LifePoint Church: Recent Episodes
LifePoint Church
LifePoint Church is built on an authentic, contemporary and relevant approach to ministry as we carry out our mission of influencing people to find and follow Jesus. We believe that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship with a person. Jesus Christ. Firmly rooted in Scripture, the beliefs of LifePoint guide our decisions as a church. Through the messages at LifePoint, you’ll hear practical teaching from the Bible that impacts your life no matter where you are on your spiritual journey.
God specializes in plot twists - taking the most broken family situations and writing completely different endings through the power of sacrificial love. In Genesis 44-45, we witness perhaps the greatest plot twist in Scripture: a family torn apart by jealousy, deception, and betrayal for over twenty years experiences miraculous restoration. Judah's willingness to sacrifice himself and Joseph's choice to extend grace transform a broken family into a restored one.
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God gently corrects his children to shape us into the people he wants us to become. Through our life experiences, God changes our hearts as we respond to his correction. Joseph’s father, brothers, and Joseph himself needed to change; and God patiently confronted them to help them grow. Together, let’s explore how we can respond faithfully to God’s correction in our lives.
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We live in a time in which we all struggle to wait on God. With modern conveniences, waiting has become almost foreign to us. Are you in a season of waiting right now? Are you waiting for God for answers about healing, a relationship restoration, a job opportunity, or perhaps just clarity about your next steps? Well, you are not alone. As we will learn from Joseph, God's timeline never matches our own, but his purposes are always worth the wait. Joseph's promotion wasn't mere luck or coincidence, but the culmination of years of faithful preparation for God's plan, just as Jesus waited and suffered death to fulfill the Father's master plan of salvation for humanity.
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Often we look at life working in a linear, predictable manner. We function under the assumption that if we do good things, we get good results. Conversely, we assume that if we do bad things we get bad results. If you are a believer, you can easily apply similar logic to your spiritual life. Our thoughts travel along the lines that if I do good things, God will bless me. Similarly, we conclude that if bad things happen to me then God must be against me. What happens to our faith when these perspectives get challenged? Today, in part 3 of our series on Joseph, we look closely at Genesis 39 and see Joseph’s circumstances running drastically different to our assumptions. The story of Joseph may cause us to realign our thoughts to God’s sovereignty and our attitudes toward Him and our circumstances.
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Every person is a work-in-progress. Our character remains under construction and will not be finished until Jesus completes his work in us. In Genesis 38, we receive the benefit of peering into the private life of Joseph’s brother Judah. We see his shortcomings, and we discover the seeds of change through God’s grace that will transform his character. This weekend, we can remember how God’s grace changes our lives and character.
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If God loves me, how could he let me hurt so deeply? Why should I keep trusting God when my life is such a mess? Questions like that hang over the story of Joseph’s life in the Book of Genesis. In Genesis 37, we find the bad beginning to Joseph’s story including a difficult family life, betrayal, kidnapping, and a murder plot. Through this painful beginning, Joseph found a way to endure. If you’ve been asking hard questions about God and your life, then Joseph’s example and faith will encourage you. This weekend we will learn about endurance from his example.
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To conclude our study through the first half of the letter to the Galatians, we find a description of our relationship with God…a whole new identity that includes intimacy with God, incredible privilege, and freedom. When you remember that God has made you his child and set you free through faith in Jesus, what new perspectives and opportunities will open up for you?
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What is so important to you that your life takes shape around it? The Book of Galatians teaches us we are made right with God by faith in Jesus alone. This weekend we find that not only are we made right with God by faith in Jesus (not our good works) but our spiritual growth is also fueled by our faith in Jesus (not our good works). While different values or objectives (including the achievement of law-keeping) attempt to dominate our lives, the central truth beating at the heart of every story is God’s love and our faith in his grace.
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How is your life aligned with God’s grace and the truth of the Gospel message? In our passage today, the Apostle Paul confronted the Apostle Peter over his failure to live out the Good News about Jesus. Our eternal life is not something that begins when we die but includes our new life right now. Let’s explore how the truth that we have been made right with God in Jesus is changing every part of our life and being.
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One of the most significant conflicts in the early church period involved the question: Do all Jesus-followers need to convert to cultural Judaism as part of believing in or following Jesus? That may seem like a question far removed from our contemporary life and faith, but have you ever considered the possibility that part of our faith commitments may be cultural values? The struggle and resolution of this conflict in the early church has never been more applicable than today. Today our world is as divided, hostile to differences, and angry as it has ever been. Jesus calls us to unity in him without making all of us the same. This weekend, we want to rediscover the freedom that grows from unity within diversity.
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How has your story been marked by God’s grace and presence just as you’ve been marked by pain and struggle? Paul shared parts of his story, not to boost his own ego, but to make the Good News about Jesus clear and shine a spotlight on what Jesus does in our lives. Understanding your own story of grace can deepen your faith and sharing your story of grace can develop faith in others. Each of our stories reveal God’s gracious hand. As we co-author our life with God, we live to please him because he has already approved of and accepted us in Jesus.
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Paul wrote a personal letter to the Galatian believers packed with theological truth and biographical notes. In this opening to the letter, Paul begins with a bang and emphasizes the simplicity of believing in what Jesus has done for us and relying completely on God’s grace. Over the next six weeks, we want to explore our own stories while understanding the story of Paul and the Galatians to reconfirm our confidence in the simple Gospel of Jesus and rediscover God’s grace at the heart of our stories.
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While our culture celebrates independence and self-sufficiency, the Bible calls us to something very different: carrying one another’s burdens. In Galatians 6:2, Paul tells us that we fulfill the law of Christ by loving God and loving our neighbor. True strength isn’t found in standing alone but in standing together as the body of Christ. In community, we see God’s faithfulness in each other’s stories and discover we’re not alone. We support each other with strength we can’t muster on our own. This week’s message, Take the Next Step, challenges us to move beyond Sunday attendance and into deeper connection through one of the many groups in our church. One step into Jesus-centered community can change everything.
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When Jesus was preparing his disciples for his departure from earth, he commissioned them to be his witnesses both near and far. He even listed examples of those distances beginning with their hometown and going all the way to the furthest places on earth. As his disciples today, we continue working in that same commission. We are witnesses of Jesus both near and far. Let's learn more about LifePoint's initiatives in the “far” places from 2 guests today and what it means to be witnesses for Jesus—as a church and individually.
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Jesus designed his church to endure through every generation. From the beginning, God’s people have been called to share his works and ways with those who come after them. As we faithfully continue Jesus’ mission, we invest in the next generation—passing on a living faith that will outlast us.
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Jesus designed his church to endure over time and to expand across the world. The Church in Jerusalem exploded into existence in fulfillment of Jesus’ promises. As we faithfully continue Jesus’ mission and effectively witness to him—we gather in worship, grow in Jesus-centered relationships, and serve by sharing ourselves and our money.
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Grace without truth becomes powerless. Truth without grace becomes a harsh taskmaster. Jesus held grace and truth together completely in his person. This quality allowed him to bring people together and to bring people to God. Our world feels more divided than ever, but Jesus calls us to keep bringing people together so they can be connected with him. By exploring how Jesus connected and changed the life of one person in Luke 19, let’s explore how we can keep bringing people together and introducing them to Jesus.
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As we read through the gospels, it’s interesting to see how often Jesus was on His way to do something when he was interrupted by someone who wanted his attention. In fact, much of Jesus’ ministry involved interruptions. Yet, He always responded positively and was able to put people above his agenda. We’ll discuss some of these examples from Jesus’ ministry, why this is often difficult for us to do, and how we can get better at putting people above our own agendas.
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Leadership is a double-edged sword. When you lead, you must cut through the lesser important ideas with hopes of guiding those in your charge towards what is most important. Simultaneously, you as the leader must cut through your own ego and selfish motives to accomplish a greater goal without compromising your own values in the process. Today, we will look at a couple of leaders and the different perspectives they employ as they face their own internal challenges. Jesus presents to us the challenge of leading from authenticity even when we all are tempted to put on a mask and hide.
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Jesus consistently modeled a life of integrity — doing the right things for the right reasons, not for applause but for obedience and love. As His followers, we are called to lead with our motives in check and our actions aligned with God’s heart. This is the essence of being a high road leader: choosing character over recognition and faithfulness over fame.
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Jesus modeled a beautiful example for us on how to be aware of our humanness. He was the incarnate Son of God, Emmanuel, God with us in human form. He dwelt among us. He experienced every aspect of humanity so that he could understand what it means for us to live in this mortal body. He became hungry, thirsty, and tired. He was tempted in every way, yet without sin. He never hid his humanness. he asked his Father for help, as He also longed for support from his disciples. Following Jesus' steps, we can become a High Road Leader.
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Scorekeeping is necessary for sports and games but can be deadly for relationships. When we compare ourselves with others, measure our performance or efforts against someone else, or manipulate others by our gifts and service—we create cycles of hurt and brokenness. When we follow Jesus to avoid keeping score in our relationships we step into freedom for ourselves and lead others to freedom.
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Giving more than you take is at the core of taking the high road. When you give more than you take, you exemplify the very nature of Jesus.
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Salt makes things better and light makes things brighter. Unfortunately, everyone steps into dark moments and distasteful experiences invade our life. By following Jesus’ example, we can become the salt and light that changes our world and influences other people to find hope and wholeness in Jesus. This weekend, we jump into the summer to apply the values of Jesus’ leadership to our lives.
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Sometimes we keep our distance from someone in need—not because we don’t care, but because we don’t know what to do. Besides, we're really busy, and "we can't fix all their problems" anyway. But the reality is that God doesn't ask us to fix people's problems. He asks us to care. And we find that compassion grows when we get close. In this message, we’ll explore what Jesus modeled through His life: serving others sacrificially. For us, that can mean stepping out of our comfort zones and moving toward people in need--not with solutions, but with our presence, empathy, and love.
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Sometimes we look for a significant life in all the wrong places—our achievement, our comfort, our status, our unassailable strength. Whenever our search for meaning and for the good life begins with ourselves, we are looking in the wrong place. Jesus repeatedly teaches that a life full of purpose begins with others rather than ourselves and that a Jesus-following life is a Jesus-serving life. This weekend we remember what serving Jesus looks like from his teaching in Mark 10.
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As Jesus-followers, our mission centers around introducing people to Jesus. Unfortunately, one of the big barriers preventing people from believing in Jesus is often Christians. Jesus developed and emphasized in his first followers, characteristics to prevent them blocking people from reaching him. As we join Jesus and his disciples on their walk home, we can also develop these vital qualities.
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When Jesus calls us to follow him, he is clear about what he demands of us and what our path will include. However, it's just as hard for us to hear and receive as it was for the first group of Jesus-followers. Jesus calls us to a truly significant life, but that path leads through pain and self-denial. Although contrary to what we might expect, Jesus calls us to a life that is truly significant through following him.
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Even people who are committed to Jesus can become unresponsive to him. The disciples who left everything to follow Jesus—jobs, family and friends, and familiar routines—drifted away in their hearts until they were unable to hear and see Jesus accurately. Jesus persistently and patiently pursued their hearts—just as he desires to draw you back to himself.
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Our heart represents the essence of who we are and the core of our character. Other people only see the parts of our heart that we reveal, but God sees our heart in its entirety. Jesus worked to change the hearts of his first followers and calls us into the same transformative process. He skips over the external parts of our lives and focuses directly on what is most important—our heart. Together, let’s align our hearts to follow Jesus.
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Jesus intentionally prepared his disciples to lead as he anticipated his death, resurrection, and ascension. He began this training process with two miracles designed to teach vital truths about expanding influence. Through Jesus’ actions and teaching, we can discover key principles to play our part in Jesus’ mission and give him freedom to work in our hearts.
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The Resurrection caught everyone by surprise—even Jesus’ closest followers. Throughout John chapter 20, Jesus gave each person exactly what they needed to believe in him. His tender interaction with Mary Magdalene at his tomb reveals Mary’s broken heart as well as her faith and Jesus’ compassion. Today, Jesus still gives us what we need to believe him. Each Easter provided a new opportunity for us to be surprised by Jesus’ resurrection life!
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With simple words and a painfully straightforward description, John delivered his first-hand account of the crucifixion of the friend he loved and the King he served. Jesus’ sacrifice of himself by being crucified demonstrates the fullest expression of God’s love for us and the most complete demonstration of God’s character. Together, we pause to consider the reality and the implications of Jesus’s death.
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Friedrich Nietzsche claimed, “There are more idols in the world than there are realities.” As we conclude Jacob’s story, we find God claiming the central place in his life after a lifetime of Jacob’s struggle to trust God more than he trusted himself. Following a tragic series of events, Jacob finally leads himself and his family to replace their idols with the one true God-Almighty and worship him. Let’s follow Jacob through the mess and mystery of life to recognize Jesus’ authority and worship him.
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We all try to forge our own path from time to time. We look to things that we can do and things that the world can give us instead of looking to the real answer to our struggles, God. Jacob had an incredible encounter with Gods that knocked him to his knees and reminding him of his reliance on God. Instead of relying on our own power and self-will, let’s look to the power and will of God.
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Have you ever struggled with the feeling that your life is driven by people and forces beyond your control? When I read the stories of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel—I imagine they must have felt that same way. This weekend we want to remember significant truths to help us remain centered even when we feel life spinning beyond our control.
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In this sermon on Genesis 29:1-30, we explore the themes of love, deception, irony, and God's grace through the story of Jacob's encounter with Laban. Despite his encounter with God at Bethel, Jacob remains self-centered, viewing God more as a means to an end than as a personal relationship. The irony of the story unfolds as Jacob, the deceiver, is himself deceived by Laban, showing how God’s justice often works in unexpected ways. Through this, we are reminded of the importance of being aware of the injustice we enact on others and how God’s grace can guide us through our own mistakes and relational chaos.
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In this series, we are following the life of Jacob, as he seeks to make a life for himself. Most notable of Jacob is how much faith he places in his own self-reliance. Jacob is beyond willing to employ deception and fraud in an attempt to build his life and thwart his fears. Consequently, Jacob is heir to the blessing God bestowed upon Abraham and Isaac. When Jacob encounters God, he finds his old tricks and cunning ways are useless. Today, we take a close look at the encounter between a man desperate to secure his future and the only One who actually can.
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Unhealthy characteristics and dysfunctional relationships tend to be part of every life and every story. The family God chose to become ancestors for Jesus was far less than perfect—full of suspicion, deceit, poor communication, manipulation—it was a mess. Yet God worked through those imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan. We want to discover how to trust God in our own imperfect realities while taking steps toward health and wholeness.
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Isaac moves from fear to faith. He repeats the failure of his father, Abraham, by deceiving the Philistine king, when he was afraid. However, he experienced God’s tremendous and undeserved blessings by becoming wealthy, putting his confidence in God, and finding peace and safety. Abraham was told to go. Isaac was told to stay, and dwell precisely where God wanted him to be. God doesn’t need my retaliation to bring justice, or help His promise along. Isaac’s story presents an example for Jacob that Jacob seems to have missed or ignored. This could be an opportunity to emphasize God’s promises to us.
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God determined a path and purpose for both Jacob and Esau before they were born, yet they still were responsible for their choices. Because they occupied (literally) the same space and competed for prominence, Jacob and Esau struggled with each other—just as they struggled with God’s decisions. This complicated story and family remind us how God calls us to simply trust him.
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Marriage combines two different people, and the results can be a forceful collision or a powerful blending of two into one over time. Grace is the ingredient that changes and improves our ability to create a healthy marriage. When we learn to receive and give grace to each other, we find an opportunity to express God’s love—whether we are married or unmarried. This weekend, we can explore the difference grace makes in our most significant relationships.
