Wasatch Christian church podcast: Recent Episodes
Pastor John Porter
Cultural change always begins with yourself….unless you or I change as Christians, we will never impact the cultural chaos. Instead of adjusting the bible to our lives, we must adjust our lives to the bible. When we do that, God works in and through us to impact our society. Because when we live as God has called us to live, we stand out. To deal with change in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul encourages Timothy to be very selective about the church leaders, to not just fill as position because its vacant, but to trainand wait for the correct person. Why? Because the “right people” internally in the church will help self govern the fellowship of believers and keep false doctrines and unbiblical beliefs out. We can learn much from Paul’s instruction in our own church or even our own family.
The society that the young Pastor Timothy served in wasinsanely secular. Therefore the Apostle Paul writes to him and urges him to live counter culture, to look and livedifferent than those all around him. Paul also encourages Timothy to teach the faithful how they should alsolive to glory God…..and that way of living is publicly, faithfully, in love, and with all humility. Join us as weallow Paul’s letter to the young pastor impact our lives for the glory of God as well.
Timothy was a young and timid pastor with a ministry in avery secular metropolitan area. The Apostle Pauls encourages him to stand firm in his faith and to confront sin……but to confront it in love…….not like others confront sin. Paul encourages the young pastor to puthimself in the lives of those that he is ministering to in order to understand them better, to be able to love them as Jesus loves them, and to share the gospel truth with them to change their lives. We have so much to learn from this small letter
Unity. The bible talks about it all the time concerning God’s people. So, what is the problem, why are we notunified as one single church under Jesus. Simple…..people. People, even with good intentions and being very sincere…..still struggle with sin’s, opinions, and prejudice. So we have the 1st church of this, the 2nd church of this, the real church of this, and so on because opinions happen and instead of unifying to glorify God, churches split. Fortunately there is still hope in Jesus for us forgiven sinners. We must not only have salvation, we must humble ourselves before God and put aside all those things that divide us. In Jesus is resurrecting hope for true unity.
When it comes to suffering, God is not getting back atus…..rather, He’s getting us back to Him. This morning, we look at Resurrection Hope in times of grief, times ofloss. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus give us a very clear picture of what grief and loss looks like. Jesus, on the other hand, gives us a very clear picture on what God’s will and hope looks like. Join us and be encouraged.
Disappointment is a terrible thing, especially when we are the one to cause disappointment. Today we look at a man who painfully disappointed Jesus in Jesus’ time of emotional need. He was in the worst and last days of His life and Peter betrays Jesus. Peter carries the emotional scar of his actions and goes back to his old ways of living….that is….until Jesus meets him where he is at and restores him. If you are in need of forgiveness from the painful scars of disappointment, join us today as we receive forgiveness and grace.
The message of Resurrection Sunday/Easter is hope. But as we read the story in the gospels, its amazing how easily hope can turn to despair…..even when the answer to everything is right in front of you. We just don’t see the answer because we are looking down. Today, we see how God meets us in our times of despair…..not just at Easter…..but all the time. We are never alone, He is always with us, and Jesus brings us hope.
The bible tells us that if we keep our lives only for us, and reject God, in the end, we will lose the very thing we tried to save. In contrast, the bible also tells us that if we “lose ourselves in God”, in the end we are given the very life that we hoped for. In this Palm Sunday message, we look at the cost of the cross. Today we are not looking at the cost to Jesus, even though it was tremendous. Today we are looking at the cost to us….as Christians….as disciples of Jesus. The cost to us costs everything….but with that sacrifice of ourselves forJesus….the end result is that we get it all back and more. Don’t make the mistake of living only foryourself, invest yourself in Jesus and see how much you can gain.
Jesus is often seen as “meek and mild” as He spoke His words of love, grace, and salvation to the world. But Jesus is also a “disruptor” as he confronts sin and religion….whether it was at the time He ministered with the merchandisers at the synagogue…..or today when Hedisrupts our lives to draw us closer to Him. He confronts and disrupts the things in our life that keep us from adeeper relationship with Him. And this is all done in love. We want to understand the importance of these God-disruptions in our lives.
What is something that we all have in common, but wealso can’t stand? Prejudice. In our message today we look at the damage that personal bias does and how we are called to be more Christlike and to see others in the same way that Jesus sees them. He was crucified, died, and rose from the grave for both people like us……andfor all other people. We need to learn to mature in Christ and tear down the wall of prejudice in order to share the gospel. Let us live lives that truly glorify Jesus.
Lethal injection by religion. Religion vs a relationship with Jesus is one of the most damaging deceptions that keeps people from living in freedom in salvation in Jesus Christ. Its subtle and easy to buy into. We can slide into religious thinking so easily because its so well accepted…..but its deadly. In the message today we look at how Jesus approached religion and why it is important to be aware of its deception and to stay away from it at all cost as well as helping others out of its shackles.
When the devils temptations and subtle tactics don’t work, he turns to a more frontal assault. The good news is that Peter and Paul give us direction on how to overcome the attacks through Jesus. No one is immune from struggles or pain, but we do have a choice in how we respond to the struggles and pain. We can allow them to beat us or divide us…..or, as the bible states, we can overwhelmingly conquer them. We need to remember thatoften in our worst times of struggle, God does His best work.
The spiritual battle rages on all around us and sometimes it is so subtle that we both carry it on for generations and propagatethe deception ourselves. As we continue our study of this spiritual battle, we look at the deception today of traditions and of keeping thee status quo. Its as real today as it was in the time of Christ. The problem is, tradition and keeping the status quo often keeps us from a real, thriving, dynamic relationship with Jesus. We need to be aware of the deception and we need to be “in” and “live out” the Word of God in the bible.
There is a diabolical battle that is going on for our world that is completely unseen. It’s a spiritual battle that is going on all around us. John 10:10 tells us about this battle. The apostles Peter and Paul warn us about this battle. And Ephesians 6 instructs us to attire ourselves in spiritual armor. As Christians, we need to be aware of this spiritual battle and how the devil tries to distract us from fighting it. Join us in our new series as we become aware of the spiritual battle and how to fight it.
The story of Nehemiah is an amazing one as we look at the highlights today. This man was called by God to rebuild; to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem that stood as a symbol of God’s protection and provision. The people had neglected it and allowed it ruin to continue is to get worse. No action, until Nehemiah, was made by the people to rebuild the wall. It was a symbol of their relationship with God.
Second, Nehemiah was to call the people to a spiritual rebirth from the complacency of their lives. In that, God had done His part, now it was time for the people to do their part, to take action.
In the end, the wall is rebuilt, sadly the people choose to stay in spiritual complacency, but Nehemiah’s life is change. This book is a challenging book to us that also calls us to get out of our complacency and to do something about our spiritual lives and our relationship with God.
Service. It’s a foundational part of the Christian life and runs completely counter-culture to our American lifestyle. Even in the church, service is often overlooked. Why? Often becausewe believe that we’ve earned the money and resources that we have and that many don’t deserve what we might give them. Today we look at both the biblical importance of serving and the motivation as to why we should serve. Its Christlike and it’s a proof of our salvation. Join us today as we get “kingdom minded.”
Confession is one of the foundations of the Christian faith. Through confession to Jesus, we come to salvation. In continuedconfession to Jesus, we grow in our spiritual maturity. Although confession is not practiced often, it is something that we need to make a daily part of our relationship with God. For hidden sin makes us run from God expecting condemnation. God forgivesour sins and want us to have freedom in life and freedom in our relationship with Him.
