Recent Messages

7-5-26
The Answer That Changes Everything
How do YOU respond to Jesus?  There are many thoughts about Jesus in the world today, but as we saw last week, Jesus is not like anyone else in human history!  Some see Him as a great teacher, and some as a wonderful leader, a patient and kind shepherd.  He is all of those to be sure!  But He is also more.  He is both LORD, and CHRIST!  But when you hear His titles, and His commissioning....how do you respond?  This was what the Jews who were listening to Peter had to decide.  They began to see Jesus in a different light, they understood who He was....now what?  They had three options:  Reject, ignore, or surrender and follow!  What will YOUR choice be?

6-28-26
Jesus is ...Different
Who is the most unique person you have ever known? Ever heard of? What made that person special and worth remembering? Was it something they did, something important that they said? What about that person sets them apart from others around them? When Paul talks about Jesus, he says that Jesus is unique above all humanity, everyone who ever has, or ever will, live! He did what no other human has ever done, and He is treated different from every other person in history! Because of the things that make Him different, He is the one person that you and I still need to know today! In fact, how your react and respond to Jesus Christ determines EVERYTHING about your past, present, and future, both in this life and in eternity! How can one person be that life-changing?

6-21-26
The Last Days Begin
We often hear about the "last days" when we talk about the Bible. But what are they? Does it matter? Is there anything about that phrase that holds any meaning for us today when it has been over 2000 years since it was written about in the New Testament, and nearly 2,500 years since the term first appeared in the Old Testament? According to the prophet Joel, Luke tells us, there is a ton of meaning for us today! And it is the best news you will have ever heard? What is it?

6-14-26
The Sound of Fire
​What turned a radical teaching of a few people into world-changing movement? What was it that gave the 120 in the upper room the ability to begin discipling thousands? What empowered those thousands to then spread out under persecution and make disciples across the entire Roman empire? What made their lives so incredible that others were drawn to them daily? What drew the crowds to hear Peter preach the message of Pentecost? What is still working in the lives of people today to draw them in to Christ and empower them to make disciples? What empowers YOU to make disciples?

6-7-26
How to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
Do you ever wonder what it was like to be there at the beginning? To be in the upper room of the house praying after watching Jesus ascend to Heaven? What were those 120 people thinking? What were they praying for? What were they worried about? What were they afraid of? What were they hoping for? You may be asking yourself those or similar questions today! What can I do? What can I say or do that will possibly make a difference in the world today? But here we are today, 2000 years later, and the whole world is different because of those 120 people! So if you have questions and doubts, you are in good company, but you can also expect that the world is waiting for you to make an impact! How can you do that? Join us as we begin digging in to how it all began, and you will see!

5-31-26
Warning, Encouragement, and to God be the Glory
The church is a masterpiece! It is a family, made up of believers from all walks of life, woven into a marvelous tapestry of unity that puts God's glory on display! What could possibly ruin such a great work of God? Several things. These things start off looking good, but end up tearing the tapestry apart. Divisive people who are driven by their own desires; being too close to evil and weakening our unity through abrasion, and low expectations of our God! These are the things we must watch out for! How do we spot them, and how does the church stay strong and healthy?

5-24-26
Ordinary Everyday Heroes of the Faith
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What does it take to be considered worthy of being noticed? What kind of person do you think of from your life - who are your heroes? We often think of these folks as more amazing than ourselves, and we want to be like them; often times we fear we will never live up to their examples to us. It would be easy to assume that if someone was good enough to be recommended by Paul, that person must be amazing! He or she must be the very best of the teachers, or the disciple-makers, or the chief of servants.....but that isn't what Paul describes! He describes the people he wants to see honored, and they are a lot more like you and I than we would ever think! And that should motivate us! We should remember that we are just as capable of serving Christ well as those who came before us. So what did the people do who earned Paul's good favor?