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When you think about wealth, money, and possessions what images or representations come to your mind? When the Apostle Paul asked for the Corinthian church to help struggling believers in Jerusalem, he reminded them of reasons to be generous and provided guidance for their giving. Realizing how God has freely given us good gifts can dramatically change our attitudes toward money and giving.
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Grace and freedom fit together hand-in-glove. When we find our identity in God’s grace, we experience the freedom to be precisely who God made us to be. When we learn to live and give grace to each other, we are able set others free too. This freedom in grace never comes easy. We can learn from the experience of early Roman believers how grace inspires unity out of diversity
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Do our actions really matter if nothing we do can cause God to love us any more or less? Living under the rule of God’s grace is a call to living each day in victory over the power of sin. Romans 6 provides instructions for receiving grace to follow Jesus faithfully in every aspect of life.
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When you read or hear the words, “undeserved privilege,” what do you reflexively think or feel? We’ve been trained to not only earn our own way through life but to resent those who have some type of standing or gift that we don’t have. However, anything that I’ve earned or deserve, I am always in danger of losing if I become undeserving, make terrible choices, or even become victimized. This weekend, we consider the undeserved privilege that Jesus makes possible, and we celebrate the new life Jesus is creating at LifePoint through baptisms.
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The one quality we most need in life is the one reality we most resist. When Jesus wanted people to understand God and receive this principle into their lives, he told a story. Really, he told a series of stories that climaxed in one epic about a father with two sons. You and I and all people can find ourselves in the position of those children. We can also listen to Jesus’ story and discover how that one essential quality—God’s grace—can touch and transform every part of life.
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The Scriptures remind us that God is faithful across all generations, yet we are entrusted with the responsibility of passing on the faith to the next. This task, while vital, can be challenging—especially when we confront the realities of generational differences. How do we faithfully share the timeless truth of the gospel in a world that is constantly changing and often moving at a pace that feels difficult to keep up with?
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Every individual has ancestors, and every family has a story—even if that story is obscure or largely unknown. Matthew created a careful record of Jesus’ family to help us understand the significance of Jesus, and Jesus’ list of ancestors contains insights and surprises. We can prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus’ birth by remembering the family that helped bring him into this world, and we may even understand our own story a little bit better.
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As you try to follow Jesus, when have you hit a speed bump of confusion and struggled to move forward? Abraham and Sarah’s stories speed along to conclusion, while creating some confusing obstacles—death, a search for a bride, and an unfulfilled promise. By examining Abraham’s example of faith, we can learn to live faithfully even when feeling confused.
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Turn on the news. Pick up your phone. Think about your past experiences. Look at your family’s current situation. We often find ourselves feeling out of control. As humans, we desire control in our life and the world around us. As we continue to look at the journey of faith that Abraham and Sarah found themselves on, we will see a kind of faith that rests in God even when things feel out of our control. We find God calling us to prepare, trust, and worship no matter what is going on around us.
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Abraham's failure to trust in God leads to deception with Abimelech. Twenty-five years later, Abraham repeats the same mistake he made in chapter 12. He falls again into deception and failure, which shows believers how easily it is to slip back into sinful habits. However, God is faithful even when we are not. God's faithfulness rescues them from Abimelech and fulfills His promise by giving Abraham and Sarah a son, Isaac. God demonstrates His grace and faithfulness to Hagar and Ishmael because of His love toward Abraham.
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What’s wrong with this world and how does God call us to interact with a culture in rebellion against him? After Abraham served God himself and two angels a meal, he asked God to extend mercy on flagrantly wicked people. Although God rescued Abraham’s family members, Abraham watched cities burn in terrible judgment, within twenty-four hours. Discerning how to be engaged with a culture that is against God has always been challenging for God’s people. Together, we look for wisdom by learning from God’s judgment and his mercy.
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As God continued confirming his promises to Abraham, Abraham and Sarah turned their hesitant and halting faith into obedient action. Growing up progresses step-by-step and often feels slow to a child but rapid to an adult. God guides our life of maturing in faith as we understand who we are in relationship to him and obediently follow him one step at a time. Together, let’s learn from Abraham and Sarah’s example of growing up in their faith.
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Christianity diverges from all other faith traditions by emphasizing God’s actions for us rather than our work for God, and Abraham’s story is the beginning of that change. This weekend Abram and Sarai show us beautiful faith that is far from perfect, and we learn the essential dynamics of relationship with God.
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What does a life of following God really look like? The portrait of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis provides the earliest and most complete picture of a life of trusting God and his promises. This weekend, we begin inspecting the surprising twists and turns in the life of faith.
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In the aftermath of the Babel account, God chose one particular family to bring blessing to the whole earth. In this first sermon in our new series, we’ll explore two of the first examples of a life of faith. Abraham and Sarah believed God’s promise, but (like us) their faith was often weak and their lives full of missteps. They discovered their failures were never enough to overcome God’s grace and promise. Through their story, we’ll discover how we can trust God to keep his promises.
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Job asked repeatedly for an audience with God and finally he seems to receive exactly what he wanted…or does he? God seems to leave many of Job’s (and our) questions about suffering unanswered. Instead of revealing answers, God reveals himself to Job. At the conclusion of Job’s story, we receive a new view on who God is and what he expects of us.
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Could there be a purpose or any positive result that grows from Job’s tragic experiences or from the trouble in our lives? We might be tempted to view our difficulties as random, inconvenient, and best ignored or overcome. However, it’s possible that some of our troubling experiences shape us into the people God calls us to be. Together, we can search for a purpose behind our pain.
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What difference does faith make when we’re suffering? Job lost everything but was able to hold onto his faith in God. His confident assertion that his life would continue beyond his death creates an important marker in the Old Testament Scriptures about belief in resurrection. We are able to look back on Jesus’ resurrection as strong confirmation of our own future life after death. Let’s consider how faith and hope in the future change life and suffering in our present.
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Sooner or later we all wonder, “How could this happen to me—from where has this unexpected problem or pain come?” These questions echo throughout each page of Job’s story. Responding to these questions can lead us onto dangerous ground, but it’s a necessary part of life. This weekend we begin exploring the causes or sources for the problems and pain in our lives and world.
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When life falls apart, how can we navigate through our pain without falling apart ourselves? Job begins to cry out to God and his friends in chapter 3. His brutal honesty and deep vulnerability can be shocking but also help us faithfully endure our own challenges. Let's explore how to be faithful with the painful parts of our lives.
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Job had it all—family, friends, prosperity, influence, and even a healthy relationship with God—but in one day he lost everything, except for his faith in God. Job and his friends struggled to make sense of his desperate situation. They asked the same kinds of questions that we ask: where does suffering come from and is there any purpose behind our pain and where is God when we suffer? The responses to these questions might surprise or discomfort us just as much as they did Job. Over six weeks, let’s explore the way God delivers his good news through the very bad experiences of Job.
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Building relationships with fellow believers is essential to good spiritual health. These 'Jesus-centered relationships' help us encourage and support one another as we grow and mature in our faith. In Jesus centered relationships, we have the opportunities to practice the 'one anothers' found throughout the New Testament: being kind to one another, praying for one another, loving one another, forgiving one another, and more. Our Group Life ministry offers some of the best opportunities to cultivate these relationships. Today, we will hear from group leaders about how these 'one another' practices are being lived out within their groups.
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Who will overcome you? Who or what has overcome you, your mind, your emotion, your perspective—it’s either Jesus or something or someone else. Who or what has the greatest influence your life? What dominates your thoughts, outlook, feelings? Your pain or bad experience, desire for pleasure, pursuit of your own self-expression or interest, identification with a cause or platform or party or candidate—what are you giving yourself over to, to what or whom are you ceding the prime real estate of your soul and mind and inner life? Where do you give your allegiance?
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In Mark 6, Jesus returns to His hometown of Nazareth, only to be met with disbelief and rejection by His fellow Nazarites. His former neighbors were amazed by His knowledge, but nonetheless dismiss Him and His message. Conversely, Jesus marvels at their unbelief, which significantly hinders His kingdom work among them. Today we explore our roles in the kingdom mission and the challenges our own unbelief presents.
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It’s not easy to trust Jesus when you’re in a hurry…or if you or someone you love is in danger…or if you’re suffering. Faith is the catalyst that Jesus uses to demonstrate his presence in our lives, regardless of our situation. Together, let’s explore a powerful story of faith in Jesus and consider how Jesus invites us to trust him now.
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Jesus and his disciples arrive on the other side and encounter a demon-possessed man. Jesus had demonstrated his power and quieted the sea, and now he will demonstrate His power over Satan. The ex-demoniac recognizing Jesus' love and care and having faith in Jesus over the issues of life and death demonstrates fearless faith in following Jesus as His disciple.
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In this famous passage (Mark 4:35-41), the disciples set out across a lake and encounter a “furious squall.” The storm is so severe that even the fishermen in the boat, who essentially lived on the water, were afraid. All the while, Jesus was in the back of the boat “sleeping on a cushion.” Today we’ll talk about the “storms” in our lives today, our proper response, and how it’s actually possible to remain calm in their midst.
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In Mark chapter 4, we have an opportunity to listen to Jesus’ teaching just as he delivered it to his first followers and the crowds who joined them. Through storytelling, Jesus revealed truth about the Kingdom of God and about our own hearts. By paying attention to Jesus’ words, we can find our next step to follow him and overcome obstacles to our own growth, belief, or fruitfulness.
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Do you ever find yourself forgetting the blessings of God? Whether life is really good or you are in a difficult situation, we all find ourselves looking in all the wrong places for the things that God promises to His children. In this Psalm, David gives us a song of praise that we can sing to God no matter what comes our way. It’s a song about the strength that He puts inside of us, the deliverance that He offers us, and the forgiveness that is available to all who believe in Him. May we never forget these wonderful blessings of God.
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Do you ever have difficulty dealing with anger? More than a dozen or so Psalms express anger while crying out for justice and revenge. These Psalms are categorized as imprecatory. Psalm 109 is the longest and most detailed in its description of vengeance with words like, “May his days be few; may another take his place.” Let’s consider the role that anger plays in our lives, our relationship with God, and in the book of Psalms.
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Psalm 51 reminds us of the gravity of sin. You and I may think our sin is small, but it is severe. What we perceive to be the slightest sin is infinitely severe before God. It is a defiance of God, and it destroys you and others. That is not an overstatement: recall that according to Genesis 3, sin and death entered the world through one sin. A piece of fruit was eaten, and condemnation came to all men. Consider the sins of David, who committed adultery with Bathsheba and orchestrated the death of her husband, Uriah. These were severe sins that had severe consequences.
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In the midst of chaos, it’s sometimes hard to see the best way forward. We often find ourselves clamoring for relief and desperately seeking refuge. During the distress, nothing is more desired than the safety of home - although during such times we struggle to verbalize that desire. Today, we find a song reminding us that God is our shelter – our home. He is our refuge and without us even realizing, He comes to us.
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Cycles of positive and negative experiences define our journey through life. To make progress, we need to learn how to keep moving forward and remain faithful whether we’re on top of the world or it feels like the world is on top of us. Psalm 40 reminds us how to feel gratitude in the middle of grief and cultivate qualities that result in faithfulness and progress in every situation.
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The first song in the Book of Psalms provides an orientation to the entire book and teaches us what life looks like when everything works properly. However, we quickly learn (and many Psalms remind us) that life doesn’t always progress according to plan. This first song also gives us a new perspective to view all of life—the successes along with the disappointments—in vibrant colors we never could imagine on our own. Let’s hit the road together with the Psalms.
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Jesus left heaven to come into our world and serve us. (Mark 10:45) He is our example, and, therefore, as we follow Jesus, we should be serving others. When we serve together as a unified church family, the world sees a powerful witness for the love of Jesus. (John 17:23) In August, we will have an exciting opportunity to send that exact message to our community.
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Whether or not we’ve considered it carefully, we all have a connection with money that is far deeper and more important than receiving a regular paycheck or carefully balancing our accounts. Money can cause us significant pain and conflict. Money can also help us reach goals and enjoy life. More than likely, you have some complicated thoughts and feelings around money. That’s why we’re looking for discernment from Proverbs to create a healthy perspective on money.
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Rarely is the path to peace clearly lit. It’s not always easy to see a way through conflict, injustice, and violence without creating more suffering in return. Yet, Proverbs provides us with a light to make wise choices which can lead us to an inner sweetness and a more beautiful world.
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The life you are leading…the choices you are making will make a difference in the lives of the generations that follow you…children, grandchildren, children you can’t quite imagine yet. Your life, your family life is creating a ripple that will continue extending far beyond you. So, what story are you writing in your family life?
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How can we as Christians in the United States help people in need around the world? It's easy for us to make a list of all the ways we can go to other countries, especially third world countries, and solve many of their problems. But can we really solve their "problems"? Are we even asking them what they actually need from us? There's no lack of scripture exhorting believers to be generous to the poor and help those in need. But what do they actually need? What does the Church in America have to offer? What do we hear when we ask others what they need and we truly listen?
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Have you found yourself working hard doing research on a purchase or planning a trip only to eventually see your decisions prove less than you imagined? Decision-making can be a complex and anxious experience depending on the gravity and consequence of the decision. When you include the desire to do God’s will and the desire to use wisdom to avoid pitfalls, the stakes feel high, and some decisions can feel daunting. Today, Proverbs will give us a good perspective about obtaining wisdom, avoiding foolishness and potentially reducing our tension.
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Do you think of sexuality as more of a problem or a privilege. Consider how a biblical view of sexuality reveals it is a good-news, gospel-kind of privilege to be a woman, to be a man, and to enjoy the sexual part of our human experience. Our sexuality requires both form and freedom to maximize our pleasure and avoid pain. Your sexuality is a mysterious, wonderful, and powerful gift from God for his glory and your blessing. How can we wisely enjoy these blessings? That’s why we want to apply biblical wisdom from Proverbs to our sexuality.
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Have you ever done something with good intentions only for the best of your intentions to explode into fire and ash? That is why we all need to keep growing in wisdom. Life is complex. To live successfully, we want to master the ways that people think and communicate, the ways that life rocks and rolls, and the general principles that create predictable responses in most situations. We all want to discover discernment for navigating life and obtaining wisdom.
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What would cause someone to be dunked under water while lots of other people watch and cheer? Jesus chose to be baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist, at the beginning of his ministry. We continue following Jesus' example in baptism as well as his command to baptize others. Let's explore the significance of this unusual practice and celebration this weekend.
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New possibilities, new opportunities, and new hope--all rising from new life in Jesus, that is what Easter is all about. Jesus Christ rose up and walked out of a tomb to begin God's new creation work. Together, we join him in this new creation and explore this most significant moment where Jesus rose from the dead. Let's rediscover Jesus as our Living Hope!
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Jesus’ three stories in Matthew 25 pass on his mission to his followers and offer a glimpse of his coming Kingdom. Our task is to live today with growing awareness and confidence in the coming of his kingdom and to bring into our reality the values of that future day. How can we take our next step into faithfully following Jesus today while recognizing all that tomorrow holds for us?
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Salvation is a free, unconditional gift. We receive that gift through faith in the work that God already completed in Jesus Christ—his life, death, and resurrection. This gift can’t be taken away or lost and is all about God’s work for us. The Scriptures also teach that we can receive rewards for our faithfulness with the good gifts and opportunities God gives us in life. These rewards can be won or lost and are conditional—based on our faithfulness and good works. The second story Jesus tells in Matthew 25 encourages us to be faithful stewards of the resources, gifts, and opportunities God entrusts to us. How can we live a life worthy of rich rewards in eternity?
