thisistheROCK: Recent Episodes
the ROCK
Have you ever wondered about the impact that your words have? Listen to hear about some of the ways our words hurt.
Have you ever thought about the power that your words have? Check out this message to see how and why your words matter.
Ever struggle with stopping your bad habits? Listen to learn how you can kick those habits to the curb!
How do you start good habits? Listen to Zeek give you some practical tips on how to start the year right with good habits!
It's the new year and with the new year comes new year resolutions. But we want to challenge you to make a new kind of resolution this year. Listen to see what 2020 should be all about!
The good news of Christmas is that Jesus came to be with us! But it doesn't end with Christmas! Listen to hear why God is with us always!
Have you ever had a time in your life when things were terrible? You felt like you were in the middle of a storm? Listen to hear how God gives us comfort in the storms of our lives.
Is God with us in the times of our life when we feel all alone? Listen to hear about how God is with us in the valleys of our lives.
We've all said it OMG before and OMG is also said in the Bible. Listen to hear two of the ways that the Bible uses OMG and why that matters to you.
Jesus commands us to go! Our faith is supposed to be active. Tonight we look at one of the go commands that Jesus gives us and we learn how we can live like we're forgiven.
Jesus commands us to go! Our faith is supposed to be active. Tonight we look at one of the go commands that Jesus gives us and we learn how we can move towards people who are in need of the compassion of Jesus.
Who are the friends that you need in your circle? Check out tonight's message to find out!
What are the things that you won't let your friends do? Check out tonight's message from Rick to find out!
What is the foundation of any good friendship? Check out tonight's message from Rick to find out!
We had a great week at Summer Camp last week. How do we keep the Summer Camp feeling going now that we're home? Check out the message to see what you can do to bring Summer Camp home!
One of our summer interns, Trey, continues our summer series, Triple Dog Dare, by looking at Jesus' dare to be secure in eternal things.
One of our summer interns, Zeek, continues our summer series, Triple Dog Dare, by looking at Jesus' dare to be honest.
Alanna continues our series, Triple Dog Dare, where we look at Jesus' dare to be worthy of trust.
One of our summer interns, Karissa, continues our series, Triple Dog Dare, by looking at Jesus' dare to be a good friend.
One of our summer interns, Josh, continues our series Triple Dog Dare by looking at Jesus' dare to be wise.
Have you ever been dared to do something? If you have, you know that the most intense dare that you can be given is a triple dog dare. These are dares that you have to step up and do. Throughout the Bible, Jesus dares his followers to do different things. This summer we'll be looking at these dares and seeing how we can step up and complete these dares. We kick off our series tonight by looking at how Jesus dares us to die.
Tonight we welcome our new 6th-grade class to the ROCK and we talk all about why the ROCK is so important for our lives!
In this two-part series called “Over It,” we are talking about forgiveness. Tonight’s message is about putting Jesus at the center of the discussion when we talk about forgiveness. With Him in mind and our fallen world in the background, we understand our need to be forgiven and give forgiveness. We’ll talk about how Jesus wants to move us from darkness to light.
Questions. Our day is filled with them. Why aren’t you out of bed yet? Where is your homework? Do you want fries with that? Is that really how much data you used last month?! Did you take out the trash like I asked you to? Questions are a normal part of life, yet for someone reason, we look at questions about our faith as a bad thing. In our series, Ask Me A Question, we are answering students questions about Jesus, the Bible, Christianity, and faith!
Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that “He has planted eternity in the human heart.” Today we answer a question that is written on all of our hearts. The question is what is heaven and hell like? We will seek to understand eternity and what each of these very real places are like. We will see that our lives are temporary but our souls are eternal. We’ll end by looking at our two options for eternity… heaven or hell. We want students to understand that heaven is where they want to be!
Questions. Our day is filled with them. Why aren’t you out of bed yet? Where is your homework? Do you want fries with that? Is that really how much data you used last month?! Did you take out the trash like I asked you to? Questions are a normal part of life, yet for someone reason, we look at questions about our faith as a bad thing. In our series, Ask Me A Question, we are answering students questions about Jesus, the Bible, Christianity, and faith!
Today we answer one of the hardest questions, why does God allow suffering? While this answer doesn’t have any quick or easy responses, we will seek to help our students understand some of the basic facets of the argument. While we experience suffering in this life, God didn’t originally create our world with suffering. Instead, it came because of our sin. Thankfully God didn’t sit back and do nothing but He entered our suffering and promised to make everything right again!
Questions. Our day is filled with them. Why aren’t you out of bed yet? Where is your homework? Do you want fries with that? Is that really how much data you used last month?! Did you take out the trash like I asked you to? Questions are a normal part of life, yet for someone reason, we look at questions about our faith as a bad thing. In our series, Ask Me A Question, we are answering students questions about Jesus, the Bible, Christianity, and faith!