5-17-26
Go Big...then go BIGGER
What are your dreams in terms of your serving the Kingdom of God and using your gifts? Who do you want to serve? Where do you want to do that service? What do you want to learn? How comfortable do you want to become with being uncomfortable? These are big questions! And they are questions each one of us must answer. Paul had to answer them too, and thankfully, he wrote down his answers for the believers in Rome to think through and pray about on his behalf! Paul had plans that he would pursue - some would be accomplished and others never would, but he lived on purpose, and he set his heart and mind on faithfulness to his calling. Do you have game plan you are using to accomplish your calling? Need to know how?

5-10-26
​Focus and Your Calling
What are your dreams in terms of your serving the Kingdom of God and using your gifts?  Who do you want to serve?  Where do you want to do that service?  What do you want to learn?  How comfortable do you want to become with being uncomfortable?  These are big questions!  And they are questions each one of us must answer.  Paul had to answer them too, and thankfully, he wrote down his answers for the believers in Rome to think through and pray about on his behalf!  Paul had plans that he would pursue - some would be accomplished and others never would, but he lived on purpose, and he set his heart and mind on faithfulness to his calling.  Do you have game plan you are using to accomplish your calling?  Need to know how?  Come and see this Sunday!

5-3-2026
Hope and Promises Fulfilled
​You are not an afterthought!  That's the message we see in the passage this week.  As Paul is wrapping up his letter to the Roman believers, he makes points out something that would make both Jew and Roman pause in surprise — the gentiles were always a part of the original plan!  What about you?  Have you ever felt like an afterthought to other people?  Well the good news for you today is that you were never an afterthought to God!  God's plan of salvation in Christ didn't just lump you in at the last minute, He always wanted you to have a way back into relationship with Him.  Jesus provided salvation in full to all who believe, and because of that salvation, we live in hope! 

4-26-26
Live in Harmony-Glorify Christ
When you look at each other at church, what do you see?   When you look at the people you work with, what do you see?  What do you see when you look around your neighborhood? The world would have you believe that what you see is not only what you get....but ALL you get.  But God invites us to look with different eyes!  He invites us look past what is right in front of us that is clamoring for all the attention you possess, and to see what could be - IF we let Him do His work in us.  In the passage we will look at this week, Paul writes that those who have seen more and have grown stronger in the faith, we should look at others and see what masterpiece God is trying to create in them, and then encourage them to let Him!  How do we do that well? ​

4-19-26
Love and the Role of Faith
"Stumbling blocks" - a term that we don't use much outside of church conversations anymore.  It seems like a such a little concept....and it often can be, but with very big consequences!  A stumbling  block was anything that would cause another person to trust God less, or to fail to trust God more.  Think of a stumbling block as giving someone bad directions.  They listen carefully, and they watch you to see which way you go, and because of you they turn left when they should have turned right.  Paul says we don't ever want to do this!  Our lives are supposed to point directly to Jesus Christ with all that we have and do.  In many ways, this is a very real way for us to love our neighbors!  So how do we do this well?

4-12-26
​Reconciliation
A message from one of our elders, Gilbert Manuell, about reconciliation.

4-5-26
​Easter Sunday
Enjoy our Easter Service with special music and performance by the Talking Hands Puppeteers.

3-29-26
Romans 14:1-12
Accountability and Minding Your Own Business
All followers of Christ are supposed to live "by faith".  The Bible says that by grace we are saved through faith, that the justified live by faith, and that by faith the heroes of old that we read about in the Old Testament did all of their spectacular things!  So we also should live by faith today.  But what do we do when our living by faith doesn't look like another believer's living by faith?  This is not a small issue, because we do have the Bible as our standard of living, AND we do have the Holy Spirit working in each person to convict and convince them of what is right and wrong.  Jesus Himself prayed that all of us who live by faith would be of one mind and purpose, and that we would truly achieve unity together in a way that mirrors Jesus' own unity and oneness with the Father. So how do we do both?  How do we live by faith, and yet also have unity when faith brings out differences?  ​