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What does it look like for us to continue Jesus’ mission and faithfully watch for his return? As Jesus faced the end of his life, he also talked about the end of this age (or as we might think of it, the end of the world) and charged his followers to be faithful until the conclusion of history when Jesus returns to establish his kingdom. In the first of three stories Jesus told in Matthew 25, we discover a sense of urgency as our temporary life now connects with eternal life that never ends.
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Jesus must have frequently shocked and sometimes scandalized his original audiences. Today, when we take the time to listen to his words in the Gospels, how could we avoid being surprised? Mark carefully sequenced narratives about Jesus and teaching from Jesus to help us understand what a Jesus-following looks like. As we conclude this portion of teaching through Mark’s Gospel, we come away surprised by Jesus again but also receive insight about responding to the surprises we experience from life with Jesus.
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Following Jesus will lead us into situations that will test our faith. Jesus told us to expect troubles in this world. But trials still catch us by surprise. They can leave us confused. Thankfully, we can trust God in the difficult times because we know they are opportunities for our perseverance, our character, and our hope to grow stronger-if we persist. And in the end, unimaginable glory awaits us!
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On our journey with Jesus, it’s all too easy to focus on the steps we’re taking and lose sight of the one we’re following. When this happens, we’re in danger of constructing a rigid religion instead of enjoying the revolutionary relationship Jesus invites into. Following Jesus liberates us from legalism while giving us the tools to receive His love and grace daily.
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Part of growing up in Jesus means realizing that Jesus is the primary actor in our lives, and we learn to react or respond to what he has done. Through Jesus’ words, healing a paralyzed man, and then partying with sinners—we find Jesus taking bold, unexpected actions that demand a response. This weekend let’s discover how we can respond to Jesus’ bewildering actions.
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Why should we follow Jesus with our lives? One of the big questions Mark tries to answer in his Gospel stories about Jesus is also a question every one of us ask. This weekend we’re exploring a few reasons Jesus is worth following. Along the way, we will also realize that following Jesus isn’t about self-improvement, self-realization, or self-care but involves self-service and sacrifice to expand God’s reign and God’s purposes.
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No choice in life makes a greater difference than our choice to follow Jesus. This one decision influences and casts a new shade on every other decision. Whether you are considering following Jesus with your life or are looking for your next step to follow Jesus, we are wise to consider what Jesus' path really looks like and includes. This weekend, we're finding the first steps to follow Jesus in Mark's Gospel together.
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Worshiping Jesus together radically re-orients our lives around the person of Jesus. When we gather as a church, we experience a unique opportunity to realize and celebrate who God is and what he has done as well as encourage one another to one another to be changed into the people God calls us to become. This weekend, we’re asking God to reveal himself to us and shape us into the individuals and the community that he has made us to be.
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Following Jesus is not a solo journey but is designed to be experienced together. Sometimes the pace and structure of our modern lives seem to work against our ability to build meaningful relationships. However, being part of the body of Christ includes intrinsic connections with God’s people, and we want to create strong relationships so that we can follow Jesus together. Let’s explore some of the benefits we experience by pursuing growth together.
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The writer of Hebrews tells us to motivate each other towards love and good deeds. That is the essence of serving others. God wants us to serve others by loving them and doing good deeds for them. The way Jesus loved people and gave everything for them is our motivation. The people we serve are changed by the love of Jesus, and so are we.
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What does Mt. Arbel have to do with Jesus' life and life in our town right now? One more location important in Jesus' life helps us understand the connection between Jesus' mission and our lives and church. Let's explore how we can be part of Jesus' ongoing mission.
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Joseph took Mary and Jesus into Egypt because Jesus' life was threatened. They joined a Jewish community living in exile before returning home. So much of our life includes a longing for a reality that remains beyond our grasp, a longing for a place where everything fits in its place, where everything is just right--our life could be considered a life in exile. Let's follow the steps of Jesus together to find hope in our exile.
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Our character and perspective is shaped by the people we’ve interacted with and the places we have lived far more than we often realize. It’s surprising to remember how this is also true for Jesus. God chose some surprising and unassuming places to shape the life of his Son. This weekend, we consider the significance of Jesus’ hometown and the meaning behind the title we often use: Jesus of Nazareth.
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In the story of beginnings from Genesis, we see humanity moving away from God in rebellion while God keeps moving closer in his grace toward humanity. To conclude this series, we find God bringing judgment to scatter people as a result of their pride. However, even in judgment God is acting graciously to create a good ending for the human story. How can we trust God with the broken parts of our lives and move away from pride to depend on him?
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In Genesis 6, we see the fascinating record of Noah’s life and the events that illustrate God’s heart towards sin. God speaks to Noah and instructs him to build an ark to save Noah and his family from a great flood. The account of Noah’s life leads us to a new understanding about an unlikely character that shows up in this Old Testament story. Today, we’ll see God’s plan to save more than Noah and his family.
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Genesis reiterates answers to our big questions about life and reality as the book turns from the generations descended from Adam to the events of Noah’s life. In chapters 5 and 6 of Genesis, we are called to remember fundamental realities that shape all life experiences. Through one of the most unusual Bible stories, we can remember the ultimate reality of life and the importance of our decisions.
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Adam and Eve’s family story demonstrates the results of their rebellion against God by causing sin to flourish. However, God determines to overcome human sinfulness with his grace. Through the story of Cain and Abel, we understand more clearly what’s wrong with our world (and ourselves), but we also see how God is making things right again. As we allow God to change us, we can be a part of the change he is making in our world.
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Genesis starts off with an incredible account of thewonderful creation of our planet and the beginningof mankind. God Himself considers the work good. However, quickly into the story we see so much go very wrong. We encounter deceit and betrayal and watch as all humanity chooses independence from their Creator. This is colossal fall of man impacts everything that God had made and Genesis 3 ends with a seemingly hopeless future. Today, we look to God's response to man's failure and look for a new Hope.
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In the story of the beginning of all life from Genesis, what if God is answering a slightly different question than we're asking? In this new series, we want to better understand God, ourselves, and the world we share with God and others. We want to develop our identity and our relationship with the world and with God based on what God has said. Who is God? Who are we? Why does anything exist at all? This weekend, we begin exploring these questions together.
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Life has a way of bringing us to testing points…moments that prove our character, the quality of our relationships, and probe the depths of our faith in our Heavenly Father. In those vulnerable moments, the evil one comes along to trap us and destroy our lives. That is why we are asking our Father lead us away from the test, and that, when we are tested, he rescue us from the evil…
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Who has wounded you so deeply or so recently that you’re having a hard time forgiving? Maybe you know that you’ve mistreated someone and need to ask their forgiveness? Forgiveness is such a vital part of our relationships with God and with other people that Jesus included it in the prayer he taught us to pray. Many have observed that we’re never more like God than when we forgive; maybe that’s why we have such a hard time with it. This weekend at LifePoint, let’s explore how forgiveness is the best gift we can give someone else or to ourselves.
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Have you ever struggled with anxiety for today or worry about your future? What difference would it make if you could actively and daily trust God to meet your needs every moment of every day? Together, we’re learning what it looks like to depend on our God, asking “Give us today our daily bread.”
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What if the biggest change God makes in our world when we pray is the change that he makes in us? This weekend we’re offering up a beautiful but also a daring prayer for God’s will to be done on earth just like it is in heaven. Sometimes we wonder whether everything that happens in life is a result of God’s will, or we struggle between the life we expected and the life we’ve experienced. Maybe part of the point of prayer is not forcing God’s will to match up with mine but shaping my desires to fit what he wants.
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How have you experienced the gap between already and not yet? Already and not yet is that time when you’ve already finished your classes but you haven’t yet had your graduation or you’re already old enough to drive but don’t yet have your license. These are the moments when one reality is already true but you are not yet enjoying the full experience of that reality. How does this idea of already-not yet relate to the truth that Jesus is already the king and how can we be a sign that points toward Jesus’ coming kingdom. That’s what we’re exploring together this weekend at LifePoint.
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What is one thing you would like to change in yourself or in our world? A little bit of change would probably do us all some good, but change can be difficult. Jesus really does change everything, and the way he taught his disciples to create change is a little surprising—it was through prayer. Making this prayer part of your practice can change this world and just might change your life too. Let's take our first step into the Lord's Prayer together.
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What is church and who is it for? This is one of the most significant questions we can consider, and our response will help answer so many other important life questions. At LifePoint we want to influence people to find Jesus and follow Jesus, and we want to be intentional about the steps we take to follow Jesus consistently. This weekend we focus our attention on Jesus' purpose for his church throughout all time and how we can be part of what Jesus is doing at LifePoint right now.
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At LifePoint, we believe that people grow most often by forming Jesus-centered relationships where they are truly known and loved, where they give and receive support, and where they live the truth that they know. Where do these relationships best form? In a small group – we truly are Better Together!
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Just like modest investments can grow over time, our investment into God’s kingdom generates growth and produces eternal dividends. The apostle Paul presented the Macedonian believers as an example of generous giving to the Corinthian church and to us. Let’s explore some of the reasons to grow in generosity together.
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Confronting others concerning biblical/theological compromise is never easy or pleasant. Such encounters must be handled with sensitivity to the needs of others, directed by spiritual wisdom and the Scriptures, and guided by the Holy Spirit. Paul closed chapter two of his letter to the Galatians by telling of his public encounter with Peter, during which Paul boldly confronted Peter concerning his hypocrisy before the church in Antioch.
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On the surface, hearing God and following His commands seems straightforward. However, when God calls us to do something that generates fear in us, finding the courage to obey such a call is overwhelming. Today, we will explore the call God gave to Gideon and see how we can follow Gideon’s courage to obey God.
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Some relationships may imitate friendship, but there’s no substitute for the real thing. Exploring the relationship between David and Jonathan in the Bible, we’ll identify some distinguishing features of friendship that are often overlooked and discover how to infuse our relationships with these essential ingredients.
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Some relationships may imitate friendship, but there’s no substitute for the real thing. Exploring the relationship between David and Jonathan in the Bible, we’ll identify some distinguishing features of friendship that are often overlooked and discover how to infuse our relationships with these essential ingredients.
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Have you ever said the wrong thing at the wrong time or misunderstood what someone else was saying and experienced unfortunate results? Finding just the right word and communicating effectively with another person is one of the most frequent challenges we face. Let’s take a step of growth in the words we choose together!
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Part of being human includes an unwritten set of rules that emphasize earning, winning, and achievement. God calls us to a different way of being—where we are accepted and loved because of who God is and what Jesus has done for us rather than what we can do for him. God’s grace dramatically changes the way we relate to God, others, and even self.
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In every culture there’s a set of ideas or beliefs that many people simply assume to be true. One of these ideas is that there is an intrinsic conflict between science and Christianity. Today we’ll talk about some of the apparent conflict and consider how believers in Christ might benefit from thinking more like a scientist.
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What does the word “invest” mean to you? What does investing in the next generation mean to you? This week we will look at three different ways we invest in the next generation and influence them to find and follow Jesus.
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Many people struggle with the idea that in Christianity God is both a God of love and of justice. They believe that a loving and forgiving God who accepts people into heaven can’t also be a judging and sometimes angry God who sends others to hell. What can we learn from the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man that will help us to move along a heaven-bound trajectory?
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If God is loving and all-powerful, then why is there injustice, suffering, and pain in the world? This question represents one of the most difficult reasons people struggle with belief in God. This week, we’ll compare a secular worldview to what God’s Word says about pain and suffering and the role they play in the Christian’s life.
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Loud and persistent voices attack the trustworthiness and relevance of the Biblical text. At times our quieter, inner voice may raise sincere questions about the Bible’s reliability, but if we can’t depend on the Scriptures then our faith can’t stand. This weekend let’s explore, why it’s reasonable to rely on the witness and the words of the Scriptures.
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Doubt is the presence of uncertainty. This uncertainty can present itself at anytime, for both believers and skeptics alike. The aim for both is to consider their own positions of doubt and consider these beliefs in view of a risen Jesus. Whether a believer or a...
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Receiving forgiveness and experiencing restoration can become pivotal moments that shape our character. Peter received a course correction for life as Jesus gently but powerfully restored their relationship and Peter’s role. Together, we can grow deeper into Jesus’ restoration work in our lives and the implications for how we follow Jesus after being forgiven and set free.
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Failing is a common but disappointing life experience that always seems to catch us by surprise. When our failures are placed into the hand of Jesus, he can use even our shortcomings to fuel our growth. Let’s discover the part failure played in Peter’s life and how we can take positive first steps following failure.
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As God has forgiven us, we are to forgive each other. In the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, Jesus teaches that forgiveness should be in like proportion to the amount forgiven. When someone offends us, we should be willing to forgive him or her from a heart of gratitude for the forgiveness we have received from God.
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Jesus accomplishes his mission through his Church, but our part in a local church can be challenging as well as rewarding. In Matthew 16, we discover part of the foundation for God’s work through his Church and our part in it. How might God be calling you to be part of his mission through LifePoint Church?
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Fear can creep into our lives at any time, especially when our happiness, comfort, or success is threatened. As we’ll see from Peter’s example, following Jesus doesn’t automatically eliminate our fears. However, we can also see how our fears fade into the background each time our attention turns back to Jesus.
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Getting started is often the hardest part of any effort. Fortunately for Peter, when he started to follow Jesus, he found help from his brother. Influencing others to find and follow Jesus is the heart of our mission. Let’s explore the value of introducing other people to Jesus.
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Isn’t it ironic. Through what appears to be a dramatic failure, Jesus achieved victory over every power raised against him. Through experiencing death, Jesus provides life for all who trust in him. As we explore Jesus’ crucifixion from Mark 15, let’s remember the victory Jesus offers us through his cross.
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What does faithfulness look like in the face of our temptations and weakness? Along with Jesus’ disciples, we can learn and grow in faithfulness as we follow Jesus to the last supper and into prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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As Jesus prepared for the cross, an unnamed woman responded to Jesus with faith in a unique way. She understood truth about Jesus that eluded other disciples and gave Jesus an extravagant gift. Let’s remember how her example teaches us to follow the Lord with faith and sacrifice.
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Throughout His time on earth, Jesus’ disciples asked Him many of the same questions that we find ourselves wrestling with today. Instead of giving a direct and clear response to their questions, Jesus focused more on the heart and attitude of His followers. His instruction and encouragement can impact the way that we live through uncertain times.
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Jesus’ response to questions about two of life’s certainties – death and taxes – redirect our attention to timeless truth. Remembering the source and owner of all the parts of our life radically changes our perspectives. How are we challenged today when we remember where and how God has placed his stamp of authority?
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While Jesus entered conflict with religious leaders over his authority, he also revealed significant truth about his mission, God’s good gifts, and our responsibilities. What can Jesus’ teaching, storytelling, and confrontation with religious authorities teach us about God’s ownership, our stewardship, and Jesus’ friendship?
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Jesus approaches Jerusalem with a loud celebration, but when he enters the Temple courts no one seems to notice. Jesus’ triumphal parade into Jerusalem, a withered fig tree, and Jesus’ clearing out commerce from a Temple courtyard—what does all of this teach about Jesus’ identity and mission? How could our response to Jesus be shaped by these events?
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Even in the darker passages of our life, God is always present, he is always good, his love is always faithful. Ruth’s story ends on a different note than the beginner of her story and foreshadows great things to come. As Ruth’s story concludes, how could you reflect on God’s work and faithfulness throughout your life and consider where he might be leading you now?
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Life happens. Naomi returns home bitter following the deaths of her husband and sons. Ruth tries to make ends meet as a widow and a foreigner. Boaz uses his influence to be a blessing. Chapters 2 and 3 of Ruth show us how our natural efforts to care for others are guided by the supernatural hand of God.
