What I’d like to establish with you is that God has an opinion. And I think that once you begin to establish that, it’ll be easy for you to identify some very persistent, powerful, unyielding rejections of God’s opinion. And if we can recognize it [...]

I want to continue a theme we began in an earlier service under the title of «Who’s the Boss»? Well, let’s just all say it together. «I am». Now let’s repent. Therein is the tension, but it’s a very relevant question. It’s very important. Bob Dylan [...]

It’s not uncommon for people of my generation to go, «Thank God we didn’t have social media when we were young». Well, I have an announcement. God did. Oh, you hadn’t deleted anything. Oh yes, I’ve been forgiven, I understand you’ve been forgiven. [...]

I want to begin a new topic for two or three sessions, either way, under the general heading of «Who’s The Boss»? Thank you for that enthusiastic response. You know, it’s a very relevant question. I mean, the byline is «Expressions of Spiritual [...]

In Matthew chapter 15, there’s a story of a mother that’s distraught. On behalf of her daughter, she comes to Jesus. She’s a Canaanite woman. That’s important. She’s not Jewish. She doesn’t keep the rules. She doesn’t keep the holidays, she doesn’t [...]

It’s Mother’s Day weekend. The title for this session is «God at Work Through our Families,» and just a bit of a disclaimer on the front end, this is my first Mother’s Day since my mom stepped out of time, so it feels like a special day to me. And [...]

There is a God, the creator of heaven and earth that has given us life. And we will one day give an account to him. And I think cultivating the practice of treating God with respect and when you make choices that reflect him, you want to give him [...]

Nah, it’s Mother’s Day and I think it’s appropriate to try to glean a bit of a biblical perspective around that. This one’s a bit more personal to me. It’s the first Mother’s Day since my mom went to heaven. Oh, yay God. Her gain, our loss. And I’m [...]

You see, the reason that in the book of Corinthians, it tells us that a Messiah who was crucified is a stumbling block for the Jews because they were looking for a Messiah who was a political leader. You understand that? They were looking for a [...]

Everywhere you go, you find men and women with a heart for the kingdom of God. And we have different stories and different backgrounds and different on ramps, but what joins us together is that passion for the kingdom of God and the recognition that [...]

But there’s three fundamental roles that I think every man should understand are a part of our assignment in our families. They’re biblically grounded. They’re not complicated. We could make this far more extravagant, but I wanna do it briefly. The [...]

I want to continue a series we began in an earlier session with a general heading of «Ideas, Understanding & Revelations». It’s a little abstract because it’s really a collection of ideas that I want to process with you, things that have become [...]

Well, I’d remind you one of my biblical heroes, and I hope he’s one of yours, is Daniel. Daniel led, in many respects, a tragic life. He spends his whole adult life as a slave in a foreign country. Jerusalem is destroyed, he’s never going back. The [...]

I wanna pick up a topic for, I don’t know, two or three sessions anyway. Title is the hardest part of this whole thing for me. But I called it «Ideas, Understanding, and Revelations». And I’ll tell you what it means to me is from time to time, and [...]

Is it safe to say that Jesus’s friends that made that journey with him for 3 years saw his suffering, his death, his resurrection, had that time with him, that they are changed? This is not the same crew following him through Matthew, Mark, Luke, [...]

The topic, the title, for this session is «Game of Thrones». There’s a great power struggle taking place in the earth. And we tend to think of it as the secular community does. I’m always a bit grieved when the Christian community sees the world [...]

I wanna give you a tool. Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11. You have it in your outlines. Says, «They overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony». And I put in your notes some parenthetical insertions, some words in [...]

The title for this session is «When We See Jesus». And it’s not really about his second coming although I guess it could be. It’s really built upon the experiences of Easter and Jesus’s closest friends of the events of that Easter weekend of Jesus’s [...]

The title for the session is «The 'After Party.'» You know, if you go to an event, and it could be just about any kind of event, it’s not uncommon that after the event there’s a party. And it can be a sporting event, it can be an awards [...]

I wanna ask you a question. I want to impanel you as expert witnesses. You know something of the character of God, you know something of the kingdom of God. We’re told in the narrative that Pilate knows Jesus is innocent. He understands him to be an [...]

You know, grace is the undeserved, the unmerited, the unearned blessing of God. When he shows us kindness that we don’t deserve, it’s not merit-based. If it’s merit-based, it’s not grace. Grace comes from the character of God, his great love for [...]

We’re living in a season when the church is struggling. Church with a capital C, not a single congregation. There’s amazing churches and remarkable churches, I did an interview recently with one of the leading statisticians on evangelicalism in [...]

The topic for the message is «The Challenge of Belief». You know, we live in an age where they tell us we’re in a post-Christian culture, that it’s no longer chic to be a Christ follower, that we’ve moved beyond the time when Christian values [...]

Now in Matthew 24, Jesus pivots, meaning he takes a new direction. It’s like he plants a foot in the ground, and he goes another way. The instructions are going to change. Remember, there’s two or three days of this very up close and personal and [...]

It’s a Palm Sunday weekend. The first, amen, that deserves some applause. I agree. It’s when the church celebrates Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. I grew up as a little child, they used to give us palm branches. Always made me nervous when [...]