“Back to the basics” is our theme in January as we turn our attention to the foundations of the Christian faith. We want to have those “basic” so involved in our daily lives that it bothers us when they are not there. This week we look at the importance of daily spending time with God in the bible. Ironically, most people know the bible is important, but most people also don’t make time to invest the bible in their lives. The hope for todays message is to change that irony that we know intellectually the importance of the bible, but we also change our ways to make time for the bible in our daily lives. Join us as we hear God’s voice through His word….in the bible.
Starting the new year is like starting on a long hike in the mountains. Its important to know that you are starting at the correct trailhead, because if you don’t, you won’t make it to your destination and you’ll be lost. As we seek to know God’s plans for us this new year, we want to go “back to the basics” of the Christian life. We want to make sure that we are founded and grounded in the elementary things of being a Christian, so that as we mature, we do not get off track. And the bible tells us to build our lives on the solid foundation of God, not on the emotional shifting sands of feelings. Today we remember the importance of prayer in the daily life of the follower of God. Join us and set this year on the right path from the very beginning.
Christmas is more than just the birth of our Savior, it is Gods saving an unfaithful people and the fulfilment of God’s promises. We often make promises and break them, but God never does. Join us as we celebrate all that God had done for us in the gift of Hi Son. Merry CHRISTmas everyone!
Love. It is the most powerful thing. And when God ushered love into a tired and weary world with the birth of Jesus, not only did it change history, it changed our lives. The love of God is a radical,unfair thing. And yet, God first loved us so that we could love others. Join us this morning as we consider Godly love, and the gift that it is, over what the world calls love.
Todays Advent theme is joy. Not joy as the world offers, but Joy as only Jesus offers, it’s a different joy, a real joy. But what if I’ve been a Christian or in church for a long time and don’t sense this joy. Well, great news for you as we address this question also. The joy of Jesus is always there and readily available. Often times, we need to adjust ourselves before God to experience it. Join us as we share the true joy of the CHRISTmas season!
As we celebrate the second Sunday of Advent, we focus on peace. The birth of Jesus ushered in peace to our world, but not as the world defines peace. Since the birth of Jesus there have been wars, bloodshed, tyranny, and the such. So, what is this peace the bible speaks of? Well, it’s a spiritual peace that happens in salvation. Thepeace that Jesus brought was one of our reconciliation with God. We have peace in knowing that we are no longer enemies of God, but now have a right relationship with Him. Join us as we reevaluate our understanding
We enter the season of Advent as we focus on hope. Hope for a weary world, hope for weary people, we all need hope. The prophet Isaiah prophesied of a coming messiah which gave the Jews hope. That prophecy and hope was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. We celebrate that and the second coming of Jesus which gives Christians even more hope. Therefore, let us not just have hope. In salvation in Jesus, let us BE the hope for those who need it.
Our final message in our series on overcoming struggles. Today we take a more introspective view on overcoming the things that challenge us in the context of our faith. Reality is, either we are a slave to the things that overcome us…..or we make those things a slave to our will. And it is fear or control issues that often keep us from overcoming our issues. Join us as we see the power of salvation and God’s word and how the transforming power of Jesus is so essential to all that we do.
Often times the bible hits us right where we live. And it seems confrontive, but it is actually all in love to grow us from spiritual infancy to maturity. To change our mindset. To make us more Christlike and enable us to have those things the bible talks about; courage, contentment, and abundant life. In our series about facing the issues that hold us back, we look at two issues that are very real in the American church; issues of dealing with our ego and our physical health. In salvation, we are called todie to ourselves, but sometimes our old sinful ego rears its ugly head, and it breaks relationships and keeps us from growing spiritually. Fortunately, the bible gives us a remedy for our ego. In the same fashion, the bible speaks to how we treat our physical bodies as they are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Some of our temples are in need of drastic repair! Join us today as welook at God’s word, and spiritual wisdom to overcome the issues in life that hold us back. Let us overcome and learn to be truly free in Jesus!
Today we pause in our current series to be reminded of and pray for the persecuted church across the world. As Americans, we really do not understand what it is to go through real persecution, especially for our faith. And to realize that it is not just missionaries or adults that go through the persecution, but often young children that choose to live for Jesus and come under immense pressure for their choice. Join us today as we take the focus off of us, and we look to intercede for those around the world that pay a huge price fortheir salvation.
We continue in our series of facing the issues in our lives. Todays topics focus on not learning from the issues in our lives and not controlling our thought life. These are internal issues, but they manifest themselves in our lives in fear, doubt, anger, loneliness, and disabling ourselves. They cause us to make bad relationship choices or to distance ourselves from others. Things God never intended for us to do. Join us today as we look at the biblical approach to overcoming these issues and truly living a joyful-free life.
Faith can be messy as God calls us to transform and conform to His likeness. We face struggles, and yet in spite of how we feel, God calls us overcomers. This morning we look at 2 more of the top 10 issues are that we deal with; our view on finances and our comparing ourselves with others. Join us as we lean into God’s work and learn together how to overcome the issues that face us.
We often struggle with fear, doubt, relational wounds, or living in the past. But that is not where God would have us to live. Biblically, there is a very different picture of the Christian life. So why do we not experience the abundance and joy? Reality is, because we will not face our issues or the things that haunt us. This new series encourages us and gives us simple steps to overcome these negative things. Join us as we apply biblical principles to live the abundant life.
Nobody loves to wait. In our instant gratification society waiting is a challenge for us. But for Christians, one of the ways that Godtests our faith is through delays and making us wait. Why? So,we can depend upon Him. But waiting is risky because when we wait on God, we have to give up our control of the situation. We don’t get the answers we want. And we have to be okay with that. Join us as we look at how God matures us by teaching us faith in times of waiting.
The bible speaks to us tremendously about money. Jesus also had a lot to say about money. Why? Because how we handle money has a direct correlation to the maturity…..or lack of maturity….in our spiritual life. There is nothing wrong with having money, or even being rich, that is not the issue. The issue centers around how we deal with money and what drives our decisions concerning what we do with our money. Money is probably one of the easiest things to become an idol in our lives…..and that’s why Jesus and the bible speak so much about the issue. Fact is….God tests us in our attitudes towards money. As Christians, we need to understand what God expects us to do with our finances in order to glorify Him and grow in spiritual maturity.
God testing our faith is a good thing as it is always for our good. We fear tests, we get anxious about tests, we don’t like tests. But when God tests our faith through demands, His goal is for us to grow in Godliness. What we need to do is to change our perspective on the testing’s that God gives us. When God tests us with demands, the first thing we need to do is ask ourselves aquestion…..”who do I trust more?” Meaning God or myself. Join us as we dive into changing our perspective on life to see things the way God sees them.
God tests our faith through difficulties. Our challenge is to see these events as God sees them, and not from our typical worldly point of view. God tests us to grow us, and as the bible states; to grow us in perseverance, endurance, perfection, maturity, and completeness. Its all about doing things Gods way in faith, once we learn to see things in God’s way in faith. Join us today as we learn to have a biblical perspective on the trials and struggles that we grow through. It’s all good in God!!!