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Because of Israel’s repeated unfaithfulness to God throughout the Old Testament, we might expect to find a revenge story revealing God’s anger and punishment. Instead, in the book of Ruth, we find a story of God’s unfailing love. Throughout Ruth’s story, God continues to remain loyal and He displays His love in unexpected ways.
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Loving God completely influences us to love other people. Loving other people sounds like a good idea but can become difficult and complicated. What does it look like when we love other people extravagantly?
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When we love each other, life certainly changes for the better. But, loving people and receiving love from others can be complicated and risky. This essential quality is what Jesus identified as a distinguishing marker of our identity in him. What would LifePoint church look like and feel like if we continued growing to love each other unselfishly?
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Jesus calls us to be a unique people in his church. When our character is shaped by God’s love for us, our lives will become shaped by our love for God and for others. We take our first step to discovering how “We” is greater than “Me” by loving God.
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All of our new beginnings grow from a previous ending. As we close the books on 2022 and write the first lines of our story in a new year, let’s consider one essential question to guide our thoughts and actions.
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Joseph must have been crushed when he learned his fiancée was pregnant (and he was not the father). Reassured that Mary was miraculously pregnant and that her baby would fulfill God’s promise to save people from their sins, Joseph’s story demonstrates how God’s love guides us in making decisions for His glory.
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God’s people waited hopefully over centuries for God to send their promised Messiah. Finally, a young woman named Mary, responded with faith to an angel’s surprising announcement that God was fulfilling his promise through her. Hope is a sometimes overlooked but essential quality for a life of faith. How is Jesus calling you to hope?
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The past serves as an enduring reminder of God’s faithfulness. And God’s wonders of old are worth celebrating. But live in the past too comfortably and you’ll run the risk of missing the experience and excitement of God’s future blessings. When God’s glory is always tied only to the glory days of the past, we’re blind to a simple but profound truth: God is a God of new things. He is always making and remaking for His glory and our good.
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David recalled his painful challenges as well as remembered God’s faithfulness. God often uses gratitude to ignite life change for us and encourage faith in him. How can we develop a discipline of gratitude to change our perspective on life?
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Throughout the Bible, God tells people to remember. Maybe because we so easily forget. And there’s nothing better to call to mind than God’s faithfulness. His enduring faithfulness has been at work in the family of LifePoint Church for over 35 years. He has proven Himself over and over again. No wonder God tells us to remember. Reflecting on the past can help shape us into people filled with awe and gratitude for God’s goodness and presence among us.
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Throughout the Bible, God tells people to remember. Maybe because we so easily forget. And there’s nothing better to call to mind than God’s faithfulness. His enduring faithfulness has been at work in the family of LifePoint Church for over 35 years. He has proven Himself over and over again. No wonder God tells us to remember. Reflecting on the past can help shape us into people filled with awe and gratitude for God’s goodness and presence among us.
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Contentment is one of those difficult to define qualities that’s even more challenging to actually put into practice. Whether you are very aware of your discontent or feel mostly contented right now, all of us have room to grow in this part of our character. How can we live a contented life?
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What would it look like for you to stand strong in your life right now? At different times in life, internal and external pressures can force us to lose our footing and direction. As we near the conclusion of the letter to the Philippians, we find encouragement to stand firm. Together, let’s discover some key actions that will help us maintain stability no matter what life throws at us.
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It’s not uncommon to find people who begin to pursue Christ with unbridled enthusiasm only to see them falter when life gets hard. A believer who pursues Christ must do so with a Spirit-empowered perspective. Paul had a deep desire to know Jesus more and more. And he wanted his life to count. That’s why he pressed on to win the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He knew the value of godly examples and reminded himself and others of a heavenly citizenship soon to be fully experienced.
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So many factors conspire against our living in a way that pleases God. We not only deal with our inner struggles, but we must also face people who sound well-intentioned but oppose the ways of God. We can unwittingly embrace a conspiracy of confidence in our lives—trusting our accomplishments to validate our worth. This kind of confidence can move us away from the sufficiency of Jesus and ultimately contribute to a wasted life.
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As followers of Jesus we are able to share with one another the rewards and joys of our faith as well as its demands and sorrows. In doing so, we come to experience the love and comfort of belonging to a community of believers that is as concerned for us as we are for ourselves. Paul’s desire and plans to unite Timothy and Epaphroditus with the Philippian church remind us of the joy that can be experienced by all who are connected with a Christian community.
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Christian growth is complex but simple. God does His part, we do ours. Put another way, God invites us into a cooperative work with Him. And part of that process involves how we treat each other. It really does matter. Our attitude toward each other often speaks louder than our words—especially before a watching world. And no matter our circumstances, we have reasons to rejoice!
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Have you ever had a moment when you thought, “Now, I’m really living!”? Maybe that feeling came with a thrilling moment, significant achievement, or meaningful experience. All of us want to experience that good life, but those feelings of “really living” seem to fade over time. This week, we’re remembering that life with Jesus allows us to really live. But, what does life with Jesus look like? The first eleven verses of Philippians chapter 2 teach us about the Jesus-centered life.
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Experiencing hardships is a normal part of life that can cause us to focus on negative feelings and anxiously anticipate negative outcomes. Being courageous followers of Jesus Christ doesn’t exempt us from these experiences and may, in fact, be the cause of them and our subsequent responses. During a difficult time in his life, Paul rejoices and models for us how having a Christ-centered perspective will help us to maintain a positive attitude and anticipate positive outcomes while having a positive influence on others.
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Like the lens of our eyes (or eyeglasses), we all carry around internal thoughts, feelings, and ideas composing core beliefs that filter our everyday experiences and help us make sense of life. As the Apostle Paul writes a “thank-you” note to the church at Philippi that overflows with joy, he begins by providing insight into his core principles that help him understand life. What type of lens do you use to interpret life? Let’s take our first step to finding joy together by looking at life through the lens of Philippians 1:1-14.
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We have countless stories of God’s faithfulness to our church over the last three decades, but we believe He’s just getting started. This morning, Joe Duke sits down with Titus O’Bryant in his first weekend as our new Sr. Pastor. Get to know Titus better as we move into an exciting future of continuing to influence people to find and follow Jesus.
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Too often we look for God in the extraordinary when all the while, He makes His home in the ordinary. God is not that hard to find, especially if we’re looking for Him. Maybe we can get our lives back by inviting Jesus into our everyday routine of life. Pay close attention to your heart. Then include God as a normal part of your life. What barometers do you have in place to help you monitor your progress with God and alert you when you’re close to veering off the path? You have one life. Get your life back. Then live it well!
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Does it ever feel like you’re just going through the motions in your faith? You go to church, pray, read the Bible, but you don’t feel a deep connection with God. Instead, you feel a nagging absence as if He’s hiding away somewhere. The good news is God is closer than you think. He may even be right in front you, just waiting for you to notice.
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Faith is far more than a feeling. Just because we don’t feel the presence of God doesn’t mean He isn’t there. We are often misled by our emotions, feelings, and circumstances. But choosing to believe in the power and presence of God is a choice. We must make that choice every single day. And each time we actively make that choice, it becomes easier the next time.
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Time for us travels in only one direction, such that once a moment is past it’s gone forever. While this helps us deal with life’s challenges (“time heals all wounds”) we can also experience a strong sense of loss and even grief as we pass through the joyous times of life. Lest we despair, God has given us “a future and a hope” (Jer 29:11), He’s given us the gift of memory. We’ll talk about our tendency to forget, both the good and the bad, and why God so often commanded the Israelites to “remember” in the Old testament. We’ll explore how memories can make a positive difference in our lives and bring us closer to Him.
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One of the age old practices in our culture is that of presenting who we are as our vocation. We present our occupation title as a means to inform our new acquaintance of our function. In essence, we unknowingly begin to associate our vocations or contribution to society, as our worth. This may seem small, but in practice we often neglect places in our soul by living from these self-sustained versions of ourselves instead of our true selves in Christ. In today’s message, we will work to discover the places in our soul that we have chosen to cover up and see God’s call to uncover those places. Eldredge notes that “there’s an enormous difference between relief and restoration.” Our hope is to choose a new path towards reunion with our true identity and God.
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Over time, almost imperceptibly, we can get stuck in the trance of constructing our role in the world, building our identity, and completely miss what God is doing around us. We can spend a lot of time and energy protecting this Self we’ve created at all costs. As counterintuitive as it may seem, it’s when we surrender this Self that we get what we were trying to build all along: our life.
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The twists and turns of life can sometimes feel like an assault on our confidence that God is good. Doubts can begin to surface, directing our attention away from God and negatively impacting our relationships with Jesus Christ and others. In these instances, we must actively and intentionally engage our hearts in loving the One who first loved us and surrendering to His will. In loving and surrendering to God, we are able to receive Him. As we receive Him, we realize again how wonderful and loving God truly is.
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Doesn’t it seem like the space between “what was” and “what’s next” makes us uncomfortable? Maybe that’s the reason we fill every empty or quiet moment with noise and activity—a glance at our phone between conversations, checking email between appointments, aimless activity between major life changes. The in-between quiet spaces of life create disquiet in us. However, our transition moments (the big and small ones) can become a place where we discover the presence of God in our lives. How could you create space in your transitions for God to shape your soul?
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Here’s a disturbing reality: we spend most of our lives indoors. We were meant for more than a plastic world with artificial light and re-breathed air. God can be found anywhere. But something special happens when we encounter God outside. Nature has the power to calm and quiet us. There is something restorative about an encounter with God under a canopy of stars or by the crashing waves of an ocean. He seems easily accessible from the mountain vista or in the still, dark forest. Get outside. It will help you get your life back!
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There is often enormous pressure to keep up with the non-stop noise and activity of our modern world. Jesus offers us an alternative to this frantic pace but following Him and resisting the pressure around us will require a simple act: kindness toward ourselves.
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Our immediate access to people and information through the use of technology has become a prevailing cultural norm. What has become the normal daily consumption of input can have a numbing effect on our soul and lead to our faith gradually growing thinner and thinner through neglect. Finding more of God and growing in our faith requires creating space for Him. Simple, intentional unplugging creates this space for us to experience the life-giving power of God while strengthening our ability to resist conforming to a pattern of constant attention-grabbing distractions.
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God paints on a large canvas. His creativity is seen in the grandeur of the mountains, in the wildflowers on a rolling hillside, in classic masterpieces in an art gallery, or in the curious expression on the face of a child. Beauty is all around us. But seeing it means that we look up from our cell phones long enough to notice God’s intentional design. God’s brushstrokes of beauty are everywhere. Is it any wonder that God, Himself is called beautiful? Maybe it’s time to get your life back by drinking deeply of the beauty that should never be ignored.
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So much about the pace of life conspires against us. We might even be convinced that the faster we go and the busier we become, the more we’ll get done. But what does that kind of toxicity do to our souls? Could it be that God invites us to find Him through a different rhythm? What would happen if we built pauses into our day—benevolent detachment from the siren call of the fast and furious. Maybe God is not waiting for us to catch up; instead, maybe He’s waiting for us to slow down.
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Resilience is such a powerful concept. Some of our greatest heroes and inspirational characters in stories are defined as people of resilience. But what does it look like to have a resilient faith? Spoiler alert… it doesn’t mean that things are always going to go according to plan. We will discover how we can build resilience and find joy regardless of the circumstance.
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When we fail to listen to God, it’s a hearing problem for us not a speaking problem for God. Most notably, God has spoken in His Son Jesus. In the fifth and final warning in the book of Hebrews, the author warns us that it’s a mistake to turn away from God and ignore what He is saying to us. As with the Israelites, the loss for the stubborn believer is real. And faithful listening and enduring is rewarded in the kingdom to come.
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Even Christians can behave badly. And the Bible acknowledges that a believer can walk away from Jesus all together. To treat God with this kind of contempt is a terrible act of defiance. In the fourth of five warnings in the book of Hebrews, the author tells us about the dangers of willful sin and the consequences we can expect. We must diligently seek to draw near to God to prevent our turning away.
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Salvation is guaranteed the moment one believes Jesus for it. But becoming a Christian never guarantees that we’ll live like one. Spiritual maturity is not automatic. It requires diligent engagement with Jesus if we hope to change and grow. In the third of five warnings in Hebrews, the author reminds us that if we fail to mature and if we loosen our grip on Jesus, it’s only a matter of time before we fall away. And falling away leaves us in a precarious position in our relationship with God.
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Even Christians can be people of unbelief. Given tempting circumstances, we might cave under pressure and cease to follow God wholeheartedly. This certainly was the case with the children of Israel who took a major detour of unbelief while on their journey to the land promised to them by God. Similarly, there is an inheritance that awaits the faithful Christian. God refers to this inheritance as rest, and it’s not the same as going to heaven. Our salvation is secure. But in this second of five warnings in Hebrews, we discover that unbelief can sabotage the future inheritance that could be ours.
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Like other people, there’s a chance you have entertained thoughts about returning to an easier, more comfortable way of life—one that pushes God aside. When the pressure is on, even Christians can become disillusioned with following Jesus. The book of Hebrews is written to warn believers not to drift away from Jesus. The possibility is real. The consequences are enormous. It would be foolish to ignore this first of five warnings in Hebrews: “Pay careful attention.”
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Easter is the celebration of all celebrations! Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death and is raised to life. The resurrection of Jesus is not some legend that has been passed down through the ages meant to give us an excuse for another holiday. In Easter we see the bedrock of our hope—the event on which we base our faith and future. Put your faith in Jesus and because He lives, you too will live forever!
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We are accountable for the words we choose to use. As believers who have put off the old self and put on the new self, we have to make a conscious effort to move from using corrupting words to using encouraging words. Although we have lots of words and scriptures to choose from, specifically choosing words that are meaningful and appropriate to the listener’s situation will aid in building others up according to their specific needs.
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There’s a tension we may experience between truth and love: telling someone the truth doesn’t always seem loving, and sometimes loving people can feel as though it comes at the expense of telling the truth. It’s easy to embrace one while neglecting the other. Yet, Jesus navigates this tension masterfully. Following His example, we can learn to speak the truth in love to a world that desperately needs both truth and love.
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Most of us are desperate for hope—especially words of hope spoken to us by others. Hearing the right words can completely change our course in difficult or terrible circumstances. And here’s the thing about words of hope; they’re contagious. What if our eyes and attention were so focused on Jesus and His kingdom that our perspective about everything allowed us the freedom to encourage those around us at all times? Today, we will discover the ability and faith to choose where our hope comes from and what it means for us to speak encouraging words of hope to those who need to hear them.
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Words have power. Power to build up or power to destroy. Armed with any other weapon as strong as words, you might be required to be trained and certified. That’s not a bad idea. God’s word is filled with instructions about how to skillfully speak life into others while avoiding the destructive consequences of harmful speech. No wonder God says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
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We live in a world that is more connected than ever before. This is something to be excited about, right? But what if the connection we are experiencing isn’t what God intended? What if we’ve been chasing something that isn’t what it seems to be? God offers us a connection that is lasting and meaningful.
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Some of the secrets God keeps are meant to be revealed but only to His friends. And one secret, in particular, is meant for you and you alone. It’s an individual secret revealed to each overcomer—one who faithfully lives for Jesus. A secret prepared by God. A secret especially for you. The anticipation of this special secret can serve to motivate us to live in a way that pleases God now as we share this secret with Him for all eternity.
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Sometimes God keeps secrets and sometimes He likes to reveal them. Regardless of the outcome, one thing is always true: God’s thoughts and ways are bigger and higher than our own. And He has a right to keep or disclose secrets as He chooses. But can we get to a place in our relationship with God where He generously shares His secrets with us? Is it possible that there is a secret to learning God’s secrets? Turns out, there is.