Tonight we kick off our series by answering the question, how do I grow in my faith? This was the most asked question by our students and I believe it shows that students want to know Jesus more. We are going to look at four ways that we encourage students to draw close to God. However, growth begins with a desire… It’s an attitude of our heart first and then moves to action. These actions are simple but powerful ways to grow in your faith.
We’ve all heard of a greatest hits album. It’s a compilation of the best songs from a band or artist. These albums are often best sellers in their own rights and popular among fans. When we read through the life of Jesus, there are certain events that should stand out to us. In this series, we’re going to look at these events as Jesus’ Greatest Hits because of what they mean to us as followers of Jesus.
Tonight we wrap up our series by looking the greatest hits of Jesus… the cross and resurrection. There are no greater events in the life of Jesus than these two. We will discuss the significance and importance behind these events to our lives and what we need to do as a result of these events. We want the students to understand that Jesus died and rose again not for fun but for us! He created his greatest hits for us to enjoy forever!
A greatest hits album is a compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular music artist or band. Over the next few weeks, we are going to go through the gospel of Luke and look at some of the greatest hits, or moments, from Jesus' life. Tonight we look at the importance and significance of Jesus washing His disciple's feet.
A greatest hits album is a compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular music artist or band. Over the next few weeks, we are going to go through the gospel of Luke and look at some of the greatest hits, or moments, from Jesus' life. We kick off our series with looking at Jesus' baptism and temptation.
Every day, students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through this series, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!
Over the course of our series, many students have begun to mentally make lists of what is okay and what is not okay in dating, entertainment, social media, and music. However, that mindset embraces a “flee from culture” mentality. I believe that Jesus desires for each of us to engage the culture around us with wisdom and discernment. By doing this we embrace our calling as missionaries to the world around us. I believe that we must recognize what is going on around us, receive the good things from culture, reject the bad things from culture and redeem the things that can be saved. By doing these things we will see the culture used for God’s glory!
Every day, students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through this series, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!
We are going to continue the dating conversation in our series drawing the line! Last week we learned why dating in middle school is dangerous and came to the conclusion that students should not date in middle school because they are not ready to get married. This week we are going to take a look at fake love and real love. Our culture is selling us a version of fake love but God’s Word describes a very different version of love that is available to us. The goal is for students to understand that they should not settle for fake love now but wait for real love later!
Every day, students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through our series, Drawing The Line, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!
This week we are going to begin the conversation on dating. In true Shakespearian fashion, we are going to be answering the question... to date or not to date? At the end of the day, the answer that we are going to give them is no, they should not date. Why? We believe that the purpose of dating is to find the characteristics in person you want to marry and spend the rest of your life with. As middle school students, there is absolutely no way that they are ready to be married. The cons far outweigh the pros when it comes to dating in middle school.
Every day students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through this series, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!
Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head? Ever love a tune but not think of the words of the song. One of the major ways that culture communicates to us is through the music that we listen to. Music has incredible power and influence over the ways that we think and act. Tonight as we wrap up our Drawing The Line series we are going to talk about that influence that music has over us. If we fill our minds (through music) with the things of this world then we will be influenced to value and act on the things of this world. However, if we are willing to watch what we hear then we will learn to live out a lifestyle that draws a line and lives up to God’s standard for us!
Every day, students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through this series, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!
Social media has exploded onto the scene and transformed our world! It is impossible to go anywhere without seeing people tweeting, Instagramming, updating their Facebook status or snap chatting someone they know! With the advancement of social media has also come the decline in proper posting. Many of our kids follow the trend of our culture and post whatever they want, whenever they want to. My desire is for our students to understand that what they post matters to God! Social media can be a tool that can bring God glory or it can be a tool to promote the sinful world we live in!
Every day students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through this series, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!
Our lives are consumed by different forms of entertainment… TV, movies, video games, etc. With all these different forms of entertainment comes a battle for our minds and our time! The whole entertainment industry is based on the desire to control what our kids think about and hopefully model their lives after. Today we are going to look at that battle and see what we can do to win the battle. My desire is to help students discover the message their entertainment is communicating, determine the value it has in their life and then decide whether to engage with it or not.
Every day students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through our series, Drawing The Line, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!
This week is all about introducing the topic that the world around our students is influencing them every day! Our culture is continually pulling us further and further away from God’s standard that He sets for us in the Bible. Because of this influence, they have the choice daily whether or not they want to follow the world or follow God. We are going to introduce the idea that friendship with the world is hatred toward God (John 4:4).
Every January people make New Year’s resolutions. The thing about New Year’s resolutions is that very few people accomplish their goals. One of the major reasons for that is because they seek to begin things that only focus on what people do. This year at the ROCK, I have decided to focus on what God can do instead of what I can do.