Nobody likes tests, but the reality for Christians is that God does test our faith, and it is for our good. We begin a new series this morning on 4 ways that God tests our faith. Today we look at the reason “why?” God would test our faith and its for our good. It time, as Christians, to take on a biblical view of tests, trials, tribulations, and temptations. Grab your bible and walk though it with us as we learn why God’s tests are for our good. Its life changing!
When Christians ‘collide’ with the worldly culture it should not be a surprise and it is not a bad thing. It actually shows us that we are living our faith. Anytime a single match is lit in a dark room….the shadows run. And the more light in the room, the less darkness there is. The bible tells Christians that they are a light in a darkened sin filled world…..so the two cannot mix. But the most important thing to remember about ‘colliding’ with our culture is this….we must do all things in the love of Jesus. We must see others through His loving eyes, we must serve others through His love, and we must minister to others through His love. Our lives are to be solely about the love of God. Therefore, with each momentary decision, we must ask ourselves, “Is this action for God…..or against God.”
The truth of Jesus and His gospel message collide with the so-called ‘truths’ of our world and the culture. That is why it is so important to hold tightly to the real truth of Jesus. Our culture will try to temp us to believe in false truths, worry over unrealistic fears, and water down our faith….and if we are not careful, we can end up like many Christians who no longer have a fervor for our relationship with Jesus, the church, or the truth. Fortunately, it is not too late to turn back to Jesus and ground ourselves on His truth.
When we live for Jesus, we collide with the culture of our world. But that is not a bad thing, it shows that we are truly living for Christ….as the Apostle Paul stated, we are to fight the “good fight.” Last week, in our series, we looked at standing firm for Jesus. This week we look at being transformed in Jesus after salvation. We can’t just “stop” doing bad things, we must also “start” doing good things. Join in listening, applying, and living out the transforming message of the gospel!
Since the beginning, the Christian faith has been on a collision course with the culture that it exists within. The values of the world do not align with the values of the Faith. The priorities of the world do not align with the priorities of the Faith. We Collide!
Three encouragements from Jesus’ sermon on the mount to overcome loneliness. The problem is, they are not our first thought or reaction when it comes to overcoming the attitude of loneliness. They are also counter culture. But these three remedies, when done consecutively, will help us to change our attitude from loneliness to joy……and therefore…...the effort is completely worth it!
Step two in getting over loneliness. Loneliness is not a bad thing, in fact it is an alarm going off telling us something is wrong and we need to deal with the issue. Most importantly, we need to deal with loneliness God’s way. That is what makes all the difference. We can put a “band aid” on loneliness by filling our lives with things and other people, but that never fixes the problem. Join us today as we see how God calls us to deal with loneliness once and for all.
Loneliness has been called, “the malady of our age” and “the leprosy of the West”. Loneliness is a massive issue, especially since the isolation times from Covid. The reality is that God created us to be in relationships, healthy relationships with Him and others. But if we struggle with the attitude of loneliness, none of our relationships are healthy…..and neither are we. Thank God, the bible gives us direction on overcoming loneliness in our own lives. Today we look at 1 of 3 biblical exhortations on overcoming loneliness. Remember, Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted!
Judas Iscariot left his mark on history for all to know about. 1 man, 1 decision, 1 lasting consequence that is still well known by both saints and sinners. So, what is the lesson of why this man is still written about in the bible? Is there any life application for us from his life? And why would Jesus call this man to be an apostle anyway? Today we answer all these question and seek to align ourselves with the will of God.
The 11th apostle called by Jesus, Judas the Son of James was a man that seemed to live in obscurity. Very little is sated about him in the bible and even church history. And yet, this man serves as a tremendous example for Christians to aspire to. Just because there is not much stated or known about this man does not mean that he was insignificant or hand no impact upon our world as an apostle. Join us today as we dive into the life, character, and faith of this man as he compels us to grow in our likeness and relationship with Jesus.
Have you ever met someone so obstinate that they just drove you crazy? Someone so single minded and strong willed that you wondered if God could even change them? Well, introducing Simon the Zealot, one of the last of the apostles. Zealously can be a good thing if going in the correct direction, but if zealous with the right intentions and wrong actions, a little misguided perhaps, it can be a very destructive thing. See how Jesus takes this zealot of a man and transforms him into an amazing evangelist. See how Jesus “tames the wild beast” of a man and how He can change us also. No one is beyond God’s reach or transforming power.
Today we visit the 9th apostle called by Jesus, James the son of Alphaeus. His place in the apostolic team is very interesting. In a world of entitlement, self-promotion, self-expression, and the need to be notices. This apostle challenges how we choose to honor Jesus by serving Him by serving others. His story is so refreshing and we can all learn a lot from who he was and how he served. Join us as we look at this man’s amazing ministry.
We all know about this apostle, the one we are studying today…..Thomas. But we know him as who? Yes, doubting Thomas. This apostle has had to live with this for some 2000 years, but there was more to Thomas than just doubt. He had his great moments of faith as we will look at today. But even more impacting,is why would Jesus choose a doubter to be one of His apostles? We will answer this crazy question today. Join us as we learn from the apostle Thomas.
Matthew, or Levi, is the seventh apostle listed as being called by Jesus. The life that he allowed others to see was one thing, but the inner reality of Matthews heart was another thing. We are often like Matthew, looking one way to everyone around us, but feeling something very different on the inside. The inside is the part that Jesus sees and speaks to. Join us as we look at the amazing transformation that Matthew went through when he met and followed Jesus. This is encouraging because Jesus can do the same transformation in our lives as well.
This morning we look at the sixth apostle, Nathaniel. Nathaniel was seeking God with all his heart, but he still had an issue. He was subject to prejudice. Prejudice blinds men’s eyes from the truth because it’s rooted in feeling not fact, in opinion not reality. We too can struggle with prejudice. But how to we deal with this subjective issue in our life? Join us as we look at the life change in Nathaniel as he meets Jesus.
Phillip. The fifth of the twelve apostles. Prayed over by Jesus, chosen by Jesus. Mentored by Jesus. But…..to much a “seeing is believing” guy. Phillip struggled with only seeing what was in front of him and was quick to point out the problems. It took him quite a while to learn to be a man of faith. Gracefully, Jesus was patient with him. This is good news for us because we too struggle with truly trusting God in all situations, we often see theoverwhelming impossibility and problem. Join us as we learn from Phillips life and make ourselves available for God to change us!
We dive into the life transformation this morning of the fourth apostle called by Jesus, and that is John. John not only wrote several books of the New Testament, but he also allowed Jesus to transform his life from a “Son of Thunder” to and man of truth and love. John’s transformation is encouraging to us, because if Jesus can bring forth that much change in John, then Jesus can do the same in us. Jesus can take what little we have to offer, and make us great for His glory. Join us as we see John’s transformation from a narrowminded ambitious man to a servant of God.
The story of resurrection Sunday is the greatest story ever told! Because of what Jesus did in rising from the tomb not only changed world history it also changes our lives and makes us Easter people. What does it mean to be Easter People? It means that with salvation in Jesus we are a new creation and have life abundant. Join us today as we celebrate this new life.
Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus coming into Jerusalem to fulfill prophesy and go through the events of what we call Holy Week. We know the end of the story and celebrate it with Easter Sunday. But what about the people of the time, they celebrated also…..but they missed something very important! We can learn from their mistake as we prepare to celebrate Easter….or…Resurrection Sunday. Join us as we celebrate the whole life changing story.
