Faith Mountain: Recent Episodes
Faith Mountain
We are a church fueled by great faith and have seen God do things that only He can do: lives changed, marriages restored, and hearts made whole. We are a people aggressively pursuing opportunities to reach others with the life-saving message of Jesus in a clear and fresh way. Although our approach to church is anything but traditional, we maintain a conservative theological position.
We are standing on the shoulders of so many great leaders and people of faith who went before us. Watch as we celebrate our amazing history and look forward to what God has in store for our future.
Guest speaker Leho Paldre is the pastor of our Estonian sister church. In this sermon, he shares what it looks like to be an Andrew, and bring people of all backgrounds to experience Jesus.
Many people, including Christians, have abandoned the church, but still identify as a Christian. In this message, Pastor Pat teaches about the importance of the Church, not just in our lives, but in the community.
83% of Americans identify themselves as Christians, so why do we not see more people acting like Jesus did? A Christian Atheist is someone who believes in God, claims to be a Christian, but lives as if God doesn't exist. The first church faced some of the same issues. In this, the first week of this series, Pastor Pat explores how we can begin to know God well, and begin living a life built on desire for intimacy with Him.
Can all roads lead to heaven? Why are Christians so exclusive? It can be hard to answer these questions, but when we look to scripture and basic logic, we see that Jesus is the only way. It may seem exclusive, but the invitation to follow Jesus is open to everyone.
What are you lying about? Pastor Mitch shows us what Jesus had to say about Hypocrisy in the church.
The goal of this series is to follow the evidence where it leads, not where you hope it leads. On this journey, the question of God's existence is one question that every worldview must provide an answer for. In this message, Pastor Ben teaches about the Moral and Cosmological Arguments and how they relate to all belief systems, including Christianity.
Jesus teaches that only when we die to ourselves will we truly live. In the first week of the series "Living Through Dying," Pastor Mitch explores what it takes to follow Jesus. Only when we count the cost can we truly follow Jesus with all our lives.
In our sixth and final week of our Doing Time series, we tackle the concept of Building Alignment. Alignment determines direction and destination. Alignment determines impact. Building Alignment is crucial to being able to get an organization where one intends it to go, making sure everyone is on the same page and headed the same direction.
Jesus humbled himself when he came down from heaven to serve us; ultimately by sacrificing his life for us. He invites us to do the same: to humble ourselves and serve others. Jesus teaches that if you take the low place, you will be lifted up.
We live in a cynical world for a reason. People are often much more interested in their own gain and taking care of themselves than they are in doing the right thing. We've all experienced someone trying to take advantage of us. We've all been lied to, and it impacts everything we do: relationships, workplace, even church. In our fourth week of our series Doing Time, the focus is on choosing to assume the positive in others, believing the best about them. Choose Trust.
Do you find yourself spending too much time on the little things and getting exhausted before you even start the important things? In this week of the series Doing Time, Pastor Pat teaches us how to pursue health in our relationship with God in a way that brings life to our lives.
Welcome to our second week of our series Doing Time. Last week taught on battling against mediocrity. If you feel mediocre, something's wrong because God designed us to lead full, amazing lives. This week, we talk about making things happen. If everybody waits for somebody to do something that anybody can do, nobody will do it. Be the one to Make It Happen.
Does it ever feel like you're just "doing time"? Like day by day you're living life in a grind? With Jesus' help, we can transform our lives and battle mediocrity to become people who live life to the fullest.
Are you weird? Has this year been a weird year for you? That's okay, because, by worldly standards, we serve a weird God. As we end 2017 and start a brand new year, we have the opportunity to be weird for God all over again in 2018.
Who is Jesus? His is a name that nearly everyone in our culture recognizes. A name we are all familiar with, but do we know who Jesus really is? Our Whoville Christmas Eve service examines Who the bible, and Jesus Himself, say He is.
Today is the second installment of A Whoville Christmas. Last week we talked about some of the characters from the Dr. Seuss classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and examined some people from the bible. The Whos down in Whoville were a people of community, celebrating life together whether they have stuff at Christmas or not. They exhibited generosity and shared what they had or didn't have, and they did it with joy.
Today starts a short Christmas series based on the Dr. Suess story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." We start by looking at some of the characters and asking questions associated with each of these characters. As we examine parallels to biblical people, the overarching question is "Who will you be this Christmas?
