary for anyone who faces daily demands in life.
The promise of Love is fulfilled because God has come into our world and because people’s lives are changed by Christ’s love.
Christ is the fulfillment of hope and through him we can be a people of hope. The hopeless, the hoping, and the hopeful: in which group do we fit?
Sometimes our expectations for life can lead to disappointment or brokenness. When we fully surrender and let Jesus be Lord of all, we can view life through God's perspective and let Him reign in our lives.
There’s a joy that comes when we place Christ first over our talents, our time, and our treasure.
The Purposeful Use of Our TIME means…Time to Treasure, Time to Invest, Time to Manage, Time to Expect. Isn’t it about time that we put God first?
We can purposefully use our talent for God's glory, or we can refuse it, and hide it. What will we do with our talent? Only we can decide.
Civility comes from kindness. Be kind to one another by respecting yourself, making sacrifices for others, practicing the Golden Rule and the 90% Rule, and sharing God’s kindness in our daily relationships with others.
Memory invites us to participate in the present and propels us forward to claim the future. We are what we remember.
All of our lives experience interim periods, and as we experience an interim time as a church, we continue to do what God has called us to do.
In wrapping up 40 years of official ministry, Doug reflects on teaching the children for the church to continue going and thriving in the name of Christ.
In times of change and transition, we stand strong, we stand in prayer, and we remain faithful to what God has called us to do.
As Methodists, we celebrate God's lavish grace, sanctification and holiness, practical acts of mercy and justice, and the sacraments of baptism and communion.
When we love God first and love Him more than anything else, we can rightly love the other people and things in our lives.
God has more for us than just going to heaven - He wants to make us perfect in love as we surrender and walk with Him every day of our lives.
Christian perfection is not about doing everything perfectly, but having a heart that is fully surrendered to the grace and love of God. Are you on an active trajectory to be as close to God as you can possibly be?
The 19 questions that have been asked of Methodist pastors for 200 years before ordination is a great way to explore what it really means to follow Jesus and be a Christian.
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of who God is and how He never changes, no matter what is happening around us.
The stories of God's redemption in Cambodia are just like the book of Acts, and God uses the obedience of His people.
From joy in jail to a joyful church, Philippi shows us how to cultivate joy like Jesus.
In order for us to be like the church in the book of Acts, we have to be willing to obey, forgive, and pray like they did.
The story of God is our family legacy, and we get to tell the stories to the next generation.The communion liturgy is one way we get to participate in and share God's story.
The early Church exploded as they went forth in the Name of Jesus - the God who always has been, is, and always will be I AM.
God doesn't want us to feel shame over sin or ignore sin altogether. When we face our sin and find freedom through Jesus, we can ascend to be the people God made us to be.
When we experience Jesus, the power of the gospel, the good news, should explode forth from our lives and impact the world around us.
As the disciples were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, they gathered in community for encouragement and for more effective mission so the gospel could go forth.
Pentecost should be celebrated just as much as Christmas or Easter, because the power of the Holy Spirit is just as essential to living the Christian life.
Confirmation is a time for our students to profess their faith, and we too remember our vows and the work of God that saves us.
We experience joy in Holy Communion because it is rooted in history, it is the sign of a new covenant, and it gives hope as we anticipate Jesus' return.
The resurrection narratives give us hope and inspire us to share the truth we have received with others.
Because of the resurrection, our lives can be lived with great expectations of joy - every single day.
Just like Jesus restored Peter, God wants to bring healing and restoration to our lives so we can follow Him.
The resurrection of Jesus fills us with hope and joy, no matter what our circumstances are!
To follow Jesus and live the Christian life, we must believe in Him, and keep believing, even when it is hard to do.
Jesus spent much of His ministry crossing barriers between different types of people, and to follow Him, we must be willing to do the same.
Some of Jesus' most important teachings are the things He said in His final weeks with His disciples.
Just as Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, He calls us to serve others on the road trip we call life.
Just as you make preparations for a road trip, Jesus was preparing for His final journey to Jerusalem long before He departed.
We must know who we are in Christ before we can effectively reach out to anyone else around us.
God's story doesn't end with us going to heaven when we die, but the restoration of all things in the New Heavens and New Earth.
Redemption encompasses God's rescue plan for the world from the moment of the fall until Jesus returns and restores all things.
