National Community Church Audio Podcast: Recent Episodes
National Community Church
Audio messages from National Community Church in Washington, DC. For more information please visit us at national.cc
What if your greatest shipwreck was actually God's greatest setup? Pastor Mark closes out the ACTS series by navigating Paul's harrowing storm in Acts 27—a voyage of hurricane-force winds, desperate prayers, and a miraculous revival on the island of Malta that nobody planned. With raw honesty about his own failed church plant and a postcard that changed everything, Pastor Mark reveals that faith is antifragile—strengthened, not shattered, by life's storms. Feeling lost at sea? Drop anchor in God's promises and pray for daylight. Watch this message now—you cannot afford to miss it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What if the very accusations meant to silence you became the stage God designed for you to speak? In a city where everything—from the chicken you eat to the car you drive—is politicized, Pastor Mark draws from Acts 24-26 to show that the early church faced the same exhausting spiral we do today: politicizing, polarizing, demonizing, dehumanizing. Standing before corrupt Governor Felix—a man drowning in moral compromise—Paul refused to pull punches or kiss the ring. Instead, he spoke directly about righteousness, self-control, and judgment, the very things Felix lacked. The antidote isn't louder arguments or sharper rhetoric—it's operating in the opposite spirit, speaking truth in love, and making much of Jesus, the One who answered empire not with a legion of angels, but with a towel, a donkey, and a cross. Don't shrink back. Listen deeply, love fiercely, and make Jesus impossible to ignore. In Jesus' name, amen. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What would it look like to stand on the steps of opposition, beaten and falsely accused, and still open your mouth to testify? Pastor Nina walks us through Acts 21–23, where a battered Paul—dragged from the Temple, nearly flogged, and eventually imprisoned for two years—never stops declaring who Jesus is and what He has done. Pastor Nina's distinctive insight is the difference between resilience and resolve: resilience helps us bounce back, but resolve—the firm, mind-set determination Paul embodied—keeps us moving forward even when the doors stay closed and the waiting feels endless. Ask the Lord for an anointing of resolve, renew your mind, and step boldly into every room He has placed you in—because what He has entrusted to you was never just for you. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What if the cracks in your life are actually the doorway to God's greatest power? Preaching through a personal ALS diagnosis, Pastor Robb draws from Acts 20 to deliver three urgent truths: don't shrink back from speaking truth with grace, trust the Spirit even when hardship lies ahead, and finish your race with a shout. Like Paul declaring "it is well" from prison, Pastor Robb models how broken people discover God's presence at their deepest pain. Don't miss this raw, faith-filled message—watch or listen now and be transformed. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Keep going - Don't quit! What if the very opposition threatening to break you is actually God's greatest gift? In Acts 19, the apostle Paul—stoned, imprisoned, and relentlessly opposed—refused to quit, instead detouring from the synagogue to a lecture hall where he taught daily for two years, ultimately reaching an entire region. Pastor Joshua vulnerably shares his own breaking point, sobbing on his bathroom floor during an anxiety attack, to remind us we're not alone in our struggle. If you're questioning your purpose or tempted to walk away, this message will reframe your resistance as divine invitation. Don't miss it—watch now. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Are you straining with everything you have against an immovable stone, wondering why nothing shifts? Pastor Joel unpacks Acts 18, where a battered, exhausted Paul—beaten, mocked, and at his wit's end—receives a transforming word from God: "Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking. I am with you." That single word reignited Paul for another year and a half. Like the boy who forgot to ask his father for help, we often forget whose strength we carry. Whether you're navigating your own quiet battles or the challenges this life brings to your front door, this message will renew your courage—don't miss it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What are you really worshiping? Every city has its idols. Athens had temples to gods of wisdom, power, and victory. We have our own. The idol of intellect. The idol of political power. The idol of approval. An idol is anything you trust more than God, fear more than God, or love more than God. And here is the sobering truth from Psalm 115: you become what you worship. The unknown God of ancient Athens is not unknown anymore. He has a name. Are you ready to find out what it means to worship Him alone? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What if the closed doors in your life are not obstacles but redirections? Paul walked a thousand miles with no clear destination, only to discover that God had been steering him somewhere better the whole time. The detours are not deterrents; they are the path. What door has God been closing in your life lately, and what if He is actually pointing you somewhere greater? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What if the early church's biggest conflicts were actually a blueprint for ours? The apostles disagreed. Leaders parted ways. False teaching crept in. And yet, nothing stopped the mission. In the essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love. Are you majoring in minors and losing sight of the main thing? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Falling is an event. Defeat is a state of mind. Paul was stoned, left for dead, and still got back up and walked back into the city that tried to destroy him. What would it look like for you to get back up this week? If you still have breath, God still has purpose. You are not knocked out. You are more than a conqueror. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Unity across culture, class, race, social status, and nationality serves as proof that God is in the midst. The early church at Antioch brought together former terrorists, refugees, immigrants, and royalty under one roof. What made this impossible unity possible? The Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts working together. Listen to this episode and discern how God's power can work through your ordinary life to create extraordinary impact. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Some of the early church was more surprised by answered prayer than unanswered prayer. Explore the mystery of answered prayer through the contrasting fates of apostles James and Peter, and understand why some prayers receive different outcomes while maintaining faith in God's sovereignty. This message addresses spiritual warfare, the role of angels in Christian life, divine protection, miraculous intervention, and how to live with greater awareness of spiritual realities. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What if the label meant to mock you becomes the one that marks you for greatness? The early Christians were first called that name as an insult, but they wore it like a crown. What labels are you letting define you that God wants to reorder? Your identity is not what you lost, what you did, or what they called you. If you belong to Christ, that changes everything. What would shift in your life if child of God became your first label? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Life often applies pressure when we least expect it, but God can use even difficult circumstances to accomplish beautiful purposes. In this episode, Dr. Dick Foth highlights the pattern we see in Acts 8 of pressure on the early church leading to the exercise of God's power. Persecution scattered the early believers from Jerusalem, forcing them to spread the gospel beyond their comfort zone. Philip's ministry in Samaria brought healing and great joy to a despised people group, while his encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch demonstrated how God orchestrates divine appointments. Are you willing to let God turn the pressure in your life into His power? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Pastor Nina continues our Acts series unpacking the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They both wanted to look generous without the cost of true sacrifice. Their story reveals a sobering truth: God takes sacred things seriously. What sacred responsibilities has God entrusted to you, and are you stewarding them with integrity or just trying to look good? Sometimes our most painful moments are when God releases the greatest growth. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What if the miracle you've been praying for is just one divine encounter away? In Acts 3, a man lame from birth sits outside the temple gate until Peter and John make life-changing eye contact and declare, "In the name of Jesus, walk!" Pastor Mark reveals how this first post-ascension miracle shows us that God still heals broken bodies, minds, and hearts today. Through powerful testimonies—including his own asthma healing and staff member Stephanie's miraculous recovery from a devastating car accident—this message challenges us to seek healing through every means while boldly believing God for the impossible. Don't miss this faith-stirring call to be conduits of God's healing power in a hurting world. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What if everything you're longing for is just one "suddenly" moment away? Pastor Heather reveals how the day of Pentecost wasn't just ancient history—it was the explosive reversal of humanity's greatest failure at the Tower of Babel, where God scattered the nations in confusion but promised to unite them in blessing. Through wind, fire, and miraculous languages, the Holy Spirit launched a movement that transforms ordinary people into signposts of God's coming kingdom. Whether you're asking "How long?" in your waiting or "What does this mean?" in your seeking, this message ignites hope that the same Spirit who filled 120 believers still moves today. Don't miss this life-changing encounter—watch now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What if the same power that launched the early church is waiting to ignite your life today? Pastor Joel unveils Acts as a 20-week adventure through the explosive birth of Christianity—from Peter's transformation after denying Christ three times to Paul's radical conversion on Damascus road. Pastor Joel challenges us to stop dwelling in excuses and step into God's promise: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you" (Acts 1:8), emphasizing that we need God's presence before pursuing His plans. Don't miss this prophetic encouragement for our church and city—dive in now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
POWER & GLORY FOREVER. Dr. Dick Foth concludes our "As It Is in Heaven" series. Key scripture: Matthew 6.13. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
TEMPTATION & EVIL. Pastor Robb Schmidgall continues our "As It Is in Heaven" series. Key scripture: Matthew 6.13. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES. Pastor Mark Batterson continues our "As It Is in Heaven" series. Key scripture: Matthew 6:12. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
OUR DAILY BREAD. Pastor Joel Schmidgall continues our "As It Is in Heaven" series. Key scripture: Matthew 6:11. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
THY KINGDOM COME. Pastor Mark Batterson continues our "As It Is in Heaven" series. Key scripture: Matthew 16: 13-16. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
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Pastor Mark wraps up our "By Faith" series in Hebrews 11 with a focus on verses 34-40. Between infertility, poverty, anxiety, disability, loneliness, sickness, persecution, depression, a difficult divorce, a debilitating disease, a tragic death, he sums up the passage with this: Life is unfair, then we die. We may not get all the answers we want in difficult circumstances but regardless we look to Christ who persevered through suffering for the joy set before him. Therefore we ought to, "Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
In the world of increased digital connections, we also see a decrease in meaningful connections with our local communities. This matters for the body of the Christ because though following Jesus is a personal decision, it is ultimately a communal practice. Listen as Pastor Joshua Symonette, gives encouragement and biblical guidance for how we can reorient our lives to prioritize those around use. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
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Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
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God calls us to Himself, the most stable, certain, freeing place we can be. Yet when we encounter obstacles we sometimes hesitate to lead with faith and obedience to God. Dr. Dick Foth points us to Hebrews 11, using Abraham as an example of how we are to trust God through uncertainty. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
The phrase "by faith" is repeated eighteen times in Hebrews 11. Sixteen of those are biographical — "by faith, Noah", "by faith, Moses", "by faith, Abraham". All of those "by faith" statements are as unique as Noah, Moses, and Abraham. The same is true of you. Listen as Pastor Mark unpacks how to cultivate faith with your fingerprint on it. Not your parent's faith. Not your pastor's faith but yours! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What step of obedience is God prompting you to take by faith today? It is easy to understand life through what we can see with our physical eyes. However, we see examples from Moses for how to see by faith in God's wisdom and understand which is far greater than our understanding. Pastor Joel draws out four challenges from Moses' journey with the Israelites, to help us see our world through the eyes of faith. Consider how your perception changes as you engage each challenge! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Faith has no finish line—you never arrive. Faith is use it or lose it. If you don’t stretch your faith, it atrophies. How do you stretch? You believe God for greater things! The way you steward a miracle is by believing God for even bigger and better miracles. That’s how you go from faith to faith. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
God’s Spirit is not constricted by time and place. He reaches us in the deepest and farthest places. Though we sometimes get to do specific actions by the power of the Holy Spirit, we always get to be people who demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit in our character. Listen as Dr. Dick Foth illustrates, through stories, how we can consider this in our daily lives. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step. The first step is when and where miracles happen. Those are the days when decades happen. We often get stuck waiting for God to give us more information, but that’s when we need to go, set, ready! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
We might feel our imperfections or difficulties disqualify us from being used powerfully by God, but the word of God reminds us that God’s Spirit often moves most powerfully in our weaknesses and difficult circumstances. He turns what we perceive as imperfections into powerful tools for His purpose. Listen as Pastor Collins uses the life of Joseph in Genesis as an example to illustrate this. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
What does it look like when the Holy Spirit shows up in your everyday life? Not just in the big moments, but in the normal ones too. Listen as Annie F. Downs bring us back to the first time we see the Holy Spirit in Genesis 1. She draws out how we can be more attentive to daily moments when God's Spirit is "hovering" over us. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Without the Holy Spirit, good luck! With the Holy Spirit? All bets are off and all things are possible! Not only is the Holy Spirit interceding for you, Jesus is advocating on your behalf. Two-thirds of the Trinity is interceding to the other third of the Trinity on your behalf. That’s where Holy Confidence comes from. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Before God does something through you, often times he will do something in you. Before Peter and John saw the lame man healed in Acts 3, Acts 2 happened. They sought the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room, and the Spirit showed up, filled them up and sent them out. Listen as Pastor Joel walks through the story in Acts 3 to unpack 6 challenges in following a Holy Spirit prompt. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Anything less than Spirit-filled and Spirit-led is dead religion. The true adventure begins when we starting living the Spirit-led life. It’s anything but boring! The Spirit gives us revelation beyond human knowledge, anointing beyond human ability, and power beyond human strength. Without the Holy Spirit, most of us are below average. With the Holy Spirit, all things are possible! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
When Jesus walked out of the tomb, the word impossible was deleted from the dictionary. All bets are off. All things are possible. Why? The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us! It’s only impossible until it isn’t. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
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On Second Chance Sunday, we celebrate together the extravagant grace of God in giving each of us a second chance. We remember that each of us is a new creation. The person God created us to be is emerging through the work and power of the Holy Spirit. Listen as Heather Rice-Minus helps us remember how we can apply this same second chance perspective to our brothers and sisters who are in prison. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
We’re often influence by the pain, offense and scars of the past. Sometimes it’s unconscious and sometimes we’re completely aware of it. How might this affect your relationship with God and others? Listen has Pastor Mark walks us through releasing this scar tissue through forgiving ourselves, others and reality itself. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Have you ever believed that if you're in Christ you can avoid suffering? Regardless of how we lead our lives, suffering is a part of the Christian walk. However, our spiritual maturity can shift our perspective of suffering and allow more peace and joy to accompany us in the midst of it. Listen as Dr. Anita Phillips breaks down the restorative power of God through our suffering, when we have an eternal perspective. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
How do you respond when you're offended or face other troubles in life? As followers of Jesus we can rely on the Holy Spirit to help us respond to conflict differently than the world around us. So, how do we seek refuge in God in those moments of adversity? Listen as Pastor Mark teaches us how to brave our storms with wisdom. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Do you find yourself struggling to follow Jesus when your wounds are exposed? Join Dr. Curt Thompson as he shares how we find life when we see our wounds differently, identifying with Christ. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
When is the last time you put on the garment of praise? Worship is singing back to the God who sings over us. It's how we harmonize with heaven and wage spiritual warfare. We see this example in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were praying and singing in hymns and a strong earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, releasing them at once. Listen as Pastor Mark teaches five dimensions and definitions of worship that will illustrate the purpose and importance of worship. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
How intentional are you in your relationships? Intentionality helps us overcome the things that threaten to divide us from our loved ones. Listen as Pastors Joel and Nina Schmidgall teach us how intentionality can lead to life-giving, deeply connected, purpose driven relationships. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Two things we deal with our whole lives: relationships and money - but only one of them can make your life rich! Listen as Dr. Foth breaks down the "Relational Baseball Diamond" to help us thoughtfully consider what influences our relationships and uncover the power of your words and actions toward someone else. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
How do we see people the way Jesus saw people? How do we see people for who they really are? How do we make people feel fully seen, fully heard, fully loved? The seven rules of relationship will unlock the relationship potential in your life. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
The writer of Genesis wraps the creation story in poetry, punctuating every new act with “it was good”. Then, God comes to the crowning achievement of all creation and we learn for the first time what is not good. Genesis 2:18 tells us, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him.” Listen as Pastor Heather unpacks what it means for us that, from the beginning, we were created to connect. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
There are many theories in the world for how we should pursue our dreams. What if there was more to our God-given dreams than the destination itself? As we follow the story of Joseph, we learn that dreams are a tool for shaping and molding us into who we are becoming as followers of Christ. In the pursuit of a dream, also comes healing and wholeness, which Joseph found with God, despite the trauma and pain of his past. Listen and learn how, from a biblical perspective, there's more than meets the eye when we go after our dreams. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Have you ever had a dream that turned into a nightmare? Have your circumstances challenged your faith? Consider Joseph, who had a dream turned nightmare. His brothers fake his death and sell him into slavery. He’s falsely accused and wrongly imprisoned. For thirteen years, things go from bad to worse but Joseph never loses faith in the end of the story. 50:20 vision is seeing past your circumstances. It’s discerning what’s really happening when what’s happening is happening. It’s discerning the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Joseph exemplifies, LONG VISION. What is it? It’s dreaming generationally. It’s doing what we do for the third and fourth generation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
We think right here, right now. God is thinking nations and generations. We think what God does for us is for us, and it is. But it’s never just for it. It’s always for the third and fourth generation. Legacy is not what you accomplish. Legacy is what others accomplish because of you. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Most of us are educated way beyond the level of our obedience already. We don’t need to know more. We need to do more with what we know. The good news? It’s never too late to be who you might have been. You are one decision away from a totally different life. Change is hard, but it is possible. How? Forgive reality for what it is. Ground yourself in God’s word. And keep putting it on the altar. Put what on the altar? Everything. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Do you ever feel out of place, not good enough, or not worthy of God? Good news: God chooses the lowly, the humble, the desperate, the hungry, the seeker to reveal his grace. All of us will have thoughts this season of whether to journey towards Christ, or allow life to get the best of us. Pastor Joel's encouragement for us is to follow the example of the magi on their journey to Christ during a series of events we would come to know as the Christmas story. They chose to worship Christ despite their challenging circumstances and so should we. What will be your Christmas response this season? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
The shepherds echoed the song of the angels throughout Bethlehem, giving proclamation and adoration for all they had seen and heard. As we navigate the joys and disappointments, the gifts and the losses, and the anticipations and frustrations of the Advent season, let us look and listen for where God is breaking into the reality of our existence. How do we sing the song of the angels to our world? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Are you a mere spectator to life? Are you settling for the status quo? In Genesis, we see God inviting Abraham to go beyond the confines of his tent, look up at the stars and count them to consider the magnitude of God's promise to him. In our modern world, where we often feel overwhelmed and insulated, stepping out into nature and meditating on the vastness of creation, can recalibrate our spirits and remind us of God's greatness. Pastor Mark encourages us to embrace a mindset of curiosity and seek not only the miracles of daily life but also a profound relationship with our Creator. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
Bill Bryson says "We are just a collection of inert components, the same stuff you would find in a pile of DIRT." How does dirt write poems, produce films, make music, design rockets, engineer software, practice medicine, choreograph ballets or patent inventions? The short answer is Genesis 2:7. Genesis 2:7 credits the Lord God as the One who created us, designed us, and animated us. Listen as Pastor Mark explores the miraculous components of LIFE in God's creation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
You are not a cosmic accident, the result of random chance. You are God’s workmanship. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are the image of God, the apple of God’s eye. You were made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory. Don’t let anyone label you who didn’t make you! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.comfor information about our collection and use of personal data foradvertising.