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Can you keep a secret? Maybe you can or maybe not. Secrets are mysterious, hidden, and concealed sometimes for good reason. But sometimes secrets are meant to eventually be revealed. Do you think God keeps secrets? Of course, He does. Some of God’s secrets we will never know even when we’re with Him forever. But some of God’s secrets we can discover now. But He doesn’t reveal them cheaply.
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From childhood, most of us have learned to love games. The excitement, the cheering, even the competition create a rush of adrenalin that’s hard to find anywhere else. And on the playing field of life—even life with God—we can find excitement too. But living your life for God and with God is not a game. The stakes are high. The consequences are enormous. And the outcome is anything but trivial. No wonder God invites us to pay the price of giving up our lives so we can find real life.
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Growing in Christian community is sometimes reduced to our gathering together in worship services and attending other congregational activities and events. While community growth can certainly occur in these venues, it is much more than that. Meaningful, life-changing community is also found in small groups that complement/enhance the work of the larger church body while also growing and equipping us individually to become Christ-like influencers.
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We’re commanded, over and over again in the Bible, to meditate on God’s word. So it makes sense that when the “Reveal” study surveyed thousands of Christians the behavior found to be most important for growing in Christ was “reflection on scripture” or meditation. Yet for many of us, meditation on scripture is a foreign concept. Today we’ll talk about how and why meditation can help us grow, and how we can begin to do this ourselves.
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Our muscles grow stronger when we repeatedly push against a weight or force. Similarly, as followers of Jesus, we can grow spiritually stronger when we encounter resistance. Today, we’ll identify the three primary forces that push against us on our path towards spiritual growth and, more importantly, how we push back.
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While salvation is instantaneous, spiritual maturity involves a process. It’s one filled with twists and turns and failures and successes. And each stage of our growth requires an awareness of whether we’re a spiritual baby, a young person in the faith or a mature believer. God desires believers to grow. That requires diligent cooperation on our part to grow through all the stages of spiritual development. No matter where you are now, the goal is to grow up.
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Change is part of life. And we can change for good or change for the not-so-good. In the language of the Bible, changing for good is called growth. It’s normal for living things to grow—under one condition—if they’re nourished. In other words, growth doesn’t happen when we do nothing. Growth is the result of cooperating with God as He works in our lives. Ultimately, He makes things grow. God repeats this urgent message throughout the Bible: It’s time for us to grow up!
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We might define success by using external qualities like the amount of money someone accumulates or the amount of fame they achieve. However, in the Bible, we find a successful life is defined by our character – our disposition towards qualities like love and generosity. With that definition of success in mind, the book of Proverbs provides timeless wisdom on our quest to become people of character.
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We’ve just come through a time of gift-giving and joy. Of course, the most significant gift of all was God’s gift of Jesus to the world. We find this profound truth simply stated in what might be the most famous of all Bible verses: John 3:16. Maybe this verse is so popular because it so simply explains God’s loving plan. God loved and gave!
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Hope. It’s so easy to lose but so generously available. We need hope. In a world where uncertainty and disillusionment are mixed into the air we breathe, we need a fresh perspective. For centuries people hoped for the coming Messiah—Jesus, the Savior of the world. He came. Hope fulfilled. But even today, hopelessness abounds. Maybe this Christmas, what you need more than anything is renewed hope about who Jesus is and what He can do in your life.
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God’s plan for humanity is grand in scope and scale! It also seems at least mildly absurd. The all-powerful God of all creation enters the world as a helpless baby. And his final days on earth are spent in humiliation and suffering—becoming sin for a sinful human race. It’s a story that goes from cradle to cross. A story that includes both Christmas and Easter. And a story that includes you.
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A right relationship with Jesus Christ manifests itself not in some extraordinary otherworldliness, but in and through our Christ-like conduct and loving human relationships in this world. It is in our conduct and relationships that we are most in need of experiencing, expressing, and exemplifying the reality of God’s grace in the ordinary, everyday interaction we have with believers and unbelievers.
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We may have several roles we play in society: as a spouse, a parent, or a co-worker, to name a few. At the same time, there are cultural standards for what it means to be “good” at the various roles we find ourselves in. But these cultural standards are sometimes in conflict with who we are in Jesus. So, how do we navigate cultural pressure to “fit-in” while remaining authentic to the person Jesus is transforming us into?
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Practical Christian living is built on the foundation of theological truth. Because we know that Jesus was raised from the dead, our identification with Him becomes real. This should lead us to see things from God’s perspective and to put His priorities for us into the daily practice of putting to death our old life and living a new life in Jesus Christ.
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Compromise is everywhere. It’s a potential pitfall even for the most well-intentioned Christian. No wonder Paul reminds the Colossians to remember who they are in Christ. Affirming the life-changing benefits of a relationship with Jesus means we’re alert to even deceptive religious-sounding ideas—ideas and practices that constrict a believer’s freedom in Christ and replace it with legalism.
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As we survey our current surroundings, we find a wealth of perspectives on “how the world works.” Which of these ideas we embrace will determine how we act and behave. The same was true in Colossians when Paul warned against “fine-sounding arguments” or “hollow and deceptive philosophy.” These cautions, and Paul’s commands regarding them, have as much relevance for us today as they did when Paul originally wrote them.
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Through Jesus, all things are reconciled to God. That doesn’t mean that all will be saved but that all are now savable. A believer who continually pursues Christ will grow and move toward maturity in Him. But some believers who ignore their need to mature will remain stagnant and immature. Paul’s passion is one we can embrace too: to see every believer presented as mature before Jesus.
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It all points to Jesus. But for centuries Jesus has been a flashpoint for controversy. Some recognize Him for who He is while others reject Him outright. No single book of the Bible elevates and explains the person of Jesus quite like the Book of Colossians. And in this first section of the book, we’re reminded that Jesus is the point. He is our great and awesome God and the focal point of all creation.
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Every day we all work to control our many appetites. In fact, one could argue that our daily activities as humans are predominately about managing our appetites. Our ambition, drive, and desires all determine our daily decisions for work, rest, and play. What happens when any single appetite is left to itself without being controlled? What’s at stake if we don’t control our appetites? Today, we will take a look at what’s at stake, and to be blunt…it’s probably bigger than we think.
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It’s one thing for you to evaluate your own spiritual progress. It’s another thing altogether to have Jesus give His critique of how you’re doing. Sometimes the truth hurts. If Jesus were to write a letter to you about what He thinks of your devotion to Him, what would He say? And since you’re more than an individual—you’re part of a church—what would He say to you and to the rest of us? Would He praise us or express His displeasure? Or both? What would Jesus say to the church called LifePoint?
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Despite our romanticism about the early church, they had their fair share of problems – favoritism, theological arguments, and divisions (to name a few). Yet there remained a vision of an abundant church – full of energy, unity, and life. While the church today navigates its own problems, how do we make the vision of an abundant church a reality?
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A believer's identity is in Christ. In Him we find true life, meaning, and purpose. Yet, it is common for believers to take their eyes off of Jesus and begin substituting other things in His place. We look for other ways to identify ourselves often choosing how we want to be identified: achievements, titles, politics, gender, race, addictions, disabilities, etc. Sometimes pronouncements are made to us or about us that become our identities: “You’re so beautiful...You’re so good at that...OR...You’re a failure...You’ll never amount to anything...You’re worthless.” The truth is that God sees all believers as His sons and daughters, uniquely gifted parts of the Body of Christ. He has redeemed us and loves us. Any other identity is a counterfeit and falls short.
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It shouldn’t surprise us that through the centuries, superstitions arise and thrive even among well-meaning church people. Most of these superstitions are based on a desire for a kind of good luck charm in a life filled with uncertainty and hardship. Even the practice of baptism can be surrounded by all kinds of superstitions. If baptism doesn’t save us, what then is it for? Baptism is a way for a believer in Jesus to say, “Count me in! I want people to know that I identify with Jesus.” Maybe it’s time for all of us to engage with God in a fresh way as we identify with Jesus and the family called the Church.
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It is great to gather as the church. But we are also told by Jesus to “go” as the church, sharing God’s word with others and making them disciples. Fulfilling the Great Commission is not an option or a suggestion. It is a command to each of us as believers to actively and intentionally seek opportunities to influence people to find and follow Jesus.
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While God never changes in His nature, He does change the way He works with human beings. Jesus announced a significant change when He held up a cup and identified it with His blood that would establish a new covenant. After being raised from the dead, Jesus told His disciples to wait for the promised Holy Spirit. They waited and the Spirit came! The Church was born. That day, God began working in a brand-new way. And to this day, we are participants together with God as He works uniquely among us.
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The church can be described as a body, a family, an army. It’s a movement of influence—one that seeks to bring glory to God and point people toward the Savior. On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, He initiated the movement with a meal. He chose food and drink as a picture of His body that would be broken and His blood that would be shed. Through the simple act of eating a meal, the movement called the church is to be reminded of what Christ accomplished on the cross.
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Many people say that kids and students are the church of tomorrow but that statement could not be further from the truth. They are the church of today. There is so much hope and promise in the younger generation. Throughout the summer, we have talked about how to be spiritually healthy as a church. One of the best ways that we can remain spiritually healthy as a church is to embrace this amazing vision of family ministry. We’ll discuss how all of us can do that no matter where we are in life.
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It might seem natural to equate spiritual health with an absence of weakness and vulnerability. Maybe it’s exactly the opposite. Sometimes power and strength are found where we least expect them. Could it be that running from weakness is actually a weakness? We become spiritually healthy when we see the value of humility, weakness, and vulnerability—all-powerful responses when combined with trust in God. When it comes to strength, God’s ways can seem upside down.
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If we said we had a personal relationship with another person, we’d all assume, at the very least, some degree of regular, back-and-forth conversation. So how does a “personal relationship with God” work? We talk to God through prayer, but how does God talk back to us? Of course He uses the Bible, which provides general information, but to say we have a personal relationship, there must be more and deeper conversation, where we “hear” God’s words, not just in general, but specifically for us. We’ll discuss how this works and how to move in that direction if you’ve not experienced this intimate level of communication with God.
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God has gifted each of us to contribute to the spiritual well-being of the body of Christ. Being good stewards of our gifts means using them to impact the lives of others. Loving one another, serving one another, accepting one another, and encouraging one another are some of the ways we can use our gifts and experiences to grow strong and find fulfillment in the Lord individually while promoting the caring nature of the Christian community and contributing to our spiritual health.
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Our past marks us. Those experiences go into making us the people we are. But some of those experiences we would rather forget. Guilt, shame, and regret can carve deep gashes in our souls—permanent reminders of another life we would prefer to leave behind. But God reminds us that He can free us from the unwanted narrative of past failures and sins. Through Christ, freedom is real and rewarding. And it’s possible for all who follow Him.
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Following Jesus on the path towards spiritual health sometimes leads us up mountaintops. Here, God’s presence is a tangible experience, and activities like prayer, scripture reading, and worship are fulfilling. However, as we continue to follow Jesus, we will inevitably be confronted with His crucifixion on the hill called Cavalry. This may seem like a place that leads to spiritual death, not life. Yet, as we follow Jesus up this hill, we will uncover a level of spiritual health we can’t find anywhere else.
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Spiritual health is impossible apart from discipleship. We can hardly say that, as Christians, we are spiritually healthy if we are not following the way of Jesus. The question is how do we follow Jesus in a healthy way? It is very easy for discipleship to become about “Do’s” and “Don’ts” and a list of rules. These things look like discipleship but fail to produce real-life and joy within us. This week we’ll look at some of what Jesus had to say about how to follow Him well.
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Getting to know God ranks high on the list of life’s most meaningful quests. God has revealed Himself to us. He is knowable. And we can grow to know Him in deeper and deeper ways. But our knowledge of God is always connected to the knowledge of ourselves. As we get to know God, we get to know ourselves. It’s impossible to learn about God in a vacuum. We naturally see ourselves more profoundly as we journey to discover more about God.
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We live in an age of information overload, and the amount of information increases every day. Yet the most important information ever written is contained in one book–the Bible. The words in the Bible, God’s words, give us life–spiritual life, eternal life. Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” To be spiritually healthy, we require the nourishment that comes from God’s Word.
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When opportunities arise and we are thrust into the spotlight, we have a choice to make. We can choose to camouflage our convictions to match our surrounding culture, or we can stand true to the people God calls us to be. Today’s sermon will awaken us to the reality that God may be leading us into these so-called opportunities. We’ll learn they may not always be a positive experience and could even lead us into danger. As we discover the fire of obedience we will ponder the potential challenges we could face and ways to remain obedient in spite of them.
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One-third of our lives are spent at work. When you consider errands, chores, hobbies, or raising children, the percentage of our lives we spend working can be significantly higher than 30 percent. Considering how much time we spend working, is there a connection between our work and our spiritual health? This week, we’ll discuss how work is more than something we do to pass the time here on earth, it’s one of the ways we live with God as His image-bearers.
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To be spiritually healthy is to be thriving in your desire to pursue Jesus and walking in the strength of the Holy Spirit. But spiritual health is tricky. We might be so obsessed with looking good outwardly that we fail to pay attention to what’s going on inside us. No wonder Jesus addressed the outwardly religious of His day with a scathing indictment. “Hypocrites,” He said. It’s not enough to just play the part outwardly. Spiritual health works from the inside out.
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Finding the will of God is both a mystery and an adventure. Certainly, we would be short-sighted if we didn’t curiously and diligently pursue the path God wants us to walk. If Jesus is our Lord, it makes sense for us to do what He wants us to do. Can we know what He wants us to do? If so, how specific can we expect His direction to be? And how much freedom has God given us to make decisions that have consequences for good or bad?
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Saying that Jesus is Lord, implies surrendering to His will over ours. No matter how you frame it, surrender is frightening. When we surrender, we are vulnerable. When we surrender someone else determines our path and can take us where we do not want to go. Jesus gives us no guarantee that, if we surrender our lives to Him, we’ll only be led to pleasant places. In fact, He promises us just the opposite, following Him will lead to trouble and hardship. The Bible is filled with examples of men and women who were led into places of pain and difficulty – places they did not want to go. Yet, Jesus also promises that following Him is the way of abundant life. How can life be abundant if we are led where we do not want to go?
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Temptation is real. And so is the danger of making sinful choices that displease the Lord of our lives. Fortunately for our sakes, others before us have made unfortunate choices that we can learn from. While the Bible is filled with examples of success, it is just as often filled with examples of failure. Pay attention, God says. Be alert to that which causes you to fall and draws you away from living faithfully for Him.
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When you think of the word authority, what comes to mind? You might think of someone who used their authority to control or manipulate you. If that’s the case, the word authority may cause a negative reaction. But as Jesus used the authority given to him by God the Father, he completely flips our ideas about authority upside down. This week, we’ll discover the life-giving authority of Jesus Christ.
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If we grudgingly view Christ’s lordship in our lives as a threat to our freedom, we don’t understand the real freedom we’ve been given through Him. Jesus has come to make us new, literally! Through the new birth, we’ve been given a new nature and the cord to sin and death has been severed. Right standing with God should motivate us to right living. The best way to live life is as one who surrenders continually to our Lord Jesus Christ.
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The glory of God can seem like a confusing idea. The Bible makes a big deal of it, even making it a matter of life and death. But we tend not to think about it very much. What exactly is God’s glory? What if understanding and seeking God’s glory dramatically change our lives? How would our lives look if we were living for His glory? God wants to show us that His glory is for our good. In this message, we’ll explore the idea of the glory of God, and we’ll see how submitting to His authority brings Him glory and brings us great joy.
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No one makes Christ Lord; He is Lord. So, it goes without saying that His lordship extends over the life of every person. Whether or not we acknowledge His lordship is another matter altogether. The price paid for the sins of all was a high price indeed—the death of Christ. To be bought by Christ is both a reminder of His great love and His invitation to live a life fully surrendered to Him.
