Sometimes, persecution is physical. The church’s history is full of stories of men and women who have been imprisoned, beaten, and even killed for their faith. Even now, there are brothers and sisters around the world who still face these dangers. The church has always lived in a world that fights against it, but our mission has never shifted. Our …

So, check your heart. Who are you following? Who do you put your hope in? What team are you on first? Be careful following any person who claims to be a savior, because they can sound like Jesus and they can try to look like Jesus, but that’s one of the ways we accidentally find ourselves on the wrong team. Remember, Jesus is speaking to His discip…

He came to build a different kind of kingdom and thought it was way more important than what we obsess over. " A God in a Bod thinks that there are things more important than healing our bodies, feeding our bellies, and defeating our enemies. What good is all that if your heart is still twisted, broken, and alienated from God?…

Jesus claims that everything … everything you can think of … every ounce of authority we can find strewn throughout this world … is subject to Him. Jesus says, "ALL authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." How much is … ALL? And what do we do about it? What’s the appropriate response? What am I supposed to do with that information? W…

So, Jesus looks at these 11 guys and says, “All authority … ALL authority … both in heaven and on earth … all authority has been given to me.” … So … How much is “all”? Seriously, how much is “all”? We use that word so flippantly. Do you think Jesus was using the word flippantly, or do you think he meant it? And if Jesus has “all” authority, how mu…

That idea may challenge you. Maybe you've always thought of religion as being restrictive, full of extra rules, tying you down with all these ways you have to live. Maybe you've thought of church as being like that. According to Paul, if you're a follower of Jesus, you should have … more freedom. Paul suggests our freest self is when we live most l…

Our relationship with God is based on our willingness to submit to Him. But our relationship with God is built on the fact that God was willing to submit to us, that God became man, and that He submitted to His creation for our benefit because our needs were more important than His needs. Jesus chose self-imposed limitations. God became man—and liv…

"Do you know why Jesus washed our feet? Do you know why he died for us? He thinks we’re special. He really does. For some crazy reason, your Creator God thinks you are special. And if someone is that special to you, you’ll figure out a way to serve them, right? If you love someone as much as you love yourself, you’ll figure out a way to serve them,…

You see, we have a faulty view of what it means to teach our “one another’s.” We make it into something it doesn’t have to be, and I believe those verses that we started with really, truly do apply to all of us. We are all responsible to teach our “one another’s.”So, I want to reset us to an appropriate perspective of what it means to teach. I want…

So, what do you think God thinks about words that kill? Proverbs says, “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.” (Proverbs 18.21) Does that mean God sees them as equal choices? What do you think God thinks about destructive criticism, gossip, sarcasm, gaslighting, broken confidences, bullying, or other … discouraging…

The word "burden" shows up a few different times in the New Testament, and it starts with this one moment with Jesus in Matthew Chapter 11. Jesus is teaching to a community that hasn’t accepted him; they’ve pushed back against him, and Jesus decides to challenge them. But he also reaches the point where he softens. He looks to this crowd and knows …

"Peace and unity are connected. Unity exists around a big idea — something significant and powerful that pulls us together. And it exists in all sorts of contexts and organizations. We could be talking about the church, but we could also talk about your school, your family, your community, your town, your state, or your country. We could talk about…

This kind of hospitality, this offering of a friendship-love to strangers was kind of a big deal in a culture with all these nomads. A lot of people kind of moved around, they weren’t citizens of a town, or a country, and hospitality was a really big deal. And then there were the widows and the orphans, and others who were flat-out poor. And there …

"Now, that word in Romans 12, where we started—that word "honor"—it's a Greek word. It looks like the word "time," but what it means is "prize." It can mean "value," it can mean "respect." It can mean "honor," and it can mean "recognition." I really like that word recognition because I think that gives us a good perspective of what honor is. Recogn…

"When Jesus says, “Love one another,” who is my one another? You see, this “agape” kind of love wouldn’t be so painfully difficult if the people in your life weren’t so painfully difficult. But you are surrounded by a bunch of sinners. If I got to pick my “one another,” maybe loving my “one another” wouldn’t be so hard. But … I don’t. If all my “on…

This message is for everyone, but it is about our responsibility to help others, not about helping ourselves. Here is the big question: “What is your responsibility in helping someone who struggles with mental health?”Ben Webb, Associate Minister