Tonight Rick is sharing five prayers that he has for the ROCK. These prayers are for the students so that 2019 can be their best year yet! These prayers range anywhere from taking their next steps with Jesus to serving other people. The goal of this message is for students to think about what God can do in so that He can make this upcoming year one for the record books!
Come and see the birth of Jesus from Mary and Joseph's perspective so that you can respond just like they did!
We’ve all heard the Christmas story. It’s the greatest story of all time but so many times we miss its importance because we’ve heard it the same way each year. This year, in our series, Do You See What I See, we will discuss the different viewpoints of Christmas from the people who were able to see it firsthand. We’ll see how they viewed the nativity and how they responded to it. By looking at their response to the nativity, we can learn how we should (and should not) respond to it as well!
Tonight we’ll begin by looking at how the shepherds, wise men, and King Herod responded to the birth of Jesus. Each of these characters viewed the nativity differently and therefore responded in different ways. The shepherds responded by sharing the news with everyone. The wise men responded with worshipping Jesus. However, Herod responded with fear that ultimately led to one of the greatest genocides of all time. We will challenge the students to respond like the wise men and the shepherds to the nativity so that they can see Jesus for who he truly is… God with us!
There are few things better than talking with your good friend about what is going on in your life. Good communication is essential for a healthy relationship. It helps us feel better but it also strengthens our friendship too! The same is true when it comes to prayer. Prayer is essential for our relationship with Jesus. Everyone knows that prayer is important, but not everyone does it. So for the next two weeks we are going to discover the power of the link that we have to Jesus through prayer.
Tonight we’re going to explore the connection that we have to Jesus through prayer. Too many times we overcomplicate prayer, but prayer is simply communicating with God. When we pray, Jesus wants us to pray with gut-level honesty. He wants us to talk to him about everything that matters to us. Pray is even more powerful when we pray continually. Finally, when we pray we should spend time listening for his response. Prayer is powerful when we use it to connect to Jesus because it positions us to grow in our relationship with him!
Tonight, Zeek talks to the ROCK about being thankful and living out being thankful all year long!
In today's world, it's normal for people to live their lives overwhelmed, unfulfilled and unhappy. We label this as normal. The truth of the matter is that as followers of Jesus, we are called to live a different way. In our series, Weird, we'll learn the simple truth that if we want what normal people have, then we do what normal people do but if we want what few people have, then we need to do what few people do. Since normal isn’t working, that means we need to get weird!
We discovered how God is calling us to be a God kind of weird last week and we are going to see how weird is a better way to live this week! There is always pressure from our world to conform to the norm. We are pressured to talk, act and dress the same. These pressures show us two reasons that people don’t live out a God kind of weird. The first is an inward pull which is our need to please. The second is an outward pull which is our fear of persecution. However, we have to understand that when we’re weird, we can’t please everyone, but we can please God.
In today's world, it's normal for people to live their lives overwhelmed, unfulfilled and unhappy. We label this as normal. The truth of the matter is that as followers of Jesus, we are called to live a different way. In our series, Weird, we'll learn the simple truth that if we want what normal people have, then we do what normal people do but if we want what few people have, then we need to do what few people do. Since normal isn’t working, that means we need to get weird!
We kick off our series tonight by seeing that there are different kinds of weird. There is a bad weird and there is a God weird. We are called to be a God kind of weird. We'll use Matthew 7:13-14 as our theme verse throughout the series which shows us that weird people travel down the narrow path. We want students to see that to be weird, we need to think differently and live differently. God has so much more for us if we’re willing to embrace a weird life. The goal for tonight is that students will wrestle with how God is leading them to be a God kind of weird!
Friends are an essential part of life. We need them to thrive. In fact, God has created us to be in community and with friends. Friends love you at your worst and can help you be your best, but many of us don’t realize the importance of the people we choose to surround ourselves with. The friends you have help determine the quality and direction of our life. Where are our friendships leading us? In this series, we will discuss what is needed to have the kind of friendships that God wants us to have.
This week we look at two things we can’t let our friends do to us and one thing that we won’t stop doing. This message is centered around the simple concept that despite the impact our friends have on our future, we can’t ignore the people in our lives who don’t know Jesus. Therefore, we want our students to understand that they can’t let their friends distract them from following God’s plan and they can’t let their friends tempt them to sin. Despite their desire for good friends, they have to love people with the unconditional love of Christ. This is a non-negotiable as followers of Jesus… even with our friends!
Friends are an essential part of life. We need them to thrive. In fact, God has created us to be in community and with friends. Friends love you at your worst and can help you be your best, but many of us don’t realize the importance of the people we choose to surround ourselves with. The friends you have help determine the quality and direction of our life. Where are our friendships leading us? In this series, we will discuss what is needed to have the kind of friendships that God wants us to have.