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Every person in every church and every pastor should never forget a singular, irreplaceable truth: Jesus is the head of the church. Jesus is first in everything. Get that priority confused and you invite the disintegration of what’s most important usually replaced by a pull toward self-importance. As the head of the church, Jesus has promised to build His church. And He invites us to invest our lives together in a cause much bigger than our individual obsessions.
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No other event is more central to our finding and following Jesus than His resurrection. Without it, the Christian faith is just wishful thinking. But if Christ is raised from the dead, that changes everything. Because Jesus lives so can you! You can be raised to a new life while you’re still alive. And you can expectantly await your literal resurrection in the life to come.
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God is gracious and that is a very good thing, and, normally, we consider it a good thing. But what happens when God shows His grace to those who have hurt us or others? All of a sudden we’re not so certain anymore. When God gives grace to the undeserving it raises hard questions in our minds and hard feelings in our hearts. This is exactly where we find Jonah in the final chapter of his story. Jonah’s encounter with God is an invitation for us to ask these same questions and to reconsider the vastness of God’s love and grace.
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We tend to get frustrated when things don’t go our way. And if we’re honest, sometimes our frustration is tied to our stubbornness. But what if God uses tough circumstances to get our attention for a reason? What if He wants to give us a second chance to overcome our stubbornness and follow Him? In this message, we’ll see how God always accomplishes His purposes, even when we resist, and even when we don’t understand.
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Jonah is in an unbelievable situation, living three days and three nights in the belly of a giant fish. After Jonah disobeyed and ran away from God, it’s almost equally unbelievable that God would still pursue, rescue, and protect Jonah. The story of Jonah is a powerful reminder that God continues to show steadfast love, even towards His enemies. Today, we continue to take comfort knowing we don’t depend on ourselves for salvation because, as Jonah proclaims, salvation belongs to the Lord!
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You may not be a prophet like Jonah, but there are times when God wants you to do something you should not ignore. You can respond in obedience. Or you can run. Running from God is never a very good option. You may not get swallowed by a giant fish, but you will be exposed to the intense pressure of the loving discipline of God. To run from God is to head down a path that leads to pain and regret. Better to listen the first time than to spend your life on the run.
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There are some songs of the heart that we might rather not sing out loud. They express thoughts and feelings that are brutal and dark – feelings we’d rather others not know we feel. There are Song of the Heart in the Bible that curse others or invoke evil and they raise many questions. How could these be songs of the heart? How can such dark and ugly sentiments be in scripture? What can these darker songs of the heart teach us about God and ourselves?
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Ever felt like God was far away, uninterested, or worse yet, that He had abandoned you? You’re not alone. In Psalm 13, David expresses the raw emotion of wondering where God is when he needs Him the most. Far from being unspiritual, cries of lament create a dialogue of honesty with God that actually moves us closer to Him. God never wants us to fake it. Whether we feel God’s presence or not, we can, through faith, find Him even in our deepest disappointments.
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It seems like we spend a lot of our time searching. We chase money, relationships, fame, and plenty of other things, hoping that some of it will deliver a sense of goodness, security, and joy. But those searches ultimately leave us wanting. We tend to forget that unless our chase is focused on God, we’re looking in the wrong place. In this message, we’ll see how God’s presence is exactly what provides His people with true confidence and delight.
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God invites us to authentically express what we’re feeling when we ponder life’s realities. Many of these expressions are recorded for us in the Psalms—the songbook of the Bible. Psalm 8 is a Psalm of praise. In it, David encourages us to instinctively look up and notice that God’s glory is on display in creation. This reflection on God and His glory can also prompt us to consider ourselves. God has turned His attention toward us as creatures who are created in His own image.
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Money can activate either greed or generosity within us. When God urges us to share our financial resources for the good of others, He doesn’t do so by appealing to guilt or obligation. God tells us that we can invest in things that really matter by sharing the money that’s been entrusted to us. It’s an investment that pays dividends. If we give, we’ll reap a harvest of blessing. When you become a person who gives generously, you are becoming like Jesus.
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Everywhere we look, we are confronted with messages telling us about the things we need to be happy and whole. If only we can get, the better phone, go on the better vacation, drive the better car, get into the better college, then we will be content. We will be complete. The problem is once we get the things that we thought would bring contentment, it isn’t long before our focus shifts to something else. It seems like we’re constantly searching for contentment and never finding it.
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We are created to crave. We all want something. And we all realize that there’s something lacking in our lives, so we always want more. More food, more time, more money, more stuff. But with all of our desire for more, our ability to get more is always limited. So we do whatever we can to get more, and we get into debt, thinking the satisfaction will be worth the cost. In this message, we’ll see how God offers the only true fulfillment, and how our pursuit of debt can keep us from clearly seeing Him.
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Money is strange. You need it to live, yet it can squeeze the life right out of you. We shouldn’t find it surprising that God has a lot to say about money and our possessions. Far from being an off-limits conversation even in the church, your view of money reveals much about your heart and the object of your trust. No wonder God compares the way we use money with our receptivity to greater spiritual riches. Even from God’s perspective, money matters.
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The words “fear of the Lord” appear over one hundred times in the Bible. But throughout Scripture, God also tells his people not to fear. Is God contradicting Himself, or could the fear of the Lord mean something completely different than fear? As we discuss the meaning of the fear of the Lord, we’ll discover it has nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the way we engage with God daily.
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With photography, as an illustration, discover the power of seeing the light. God reminds us that “light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” Discover how you can see the light in your own life. Pick up a camera if you’re so inclined, but, more importantly, make sure you prioritize God’s light in your own life.
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The love of material things often steals our attention. This leads us to focus on growing our collection of possessions, even thinking that those items can somehow provide authentic, deep life satisfaction. And when our idea of Christmas revolves around a misplaced focus on material things, we get the wrong idea. In this message, we’ll see how God shows us that Jesus is overwhelmingly more valuable than anything else we could imagine.
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We generally associate Christmas as being a season of joy and celebration, but many of us experience deep feelings of grief and loneliness during Christmas. That grief and loneliness grows as we tell ourselves we should be feeling positive emotions instead. If that’s you or someone you know, you’re not alone in those feelings. In the Bible, we read the birth of Jesus is welcomed by the brokenhearted. This week, we’ll discover that while we may not always feel able to celebrate, we can always open our hearts to welcoming our Savior.
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The story of that very first Christmas includes chilling words for any family trying to deliver a baby: “There’s no room for you.” Truth is, that’s not the last time that sentiment would be spoken in Jesus’ direction. Life wants to crowd out Jesus. The pace. The noise. The distractions. All of it conspires to push Jesus to the fringe of our lives. Jesus is a gift to the world—or better, THE gift to the world. A gift that can easily remain boxed and wrapped if we become distracted by the noisy alternatives.
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In the second chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says that believers in Jesus are being built together into a holy temple in which God’s Spirit dwells. It’s a beautiful picture of unity and of believers bound together in peace. However, that unity is often marred by the walls of division we build between us. These walls are created for many reasons: family feuds, politics, race and more. Fortunately, Paul also illustrates the “tools” that can tear the walls down: humility, gentleness, love, and peace.
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Jesus is distinct from any other political leader. He is God in the flesh. He is a coming King. He will bring earthly powers into account. He will win the final victory. It’s not unusual these days to hear people ask, “Is this the end times.” Maybe. God tells us what will happen as human history draws to a close. And it’s worth being informed.
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More than almost anything else, Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God and that it was now available to everyone. He explained that those who trust Him become citizens of that Kingdom. Jesus also compared the Kingdom to a great treasure that someone would sell all they own to obtain. But what, exactly, is that treasure? We’ll discuss the treasure, what it looks like, how it affects us, and what we need to do to make it our own.
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The kingdoms and empires of this world are small compared to God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is active now. It sometimes operates in obscurity and ordinariness. It is unseen but real nonetheless. And God invites us to participate in this kingdom—to make seeking His kingdom the priority of our lives.
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It seems clear that Jesus wants to shape culture. To ultimately transform the conscience and morality of a people. His disciples anticipated that Jesus was about to establish a political machine capable of toppling the Roman Empire. But that’s not what Jesus did. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords seems strangely apolitical. He has an agenda quite different from that of the world’s system. He is a perfectly loving and all-powerful, benevolent dictator. Vote for Jesus!
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Becoming a Christian and living as one are two different things. God refers to one as justification and the other as sanctification. We might also understand these two distinctions as finding Jesus and following Jesus. Blur this distinction between salvation and discipleship and you’ll inevitably be left with a salvation of works and many inconsistencies in understanding the text of the Scriptures. Realizing salvation is free, we are then freed-up to pay the cost of living completely for Jesus out of love and gratitude, not fear and uncertainty.
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Salvation is often viewed as a singular “event” or moment in our lives. By God’s grace, we receive salvation by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus to save us. There is a sense in which this is absolutely true, from the moment of belief we are saved forever, but the gift of salvation is far too great to be contained in a mere moment of our lives. Salvation is meant to spill over into every facet of our lives and into the lives of those around us. It is a gift that we live in and that lives in us.
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You’re born into God’s family the moment you place your faith in Jesus for eternal life. You start as a spiritual baby. But it’s never God’s intention for you to remain a baby. You are to grow and thrive as a maturing believer in Jesus. But you never grow passively. You grow by practices meant to nourish you and stretch your spiritual muscles. Growing in Jesus becomes a life-long adventure of learning and change for His glory.
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Have you ever felt unprepared? You’ve probably had a time in your life when you were not prepared at all for what was about to happen. As our flesh constantly fights to lead us further away from God, it’s easy for us to feel unprepared for life. But God prepares us by giving us exactly what we need: Himself! He equips us with His Holy Spirit. In this message, we’ll see that when we surrender to His Spirit, God grows us to be more like Him.
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In the Bible, we read Jesus promising to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples after He is gone. As believers in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is also with us, living inside of us, just as Jesus promised. The question is, why did Jesus send the Holy Spirit to be with us? What does it mean to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit? This week we’ll begin a discussion about living with the Holy Spirit in our lives.
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God’s redemptive plan for humanity involves the death of Jesus for the sins of everyone. But we enjoy God’s forgiveness only when we believe what Jesus did for us. Have you noticed, even Christians still sin? Confessing or admitting our daily sin keeps our relationship with God fresh and alive. Sin creates a barrier to our fellowship with God. That barrier disintegrates and fellowship with God gets restored when we confess our sins.
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Is it possible to know you have a new life through Christ and are headed for heaven? If so, how? God never intends for the assurance of your salvation to be a perpetual guessing game. You can know you’re saved. Unfortunately, you can lose your grip on the assurance of your salvation when you take your eyes off of Jesus and His promises and begin to look inward instead. An alarming number of people insist on good works as a requirement for salvation. This approach renders assurance impossible.
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Nothing challenges our view of God like challenges. Maybe, lately, you feel like you’ve had your share of obstacles and hardships. When we’re pressured with difficulties, our idea of a good God can end up on the chopping block. How can God be good when evil exists and God is powerful enough to stop it? Sooner or later every Christ-follower must wrestle with the goodness of God. We must eventually ask if God is good, what is He good for?
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There is no greater influence a child has than their parents. Our Family Life ministries come alongside parents to partner with them in influencing kids and students to find and follow Jesus. During this special NextGen weekend we’ll hear from our LPKids, LPStudents and HUGS (Special Needs) leaders as they share their vision and passion for their ministry areas. We’ll also hear some of the unique ways they are reaching their communities during this season – you won’t want to miss it!
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God reminds us in the Bible that He gave an Old Covenant and a New Covenant. Confuse the two and you’re in for a confusing and inconsistent attempt at living for Jesus. It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that the church across the world is mired in legalistic discipleship and an insistence on salvation by works. That’s the natural consequence of confusing the Old and New Covenants. Discover the freedom God wants you to know in the believers’ new normal found in God’s New Covenant.
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When we find ourselves moving in a certain direction and focused on our goals, it can be jarring to feel like God suddenly is taking us in a new direction. It’s hard to consider that what we are currently building is no longer necessary or worse, futile all along. We seek to build our lives in such a way to create our own comforts and our security. When the storms of life come, all that we are building is tested and our motives are revealed. Today, we will attempt to reframe the insecurities of this life and perhaps discover or rediscover our faith in Christ in the process.
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We all identify with communities in some ways. Even the most isolated individuals acknowledge some basic common ground with other people groups. From sports teams to political parties to hometowns, communities unite us around common ideas. But when we run into differences, we forget all about that unity. The Bible shows us something else, though. God creates a community that can unite people beyond any other divisions. In this message, we’ll explore how God calls His people to a new community where He leads us to love others, even when we’re different.
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God makes all things new. He is about taking the brokenness brought on by sin and offering a new reality. God’s plans for a believer’s eternity are staggering in immensity and joy. We will exist forever on a new earth—a reality more alive than our present existence. While the thought of “another world” can be overwhelming, it can also create godly anticipation. We are meant to be motivated by eternity and all that awaits us.
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Habits can have a profound impact on our lives in both good and bad ways. And often, we’re unaware of how much we do in our lives simply by force of habit. We’ll discuss how modern behavioral science is catching up to what the church has known for thousands of years regarding habits. We’ll discuss how to break bad habits, establish good ones, and how this can have a hugely beneficial impact regarding our personal spiritual transformation into Christlikeness.
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Songs are powerful things. The combine melody and harmony. They express both truth and emotion. They can fill us with joy and hope or with lament and sorrow. Through the beauty of song we worship, we celebrate, and we mourn. In the Psalms, the worship songs of the Bible, we are told that God gives us a new song to sing. What is this song? Where does it come from? How do we sing it?
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Living without purpose is not really living at all. When you find new life in Christ, you can then find a new purpose—an investment of your life that makes sense and brings glory to God. If someone asked, “What is your purpose in life?” how would you respond? Those of us connected to Jesus can have a ready and meaningful answer to that question. The specific answers may vary slightly. But nothing should stop us from living life on purpose.
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It’s easy for us to become consumed with what happens to us and around us. We spend so much time and energy on managing our circumstances that we begin to think those circumstances define us. After thinking this way for a while, we eventually believe that those old parts of us can never change. But God paints a different picture in the Bible. In this message, we’ll see what God has to say about how those old things can and should pass away because He has new things for us in Christ!
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Whenever we head into a new normal, there is usually an old normal we have to contend with first. We transition into a new normal when an old normal no longer works or the new normal is significantly better. This week, we’ll discuss a new command Jesus gives his disciples while identifying an old and familiar command. As we look at the ways the old normal doesn’t always work, we’ll better see how significantly better the new normal really is.
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There is a powerful connection between how we think and how we live. We’re not always aware of those connections, but what we think about and how we think about it directs our actions and responses. The Bible draws a direct connection between spiritual transformation and the renewing of our minds. This means that how we think and what we think about are central to living as followers of Jesus.
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We all had a beginning. You entered the world in a moment of time. And just like a physical birth, so too, you need a spiritual birth. You may be a child who is only a few years old or an adult well into your later years. But you need to experience new life through a new birth. When that happens, you begin a new normal. Your new beginning is not about signing on the dotted line or promising to behave yourself. It is new life imparted to you and given as a gift. And it means you have moved from the old normal to the new normal.
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Last words are important words. Books have been written and lists compiled about the last things that famous and influential people have said. This week in our study of 2 Timothy, the Apostle Paul will write his last and most important words to Timothy, his protégé. This final charge from a teacher to a beloved student can help us see with laser-focus those things that are most important to living in the abundant life of Jesus.