"Now, not everyone who is depressed will feel all of these descriptors; but they probably feel some of them. You feel down. You’re irritable, maybe. Maybe a sense of hopelessness. You’ve lost a sense of purpose. Those things you used to enjoy, you don’t enjoy them anymore. There’s this oppressive pessimism – everything is half-empty. Sadness, dejec…

"Anxiety and worry exist on a spectrum. At one end, you have worry and anxiety that are present but manageable … and even beneficial. They press us and push us to fulfill our responsibilities. They act as a prod to do our jobs well. But that's not the complete picture. I think that's a small piece of the picture. Anxiety and worry are usually not g…

"When we let that lie take root, it grows and grows until, eventually, we say, "You're unlovable." It's not that you're never going to be loved; you lie to yourself and think your problem is that you aren't worth loving. No one’s ever going to find you lovable. Eventually, that grows until you begin believing that you don't even love yourself. How …

It’s a word we all understand – “ruin.” Something was beautiful once, but no longer. It was useful once, valuable once, but no longer. It has been damaged and wrecked. It has been spoiled. You can ruin a shirt; you can ruin a phone; you can ruin a vacation; you can ruin a career; you can ruin a relationship; you can ruin a person. Have you ever rui…

"So, a lot of us … in fact, most of us, maybe … kind of put on these masks. And our masks usually look better on the outside than we feel on the inside, right? And we kind of fear that everyone around is as good on the inside as their masks look on the outside. So, when we compare our insides to their masks, we don’t look too good, we don’t feel to…

"We talked about raising godly children – which is hard work and requires discipline. Wisdom says to listen to God. Fools despise discipline. We talked about money – which requires hard work and discipline to handle well. It wasn’t groundbreaking information. Wisdom says to listen to God. Fools despise discipline. We talked about our hurts, and we …

"I don’t care whether you are a Boomer, a Gen Xer, a Millennial, a Zer, or even Gen Alpha … the questions are the same: Does your work life matter to God? Does how you work affect your life with God? Does God care? And if he does, should you? What do you think: Is work a necessary evil? Should our goal be to do as little as possible and get past it…

It's dangerous to be in a place where no one cares for you spiritually because it's incredibly easy to drift away from God. We need people in our corner to help pull us toward God. It's that together part of what Doc always says. We've got this saying that we use a lot around here. We're all about doing life with God, for God, God's way … together.…

"How many of you have been wounded? Not physically, but emotionally? … Yeah, that’s a universal, right? Emotional pain, spiritual pain, relational pain? Anger, sadness, bitterness, despair, remorse maybe; you are wounded, you hurt. It's pretty much universal. How many of you are hurting somehow right here, right now? A bunch of you, probably. Becau…

"Paul says, “I've learned the secret … to being content.” That feels a little bit like a letdown. Like, really? Is that a secret you've been trying to discover? Have you been actively pursuing contentment? Look, I think that we all want contentment. But we don't live like it. We live like contentment is right around the corner … and we never quite …

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” There are times we fear that God has a sense of humor, right? But what if … what if he is serious? What if God meant them to be so? And what if there was a way to make it so? Not a guarantee but a strategy. What if there was a strategy for raising kids you can be proud of, for raising…

"How do I live like Jesus when it comes to disagreements? How do I live like Jesus when it comes to the ways in which we don't agree? And then, here's the big idea. Here's the answer at the end of the message. I’ll give it to you on the front end. Here’s the big idea: live in unity and peace with one another. The answer – which feels like it's lack…

Let’s start with the word of the day, the question of the day, and the attitude of the day. • The word of the day is “agape.” There it is in the Greek: ἀγάπη. It means “love,” … but it’s a very special kind of love. We’ll get there. • The question of the day is, “What would agape do?” As Jesus followers, we need to ask this question: “What would ag…

“'Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.' Guys, I want you to hear it: overcome evil with good. Be a good citizen. Give what is owed, whether that's taxes or revenue, respect or honor. You give what is owed. And everyone is owed love. I promise you that …

"So, we’re kind of like a family, right, a family of Jesus followers? It’s kind of like God is our dad, and we’re his kids. So, we’re going to treat this kind of like a family meeting this morning. Did your biological family ever have family meetings? Maybe your dad or mom laid down some of the family rules … You know, where you could go, what you …

"We’re going to walk through the first few verses of Romans 12 and see what they say about you, what they say about me, and we're going to see what they say about our responsibilities to each other. But it starts with this word, “Therefore …”. When I was in high school, my youth minister taught us that whenever you come across the word “Therefore” …