Life is filled with experiences of love gone wrong. It is constantly teaching us that it is safer and easier not to love. Yet, despite all of the pain love brings, we all crave it. That is because it also brings joy and peace, a sense of belonging and contentment. Love Changes Everything.
Welcome to the fourth week of the Offensive Parenting sermon series. In last week's sermon, we covered the fear of consequences. But there comes a point when that fear is no longer effective. So this week covers the second and third filters - fear of disappointment and desire to please - that can be the next steps to offensively parent effectively.
One of the most powerful gifts you can give a child is the fear of the Lord, which starts with a healthy respect for mom and dad. This week in our Offensive Parenting series, we discuss what that looks like.
How do you know if you are being a good parent? If you are going to parent offensively, you have to have a game plan. Parents need to adapt and move and change. In this second week of the series called Offensive Parenting, the subject is 4 roles for offensive parenting.
Welcome to week one of a new series called Offensive Parenting. For the majority of us who enter into parenthood, our parenting style is a response to the way that our parents dealt with us. But what if we approached parenting differently? What if we forgot about history...? What if we approached parenting by looking at the way God parents us?
When do you feel most alive? In week 5 of the series titled "Finding Your Way Back to God," Pastor Pat discusses our Awakening to Life–following Jesus is the only way to truly live.
We are in our fourth week of the Finding Your Way Back To God sermon series. As we have followed the Prodigal Son in his journey, he has awakened to a longing for purpose and meaning, awakened to regret his actions, and awakened to a need for help. Today's awakening is to know that he is loved despite what he has done and where he has been.
Welcome to our third week in the series Finding Your Way Back To God. In the first two weeks, the discussion was on awakening to longing and to regret. This week, we awaken our need to ask God for help.
We are in week two of our series "Finding Your Way Back To God" based on the book of the same name. We want to help people find Him for the first time. And we want to help everyone follow well...no matter when you found Him. Last week we talked about our universal longing for love, purpose and meaning. This week we look at the prodigal son's second awakening - his "coming to his senses" moment.
Today starts a series titled Finding Your Way Back To God. No matter where each of us finds ourselves on our spiritual journey, we all need to find our way back to God. God created us; sin separated us; Jesus helps us find our way back.
In our fourth week of the I Want To Believe But... series, we look at Killjoy God. Killjoy God says do this and don't do that. But this would mean that our relationship with Him is dependent on what we do and don't do. Killjoy God is just one more view of who God is not.
Welcome to the third week of our series title, “I Want To Believe, But...” Most people want to believe in God, but problem is that we choose not to believe in god because we view Him in ways which He doesn’t exist. This weeks version of God is Heartless God, the god we judge as unfair and uncaring.
Goosebump God is always making you feel good about you. He is always there, giving you assurance so that you never have to wonder if He is there of if He loves you. There are times when you have those moments and you feel God. When His presence is so thick that you can't deny He is present. But then you have those moments when you don't feel the presence of anything. If you can't feel Him, is he really present? In the second sermon of 'I Want To Believe, But..' series, Mitch talks about this Goosebump God.
God may not meet all your expectations—but that’s good news! Find out why in a new series: I Want to Believe, But...
In our first week, Pat tells us about the On Demand God. A God that does what we need Him to do, and if God doesn't do what we want Him to do then He must not be real, right?
There are many stories of people donating a kidney, or a lung, or a portion of their liver so that another person might live. Do you ever wonder why? Why would they take such a great risk? The answer is simple - Life. That is what is so important. It is noble and good and it is right to honor those willing to such courageous things. But it seems that we find sharing body parts to save a person's earthly life easier than sharing our faith to save someone for eternal life.
Our guest speaker today comes to us from Peak Church in Colorado Springs. Stuart McPherson talks to us about being a difference maker. In order to be a difference maker, you have to do something. How will you make a difference?
Our guest speaker today is Paul Mitton, District Executive Minister for Converge Rocky Mountain. He brings us a lesson from Luke 10:25-36, the parable of the good Samaritan. This lesson is about the life changing role we can plan simply by living as a good neighbor to the people around you. Who is your neighbor?
Welcome to the final installment of Follow. In this closing sermon in the series, we look at how many of Jesus' disciples decided to unfollow Him. There are a variety of followers - longtime followers, brand new followers, and even non-believer followers. No matter who you are or where you are in your spiritual journey, there has been or will come a time where you consider unfollowing Jesus.