“There are only two ways to live your life,” said Albert Einstein. “One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.” Which way are you living? Are you taking things for granted? Or are you taking things for gratitude? It’s time to rediscover a million little miracles that are hiding in plain sight. It’s time to rediscover the God of Miracles—the God who is bigger than big, closer than close, and gooder than good.
Scripture says that you will know know a tree by its fruit. What would someone say about you based on the fruit of your life? Are you introducing people to the nature of Christ through your actions? It’s important that we surrender all we have and all we are to the will of God so that he may guide us in the way of righteousness. Bishop Harvey helps us understand what this looks like and how we are able to draw people closer to Jesus based on how we treat them.
In life there are hierarchies of value, quality and power in many things such as sports, movies, politics, etc. In scripture we see how believers are a part of the mountain of the Lord's temple that will be exalted above all in the last days, with Christ as our high priest. Pastor Zeb reminds us of that which is inferior to the people in Christ, our adversary, the devil. While examining the tactics of the enemy, Pastor Zeb encourages us to always proclaim the power of God's spirit over all influences of darkness and live from a place of victory that was established by the blood of Jesus.
Life can be a process of orientation, disorientation and reorientation. Our natural response is to resist disorientation but what happens when Jesus says things that break social, cultural and religious norms? The answer may surprise us. Pastor Steffen takes us through the gospels of Luke, Mark and Matthew to illustrate God's intentions when we find him in places that may be unfamiliar to us.
The world has yet to see what God can do with one person wholly consecrated to Him. Why not you? Why not now? Our biggest problem is our small view of God. We think that our inability disqualifies us, but God doesn’t call the qualified. God qualifies the called. In the kingdom of God, availability is more important than ability. Join us as we journey through the book of Isaiah and learn how we become a people who says "Here Am I" when God asks who He should send to the nations.
In a world where relationships are transactional and insincere, love is our primary currency for relationships, as followers of Christ. We are instructed to love our neighbors as ourself but how can we love those who offend us or are offended by us? Loving regardless is the simple answer but may be difficult to act out. In this message, Pastor Joel takes us through John, Romans and Ephesians to illustrate this point and teach us how to love even when it's hard.
How can our political partisan biases impact how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ? Pastor Eugene Cho, author of "Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk" uses John 4:1-10, the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, as a template for how we should prioritize deepening our relationships with one another as followers of Jesus, amidst our culture's tendency toward polarization.
Dr. Dick Foth invites us to question who we are and what it is God has called us to do for the Kingdom of Heaven. In a moment where political divides are at an all time high, we can make space for civil conversation and deeper unity by leaning into our calling, leading with peace and asking thoughtful questions.
Jesus-followers are called to stand in the gap as peacemakers, grace givers, truth tellers, and tone setters. We can shift the atmosphere during a contentious political season with faith, hope, and love. And we have some VERY PRACTICAL TOOLS to help you do that. We hope this series INSPIRE AND EQUIP YOU to TAKE THE LEAD in making space for CIVIL CONVERSATION and DEEPER UNITY across political divides.
Are you taking your cues from trending hashtags or political correctness? OR are you living a Spirit-led, Spirit-filled life? Learn how to do that as Pastor Mark opens up 2 Timothy 3.
Mark 16:9-15 NIVOur witness requires us to --Believe the Good NewsRecognize the Good NewsLive the Good NewsShare the Good News
Dr. Mark Batterson - Episode 12 Mark 12:10-11 Have you not read this passage of Scripture: The STONE the builders rejected has become the CORNERSTONE. The Lord has done this. And it is marvelous in our eyes.
We want to do amazing things for God, but that isn’t our job. God is the One who does amazing things for us. Our job? To consecrate ourselves to God. And if we do our job, God will do His job. If we do little things like they’re big things, God will do big things like they’re little things!
We can’t not worship. All of us worship someone or something. Either we worship the One True God, or we settle for a substitute. The opposite of THEOLOGY is IDOLATRY. The purpose of THEOLOGY is DOXOLOGY. “A LOW VIEW of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils,” said A.W. Tozer. “A HIGH VIEW of God is the solution to 10,000 temporal problems.”
God is bigger than big, God Most High. God is closer than close, God Most Nigh. He is the God who knows the hairs on your head. He is the God who knows your voice, loves your voice. He is the God who hears your groans and the God who groans for you. Make no mistake, your voice matters to God.
Growth and progression are a part of how God made us, and it calls from deep within us all. Join us as we look at four perspectives that will greatly enhance our ongoing transformation as individuals and as a community.
You can run, but you can’t hide. There is a God, the Hound of Heaven, who runs after us. All you have to do is turn around and you’ll find God with His arms wide open.
Never put a period where God puts a comma. With God, it’s never too little and it’s never too late. He can feed 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. He can raise a man 4 days dead. To the Infinite, all finites are possible!
God's promise to Zechariah and Elizabeth seemed like it came too late. In the face of disappointment, they played the long game. In the face of a promise delayed, they dared to hope again. Meanwhile, God was setting the stage for his kingdom to invade earth.
When people react in a way that is out of proportion to the situation at hand, they aren’t reacting to you. They are reacting from past hurt. They are reacting out of ego. How do we fly above the fray? How do we act, and react, like Jesus? 1) Overlook the offense 2) Check your ego at the door 3) Don’t let fear dictate your decisions.
Our church home is a PLACE OF MIRACLES, place of prayer, place of worship, place of belonging, place of purpose and so much more. No matter where you’ve been or where you're headed, we’ve got a seat for you at the table, and you’re right on time. Welcome Home.
Where do I belong? The age old question. Make yourself at home this week as we tackle the topic of belonging. You belong somewhere - Fully Seen. Fully Known. Fully Loved.
Worship is a weapon, our secret weapon. It’s the way we fight spiritual battles, shift the atmosphere, and prophesy our praise.
Our highest privilege and greatest responsibility is prayer. Prayer is the difference between the best WE CAN DO and the best GOD CAN DO, and that’s a big difference. Prayer is the way we WRITE HISTORY before it happens.
Our highest privilege and greatest responsibility is prayer. Prayer is the difference between the best WE CAN DO and the best GOD CAN DO, and that’s a big difference. Prayer is the way we WRITE HISTORY before it happens.
Discover how facing your underlying pain will allow you to overcome it and move forward as Irene shares her story and talks about what it takes to break the cycle of addiction and shame.
Shame is a story you tell yourself about yourself. Like a news ticker that runs in the background of our minds, we have shame scripts that say: “I am unworthy, I am unlovable, I am not enough, I am a mistake.” God says you are His workmanship, fearfully and wonderfully made, the apple of His eye, more than a conqueror. If you want to change your life, you have change your story! You are who God says you are. To believe anything else is false humility.
Shame is a story you tell yourself about yourself. Like a news ticker that runs in the background of our minds, we have shame scripts that say: “I am unworthy, I am unlovable, I am not enough, I am a mistake.” God says you are His workmanship, fearfully and wonderfully made, the apple of His eye, more than a conqueror. If you want to change your life, you have change your story! You are who God says you are. To believe anything else is false humility.
What’s in your backpack?
God has prepared in advance opportunities for you to step into. He has and is opening up doors for you to live and share your faith. The question is this: Do you have something to give? Here’s where it starts…sharing and living your faith. Sharing your faith is giving an answer. Sharing your life is living an answer. Join us as we unpack 1 Thessalonians 2:8 and learn to fill our backpack to be able to bless those that God brings across our path.
Intentional faith starts with praying a simple prayer: God where are you at work and how can I be a part? But when our foot hits the floor, it’s time to activate and live out that of which God is making us aware. We go from praying a prayer, to living a prayer. Join us as we talk about developing a prayer state of mind, cultivating story, acting as witness, and calling out God’s image.
What would happen if you started your day with a simple prayer: God where are you at work and how can I be a part? It’s the difference between pursuing your own agenda or partnering with God’s plan. We don’t realize all that God is doing all around us, until through prayer, our eyes are opened. When we turn our attention to intention, annoying interruptions become divine interventions. Random interactions become relationship building opportunities. Join us as we talk through what it means to live out faith intentionally.
PATIENCE: tolerating delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.
A simple thought that is difficult to do. If you want to be a farmer, you better have patience. The act of farming is not limited to plants and land. We are farmers each day when we invest in those around us towards the harvest of their futures. A future of love, hope, joy, and all of the fruits of the spirit is made possible when we give sacrificially and patiently wait for the harvest of their lives. Having the patience to plant and wait for growth is what the world needs today.
If you stay humble and stay hungry, there is nothing God cannot do in you or through you. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. How? By thinking of others more. By thinking of God more.
We are getting smarter and smarter, but I’m not sure we’re getting wiser and wiser. Our culture is polarized and politicized, fight or flight. If we ever needed wisdom, it’s now. The good news? Wisdom has a name. Jesus is wisdom with skin on it. Jesus is perfect theology! The Jesus Way is Third Way. It doesn’t compromise it’s convictions, but it always shows compassion.
Let’s be honest. There’s just about nothing we want more than freedom! Whether it’s financial freedom, freedom from addictions, freedom within our workplaces, freedom to pursue our passions. Freedom is a desire in every direction. In James no nonsense, don’t pull any punches, direct way, he gives advice on how to achieve freedom. It comes through the Word of God planted within us. When we cultivate God’s Word and live it out on a daily basis, we become who God has made us to be. There’s nothing freer, than doing that which you were made to do! Join us as we journey into James 1:19-27 to unpack the Scripture.
We have RULES for everything. There are rules of the road, rules for the games we play, rule of law. Spiritually speaking, a RULE OF LIFE consists of core values, core beliefs, and core practices. It’s a CODE OF CONDUCT—rituals and routines, decisions and disciplines—by which we live our lives. This week we explore seven JOY RULES, and it starts with this—ENJOY THE JOURNEY.
Everybody is somebody’s disciple. Consciously or subconsciously, we pattern our lives after someone. As Christ followers, we have made a conscientious decision to live like Jesus, pray like Jesus, forgive like Jesus, love like Jesus. We are His hands, His feet. We are His workmanship. We are the manifold wisdom of God. Simply put, you are the genius of Jesus.
When most people think of genius, I am sure their mind goes to outputs. We think about what someone produces. But what if most of what genius is has more to do with inputs; the things we don't see. I believe discipline, as an input over time, is a force multiplier. And when that discipline is focused on submitting to God, he takes care of the outputs, which is beyond what we could ever do on our own.
When you put what you have in your hand—five loaves and two fish—into the hands of God, 5 + 2 doesn’t equal 7 anymore. Add God to the equation, and 5 + 2 = 5000 R12.
There are 2 words that have the power to change worlds, and they are: “I WILL”. Gideon modeled for us what the Genius of Willingness looks like and what God can do with a willing heart.
A powerhouse leader for God's people, Deborah had the Genius of Activation (Judges 4-5). Activators are individuals who prompt us, support us, call out of us! Leaning into their god-given authority, Activators have an acute ability to discern a path forward. Let us be a community that activates one another!
We often view vulnerability as a weakness, and it certainly can be. But Paul models how to use vulnerability as a tool that moves us toward soul wellness. In fact, it is a requirement in each of our journeys back to who God created us to be.
When you trace the genealogy of genius, the genesis usually involves some PAIN and SUFFERING. Genius is not born of comfort. It’s born from, born for adversity. SUFFERING is the SEEDBED of genius. God redeems it and recycles it for His plans, His purposes.
When Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross, it was GAME OVER. Death was undefeated, but there is a God who turns GRAVES into GARDENS. It's not over until God says it's over. Don't put a PERIOD where God puts a COMMA. Just when it seems like all is lost, God has a supernatural surprise up His sovereign sleeve!
Many of us find ourselves in chains to addiction or habit or routine. And when God sends someone to help us, to unchain us, we have a choice. Do we cross the threshold of fear toward faith to try and escape our prison, or do we lean into our fears and remain captive? Will you risk faith? Or will you risk not having faith? Join us as we speak not only to the second chance that we have, but the second life that God gives us through his Spirit to those that believe.
God has not, cannot, and will not give up on you. It’s not in His nature. He is the God of second, third, and hundredth chances. We are never beyond the need of God’s grace and we are never beyond the reach of God’s grace. When we extend God’s grace to others, we become People of the Second Chance.
Esther leveraged her power, position, and privilege to serve others. Xerxes released control in order to reverse the narrative. Both required a special kind of courage. A courage that makes decisions based on values, convictions, and opportunities instead of fear, insecurity, and avoidance.
At critical junctures in our lives, situations present themselves that call for courage. Are you going to let FEAR or FAITH dictate your decisions? Are you going to OFFEND GOD or OFFEND PEOPLE? Are you going to PLAY IT SAFE or TAKE A RISK? These are the days when decades happen. The courage of calling is risking ME for WE. The courage of calling is enduring present-tense PAIN for eternal GAIN. The courage of calling is living according to biblical convictions—no reserves, no retreats, no regrets.
It would be great if we could make things happen on our terms, without hassles, holdups, and sometimes having to push through hell. But often, in order to get to the other side of our dreams, our calling, and the things we envision, there is usually inconvenience. Because inconvenience and opportunity usually go together. And that means discomfort, which no one loves. But if we are ever going to maximize our potential and live out who God desires for us to be, we will have to be courageous enough to embrace inconvenience. And by the way, embracing the inconvenience is not about us and our glory, it is about God being at work in and through us to redeem and restore his creation.
Conviction is the antidote to a thousand compromises. We tend to take life as it comes to us, making decisions in the moment, without guiding values. Which leads to a thousand regrets. But if we take time to make pre-decisions to explore that which we are CALLED to do, God will grant us peace, no matter the outcome. Because we are then living in PURPOSE.
In today’s message, we will look at one of the lessor known figures in the book of Esther. She makes a courageous decision against the grain of what was expected of her. She acts with courage. Join us as we explore living out a life of faith-filled courage that comes from Godly conviction.
What we perceive to be our problems are often presenting problems. The root problem? Unforgiveness. We take offense, and let a seed of bitterness grow roots. The net result is unforgiveness. That’s when and where and why we get stuck spiritually. Hurt people hurt people by projecting their repressed pain. Forgiven people forgive people. There is nothing easy about living unoffended, but it’s the solution to a hundred presenting problems!
Love the one who hates you. It was shocking and revolutionary when Jesus taught it, and it remains shocking and revolutionary today. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus invites us to imagine a world transformed by people who make decisions against themselves to love across labels, categories, and divisions.
The call to DREAM again is not only an invitation but a responsibility. Dreaming is not just for the self-identified "Dreamer", but a responsibility for us all. Join us as we walk through what it means to live from and toward a DREAM way of life!
God is raising up a REMNANT—a creative minority, a company of prophets—that operates with an Issachar anointing. They understand the times—supernatural insight. And they bring supernatural solutions to the table—supernatural foresight. God is raising up this DREAM COLLECTIVE to usher in a new season of REVIVAL in the church, REFORMATION in the kingdom, and RENAISSANCE in culture.
We have a core value—the church belongs in the middle of the marketplace. We don’t curse the darkness. We light candles. We’re not just building a church. We’re blessing a city. We want to be more known for what we’re FOR than what we’re AGAINST. We criticize by creating! We write better books, make better music, draft better legislation, produce better films, start better businesses. How? With the help of the Holy Spirit.
If you want to REPEAT history, do the way it's always been done. If you want to MAKE history, do it the way it's never been done before. The solution to our problems is very rarely MORE or LESS of the same. It's DARING to be different. It's DARING to dream again.
Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. It's time to DREAM again! We're believing God for nothing less than Revival, Reformation, and Renaissance in our nation, in our generation. The capacity to dream is part of the image of God, and the supernatural byproduct of a Spirit-filled life. Show me the size of your dream, and I'll show you the size of your God. It's time to dream big, pray hard, and think long!
We often miss out on the fullness of joy because of our misconception of it in relationship to everything else we experience in life. In the story of the coming of Jesus, and then throughout His life and into the life of the early church we see JOY in relationship to the rest of life. Getting this right could be the next step to your joy being made full.
God is love. It's who he is and it's what he does. The story of Christmas is not a saccharine-coated, sentimental folk tale. It is the story of ultimate sacrifice- a king who left his throne to be God with us. A king who would hang on a cross to be God for us. As followers of Jesus, we are called to walk the difficult way of love as outlined in 1 Corinthians 13.
Hope. It’s become a frail and weakened concept. The consistency of hope being deferred or hope being disappointed has taken a toll on our society.
Are we speaking of a hope or a wish though? There’s a big difference between the two! To hope is something that is grounded in possibility or even probability. To actively hope in Christ, is to live and work in confidence with an eternal perspective on all the events of our life.
As expectations are disappointed through life, how do we continue to live a hope-filled existence? We have to examine the object of our hope and the longevity of perspective as well.
We’ll allow the scripture to speak to this critical concept as we continue in this season of advent.