James the apostle had a fiery personality. He was bold, brash, prideful, ambitious, and zealous. Its funny to think that Jesus would choose a man like this to be an apostle and carry on the gospel message. James probably drove more people away than he brought people in. But that was in the beginning of his apostleship call. 2 years later, after being molded by Jesus, he was a different man, still bold for God but not brash. The story of James’ transformation in Jesus is encouraging to us because God can take our rough edges and, over time, smooth them out. Join us as we discover one of the “Son’s of Thunder” brothers and how God matured him into an amazing man.
The apostles. This morning we look at the apostle Andrew. He was in the inner circle of the apostles,he was first to meet Jesus, but he was always in the background and shadows of bothhis brother and the major events in Jesus’s ministry. That said, it was not a bad thing. Andrew was content to just know Jesus andserve in anyway he could. He did notseek the limelight, recognition, or even thanks for what he did…..just washappy just to know Jesus and to serve. The church needs more Andrews! Why? Because they get thingsdone. Join us today as the life andministry of Andrew unfold before us and challenge us to simply be content tohave a relationship with Jesus and to serve him.
We finish our final study of the apostle Peter today as we see how God took an ordinary man and turned him into a leader. Todays focus is on character. We look at 3 situations, over the course of 2 years, that Jesus taught Peter how to submit, how to be humble, and how to love like God loves. These are all character traits of both a Christian and a Godly leader. Join us today to see how God wants to work in your life to create a Godly character as well.
Once again, we are looking at the life impact that the training of the 12 apostles can have on us. All the bible is meant to be life applicable, but when we look at the training of the 12 apostles in roughly two years, we see in them what God can do in us if we are only available, willing, and opened to being trained by God. It is challenging to be trained, or disciplined by God, but God only does this to those that He loves in order to make them all that He created them to be. And as one pastor stated, “You find that the things you let go of while following Jesus were the things that were going to destroy you in the end.” Letting God train us is well worth the temporary discomfort. Join us as we see what resources God used to train and equip us to be spiritually mature.
Jesus chose 12 apostles out of all the disciples that followed Him. Jesus would call them out, equip them, and then send them. For 2 years of training, it was a wild ride for these men and Jesus make them see their true selves in the mirror and then Jesus would mold them into new selves, just like He wants to do with us. We can relate with these common men so easily. Hopefully we can make ourselves available to Jesus and also relate with who He wants to mold us into. This morning we take our first look at one of the apostles…Peter. Although we don’t always look at Peter this way, he was the leader of the group. Let’s look at what God wants in a leader!
In this new series we are introduced to the 12 apostles. We are taking them out of the stained glass windows and putting them back on common ground where they began. We will find it amazing how much we can relate with these men. Why? Because they were ordinary men, common folk just like us….same issues, same problems, same spiritual struggles. And that is so encouraging for us because as we relate to who they really were, we see the miracle of God making the ordinary into the extraordinary. And that is the exact same thing God can do with us if we are willing and available. Join us!
The final instalment of our Win The Day series…..focusing on changing habits a focusing on serving God today…….one day at a time. Todays message is a reminder that we serve a BIG God and should therefore have BIG goals with God and Big prayers with God. We often shortchange ourselves by not believing that with God, we really can do the impossible. Remember, God does not call the qualified, but God qualifies the called!
One of the things the Holy Spirit enables us to do after salvation is self-discipline and that includes managing and being good stewards of our time. Within that time management is something even more important and that is actively looking for life experiences, for God to speak to us, for us to have moments in which we live a decade. This morning we “wind the clock” as we look at the difference between minutes and moments and why both of these are important to us and important to God.
Change, change, change, God is all about change….even when we don’t like it. Today we discuss the importance of cutting the rope of fear that holds us back and why that is soooooooo important! Staying the same is very risky in the long run. Join us for a little fun, a little conviction, and a lot of hope in overcoming our fear of change.
How do we make big changes? Easy, start with small steps. We realize two things today. First, if we don’t do small things now, then we won’t have a habit of doing big things later. People say things like, “When I make more money, I’ll give. When I have more time, I’ll serve.” It never happens…. why? If we won’t do it now, we won’t be trained to do it later and we will always have an excuse. Second, with excuses……we simply need to take them away. Start small, trust God, and let God make big things happen.
“Eat the frog” is a symbol for tackling the hardest challenge of the day first. And we can do that, we can face the biggest challenge of the day first thing, over come it, and give God the glory. We can “Win The Day” for Jesus. Today, we look at habit change. In that living for God is about having both good habits and turning bad habits into good habits. This is important in our Christian life because of the reaping principal in the bible….we reap (or harvest) what we sow (or plant). We need to claim each small habit for Jesus until they all become a normal part of our lifestyle as a believer.
Exodus 14; the story of God parting the sea for His people to lead them to safety. It’s a great story, but there is more to the story than just the story itself. There are life lessons for us there. Life lessons about facing those struggles that just seem to confront us and be overwhelming. Its about dispelling fear and stepping forward in faith. Its about God doing the miracle…..and us taking God’s word (the bible) and applying it in real life. What do you do when God parts the sea? You “Kiss the waves” on both sides and move forward!
The new year is a time to reflect on where we are in God. Its also a time to step back and make sure that we have our spiritual compass set to true North in God. We are looking at seven habits over the next few weeks, changing seven habits to draw closer to God in this new year. Today we are looking at ‘flipping the script’ to Win The Day for God. Choosing to purposely change our outlook on life this week from negative thinking to positive thinking to glorify God. If we can just do that for one single day, then we will be able to do it a second day, a third day, and so on until grateful thinking becomes part of who we are in our relationship to Jesus. Join us and change your mind to Godly thinking.
This is the season to not get caught up in all the hustle and bustle, but to do as the bible states and “be still and know that I am God” We are to come to the manger in contentment and joy. And then to leave as ambassadors for God and go into the world to share the wonderful gospel message. The gospel message is a message too good to keep all to ourselves.
2ndSunday of Advent. Last week we celebrated the gift of God’s grace and forgiveness in Jesus. This week we take a more intimate look at biblical words like incarnation, Immanuel, the Word, and dwelt to see the greatest gift of Jesus to us and why Christians really celebrate CHRISTmas! It’s a big deal! The gift of Jesus is the greatest gift the world has ever received.
Welcome to the season of Advent where we celebrate the advent, anticipated coming, of Jesus’ birth. One of the greatest gifts of God to mankind is the gift of salvation. Why? Because all have sinned, all have betrayed God, all are stained with destruction. A stain that we, ourselves, cannot remove. That stain of sin is part of who we are. But God’s promise is that if we only confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that He is God is that he will remove that terrible stain and make us white as snow! This first Sunday in Advent, we celebrate that we are White As Snow because of Jesus.
Passion for God has to do with relationship with God and his people. We finish up today as we learn how to avoid apathy in the Christian life and how to reignite our passion for God and draw close to Him. Passion for God is so important in the Christian life. If we find apathy sneaking into our life, we need to get rid of it immediately. Join us today as we purposely draw close to God.
Passion for God does not always mean excitement and joy. A lot of times passion is exemplified as steady progress to reach a goal. One of the big challenges for Christians is the temptation to buy into apathy, which, snuff’s out our passion for God. Join us today as we look at how to deal with apathy as well as the temptation of passion killers of an unsupported lifestyle and an unclear purpose. God loves us with a passion and wants us to love Him with a passion back. Lets join together to encourage each other to be passionate for God and the life that He’s so abundantly supplied us.