To understand God's story, we must understand how sin entered the world and how evil permeates each of our hearts and the fabric of our world.
As we look at God's story, the one big story of the Bible, we start with creation, as God made everything good out of His overflowing love.
God is the great designer of the universe, and because we are made in His image, we can design solutions for our world, too.
Every earthly father remembers the first experience of holding their child, and that is a little glimpse of the love God the Father knew and expressed in sending Jesus to us.
There's no shortcut to peace with God, but it is available to us at any time through Jesus when we face the truth about ourselves, confess, and turn back to God.
God turns to us, again and again, ultimately by sending Jesus, and He invite us to turn back to Him.
Our identity ultimately comes from Jesus. As we see how He humbled Himself to become human, despite being King over all, we learn how to live.
Through the grace of God, we are made whole and holy as He works to sanctify us completely.
We are completely confident in our hope - Jesus - because He will never fail us and He will never leave us.
No one and nothing is beyond the ability of the Spirit of God to bring resurrection - even a valley of dry bones. By nature, because of the resurrection, Christians are hopeful people.
We're called to be teachable as we follow Jesus, just as He taught His disciples to follow Him.
Forgiveness is not a natural response, but Jesus empowers us to live and forgive supernaturally.
Just like Jesus, we need to choose to love people, uniting our head, heart, and hands, rather than just doing what we feel like doing.
Just like the church at Philadelphia, Jesus offers us an open door, and we have to choose to go through it to reach others with His love.
Rather than seeking power, we should seek to serve, just as Jesus did, no matter our age or our stage in life. Serving God and serving others allows us to thrive and find life more abundant than we could ask or imagine.
We have the best chance to thrive when our heads, hearts, and hands are working together to love and serve God and others.
One of the things God gave us to help us thrive is family, which can come in many forms other than a traditional immediate family.
We thrive most when we are in a community of believers we can trust and be trusted in as we serve God together.
As we start a series on Made To Thrive, Robert Shirley shares his story of overcoming trauma and abuse through God's healing and redemption.
Jesus has dreams for us and for this world that are beyond what we can ask or imagine, and until He returns and makes all things new in the New Heavens and New Earth, He calls us to live out of the hope of that day.
Jesus has great expectations for His people, not to cause guilt and shame, but to call them to live more powerfully than they think they can.
We need to know who Jesus is, not just the churchy answers, but also how people outside the Church perceive Him, so we can reveal who He really is.
Just like the Jews of the first century, our expectations of the Kingdom of God are often different the than the reality He offers us.
Just as God breathed upon Adam to make him alive, Jesus breathed on the apostles to give them the Spirit, and the same Spirit lives within us and enables us to do things greater than even Jesus did.
It can be hard to understand God as Father because of our earthly relationships, but the most important thing to understand about God is His unconditional love.
Our understanding of generosity stems from our understanding of God. God created us to be generous because God Himself is generous.
Jesus lived His life in grace and truth, and we must offer both to people, or we miss giving them the full gospel.
We are called to be faithful as Jesus was faithful, and that has a lot more to do with our relationships than with a list of "do"s and "don't"s.
We're all called to follow Jesus and be faithful to Him and His church through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and our witness.
We're called to live on mission with Jesus and prove our faith by our works. Sometimes we have to get in the wheelbarrow and start living our belief about Jesus.
During Holy Week, we see the fullness of God's love towards us - that Jesus would choose to become a man like us and suffer and die for us.
We are called to live fully "in Christ," in His power, and not try to live the Christian life in our own strength.
We don't like to talk about it, but hell is a real place, and 50% of our neighbors are headed there if we aren't willing to share the gospel with them.
All people are important to God, but the Church has a particular, urgent responsibility to take the Gospel to those who are unreached and have no access to the Gospel unless we go.
The Bible is one big story of God's love for us, and that story inspires all the other stories we love and inspires us to participate in what God is doing all around the world today.
Jesus expects us to be able to live like He did, following the commands of the Sermon on the Mount, and trying to become perfect in love, even when it is costly for us to love others.
The beatitudes are not things we are commanded to do, but rather a reflection of the reality we can experience in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus disrupted the routine of the first disciples when He called them, and often He does the same for us today.
New perspectives on life help us keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and give us hope to hold us like an anchor in the storm.
Just as Paul was thankful for the Corinthian church, Doug lists the reasons he is grateful for First Methodist Carrollton and the strengths we have to offer to our community.