The Hebrew word for peace is SHALOM. Shalom is RELATIONAL HARMONY and it’s four-dimensional. It’s right relationship with God, Self, Others, and Creation. How do we experience the peace that passes understanding? First and foremost, peace is a PERSON. His name is Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
If you want to experience shalom, there are three keys: 1) Confess Your Sin 2) Love Your Enemies 3) Prophesy Your Praise
You were created on purpose, for a purpose, to share a purpose. This not only lays a foundation for how we see ourselves but moves us toward an understanding of our place in this world and the fulfillment that happens when we know what to do with what we've been given. Let's take a journey on what this looks like through a missional lens.
As we continue our A18 Missions series, the way of Jesus is about finding safety and comfort in order to heal, restore and live from God's love. But it's so much more than that.
The mission of God and call of the missional Church is far more than our personal peace and prosperity - it's about love-based risk - going where Jesus is - places where humanity is most at risk, at the intersection between darkness and light, soil and spirit, heaven and earth. We call this living from the redemptive edge. What does this look like, how do we grow in discipleship to follow Jesus into love-based risk?
You'll hear many stories of ordinary people, empowered by God's spirit, doing what Jesus did, all over the world.
Staying with the theme of Acts 1:8, I will focus on the role of the Holy Spirit and the importance of the Presence of God in fulfilling the Missio Dei. I will share some of my personal testimony of what I/we have been experiencing as a church the last few months since we started meeting in person again and the lessons I have learned about the presence of God.
One key to making and breaking HABITS is making and breaking RULES. Rules help you establish boundaries and priorities. Rules help you establish rituals and routines. A RULE OF LIFE consists of four quadrants: 1) Core Beliefs 2) Core Values 3) Life Goals 4) Daily Habits. Collectively, they become the guardrails and guidelines that help you get where God wants you to go.
There is nothing easy about HABIT FORMATION. You have to fight for your health, fight for your marriage, fight for your convictions. How? 1. Do it SCARED 2. Do it DIFFICULT 3. Do it DIFFERENT 4. Do it NOW. The good news? When we get on our knees, God fights our battles for us!
Show me your HABITS and I’ll show you your FUTURE. Destiny is not a mystery. Destiny is DAILY HABITS. Habit formation is one dimension of spiritual formation. You have to make or break the habits that make or break you, with the help of the Holy Spirit. The good news? You are one habit away from a totally different life! The key? Do it for a day!
The parable of the fig tree reveals the hidden truths of becoming who God desires us to become. He has made us not to merely exist, but to produce and provide wonderful fruit to our surroundings. It’s a story in which we find great points of learning in the process of becoming:
Patience and urgency Growing through challenge Purpose in the places we’re planted A promise in need of activation
It’s ultimately a story that leads us to faith through repentance. We hope you’ll join us this week as we pray for guidance from the Spirit of God as we seek out the best that is yet to come.
If we are promised LIFE EVERLASTING with Jesus, King of All Creation, what might that look like?
Have you ever felt stuck? In a jam? In a situation that is impossible to get out of without help? This is the story that Jesus enters into in John 2. The wedding party had run out of refreshments for its guests and had no options. That’s when Jesus got the call, that he then delivered. His very first miracle was to turn water into wine.
This miracle was not a magic trick that provided excess fun to a wedding, though. This miracle would set the tone for everything to come in the new covenant. Jesus would establish a new kingdom normal, would reveal His power to His people, would exercise that power for transformation, and would spark faith in his disciples.
The Best is Yet to Come is NOT wishing on a star, hoping your luck will change or waiting to win the lottery. If you keep doing what you’ve done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten. Your life is perfectly designed for the results you're getting! The good news? You are ONE DECISION away from a totally different life. God can deliver you in a day, but you have to back it up with daily habits.
In psychology, mental health has a scale from FLOURISHING to DEPRESSION. FLOURISHING is evidenced by things like optimism and empathy and authenticity. DEPRESSION is evidenced by things like hopelessness and helplessness. In between FLOURISHING and DEPRESSION, there is what Adam Grant calls “the neglected middle child of mental health,” and it may be the “the dominant emotion of 2021.” Languishing is basically BLAH. It's a feeling of apathy. It lacks focus, motivation, and vision. There are no easy answers or quick fixes, but there is a way out.
We live at the intersection of two theologies, two realities. The faithfulness of God is pursuing from the past—SO FAR SO GOD. And the sovereignty of God is setting us up for the future. We live forwards, but God is working backward. God is ordering our footsteps. God is preparing good works. We live in a fallen world, a broken world, but heaven is invading earth right here, right now.
We don’t believe in happily ever after. We believe in something so much bigger and better and longer—happily FOREVER after. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
When did we start believing that God wants to send us to SAFE PLACES to do EASY THINGS at CONVENIENT TIMES with NICE PEOPLE? Newsflash. Jesus didn’t die to KEEP US SAFE. Jesus died to MAKE US DANGEROUS. The will of God isn’t an INSURANCE PLAN. It’s a DARING PLAN. And the complete surrender of our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is not radical. It’s normal. The problem? Our normal is so subnormal that normal seems abnormal.
Jesus made no bones about it: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
Since the beginning, NCC has been a missional church. And missions is not a department or team you go on overseas for a week—it is a way of life. At NCC, we're integrating our discipleship process with our missional DNA and asking: what does it look like to partner in the mission of Jesus in our world today? We'll explore 5 anchors that shape our discipleship process for missional living.
Jesus said "Go make disciples." Too often, we allow Jesus' last command to become our least concern. We have replaced being a follower of Jesus for simply being a fan of Jesus. We think we are following Jesus but in reality, we have asked Jesus to follow us. Disciples are students of the words of Je
Jesus told his followers, "Go make disciples of all nations." Against all odds, this small sect of Judaism attracted Gentile followers and began to spread throughout the entire Roman Empire. As those early followers studied the words of Jesus, imitated the ways of Jesus, and partnered in the mission of Jesus, the early church offered a way of life that stood in stark contrast to the power of the empire.
Two thousand years later, Jesus still invites us on a journey, empowered by the Holy Spirit within the context of community, to learn to live our lives from Jesus and invite others to do the same.
The Apostle Paul reveals one of the great mysteries in the book of Philippians: The secret of contentment. In learning and understanding what true contentment is, we find tension with our cultural understanding. It’s not attained by just accepting whatever happens. It’s also not attained through hard work and achievement.
Contentment is found through a combination of both – finding peace in who we are and what we have while pursuing that which God has called us to pursue. It’s in this endeavor that we realize the strength of God in our pursuit and begin to live in true contentment. We hope you’ll join us as we wrestle this challenging passage!
We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. Your FOCUS determines your REALITY. If you want to change your life, start by changing your story. How? You have to audit your thoughts, fix your focus, and flip the script
Mindset is defined by Merriam-Webster as a mental attitude or a fixed state of mind. Our mindset is what determines what we do and how we engage the world around us. The Apostle Paul wrote to Jesus followers in a place called Philippi, in part, urging them to be spiritually mature and not to pursue Earthly things. Instead, he encouraged a heavenly mindset, in pursuit of God's calling.
Playing it safe seems safe, but the greatest risk is taking no risks at all. At some point, you have to risk rejection, risk failure, risk your reputation. Simply put, faith is spelled RISK. What risk do you need to take? What are you waiting for? Risk or regret? The choice is yours!
Throughout Scripture, light is used as a symbol of God's presence. It sparks life, inspires hope, and points to God's goodness, faithfulness, and beauty. God also commissioned his people to be a light to the nations. In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul commends the believers for their obedience and commands them to continue shining brightly in the darkness of suffering and in the confusion of the culture.
We will explore the tension of suffering and surrender that came from Jesus' "letting go of His place and glory" to become One of us described in Philippians 2
Are you living outside in? Or are you living inside out?
In a culture that is divided by racial tension and political polarization, we stand in the gap as peace makers, grace givers, truth tellers, tone setters, and joy bringers. We love those who hate us, pray for those who persecute us, and bless those curse us. And when we do, it provokes questions for which the gospel is the answer. We don’t take our cues from trending hashtags. We live according to our biblical convictions. We don’t reflect the attitudes and opinions of those around us. We shift the atmosphere with faith, hope, and love.
Will I ever truly find happiness, contentment, or joy? In Philippians 1, Paul gives the context and purpose that are critical to being able to answer that question for yourself, as well as being able to keep that discovery alive.
Joy. It's not getting what you want. It's appreciating what you have. Joy isn't always the easiest choice or the obvious choice, but joy is a choice. The Apostle Paul said, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice!” And his life is louder than his words. Paul writes his letter to the Philippians from a prison cell. You can choose joy anywhere, anytime, anyway!
When Paul the Apostle wrote to the Christians in Galatia, he wanted to address a debate about the evidence of righteousness. Circumcision was at the center of the debate and it was both a theological and cultural issue. Paul makes a clear case that our only hope for righteousness is God's spirit. And the fruits of the spirit are the evidence of his spirit at work in us.
Pastor Heather Zempel continues our series on the Holy Spirit.
Big moves of God often begin with small steps of obedience. But small doesn't necessarily mean easy. If we tune our ears to the voice of the Holy Spirit and train our wills to move in obedience, our lives will take turns towards adventure. Sometimes, that adventure may take us along a desert road, but if we partner with him, we get to be a part of new life springing forth.
Dr. Mark Batterson kicks off our new series on the Holy Spirit.
We find ourselves in a Hebrews 12:27 moment—everything that can be shaken will be shaken. God is shaking false securities and false identities, false assumptions, and false narratives, false idols, and false ideologies.
But we are STIRRED, not shaken. Why? We are grounded in God's word, standing on God's promises, and filled with God's spirit. We don't take our cues from cultural talking points. We don't put our trust in horses and chariots.
STIRRED is rising above the rhetoric and living according to your convictions. STIRRED is giving the Holy Spirit veto power. STIRRED is operating in the power of the Holy spirit while obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Robb Schmidgall wraps up our series on doubt.
Doubt is inherent in all our lives. The question is are we allowing it to work FOR us, or against us.
Doubt is more emotional than it is intellectual. There are many examples of this in our lives. This message shines a light on how emotional trauma, sustained oppression, and the degradation of identity causes people to walk away from Christianity. Fortunately, the scriptures, written by the poor, people of color, and the oppressed show us God's true intentions, despite the misrepresentation of that hope.
Life is infinitely uncertain and God is infinitely complex. The net result? Doubt. We think of doubt in negative terms, but it's a key catalyst when it comes to faith. Doubt breaks down our false narratives, false assumptions, and false beliefs. It forces us to deconstruct and reconstruct our faith by digging a little deeper. How do you deal with doubt?
- Seek Wise Counsel
- Keep Asking Questions
- Create a Deuteronomy 29:29 File
- Take a Field Trip
- When all else fails, Eat A Watermelon. Yes, eat a watermelon.
(Trust me, it'll make sense when you listen to the message!)
In the first century, death by crucifixion was not uncommon. Lots of people died on Roman crosses, but only one person predicted their own resurrection and then pulled it off. His name is Jesus! The foundation of our faith is an empty tomb. That is where heaven invades earth, eternity invades time, and life defeats death. Faith is not the absence of doubt any more than courage is the absence of fear. But that is when and where and why we RUN TO THE TOMB. If the tomb is empty, all bets are off and all things are possible!
This weekend, our multicultural team (Lora Batterson, Joel Buckner, Pastor Dave Schmidgall, and Pastor Marion Mason), help us explore what it practically looks like to journey towards becoming a Beloved Community.
Dr. Dick Foth continues our Beloved series!
We are discovering, through the letter from JAMES, the cohesive power of GOD'S Word to shape our words in building a house called The Beloved Community.
“This is the marvel of marvels,” said C.S. Lewis, “that he called me Beloved.” We are beloved by God. His love is where we find our identity, our security, our authority. Then, and only then, can we become what Dr. King called the beloved community. We lead with love - we love because He first loved us.
In order to step into our belovedness, we must first encounter and be transformed by the unimaginable, inconceivable, incomprehensible love of Jesus. In 1 John, the disciple reminds the churches of Asia Minor of the final teachings of Jesus in John 13-17- that God is love, that God demonstrates his love towards us at the cross and the empty tomb, and that we demonstrate God to the world around us when we love one another.
Pastor Joshua Symonette kicks off our new series!
Many years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described his longing for a beloved community. It was not something he created or came up with on his own. It was what he read throughout the Gospels and reflected in his pursuit to bridge a segregated America. God's beloved is what he calls those who are submitted to him wholeheartedly. The Apostle Paul, repeatedly in his writings to the early Church, both encourages and clarifies for them what it means to be God's beloved.
Dr. Mark Batterson gives our annual State of the Church message. Together, we'll look back at all God has done in and through NCC in 2020 and look ahead into 2021 and beyond.
The church ought to be the most CREATIVE place on the planet. The church ought to be the most DIVERSE place on the planet. Those two things are not unrelated. In fact, you can't have one without the other. Unity does NOT mean uniformity! Unity is CORPORATE HUMILITY. Maturity does NOT mean conformity.
Maturity is UNITY in DIVERSITY. Then, and only then, can we become the BELOVED COMMUNITY God has destined us to be.
As we conclude our Win the Day series, Dr. Foth riffs on Pastor Mark Batteron's "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Win the day!" Through the lens of Hebrews 13:8—"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever"— Dr. Foth helps us explore what we believe about what really matters.
Sow today what you want to see tomorrow. Over time, one of two things happens. Either MEMORY overtakes IMAGINATION or IMAGINATION overtakes MEMORY. The difference? Prophetic imagination. It’s seeing the invisible, hearing the inaudible, and believing the impossible. Add to it patient persistence and bold prayer, and it’s game on.
Sow today what you want to see tomorrow. Over time, one of two things happens. Either MEMORY overtakes IMAGINATION or IMAGINATION overtakes MEMORY. The difference? Prophetic imagination. It's seeing the invisible, hearing the inaudible, and believing the impossible. Add to it patient persistence and bold prayer, and it's game on.
Dr. Mark Batterson continues our Win The Day Series with Habit #6!
Time is measured in MINUTES, but life is measured in MOMENTS. You don't FIND TIME, you have to MAKE TIME. How? For starters, curse the barren fig trees. These are the things that waste time, waste energy. How do you curse the barren fig tree? You establish boundaries and establish priorities.
If managing minutes is a science, then managing moments is an art form. It's recognizing teachable moments and making the most of them. It's accumulating experiences, rather than possessions.
How you do ANYTHING is how you'll do EVERYTHING. The good news? If you do little things like they're big things, God will do big things like they're little things. The key is kaizen—an uncompromising commitment to continual improvement. It starts with a growth mindset, and there is no finish line. You keep setting stretch goals until the day you die!
When it comes to goal-setting, problem-solving, and habit-breaking—GRAND GESTURES are key. They are defining decisions, calculated risks, and selfless sacrifices that double as defining moments. Grand Gestures are often the tipping point, the turning point. They are the point of no return. The idea is as old as Old Testament altars.
There are weeks when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen. This felt like one of those weeks. This weekend we hold space—we catch our breath and collect our thoughts after a difficult week in Washington, DC. We are here for such a time. We are here for such a place as this. We stand in the gap as peace makers, grace givers, and tone setters. We believe God for racial reconciliation and political healing. We remind ourselves of who we are, where we are, and why we are as a church.
If you want to change your life, you have to change your story. You can't just flip the calendar, you have to FLIP THE SCRIPT. It's the first of seven habits in Win The Day, and it's a high leverage habit. In the science of cybernetics, there are two kinds of change. First-order change is behavioral—it's doing something more or less. First-order change can facilitate a quick-fix, but second-order change passes the test of time. Second-order change is conceptual—it's mind over matter. At the end of the day, your explanations are more important than your experiences. Long story short? The best story wins!
When Jesus was born into the world, He didn't just bring hope with Him. He WAS and IS hope and is a revelation to every person that encounters Him. To one, a revelation of hope brought confirmation, to another joy, to another redemption. He was the fulfillment of prophecies of old. He was the embodiment of comfort in the now. But what we found in the incarnation is that He is a God who reveals His presence in any and all circumstances. We believe that He still reveals hope today – even in the midst of a year like 2020!
God's revelation often comes in different ways through different vessels, so this weekend we thought it was appropriate to share a tag team message. As our Campus Pastors all speak to a unique dimension of hope, we pray that God would enlighten our hearts to see our world, our neighborhood, ourselves as He sees...with eyes of eternal hope.
Pastor Joshua Symonette continues our advent series with a celebration of Hope! Hope is a powerful force that can propel us forward like a canon or a rocket. But there are times when our hope fades or takes a hit. It is usually in the "in-between" times or in the middle of our current reality and our anticipated reality. In Matthew 2, the Magi, who are on their way to find baby Jesus, give us an example of the celebration of hope and what it looks like to pursue with only a revelation and no evidence.
Pastor Joel Schmidgall kicks off our 2020 advent series with a proclamation of Hope!
Hope had and has been at the core of Jewish faith for its entirety of existence: hoping for freedom from slavery, hoping for justice, hoping for peace, hoping for a savior. When Christ came, heaven touched earth in a new and profound way. God's glory was being shown, not by splitting a sea, with a pillar of fire, or by the glowing face of Moses. God's glory was embodied in the small and breakable form of the human life of Jesus. Jesus is our hope. He is THE hope.
When the shepherds found Christ, they couldn't help but proclaim hope to the world around them. The Magi's natural reaction was to celebrate hope in the presence of Christ. And all who came across Jesus' path were confronted with a revelation of hope. During this series, we want to light a candle to the profound gift of hope that we find in Christ.
You can get an A for EFFORT. You can get an A for TRUTH. Are you getting an A for LOVE? Many decades after the Ephesians receive a letter from the Apostle Paul, the Apostle John calls them back to their FIRST LOVE. How? One, REMEMBER. Two, REPENT. Three, DO WHAT YOU DID AT FIRST.
Ephesians 6 is a message Paul gives the Ephesians to wear the full armor of God, every piece. From warrior to a wrestler, their context was fighting for life or death. Dr. Foth imparts to us the same hope Paul gave back then reminding us to not duck or run away but to stand firm and fight the good fight. We are not going down no matter the situation because we have a destination.
