Today, we’re gonna talk about making room by letting go, making room by letting go. You know, sometimes we hold on to so many things. We can begin to even create memorials in our lives and landmarks of what happened and things that occurred. It’s [...]

Eighteen percent of prosecuted rape cases end in conviction, and, you know, thirty percent of rape cases are never prosecuted. You know why? Because women have not been believed. And that same thing exists today and throughout time. It took Jesus [...]

Last time we talked about making room by letting go. This morning, we want to continue on Making Room, this teaching where we create space, where we allow God to be God and that we don’t allow things in our life to clutter or take the place where [...]

You see, one of the challenges when problems present themselves is there’s a great temptation just to yield and go, «Well, it’s just more than I can bear. It’s more than I want to deal with». And we yield to that, because we don’t have the strength [...]

We are walking through a series under the title of «Lions & Lambs,» and the foundation of that really comes from our New Testament. There’s two presentations of lions in the New Testament. One is from Peter, the fisherman that Jesus recruited, [...]

If we’re gonna be a prevailing church, and we are. If we’re gonna be a triumphant church, and we are, there’s no other choice in the scripture. There’s no defeated church, there’s no failed church. Jesus is the head of the church. I like this. You [...]

We’ve been doing a series talking about «Lions & Lambs». And in this session we’re going to talk specifically a bit about the victory over darkness that is ours. The notion of lions and lambs, there’s two principal lions presented to us in the [...]

If the response to the threat of the Satan’s roar is to resist him, if you want to spend time in the presence of the Lion of Judah, I would submit to you that we want to become better at giving expression to worship. And I want to push that a little [...]

The topic we’re working through is «Lions and Lambs». And in this session we’re gonna talk about a triumphal procession. The reason for, you know, the why for this little study really began is I wanted to spend some time walking around some of the [...]

If we are to persist in freedom, it will be because the people of faith return to God with a clarity about the values that we believe have shaped our lives and will shape the future of the generations who follow. In Luke chapter 4 and verse 14, it [...]

I’ve begun a new study under the general title of «Lambs & Lions». Or «Lions & Lambs,» it works either way. This particular session, I want to talk about «Power, Politics and the Church». Yes, I believe all those things have to go together, [...]

Leading godly lives is not easy. It includes more than attendance at religious services or participation in a Christian school. We don’t step into our Christian role for appointed times and then out of our Christian persona at others. There’s no [...]

I want to begin a new study with you under the title of «Lions & Lambs». Two very different positions on the food chain, but they impact our lives in some dramatic ways. It’ll take us a few sessions, God willing, I think, to walk through it. At [...]

Jesus’s suffering, Jesus’s life can be understood in two ways. The things that he endured or the things he suffered as a substitute for me. We’ve talked a good deal about a divine exchange on the cross where Jesus took the punishment for my sin and [...]

We’ve been working through a series under the theme of rejection, from rejection to acceptance, from rejection to freedom. I wanna continue that. It’s been a bit disjointed just because of scheduling issues. I’ll take a moment or two to [...]

Praise will silence the enemy, which is a very, very, very powerful tool. If you can silence your enemy. You know how powerful that is, to shut down the opposition? Psalm 8 and verse 2 says, «From the lips of children and infants, you have ordained [...]

My title for the session, which my titles are usually underwhelming, but «Thoughts, Words and Reality». And there is a progression there that I wanna unpack with you because I believe truthfully your thoughts lead to your words and those will [...]

The gospel is based on three simple facts, I’ll show you from the Scripture in a moment. Christ died for our sins, he was buried, and he rose again on the third day. Those are the facts that give you and I a hope for both time and eternity. It isn’t [...]

The beginning point is God’s great love for you, how significant you are in the kingdom of God, and in the purposes of God, and the scripture clearly says that God knew you when you were being knit together in your mother’s womb. The phrase that’s [...]

We can’t eliminate rejection from the journey, it’s a part of our journey in this present world order. But rejection does not have the power to keep you from God’s best. I’m gonna say it again: the rejection that touches your life does not have the [...]

I want to begin a study, it’s gonna take two or three sessions. Not because I can’t finish this outline, it’s just gonna take two or three sessions. Under the same theme, we may break it apart a bit, but under the general theme of, «From rejection [...]

If you are standing in the purposes of God, I would tell you that the lesson, the message of scripture and from my own life experience, God will provide what you need. And his timing and my timing, not always fully aligned, but God will provide what [...]

Our reading portions these last few days have been taking us through 1 and now 2 Samuel, which is centered in many ways, in respects, with the transition from the judges to the implementation of a monarchy in Israel, which brings us inevitably to [...]

If you have a US passport and you come to a port of entry in this nation, the process is different if you’re a citizen or a noncitizen. And when it’s time to approach Almighty God, the outcome will be different if you’re a citizen of his kingdom or [...]

Jesus standing outside Lazarus’s tomb, you remember the story. His friend’s been sick, and Jesus purposefully delays going to see him. He waits until he knows he’s dead. That is poor pastoral care. It is. And when he gets there, the family’s not [...]

