Sermons

We just came through the highpoint of the Church calendar, which is Easter: Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about the importance of the resurrection to our faith?

Everything in Christianity, everything we do as a Church is all because we believe the resurrection is true and that it actually happened. And if the resurrection is true... that means that Jesus is ALIVE! And that faith has incredible implications that define everything we do.

For this seven week long series, we’re going to be exploring the motivations and characteristics of past and present disciples of Jesus Christ, and seek to understand how these were relevant both 2,000 years ago and today. Because if the resurrection is true, then what does it mean for people who believe it? How does the resurrection fill us with a new way of life that we could not have had without it?

The things that we're looking to fill us up in this world don't satisfy... but Jesus does.

No symbol encapsulates the soul of the Christian faith like the cross. In this series, we are going to Gaze at the Cross through the eyes of those who saw it first-hand, each of them bringing a different perspective to what they saw.

The first perspective comes from a Roman centurion who was physically responsible for putting Jesus on the cross.

The second comes from the thieves who were crucified next to Jesus: one who taunted Jesus and the other who was transformed.

The third perspective comes from Joseph of Arimathea, who tended to Jesus’ body after He was taken down from the cross.

Lastly—we will look to Mary and Joanna, who saw firsthand that the cross wasn’t the end of the Story.

The hope of this series is for us to see that as we gaze, we are all called to respond in the same way—with awe and worship of the One who took the cross for us.

What’s wrong with us, the human race? The Bible tells us that it is a problem of underestimation. Through this series, we’re looking at the facets of sin: the history of humanity's ongoing battle through concrete examples and metaphors that show us the reality of sin.

Some might ask, “Why spend all these weeks talking about such a negative, unpopular, unpleasant subject as sin?” Some might not even be sure what they believe about God, so why should they be interested in sin at all? Two primary reasons: 1) The biblical teaching about sin is one of the strongest arguments for the truth of Christianity there is. 2) Without understanding the reality of sin, you'll never come to understand the amazing power of God's love and grace.

So tune in with us as we look deeper into the darkness of our sinfulness... all so we might witness the brightness of God's glory, and the beauty of the cross!

This year, we have depended on technology and political/social activism to bring us together during this on-going pandemic, but the reality is that many of us are physically, emotionally, and spiritually weaker than we've ever been. And with countless Christians isolated from their communities and seeing their church homes closing their doors indefinitely, the Church is no exception to this weakness.

But what if what looks like a decline in the church... is actually a beginning for spiritual awakening? Is there hope that our churches would be so SHOOK that we would experience the kind of revival that would shake our faith and bring personal revival to us, our neighbors, our cities, and the world? Scripture shows us that this hope is real. For the next 12 weeks, we'll be looking through the early chapters of Acts to draw from what the early church understood about Jesus and our shared faith. As we draw out the essence of Christianity from this Scripture, we'll pray that the Lord brings about a new revival that we've never seen before.

Pray for these 2 things along with us throughout this series:

1. Lord, ignite a great awakening and spiritual revival within our cities.

2. Start with me.