There are 59 one another statements in the New Testament. Two of the most significant are found in Ephesians 5—SUBMIT to one another and SING to one another. When practiced in two-part harmony, marriage turns into a melody. Marriage is an ICON—an earthly representation of this eternal reality called the Trinity. You have to make sure the ICON doesn't become an IDOL. That puts an impossible burden to bear on your spouse because you're asking them to do for you what ONLY CHRIST CAN. But with Christ at the center, marriage mirrors the diversity and unity of the Trinity.
It takes moral courage to STAND AGAINST what is WRONG and STAND FOR what is RIGHT.
It takes moral courage to SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER, to SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE.
Living not by lies is refusing to bow to cultural idols or ideologies if they don't pass the TRUTH TEST.
It's living according to your biblical convictions even if it's COUNTERCULTURE. It's RISKING YOUR REPUTATION for what you know is GOOD and RIGHT and TRUE. It's DISAGREEING FREELY yet LOVING REGARDLESS. It's a conscience taken captive by the Word of God and Spirit of God.
From the very beginning of our lives, we learn and grow from imitating others. The question over time becomes WHAT and WHO should we imitate? When you find faith in Christ, you are given both an identity as a child of God and a calling to imitate God (Ephesians 5:1). Identity and action are interlinked. Things like love and purity and sacrifice are virtues that we should strive to imitate. But that only happens when we know who we are. What you believe about yourself determines how you live your life! Our passage today gives both guidance in who we are as well as what we should do. We are love, we are light, we are God's children. You can't control anyone else's action, but when you live out God's light, you shine brightness into darkness. We hope and pray that as a church community we are people that don't stand by complaining, but instead go out and hang a street light to provide warmth and direction for those around us. Join us we talk about what it looks like to imitate God.
The disintegration of civilization is caused by the deterioration of what British historian Arnold Toynbee called the CREATIVE MINORITY. The church is the creative minority, as well as a moral minority. It must swim upstream and go against the grain. Then—and only then—can it catalyze revivals, reformations, and renaissances. The key to this creative minority? Unity in diversity. That is what results in spiritual maturity. That is what nets this BELOVED COMMUNITY we call the church. In the words of NCCer David Grizzle, “Unity among DISSIMILAR people serves the purpose of being INDISPUTABLE PROOF that God is in the house!” Let's not settle for the façade of UNIFORMITY. Let's strive for biblical unity!
Whether it's racial tension or political polarization, cancel culture or social media shaming, navigating this cultural moment feels like a high wire act. How do we stay balanced? How do we stay positive? How do we shift the atmosphere? The Apostle Paul shares four cardinal virtues that guide our cultural engagement—humility, gentleness, patience, and tolerance. When we practice those principles, heaven invades earth. Instead of politicizing, we theologize the world around us.
Power has been a pursuit of humanity since the inception of our existence. And our world is in a constant state of drama as a result of the pursuit to possess power. Paul, the apostle and theologian, writes to a group of Christians in a place called Ephesus. Power is one of themes in this letter, which is an encouragement and a reminder of who has ultimate power and how we can access it. It is only that ultimate power, at work in us, in partnership with Christ, that can do far more than we could ever imagine. That is the opportunity that Paul is reminding us of and praying for on behalf of the church in Ephesus.
“TO SEE FOREVER” is the title of this week's message. We explore the Apostle Paul's thoughts as he hits the PAUSE button in his letter to his friends in Ephesus, now western Turkey. He reflects on his IDENTITY, DESTINY, and AUTHORITY from a vantage that is his alone.
The Bible is full of plot twists and turns- a Hebrew baby raised in the house of Pharaoh delivers the Hebrews from Egypt, the shepherd with the sling defies the Philistine, the baby in the manger is God in human form, the crucified Jesus walks out of a tomb. But Jesus had one more plot twist up his sleeve-- the inclusion of the Gentiles into the promises and the blessing given to Abraham. God is not just at work to merge two worlds-- heaven and earth. He is also at work to merge two peoples-- the Jew and the Gentile-- into one family of God. The destiny of heaven on earth is dependent on the development of this new community. It will require deep awareness of the reconciling work of Jesus on the cross, a relentless pursuit of peace and unity, and a passionate commitment to demonstrating the character, ways, and mission of God to the world.
So many of us find ourselves stuck. Stuck in routine. Stuck in frustration. Stuck in systems that hold us down. Stuck in destructive patterns. Stuck in sin that tangles us up. It almost seems impossible to escape. But do you know that God works best in the impossible?
Ephesians 2:1-10 speaks to our journey in Christ. It take us on a journey from who we were, to who we are, to who we can become. We go from our destruction, to God's grace, to God's purpose for us. Do you know that God's grace can overcome sin, satan, and every structure? His grace catapults us to faith. His faith fills us to understand who we are. We are God's workmanship, His masterpiece, his work of art. And it's when we know who we are that we can understand where we are going. We go from identity to destiny. And in Christ, and through God's Spirit, we can lean in to understand what it means to fully live!
You are not the mistakes you've made. You are not the labels people have put on you. You are who God says you are—nothing less, nothing else. You are BLESSED with every spiritual blessing in Christ. You are CHOSEN before the beginning of time.
You are BLAMELESS in the eyes of God. You are ADOPTED by the Heavenly Father. You are REDEEMED by the blood of Christ. You are SEALED by the Holy Spirit, and you are STAMPED with the image of God.
As the people of God, we live COUNTERCULTURE. When we love our enemies, heaven invades earth. When we pray for those who persecute us, heaven invades earth. When we bless those who curse us, heaven invades earth. How? GRACE and PEACE. Paul begins each of his thirteen epistles with those two words, and they pack a one-two punch. We have a vaccine against cancel culture—the grace of God. We have a vaccine against political polarization and racial discord—the peace of God. We are grace givers and peacemakers.
Living UNSHAKEN is refusing to compromise your convictions, even if it costs you a fiery furnace or lands you in a lion's den. It's speaking truth to power. It's showing grace in a cancel culture. It's confronting the brutal facts with unwavering faith. Why? God's got this. God's got you. Don't lose faith in the end of the story! Administrations come and go. Nations and rise and fall. The kingdom of God is forever. We find our identity, we pledge our loyalty, to the King and His Kingdom. And He's coming again!
Daniel 11 is written like prophecy but it reads like history. While the people of God are coming to the end of exile and will be able to return to their land, Daniel is told that things will get worse before they get better. Israel will be sandwiched between two warring kingdoms, and the people of God will face a crisis of identity, a crisis of faith, and a crisis of hope. In order to find the right perspective and posture, they must be the kind of people who do not accept the current crisis as the end of the story. They must be the kind of people who do not put their trust in a current leader or ideology but recognize that God will outlive and outlast any earthly leader. They must be the kind of people who put their trust in the story and their trust in the author. As we stand in times of crisis, may we be people who stand in faithfulness, who walk in patience, who cling to hope.
Have you ever had your eyes opened to something that was always there, but you just hadn't noticed before? Our text today will leave you with your eyes wide open!
We continue in our series on the book of Daniel, and today walkthrough chapter 10. After seeking God through fasting and prayer for 3 weeks, God gives Daniel a vision and opens his eyes to see the realm of the unseen. The heavenly realm, in which there is good and evil clashing behind the scenes. Believe it or not, there is a spiritual battle happening. And when we lean into God in prayer, he will give us both a revelation of what is happening and affirmation of who we are, to press forward. As God opens up Daniel's eyes, chapter 10 is just the beginning of the prophetic vision of what is to come. Join us as we engage in a text will challenge us as well as take us underneath the surface of the challenges all around us.
With all that is happening in our 2020 world, a conversation about eschatology seems apropos! What does the Bible say about the end times? Are there any hints that can help us navigate the crisis we find ourselves in? What can I do to get ready for what's next? Those are some of the questions we'll explore this week, and a few answers may surprise you! The good news? God's got this. Don't lose faith in the end of the story!
In the 1980s, the Transformers toy and animation series debuted with a phrase, "more than meets the eye," which was simply about perspective. They were not what they seemed to be on the surface. Daniel 8, which on the surface seems weird and is difficult to grasp on the surface, is also about perspective. The vision that Daniel has is about the future and the struggle against good and evil. Daniel and his contemporaries see themselves in crisis, as the power of nations struggle against one another. But despite the struggle and suffering on the surface, God is still in control.
We think forwards, but God is working backwards. God begins with the end in mind. Occasionally, he pulls back the curtain of time and reveals His plans and His purposes to His prophets. The goal of prophecy isn't figuring out timelines. It's a reminder that GOD'S GOT THIS. It's a reminder not to lose hope, not to lose heart. It's a reminder to GET READY for the part God wants you to play!
As the whole world shakes, instant and constant access to the Most High God is our greatest asset and deepest hope.
It's never too little. It's never too late. If you're still breathing, God has a plan and purpose for your life. In Christ, you are never past your prime! We overestimate what we can do in a year or two, but we underestimate what God can do in ten or twenty or seventy years. We think right here, right now. God is thinking nations and generations. Don't lose faith in the end of the story! God's got this. God's got you.
One of the greatest gifts God can give us is letting us get to the end of our rope! That's often when and where and how we discover that there is a God. And just as important, I am not Him! Playing God is impossible! The good news? God is still on His throne! Don't lose faith in the end of the story! Virtue signaling won't get us where we need to go as a nation. Neither will hashtags. What we need is revival sparked by repentance. God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble! The Spirit of God can't fill you if you're full of yourself, but if you'll empty yourself of pride, God will fill the void with His love, His power, His grace.
Our choices reflect both our priorities and values. Who we are and what we believe is a culmination of our choices. In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, contemporaries of Daniel, are government officials appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar. They are faced with a situation where they have to choose between submitting to God or a gentile king. It is seemingly a no-win situation. Should they compromise to save themselves? Who will know? We may never be in a life or death situation like this. But our choices are a direct indication of who God is to us and whether He is the priority in our lives.
God trusted Daniel with insider knowledge of the future. What kind of person does God trust with the future? God trusted Daniel to stand before kings. What kind of person does God place as his representative before kings? It's the people who boldly declare that the impossible is possible when God is in the equation. It's the people who dare to believe that God is still at work when the world seems to be falling apart around us. It's the people who live unshaken in the knowledge that God will make a way.
Unshaken is confronting the brutal facts with unwavering faith, even when you're taken captive by enemy armies. Unshaken is refusing to compromise your convictions, even when the rest of the world is bowing to a 90-foot statue. Unshaken is living countercultural, even if it costs you a fiery furnace. Unshaken is letting your conscience be your guide, even if it lands you in a lion's den. God is not nervous. God is victorious. Simply put, God's got this!
This is a teachable moment for us as a nation. God is WAKING us up. God is SHAKING us up. If we are humble enough to repent of racism and bold enough to believe for reconciliation, God will shake generational sins and break generational curses.
This weekend we venture into the final valley in this series, the Valley of Breakthrough. Breakthrough happens in lots of different ways. It's small steps of faith. It's long obedience in the same direction. It's forgiving those who have hurt us. The common denominator? Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.”
In the midst of tremendous uncertainty, one thing is certain. God is able. In fact, God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us! This weekend we believe God for the breakthrough, individually and corporately.
The Valley of Opposition calls us to pray bold, faith-soaked, creative prayers that are rooted in a theology of the greatness of God, a record of the goodness of God, and a practice of the presence of God. If we want to see a move of God today, we have to put a magnifying glass on the miracles He did yesterday. If we want to stand on the promises of God today, we have to anchor ourselves in the promises He fulfilled yesterday. If we want the presence of God to shift our world today, we have to seek His presence every day.
God is in the business of healing broken hearts. Heartbreak is incredibly painful, but it has a pruning effect in our lives. It unseats the idols in our lives, and helps us empathize with others. There is no hurt that God cannot heal, in time or eternity. In fact, He can turn the Valley of Heartbreak into the Door of Hope.
The Valley of Dry Bones is the place where God's resurrection power is revealed. It's the place where we discover our authority as Christ-followers. There comes a moment when you need to stop talking to God about your problems, and start talking to your problems about God. You have to prophesy to the mountain, prophesy to the storm, prophesy to the dry bones. What do we speak? Life. Love. Truth. We echo, “Let there be light.” We echo, “Peace, be still.” We echo, “Hear the word of the Lord.”
Have you ever gone through a season of life that has broken you? A season that drained your energy, that tested your resolve, that wore you out? Today, we want to talk about a place called “Baka.” It literally means weeping. It was a point on the journey of pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the ancient middle east. We'll unpack Psalm 84:5-7 to learn how to not just go TO Baka, but to go THROUGH it. We have something to learn in that place. We have strength to gain. We have something to give. Don't discount God's purposes at work, even in the hard places!
If you want to REPEAT HISTORY, keep doing it the way it's always been done. If you want to CHANGE HISTORY, dare to be different. What you perceive to be your biggest disadvantage may prove to be your greatest advantage. In Christ, you are nobody's underdog! Your brave is someone else's breakthrough.
The Valley of Crisis is where we discover who we are, and more importantly, who God is. It's the place where faith is forged, vision is birthed, and character is cultivated. How do you get to the other side? You've got to PRAY YOUR WAY THROUGH and WORSHIP YOUR WAY OUT of the crisis.
Like the disciples two thousand years ago, we find ourselves sheltered-in-place this Easter. Fear is in the air. Uncertainty is everywhere. The good news? The tomb is still empty! When Jesus walked out of the tomb, death was no longer undefeated. When it seems like all is lost, we go back to the empty tomb. That is where our faith is found. That is where our hope is anchored.
We find ourselves in a season of isolation, chaos, frustration, grief, readjustment. We are adjusting to a completely new normal all the while facing weeks and months of new pressures and challenges.
In our text today, Jesus found himself facing pressure, pain, and challenge in the moments before He would face the cross. As He entered the garden, He grappled with all that was to come and shared honestly about His desire for a different path. In fact, He shared his agony and anguish to the point of sweating blood. He was desperate! It might be Christ' greatest show of humanity as He wrestled with God.
In His wrestle, He ultimately came to an incredible statement of sacrifice, relenting with, “Not my will, but thy will be done.” In one statement, He accepts and finds resolve for the difficulty to come. Jesus shows us that we can be honest in our emotions with God. Yet we still have to move forward in His will. He shows us we can lean into grief, but we must ultimately come to a place of acceptance. Emotions have to have motion. Just as we are going through the stages of grief, we've got to keep moving. The garden was a place of pressure, a place of anguish, a place to grapple, and ultimately a place so submit and resolve to God's will. We pray that this scripture ministers to your soul in an intense and crazy season!
The table is one of the most ubiquitous yet overlooked settings in the Scripture. Throughout the Old Testament, the table is where people encountered the power, provision, promise, and presence of God. In the New Testament, the table is where the powerful were confronted, the oppressed were uplifted, the outcasts were invited, the self-righteous were ridiculed, and the seekers were given a glimpse of the kingdom of God. He encouraged his followers to remember him when they came to the table together in a ritual that has been practiced by the church for 2,000 years. Whether we call it Communion, The Lord's Supper, or the Eucharist, it is the place where we ground ourselves in our common faith and are united in Jesus.
In a season of social isolation and anxiety, this weekend we're taking a team approach to our message. You'll see a show of unity in isolation with all seven of our Campus Pastors taking a part in the sermon via ted talk.
On a daily basis we find ourselves inundated with new data and further pushed into isolation from one another. Questions are consistently swirling. What if I get the virus? Am I going to survive financially through this? How can I do my job and home school my kids? What if someone I love who is health vulnerable gets sick? The questions can be endless. And worry can be overwhelming.
Our text is Matthew 6:25-34 where Jesus exhorts us to do what seems impossible: Do not worry. He was saying that to an audience who actually had more to be anxious about than we do. Yet, he called back to the very basics of faith: Trust. We pray today that you find faith deep within your soul, to reach out and re-center yourself in Christ and find trust in Him.
As we age, pieces of our personality are held hostage by painful moments in our past. Jesus came to set the captive free—the inner child within each one of us. It's never too late to be who you might have been.
Success and outcomes seem to constantly dominate our focus. All of our decisions seem to hinge on them. Jesus was also concerned about success and outcomes for his disciples. But in John 15, he uses the metaphor of the vine to explain to them that their success (or rather fulfillment of their purpose as his disciples) hinged upon one particular input; remaining in him.
As we explore The Jesus Way, today's passage leads us to Jesus turning the social structure of the day upside down in the way he leads. Jesus lays down his position and instead picks up a towel. It wasn't a singular commendation of service or an isolated call to humility…it was the combination of both. We'll spend our time today unpacking this beautiful story in the form of five values: Humility, identity, filling of the Spirit, obedience, and love.
The Holy Spirit will sometimes lead us where we don't want to go, but He always goes with us! The wilderness is not the enemy. The wilderness is a part of the way, the Jesus way.
Seeking God with greater consistency, greater intentionality, and greater priority is the solution to a thousand problems. You don't FIND time. You have to MAKE time. How? You've got to pitch a tent like Moses. You need a TIME and a PLACE where you get off the grid and get with God. The only ceiling on your intimacy with God and impact on the world is daily spiritual disciplines.
Jesus teaches us to love our enemies. It's counter-cultural but is entirely freeing. Henri Nouwen states, “Loving our enemies is the way of becoming free of our enemies.” To close this series, we are praying for new eyes - to see people the way God sees them and to be more for them than we are against them.
When we hear “turn the other cheek” or “go the second mile”, what we usually translate that to is “just let them win” or “roll over and play dead”. But what Jesus of Nazareth is telling us in this passage is actually quite provocative. He's not actually telling us to fight back with violence or take a passive stance. Rather, Jesus is offering us a third way of non-violent defiance. Let justice win.