This week we’ll discover the kind of friends that we all need to have. We'll look at the life of David and see that David had three friends in his life that helped him to be known as a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22). David had Samuel, who was a friend that made him better (1 Samuel 16:12-13). David had Jonathan, who was a friend who helped him find spiritual strength (1 Samuel 23:15-16). David also had Nathan, who was a friend that told him the truth (2 Samuel 12:7). Students understand that they will never become who God wants them to be if they don’t surround themselves with the right friends.
Friends are an essential part of life. We need them to thrive. In fact, God has created us to be in community and with friends. Friends love you at your worst and can help you be your best, but many of us don’t realize the importance of the people we choose to surround ourselves with. The friends you have help determine the quality and direction of our life. Where are our friendships leading us? In this series, we will discuss what is needed to have the kind of friendships that God wants us to have.
We kick off our series by discussing the friend that we need to be. Before they can FIND the right friends, they need to BE the right friend. We are going to look at two requirements for being a good friend. The first is the need to be present. Good friendships need to be face to face and not thumbs to thumbs. The second is the need to be open. We might impress people with our strengths but we connect with people by sharing our weaknesses! There is truth in the saying, show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.
Listen to this week's message to learn how you can be wise, and not dumb, when it comes to your heart!
Listen to this week as one of our summer interns, Trey Richman, tells us how we can be wise, and not dumb, when it comes to temptation.
Listen to this week's message to learn how you can be wise, and not dumb, when it comes to the money you have, make and spend!
Have you ever been in conflict with someone? Listen to this week's message to learn how you can be wise, and not dumb, when it comes to conflict.
Listen as Zeek Lipsey, one of our summer interns explains how you can be wise, and not dumb, when it comes to your speech!
How do we walk with wisdom when it comes to our friends? Check out this week of wisdumb and learn how you can be wise and not dumb with your friends.
Proverbs gives us a lot of insight in how we can walk with wisdom when it comes to our family. Check out this message to hear how you can be wise and not dumb with your family.
We kick off our summer by starting our new series WisDumb. We will spend the summer studying the book of Proverbs to learn how we can be wise and not dumb. Tonight we'll look at the basic topic of Wisdom. We'll discover where wisdom comes from but also how we can continue to walk in wisdom!
On our 6th graders first night, we talk about how we can get the most out of the ROCK. We spend some time looking at a familiar story to see how we can get out of the ROCK what we put into the ROCK. This is a great opportunity for each us to learn how to grow as we start off with our new 6th graders!
On our 8th graders last night, they are experiencing a whole lot of change. In the midst of all their change, we focused on the simple truth found in Hebrews 13:8. We learn what is unchanging in our unchanging world.
It’s time for some real talk. Living out our faith can be hard. From navigating our friends, our words, our actions, and even money… living in a way that brings God glory is hard. This is where the book of James comes in. The book of James is a book that is all about how we can have a real faith that works in our real world. Over the next five weeks, we’ll be looking at what it takes to have a real faith that really works!
Tonight we wrap up our series by looking at James 5. James covers many topics in James 5, but a major chunk of James 5 covers the topic of prayer. Therefore, tonight we’ll be discussing prayer, focusing on its power and explaining the basics of prayer as well. We want students to understand why prayer makes such a big difference in their relationship with Jesus and how they can spend time in prayer too! We will show students that prayer is powerful because it changes the world around us but more importantly it changes our own hearts too! When we pray, we will begin to understand that our prayers are powerful and produce wonderful results!
It’s time for some real talk. Living out our faith can be hard. From navigating our friends, our words, our actions, and even money… living in a way that brings God glory is hard. This is where the book of James comes in. The book of James is a book that is all about how we can have a real faith that works in our real world. Over the next five weeks, we’ll be looking at what it takes to have a real faith that really works!
We are in week 3 of our series, which means we’ll be looking at James 3 tonight. James 3 starts off dealing with something that many of us struggle with today. That problem is the power of our words, or as James puts it… taming the tongue. Tonight we’ll look at why it’s so important to tame our tongues and the consequences that come from it. The biggest part of the problem with our words is that our words reflect what’s going on with our hearts. If our heart is focused on sin, then our words will reflect that. If our heart is focused on Jesus, then our words will reflect that too. While it seems small, our words play a role in how we live out our faith everyday!
It’s time for some real talk. Living out our faith can be hard. From navigating our friends, our words, our actions, and even money… living in a way that brings God glory is hard. This is where the book of James comes in. The book of James is a book that is all about how we can have a real faith that works in our real world. Over the next five weeks, we’ll be looking at what it takes to have a real faith that really works!
