Posts in Part 1
Build Intimacy With God

God created us for relationship and intimacy with Him, but so many of us don't experience that intimacy in our faith. Why? What is it that keeps us from having exactly what God says He wants, and that He created us for.

In part one of this four part message series we'll look at the words and life of Jesus, strip back all the religious stuff we tend to attach to faith, and learn one simple, small habit we can put in place to give us access to the intimacy with God we so desperately want.

Read More
The Money Trap

Do you remember Chinese finger traps? The solution is opposite of what you think. Unfortunately, many of us have fallen into a trap the Bible describes when it comes to money, and without knowing it we've become stuck with no way to escape.

This week we're kicking off a new message series called Mastered. During this series we'll be exploring this trap and how we can escape it. The problem is, much like the Chinese Finger Trap, the more we try what makes sense the more we get stuck.

But the good news is, there is a way out. Today, in part one, we'll identify the trap and begin to find a way out. The great news is, once we do, we can not only find freedom from the money trap, but we will find incredible blessing on the other side.

Read More
How To Pray For Rain

We hear stories of prayers that move the heart of God to do miracles. We read about these kinds of things in the Bible. We know God CAN do miracles, but for so many of us our prayers don't ever seem to move the heart of God to do much at all. Why is that? Why is it that for so many of us we just can't seem to move the heart of God at all? What does it even look like to pray prayers that move the heart of God?

This week we kick of a new series, called Circle Maker, where we'll learn how to pray big, bold, God-sized prayers that move His heart to action. Today we'll lay a foundation for what's to come, and look at two important truths we have to understand before we can pray God-sized prayers. We'll also talk about how to combat the fatal flaw built into all of us that, whether we like it or not, makes God not want to do what we ask Him for.

So join us as we start a new journey together toward praying the kinds of prayers that move the heart of God, and watch as those God-sized prayers become God-sized miracles that only He can get the credit for. Let's learn how to pray for rain.

Read More
5 for 5

Through the generations, God has been proving himself to his people. While knowing what God has done in our own lives is really important, it's also important to know what God has done in the lives of others. That's a huge part of the power of being part of a church family.

This week we'll leverage that power by hearing the stories from five people inside our church about how God has proven Himself to them throughout their lives.

Read More
How To Live Without Regret

We all just want to raise kind, selfless kids, right? Is that too much to ask? Yet for every moment our kids act selflessly it seems they turn back around and just act selfish. It's like it's built into their DNA. So how do we raise kids that are kind and selfless when, well, our kids don't always want to act kind and selfless?

The Bible helps us understand how to give ourselves the best possible chance at this outcome, and it does it through one of the most problematic and challenging passages in the whole Bible. As we explore that passage we'll learn a principle we all know, but maybe didn't know was in the Bible, get some answers to a major challenge and take one more step toward raising great kids. Oh, and we'll also un-learn a physics principle we were taught wrong in school.

Read More
Owners and Stewards

There are moments as parents we feel like we're doing a great job with our kids, and then there are moments where it feels like we're complete failures. In the worst cases that feeling of failure doesn't just happen every now and then, but it can take over our thoughts and emotions and make it impossible to parent well.

But what if that feeling of failure is just a lie? What if, even when things aren't going great, we aren't actually failures at all? What if that feeling of failure actually comes from a misunderstanding of our role and responsibility as parents?

And most importantly, what if there's a way for us to reorient our thinking to help fight off feelings of failure and have confidence as parents? As we kick off the message series "Great Kids" we'll explore those questions and look at what the Bible teaches us about our role as parents, and we'll gain a healthier understanding of how we should view that responsibility. And hopefully we'll gain some tools to help us not only raise great kids, but have more confidence as we do.

Read More
Communication

Communication is one of the most critical foundational elements of any relationship, but for so many of us it's a real challenge. Whether we never saw it modeled well growing up, or we have so much baggage from the past, or any number of other issues, communication is a real challenge.

This week we'll look to the Bible and learn why healthy communication matters so much and what each of us can do to establish more healthy communication habits and strengthen our relationships today.

Read More
Why Is There War?

From the beginning of time humans have been trying to make sense of the chaos of the world. We’ve been trying to understand the age-old war between good and evil so obviously present all around us. And at the same time we’ve been trying to make sense of the war and conflict in our own lives.

It seems that no matter how hard we try, and no matter how closely we follow God the war never ends. It’s frustrating. It’s overwhelming. It’s hard to understand. It can be so, so defeating. But there is an answer. There is a reason the war exists. And that answer can bring us a lot of hope. 

This week we’ll explore those questions, look to the Bible for the answer to the question, “why is there war?”, and begin a journey to fight like God intended.

Read More
God Is Faithful

What do you do when life is uncertain? How do you hold to your faith when you don’t know what’s coming next? Fortunately the Bible is full of examples of how to not only maintain, but how to let your faith grow in uncertainty.

This week we’ll lay a foundation for what’s to come as we look at a man named Abram and how he responded to a huge amount of uncertainty in his life.

Read More
Fight The Right Battle

It seems like there's so much in this world to fight against doesn't it? No matter what you believe it seems like there are people out to get us at every turn. But what if the battles we fight are the wrong battles? What if we end up exhausted in life, not because we're fighting, but because we're fighting the wrong enemy, and our REAL enemy is constantly winning. What if we don't need to fight HARDER; we just need to fight the RIGHT BATTLE?

This week we'll start our year by getting our focus right. We'll learn who our real enemy is and how to fight the right battles.

Read More