Deep down we all want to be able to trust each other's character and not be tricked, fooled, or played. But it is hard to trust because regularly people do not keep it real. This was an issue with the Pharisees that Jesus addresses in Matthew 5 (as part of the Sermon on the Mount). They had the tendency to make vows with loopholes so they could not be pinned down. Jesus directly challenges them on what it means to have integrity. And it is a message to us all on how to respond and keep our word to one another.
The teachings of Jesus are disorienting. They are disorienting because some of them are difficult to understand and all of them are difficult to apply. Jesus points us to a Creator who designed sexuality to reflect the eternal joys and mysteries of heaven, and he teaches us to walk in relationships with one another in a way that reflects his perfect love. This message tackles the tough teachings of Jesus on adultery, lust, and divorce.
In Matthew 5:21-24, Jesus unpacks the true meaning behind the sixth commandment. The pharisees focused on the act of murder, but Jesus said, the anger in our hearts has the same judgment before God. Have you ever taken time to look under the hood of the anger in your life? Anger is a secondary emotion. When we dig beneath the surface, we find anger is often born out of an unmet need or expectation. And we find that there are other emotions and challenges at play that lead to anger being expressed. What is the underlying hurt in your life? Anger is an iceberg - there's always so much more underneath the surface.
We'll walk through this scripture and its progression, as it takes us from anger to forgiveness to reconciliation. Some of us need to learn to forgive and let go of those offenses that have actually taken us captive. And some of us need to reach out to those that have been offended by us and move towards reconciled relationship. These are not easy steps. But the Lord can give you wisdom as you reflect and let His Spirit bring revelation to your heart.
Half of spiritual growth is learning. The other half is unlearning. Jesus didn't do an orientation with his disciples. He did a disorientation. Six times in the Sermon on the Mount He says, “You have heard that it was said, but I tell you.” Jesus was uninstalling Old Testament paradigms and reinstalling New Covenant principles.
We often have plans, goals, and things that we are pursuing. That is not a bad thing. But what happens when the plans we've made go left or don't materialize? How do we respond to that? In the life of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, we see how to move forward when God has a different plan.
During the most wonderful time of the year, as dubbed by the popular Christmas song, many people don't have the same sentiment. And there are many reasons for that. But the proclamation of Jesus' birth, was not related to gift giving, holiday cheer, or decorations. It was all about joy found in the ultimate gift of Jesus.
God's greatest gift came wrapped in swaddling cloths. That gift is right relationship with God. It's God with us, God for us, God in us. But that gift, like any gift, must be unwrapped.
4 simple words exploding with meaning - "peace be with you". Jesus' first words after being raised from the dead are loaded with cultural and historical meaning. There is much more than meets the eye and more relevant to our culture in crisis than ever.
Too many believers are following Christ, but at a distance. We're close enough to see God's power, but too far to experience his fellowship. In Matthew 5, the scripture inspires us to be peacemakers, but also exhorts us that there will be persecution that comes in following Christ. What we learn though is that challenges actually lead to purpose.
Today we lean in to both the scripture as well as stories of those who have walked through persecution. We pray you are both challenged and encouraged to go all in, in your pursuit of Christ and to live boldly in your faith.
In a pluralistic culture, we've got to get better at agreeing to disagree. This week's podcast unpacks five practices, five principles.
- Check Your Ego At The Door
- Identify Least Common Denominators
- Let your Conscience be your Guide
- Don't be Dogmatic about Disputable Matters
- Love people when they least expect
Jesus said in what is known as the Beatitudes, "blessed are the peacemakers." In this series, we have been focused on how to be peacemakers. One of the ways we can be effective peacemakers is by addressing our own bias and perspectives. Later on in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus outlines how we are to do this. He says, do not judge. Instead, have a critical eye on you before you try to help others.
Our speaker, Latasha Morrison, is a leading advocate for racial reconciliation in our society. Latasha is the Founder and President of Be the Bridge. Be the Bridge is an organization whose mission is to “empower people and cultures towards racial healing, equity, and reconciliation.”
Something has gone wrong with the world, God has a plan to set it right, and his people are challenged to play a role in the restoration. Jesus said “blessed are the peacemakers.” Peacemakers go out of the way to make peace, love their enemies to make peace, and leverage their power to serve to make peace. In this series, we will endeavor to be on mission with Jesus every day by practicing the ways that make for peace. Ask anything, listen well, disagree freely, love regardless.
Correction: The correct name of the peacemaker Pastor Heather mentions is Daoud Nassar of Tent of Nations, Palestine.
The secret to the Double Blessing is this: the way you GET IT is by GIVING IT.
God doesn't bless us to raise our standard of living. God blesses us to raise our standard of giving. Discover five steps to flipping the blessing:
- Take inventory
- Find your signature
- Learn their love language
- Little things are big things
- Have fun
The will of God is a lot less circumstantial and a lot more attitudinal than we imagine. The circumstances we are asking God to change may be the circumstances God is using to change us. How do you cultivate the attitude of gratitude?
- Whatever you don't turn into PRAISE turns into PRIDE.
- Your FOCUS determines your reality.
- Don't let what's WRONG WITH YOU keep you from worshipping what's RIGHT WITH GOD.
Before original sin there was original blessing. If we get that sequence wrong, the entire algorithm is off. Why? Because it changes who we see when we look in the mirror. Because it alters the way we relate to God. Blessing is God's most ancient instinct. It's also our deepest longing. The good news? God wants to bless you beyond your ability to ask or imagine.
Bit players- people who played an unsung part in God's redemption story. It only takes one small act to move the Gospel ball down the field. The unsung are often unnamed that play a pivotal role that drastically changes an outcome. This week, we talk about those unsung and unnamed heroes within Scripture through the life of a little boy (John 6:1-15) and a widowed woman (Mark 12:41-44).
Jesus added value to those who were described as having no value in society (Luke 5:12-14). And he made a practice of seeing the unseen. One of the synonyms for "unsung" is unseen. The encouragement is for those of us who are Jesus followers to intentionally see and touch the unseen.
Leaders aren't intimidated by other people's gifts and abilities; they build a platform for them. Barnabas was a minor character in the book of Acts, but his influence extends to us today. He invested in a story larger than his own, gave Paul a place to belong and a place to matter, and gave John Mark a second chance.
There is a long line of women in Scripture who overcome the odds, put prejudice in its place, defy cultural conventions, and break through the glass ceiling. In the grand scheme of history, women are the unsung heroes. It's the risks they take, the sacrifices they, and sometimes, the rules they break that change the trajectory of history.
What miracle is on the other side of your bold action? What story is God waiting to write beyond your act of obedience? What revelation is ready in anticipation of your word of testimony? Our story today will challenge you in your faith and the way you walk it out. What does radical obedience look like for you? It's one thing to live your life dutifully. But what if it cost you something? Real giving, real sacrifice, real obedience should hurt!
Leonard Ravenhill said, "The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity." Faith will cost you something, but it will gain you everything. Walk with us through Acts 9 and the story of a little known man named Ananias and the lengths he is willing to go to live out obedience and the subsequent miracle that follows. We pray your soul is encouraged and your faith is challenged.
Living UNSUNG is doing what we do for an audience of one. It's living for the applause of nail-scarred hands. It's making the most of our time, talent, and treasure. It's recognizing that potential is God's gift to us, what we do with it is our gift back to God.
Your best thought on your best day is at least 93 billion light-years short of how great and how good God really is!
Walking in the fear of the Lord means reverencing him and referencing him in all we do. Reverencing him means we recognize, acknowledge, and honor who he is because he is king. Referencing him means we seek him, trust him, and obey him because he is our compass.
In a world that is obsessed with looking good, we often put so much effort in trying to stand out. But the Proverbs offer us wisdom on what it means to really have a “good look” life, beyond shallow facades. The pursuit of wisdom will help both our outward expressions and inward governance align, which will allow us to live good and ultimately look good.
We continue our series in Proverbs, a book of poems and wisdom statements. But one thing we find in the book is that wisdom is more than just a collections of wise sayings, but it acts as a divine being that the scripture calls Lady wisdom. Wisdom is not found in a statement, but in a relationship with a person. We invite you to join us as we introduce you to a wonderful literary character. And also as we turn this series upside down to talk about the importance of getting & giving and how wisdom actually turns our focus outwards and how we might live out the application.
There is a reason that the self-help industry continues to grow each year. It is because we have an interest in growing and getting better. But according to King Solomon, the primary thing we should be trying to gain is understanding. In our attempts to get wisdom and understanding we are really accumulating information. But what God desires for us is to get wisdom. It is wisdom that is the posture required for a good life.
We live in a culture that values fifteen minutes of fame more than a lifetime of hard-earned, hard-learned wisdom. The book of Proverbs sets the record straight: get wisdom. How? There are a hundred ways, but we explore three of them in this podcast. One, listen to your life. Two, surround yourself with the right people. Three, ask God for supernatural wisdom. And while you're at it: never lose a holy curiosity.
Many of us have had an experience or a revelation of God, whether through a church, in relationship, or out in nature. But most of us get discouraged when we don't know where to go after that experience. So we allow it to be an isolated experience instead of seeking further, pressing into prayer, and seeking a fuller vision, revelation, and healing from the Great Healer. Today, we'll talk about the progression of seeking healing that can come through Christ. Tucked away in Mark 8 is a strange and fascinating story about a blind man who received sight from Jesus. The story teaches us a progression of healing. It took three unique touches. The first was preparation, the second brought sight, but the third touch brought vision. May the Lord open our eyes and grant us faith as we press in to grasp vision and healing from him in the areas of pain, hurt, trouble, and trial.
One of our sacred responsibilities, one of our prophetic privileges is NAMING RIGHTS. When God wants to catalyze change, He starts with names. There is power in naming things. It had the power to alter identities, the power of altering destinies. When God puts His name on us, it's game on!
The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. Do we live like we believe that? He has raised us to a new standard of living, given us a new framework for seeing, and invited us into a new way of relating to God and to one another.
In his letter to the Christians in the province of Galatia, Paul is encouraging them to not live according to their flesh but by the Spirit. The evidence of the Spirit in our lives looks like the fruit of the Spirit. And we can only see that evidence if we walk with and are led by the Spirit.
Without the Holy Spirit, we're ordinary in every way. With the Holy Spirit, all things all possible. His anointing is the X Factor—it helps us do what we do better than we can do it!
Prophesy is declaring what will happen in the future. You can prophesy fear. You can prophesy doubt. You can prophesy pain. Or, you can prophesy your praise!
Whatever you don't turn into praise turns into pride. Whatever you don't turn into praise turns into pain. Worship is not just thanking God for what He has already done. By faith, worship is declaring what God can do, what God will do!
All of us experience shame. None of us talk about shame. It's a word that we don't even like to say. Shame keeps us from being honest about our struggles, about our sins, about our hurts, about our abuse. And for many of us, it has become a debilitating factor that has hijacked our identity and halted us from reaching our God-given potential. Shame can be what you did, it can be what you didn't do, it can be what someone did to you. So we approach this conversation asking for God's grace and anointing.
Throughout scriptures, we see a common progression in shame. It starts with secrecy, which leads to isolation, which breeds insecurity. But with courage, we'll talk about how to peel back the layers of shame by talking through the antidote to each category. Don't accept the shame that you have lived with for far too long. God has freedom in store for you. Join us in this journey as we seek God in our shame.
When we deny the existence of our loneliness, our addictions, our sadness and shame, it grows in darkness and isolation. The opportunity we have to deal with it is to bring it out into the open unlike Adam and Eve they covered it up, they hid it and placed blame. Whenever we do that with our doubts they don't get better they only grow and grow and grow.
Dr. Gary Collins said “We live in a loneliness producing society.” So in this sermon we'll peel away some of the misconceptions that might have been passed on to us regarding loneliness. We think those feelings are isolated to a few people, when in reality, the majority of our society deals with loneliness on some level. When we look at the scriptures we see that even Christ can relate. It's not how do we get rid of loneliness, but how do we successfully navigate those seasons and come through better for it. We hope you'll join us to get new perspective and find health and wholeness in who you are as well as who you are becoming.
There are dozens of different addictions. Some are as obvious as opioids. Others are as private as pornography. Those addictions are multi-dimensional. Addiction is biological, psychological, and neurochemical. Addiction is emotional, relational, and spiritual. But no matter what addiction you struggle with, God can set your free. You are NOT your addiction. You are who God says you are. There are no shortcuts. There are no cheat cuts. But a single step of faith can turn into a giant leap toward mental health, emotional health, and spiritual health.
The pattern of our world is centered around fear, worry, and anxiety. We are constantly concerned about our performance, how we are perceived, and what we can possess. Jesus speaks to this by telling us to give no thought to our life. He often juxtaposes fear and faith, telling us to not to worry or be afraid. But only believe.
If the tomb is empty, all bets are off. In fact, all things are possible! It's why we're bold enough to believe that we can come out of the shadow of shame, overcome addiction, and face our fears with faith. Jesus is the Adjacent Possible!
It's all FROM God. It's all FOR God. That is where radical generosity begins. Your generosity is someone else's miracle! And the more you give, the more joy you experience. You also discover this simple truth: you cannot out give God.
As followers of Christ, we should be more known for what we're FOR than what we're AGAINST. We can't just count the ACTUAL COST. We've got to consider the OPPORTUNITY COST. You can do nothing WRONG and still do nothing RIGHT. Goodness is not the absence of badness! That is a glass half empty gospel, and God has called us to so much more than that.
Do you look at things the way they are, and ask WHY? Or do you dream of things that never were, and ask WHY NOT? What got you HERE may not get you where God wants you to go NEXT. But you have to have the courage to ask, WHY NOT.
The faithfulness of God is always pursuing us from the past. The sovereignty of God is always bearing down on us from the future. We live in the gap between SO FAR SO GOD and THE BEST IS YET TO COME. No matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. But we have to add the “Amen!”
Within 300 years of the siege of Jerusalem, the God of Israel had become the God of the Roman Empire. Against all odds, the church changed the course of history because they were gripped by the message of Jesus and galvanized by the reality of the resurrection.
The Apostle Paul writes to several groups of Christians who had formed churches throughout Europe and Asia Minor. He was trying to get them to understand the way that Jesus modeled and how they should live. In this message, we zoom in on his letter to the Philippian church. Paul encourages them to have humility in their dealings with one another, which is the mindset of Christ.
There never has been and never will be anyone like you, but that isn't a testament to you. It's a testament to the God who created you absolutely unique. God knows you better than you know you, which is why a relationship with God is so critical. You cannot reach your full potential without the God who gave it to you. Yes, we are better together. But we are best in relationship with God
With every new season comes a new anointing. Today we will step into the season we're walking in as a church and talk through some of the prayer convictions that will lead us into this next step of our church's vision. It's both about where we're going as well as who we are becoming. Becoming a naming community, a house of healing, a sent people. Who we become is determined by the commitment of every person that's a part of this church family. We hope you'll consider joining us this journey as we don't just seek to build a church, but to bless a community.
In a world where there are many things that divide us, it is much easier to seclude ourselves among people who are like us. But the message of Jesus and how he lived compels all those who follow him embrace all, including those who are different than us. Within the Gospel message is both the picture and the blue print for how we can be better together despite our differences.
Grace means I'll love you no matter what. Truth means I'll be honest with you no matter what. Tough love happens where grace and truth meet, and it's embodied by the person of Jesus. Discover the habits of highly effective grace givers and truth-tellers: 1) know your tendency 2) don't use your personality as a crutch 3) consider the source 4) know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em 5) pray it before you say it 6) level the playing field 7) catch people doing things right.
Your quality of life isn't just dependent upon WHAT you do, but WHO you do it WITH. The author of Ecclesiastes said, "Two are better than one.” The fact is this: We're not made to do life alone - we are better together! This month, we'll talk about all kinds of relationships, but today we focus in on being better together within marriage. Joel and Nina Schmidgall will share some founding principles as well as a few thoughts out of their book Praying Circles Around Your Marriage. We pray you would be encouraged and challenged in your marriage or in support of other marriages around you.
In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul outlines three daily practices that help re-set, re-orient, and re-calibrate. Rejoice, Pray, and Focus. We can experience joy in the midst of pain through gratitude, we can move from anxiety to anticipation through prayer, and we can change our reality by focusing on the promises of God.
Many of us have found out the horrible effect that toxins can have on our body. But today we want to talk about the effect that toxins can have on our soul. Many of us are ingesting things, knowingly or unknowingly, that are breaking down our spirit. Whether it's consumption of media, negative words, wrong relationships, DC mindset of position and status - we find ourselves taking in the very things that will tear us down in the long run. We want to learn from a scriptural example and walk through Psalm 51, a prayer of detox. What toxins have you allowed in your life that are breaking you down? How are you going to release it and come to a place of soul health? Join us on this journey.
Destiny is not a mystery. Destiny is a decision. You are one decision away from a totally different life.
During Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he takes time to clarify commandments and laws, giving the disciples the do's and dont's. But before he addresses what they should do, he uses two metaphors to address who they should be. Jesus is first concerned about our identity before our activity.
In the beginning, God said "Let there be light," and the light he created was so expansive and complex that we have barely scratched the surface of experiencing it and understanding it. Yet, it was the light yet to come, in the person of Jesus Christ, that would pierce the darkness once and for all. Christmas is a time when the gift of Jesus meets the grit of life and light can illuminate our way.
Today we continue in our series on light, focusing on light that eliminates fear. There are two kinds of fears: legitimate & illegitimate. Light exposes both. It teaches us that certain fears have no merit. But it also teaches us that some fears do have merit. Only legitimate fears have an element of truth, but the fact is that both kinds can have control over our minds. Faith does not get rid of fear as much as it teaches us to focus on our Father. Our fears still exist. But our God is greater than those fears. We want to invite you to consider putting faith in Christ and seeking the light of life to shine over you and see what God might want to do within you.