Tonight we continue our series by looking at James 2 and how faith acts. James essentially says that followers of Christ will show their faith by how they treat the people around them and how they live out their faith. This may sound like a contradiction to Paul who says that we can’t do anything to be saved. The reality is that James and Paul don’t contradict each other but instead compliment each other. We are saved by our faith in Jesus, but when we’re saved we our life produces fruit. We want students to understand that we don’t behave to be saved, but when we’re saved we see a change in how we behave.
It’s time for some real talk. Living out our faith can be hard. From navigating our friends, our words, our actions, and even money… living in a way that brings God glory is hard. This is where the book of James comes in. The book of James is a book that is all about how we can have a real faith that works in our real world. Over the next five weeks, we’ll be looking at what it takes to have a real faith that really works!
Tonight we kick off our series, Real Talk, by looking at James 1. James 1 is all about how we can grow deeper in our faith. James shows us that trials can help us grow, but he also shows us that God’s Word plays an important role too. Specifically, how we respond to God’s Word. James shows us that we must accept God’s Word and not reject it. He also shows us that we must continually remember God’s Word. James also shows us that we must obey God’s Word. In all of this insight, we must understand that we must do what God’s Word says. This is the mark of every follower of Jesus who is and wants to grow deeper in their faith!
We all want to be remembered for something. This is where a legacy comes in. The idea of leaving a legacy is the need or the desire to be remembered for what you have contributed to the world. While many people want to be remembered for contributions made, advancements in society or discoveries that change the world. However, as followers of Jesus, our contribution is much more.
Tonight, the 8th graders will be leading a discussion on how we can live out and leave a legacy that is worth being remembered for. This legacy comes when we have a deep love for God. Where we love him with everything we are and first in our lives. It also comes when we have a deep love for other people. This is evident in our daily interactions with the people around us. Our legacy also comes when we love God’s Word. The Bible leads us into a life that is centered on Jesus. Finally, our legacy matters when we love living out our faith. We show the world around us what we believe and how it has changed us. These things bring a legacy that really lasts!
Tonight was Fake Spring Break. A tropical-themed night where students dressed up in their best tropical gear, we played tropical themed games and had tropical food! We encouraged everyone to bring a friend with them and had an awesome night!
Jesus invites all of us to experience paradise. Not Hawaii or the Bahamas but Heaven! Tonight we discuss what it means to experience paradise and how everyone can one-day experience paradise!
Jesus gave us a very important command… That we are called to share the message of the cross with the world. In Matthew 28 and Acts 1, Jesus tells his followers to go and be witnesses of what He did for the world. This is a command for every follower of Jesus. However, we rarely see people actually go and share their faith. In our series, Let’s Talk About It, we will be looking at how we can share our faith every day to everyone everywhere we go!
Tonight we finish our series by talking about how we can personalize the gospel through sharing our own story of how we came to know Jesus. Helping our students share their testimony is a powerful way to make the gospel come to life to their friends because they see a real-life example of how Jesus can change someone’s life. We will let students know how they can share their testimony and challenge them to share it with some of the friends in their life!
Jesus gave us a very important command… That we are called to share the message of the cross with the world. In Matthew 28 and Acts 1, Jesus tells his followers to go and be witnesses of what He did for the world. This is a command for every follower of Jesus. However, we rarely see people actually go and share their faith. In our series, Let’s Talk About It, we will be looking at how we can share our faith every day to everyone everywhere we go!
Tonight we are talking about a really practical way that we can share the gospel with our friends. So many times students say that they don’t know how to start the conversation to talk about Jesus. Tonight we’ll be talking about how we can share the gospel. It is simple… We’ll be challenging students to remember three words: ask, admire and admit. Ask your friends what they believe. Admire something about their beliefs. Finally, admit what you believe. This will be the culmination of everything we’ve discussed in this series so far!
Jesus gave us a very important command… That we are called to share the message of the cross with the world. In Matthew 28 and Acts 1, Jesus tells his followers to go and be witnesses of what He did for the world. This is a command for every follower of Jesus. However, we rarely see people actually go and share their faith. In our series, Let’s Talk About It, we will be looking at how we can share our faith every day to everyone everywhere we go!
Tonight we are talking about what the gospel actually is. Students often claim that they don’t know what to their friends because they don’t actually know what the gospel is. Therefore, tonight we are going to discuss what the gospel is in it’s basic form. We will be going over a simplified version of Cru’s four spiritual laws. The goal for the night is that students would understand that they can share the gospel with their friends because they know what the gospel is!
Jesus gave us a very important command… That we are called to share the message of the cross with the world. In Matthew 28 and Acts 1, Jesus tells his followers to go and be witnesses of what He did for the world. This is a command for every follower of Jesus. However, we rarely see people actually go and share their faith. In our series, Let’s Talk About It, we will be looking at how we can share our faith every day to everyone everywhere we go!