Do you ever doubt God? Jesus? I mean, some guys doubt Jesus even existed...which is crazy. But, have you ever doubted Jesus went around working all those miracles, raising the dead, and raising from the dead? Although, if there really is a God, it's kind of weird to deny the possibility of a resurrection, isn't it? But, have you ever wondered if Je…

So, don’t forget where we started. The quality of Jesus as guest is directly related to your quality as host. Meaning, the way in which you welcome him will determine the level of impact he's able to make. Have you welcomed him simply as a guest … or have you made him ruler of your home? Have you welcomed him? If so, you should see him welcoming yo…

"Jesus—The I AM—is the true vine, he says, and we are kind of like branches created to be connected to the vine. And God is kind of like the gardener. And, like a gardener … Well, have you ever pruned bushes or trees? What do you do if a branch is dead? You know, it’s flat-out dry, brittle, and dead. You cut it off, right? Throw it away; burn it up…

It's something that we struggle with because we love having options. The ability to choose is something that God gave us in the very beginning. He gave us free will. He gave us the ability to choose. And it may be the biggest gift that God gives us. It's one of the things God gives us that make us distinctively human. It's one of the things that se…

Philippians 1.21, do you remember it? Can you say it with me? … “To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Yeah, there it is: “To me, to live (living, life to the fullest) is Christ, and to die is gain.” We’re getting there.Let me come at it this way. Ben and I are drawing some of the big ideas for this series from a book called, “Jesus Manife…

"Which version of this Jesus should I follow? Because while we can say that we ought to imitate Jesus, there is a wide spectrum of what our world believes Jesus to be. A few weeks ago, when we started this series, I shared a host of different versions of Jesus in a somewhat humorous way. We live in a culture where there is a wide spectrum of differ…

"Now, sometimes it’s not your choice who you will imitate, right? You can’t choose your parents, but you’re going to imitate them … especially when you are little. And sometimes, even when you’re older, right? Have you old guys ever said something or done something, and you’re like, “Holy cow! That was my dad or my mom.” If you haven’t, you will. “…

The truth is, God is writing your story … but you don't have to accept it. You don't have to accept it. God will actually let you write your own story. One of the more shocking things that God does is that he allows free will, which means that we have the right to hijack the story. That we can take the pen from his hands, and we can begin writing o…

"It means that creation rebelled against the Creator. It means that what God created as good fell; it broke; what it became was not what God meant it to be. It means that the Creator watched his creation fall, and it broke his heart! He cared! He watched us fall, and it broke his heart ... he cares! Do you get that? And do you know how much he care…

Every generation has had to answer this question: “Who do you say that I am?” Who do you say that Jesus is? We answer those questions in lots of different ways … and if we get it wrong, we get everything wrong.Ben Webb, Associate Minister

You see, we believe God meant it to be this way from the beginning. This is what God meant for his church to look like. Let me show you two weird verses: weird in that world and still weird in ours. The apostle Paul says, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one … in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3.28) Tho…

"What do we need to grow spiritually? Last week we used this verse over and over, Ephesians 4:15. It says, “We will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Plants physically need space, temperature, light, water, air, and nutrients. Humans physically need food, water, clothing, shelter, sleep. At Ca…

Now, whether we understand the importance of spiritual maturity or not, we are Jesus followers, right? We believe there is a real God. And we believe that the real God is revealed in and through Jesus. And we want God to be … God. And … And … God expects us to mature spiritually. He thinks it’s good for us. He thinks it makes for the best life poss…

What is our purpose as Christ-driven, 24/7 Jesus followers?Ben Webb, Associate Minister

"Is there a God? This is our starting point. This, I believe, is every human … every person's starting point. " Ben Webb, Associate MinisterBen Webb, Associate Minister

"What if Easter is true? What if the one who claimed to be the Son of God actually predicted his death and resurrection and pulled it off? What if … what if you really are the mess God thinks you are? And what if … what if God is right and you can’t fix your mess? And what if Christmas is about God providing a way out, a way back? What if Jesus rea…

One of the reasons Jesus shows up in a manger in Bethlehem is so that the mystery around God would be removed. Jesus would demonstrate to us who God is, who God likes, what God wants, what God values, and what God does. All those questions that we may have. This mystery around God is revealed in Jesus.…

"To really understand the Christmas story, you have to go back even further … to the first chapters of Genesis … to the creation story … and the fall. You see, we learn from the creation story that we humans are special … we bear the “the image of God,” somehow. We are designed so we can do life with God, somehow. And, we learn that we humans rebel…