If you find yourself in a dark place, Pastor Mark shares four helpful hacks:
1) It's always darkest before dawn
2) Widen your aperture
3) Live in day-tight compartments
4) Let your light shine
We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to produce life change, to produce hearts for God, to produce salvation. But is that our job as believers? We know we have a unique purpose, but understanding our place within the mission of the kingdom of God is of vital importance. We'll try to step in to some critical questions:
What is the Gospel?
What is our responsibility as believers?
What does co-mission mean?
We hope you're provoked to action, word, and deed as we unpack the beginning of 1 Corinthians 3 to finish out our series on mission.
The heart of God is always oriented toward things that are broken. That's how the grace of God seeps into the crevices of our heart. That's also where mission begins. You need to inventory the broken places in your life, because those are the very places where God wants you to help others heal.
What does missions look like in the 21st century? The methods and strategies have to change, but the mission doesn't. Listen to part 1 of our missions series.
God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way! He is the God of comfort, but our comfort isn't His ultimate goal. His ultimate goal is that we would be conformed to the image of Christ. What makes us think we can be conformed to His image without going through some of the same things Jesus went through? The good news is God is working all things together for good. Our job? One, learn the lessons God is trying to teach us. Two, cultivate the character God is trying to grow in us.
We think "little" is insignificant. Whereas God calls out “little” as substantial. The woman with two mites. The boy with the small lunch. And the church at Philadelphia. All little offerings…that God used in large ways. We will hone in on the Church at Philadelphia to talk about how endurance of a small group of people is of great value in the kingdom of God. Join us for the sixth of seven letters written to the church in Revelation.
The message to the church at Thyatira challenges us with a number of questions: will we be faithful and obedient at the crossroads of culture, politics, and ideas? Will the message of Jesus be compelling enough to make us love one another and is our commitment to him stronger than all other opinions, preferences, affiliations, and loyalties? What are we tolerating that will suffocate our life in Christ?
There is no doubt that we are living in an era where cultural tensions are all around us. This was certainly the case for Christians in the Roman Empire as well as in our world today. In the letter to the Church at Pergamum, Jesus affirms their effort to stay true to him despite the pressure they faced. But He warns them concerning some of the compromises they are making as they try to fit into the culture around them. He gives clear instruction for how to address them and offers a promise of provision and victory if the follow the guidance of the Spirit.
The power of prayer is not the words we chose. The power of prayer is the God we pray to--the Alpha and Omega. He is God Most High, but He is also God Most Nigh. He is God with us, no matter what. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus!
There is nothing more personal than a hand written letter. It is a uniquely customized message to you and speaks directly to who you are. In the beginning of the book of Revelation, God speaks directly to the church in seven unique letters. In this sermon we will explore what the text DID mean (to it's original audience) and what the text DOES mean (to us today). From history to background to foundation to application, this podcast will set up the book of revelation as well as the series to come. Our prayer is that you don't just learn about the book of revelation though, but that you might experience a revelation of God in your own life.
There never has been and never will be anyone like you. That isn't a testament to you. It's a testament to the God who created you. But what that means is this: no one can volunteer your time, no one can use your talent, no one can give your treasure. Don't let what you cannot do keep you from doing what you can!
God's vision for National Community Church is bigger than ours. Why? Because it's not our church, it's His church. And Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against.” Why would God give us a city block in the nation's capital? Because God wants us to be a bigger blessing to our city!
Our vision is much bigger than simply building a church. Our vision is to bless the city to the third generation. Our vision is to seek the peace and prosperity of the city by loving it and serving it. Our vision is to have such a significant impact that the history of Washington, DC cannot be written without mentioning National Community Church.
Jesus didn't come to make bad people good, but to breathe abundant, eternal life back into all creation. His death and resurrection brings us from shame to salvation, from bondage to liberation, and from exile to restoration.
In the post-truth era, people today are more skeptical of what is real and what is true. Research says that people are looking inward for their truth. But Jesus said, “I am the truth.” He invites both the disciple and the skeptic to try him and see what the evidence suggests.
Every now and again in human history someone makes a statement, speaks a truth, that changes the playing field
Our faith is not just orthodoxy- right thinking. It's also orthopraxy- right actions. Following Jesus means living in a way that makes his Kingdom visible and tangible.
In a world where we are over scheduled and pressed at the margins, it seems daunting to think about adding another thing. But loving our neighbors and intentionally engaging with those in our path is not “another thing”. It is an intentional way of life that Jesus models for us in the scriptures. This week we'll take a glimpse of what this kind of intentionality looks in the journey of our friends living in a predominantly Central American neighborhood in Alexandria called Chirilagua.
Crossing cultures can be challenging. We must realize that God's love is for everyone. Acknowledge our own biases, fears, and hurts The Scriptures encourages and equips us to cross cultures using the Love of God
When people think of “church” they don't often think of “party” but that's a recurring theme in the gospels, a recurring theme in the parables of Jesus. From day one, our dream for NCC has been that when people miss church they actually miss church. Why? Because that's where the party is at. Throwing better parties is part and parcel of following Jesus.
Neighboring begins with the simple act of friendship- but a friendship that pushes past convenience to commitment and transformation.
The blessings of the kingdom are available to all who will come to Christ by faith. Jesus is saying Won't you be my neighbor.
The first four letters of every testimony is “test”. Once you pass the test, you get a testimony. And once you get it, you need to use it. Why? Because it's not “your” testimony. God is writing His story through your life! Your testimony is your gift to the world.
Jesus summation of the Old Testament law was to love God and love your neighbor. It's sounds like a simple task. But Jesus unpacks the complexity of the truth of what it means to authentically love those around you. And he also redefines our definition of a neighbor. And he challenges us to neighbor in a way that crosses lines, inconveniences our schedules, and forces us to step into the awkward spaces. He does all of this in one parable known as "The Good Samaritan." Join us as we walk through Luke 10 and try to attack our biases and blindspots in this captivating story.
True genius is spotting genius. Success is succession. Discipleship is growing fruit on other peoples' trees.
Sometimes we are waiting on God when God is actually waiting on us. We communicate to God that we are ready to co-labor with him through consecration. Consecration is an act of Obedience and Love towards God.
Most of us get stuck spiritually because we're waiting for God to make a move while God is waiting for us to make a move. Quit watching the clouds and start seeding them. Delayed obedience is disobedience!
One moment, real and vulnerable, can change your whole life. He calls us, but He does not force us.
When Jesus asked his disciples, “who do you say that I am,” he was gauging to see whether they had the right interpretation. Many people have become angry at the church or walked away completely because Jesus' followers have the wrong interpretation. So the question is, do you have a true interpretation and from where did it come?
If you have a problem with the God of the Bible, it's probably because of something He did in the Old Testament. Talking snakes, natural disasters, ancient moral codes, divine violence, sanctioned genocide . . . what does it tell us about God and what does it have to do with us? This weekend, we will confront the God of the Old Testament and explore best practices for engaging the text of Scripture.
Assumptions, associations, and misconceptions all tear down our faith in God. The problem is that they are rooted in untruth and so we walk away from a god that doesn’t actually exist. The goal of today’s message is not to push you to a next level faith, it’s not to convince anyone to believe in God, the goal is to weed through the misconceptions and identify the counterfeit gods in our thought process. Those ideas that we learned as a kid but never gained a great understanding or, those ill-fitted explanations from good intentioned people, or the outright manipulations from someone speaking out of turn. But somewhere along the way we might have learned or assumed things that are just not true of God. Let’s peel back the layers of untruth as we seek to explore who God really is during this series.
In the beginning, God created humankind in His image. We have been creating God in our image ever since. But what you end up with is a god who looks a lot like us! That’s the God we’re dismantling in this series so we can discover the true God, the God of the Bible. And that God might surprise you.
The key to changing the way we think, the way we feel, and the way we behave is NOT changing the way we think, the way we feel, and the way we behave. The key? Changing the stories we tell ourselves!
Prayer is a two-sided coin. You can’t just pray like it depends on God, you also have to work like it depends on you. Pray. Then pray some more. But at some point, you need to stop praying about it and starting doing something about it. The best prayer is a well-lived life. The best prayer is doing what Jesus did. And God will help you do it beyond your ability. It’s called the anointing, and it’s the difference between the best you can do and the best God can do.
Temptation and evil are a constant presence in our world. Jesus himself was tempted. But we have a way out and a way to win. When Jesus says, “lead is not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” he is saying we cannot deliver ourselves. Prayer is both our hedge and our help!
It takes seventeen seconds to recite the Lord’s prayer, but it takes a lifetime to live it and learn it. The turning point in the prayer, the tipping point, is this: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This prayer is the difference between bitter and better. If you’re stuck emotionally or spiritually, maybe it’s because you’ve prayed the first half of this prayer but not the second half. If you want to be whole, you have to pray the whole thing.
Today we make the transition in the Lord’s Prayer from talking about God the Father to talking about ourselves. But the prayer is a wonderful model of relationship. It starts with relationship building (Our Father), moves to character (Hallowed be your name) and progresses towards need (Give us daily bread). To seek God for daily bread is an act of trust. He doesn’t promise us weekly bread or monthly bread, but daily bread, so as to keep us cultivated relationship with Him. But the secret of this request is that bread is broader than bread. He is ultimately allowing us to bring our request for any need for provision. Whether food or relational or work. But at the end of the day He is a God who meets both physical and spiritual need. And he does so through the bread of life, not just a scrap that fills our belly. We invite you to seek God in this practical way along with us as we digest the middle portion of the prayer.
The prayer "thy kingdom come” is not a prayer we pray and then wait for things to happen. It’s a prayer that demands our own repentance, demands faith, and demands that we live out the actions of Christ. But the actions of Christ are counter culture to the ways that we have seen power abused throughout history. His kingdom is about service and justice and grace. When we pray that his name would be great and pray that his kingdom would come, we must continue the Lord’s prayer to the next line. Because those two things are accomplished when we live out, “Thy will be done.” And when we do, we see heaven come to earth moments. Join us as we continue our series on the Lord’s prayer.
As we enter the season of Lent, we begin a focused season of prayer. We pray to a God who gives us the proximity of a father and the perspective of the heavens.
When you put what is in your hands into the hands of God, 5 + 2 no longer equals 7. When you add God to the equation, 5 + 2 = 5000 R12. It’s Kingdom Calculus. By definition, a God-sized dream is beyond your ability and beyond your resources. In other words, you cannot do it. But God can. And that’s how God gets the glory! He does things we can’t take credit for.
John wants us to believe what he found to be true! Trust the Jesus he trusted and experience what he experienced. John is saying “Look at what happens when you BELIEVE! Look at the result of TRUST!”
A reboot is to make a change in something in order to establish a new beginning. Zig Ziglar said, “No one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start now and make a brand new ending." Our prayer over this series has been to help people go from the old to the new. From an old way of thinking, from an old habit, from an old mindset to a new mindset through Christ. To get a new mindset, we’ve got to peel back the bad habits and uproot those wrong ideas and replace them with God-inspired vision. Today’s message is a set up to practicing prayer in which we allow God to do His work in our soul, so we encourage you to do the same on your own after this brief message. Take a few minutes to seek God through reflection, forgiveness, fellowship, honor, and celebration.
In our quest to reboot at the beginning of the year. There is no doubt that there are goals and resolutions we want to pursue. There is nothing wrong with that. But often, the difference between success and failure in our lives has nothing to do with accomplishing these goals. It has everything to do with basic spiritual disciplines, to which EVERYTHING is connected. When it is all said and done, maximizing the capacity and potential of our lives comes back to the basics.
Winston Churchill said "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give". Being generous changes everything. Brad talks to us about moving from awareness to action.
The way we reboot spiritually is God’s mercy and grace. Mercy is NOT GETTING what we deserve. Grace is getting what we DO NOT deserve. The good news? The Mercy Shop is never closed.
Master of is not a mystery. Mastery of anything requires mundanity. It’s a habit done consistently and correctly over and over again. That’s the heart and soul of excellence.
The message of Christmas is: Fear Not. Fear is playing not to lose. Faith is playing to win. If you run away from what you’re afraid of, you’ll be running the rest of your life. It’s time to face your fears!
There is little that makes us more upset than having to wait. Culture and technology does everything possible to satiate the desire for NOW that we have. But now isn’t always the best answer. God actually has a plan in our waiting. But it’s so hard for us not to give up our wait. But the story of Simeon and Anna teaches us there is something to be found in waiting. That God isn’t just in the reward, but He is also in the waiting. And there’s a big difference between passive waiting and active waiting. God speaks to us, He works in us, He prepares us all in a season of waiting. And at the end of the day, when we embrace this season, God will re-shape your wants, your destiny, and will bring something unexpected into your life that is greater than you can have in mind. We hope you’re challenged to continue to seek God through this encouragement.
God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time, but divine appointments don’t just happen. We’ve got to do our part by obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Your dream will probably take longer than your original estimate, but if you keep doing the right thing day in and day out, God is going to show up and show off.
Are we on the brink of a new reformation in our world? What is going on in our culture of confusion and chaos and how can we be brave in a climate ripe for healing the world longs for?
This is not our typical podcast. This is an attempt to SHOW missions instead of just TALK about missions. So we put together 4 short films that highlight 4 short stories of what it means to actually live out your brave. From a community based Spanish-speaking center, to refugee chefs providing nourishment, to café work in Greece, to young people caring for the poor of our own city.
Our goal is not to guilt you into feeling bad, but to inspire you into doing good. And then we’ll unpack Acts 3 to talk about our motivation behind living out brave. We hope and pray you are encouraged through each story that is told through this missions come to life podcast. We encourage you to watch the video if possible.
Following Jesus is pretty clear: we're called to love the most vulnerable, the poor, the least of these. Rich Stearns, president of World Vision explores the good news of global poverty and how we're called to serve and support refugees around the world.
Dr. John Perkins might not be a name you are familiar with. But for the last 57 years, he has been diligently leading social just efforts in the area of racial reconciliation and community development. After being sent away from Mississippi to California to escape the oppression of racism, he experienced a new life and became a Christ follower. But after some time, he was compelled to go back and tear down the walls of division he experienced as a child. In this interview, Dr. Perkins challenges us to live out the great commission, cross lines of division, and make the word flesh. The solution he says, will come out of us being obedient to the Great Commission and working together.
Jesus didn’t die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous! Your brave is someone else’s breakthrough.
“Whoever has ears, let them hear.” It’s only six words, but it’s an urgent exhortation with exponential implications. The word “obey” in Latin means “to give ear.” God speaks in seven languages. The first language is Scripture, and it’s in a category by itself. But there are six secondary languages—desires, dreams, doors, people, promptings, and pain. Your ability to learn those languages is the key to your destiny.
Learning to discern the voice of God is the solution to a thousand problems. It’s also the key to discovering your identity and destiny. Is God’s voice the loudest voice in your life?
We can't avoid worry by abdicating responsibility or dispel worry through distraction. Rather, we overcome worry by focusing on the character of God and taking responsibility for a Kingdom larger than our own.
You only live once is a motto that many in our culture would subscribe to. If you want it, you should have it because life is short. So we decide the good things we should have and we ask, seek, and knock for those opportunities. But Jesus tells us in Matthew 7 that God, our father, wants more for us if we ask him. If we get what we want, it is likely that we lose out on the "more" the father has for us. The asking, seeking, and knocking Jesus is talking about is not our petition for what we want but being in the right position to get what God wants for us, which is more than we know to ask for!
Part of understanding how life works is to grasp those things that hinder or stop life from working in a Kingdom way.
The passage we look at today might one of the hardest passages to live out in all of scripture. Jesus combines the common actions of love your neighbor and hate your enemy, and essentially redefines our enemy…as our neighbor. And He calls us to love our enemy. The opening questions is this: Who is your enemy? You might think it’s only that one very evil person you know. But think in more common terms. The co-worker in competition with you, the family member that selfishly puts you aside, the person on the other side of the political aisle, the parent that deeply hurt you. Jesus calls us to love those who hurt us. The second questions is HOW. It starts with correctly understanding love. And then we'll unpack Jesus statement through three applications He gives that are revolutionary to the way we approach tension, conflict, hurt. Jesus cuts a new path for us to walk down. Not fighting back…but not stepping aside. But approaching the enemy with grace and confrontation all at the same time. We hope you’re challenged by this incredibly rich scripture.
Meekness is not weakness. It’s strength under control. Few character traits are more impressive than someone who isn’t trying to impress! If you stay humble and stay hungry there is nothing God cannot do in you and through you.
Playing the Long Game starts with a mindset: it’s all FROM GOD and it’s all FOR GOD. When we give, we are “giving back” what God gave us in the first place. And that’s where joy is found, on the giving side of life. The more you give, the more you enjoy what you keep. And you discover that you cannot out give God. Every investment in God’s kingdom earns compound interest for eternity.
Time is measured in minutes, but life is measured in moments. Redeeming the time is discerning those critical moments, holy moments, teachable moments and making the most of them. It’s living each day like it’s the first day and last day of our lives. It’s being fully present right here, right now. And, ultimately, it’s trusting God’s timing.
Every one of us is uniquely made and has been given a gift from God. But to steward that gift... is actually to give away. The benefits of doing so are circular. As one of our volunteers Christina White says, “Allow yourself to be poured into and poured out at the same time. It’s a cycle: You give, you get, you give, you get. You’re always in the position to receive but you’re always in the position to give.”
The individual pursuit of happiness is far from the pursuit of meaning. Research shows that the more you pursue happiness, the less you are actually happy. But to pursue meaning is to pursue service. You find meaning in others. So the purpose of our gifts are not intended to satisfy us, but others. But in satisfying others, it brings incredible meaning to us. Figuring out those gifts begins with service. Activating those gifts has to do with the Holy Spirit. We pray that the gifts that lay unidentified or unused within you are ignited into action through this message.