Tonight we are talking about how we must experience God’s love before we go and share God’s love for the world. As we spend a lot of time in worship, we’ll see how God’s love should motivate us to go. We’re going to look at the story of Philip and Nathaniel in John 1 and see what Philip did as our guide. He simply saw who Jesus was, responded to Jesus’ calling and then went and told Nathaniel. It was a simple invitation that came from Philip’s own, genuine experience! We can’t share what we haven’t experienced!
It’s hard to get to know someone on a real level. In a world where people are more connected than ever before, getting a picture of who someone really is is harder than ever before. In our series, Jesus Is ________, we are going to look at three attributes of Jesus that will help us discover who Jesus really is. When we understand who Jesus really is, we’ll be able to see how he feels about us and what he desires for us.
Tonight is Baptism night at the ROCK! It’s one of the best nights of the year on its own, but we’re also talking about how Jesus is alive. This is significant on baptism night because we are not talking about how students put their faith in a savior that only died but one that rose from the dead and is alive. The fact that Jesus is alive changes everything for those of us who follow him. Jesus’ resurrection proved that he was God because only God could beat death. It proved that we could be forgiven of our sins. Finally Jesus being alive means that we can now really live… not in our sin, but in the righteousness that God has given to us through Jesus.
It’s hard to get to know someone on a real level. In a world where people are more connected than ever before, getting a picture of who someone really is is harder than ever before. In our series, Jesus Is ________, we are going to look at three attributes of Jesus that will help us discover who Jesus really is. When we understand who Jesus really is, we’ll be able to see how he feels about us and what he desires for us.
Tonight we kick off our series by looking at how Jesus is our friend. An interesting thing about Jesus is that he was continually criticized for being a friend of sinners. While the Pharisees saw that as something bad, we must see it as something good. Why? Because that means that Jesus befriends me. We will discover this truth by looking at three interactions that Jesus has with different sinners and see how we are found in each of those sinners. By understanding that Jesus is our friend, we’ll see that Jesus moves toward people who have sin in their lives and loves them anyway. This is who Jesus really is… a friend of sinners.
Very few topics are as tough to talk about to teens as the topic of sex. Middle schoolers are bombarded with culture's messages of sex but likely have little exposure to the biblical view. This series certainly won't answer all their questions (in fact, it may serve to raise a bunch of new ones), but it will expose your students to a biblical understanding of God's plan for sex, where society has gone wrong and what a middle schooler can do about it all.
Tonight, our High School Pastor, Mark Kaminski, speaks on how Middle Schoolers are supposed to live out God's perfect plan. He will lay out a plan for purity and show us how purity is possible.
Very few topics are as tough to talk about to teens as the topic of sex. Middle schoolers are bombarded with culture's messages of sex but likely have little exposure to the biblical view. This series certainly won't answer all their questions (in fact, it may serve to raise a bunch of new ones), but it will expose your students to a biblical understanding of God's plan for sex, where society has gone wrong and what a middle schooler can do about it all.
Last week we saw how God’s plan for sex is perfect, even though it might not be popular. Tonight we ask the question, “what went wrong?” We answer that question by looking at four lies that we have heard and believe when it comes to sex. We ultimately want students to honestly ask if they have bought the lie? If they have, then they will not live out God’s perfect plan for their life. However, if they are willing to take the lies they’re being told by culture and replace them with God’s truth, then they’ll live our God’s perfect plan.
Very few topics are as tough to talk about to teens as the topic of sex. Middle schoolers are bombarded with culture's messages of sex but likely have little exposure to the biblical view. This series certainly won't answer all their questions (in fact, it may serve to raise a bunch of new ones), but it will expose your students to a biblical understanding of God's plan for sex, where society has gone wrong and what a middle schooler can do about it all.
Tonight we kick off the series by talking about God’s plan for sex. Tonight we want to try to understand what God was thinking. Despite all the myths when it comes to sex, God had a plan. God’s plan for sex to be between a man and a woman within the relationship of marriage. Sex outside of a man and woman and outside of marriage is outside of God’s plan for sex. Even though there are lots of other different ideas about sex out in the world today, we’ll help students see that God’s plan is perfect.
God is calling all of us to a ridiculous faith. Not ridiculous in a bad way… but ridiculous in a good way. Many words today have two meanings. They mean what they mean but they also mean the opposite. That is how it works with ridiculous. Over the next three weeks, we are going to be looking at stories from the life of Elisha the prophet. Our desire is to see how we can live lives of ridiculous faith so that we can please God!
Today we are going to look at the story of Naaman from 2 Kings 5. This is an incredible story where God shows us that our plans take a back seat because He will always work according to His plan… not ours! Throughout the story we see that Naaman was trying to force his plan onto God, but God ends up showing Naaman that obedience is key to a ridiculous faith. Naaman had a choice… to walk away in disobedience and remain with his leprosy or submit to God’s plan and see healing take place. Ridiculous faith begins with submitting to God’s plan… not ours!