Jesus was baptized not because He needed to be, but so He could demonstrate to us what righteousness is - living in relationship with the Father, knowing that He is pleased with us.
It's a difficult passage, but Herod's slaughter of the baby boys and the flight to Egypt is still part of the Christmas story.
The challenge of Christmas is that God calls us to reach out in love to others, just as He did for us by coming to earth.
God has given us a banner of love, and we need to wave it and raise the standard so people can know His love and hope.
God is the only one who can truly fill us and give us the peace we are seeking, and allow us to bring peace to the broken world around us.
Our whole lives should be lived out of thankfulness, and we are blessed with the opportunity to bless others, even as God wants to bless us.
God calls us to be wise in how we spend our lives and our money, so we can know the abundant life He wants to give us.
We remember the lives of the saints who have gone before us and all those who have impacted our lives, so we can continue their legacy and follow Jesus as they did.
Many of us would like to know with the rich young ruler what we must do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus makes it clear - we must give God everything we have and are and make Him the central focus of our lives.
Just like Zaccheus, we find that salvation is free, but it costs us something to lay down our identity and follow Jesus.
We are called to be faithful and pray without ceasing, even when the world has no reason to hope.
Jesus is looking for those whose lives have been transformed by gratitude, like the one leper who returned to thank Him while the other 9 went on.
The disciples asked Jesus for more faith, but He told them they already had enough - they just needed to put it into action.
Luke 16 encourages us to view our resources from a heavenly perspective and use what we have to make an eternal impact.
The prodigal son parable is not a story about repentance; it's a story about being being found. It's a story about God: searching, celebrating, restoring.
In order to love like Jesus, we have to go and seek the lost, and not expect them to come to us.
God calls us to love Him so much more than anything else, that our love for other things looks like hate in comparison as we lay down our idols and follow Him.
The Church today has to struggle with how we can become more humble, more servant-minded, instead of asking God to bless us.
We unroll our new sermon series, Lessons In Luke, and look to the gospel of Luke to visit some lesser known passages and how they should impact our ministry.
In times of change and uncertainty, we build our lives on Jesus, who will never be shaken. We continue to stand, in humbleness and repentance, as the church of Jesus Christ in a broken world.
On Father's Day, we look to the one who is, was, and will always be the Good Good Father to us all.
We hear about what we should do when we're feeling left behind, by looking to when Jesus was preparing the disciples.
We look to when Jesus raised the widow's son back to life, and what it means for us today.
God uses the guilt we feel over sin to move us into forgiveness, and loves us enough to give us a new calling and identity, just like Jesus did with Peter on the beach.
Dianne Miller shares her story of how God has shaped her life and called her in a different direction than she expected
Easter is over, so what now? We look to the time after the resurrection when Thomas wasn't initially convinced that Jesus had visited.
We wrap up our "The Divergent Jesus" series this morning as Doug delves into who Jesus really is/was.
We continue in our series, The Divergent Jesus, and look at how God was both fully human and fully God.
On this communion Sunday, we look to how Jesus walked and talked different than the world around Him and what that means to us.
Doug speaks into what it would look like to love those who oppose us and be perfect like Jesus.
Just as Jesus set His face like flint to go to Jerusalem, so we too are called to do hard things to advance the Kingdom of God.
We look to when Jesus was tempted by the enemy and prepare ourselves for the Lenten season.
There are a lot of voices that are fighting for attention in our lives - how do we discern God's voice?
Bud Miller asks us are we people who "check" church off our list, or are we steadfast disciples of the living God.
Hear how Jesus tells us and shows us how to love our enemies, and offer them not only our shirt but our coat as well.
Jesus is better than anything we could imagine Him, and we remember His sacrifice for us and our salvation when we take communion.
Jesus displayed empathy in almost all of His interactions, and we too need to be empathetic if we want to follow Jesus and love others well.
When Jesus was tested in the wilderness, He choose to rely on God and use self awareness to think rationally rather than letting His emotions control His actions. We too are called to use our God-given emotions well, by not letting them control us.
To be a disciple of Jesus, we must be willing to be open to Him, to follow Him, and to be transformed by Him.
The Holy Spirit did tremendous things through the early church, but there were times of difficulty and hardship as well. Like them, we are called to press on, be in awe of God, and walk in love and forgiveness.