3-22-26
Romans 13:8-14
The True Fulfillment of the Law
​"All we need is love"....so says the song lyrics and poetry writers!  But are they on to something?  Paul reminds us that Jesus Himself taught that loving God with all we have and loving our neighbor as ourselves fulfilled the entirety of the law and the prophets!  But just as important as loving others, is WHY we are loving them - salvation is near!  As we look around us at the world in which we live, there has never been a time when love was more needed than now!  The opposite of love will be an interest in self, so we are told to make no provision for our own flesh.  The concept of worship that began in chapter 12, is coming together as marching orders and mobilization!

3-15-26
Romans 13:3b-7
The Proper Response to Government
Our culture has a very love-hate relationship with the government.  According to our countries guiding documents, we have certain duties to perform, taxes to pay, allegiances to give if at all possible (but we sometimes play loosely with what counts as possible).  Most of all, we tend to be extremely vocal about what we do and don't approve of, and we wage war with our government constantly.  No, not with weapons or machines, but rather with words.  And we do it while maintaining our that our first amendment rights give us the ability to so!  We put so much emphasis on getting our government to operate the way we want to.  But is this how a follower of Jesus should really view the government?  Is it there to serve us....or is its purpose deeper than our personal wants and desires?  If God is the ultimate authority that even our government will answer to and is supposed to serve, then what should our stance be on government....especially when we don't agree with a particular decision or platform?

3-8-26
Romans 13:1-3a
​The True Authority of Government
As we have looked at Paul's letter to the Romans so far, we have seen God pulling both Jews and Gentiles together and weaving them inextricably into one people, one family that serve Him!  It is a true work of art!  But how then do we handle the issue of a government that doesn't always agree with the rules and desires of God?  How do we approach the concept of a government having authority, when we say that God has ultimate authority?  Do we just dismiss the government?  Do we take the ever so humble kindergarten approach and tell the government "You can't tell me what to do!"? Or is there a bigger picture that we need to see?  Could God be at work in this world, even through a godless government?  In this week's passage, Paul will address this very thing!

3-1-26
​Romans 12:14-21
How to Win Against Evil
There are so many bad things in our world today.  In recent news we have seen evidence of some of the worst things imaginable, and things that go beyond the worst we imagine, being done for decades.  Many of these things cross the line of being simply "illegal".  They are outright evil to the very core.  What is a believer to do in a world that has celebrated, guarded, and hidden away evil for so long?  The early believers faced this same question in their day living as part of the church that was in Rome.  Caesar ruled with an iron fist and demanded to be seen as god.  The pantheon of idols included horrific acts of worship, and many of these false gods were required for veneration by Roman citizens or they could face social, and perhaps even physical, death.  Every instinct says to cry out "that's not fair!", or "death to Caesar!", or something similar.  But that isn't what Paul says to do.  Instead, he says we are to let the grace of God flow out of us by the power of the Holy Spirit, and bless those who do evil to us.  Bless them?!?  If bad people treat us badly, and we bless them instead of cursing them, then where is the justice supposed to come from?  Where is revenge?  Where are just-desserts?  Is God telling us through Paul to just turn a blind eye and live with rose-colored glasses?  Not at all!  Come see Paul's instruction about how to actually win against evil in our world

2-22-26
​Be Real
Romans 12:9-13
​Hypocrisy - a church dirty word if ever there was one!  We all know we shouldn't be hypocrites, but it can be harder than we wish it was to discern if we are falling into the practice!  Originally hypocrites were stage actors.  The actors would change masks to change characters, and so a "hypocrite" was a "mask-wearer".  Paul teaches in our passage this week that we should not be "mask-wearers" when it comes to loving others.  Our face that says "I love you" should be our true face and reveal our true heart towards others.  Our love should not be an act we put on when we have the right audience watching.  But how do we avoid becoming hypocrites, especially when loving others can be difficult?  Come and see Paul's answers this Sunday as we look at the next part our passage in the letter of Romans!​