God is calling all of us to a ridiculous faith. Not ridiculous in a bad way… but ridiculous in a good way. Many words today have two meanings. They mean what they mean but they also mean the opposite. That is how it works with ridiculous. Over the next three weeks, we are going to be looking at stories from the life of Elisha the prophet. Our desire is to see how we can live lives of ridiculous faith so that we can please God!
We're going to look at two principles of what a faith that works has. We saw last week that God is calling us to have a ridiculous faith that pleases Him! So today we’re going to see what that faith involves by looking at 2 Kings 3:15-20. We are going to see that our greatest need becomes a blessing when it drives us to God. That blessing for the kings came in the form of water. God showed those kings that only God can bring the water but we need to dig the ditches. Once the water came, God shows us that our faith needs to believe BIG but be willing to start small!
God is calling all of us to a ridiculous faith. Not ridiculous in a bad way… but ridiculous in a good way. Many words today have two meanings. They mean what they mean but they also mean the opposite. That is how it works with ridiculous. Over the next three weeks, we are going to be looking at stories from the life of Elisha the prophet. Our desire is to see how we can live lives of ridiculous faith so that we can please God!
Tonight we are going to be looking at the beginning of Elisha’s story. We’ll see how God used Elijah the prophet to call Elisha to be one of the greatest prophets ever! We’ll see from the calling of Elisha what great commitment looks like. This story shows us that you don’t have to know all the details to fully obey God. Our culture tells us the opposite, but God calls us to simply follow His calling! We also see that those God uses the most are those who hold on to the least. God calls us to step away from our security and pursue our destiny He’s called us to!
The small conjunction “but” plays a significant role in language. The conjunction “but” is used to connect statements that express opposite ideas. In the Bible, there are some big “buts”. These “buts” are used to make important statements about our faith and relationship with Jesus. In our series, Big Buts In The Bible, we are going to look at some of these big buts and how they impact our faith.
Peter wrote to churches that were experiencing trials because of their faith. In the midst of this letter, Peter gave them clear instructions on how they can be a witness to the world in the midst of their suffering. That’s where our BUT for the night comes in. Peter tells them to worship Jesus as the Lord of their life in the midst of their suffering. What does that look like? Peter says that it starts with their words and it continues with their lifestyle. Their words and their walk is how we can worship Jesus in the midst of trials!
The small conjunction “but” plays a significant role in language. The conjunction “but” is used to connect statements that express opposite ideas. In the Bible, there are some big “buts”. These “buts” are used to make important statements about our faith and relationship with Jesus. In our series, Big Buts In The Bible, we are going to look at some of these big buts and how they impact our faith.
Galatians 2:20 says “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, BUT Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This verse is all about what it means to be justified by faith. So we will use this passage to look at the marks of a real faith. We want students to see that real faith is actually not about living but rather about death… death to sin and death to self. Real faith is all about death so that we can live for him.
The small conjunction “but” plays a significant role in language. Conjunctions are used to connect two different clauses together. Specifically, the conjunction “but” is used to connect statements that express opposite ideas. In the Bible, there are some big “buts”. These “buts” are used to make important statements about our faith and relationship with Jesus. In our series, Big Buts In The Bible, we are going to look at some of these big buts and how they impact our faith.
Today we are going to look at 3 big “buts.” These “buts” are found in John 3:16-18. Jesus, while talking to Nicodemus, explains why he came, what he’s doing and what the results will be from his life, death and resurrection. These “buts” explain how salvation comes, God’s purpose for sending Jesus, and the reality that we are faced with in light of Jesus’ ministry. We want students to walk away encouraged by knowing that while they have sin in their life, sin is not the final chapter in their story!
Tonight we had our first ever Boys vs Girls night. We had over 30 games to see who was the more dominat gender... boys or girls? At the end of the night, Rick shared how boys and girls are different but also how they are the same too!
What is a shift? The dictionary defines a shift as a change in emphasis, direction or focus. As followers of Jesus, we all experience a SHIFT in thinking. We used to think one way and now, in light of Jesus, we think in a different way. In our series, SHIFT, we are going to look at two important shifts that every follower of Jesus must experience. The first week we’ll look at the shift He>I and the second week we’ll look at the shift We>Me. These two shifts are essential to understanding how we should live out our faith as followers of Jesus.
This week we'll look at the SHIFT in thinking where we realize that we are not meant to live alone. In fact, in the beginning of creation, God didn’t like that man was alone, so he created community for Adam to be in. Tonight we’re going to see how WE>ME. When we become followers of Jesus, we join a spiritual family. Our spiritual family is important for our growth and for our identity. We want our students to understand that we’re better together.