Passion blockers, yes, there are passion blockers that stop us from having a great relationship with God. In our series we are looking at 7 things that block our passion for God. We realize that before we can ‘start’ living in passion for God, there are things we need to ‘stop’ doing that hinder us. This week, we look at passion blockers 2, 3, and 4. Join us to learn what we need to ‘stop’ doing, so that we can ‘start’ fully living for God.
Passion is what drives people to do great things. As Christians, we should have passion in our love for God. But there are times we seem to turn on the dimmer switch with our love for God. Over the next few weeks, we will look at seven “passion killers” to avoid that keep us from a strong relationship with God. Today we look at the first passion killer…..and unbalanced life.
We are like ordinary bread…..common….plain. But in the hands of Jesus we become extraordinary. In our series we have looked at several stories in the gospel of Luke where Jesus took bread and He blessed it, He broke it, and then He gave it. And each time there was something amazing that happened. We finish our series today by looking at what it means to be “given”. We have all failed and we have all been failed….that said, in Jesus we can do more than overcome, we can do amazing ministry to those who deserve nothing. Why? Because we have surrendered to Jesus and we no longer live for ourselves, the life we now live, we live unto Christ.
We are broken people living in a broken world. Well, that’s not good news! But what is good news is what happens to broking people, living in a broken world, when we are in the hands of Jesus. It changes things! Join us today as we look at what it is to be broken in Jesus Christ.
We are blessed in Jesus’ hands. Its not the same #Blessed as many people think it is; money, good health, good family, prosperous….these are only a shadow of God’s real blessings to us. In Jesus’ hands we are blessed in a more real way. Its about origin and destiny…..and in todays message, we look at both. Come and join us as we see how much we are truly blessed.
Bread is a very ordinary thing. There are many different kinds of bread, but they are still all ordinary. And yet in the hands of Jesus, bread is blessed, bread is broken, and bread is given….and in doing so…..becomes extraordinary. We are like bread in the hands of Jesus, join us as we learn how to fall into the hands of Jesus to go from ordinary to extraordinary.
Today’s message is from Pastor Mike Fabarez. Self Control is one of the fruits of the spirit, so all Christians should have it.....right? But is all the responsibility up to God in having self control, or do we play some part in "self" control. And what are the blessings of having self control in the family of God. Join us to practically answer all of these questions and learn simple steps to apply the bible to our daily lives.
Today’s message is from Pastor Mike Fabarez. Lifelong faithfulness and effectiveness as Christ’s ambassador is aided by both the unsettling thoughts of our coming evaluation as Christians as well as the joyful prospects of our eternal home.
In the story of David and Goliath….we all know that David wins with day? Why? Because he did everything for the Lord and in the Lord. It’s a great story. What we look at today in our final message on this event is our response to God giving us victory over the giants in our lives. How we respond to victory is tremendously important. Join us as we learn how Christians should respond in victory.
When David overcame Goliath, he had to do three things. He had to clear out the white noise in his life and listen only to God. He had to look to his past to encourage him for the future. And he had to trust God who had already supplied everything he needed to win. Join us as we learn how to live these out in our lives to overcome the giants that we face.
The Porter Family (Austin, Emily, And Tim) are becoming full time missionaries in Farmington, Utah as they will be planting a new church in March of 2023. Listen in to see the vision of the church, why its needed, and most importantly how you can help. Christians are not an island unto themselves, we need to band together in community for the glory of God. www.portersinutah.com
Looking at 2 Samuel 9 we see the grace of God exemplified through King David as he honors someone, who by the cultural standards of the time, was not only worthy, but also had nothing to offer back. It is a beautiful picture of the grace of Jesus Christ in the new testament. And it reminds us that the grace of Jesus is for you, for me, for everyone who will accept it, irrelevant of how far from God we have strayed.
Part 2 of overcoming ‘giants’ in our life. This week we look at young David, a man after God’s own heart, to see what it was about him that helped him overcome the giant that was facing him. We all have ‘giants’ in our lives that confront us, that cause us to fear, that cause us to run away. Join us as we learn from David how to face and overcome our ‘giants’ in life when others run away.
We begin a new series today on the wonderful story of David and Goliath. Like David, we all face ‘giants’ in our life. Our giant could be a bad marriage, financial issues, health problems, family problems, or work issues. God does not want us to be overcome by these giants but to overcome them. In todays message we learn to recognize the voice of the enemy and how he puts us down…..we also realize that God is always with us and if we press into Him, we win. Join us as we learn to overcome the ‘giants’ in our lives with Jesus.
Our final message in our 10 commandments series. We look at the last 3 commandments today and why all the commandments are still so important. They are not to hinder us, rather they are to show us God’s love for us. It is interesting, that ‘the world’ wants what the commandments offer, but they don’t want the commandments to get there. As Christians, we need to exemplify God’s love to others by being Christlike and obeying God’s commands.
We continue our study of God’s love written in stone in our study of the 10 commandments. We finish up on the first 4 commandments centered around our relationship with God and start the next 6 commandments concerning our relationship with others. These commands are not meant to restrict us or keep us from fun, but rather to provide us a joyful abundant life. Join us and we see how much God loves us as a heavenly father! Its not good…..its great!
The 10 commandments of God……hmmmmmm. Are they there to keep you from having fun? Are they there to bind you to a bunch of rules? Or…..perhaps….are they there as a love message from God? Join us as we look that the truth of why God gave us the 10 commandments. They are given to bless us and to protect us. Today we look at why God gave them to us and how they play out in a divine love message to those who will follow God. Let’s break the gossip of how people talk about the commands and see why they were really given and why they are really important for our lives.
This morning we look at the greatest promise of God in our “Sweeter than honey; the promises of God series”. And that promise is forgiveness. Join us as we look at 3 key components of God’s forgiveness in our lives. This is big because forgiveness is life changing and transforming!
Today we look at the promise of Gods goodness. We have to step back and remember what Isaiah 55:8-9 states, simply that Gods ways are not our way and our ways are not Gods way. We think Gods goodness is only for when things seem to be going well for us. What we realize is that God may be using difficult situations to get us to goodness. We’ll look at three specific areas in our life in which God places us to do good. Join us to see how God may be working in your life.
In 2 Corinthians 12 the Apostle Paul asks God three times to remove a painful issue from his life. All of us have painful things in our life we would like God to remove. The interesting things is that God answers “no” to Paul’s request. Why? God see’s a bigger picture and a purpose for the issue. God uses a seemingly bad thing to do a good thing in Paul’s life. And Paul learns to accept God’s answer….and to rejoice in the issue. Why? Because God’s grace is sufficient. Perhaps you have something in your life that is painful that God isn’t removing. Is it possible that God could be using that bad thing in your life to produce something good? Join us in listening to this message and find out.
Forgiveness needs motivation. Without motivation, it is difficult to do anything. In this final message on Philemon, we look at several motivations to forgive. We also consider the importance of “just committing and making the decision to forgive”. Holding onto unforgiveness or just putting forgiveness off does so much damage. As Christians, we must forgive.