We're called to give glory to God in how we live our lives so the gospel can spread and multiple.
If you're open to it, and sometimes even if you're not, God will break down every thing in your life, good or bad, that gets in the way of his will.
As evangelicals, we believe we have been saved by God's initiative and we have surrendered to the lordship of Christ. Because we have been saved, we are called to seek out others who are coming to know God and walk with them on their journey to...
As the kids learned in VBS, God's power is strong enough to provide, heal, comfort, forgive, and love, but we also know that there are challenges we face as a result of living in a fallen world.
When there is trouble in the church, often the Spirit leads us towards solutions that are both/and, so we can reach the greatest number of people for the Kingdom.
Stephen was willing to give his life for Christ, and we should be willing to do the same.
Sin has consequences we all must face, but God calls us to willingly lay down our things and our lives to find true joy that comes from serving God and others.
God is still moving today like He did in the book of Acts, but you have to personally experience the Spirit and know Jesus before you experience abundant life and know the power of the Scriptures.
The Holy Spirit birthed the Church on Pentecost, and they were Spirit connected, Spirit led, and Spirit blessed as they witnessed to Christ in the world, and we are called to do the same.
It's important for us to know the season we're in as we faces changes in our lives, and to be faithful to sow seeds as we follow the Spirit in every season.
God sent His Spirit on Pentecost, in many languages, so that each person there could have the best chance at understanding the Gospel in a personal way. As the Spirit empowers the Church today, we too are called to present the Gospel in a personal way...
God reveals Himself to us through His word, but we are also called to reveal Jesus to the world through the way that we live.
The confirmands made a choice to follow Christ and become faithful members of the church today, but that choice is a choice we all have to make each and every day. We have to choose to be passionate followers of Jesus Christ.
It is important how we handle Scripture, because it is one of the most important ways God revealed Himself to us. Ultimately though, we study Scripture so we can know Jesus, the ultimate revelation of God.
It's time to roll up our sleeves and get involved in the work God is doing to build His kingdom here.
Christ is risen, but we still struggle to live the life God calls us to live and to love others as Jesus calls us to love them.
From Mark's account of the resurrection, we learn that faithfulness is difficult, forgiveness is real, and fear and astonishment is a regular part of living a faithful Christian life.
We have to take the journey to the cross with Jesus and choose to lay down our lives and love others before we can truly experience Easter.
God calls us to be people of prayer, so we can align our hearts with Him and do the mission He has called us to in reaching the world.
The cross is the center of the Christian faith - it means everything to those who believe. Because of the cross, Christians cannot hate anyone and should offer forgiveness to everyone.
God calls us to reach out and to do everything we can to reach one more person for Jesus.
Just like transformer toys, there is more to Jesus than meets the eye. We get a glimpse of that in the transfiguration, and we need to remember that picture because it shows us who Jesus really is - greater than anything we can imagine.
We forget God when times are good, and when times are bad, we forget we can trust God, but He offers us strength and rest when we trust in Him.
It is important that we not cause others to stumble as they seek God. We need to make every effort to welcome and befriend those that enter our church, and to do the same to our friends and neighbors that do not yet attend church.
God calls us to practice hospitality, by showing His love and getting to know the people around us.
Every human being is precious in God's sight and made in His image, so we have the responsibility to share God's love with them - whether they are on death row or not yet born or from a culture that does not have the gospel.
Joanna Hyatt, author of The Sex Talk: A Survival Guide for Parents, speaks to thousands of parents and youth each year to help them understand God's best plan for sex and marriage.
As we begin a new year celebrating Epiphany, we look forward to what God will be doing and how we can join him in His work.
God calls us to live life according to His ways and stay in rhythm with what He calls us to do.
Just as the angels brought the good news of Jesus' coming to Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds so long ago, we too are called to bring the message of Christmas to those around us.
Mary was at peace despite the crazy circumstances of her life, because she surrendered to the will of God for her life. Peace is possible when we admit we're sinners and trust the work of Christ to be our peace with God.
God delivered the Israelites from Egypt with a deliberate plan to protect them and to provide for their salvation and deliverance. We too must have a plan to reach out to those around us and show them God's salvation.
Just as God called Moses, God is calling each one of us, not as a demanding taskmaster, but as a loving Father who wants a relationship with us.
The story of Joseph illustrates the power of making choices, as Joseph was faithful in making many good choices, even when others around him did not.