Inaction is an action. Indecision is a decision. And sometimes silence sanctions! If you follow Jesus, you will love people who aren't like you. Being color blind isn't enough. We're called to be color brave!
The One who knows you best loves you most. He knows our secrets, shortcomings, rejections, doubts, and questions, but He wants to extend significance, relationship, and transformation.
We all have a human desire to be known. But sharing the not so pleasant aspect of our lives is not what we are inclined to do. We would much rather be known by our successesthan our struggles. We present ourselves more like resumes, showing the best parts of who we are. But being known in our struggle is what actually draws us closer together. And confessing our struggles and carrying each other's burdens is what deepens our connection to God and one another.
You can love, appreciate, you can value your spouse. But do you truly know them? One of the richest forms of being known is to be known in marriage. Pastor Joel and Nina tag team to present a biblical look at marriage, explore distortions and misunderstandings, and present some habits that are healthy in marriage. At the end of the day, the goal is not marriage, but it’s to glorify God in all we do. The prayer of this message is to bring hope where hope has been lost. To speak love when love has been lost. To re-energize the couple that has lost connection in their relationship.
What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? We’ll explore Jesus’ words on this topic and talk about the call to love.
The scriptures give us a progression of understanding of love. In John 4, we’re taught to "love one another.” In Mark 12, the measure is increased. Don’t just love one another, but "love your neighbor as yourself.” And in John 13:34-35, the measure is increased yet again. Don’t just love one another, don’t just love as you love yourself. But love "as Christ has loved us". Because he knows our love for each other can be imperfect. Our love for ourselves can even be imperfect. But He came to this earth to give us the ultimate example of love. It’s the prepositional gospel:
Coming TO (incarnational)
Being WITH (relational)
Dying FOR (sacrificial)
Jesus gives us a beautiful picture of what it should look like to be known in community.
In a world that is more consumed with self-preservation, self-promotion, and self-gratification, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13, that love is the more excellent way. This love that he describes, is not about self, but sacrificial. It is the greatest force in the world, even greater than faith and hope.
Hope confronts the brutal facts with unwavering faith. It knows that 1) This too shall pass 2) Its ok to not be ok 3) The obstacle is the way!
Young leaders can increase their influence when they establish patterns in their lives that become examples for others to follow. Be an example in what you say, how you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.
Our first reaction when we find ourselves in trial is to seek God for deliverance. But what the book of James teaches is that what is produced from trial is a perfection process. Perfecting does not happen when you get immediate deliverance. It happens in perseverance.
This weekend will be about how we move from anxiety to gratitude. All around us we see the weight, stress, and suffocating effect of "the cares of this world". In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul gives us a formula for how we can live in the freedom of Christ.
At the end of the day, I want to be famous in my home. Success is when those who know you best respect you most. It starts with the last verse in the last chapter in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 4:6. God wants to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children.
We don’t believe in happily EVER after. We believe in something so much better: happily FOREVER after. Don’t seek fifteen minutes of fame. Aim for eternal reward.
This is not your normal sermon - this is an eight man tag team from our NCC Campus Pastors. Eight unique angles, yet one single thread of what it means to be the Church. The greek word used for Church in the Scripture is Ekklesia and it means “called out people.” The Church is not a place, it’s not a person, it’s not a denomination. Here’s who we become as the Church:
- Worshippers
- Transformed people
- Unique yet not above
- Empowered with gifts from God
- Devoted to love
- Enthusiastic in service
- Peace keepers living in harmony
- Peace makers within the world
We are a people called out to live for God’s purposes. Join us as we strive to become who God has made us to be.
Is the gospel just a picture that hangs on the wall? Or does it frame your life? Have you entered the story? God wants to write His story through you!
The Resurrection wasn't meant to be celebrated one day a year. We celebrate it every day in every way. When Jesus walked out of the tomb, the word "impossible" was removed from our vocabulary.
The turn from the old covenant to the new covenant, the hundreds of prophecies finally fulfilled, even our calendar as we know it is all built around one pivotal event: The incarnation. God putting skin on and coming into our world. When He did that, everything changed. Jesus taught us how to love, how to live, how to forgive. He sacrificed his life for us. Our sin deserves death, but he took on death so that we might have life and have it to the fullest. Our great God in heaven stooped down low, down on our level to relate to us. So now, we don’t just have a judge, but we have a mediator. Someone who knows our hurts, troubles, and trials, and promises us his presence in the midst of them. By faith, we have new life…because Christ came. Join us as we search the scriptures to fully comprehend the gift that God has given us.
(The Return) Even when it feels like your life is falling apart, God is still working His plan and His plan is still working.
A survey of the leadership of Saul, David, Solomon, and Rehoboam demonstrate that success and failure does not rise and fall on our abilities or opportunities but on our obedience, humility, and worship.
Three keys to claiming God's promises. 1. Follow the Ark. 2. Consecrate yourself. 3. Step into the river.
We use words like covenant and contract interchangeably, when in reality they have drastically different meanings. A contract is transactional, a covenant is relational. We will talk about the idea of Biblical covenant and it’s effect on our relationship with God by outlining the basis, the result, the beauty, and the fulfillment. God’s covenant is not about a set of do’s and don’ts, but a loving relationship of a Father with his children and His attempt to guide and love and sacrifice so that we can find freedom in our relationship with Him.
The reason we often get frustrated with God's plan is because it is a disruption to what is familiar. It is often not what we had in mind. God promises deliverance but he doesn't explain the process. His ways are not our ways. But there are benefits to God's process. All we need to do, in the words of Moses is, "stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today."
God's invitation is based on his purposes, not our perfection. Our response requires a step of courage, not certainty.
God is great not just because nothing is too big, God is great because nothing is too small.
The image of God is not just found in individuals, but in the group - the Body of Christ
Our culture is constantly telling us we are not enough. Often we believe this lie and it distorts how we view ourselves. In his letter to the church at Colossae, the Apostle Paul encourages us to put on a new nature and find our renewal in the image of Christ.
We start a new year thinking about what we need to accomplish, what we need to do less, what we need to do more, what we need to do. But we are going to step back from the WHAT today, and talk about the WHO. Because the DO is dependent on the WHO. What you need to DO is an outgrowth of WHO you are & how you see yourself. So we want to go back to the beginning, to the Genesis to talk about who we are – our image.
We begin our collective story in Genesis as dust. But when God breaths into that dust, we come to life. We become who we are made to be, we become the shape and form that we were purposed to be. Join us as we discover where we come from and what value lies within.
Change rides on the wings of hope. Not hope in our abilities, circumstances, or outlook. But hope in the character and ways of God.
A very Merry Christmas to you and yours! Cozy up with your loved ones to sing a Christmas carol, read the story of Jesus' birth, and hear a brief Christmas message from Pastor Mark Batterson.
We can respond with grace, live with courage, and love beyond limits and logic when we get a revelation of who Jesus is and what he came to do.
The word “hark” originated as a hunter’s term. A hunter would shout “hark” to his hounds to encourage them to follow a scent. To sniff it out and find it’s origin. To “hark back” meant to find the scent once again. A calling back to the trail and a call back to the original scent.
In Luke 2, the shepherds had heard the message of hope before. The prophecy was 600+ years old from the book of Isaiah. It was already stated and people were well aware of it. But in this story, they are being harkened back by God to what they already knew.
Are we ignoring the harks of our day? The Holy Spirit is harking back to us throughout our day. You might have heard the Christmas story when you were 5 years old, but today, God is calling you back.
We're called to love God, and the second commandment, of equal importance is to love your neighbor as yourself. What if living your neighbor includes love those least like yourself? As we seek to live on mission wherever we are, loving as Jesus did is simple, but not easy. But there is no other way to live.
The question is not whether God is on this side or that side, the question is are you on God's side?
For those who choose to side with God, they can have no fear because justice and righteousness shall reign in their land through the outpouring of God's spirit.
It’s easy for us to fall into the ruts and the routines and sleepwalk through our daily existance. There’s a big different between sleep walking and dreaming. You can sleep walk past need. Past your calling. Past God’s work. But to dream on earth is to be awakened to a heavily realm. Dreaming is essential to living fully awake.
We have a saying at NCC. We want to be a part of the dream that God has given you, and we also want to invite you to be a part of the dream that God has given the church. This series is not about chasing your whim or wondering off in a fantasy. This is God’s dream for His Church. One that requires sacrifice, submission, and laying down your own comforts to pursue the Holy Spirit. When you get in his presence it will lead to the power necessary to step into Dream.
The only explanation for everything God has done at NCC over the past twenty years is 5 words that Jesus declared 2,000 years ago—I will build my church.
We must be careful that we don't presume on God's power to protect us at our command when we are defiantly living outside of his command.
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight. It’s the size of the fight in the dog. You’ve got to 1) Define Success 2) Take it One Step at a Time 3) Get Around the Right People 4) Adopt a Growth Mindset 5) Fight for Your Dream until your Hand Freezes to the Sword.
You are one risk away from a totally different reality, one idea away from a totally different mentality, one decision away from a totally different eternity.
When we lack the guts to go after our God-sized dreams, we rob God of the glory He deserves. Quit running away from what you’re afraid of. Run to the roar!
If you’re looking for an excuse, you’ll always find one. If you’re looking for an opportunity, you’ll always find one. Quit making excuses and start seizing opportunities.
The scriptures said in John 8:36, “If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed.” The problem is that many of us have heard the good news, but we don’t live out the good news. We’ll talk about how to walk free. It’s starts with three primary understandings: Your issue is not your identity. God is bigger than your bondage. Focus on the process. Don’t tolerate the issues that you have become accustomed to. God has called you out to live free and live life in abundance.
Shame drives us into hiding, speaks accusation over our lives, and isolates us from others. On the cross, Jesus cancelled our guilt and obliterated our shame. The Holy Spirit is our Advocate who defends us against the Accuser.
The highest form of status in our nation is not power, it’s not money, it’s not social status, it’s the person that has ultimate independence. Who answers to no one. We spend most of our life working towards complete independence with our finances, with schedule, with authority. But John 15 teaches us that true greatness doesn’t come from detachment, but from attachment to the source of life. Moving mountains is not about our independent abilities, but having faith in God’s supernatural abilities. But the challenge is that we have such a hard time letting go of control. Independence has gone from pursuit to addiction and we have forgotten how to trust and lean into a God who is able. That’s fine, if we merely want to CLIMB mountains. But if you want to MOVE mountains, you’ve got to learn a different way. Join us as we discuss a different way.
Fear is natural - it's a default place. If we don’t choose something else, it chooses us. Where do you turn when fear knocks on the door?
At some point you have to stop talking to God about your problems and start talking to your problems about God.
We all have a desire to be real. It's what God wants from us too. He wants us to bring everything that we are to meet everything that He is, and it happens in worship. Lean in as our worship team shares a few quick Ted style talks that will challenge and inspire us on to a more authentic life of worship
The culmination of the Priestly blessing is God's gift of peace. But how do we reclaim the Biblical ideal? When our world is in constant conflict, war is waged, chaos is prevalent, what should a hope for peace look like? In this sermon we’ll break down the Biblical definition and ethic, how it applies to our life, what our relationship with it should be, and what calling we have within it. Peace is both a gift as well as a pursuit. At the end of the day, we look to Jesus words in John 6:33 “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Grace is too big to be defined. It is better experienced than explained and translates better as story than doctrine. Grace makes the first move, it makes unexpected moves, it makes bold moves, and it calls us home.
To say, "God keeps you" sounds like a benign statement. When in fact it is quite the opposite. It’s one of the most powerful statements that can be made. To keep is not a one time act of affection. It’s not a flash in the pan. It’s not young love. It’s not sexy. To keep is hard work. It’s faithfulness. It’s loyalty. It’s commitment. God does not just watch over us, but He actively keeps us in His purposes. In this message, we’ll unpack the kaleidoscopic meaning of this statement as well as wrestle with it’s implications in our lives.
The blessing of God is the difference between the best you can do and the best God can do.
Don't let Jesus' last command become your least concern. Make disciples who make disciples.
The danger in following at a distance is that we will be following closely enough to see Jesus but far enough away that our lives aren't affected by Him.
Perhaps you are suffocating under the weight of your own self-expectation. Or handicapped to walk in God's plan because of paralyzing fear. In this message, Joel and Nina share their story of overcoming insufficiencies. God doesn't just use you in spite of but because of your weakness. Through God's power, you can rewrite the script of fear and self-doubt in your life.
Surely our proclamation becomes the next generation's pavement. How is God calling you to pave straight paths for the youth around you.
There is no great opportunity without giant opposition. But we can be "strong and courageous" because God is with us wherever we go!
When Jesus walked out of the tomb, the word impossible was deleted from the dictionary.
The altar was a place of encounter between God and man. Quite literally it was a place of sacrifice. We’ll break down it’s importance in entering the presence of God by looking at the Old Testament Tabernacle, the specifications of the altar itself, and the sacrifice which needed to be made. God’s sacrifice of His son incites our sacrifice of praise. And our praise leads to His presence. Now the question becomes, “Are we willing to wait on God?" For many in our generation, we have not learned what it means to wait, to wrestle, to linger, to tarry in the Lord’s presence. To get on your knees and not get up until you have a conviction from God. This message is an invitation to the altar, to praise, and to press in like you haven’t before.
Have you had an experience with God, but don’t actively follow him? Are you living with one foot in the world and one foot in Christ? Elijah addresses the people of Israel who have “two opinions” in 1 Kings 18, but also speaks to our mindset today. He gives a powerful liturgy to lead people to an altar experience. He draws people in, builds an altar up, lays a sacrifice down, pours his trust out, then steps forward in confident prayer as God reveals himself to the people of God…and to us.
When your life is altered, make an altar. New beginnings requires new postures- take a posture of listening, a posture of sacrifice, and a posture of worship.
An altar is not CASUAL, it's COVENANTAL; at age 75 Abram in faith made a covenant with God. An Altar of covenant is a PLACE and PROMISE!
Our Campus Pastors close out the Reset series, each giving a unique angle on what it means to reset our lives spiritually.
Someone else's miracle is on the other side of your faith, your sweat, and your investment. Who can't tell their story without including your name? Establishing intentional rhythms, practicing forgiveness, honoring one another, and thoughtfully re-drawing boundaries are reset buttons for keeping our relationships healthy and growing.
How do you view your body? The tendency in the church is to separate the physical and the spiritual. But the scriptures exhort us to be aware of both. In fact, the incarnation teaches us God doesn’t devalue the physical, but hyper values it. But different from physical new year’s resolutions of losing weight or getting in shape, we’ll talk about how to give our bodies as “living sacrifices” (Romans 12) unto God.
We can only understand the man on the cross when we understand the baby in the manger. The Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace is the One who illuminates the way during the fog of the Holidaze.
No matter how hard we prepare for Holidays, they somehow always turn a little chaotic and stressful. The Holidays can leave us in a holidaze. In Matthew 1, Joseph faces one of the messiest holiday situations that you’ve ever seen. No matter how hard he tried to plan his way out of it, his plans kept getting interrupted. But his interruptions were actually God’s plan. Joseph teaches us to let go of our plans and embrace God’s purposes in the midst of the craziness.
If you want a heart that breaks for the things that break the heart of God you’ve got to get out of your routine, out of your rhythm, out of your comfort zone. That’s where miracles happen!
The 'G' stands for God. If you put God in front of any problem He'll give you the strength to get through it and the solution to it.
We serve a God who draws us in, so we can be sent out. Isaiah 6 sets the tone with the man who steps into the glory of God to then be sent out to proclaim God’s message.You’ll hear heartfelt testimony of people who have stepped out, who have sacrificed, and who have found peace in God’s presence. And you’ll hear our strategy of mission around the world. And ultimately, you’ll be invited to be a part of God’s calling.
To see yourself as anything less than who you are in Christ is false humility. You are not a victim. You are more than a conqueror.
Reconciliation involves not only God and the individual but also the individual and the community.
God has given each person a wide variety of gifts, and he expects us to employ those gifts in his service. It is not acceptable merely to put those gifts on a closet shelf and ignore them.
God wants to do something new in you. Jesus message and entire life was about modeling what a new way of living should look like. But are we flexible and ready to respond to His revelation? New revelation + the same lifestyle = Frustration & Guilt. It's only in obedience that we go from revelation to transformation.
``` God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way!
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Jesus has invited us to feast in his presence; how could we not come? There is more room at his table; how dare we come alone?
Our past haunts us and hunts us. The labels define us, the failures disqualify us, and the hurts paralyze us. But God says that the old is gone and the new has come. No label is too sticky for grace, no failure is too far for grace, and no hurt is too deep for grace.
Many of us embrace the idea that in order to get the approval of God or others we must try harder. But trying harder doesn't get us ahead but gets us stuck. Jesus' solution isn't "try harder" but "come closer."
"God will never give you more than you can handle." We often use these words to give comfort to others and confidence in ourselves. But did God really say that? Faith isn't the assurance that everything will be okay; faith is the assurance that God is in control.
God calls us to live ON mission, but he also equips us to fight FOR that mission. Ephesians 6 shows us who were battling, what we’re battling for, and how we go about winning daily battles in our life.
Jesus declared he was the way, the truth, and the life. Truth is not ultimately found in a list of statements but in a person. The experience of truth is not ultimately realized by following rules but forming a relationship. Truth is not restricting but liberating.
The church is not a building, not a place, not a space, not a theater, not a house, not an address. Unless that address is where you are!
Our whole life we are peppered with pursuing our purpose. As kids we are asked, “What are you going to do when you grow up?” As adults, we are constantly in search of feeling the highest level of fulfillment through our jobs. But this is an eternal search that is never fulfilled until we can find proper understanding of who we are. Pastor Joel & Nina tag team to talk about the power of being chosen, adopted, predestined, and purposed for the glory of God. It is only in stepping out of selfish ambition and into eternal purposes that we find the essence of God’s purpose over our lives.