Forgiveness is more than just saying, ‘you’re forgiven’. This morning we look at the Apostle Paul’s letter to Philemon and discover two things. First, 6 reasons “why” it is so important to forgive. Second, 3 actions of one who forgives. We also start off by answering a question last week about forgiveness and forgetting the offense. Join us as we learn great things about forgiveness and reconciliation.
This message is the second in our series of messages on the short book of Philemon. We dig in deeper and look at the character of a person who forgives. What kind of man or woman of God are they? There are 5 key characteristics about forgivers. Join us as we see what it looks like to be more Christlike when it comes to forgiveness and reconciliation.
Forgiveness…..so desired and often, so hard to give to others. We begin a new series this morning looking at the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation as presented in the bible book of Philemon. Join us as we look at why forgiveness is such a big deal as a Christian, and not forgiving is a bigger deal. As we have received, we must also give…..otherwise….our own relationship with God comes into question.
Happy Resurrection Sunday! Jesus is Risen, He is Risen indeed! Today, we celebrate with Christians all around the world that the crazy story of Jesus rising from the dead is totally true! And that fact makes all the difference in the world! Join us as we look at the events of the first Easter day through the bible and the mindsets of the first Jesus followers. Their story is so re-assuring because we are so much like them. So turn up the volume, celebrate the Risen Christ with us, and enjoy!
As we begin Holy Week with Palm Sunday today leading up to Resurrection Sunday next week, wouldn’t it be awesome to know what Jesus did each day this week to be able to relate with Him and kind of experience all that He went through? Today, we look at each day leading up to Resurrection Sunday. Join us in digging deeper into Jesus’ journey to the cross and to His raising from the grave. It was a busy crazy week and there is so much there to learn from His life and actions.
What does it mean that Jesus is a sacrificial lamb? The biblical story of the sacrificial lamb is told from Genesis to Revelation and really focused on in the gospels. Jesus was the final sacrificial lamb that ended the need to constantly cover our sins…..that is what is important in salvation. Join us today as we walk through the meaning of the sacrificial lamb and head into Easter.
How low, from the heights of heaven, would Jesus go to save us? As low as he could go…..and then lower. This message inspires us with the reminder of what lengths Jesus was willing to go to in order to bring us to salvation. Even if we’ve heard His story 100 times, this message is a great reminder to re-ignite our spiritual flame. Jesus lowered Himself to our level, to raise us to His level.
Jesus fulfilled over 330 prophecies in the bible. For those that doubt He is God, this should be evidence enough to prove that He is God. Facts are hard to argue with. One of the prophecies is that He would remain silent when He was falsely accused of crimes He did not commit. What would you do, yell back – defend yourself – get vile or violent – show anger? That would be normal for most people….but not Jesus. He remained silent when accused because it fulfilled prophecy and because He knew He was innocent……He didn’t have to prove anything. Join us for this insightful study and let the example of Jesus influence your life.
Easter is just in a few weeks and we want to begin to prepare for it already. We begin a new series focusing on the biblical, historical, and spiritual events that led to Easter. Think about this….if you could give 5 simple, but almost impossible, predictions about the future and they all came true….wouldn’t that be amazing! In Isaiah 52-53 there are 24 prophecies about Jesus 700+ years before his birth….and they all came true. That is pretty impressive and should challenge what we really believe about Jesus. Join us, its going to be fun.
This is the final message in our ‘signs of the times’ series. We wrap up by considering our response to Jesus in our active faith……and the sad alternative. Our motto for todays message is ‘be the ONE!”. And we close by considering the impact of the gospel. A good end to challenge us!
Part 4 of our ‘signs of the time’ series. What does the bible say about the 2 types of people that will be around just before the return of Jesus? How should this impact Christians? And what about our world? What is the issue and the tragedy of what is called ‘cancel culture’ that is so prevalent in society today? Today we deal with all these questions as we encourage Christians to be faithful, alert, and active. Good times are coming………for some.
Part 3 in our ‘signs of the time’ series. Economic chaos and the great falling away from the church. How should we respond to these end time realities? Should we be afraid? As Christians, what should we do? These are the issues and questions we deal with today. Join us and dig into God’s word.
Part 2 in our ‘signs of the time’ series as we dig into the bible and what it states concerning our modern times. In today’s message we look specifically at globalization (one world government) and the key signs that Jesus told the disciples to look for just before His return to establish His heavenly kingdom. This message is focused on Christians and is not so much about the information and intellect…. but on our biblical response to the information. How should we apply what the bible tells us so that we are ready for the return of Jesus.
We begin a new series this morning focused on the events of our time, what the bible states about the “signs of the times” before Jesus returns, and the Christians response. Join us as we deal with what is going on in our culture and learn how to respond biblically. A very relevant message for our times.
In our final session on being in cadence with God we look at the Apostle Paul’s encouragement to Timothy. The encouragement to stay with God not just for a short time, but for a whole lifetime. God does not give only a portion of Himself to us, and does not want only a portion of our service to Him. He wants all. That said, He wants to revive us, to give us joy and peace and endurance. But to have those things, we need to change our focus from looking at only ourselves and our circumstances….to looking only to God. Join us today and be encourage as we run the race of life to win!
God never designed Christians to be isolationist or out of fellowship. He designed us to be in regular fellowship, especially with other believers. In this episode of Cadence, we look at why that is so important. It’s the difference between being in sync with the way God made us or being in chaos. Both choices have huge impacts on our lives. It is the difference between living off of our feelings/opinion’s verses living biblically. Listen in as we discover how to get back in sync with godliness.
God has hardwired us with a biological cadence, that when we are in sync with how he’s created us, live is joyous and much easier to handle. When we are out of sync, our life tends to be chaotic. Today we look at a simple way to get back in sync with how God made us.
From the very beginning, God created a specific cadence or rhythm to the world. And when He created mankind, he designed mankind to fit in sync with that cadence. When we are not in sync with God, our lives tend to spin off into some form of chaos. With the new year, we spend the next four weeks looking at how to start the year off right and get in sync with God. We want to exchange exhaustion, frustration, and anxiety for joy, fulfillment, and peace. Join us in our new four-part series…..cadence.
The final Sunday of Advent before Christmas is about love, genuine love. It is about the love that God gave to us in His son Jesus and calls us to love in the same manner.
Third Sunday in Advent…..joy. Joy is something everyone wants whether we have it for an hour or for a long time. The world offers “joy” in lots of ways. But it is only a temporary joy. Today we look at the gift of joy that God gives us that is eternal. It never fades or goes away. But to have it, we must be looking in the right place. Join us for joy today!
The second Sunday in the Advent season is about peace. Everyone wants peace in their life, and our culture offers lots of ways to get peace…..but the peace that is offered is so temporary. Today we look at peace in salvation in Jesus. This peace is not something we can get someday; it is totally available to us today as a gift. Join us as look at what the bible states to get this long-term peace….for free!
We celebrate a day of thanksgiving once a year. But as Christians, thanksgiving should be a daily lifestyle. In fact, if you’ve ever wondered what “God’s Will” is for your life, the bible directly states that God’s Will for you is to abstain from sexual immorality, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in every circumstance…..good and bad. Cool! Now you know how to live God’s Will for your life.
Most are familiar with the WWJD acronym from the 1990’s. The question is, does it still have meaning today? Is there a life impact with we ask ourselves, “What Would Jesus Do?” in every decision that we make? Would it make us more Christlike? And why don’t we ask WWJD in all of our decisions. We wrestle with these questions today and we seek to be more Christlike in real life.