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The moment we believe in Jesus for the salvation of our sins, we are ushered into eternal life. Through no effort of our own, Jesus gives us new life we receive by faith. This life has the opportunity for growth and development. So how do we develop this new life we’ve been given? In his last letter to Timothy, Paul is urging his student to remember his training as he continues to grow and mature in this new life. As we read Paul’s instructions to Timothy, we discover how we too can train to develop our life in Christ.
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When Paul writes to Timothy, he describes the last days as perilous times. They are days filled with evil and evil doers. The last days began when Jesus left the earth. And until Christ returns, we are to live godly lives and become agents of change. At the same time, we are to be alert to destructive ideas that are both deceptive and powerful
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Approval is something we all long for, especially from the people who matter most to us. There is something deep inside of us that craves knowing that others are pleased with what we do and who we are. Approval gives us a sense of meaning and significance in the context of relationship, combining two of our deepest needs. This week we are going to look at how to find approval in the relationship that matters most - our relationship with God. to Lifepoint Church.
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If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
2 Timothy 2:13 (NKJV)
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As Paul writes his last words, he encourages Timothy to remember the gospel in kind of a strange way: he urges Timothy to join with him in suffering for the gospel. Is there a different way to see suffering? In this message, we’ll see how God empowers us to maintain His perspective. This passage will help us understand how treasuring the gospel changes the way we see life by setting our eyes on Jesus.
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Our lives are better when we believe in Jesus and when someone else believes in us. We need to know we’re not alone. We have a valuable contribution to make as we remember the gospel and share it with others. And we don’t have to be afraid. We can know we’re empowered by God with the strength to live for Him. He will help us in every circumstance.
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Peace. We sing songs about it. We march for it. Demonstrate for it. Hold conferences about it and create think tanks to create it. We long for it. But it remains elusive. We live in a world broken by war, poverty, hatred, and illness, making peace seem impossible. Yet Jesus says that it isn’t. He offers us the hope of peace greater than all the brokenness of the world, a peace we can live in right now
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If our life with God is described as a race, it’s natural to assume we’ll one day cross the finish line. Life begins when you believe in Jesus as your Savior. Although heaven is then guaranteed, it really does matter how you live. Living for God means you’re pleasing Him. And it means you’re likely to be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ. Live well and you can anticipate His “well done” when you stand before Him.
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Your life with God is the race of your life. But as you run, it’s easy to get off course. Be alert to the things that hinder your running. There’s no guarantee you’ll run well. So, fix your eyes on Jesus and run for His approval. Stay on course and live to please God.
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You may not consider yourself a runner but you’re in a race. The race of your life. What would it look like for you to win this race? Running the race begins with finding the starting line. Life starts with Jesus. Then, life is run with Jesus. What might you need to change to ensure a steady pace in the right direction
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Life is full of extraordinary challenges: wars, injustice, and politics just to name a few. When faced with these extraordinary challenges, we can look for a miracle that is just as extraordinary. But life also has its ordinary challenges: stressful emails or losing our keys in the morning. If extraordinary challenges require extraordinary miracles, these ordinary challenges require miracles that are just as ordinary. Thankfully, God meets us in our suffering great and small alike. Today we'll discuss an ordinary miracle that could make an extraordinary impact.
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From our earliest days, we’re captivated by stories. God has written the greatest story ever told. And this story even includes you. Born separated from God, every person needs to be rescued. God, in His love and grace, offers a free gift to all—a solution to our problem. Jesus was born, then died, so you could experience real life.
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As the story of your life unfolds, never forget you are part of something bigger than just you. In our individualistic culture, it’s easy to become self-absorbed and me-centered. The moment you believe in Jesus for a new life, you become part of something enormous—the body of Christ and the movement called the Church. At our church, we are part of the same story. It’s a story of trusting God and a story of shared experiences. It’s our story together.
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Your life is a story. Its chapters are filled with joys and sorrows, successes and failures, good people and hurtful people. Maybe you’ve found it difficult to follow the plotline at times. But there are no wasted experiences in your life. That’s because the main character in your story is God—whether you realize it or not. And God is inviting you to join Him, as together, you write the story of your life.
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Around this time of year, it may be easier for us to have thankfulness on our minds. But do we regularly give thanks throughout the year? What about when things don’t go our way? It seems like we wait to really give thanks until certain things happen the way we want them to happen. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this message, we’ll see that when we consider God’s goodness, His work, and His gifts, we can be thankful now. We can thank God for who He is. We can thank God for what He does. We can thank God for what He gives.
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The results on the playing field are largely determined off of it. In sports, in work, on the battlefield, even in our relationships, much of our success in the moment of engagement is determined by the work we did or didn't do preparing ourselves for it. In short, being prepared requires preparation. This is just as true when we step out to serve in ministry. How can we prepare ourselves to serve well to give our best to others and experience the satisfaction of play well?
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One eager to please God is determined to get out of the bleachers and into the game. But our involvement in serving doesn’t have to be random or chaotic. God has given each believer a spiritual gift—a specific, supernatural ability for building up the body of Christ. It’s impossible to fully invest your life for God without discovering and using your spiritual gift. God has a part for you to play. And it’s too important for you to ignore.
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Following Jesus calls us out of the bleachers and into the game. But being in the game means we have to get out of our comfort zones and get our hands dirty. This willingness to lay aside ourselves is at the heart of volunteering. In this message, we’ll see how Jesus gets His hands dirty and why it matters for us to follow His example.
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It doesn’t take much energy to be a spectator. Just watch the action on the field. Then you can cheer when you approve and boo when you don’t. But following Jesus was never meant to be a spectator sport. One eager to please God is determined to get out of the bleachers and into the game. Serving others is to be the norm not the exception in the family of God!
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If there is a god most near and dear to the heart of our culture it is the god of success. The god of success promises us the control, allowing us to make our own way; the approval of others who recognize what we've done; and the access to whatever pleasures we may seek as a reward. The god of success says we can have it all. But having it all is never enough and the success we seek never satisfies. Perhaps success isn't what we really need? Perhaps success isn't really what we think it is?
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If given the choice between good feelings or bad, we would usually choose good. Let’s face it, good feelings are pleasurable. But pleasure as a life-goal leads to bad things. All around us are false gods that scream for our attention and devotion. And pleasure can become one of those false gods. Without our realizing it, pleasure can hold us captive.
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We all want approval. At some level, we all want to be liked and affirmed. Seeking approval by itself is not necessarily bad, but seeking it in the wrong source is. When we make human approval our ultimate value, then we make approval into an idol, worshipping a false god. In this message, we'll see how God's approval is available and all that matters.
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There is one true God. But all around us are substitute gods competing for our devotion. You don’t have to bow down to a statue to be an idolater. False gods are everywhere. One false god that screams for our attention is the god of control. When we’re satisfied only when things go as we plan and when we’re fixated on getting what we want, we have become devoted to the god of control. And the god of control prevents us from experiencing the God who is in control.
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Near the beginning of His ministry, Jesus stood up in the synagogue and said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free." (Luke 4:17) Jesus calls us to be like him. To be people of love and compassion. To be people who use our power and resources to set others free.
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Have you ever wondered what the Christian life is all about? Jesus Christ calls people to follow Him, to be changed by Him, and to go on mission with Him. His mission is for us to be disciple-makers, disciples who make disciples. That's what He wants our lives to be about, but are we actively doing it? Making disciples can seem difficult, even scary, so we tend to avoid it. In this message, we see how Jesus calls us, empowers us, and gives our lives purpose.
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When we believe, Jesus invites us to follow Him and live with Him as apprentices of His way. This is an invitation to come and die to ourselves in order to follow Him into a new life with the Father. To die to our sin, our brokenness, our plans to save ourselves, and our plans to make our own way in life. But in dying, we can experience the best kind of life possible.[
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Jesus never insists that we clean up our lives before we can be rescued and redeemed. Thank God. Jesus, instead, invites us to take a closer look. To listen to the whispers of our curiosity. To come and see who He really is. Jesus is still inviting people to draw close to Him by using the words He’s always used, “Follow Me.” When we find and follow Jesus, we experience the abundant life He promised. We find Jesus in a simple one-time moment of belief. But we follow Him in a lifetime of devotion.
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Seems like there’s plenty to be upset about in our world. We can even get personally offended by the actions and comments of others around us. Here’s a radical, relational idea: What if you can become unoffendable? That’s right—unoffendable. It’s rare but possible. Through Jesus working in us, it’s possible to deflect hurt over offenses. It’s possible to find power over anger and bitterness. It’s possible to enjoy the freedom of becoming unoffendable!
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Our relationships develop and grow through the stories we tell each other. We connect with people when we know the past they've come from, the present they live in, and the future they hope for. We feel connected when those people also know our stories. But when people become the topic of conversation instead of the audience, those connections start to break down. Today, we'll discuss. potential hazard to real connection, as well as discover ways to enter into the kind of relationships God has designed us for.
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Our society puts great emphasis on being well invested financially. There is no end to the programs and podcast about how to invest wisely in real estate, IRA’s, 401K’s and the like, but how do we become well invested relationally? As in all investments, each of has limited relational resources to invest. How can we invest these resources well to get the returns we’re looking for
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What is your reaction when you’re around someone who is always complaining? When you, yourself, grumble, what kinds of things do you tend to complain about the most?
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One of the most significant barriers to relationships is the failure to listen. It is impossible to effectively relate to others if we’re not listening. When we do listen relationship come to life. Listening makes us feel heard, understood, valued, loved. The power and effect of listening is terribly underestimated and, as a result, most of us aren’t very good at it. How can we learn to listen in ways that bring life to our relationships?
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We’re all made to live in community. But today we find ourselves living increasingly isolated lives. As we further disconnect from other people, we lose not only the support of community we need, but we also lose the sense of fulfillment in Christ that God intended community to encourage. In this sermon, we’ll explore some ways we find community, and we’ll see how that affects our relationship with God and with other people.
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There is a mountain of scientific evidence showing us that people do moderately well at evaluating others, but are often terrible at evaluating themselves. As a result, many of us are not self-aware in regard to our relationships. Said another way, we don’t have a clear picture of how we’re perceived by others. Today at Peter and how he grew in self-awareness. We’ll talk why so many are not self-aware and discuss some steps we can take toward fixing the situation.
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Sometimes we forget the power of a friend. Inside jokes, encouragement, support, and camaraderie all add together to make for a good friendship. However, the mark of true friendship is ultimately based on love. True friends exercise sacrificial love for one another. Today we will take a closer look at how our faith as believers impacts those we love and just how big an influence our faith can actually have. We also need the courage to know how to leverage it
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American culture gives us almost no need for loyalty. We regularly switch brands or cancel plans via text message. We have learned to avoid commitment as a negative thing, forgetting the benefits that accompany it. In this sermon, we’ll discuss the need to remember that God calls His people to commit to following Him. This call to commitment is how God intends for His people to show His love to the world and affect change for His kingdom.
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Chances are good you are the person you are because of someone else who showed up in your life: a teacher, a coach, a small group leader. Chances are also good that you are the person you are because of someone you expected to show up but didn’t. Jesus is our model for what it looks like to show in the lives of others. Today, as we look at Jesus’ relationship with Zacchaeus, we’ll discuss one key component to showing up well.
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One of the most powerful choices we can make in our relationships with others is the choice to encourage them. Encouragement builds courage into others. But it’s rare. Maybe we’re reluctant to encourage because we don’t know how. Or maybe we’re afraid. Will encouragement be there for us if we give encouragement away? Imagine the relational revival if we all became people of exuberant encouragement.
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It seems innocent enough. What harm is there comparing ourselves to others? From social media to friendly competition, our culture is a breeding ground for comparison. Maybe you’ve fallen victim without even realizing it. But comparison kills. The fruit of comparison leads us down one of two roads. The road of self-righteousness or the road of inferiority. Either way, you lose.
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Summer is upon us and that means a welcome break from the normal rhythms of life - time to slow down, rest, vacation. At least, that’s what it’s supposed to mean. The truth is that our culture doesn’t do rest very well; the rhythm always seems to be high tempo. We are a people desperately in need of rest, but seemingly unable to find it amidst the constant demands of our lives. How can we use this summer season of rest to actually find it?
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One life. That’s all you get. So, it makes sense to pay careful attention how you’re living that life. The most important change in life occurs when we believe in Jesus for eternal life. We’re freely given a new nature and are guaranteed life after death. But until then, God invites us to invest the one life we have by living for Him. You’ll only be held accountable for becoming the person God intends for you to become. Why not discover who you are and begin investing for life!
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God has a lot to say to His people about lots of different issues. Some of what He has to say is clear and easy to understand, but some of it is not so easy to understand. And for some issues, He doesn’t say anything. In order for us to understand how to follow Him, we have to learn to follow His priorities and determine absolutes, convictions, and preferences.
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God’s Word makes it clear that orphans are close to His heart. He calls us to defend the cause of orphans. Here at LifePoint, one of the ways our church family cares for orphans is through Alpha Life, an orphan ministry in Dnipro, Ukraine. In partnership with Orphan Outreach, this ministry located in one city is now growing and potentially impacting orphans nationwide in Ukraine. This weekend is a celebration of what God is doing through this partnership to care for orphans and share the love of Christ with them.
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It’s possible to live with legitimate, godly desires that are never fulfilled in your lifetime. Pain, disappointment, heartache and disillusionment can expose these restless longings. Unmet desires remind us that we’re living in one world but longing for another. God has placed eternity in our hearts. Those of us who have been united with Christ will spend forever with Him in a joy-filled paradise. And every experience of hardship now can remind us that we’re falling up toward another world
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Too often, reality for us is represented by what we experience with our five senses. But God works through an invisible kingdom often in invisible ways. He works differently than we might expect. In God’s kingdom, the way up is the way down. When we “Fall Up” we might even conclude that success is not defined the way we thought. God invites us to experience this invisible kingdom now. But be prepared; this kingdom is not only unseen but also upside-down.
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It’s not unusual to have certain expectations about how life should work and what God is obligated to do for us. This formulaic view of life makes perfect sense until the formula no longer works in our favor. We instinctively work to avoid pain at any cost. But what if pain and disappointment and heartache and even disillusionment are all required to help us discover real life and move forward? What if the way down is really the way up?
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The resurrection of Jesus is the single most important event in human history. If Jesus is not raised from the dead, then none of us will be either. Without His resurrection, we’re held captive by sin and death. The resurrection makes real life possible. Jesus paints a simple picture about life in Him: Enter through a narrow gate and walk down the narrow path. Life begins when we find Jesus; life is experienced when we follow Him.
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God’s purposes for humanity were unfolding before any of us were born. While God’s purposes are clear to Him, they may seem fuzzy to us. The road we walk can be filled with the unexpected—potholes and detours we never anticipated. In a parade of adulation, Jesus entered Jerusalem while the crowd waved palm branches in celebration. He would be crucified by the end of the week. What was God doing? And what can we expect from God as we walk the unexpected road?
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The Road to Easter runs the entire length of the Bible. The whole of scripture is the unfolding story of the Father’s plan to redeem the world through the death and resurrection of His beloved Son. As with all roads, the destination is harder to see when the journey begins, but if we look carefully, we can see that right from the beginning God was calling people to walk a road that leads to Jesus.
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Guest speaker Nick Blevins speaks on the power of influencing the next generation.
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The book of Galatians is a powerful treatise on the sufficiency of God’s grace to save us apart from the externals of law-keeping. Attempting to keep the law as the way to salvation or even as the means for growing in Christ ends in failure and bondage. Freedom is found in Jesus! Discovering the grace found in Jesus leads to boasting—boasting in the enormity of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Through Jesus we can experience a new creation.
Discussion Questions
People often try to make salvation harder to get than it really is. Why? In what ways do people complicate God’s arrangement of the “grace through faith” reception of God’s free gift?