We are called to live beyond ourselves, to let the Word of God change our lives and impact the world around us, even as we remember the saints who have gone on before us.
Generosity is something that is taught and learned, something we need to pass on to our children and grandchildren, because God has blessed us so that we may bless others and bring the people in our community to know Him.
Like the rich young ruler, we all have missing puzzle pieces in our lives. It's only when we fully surrender ourselves to God and put Him first in our lives that our puzzle makes sense.
Today’s world is more interconnected than ever before. With increased connectivity, however, comes an increased risk that you or someone in your family will fall victim to a cyber crime. The immediate and relative anonymity of the Internet creates an...
God called Moses to use the staff in his hand to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt, and God wants to use what's in your hand to do what He's calling you to do to reach out to the world around you.
God is calling us out of our comfort zones to be His people in the world and to draw other people to Him.
Sin entered the world with the sin of Adam and Eve, and each of us are sinful as well. We need to be saved from sin by the redeeming work of Jesus through His death and resurrection.
We don't know exactly how God made creation, but He made it all, which means as creatures we won't always understand everything He does. But God made us in His image to care for the earth, and all that He made is good!
Our salvation experience should not be a one time event that happened years ago. God is saving us day by day, as we allow Him to throw off the sin that entangles us, and that is the story we need to be living and sharing with others.
There are a lot of things in life we can worry and be anxious about, but God tells us not to worry because He goes with us in everything that we do.
We have to risk getting out of the boat and being a servant to others by sacrificing our time, talent, money, and even our lives to help others come to know Jesus.
God calls us to risk our lives in putting His kingdom first by being vulnerable, reaching out to others, and helping to establish the rule and reign of God in all areas of our lives, families, schools, and workplaces.
God calls us to give our best, not in our own strength, but by trusting Him and doing what He calls us to do in His strength.
In order to go where God is calling us, we have to get out of the boat, move beyond fear, and trust God as we make small changes to impact more people for the kingdom of God.
Just as Jesus is the greatest example of humility, we must humble ourselves and seek to serve others in our community who do not know Christ more than we serve ourselves within the church.
We need to have the courage to confess our sin to God and to one another to live as Jesus called us to live.
We need to be brave to share our faith with others and make disciples by sharing the Word, showing the Word, and teaching the Word as Jesus commands us in the Great Commission.
As we look ahead to where we're going as a church, a good place to start is connecting with a small group. Jesus began His ministry with a small group, and it is one of the best ways to make disciples.
Our love is not complete until we share it with others. We have to experience God's love and let it transform us so we can love and transform the world.
All week long, the kids at VBS remembered that Jesus loves us. It's a simple truth, but if we really understood how much God loves us, it would change how we live.
We will always struggle with sin, but we fight to be victorious sinners, conquering sin in many ways because of the blood and sacrifice Jesus has already completed for us.
Life will be hard at times, and sometimes things get worse before they get better, but we can be confident in God in the midst of the storms that we face.
Pentecost was an unique historical event, but because the Spirit dwells within each believer, the effects of Pentecost should be seen in our daily lives, as the Spirit moves and unites and draws people to Jesus.
Although we might have been born in the United States, as Christians, our true citizenship comes from the Kingdom of God. We are strangers in this world, and we must live different lives, trusting God to protect us as we live a life of obedience to Him.
Jesus wants to be the king of our hearts, and as we experience His love, we are to extend it to others.
It's not always easy being a disciple of Jesus, but when we stay connected to Him, like vines connected to the Branch, we receive all of the love, peace, and joy He offers to us.
Everything was done for the first disciples so that they might believe Jesus had really resurrected from the dead, because they had to pass it on to the next generation. We believe the generations of witness who have come before us, and we must pass...
The disciples on the road to Emmaus didn't recognize Jesus at first, but once they realized who He was, they felt their hearts burning to know Him and to tell others about Him, and we should feel the same way.
As the children's musical reminded us, heaven is a real place and Jesus has gone there to prepare a place for us. We are called not only to look forward to being in the presence of God forever, but invite other people to share in the good news of...
There is always hope because Jesus died and rose again. There is no reason to give up on anyone, because Christ can always redeem.
Just as Israel had different dreams when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, so we too often think differently than God does. But He calls us to dream with Him and join in His work of redeeming the world.