Today churches all over the world intercede and pray for the persecuted church. We remember those that are willing to give their lives to follow Jesus in spite of tremendous persecution. We look at what it means to be a Christian in modern society and how different that is from how our culture states things should be. Let us join together and stand for Jesus.
What is it that God wants you to do? Do you need to know everything about His will? Can the eternal be practical? What’s the vision of being a Christian? We answer all these questions in today’s message and we look to Jesus’s example in the gospel of Matthew.
The simple prayer of this new church got God’s attention and he responded immediately. What was it that made this prayer so powerful? Today we look to the bible book of Acts to find out so that we can apply the lessons learned to our own prayer life.
Can we change God’s mind in prayer? Prayer does get results, so what is persuasive prayer. We look at Moses as he prays in Exodus 32 to learn how to pray persuasively to God. Prayer works! Are you praying?
Part 2 of 2. We often don’t pray persistently because we give up too quickly. We pray 2-3 times and when we don’t get and answer, we quit. That is the influence of our ‘instant gratification’ society upon us. God challenges us in Daniel 10 to have persistent prayer. Join us as we look at why God wants us to reach out to Him over and over again.
Part 1 of 2. We often don’t pray persistently because we give up too quickly. We pray 2-3 times and when we don’t get and answer, we quit. That is the influence of our ‘instant gratification’ society upon us. God challenges us in Daniel 10 to have persistent prayer. Join us as we look at why God wants us to reach out to Him over and over again.
Most people believe that God answers prayer, but what is ironic is that we often do not pray as often as we should. Today we look at how a righteous man from the Old Testament prayed and we learn from him, “how to pray”.
Fear, doubt, concern are all things that keep us from moving forward and walking in faith. Today we look at the Exodus out of Egypt and the 40 years in the desert. We look at how similar we are to those people sometimes and how to get out of the temptation to not trust God and move forward.
We live in crazy times, but this is not the first time the Christian church has been challenged. We look at Jesus's example in the gospel of Luke of being steadfast in His purpose and apply that steadfastness to our lives. In a crazy world of anxiety, fear, and worry, Jesus calls us to something much different, to be counter-culture, to live in His example. This message is challenging and encouraging. May God bless you as you listen.
Diving into Hebrew's chapter 4, Pastor Austin shares with us the importance of the Sabbath. He also shares the correlation between God's creation in Genesis, the wandering people of God in Exodus, and those that entered the promised land in Exodus, to our modern biblical understanding of the sabbath. A great message to get you back on track with God!
(Due to technical issue, we have to post this message in 2 parts)
Diving into Hebrew's chapter 4, Pastor Austin shares with us the importance of the Sabbath. He also shares the correlation between God's creation in Genesis, the wandering people of God in Exodus, and those that entered the promised land in Exodus, to our modern biblical understanding of the sabbath. A great message to get you back on track with God!
(Due to technical issue, we have to post this message in 2 parts)
We must take sin seriously, longing to please our Redeemer and fearing his discipline as we focus on our mission, doing nothing to detract from its effectiveness.
We dig into 1 Timothy to understand the authority of God’s word in the life of the Christian. The old adage is, “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for everything.” And in our current world setting, it is important for the Christian to know the power of God’s word (the bible) in their lives so they don’t fall for every secular idea that is out there in the world and settle for nothing.
Luke 16:19-31 Death is a sure thing for everyone. It is inevitable and discriminates against no one. So the big question is what happens when we die. In this eye-opening yet encouraging message, Pastor Jeff Schreve shares the truth of eternity in heaven with Jesus or eternally separated from Him in hell. Can we determine how we will spend eternity? Yes … and you’ll want to choose the path to heaven once you learn what happens after death.
Government is a good thing because government is a God thing, created by Him to provide protection for the people. And He gave mankind the job and the responsibility of rulership using a government that would be underneath God’s direction. What responsibility do we have to that foundational truth? Learn the purpose and relationship between God, Government and Christians in this inspiring message from Pastor Jeff Schreve.
The people of God make up God’s church. And the church has a mission to fulfill to reach the world with the good news. But what forces can create barriers to the fulfillment of this mandate from God? What causes the church to be hindered from our responsibility? In this encouraging message, Pastor Jeff shares real truth about the foundation of God’s church and the power and protection He has placed upon her.
Proverbs 14:8 Have you ever wondered why you act the way you do in certain situations? Why some things really get your motor running, and others you couldn’t care less about? Are you wrong or even weird because of this? Absolutely not! In this insightful message, Dr. Jeff Schreve shows us the four standard personality types, the strengths, and weaknesses of each, and how God can use them all for His glory.
An encouraging message to remind us that God has done everything for us. We are Chosen. And that is such a wonderful thing. You are wanted and desired by God. Give yourself to Him and He will do the rest.
The only imitation we should be striving for in our life is to imitate Jesus. This means we look like Him in how He loved others. This love was unbelievable to those on the receiving end. This love was unconditional and not based on performance. This love was self-sacrificial and not selfish. The only urge we should give into is the urge to be more like Jesus.
We continue in our series of not being a Christian chameleon, not blending in and looking just like everyone else in the world. Remembering that we are called to stand out, to be light in the darkness. This morning, we realize that we are called Ambassadors for Christ and have the ministry of reconciliation. That means, not only do we stand out, we also speak out.
Don’t conform to the world but be transformed. Today we continue this message with Peter’s encouragement concerning why our transformation is so important and impacting. Find out God’s plan for you in transformation!
Do we want to be changed by Jesus? That is the question. Sounds like a simple question, but often we say “yes” when we really mean “no”. It’s a question of conforming or being transformed. Join us today as we talk about the temptation to conform, when we should be transforming.
We look at the love that God has for us through the father in Luke 15 in the story of the prodigal son. God never gives up on us and is always waiting for us to “come to our senses” and come home to Him. It’s a story of love and faithfulness.
Continuing in 1 Peter 2 we look at how a Christian honors God and deals with worldly authority. We also look at what impact this bible message should have on our individual lives in the church.
When it comes to obeying authority, what does the bible say. 1 Peter 2 gives us some great in-site one on the subject.
We often want to avoid storms. For Christians, Jesus takes us through the storms of life with purpose. He wants us to find Him in the storm so He can calm the trashing waves of life around us. Jesus brings us to safety.
We finish up looking at the 7 passion killers in our relationship to God and close with 5 things to do to re-ignite or keep our passion for God going. God has made us for a purpose!
God has a passion for us and wants us to have a passion for Him. In this series we look at 7 things that can kill our passion for God and also how to kickstart our passion back on again. Join us and keep your spiritual passion alive and moving forward.
When we lose our passion for God, life becomes routine, monotonous, dull. We begin a series today that looks at the spiritual passion killers in our lives as well as how to re-ignite our passion for God. God gave us emotions and passion and wants us to be passionate about Him. Join us as we discover how to kick start our passion once again.
We have looked at the love of Jesus reigning over us in the Easter celebration, over our past, our present, and now today we look at the love of Jesus reigning over our future. What a difference Jesus can make if we only believe Him. Worry, anxiety, stress about the future can be all gone!
The decisions we have made in the past determined where we are today. In the same manner, the decisions we make today determine where we will be in the future. The question for Christians is this, “In making decisions today, are we listening to the voice of God or other voices that desire to influence us?”