You know, people often ask me, do I believe in medicine and doctors or healing? Yes. Yes. I believe God brings healing to our lives in many ways. He has brought healing to me supernaturally. He’s brought healing to me through medical practitioners [...]

There’s just no replacement for obedience to God. You can’t be generous enough to overcome your disobedience. You can’t be kind enough or… obedience is irreplaceable. Walk in the light of the truth that you know. In fact, I really don’t think [...]

We’ve been walking through a series under the general theme of Dynamic Faith that faith is not static. It isn’t stagnant. It’s not something that’s experienced. For faith to be real, it has to be lived out. So it’s a vibrant, dynamic, [...]

There’s some questions I would like to ask. To what extent do you imagine that we are seeking to be free of God’s restraint? Remember when we started in Matthew 24, Jesus said there would be a great falling away. A falling away from what? From [...]

We’ve been working through a series on dynamic faith. The premise is that faith is not a static thing, it’s not a theoretical thing, that it’s intended to be about transformation. It’s given expression and action. It remains theoretical until it’s [...]

So, to get started with, there’s just some fundamentals you need to know. One, when we talk about engaging with evil, recognizing that evil exists, understand it’s fundamentally a truth encounter. It’s not a power encounter. We’re no match for the [...]

Please understand God’s attitude has not changed. He will not force the glory of his kingdom upon you. He won’t force transformation upon you. He won’t force obedience upon you. He will put before you his invitations. He’ll put the prompting of his [...]

We began a new study in a previous session under the theme of «Dynamic Faith». A vibrant faith, a vital faith, a faith linked to outcomes and activity, as opposed to a static faith, a theoretical faith, a faith for discussion or contemplation. I [...]

It’s good to be with you again. We’re doing a study on «Angels, Demons, and You,» the spiritual forces that shape our lives. In this session, we’re gonna talk about unclean spirits. It was more fun to talk about angels and the angelic host and [...]

It’s good to be with you again, we’re gonna complete our session on the weapons that have been entrusted to us, the weapons at our disposal. You know, the theme is «Angels, Demons and You,» and it’s a study of those spiritual forces that shape our [...]

It’s good to be with you again, we’re continuing our study on «Angels, Demons and You,» trying to understand those spiritual forces that have such a profound impact on our lives. Folks, they’re more significant than the coronavirus. And so often we [...]

But the definition of devotion is the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal, ardently dedicated and loyal. I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a Christ follower who’s not devoted to Jesus. I don’t believe you can do that. Because [...]

We’re working through a series on «Tabernacle, Temple, Synagogues & Churches». Not just places of worship or styles of worship or ways to worship, but the way that God engages people of faith in community. We’re the 21st century edition of that. [...]

We talk about grace, because the purpose of grace and mercy is to bring you to repentance. The goal of grace and mercy is not a get out of jail free card, it’s the recognition that you deserve punishment. And God suspended it to give you an [...]

We’re walking through a study on the tabernacle, temple, synagogues, and churches. And that really is a, kind of an expanding story. When God delivered the Hebrew slaves from Egypt, the challenge was to take a group of people who’ve been slaves in a [...]

I’m gonna ask you to believe that God knows your name. He knows your name. The Bible tells us he knows how many hairs are on our head, he knows when we sit or we stand, when we come in or when we go out. See, we haven’t lived with this awareness, [...]

I began in a previous session, a study that I want to continue with you for a bit on the «Tabernacle, Temple, Synagogues & Churches». If you are just a casual reader of the Bible, I think those would all be familiar to you when God delivered the [...]

At the very end of creation, God created human beings. He created us male and female in the language of Genesis 1. As Christ followers, I’m going to submit to you that we have a biblical mandate to be culture builders. We can’t simply ask for the [...]

I want to begin a new study with you under the title of the «Tabernacle, The Temple, Synagogues, and Churches». If you’re a reader of scripture, you’ll recognize there, an emerging story after the Hebrew slaves were delivered from Egypt after [...]

The first few chapters the book of Revelation dealt with the present, the seven churches in Asia Minor that John was familiar with. The middle section dealt with that season that was ahead of him. The last couple of chapters deal with the distant [...]

It’s good to be with you again, we’re continuing our study on «Angels, Demons and You». It’s that end «You» part that makes all the difference. This is not a theoretical discussion, we’re trying to understand how spiritual forces influence our [...]

Hello, church, we’re going to finish our study on angels in the book of Revelation today. It’s an amazing book. So often Christians are afraid of it, but it’s the story of the end of the age, of our King returning, and his angels busily preparing [...]

We’re working on a topic, «Angels, Demons & You,» and I put the «You» in there on purpose because it’s so easy, when we pick up our Bible, to study it in a theoretical way. It’d be like having a conversation about diet and exercise, that doesn’t [...]

Let’s start with some scripture. You’ve got a page full of it. Romans chapter 1 and verse 20, it says: «Since the creation of the world,» which is really in the biblical language since the beginning of the story of Adam and his descendants. This is [...]

Our topic these days has been «Angels, Demons, and You». And the «and You» is the most important part of the title. We could have endless seminars on angels and demons, and there would really be a little pushback. There’d be a lot of enthusiasm, but [...]