Welcome to week six of Follow. Today's lesson is on leadership. If Jesus is a leader worth following then he is a leader worth learning from on how to lead well. We don't often think of him as a leader in the classical sense but he must have done something right. He built his brand in only 3 years and he has thousands of franchises operating globally over 2000 years after he left.
Most of us don't become Christians with the intent of following Jesus. We become Christians because we are told obedience pays and disobedience doesn't. We become Christians hoping that spirituality will fill the holes in our souls. We become Christians hoping God will fix us. Eventually, our agendas clash with Jesus' agenda, and we have to decide whether we'll abandon him or follow.
During his time on earth, Jesus invited misbehavers and unbelievers to follow him. We are all invited to follow him. You are invited to follow him, but there's something you need to know about following Jesus. It will cost you something eventually.
What are you wearing? And does what you are wearing communicate what or whom you follow? As we continue our summer series called "Follow", the discussion is about what defines us as Christians. It is not the shirts we wear, the fish on our cars, or the cross on a necklace around our necks that defines us. Love is what defines us, and love is displayed by our actions.
Last week, we started a new series called Follow and learned that being a Christian is not about religion but rather being in a relationship with Jesus. In our second week, we talk about different steps involved in being in that relationship. What is YOUR Next Step?
Jesus says to pray. Jesus says not to look over there. Jesus says to be nice. Jesus says to get up early and read your Bible. Lots of people think Christianity is all about doing what Jesus says. But what if doing what Jesus says isn't what Jesus says to do at all? Regardless of what you believe. Regardless of how you behave. Jesus invites you to follow him.
Over the last three weeks, our prayers have been about what we want God to do for us - Search Me, Break Me, Save Me. But what if we prayed more about what we could do for God? In our final sermon in the Dangerous Prayers series, we pray for God to Send Me.
In our third installment of the Dangerous Prayers series, we pray for God to "Save Me". You, at your very best, are never going to be good enough free yourself from slavery to sin. That is why God sent Christ Jesus to be the righteousness that we need. Through salvation in Christ our past is forgiven, our present is given purpose, and our future secured.
Could it be that all of our problems in life happen FOR us, not to us? We tend to engage in our little problems because the big ones scare us. But it is the big ones that drive us toward brokenness and dependence on something bigger than ourselves. Dependence on God. This week we are praying "Break Me".
So much of what we pray is generic, predicable, safe. Protect me, bless me, bless others. This series, Dangerous Prayers, is to help empower your prayers, and to experience a closer relationship with God. We start with David's plea to "Search me"
Have you ever made a mess messy-er? Some messes are unavoidable and if you are in the middle of a mess, there is no way to go back and unmake the mess. But with the mess you currently facing, there are some really bad options and you are being tempt to opt for something that will make you mess messy-er. This is the subject of our last sermon in the Address The Mess series.
Do you have a memory of happening upon a messy situation, then turning around and walking away from it? Our Address The Mess series up to this point has focused on our own messiness. Acknowledging that we are messes, that we create our messes. Today we will talk about how we can use messes as opportunities to love on others.
There is something about being forgiven and knowing it that is almost indescribable. While God doesn't magically fix all of our messes when we become Christians, the moment you feel His forgiveness is magical. That is when God begins to change you from the inside out.
As we continue in our series Address The Mess, we focus on messes that are so big, they seem impossible to clean up - especially alone. Messes so big we don't even know how to start the cleanup. The messes that bring us closer to God...
Church is for messy people. Because the church, if it teaches what the bible teaches, regularly talks about our messes. It is full of examples of people just like us - people who make mistakes and poor choices, and have to deal with the consequences. In our first sermon in the Address the Mess series, the topic is how the church should do more than just point out our mistakes...it should also offer solutions and help.
If you died tonight and found yourself at the gates of Heaven, and God asked you, "Why should I let you into My Heaven?", what would your answer be? Our Resurrection Day service is all about what it takes to get to Heaven.
In our third sermon in the Love Like Jesus series, we look at the imagery of breaking bread, or we might say fellowship, or community, of the first century followers, and how it compares to todays believers.
This is the second week in our series titled Love Like Jesus. As Jesus followers, our goal is to become more like Jesus in our attitudes, actions and lifestyles. Last week, we talked about forgiveness. To Love Like Jesus is to Forgive Like Jesus. It is not always easy to do, but it is definitely the right thing to do. This week we're going to look at the kind of love that displays itself through serving others. To Love Like Jesus means to Serve Like Jesus.