Forgiveness is something we all desire. To have a relationship made right again. Today we look at how Jesus changes our past and its impact on our present and future through His love. It is life changing!
Today is Resurrection Sunday! The day that Christians celebrate how the love of God came into a world of sin through Jesus the Christ, bore our sins upon Himself, was killed…..but then three days later rose from the grave and established Himself as the one true king. Join us as we see how the love of God changes not only our heart but also our future!
We celebrate Holy Week in the Christian faith this week. It is a week of triumph and turmoil. But even before Jesus enters Jerusalem for Passover, He has so much to teach us and encourage us in. Join us as we look read through a section of Mark 11.
Faith is visible. For the Christian, seeing is not believing, but believing is showing your faith to the point that it is obvious. The whole story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man is a wonderful story of faith. Join us as we look at the faith of all the participants today.
In Mark 1 we find a great correlation between leprously and sin. First, how easily both can take over a person’s life and change them forever. And second, how to find the cure from both life-damaging conditions.
Even in the church, evangelism can be a difficult word to deal with. Join us as we look at John 4 to see Jesus giving us a great example of how easy evangelism really is. Every Christian should evangelize.
This a lot of negativity in our world and it is easy to focus on all the bad. In John 14 Jesus teaches us that there are much more important things to focus on and reminds us of all that is good. When we focus on the good, its life changing!
Lesson number two as Jesus speaks from John 14 and teaches us how to not let the events all around us cause us stress and anxiety. A great message to apply to your life if you are struggling with fear, depression, anxiety, or frustration.
In recent times there seems to be so many things that causes fear, anxiety, and frustration. Jesus speaks to us in John 14 and shows us the way to have peace.
Finding contentment in God means going back to the basics and learning to do them right. Today we glean from Agur’s writings two important weaknesses to deal with in order to trust God completely and be content in Him, truth (which is NOT subjective) and our motivation for having the things we have.
Once again, we study the prophet Agur and his writings in Proverbs 30 to learn how to be content in God. When it comes down to it, its all about relationship. If your relationship with God is good, then contentment is easy. If not, then we are always looking for things to fill our life to make us happy. Agur shows us what things to look at to get our relationship right with God, and what things to avoid.
Contentment is something that seems so elusive! From the worlds point of view, it is because in that mindset……we always want MORE! Agur, an old testament prophet, teaches us how to be content in a way that does not fade away. Join us in this message as we recenter our lives in God.
Our Christmas Message for Advent. The world, the shepherds, the magi, the prophets, the angels all responded to the present of Jesus. The big question is……how do you and I respond to Jesus?
This week we learn from the Magi in Matthew 2 how to keep the true meaning of Christmas with us all the time. We learn how “not” to get caught up in the commercialism, the depression, or the lack luster feelings that so many people struggle with this time of year.
The world offers us a lot of things, but lasting joy is not one of them. Join us today as we discover how to find and keep authentic joy, no matter what the circumstances are around us.
The angels proclaimed a message of peace when Jesus was born. But what kind of peace did they mean and how do we apply that peace to our lives?
As we begin our Advent season, advent meaning an anticipated coming, we look to what the importance of what the bible prophets stated about Jesus and how the fulfillment of those prophecies confirms our faith. Advent is a season of both celebrating the birth of Jesus at Christmas, but of also excitedly looking to his second return.
It is a strange thought, but being thankful can seem abnormal in our culture. Today we look at the fact of being abnormal for the Christian is not only a good thing…..its a great thing!
How impactful is the bible when we truly accept it for more than a good book, and actually as the word of God? Join us this morning to find out!
The bible is more than a ‘good book’, more than the best-selling book in history, and more than a book that everyone should have. It is the very word of God and God’s love letter to us. It is life changing when we accept it for what it really is, believe it, and apply it.
Almost nothing in guaranteed in life, except these two things; life is hard but God is good. Today we barrow a message from pastor Louie Giglio as he encourages to focus not on our hard lives, but the goodness of God.
Life is hard, but God offers Joy. Not joy like a feeling of happiness, but a joy on contentment in spite of broken dreams, relationships, and tough times. Listen in on God’s perspective of joy and how to have it. For joy is so desperately needed in our lives.
Life is hard, but God offers Joy. Not joy like a feeling of happiness, but a joy on contentment in spite of broken dreams, relationships, and tough times. Listen in on God’s perspective of joy and how to have it. For joy is so desperately needed in our lives.
Today we look at the 4th most common way that God grows our faith in Him. It all makes sense when we look at this issue from an eternal point of view rather than an in-the-moment point of view. Growing our faith in God is tremendously important.
Part 3 of 4 of the most common ways that God grows our faith. This way is very close to home for all of us….check the message out to see what it is! Where do we struggle? Most often in our perception of the situation. The key is to see the issue through God’s eyes and not our perception.
Part 2 in our series which answers the question, “How does God grow our faith?” God really does not ask much of us to grow our faith, from when we are focused on ourselves, God’s ask can seem overwhelming. Today we look at the second most common way that God grows our faith.
The apostles, other, and even we have asked God to grow our faith, but do we really understand what we are asking? This week we discuss what growing in faith really means, its importance in our lives, and 1 of 4 common ways that God grows our faith.
Culture is caught up in an attitude of me-ism with a trinity of me, myself, and I. Following Jesus is about us-ism as we are to die to our old self in salvation, serve one another as a Christian family, and glorify God. As Christians, we must address the issue with love, but keep me-ism out of the church and out of Christianity.
Current culture often see’s Biblical morality as old fashioned…..or even extreme and dangerous. Today we look at why biblical morality is as relevant for today as it was when it was written. And dangerous? Or not wanting to hear the truth?
One of the issues facing the church and society is that of increased isolation, fragmentation, and polarization of people. The love of Jesus confronts and overcomes this with hope, fellowship, and solid doctrine.
Luke, Chapter 6, calls us to move beyond just believing what it right. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus calls us as Christians to act, to do, to do something when we see an opportunity.
The book of James gives us insight on how to press through tough times and understand what God is doing in our lives.
Andy Stanley shares with us why bad things happen to good people and why there is suffering in the world.
In a pessimistic and critical world, we look at the life of Barnabas in the book of Acts and are encouraged to be an encourager.
With all the criticism, negativity, and pessimism in the world, we need encouragers and good news. Today we look at three aspects of encouragement.
Setting boundaries in your life may seem like common sense so we think we can make those decisions anytime, the problem is, we get comfortable….and that leads us into trouble. So how do we fix that problem? This week’s message addresses that very issue.
Having guardrails or boundaries in life is important. In this message we deal with our attitude towards money and things. Do we use them as a resource or tool or do they control us? Part B
Having guardrails or boundaries in life is important. In this message we deal with our attitude towards money and things. Do we use them as a resource or tool or do they control us? Part A
Life guardrails not only protect, they also direct us in the safe way that we should go. We need to develop guardrails in our community groups, our finances, and in discipline.
Sermon #3 in our Guardrail series. The importance of setting up boundaries ahead of time in the physical/sexual area of our lives.
Join Wasatch Christian Church in our Guardrail Series. Part 2 explores the need for boundaries in our relationship with friends, co-workers, and others.
Join us as we set the stage for our new series, guardrails. Nobody ever thinks about guardrails until you need one. That is why it is important to set up guardrails in our life......before we need it so that it is there when we do need it.