What is a shift? The dictionary defines a shift as a change in emphasis, direction or focus. As followers of Jesus, we all experience a SHIFT in thinking. We used to think one way and now, in light of Jesus, we think in a different way. In our series, SHIFT, we are going to look at two important shifts that every follower of Jesus must experience. The first week we’ll look at the shift He>I and the second week we’ll look at the shift We>Me. These two shifts are essential to understand how we should live out our faith as followers of Jesus.
This week Rick looks at the SHIFT in thinking where we stop focusing on making ourselves the greatest and start making Jesus the greatest. We learn that as followers of Jesus, we need to live a life where HE>I. The goal of our life needs to be making Jesus great instead of ourselves great.
Love is a funny thing. However, it is something that we are commanded to do by Jesus in the Bible. But how do we love the people around us? What does it look like? How do we do it without being weird? In our series, How To Love Your ______, we are going to look at two groups of people that it can sometimes be hard to love… our family and our friends. We want students to live out the love of Jesus to the people that they spend the most time with, in a way that brings Jesus glory!
Tonight we discuss how we love our friends. Jesus gives us the command, “Love each other in the same way I have loved you” (John 15:12). How did Jesus love us? We are going to look at the different ways that Jesus loved us and see how we can love our friends that same way. Ultimately, we want students to know that the best way to love their friends is to live out their faith in front of their friends every day!
Love is a funny thing. However, it is something that we are commanded to do by Jesus in the Bible. But how do we love the people around us? What does it look like? How do we do it without being weird? In our series, How To Love Your ______, we are going to look at two groups of people that it can sometimes be hard to love… our family and our friends. We want students to live out the love of Jesus to the people that they spend the most time with, in a way that brings Jesus glory!
Tonight, the ROCK had its Family Night. Rick talked about how both parents and students can love their families based on Ephesians 6.
A student's language is always changing. Students used to say 'cool', now they say 'lit'. Students used to called their peers 'friends', now they call them 'fam'. A common saying today with students is the phrase, on point. On point means to be perfect or to be awesome.
We’re using the phrase ‘On Point’ to be a description of the ROCK and our faith. We’ll be looking at Acts 2:42 as our example of a church that is ‘On Point’ and see what the believers did to be that way. Each week we’ll look at a different aspect of an ‘On Point’ church: fellowship, prayer and the apostle’s teaching.
We finish our On Point series by looking at the mission that the early believer's had... to reach the world with the gospel. We see that God wants to use us to reach the world around us. We are his plan for the world!
A student's language is always changing. Students used to say 'cool', now they say 'lit'. Students used to called their peers 'friends', now they call them 'fam'. A common saying today with students is the phrase, on point. On point means to be perfect or to be awesome.
We’re using the phrase ‘On Point’ to be a description of the ROCK and our faith. We’ll be looking at Acts 2:42 as our example of a church that is ‘On Point’ and see what the believers did to be that way. Each week we’ll look at a different aspect of an ‘On Point’ church: fellowship, prayer and the apostle’s teaching.
Tonight we see that the early believers committed themselves to the apostle's teaching, which we would call the Bible today. We see that God's Word plays an important role in the life of the follower of Jesus. We'll see that if we want to grow, we need to read!
Tonight we kick off our series, On Point. A student's language is always changing. Students used to say 'cool', now they say 'lit'. Students used to called their peers 'friends', now they call them 'fam'. A common saying today with students is the phrase, on point. On point means to be perfect or to be awesome.
We’re using the phrase ‘On Point’ to be a description of the ROCK and our faith. We’ll be looking at Acts 2:42 as our example of a church that is ‘On Point’ and see what the believers did to be that way. Each week we’ll look at a different aspect of an ‘On Point’ church: fellowship, prayer and the apostle’s teaching.
Alanna shares with us about the importance of prayer in the faith of a ROCK student.
Tonight we kick off our series, On Point. A student's language is always changing. Students used to say 'cool', now they say 'lit'. Students used to called their peers 'friends', now they call them 'fam'. A common saying today with students is the phrase, on point. On point means to be perfect or to be awesome.
We’re using the phrase ‘On Point’ to be a description of the ROCK and our faith. We’ll be looking at Acts 2:42 as our example of a church that is ‘On Point’ and see what the believers did to be that way. Each week we’ll look at a different aspect of an ‘On Point’ church: fellowship, prayer and the apostle’s teaching.
This week we'll be focusing on the importance of fellowship in the life of a ROCK student. We'll see together that a life group will help us gather, grow and go.
Today's parable has been misinterpreted by many, but today Rick shares what the parable of the mustard seed really means!
Following Jesus should cost us something. Today Rick looks at a short parable where Jesus challenges his followers to truly be his disciples in a way that had not heard before!
Today Rick discusses the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus and we discuss how the parable applies to our lives today.
The story of the Good Samaritan is a well-known story, but what does it mean for me? Listen to this Thursday's message from Rick on the Good Samaritan.