God can resurrect us, even though our lives and our world often resemble a valley of dry bones.
Life is not always easy, but God is with us, and we are called to sing out the song of what He has done for us and what He is doing in every season of our lives.
God uses the times we spend in the wilderness to sanctify us and make us more like Him.
All of the sin in our life is a result of idolatry, and the issues we struggle with stem from deeper heart issues. During Lent, we need to reflect and remove idols from our life as God reveals and convicts us of our heart issues.
Like Jesus, we will face times of testing and temptation, but God has given us the power to overcome temptation and walk in obedience to Him.
There are times we see the glimpses of eternity and God's glory, just as Peter, James, and John saw the transfigured Jesus, but we also need to come down off the mountain and live for the glory of God in our every day lives.
Fabian Martinez shares his story of growing up on the streets of Bogotá, Colombia and challenges us to reach out and share the love of God with the people around us.
To reach the nations for Christ, we must be willing to go out, observe, and to speak in context so they can understand the gospel.
God is counting on us to do his ministry and to reach people for him, but we need to be empowered to minister by the Holy Spirit and by being mentored in the church.
The first step in the discipleship path way is to engage those outside the church, but all of us need to be established in the faith at different points of our faith journey.
Jesus engaged the people around him by walking around and talking to them. We need to be willing to engage the people around us, talk to them, and invite them to church so they can encounter God.
It can be easy to get into the routine of a Christian life, but we need to step outside of our comfort zone and reach out to others to build up our church and to reach the people who don't know God's love.
Life is not always easy, but the Prince of Peace walks beside us and comforts us in our need.
Pastor Doug ushers in the Advent season with a message about "The Thrill of Hope" we have in the birth of Jesus.
Pastor Doug encourages us to be "kingdom people" by using all of our gifts as a blessing to one another and to God.
Pastor Doug challenges us to give of ourselves through our gifts. Each believer has gifts from the Holy Spirit and we are called to use them to serve.
Doug encourages us to steward our lives as worship to God, not just giving our time and money.
The Lord expects us to give back to Him out of what He has given us, and that starts with the tithe.
We need to understand the full message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and be willing to take it to the least of these to be good witnesses and build the Kingdom of God.
In order to be a witness, we must evaluate and understand where people are coming from, and prepare our hearts, before we can present a witness that can be heard.
When Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit they are empowered to witness to others.
The Psalmist struggled with the prosperity of the wicked, as we often do in a world that is not fair. But we cannot blame God for evil or destruction, and our perspective is changed when we come into His presence.
God calls us to live by faith and to step out and participate in what God is doing in our lives and in this church.
God cannot ignore the consequences of our sin, but He lavishes grace upon us and we respond by following Him.
As we are becoming mature believers in Christ, our lives need to be bearing fruit as we live in Christ.
After a week of standing strong at Kingdom Rock VBS, we look at what the Kingdom of God is like, and what it means to stand strong, even in the face of evil.
In his first Sunday at First Church, Doug Miller preaches on the importance of coming together in communion at the table of the Lord and casts vision for the future of First Church.
As we wrap up Mid-Winter Weekend, we look at the illustrations God uses to describe who He is and what we are called to do. God is our Strong Tower and Fortress, Jesus is the Foundation we build our lives upon, we must stand and Fight to do what God...
We run to many things besides Jesus, but we learn to make Jesus our default refuge by taking thoughts captive and renewing our minds to focus on Him.
Even when we're in the Strong Tower, we need healing for the wounds we have received. Jesus can heal us so that our scars remind us of His power and redemption instead of the pain.
This year's Mid-Winter Retreat had the theme of Strong Tower, and Sylas showed how Jesus is the only way to access the Strong Tower of God the Father.
On College Sunday, KJ Roelke speaks on entering the promised land and following God into the new year.
As we look towards a new year, Scott challenges us in love to follow God into the new things He has for First Church.
As Jeff preaches his last sermon while on staff at First Church, he emphasizes that the work that has happened is always because of God and not anything Jeff has done.
Jeff Dietz exhorts us to be the church and affect culture as we live, rather than expecting a top-down solution that meets our preferences and expectations.
Missionary Steve Bartel preaches about touching unlovable people, at home and around the world
A continuation of the morning's sermon titled "We Serve A Big God. Dream Big. Why Not?"
First of a series from 4 different pastors about the most important message they have to bring.