2-15-26
​Worship In Real Life
Romans 12:3-8
Worship - It's more than a song!  ....but then, what is it really?  Is it just a perpetually good and hopeful attitude?  Is it a constant sense of "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength"?  Is it listening to the right music or sermons by various preachers and teachers through the week?  Too many times, when think about worship through the week, what we inevitably default to is trying to re-create a Sunday morning on another day or days of the week.  We keep falling into the trap of "Sunday Morning = Worship".  But.....what if it's more?!  What if worship is actually LIFE - giving to both yourself and others?  What if worship through the week could become the thing that fuels your Sunday morning with so much more meaning and purpose?  What if worship is more about what God does THROUGH you, than what you do FOR Him?  This is what Paul teaches us this week! 

2-8-26
​Living Sacrifice
Romans 12:1-8
What are the results of having faith in Jesus Christ?  One of the first noticeable changes should be in the way that we worship!  A follower of Jesus is one who worships by willingly enduring the fires of the altar.  They praise God no matter how good, or how bad, the day is going.  Their life priorities also shift, they begin to plan the day according to how God has gifted them with grace to reach people.  Their talents or abilities are no longer about getting for themselves, but are instead geared around giving Jesus to others.  Paul calls it "ministry", but not in the professional paid sense; rather it is just the  out-pouring of God's love through us.  This isn't a worship that happens for 20-30min in a once-a-week service, this is a daily attitude of "here I am!  Send me!"  We don't bring a sacrifice to God, we ARE the sacrifice to God.  And while this is the most uncomfortable worship we will ever be a part of, it ends with eternal life and the Kingdom of our God!

​2-1-26   
​Grafted In By Faith
Romans 11:13-36
What does it take to be "right"?  All too often, the trap is to find someone who is wrong, and think differently than they think and assume that we are then right.  This leads to a great amount of pride, arrogance, and ego in the church if we are not careful!  And churches do this all the time - we judge ourselves by another church's failures.  If we are doing better than they did, we assume we are right.  The apostle Paul was very concerned about this happening in his day too, with one of the first churches to exist - the church in Rome.  After laying out what the Jews had been mistaken about for so long, he turns to the gentiles in Rome and his first words are warnings against arrogance and conceit.  One of Satan's tactics of division is to get us so focused on the mistakes of others that we never consider ourselves.  In doing this, we miss God's blessings for us, and they are great!  Paul says that the gentiles are brought to knowledge of the Messiah because of the Jews, but their acceptance of Him will actually stir the Jews up to salvation as well!  What a wonderful goal!  He also reminds them that they are saved by their faith, NOT by their lack of being a Jew.  There is only one standard of salvation, and that is faith in Jesus Christ!  But He is enough!  ​

1-25-26
​Never Cast Away
Romans 11:1-12
Just how certain are the promises of God?  After all, we have all felt at times like God led us forward, only to have to face intense resistance.  We have all stared at obstacles that seemed too big to ever get beyond them and wondered how God's plans would play out.  Often times, we choose a completely different goal, or path forward, or just plain give up, because we don't see how God is going to do what He originally said.  In the message this week, Paul shows us that it isn't God's plan that suffers, it is just our understanding of it.  He appeals back to the prophet Elijah who thought for sure that he was about to die and all hope for Israel would die with him.  Instead God informed him that there were 7,000 others who had not bowed to a false god named Ba'al.  Even though Elijah saw only his own loneliness and hardship, God had been behind the scenes preparing the next move forward!  Paul says that if Israel's hardships still produce God's desired results, how much more will their eventual fulness produce?!  If God can still work in your hardest moments, just think how much better it will be when the hardship passes!  Come and receive encouragement to keep moving forward this Sunday as we see that the people of God's promises are never cast away!