The Spirit of God is on us and in us. And He sees incredible value in our lives, so much so that He has empowered us to experience His goodness and then to pull out flavor within our world. In the 1st part of this series we unpack Jesus call to be the salt of the earth in Matthew 5. Every person is uniquely and wonderfully made, so our job is to pull out what God has already placed within every person.
You need to be a single-whole person! 3 thing I wish someone had taught me before I got married
A child can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the amount of apples in a seed.
One little yes to priorities is not a singular yes. It's a residual yes. It's coming back and saying yes to what is important, day after day. In Haggai 1, Israel believes in God as priority. But they don't practice their belief. Haggai calls them out and gives them clear instruction in how to come back in line with the priorities to which God has called them. He calls them back to their one little yes.
Faithfulness is not just doing good. It’s doing good. It’s doing good. It’s doing good. It's divine repetition. It’s a loop of love. It’s joy continuous. It’s a pattern of patience. It’s routine kindness. It’s goodness on repeat.
But at the end of the day, to talk about faithfulness IN us, is to know about God’s faithfulness that has been given TO us. Because you can’t produce faithfulness. Faithfulness is God and God is faithfulness. When you reside in the Spirit of God, the natural outcome of your life will be faithfulness. Not because you manufactured it, because it’s who He is. And when you’re in Him, the fruit of His Spirit will be in you!
Goodness is character energized to strategically, systematically, and prayerfully push back the darkness of the world so that the light of God can shine through. We don't do good things in order to earn God's favor; rather, we do good things because we've been completely transformed by God's favor. Goodness is not just a behavior to exhibit but a blessing to enjoy.
We underestimate the power of a God-inspired act towards our fellow man. Kindness doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by intention. But the fruit of the Spirit known as kindness is more than a single, isolated action. It is a constant awareness and obedience to the promptings of the life of the Spirit within us to care for those around us.
We want things to happen at the speed of light, but in God's kingdom, things happen at the speed of a seed.
Sometimes you need to quit telling God about your problems and start telling your problems about God.
Love is the accurate estimation and adequate supply of another person's needs. No person can do this completely, only God can.
We all desire God's blessing, but Jesus' description of “blessed" turns our description upside down. He desires for us to live blessed whether we’re poor in spirit, mourning, or persecuted. Blessing and suffering sometimes go hand in hand. No matter where we are, no matter what our circumstances are, his blessing is available.
Blessing has more to do with the Presence that we seek than the possessions that we keep. To experience the blessing of God requires a step of obedience, a willingness to count our blessings before they hatch, and long faith.
The biggest gifts are not the best gifts. The best gifts are those you have to hunt down. Christmas is is a story of a treasure hunt. Shepherds and Magi searching out the Messiah. When you seek and search out a treasure in Christ, they clear reaction is joy. Not happiness. But joy. And when you find joy in Christ, it doesn’t just affect you but it affects those around you. And your life becomes a declaration of joy.
Jesus commands us to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. Maybe saying "please" to God has less to do with good manners and more to do with patient persistence.
The will of God is not a mystery. It’s already revealed. Give thanks in all circumstances.
You'll hear 7 different stories of people in 7 domains of society. We pray this serves as a catalyst as we embrace our calling to Jesus and the assignments we’re given through the Holy Spirit to live on mission, whenever, wherever.
Share in the powerful testimony of what God is doing around the world. Pastor Zeb Mengistu testifies to hands of begging turning into hands of blessing.
Mission is not a trip. Mission is not an organization. It doesn't just happen in another country. Mission happens whenever, wherever you are. You are walking coordinates - on mission every day.
``` If you keep doing the right things day in and day out, your one day is going to come.
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Our lives are punctuated by days that mark us, form us, define us, and ultimately change the trajectory of our lives. After Jesus spent a day in Peter's boat, Peter had to make a decision that changed everything.
There are 2 ways people know us: what we say and what we do. In this message we see how Jesus' words and actions are congruent.
Don't seek miracles. Follow Jesus. And if you follow Him long enough and far enough, you'll find yourself in the middle of some miracles! The same God who turned water into wine, can turn sadness to joy, fear to faith, and death to life.
Forgiven people forgive people. Forgiveness is rooted in the love of Christ, is a declaration of the Gospel, and is the key to freedom. This creative message includes the NCC Media Team's short film Super and an exhortation to live a life of freedom, peace, and joy in the midst of a world of pain and hurt.
Even in victory we can fail, when we decide to take all the credit. After an unsuccessful attempt to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, David humbles himself before the Lord and gives to God what was dearest to him: Kingship. Psalm 24 is a declaration of David unto the King of Glory and an incredible example of prayer to all of us.
If you suffer from a low-grade fever of fear, Psalm 37 is the broad-spectrum antibiotic.
We'll dive into one of the great scriptures of all time: Psalm 23. An incredible encouragement to millions, it's true worth is opened up when you can really say that The Lord is not just A shepherd, or THE shepherd, but that He is MY shepherd.
The Bible is the Promise Land--there are thousands of promises. If we claim them, God will keep them.
For 30 years Jesus life and ministry went largely unnoticed. Enter the Holy Spirit. And His ministry exploded on to the scene with miracles, salvation, and countless lives impacted. Jesus doesn't just teach and tell us what to do. But He models how to live and walk in the Spirit. You'll be challenged to follow in His footsteps. It starts with being desperate for His presence - when you seek His presence, His power follows.
In Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit came on specific people at specific times for specific reasons. On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, a new day dawned and the Holy Spirit was poured out on all people.
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Godhead, not the Third Wheel. He is hovering. He is contending. He is anointing.
The impossibility of a situation doesn't stop God from being God. Impossible is where God starts. He's the God of miracles. It's what He does; it's Who He is.
When you see how much time you have left, you tend to get serious about the time you have now.
If Paul's story is any indication, then grace has no end. Failure doesn't have to be final or fatal. It is the proving grounds of God's grace.
A story filled with mistakes and failure. Two main challenges come from this message. The first is understanding that God's great purpose always exceeds our momentary gratification. The second is a challenge for those who have failed. God is not done writing your story. You can let failure define you or you can allow failure to motivate you...the latter precedes greatness. Don't give up on God's greatness being accomplished in and through your life.
From the very first failure, God has faithfully pursued unfaithful people. No matter what you have done or where you are hiding, God is walking through the chaos of your life and calling your name.
You can't expect new results if you're doing the same old thing. Lent is an opportunity to get out of routine, to re-center yourself on God, and step out of habits to pursue God with abandon. For more info on joining us for the 40 day Lent Challenge, visit: http://theaterchurch.com/publications/40-days-of-lent-2014
What if we were generous just for the fun of it? Generosity is not about what I have it's about how I think.
From the beginning of Creation, God has chosen a people to reflect his character and participate in his mission. From the Garden of Eden to the family of Abraham to the Church, God has demonstrated his faithfulness and sovereignty.
From marriage, to neighbors, to conflict, to the work place, our 7 Campus Pastors each take a different angle on how to plan within different spheres of relationship. Enjoy some Biblical and practical wisdom 5 minutes at a time in this ted-talk style format.
Joseph's voice is silent in the scriptures, but his life is loud. His life preaches a powerful sermon on going from obedience to joy. There's a big difference between happiness and joy and Joseph teaches us the latter.
John the Baptist's message is as relevant for us today as it was 2000 years ago. Repentance, a word we don't often associate with Advent, is a key component of the preparation of Christmas. If we want to be a part of a great work of God, we must allow God to do a great work within us.
You'll see four glimpses through four short films of how people in our community are living mission through Aone:eight. These are living sermons that will challenge and inspire you to go from intention to action in your faith. Our thanks to filmmakers Dave and Erica Baker, Adam Mason, Dave Schmidgall, persecutedchurch.org, and Andy Pisciotti for creatively telling these stories.
Guest speaker Marc Turnage springboards off of Acts 1:8 to talk about the 3 pillars of faith according to Jesus in Matthew 6.
From Jesus first address in Luke 4 to his last exhortation in Acts 1:8, we see the key component in living on mission: The Spirit of God. Before we live in God's power we've got to get into His presence. In this message we'll cast vision, share testimony, and lay out our strategy for mission going into 2014.
If you're willing to be demoted in the eyes of man then you're ready to be promoted in the eyes of God.
Most miracles have a human component. God is the only one who can perform them, but we play a part.
David penned Psalm 63 in the midst of one of the low points of his life. But instead of lamenting his situation, he praises God through the pain. We take a look at the principles of praise as David teaches us how to respond in a season of wilderness.
All of us find ourselves in the wilderness and some point in our lives. Sometimes, it is a wilderness of painful consequences of our own unfortunate choices...
We will de-construct then re-construct what it means to share your faith. It's about a message preached as well as a life lived. But at the end of the day, the Gospel is not an idea, or philosophy. It's a person: Jesus.
The Bible is the story of a passionate God on a relentless pursuit of the people He loves. In this practical message, three ways of engaging Scripture are explored: reading for story, reading for study, and reading for transformation.
God doesn't desire to just give you guidance, he desires to have relationship with you. If you want to learn to hear his voice, you've got to learn to cultivate a relationship with God.
Following Jesus means doing what Jesus did the way He did it. It's about being about what Jesus was about. Following the faith journey of Peter, we find there's a progression of thinking.
The experiences we have create a framework which becomes our filter though which everything we do and learn is filtered. Brilliant works of art challenges this framework
We don't spend our time. We invest it. Coming to Jesus is one thing - Becoming like Jesus is another
Crazy Forgiveness is far more than a statement or a declaration that "I FORGIVE". This is Kevin's story on how he forgave the man who stabbed him 37 times and put him in the hospital.
Championship fathers follow 3 principles while raising their children: Loving, Coaching and Modeling
Fight the good fight, finish the race, and remain faithful. Paul's words to Timothy give us practical insight into finishing life well.
Begin every day at the judgment seat of Christ because that is where you'll eventually end up.
Revolutionize your faith as you learn to receive God's blessing through honor toward your family, authorities, peers, and God Himself.
Women and men were created uniquely to reflect the image of God and fulfill his purposes in the world. This week, we focus on the creation of women and how men can better understand and value them by showing strength and honor.
God doesn't just resurrect dead bodies. He resurrects dead dreams, dead hearts and dead opportunities. It's not over till He says its over!
If you don't listen to everything the Holy Spirit has to say you won't hear anything the Holy Spirit has to say!
We’re taking six unique angles on exodus 3, as our Campus Pastors give Ted style talks through what it means to pray Moses’ words, “Here I am.”
“Here I am” is much more than a statement of geographical location. It is the first step towards obedience. As we see from the life of Abraham, obedience always requires death to self, but it also gives glimpses of the Gospel and echoes through generations.
It is not good for man to be alone. How do I build and continuously refresh relationships?
If you are going to dream big, you need to think long.If you think your dream is taking forever to accomplish, remember that it took Noah twelve decades to obey one command.
We have to have the passion to receive God’s vision and at the same time the patience to wait for God¹s promise. We look at Genesis 15 and the difference between intentionality and manipulation in not just trying to focus on what to do, but who to become, in pursuing our dream.
Don’t let Jesus’ last command become the least concern. Reproduce the character, ways, and mission of Jesus in those around you and expect them to do the same in others.
We learn so much from both the content and context of two parrallel stories in Luke 2 and “O Holy Night”. God chose to make His presence available to ALL people. Our calling is simple in this season: Spend time in the presence of the King & proclaim the presence of the king.
When we see Christ more fully, it leads to adoration; and adoration leads us to see Christ more fully.
The best return on investment (ROI) is the one that earns compound interest for eternity!
We have mistaken the order of God’s authority in the earth. The church has been given great authority and great responsibility. It all starts with learning how to find unity and love for one another.
We explore the power of God that is unleashed through the church when we live in the Spirit (Acts 1:8). Our strategy is simple: A-C-T. Assist the poor - Care for the sick - Transform through Reconciliation.
Matthew Barnett shares the story of the LA Dreamcenter while speaking faith into the coming DC/DC (DC Dreamcenter). Will you consider being a shareholder?
In 1st Peter 4:10, Peter distills his instruction down to a simple, applicable point: You have been given a gift by God. That gift is to be used for a specific purpose. That purpose is to serve!
If you want to be more than a conqueror, you have to be willing to face something that must be conquered. Being more than a conqueror does not mean an absence of hardship; being a conqueror means that we are convinced that God’s love is bigger and stronger than any hardship we face.
Life is full of tensions. What kind and how we deal with them makes all the difference in the world.
It doesn’t matter how hard life gets. God will always accomplish His eternal purposes. Suffering has yet to defeat God’s glory!
The same Spirit that raised Christ from the grave lives in us. That idea alone should change the way we live. In this continuation of Romans 8, we discover that the Spirit frees us to think differently and frees us to live differently.
Our feelings should indicate what we are facing but never dictate what our response should be.
Look for what God can do. Is it time in your life to make a decision to serve God with everything you have? Is it time to burn the ships to your old script?
Fear turns us into posers, but when we face our fears we experience real love, real life.
We can let our circumstances define what we believe about the character of God, or we can let what we know about the character of God to define what we believe about our circumstances.
Many of us live in the place between obedience & harvest. If you’re willing to fight through, persevere, and persist in doing good, you’ll receive the breakthrough that leads to God’s harvest!
God is jealous for us and calls us to be zealous for him. His jealousy drove him to the cross to redeem us. If we confess He is Lord and believe God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.
Have you invited Jesus to follow you or have you accepted His invitation to follow Him?
If you read through the Bible you will get through the Bible, but that isn’t the goal. The goal is to get the Bible through you.
What defines us as followers of Christ? Can we know God without acting out His love? We’ll explore John 13 to see what it actually means to love one another.
Desperation can fuel determination to move into the presence of Christ, and when we do that something triggers the heart of God to rush to our sides. If we posture, if we engage, and if we confess, we can receive what we cannot do on our own.
Don’t seek blessings or miracles or opportunities. Seek God. Then blessings, miracles and opportunities will seek you.
If you obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit in prayer there is no way in which God cannot use you.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. If you aren’t willing to risk your reputation then you’ll never establish God’s reputation.
There are not many descriptions of God that impact our daily life more than understanding the concept of “God with us.” We’ll take a look at the implications that follow when you live with an awareness of His presence.
Christine talks about the parts of the church needing to be in their place to support the work of Christ.
You already know the will of God: rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances.
God is not fully fair; he is full of grace. Grace is about relationship, not religion. It is meant to be experienced more than explained and lived more than logically understood.
Salvation is by faith alone. It’s not about what we can DO for God. It’s
about what God has DONE for us.
Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. We don’t need anyone else, we don’t need to do anything else, and we don’t need to experience anything else. He is the perfect and eternal Great High Priest, Sacrifice, and Atonement.
Scripture is inspiring because IT IS inspired. It is the final authority in matters of faith and doctrine.
You don’t own anything. Your time & talent are on loan from God. The way you slay the god of mine is by giving yourself away.
The god of more is never satisfied. Ever. The only way to slay it is to say no more. How? Make Paul’s Declaration of Independence in I Cor 6:12: “I will not be mastered by anything.”
Is your mission in life to build a resume of personal accomplishments or is it to make those around you better? Romans 12:1-8 makes the case that our purpose is to submit to God’s mercy by making ourselves and our gifts available for the use of the kingdom of God.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who read history and those who write history. Don’t wait for something to happen. Make something happen.
The aone:eight movement is more than a sermon series, it’s a calling that infiltrates every part of our church body. This short film highlights four different stories of ordinary people engaging in mission through small groups, local service, mission trips, and reaching out to the poor.
A final word from someone always bares extra weight. Acts 1:8 is just that: Jesus’ parting words to his followers as he ascended into heaven. This week, Pastor Zeb Mengistu brilliantly deconstructs this powerful passage for us challenging us to be his witnesses throughout the world.
The Aone:eight movement: Ordinary people, empowered by God’s Spirit, doing what Jesus did, together, wherever they are.
God is inherently relational. Existing eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God lives in community with, in, and of Himself. All of his other attributes emerge from the reality that He is love, and the cross is the place where His perfect love was poured out completely so that we might live in Him.
God’s beauty is displayed in the balance, tension, harmony, order, and design of all of his attributes. We were created to reflect God’s beauty by engaging in the creative process and cultivating the character of Christ within us and we were created to enjoy God’s beauty.
According to Jewish tradition, God sits on his Throne of Justice 3 hours a day and His Throne of Mercy 21 hours a day. And He prays to Himself: “May it be My will that My mercy would overcome My wrath.”
The kingdom of God is not a democracy. It’s a monarchy. There is one Sovereign and we have one option: submission.
God’s anger is directed against anything that threatens what he loves. His wrath is inseparable from his love, his goodness, and his holiness, it activates grace for our good, and it is a reflection of his glory.
Our relationship with God is built on a foundation of faithfulness. When we fall short of understanding his faithfulness, we fall short of comprehending every other gift that comes as a result of that faithfulness.
Spiritual maturity doesn’t lead to the resolution of mystery. It leads to reveling in mystery.
Pastor Michael Hall, Lead pastor for The People’s Church, brings a word of encouragement from the Gospel
Jesus submits to the will of the Father and when he does we are given strength from God not to be able to step out of pain, but so that we can step into anguish. If an idea, a conviction, a way of life isn’t born in anguish, it will never last.
We are quick to respond to God’s grace, but slow to develop the discipline of discipleship. When we read the fine print of our calling we realize the depths to which Jesus desires our submission.
God went All In by sending His Sinless Son to die for us. He made His Move. it's your move next.
The different between pseudo community and genuine community is our willingness to risk the relationship with vulnerability. Are you willing to submit everything to God? Are you willing to give everything within relationship?
Find daily rhythms that will remind you of God.
Some of you are spiritually frustrated because you don’t have a daily rhythm, but a weekly rhythm. Glad you’re in church every week, but time to get a daily rhythm so you can grow in your faith.