Read Galatians 6:12-13. Describe the attitudes of these Judaizers who were adding law-keeping to the salvation experience. How were they self-promoters? We live in a self-saturated culture. In what ways can self-promotion prove deadly to spiritua
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God's Spirit gives new life to His people so that we can live like we have new life. This new life only properly functions in community with other people. When we walk in selfless community by God's Spirit, we experience the benefits of new life in Him.
Discussion Questions
Read Galatians 6:1-5. What does it look like to walk by the Spirit in community?
Are you ever tempted to think more of yourself than you should? How might this affect relationships in community?
What’s the difference between bearing one another’s burdens and bearing one’s own load?
Read Galatians 6:6-10. What does it look like to sow to the flesh? What does it look like to sow to the Spirit?
What opportunities do we have to walk by the Spirit without losing heart or growing weary?
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To this point in Galatians, Paul has done much in the way of explaining the freedom available in the gospel and the condemnation present in the Law. But how do we get that freedom, especially those of us who don’t feel so “free?" What is it that we need to do in order to experience the fullness of the freedom Paul speaks of?
Discussion Questions
Which works of the "flesh" or sinful nature do you see in your life? If you are a believer, can you see how your two natures conflict?
Examine yourself. How can you see the fruit of the Spirit growing in your life? Do you have any natural characteristics that can be confused with this fruit?
Can you think of a specific time you knew you were being led by the Spirit? How do you know?
What is the difference between just doing the right thing and actually walking in the Spirit? Is there one? Ex
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It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. These are some of the most powerful and important words of the New Testament. The Grace of God through Jesus Christ sets us free to live in fellowship with God and with others. If only it were that simple. The book of Galatians is proof that being set free by Jesus does not mean that we will automatically live well in that freedom. Sadly, many of us freely chose to return to slavery.
Discussion Questions
At what times in your life have you experienced the most freedom? What was it about those times that made you free?
In Galatians 5:1, Paul says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” How does this statement compare to how most people view and understand Christianity? Why do you think that is?
In Galatians, Paul is addressing a specific 1st Century problem of returning to the Jewish Law as a way to earn God’s favor. What are ways that we leave grace to try to win God’s
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Believing in Jesus for your salvation means you’re adopted by God and headed to heaven. But becoming a Christian won’t help you change and grow unless you’re cooperating with God’s Spirit in your life. You’re either moving forward or sliding backwards. Spiritual growth is not automatic. And any plan that includes your trying to obey the law as a means of sanctification will actually restrict your growth and place you in bondage.
Discussion Questions
What causes Christians to drift away from Jesus? Read Galatians 4:8-11. What are the similarities between the Galatians’ previous idolatry (v. 8) and their desire to keep the Old Testament law (vs. 9-10)?
Paul was afraid his investment in the Galatian believers might be a waste of time (4:11)? Why did he think this? Have you ever felt discouraged about your investment in someone else? What were the circumstances?
How were the Galatian believers gracious to Paul when he was with them (4:12-15)? Why would th
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Through faith alone in Christ alone we’re transformed from slaves to heirs—heirs of God! God places the believer into the body of Christ. And in that moment, we put on Christ. That’s a profound, new reality. The only alternative to a life without Christ is bondage to something. Sometimes we may not even realize we’re living as slaves. But when we’re adopted by God we not only become His children but also His heirs.
Discussion Questions
So much confusion revolves around the law (Torah—the first five books of the Old Testament). Do a short study on the role of the law by reading the following passages: Galatians 3:19, Hebrews 8:13, 2 Corinthians 3:7-11, Romans 6:14 and Galatians 5:18. What was the purpose of the law?
How do you become a son or daughter of God? Read Galatians 3:26. Why is the baptism mentioned in Galatians 3:27 not water baptism (compare 1 Corinthians 12:13)? What is baptism by the Spirit?
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God has a covenant relationship with His people, and He always keeps His promises, no matter what our shortcomings may be. In fact, even our best efforts don't get us into right relationship with God. We only have right relationship with Him because of Jesus. The Law doesn’t get rid of God’s promise, and it doesn’t save us, so what does it do? It all becomes clear in the light of the Gospel.
Discussion Questions
We often speak of freedom – in relation to choices, rights, and even faith. What does freedom really mean? Are there ever times when freedom doesn’t fit our expectations of how it should be? How does the idea of law fit with freedom?
Read Psalm 19:7-8. How does David describe God’s laws / testimony / precepts / commandments? How does this fit with our understanding of the Law?
Read Galatians 3:15-18. What’s the difference between inheritance based on law and inheritance based on pr
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Sometimes clarifying the gospel requires stern language. Confusion about the nature of salvation and walking with God is a serious matter. That’s why Paul addresses the Galatian Christians as “bewitched” and “foolish.” It’s like a spell was cast over them. Their dependence on the Old Testament law to save and sanctify was a travesty of the gospel of grace. If first century Christians can fall victim to this spell, we, too, should be alert to this dangerous possibility in our own lives.
Discussion Questions
Read Galatians 3:1. Why is Paul using such stern language with these believers? How had the Galatians Christians been bewitched and become foolish?
Paul is building his case against the error of the Galatians. Read 3:2-3. In these verses, can you identify a distinction between salvation and growing in Christ?
The reference to the Spirit in Galatians 3:3 is the first in this letter (Paul
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As we continue our look at Galatians we find Paul and Peter in the midst of an awkward situation at the Antioch church supper. The way in which Paul addressed the situation will highlight not only the need for Jesus in our lives, but also the futility of rule keeping for salvation. Paul says he has been crucified with Christ, but what does that really mean for us?
Discussion Questions
Can you recall a time in your life when you had to stand up for what you thought was right at the risk of looking awkward or even rude? Explain. What was it about your conviction that was so important?
The heart of Paul’s words to Peter in Galatians 2:14-16 was freedom from Jewish law in the gospel for all people. Can you think of the ramifications had Paul remained silent here, in the presence of so many early church leaders? What m
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It’s not always easy to get Christians to agree on things. This is true even when it comes to how you get salvation. Many insist on adding works to faith. The early church faced this controversy head-on. The gospel that Paul preached was given to him directly from Jesus. Not by coincidence, its content was exactly what the original Christ-followers were also sharing with others. And even now God invites us to unite around the gospel.
Discussion Questions
Why did Paul write his letter to the churches in Galatia? Read Galatians 1:6-9 for insights.
Read Galatians 2:1-2. Why did Paul go to Jerusalem? The reference to 14 years probably represents how long Paul had been a Christian by this time. How long does it take to mature in Christ? How would you chart your spiritual growth progress?
It seems like Paul took Titus for a reason.
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Grace leaves itself open to misunderstanding, even abuse. But God wants us to experience the life-changing power of His grace. Paul did. He experienced God’s grace when he embraced the gospel given to him by direct revelation from Jesus. Now this persecutor of Christians began to preach the faith he once tried to destroy.Discussion Questions
Why do you think people seem hard-wired to try to earn or deserve a salvation that God clearly says is free?
Adding additional requirements to getting salvation distorts or perverts the Gospel (Gal. 1:6-7). In what sense does adding good works to the requirement of faith appear spiritual but is really an affront to God’s grace?
Read Galatians 1:11-14. Where did Paul get the gospel? Why is Paul’s past
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The grace of God through Jesus and nothing else. That is the good news of our salvation. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are made right with God and set free from the slavery of sin and death. But good news is often hard to believe – it can sound too good to be true - and we can quickly find ourselves looking to other “good” things to find the security and freedom we are offered by gospel.
Discussion Questions
When did you first hear and understand the gospel? Who told you about it? What difference has it made in your life?
The churches in Galatia were being led to believe that the grace of Christ was not enough and that they had to do more than just receive the grace of Jesus. Has there ever been a time in your life where you felt like you had to do more to be acceptable to God?
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There is no shortage of resources claiming to help us live full lives. Yet, despite the easy access of self-help information, how many of us would honestly describe our lives as full? Why doesn’t information automatically translate into transformation? This weekend, we’ll begin a discussion on how God uses the power of our habits to redirect our lives in the direction of true fullness.
Discussion Questions
What does “abundant life” mean to you? What is your vision of abundant life?
Take time to carefully read Matthew chapters 5-7. Where does your vision of abundant life match up with Jesus’ vision briefly outlined in the Sermon on the Mount? In what ways are they different? In what ways are they the same?
Are there any habits Jesus outlines that seem difficult, impossible, or even the opposite of your best interest?
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The good news that an angel shared with shepherds over 2000 years ago is the good news that we celebrate every year at Christmas. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that this good news is not just for us to keep to ourselves, but it’s for all the people. If we really understand the good news of Jesus Christ, then we’ll understand that it’s good news to be shared.
Discussion Questions
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Peace. It is something we all long for, something we especially anticipate with the coming of Christmas. Yet, peace is elusive, especially with the coming of Christmas. With so much to do, this time of year when we expect to experience peace can often be filled with anxiety and stress. Jesus came to bring peace on earth, but his arrival was surrounded by turmoil and strife. How can we find the peace Jesus came to bring in the midst of a troubled and turbulent world?
Discussion Questions
What place or person or time of your life do you most associate with peace? What was it about this place/person/time that you associate with peace?
Read Luke 1:26-38. What about this scene might seem at odds with the idea that Jesus came to bring peace? In what ways does it line up with this idea?
Read Luke 2:14. What does the angel specifically say? What
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Fear paralyzes. It catches us off guard. Fear seeks to write a story that robs us of hope and joy. This is why God so often reminds us, “Don’t be afraid.” That first Christmas, shepherds were awestruck at the angelic announcement of a Savior. But they were also terrified. Like the shepherds, we’re prone to fear especially when we have good reason to be afraid. But God is fond of replacing our fear with joy and the reassurance of His great love.
Discussion Questions
Can you recall times when you were most afraid? What were the circumstances surrounding your fear? How would you define “fear?”
Read Luke 2:8-14. What happened when an angel appeared to the shepherds? What are angels and what is their role?
The Christmas story is about God coming to earth in the person of Jesus. Read 2 Corinthians 8:9 and 1 Timothy 3:16. What do you find awe inspiring about these deep truths?
While fear can be debili
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We’ve seen what can happen when our church gives and serves and loves. We influence our surrounding region in profound ways. But we change too. We get influenced by our own acts of generosity and kindness toward others. But there’s another practice that can literally change our perspective and affect the way we live. We can be people who are rich in gratitude!
Discussion Questions
Gratitude is simple but not so easy. Why are some people very thankful and others are not? What are the biggest obstacles to gratitude? How about in your own life?
What thoughts and feelings do you have when you encounter someone who is continually grateful? Describe a person who is ungrateful. How does ingratitude affect others?
Read 1 Thessalonians 5:18. What does it mean to give thanks in everything?
Take a few minutes to practice gratitude by highlig
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One of the last things Jesus told his disciples was that they should love one another the way he loved them. It sounds really good, and it is. But how did Jesus love his disciples, and what does that mean for how we love others? Great things happen when we love.
Discussion Questions
How do you know you love something?
On a scale of 1-10, how loving are you? Explain your evaluation.
Read John 13:31-35. What do you think the disciples’ reaction would have been to Jesus’ words in verse 33?
What images may have come to mind for the disciples with Jesus’ use of the phrase, “just as I have loved you”? Can you think of any specific examples of ways in which Jesus loved his disciples?
Read John 13:36-38. Like most of us, Peter wants to do the extravagant thing. But Jesus reminds him he can’t even do the simple things. Do you see a connect
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Typically, we serve when we are made aware of a need. However, we can easily go through life without ever seeing the people who need love and kindness right in front of us. But when we intentionally and prayerfully resist the myriad of distractions and reach out to people in need, things happen when we serve. God’s Spirit works through us to bring out results we can and some we can’t see.
Discussion Questions
Describe a time when you realized there was a need that you had previously not seen. What caused you to become aware of the need? What had prevented you from noticing it before?
Think of a time when you helped someone or some people in need. What were the visible results from your help? What else do you think may have resulted from your help, but you were not able to physically see?
Read Isaiah 58:6-9 again. What comes to your mind when you read these verses? Does this passage inspire you to reach out to people in
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It seems like money is an obsession in our culture. Whether it’s lottery winners or superstars with giant contracts, many people are fascinated by those who “have it all.” Our view of money says a lot about us. And God’s view of money says a lot about God. While money itself might be a neutral thing, it can unleash a power either for destruction or for immense good. When we’re generous in sharing our resources, wonderful things can happen.
Discussion Questions
Why does our culture seem to be so obsessed with money? Why are some people generous in sharing their money and possessions while others are less so? Would you describe yourself as a generous person? Why or why not?
The foundational scripture reference for our Be Rich emphasis is found in 1 Timothy 6:18. Take a moment to evaluate each component of Paul’s advice to Timothy. What could happen in and through our church if we really embraced the content of this verse?
Describe the feelings you might
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With our eyes set on Jesus we’re changing to become Christ-like influencers. But what is the purpose of that change? Certainly, we bring God glory when our lives more closely resemble His Son. But living like Jesus also means we’re able to influence others by the way we live. To be an influencer for good is one of life’s highest honors!
Discussion Questions
Can you think of a few people who influenced you the most? Who were they and how did they influence you for good?
Our This Is Us series has helped us take a closer look at the characteristics of a Christ-like influencer. Which of these qualities resonate with you the most? And in which of these do you have the most room for improvement? 1) Surrenders continually, 2) Loves extravagantly, 3) Invests relationally, 4) Gives generously, 5) Engages with God daily.
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One way to gauge your progress as a person who wants to follow Jesus is to ask whether or not you engage with God every day. Do you instinctively turn to God as a habit and include Him as a normal part of your life? When we understand God makes movement toward us every day, it makes perfect sense for us to make movement toward Him.
Discussion Questions
Take a few minutes to chew on this question: “What does God think of you when He thinks of you?” How do you think most people might answer that question? How would you answer it?
Many people are surprised to discover God thinks good thoughts toward them. Read Psalm 139:17-18. Put in your own words the good thoughts God is thinking about you.
Read Psalm 55:17, 63:1, 6. What do you notice about the Psalmist’s pattern of engagement with God? What do you do daily to engage with God?
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Giving generously means recognizing that God has given us gifts, talents, possessions, time, and influence to use for His purposes. We are merely stewards of what we have—it all belongs to God. Giving well means giving with open hands and hearts, trusting God to meet our needs. We experience life when we give well.
Discussion Questions
Our words and actions influence others, and we are influenced by the words and actions of others. How are we influencing and being influenced? What does it mean to live as a Christ-like influencer? How does that affect our influencing and being influenced?
Read Matthew 6:19-21. How does Jesus describe treasure? How does what we treasure connect to our hearts? How would this impact our understanding of giving generously?
Read Matthew 6:22-23. Why does Jesus
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Relationships are central to the Christian Faith. The two greatest commandments in all of scripture are rooted in relationship – love God, love others. Jesus said that all of the words and laws of the Bible could be reduced to our need to love God and others. Indeed, everything He did was an act of love for His Father and love for people. Jesus invested well in relationships. When we follow Him, so can we.
Discussion Questions
How are your relationships? Healthy? Hurting? Are you investing the way you would like in your relationships? Why or why not?
Think of three people who have invested in you in different areas or at different times in your life. What did they see in you? What influence did they make for you? What do they mean to you?
The thread of relationships is woven throughout t
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Our early life experiences, for better or worse, teach us how to love. Stumbling over the same irksome “dance steps” in their relationships, people usually have no clue there’s another way – a better way. Using attachment theory, experts Milan and Kay Yerkovich have created the tools to take your relationships to the next level. Our guest speakers, Milan and Kay Yerkovich, will be sharing insights discovered during more than 30 years of experience with Pastoral Marriage and Family Counseling.
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