As a nation, we have a heritage of the Christian faith. We’ve never been uniquely Christian in that everybody here was Christian. But the values that have shaped our nation, our legal system, our founding documents, our educational systems, our most [...]

You know, a lot of language amongst us about our generations and how we’re different, I have arrived at a conclusion of that because I’ve heard it for such a period of time now. Our age and our season in life to me feels a great deal like a darkened [...]

I had really intended to begin a new series this weekend. I had prepared to do that, but as I was doing the Bible reading, I hope you’re reading the Bible with us. On every year we read through the Bible systematically and it has become one of the [...]

If something that you look forward to is interrupted, the emotion connected to that… how does it compare to the emotion that’s interrupted if you might miss a service? «I mean, that’s not fair, pastor». I don’t know if it’s fair or not, but I think [...]

I really intended to have completed this in a previous session, but our Bible reading, right now, I hope you do the Bible reading with us. I hope you read your Bible on a regular basis. First and foremost, that’s of primary importance. I have [...]

1 Kings 19. We’re stepping right into the middle of a narrative. I’m counting a bit on your knowledge of scripture. Elijah’s just had the confrontations on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal. Fire fell from heaven. He’s not really confronting [...]

The title is «When God Intervenes». If you’ve got an outline, you know there is some Scripture coming. I tell you that because I want to begin with a bit of history. You know, throughout history, one of the ways that revolutions are often fomented [...]

There’s a piece of territory at the end of the Mediterranean Sea that God promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as a part of his covenant with them. And he could care less what the UN Security Council thinks. It’s a point of [...]

We’ve been doing a series under the theme of «God’s Plan, God’s Promises and God’s People». In this session, my intent is to bring a conclusion, at least to this segment of the study. The idea is that God has a plan for the earth. It’s not random, [...]

You know, I believe in the sinner’s prayer, and again, I don’t want to minimize or denigrate that. But it’s a doorway to serving the King. And there’s some things that go with that. Again, it’s not an inclusive list. I didn’t think you’d want to [...]

I’ve been inviting you to imagine that God has a plan for your life that extends beyond just going to heaven or that extends beyond just a plan for your eternity. And that God’s plan for you is inseparable. In fact, it will be experienced as you [...]

I don’t know if we’re gonna do this in the next session or not, but Jesus had a great deal to say with that. When God gives you gifts and abilities, the biblical phrase you probably know is, «To whom much is given, much is required». And we should [...]

I wanna continue a study we’ve been working on for two or three sessions under this general theme of «God’s Plan and God’s Promises and God’s People,» and I believe they’re very related. I believe God has a plan not only for his kingdom in the [...]

Well, I wanna do a YouTube video with you because it’ll end up on YouTube, on applying one of the promises of God, because it’s not enough to talk about them, folks. What’s it mean to choose a promise of God, to make it yours? How do you live that [...]

We’ve been doing a series on God’s promises, really, «God’s Plan, God’s Promises & God’s People». It’s important to know God has a plan for your life and that the expression of that plan is revealed in his promises. And all of those things when [...]

So if there is a statement of intent from our Lord, I would submit to you, it would be in our best interest to understand it. If he is about something, I want to help. So look with me at your notes. It’s Matthew 16. This is Jesus speaking. He said, [...]

I want to continue the theme we started over the weekend. We’ve been talking about God’s plan, God’s promises, and God’s people. They go together. God has a plan for your life beyond just being born again, converted, saved. Those are important [...]

The line I’ve often used and this bears repeating is that truth divorced from experience must always remain a theory, remain in the realm of a doubt. You have to combine truth with experience and when you do that, then your experience portfolio [...]

You know, we get some goofy notions at church sometimes. I mean, I love God’s people, I really do. But you know, like, we imagine that the only prayer that matters is the prayer we pray at the end of the service. If you’ll help me, we’ll change [...]

In the New Testament, the New Covenant, it also requires a conquest, not of physical territory but of spiritual. I can easily substantiate this for you in the scripture and we will to an extent, but bear with me just a moment because we have lived [...]

We had, as far as I’m concerned, a God event this week. The context is important, so before you respond, let’s process the context. But there was a ruling from the IRS this week that said churches could endorse political candidates without [...]

There are real expressions against what you stand for as a Christ follower that would like to remove your voice from our academic institutions and our business institutions and our governmental institutions. I mean, that’s real. It’s not an [...]

But I wanna take this session and talk a bit about Israel and a vantage point. My habit, when I’ve returned from Israel for the last few years, has been to try to give you a bit of an update or some perspectives from what we gleaned. So I’ve been [...]

If your marker is secular, if your priorities are defined without a respect or a reverence for God, you have leaned your ladder against the wrong wall. «Well, Pastor, I’m in church on a Saturday night. What do you want? I mean, could you get off my [...]

I think most of you know Kathy and I were supposed to be coming home from Israel along with a couple a hundred people on Friday. And when my schedule’s like that, I have to think about those sermons a little bit ahead of time, they’ll land the plane [...]