Our new series, Love Like Jesus, seemed most appropriate since Easter is the culmination of the most loving act in all human history. Jesus giving His life in exchange for ours. As Jesus followers, it is our goal to follow Him so closely that we begin to live as He lived, and love as He loved. This first sermon is on forgiveness.
In our third and final part of this series Crazy Like Us, we see practical solutions to making generosity a premeditated, calculated and designated part of our lives.
In the second of our three-part series on cultivating generosity, we learn how worry can create a "crazy" cycle that can keep us from our full potential regarding generosity.
Everyone knows how to do generosity, but few of us know how to be generous. In the first of our Crazy Like Us series, we discuss what comes natural when it comes to our finances, and generosity.
Our fourth and final Sunday in the I ❤️ My Church series is less a Sunday message and more of a Faith Mountain family conversation. The discussion focuses on what God has planned for the future of HIS Church.
The Church is one body with many parts. OUR Church is one part of THE Church - the global body of Christ. OUR Church is made up of people who, if you've accepted Christ, are part of the body of Christ. The third sermon in this series focuses on OUR Church and it's purpose, and how it impacts our people and our community.
Our teaching passage today - 1 Peter 2:9-12 - calls us "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession." We are who we are because of "whose" we are! In the 2nd sermon in 'I "Heart" My Church' we discover how to find our identity.
Bill Hybels once said, "the local church is the hope of the world". That's a pretty bold statement, almost arrogant. But it's only arrogant if it's not true. When we understand that THE Church is the only entity in the entire world getting the word our about the cure for death, seeing it as the hope of the world makes perfect sense.
Virtually everyone has said "I wish I had more time ..." to whatever: rest, read, spend time with family, etc. But the truth is that we all have time for what we choose to have time for. In our fourth and final sermon in our I Choose series, the subject is choosing what is important over what is urgent.
John 16:33 says, "In this world, you will have trouble." The reality is that we will all experience pain in our lives. Some of this pain is beyond our control. In our third week of the I Choose series, we look at the pain that we can avoid by applying discipline to our lives.
In the second week of our series called I Choose, Pastor Ben discusses surrendering control. All of us battle, in some area, wanting to control, but the reality is whenever we are trying to control something that is not ours to control, it is a reflection of a really big spiritual problem.
Imagine waking up every single day with passion and purpose in your life knowing deep down what you are created to do. It drives you and the approval of others does not distract you… It is the choice that Pastor Ben encouraged us to make: I choose purpose over popularity.
Our final Carol in the series is O Come O Come Emmanuel. We focus on the name Emmanuel, which means "God is with us".
This week's Carol is Away in a Manger. While one picture the song brings is that of a newborn baby boy, there is another that focuses on his destiny as Lord. Over and over he is referred to as the "Little Lord Jesus". Since Jesus is referred to as Lord 740 times in the New Testament, today's sermon will help us to understand that he is LORD.
Our second week in the Carols series focuses on O Come All Ye Faithful. Originally written in latin and named Adeste Fideles, it is probably one of the most well-known carols known today.
You can only imagine what it would have been like to be there on that Holy night. To us today, I think the manger scene; You've got the Baby Jesus, and you've got the Virgin Mary, and you've got Joseph...
If you could ask God one question, what would it be? Our final sermon in our No Apologies series is driven by the single largest complaint people have with God. Why is there suffering in the world?
That Jesus is the only way to heaven is one of the most often cited objections to Christianity. It's offensive to some because it seems so narrow-minded, arrogant and bigoted. Today's sermon continues our No Apologies series with a discussion about this argument.
Throughout history, Christians have evangelized. They have shared the truths of Jesus' death and resurrection. So this morning we are going to talk about what evangelism looks like today in 2016.
The Bible is central to the Christian Faith. Understanding what the Bible is and what it isn't, what it says and what it doesn't say, how to use it and how not to , is one of the most important lessons any of us will ever learn in relation to Christianity. Today's sermon tells us to stop reading it... and start studying it.
Today's guest speaker, Greg Koukl, helps us to better understand the story of Jesus, in the hopes that we will be able to relay the good news to others.
Week two of our two-week emphasis on missions is from Crick Porier. He and his family are our missionaries in Estonia, and he has some wonderful things to share about what God is doing through their ministry.
Week one of our two week emphasis on missions focuses on David Roberts' ministry in Argentina.