Faith is unseen, and we can’t know all that is in a person’s heart. But our lives reveal more about what’s inside than we often admit. This message looks at how people responded to the life Jesus came to offer and what it shows us about how we see Jesus’ promise of life.
We all consider ourselves rational, open-minded people. The reality is, however, that we’re often not interested in listening to certain truths and can go to great lengths to avoid them. As Nietzsche said, “People don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” This message looks at some of the obstacles to confronting the truth and how to overcome them.
We all want easy lives full of easy circumstances. But Jesus sometimes denies us ‘easy’ in order to give us something greater. This message looks at how Jesus works in the midst of the painful tragedies of our lives to bless us.
We often find ourselves waiting for God’s help and wondering why. God could solve our problems instantly, but often He doesn’t. This message looks at what God is doing when we have to wait.
Insecurity makes us hide. It often doesn’t feel safe to just be ourselves and so we work to present a more invincible version of ourselves. That work can be exhausting, and the inner self-doubt remains. Jesus offers a different way of addressing our insecurity – the promise of eternal security in Him. This message looks at how to embrace that security and let it change us.
The Bible warns us of the extent that we’re susceptible to the people and influences around us. This message looks at how to evaluate those influences and determine which ones we can trust.
Entering our second Easter in a global pandemic has left many of us feeling worn out, empty, and anxious about what comes next. This message looks at how Jesus’ resurrection gave hope to the first disciples and can do the same for us.
Many people wonder about Jesus’ death. ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,’ people say. ‘Maybe Jesus wasn’t as innocent as Christians like to suggest. Understanding why Jesus was crucified is crucial to understanding the message of Good Friday. It teaches us something about ourselves. And it teaches us something about Jesus. Join us for a reflection on His death and what it means for us today.
The idea of hell is troubling to many people today. It seems primitive and barbaric. Have we rightly understood the Bible’s teachings on this controversial doctrine? Is there a way to reconcile God’s love and goodness with a place of eternal torment? This message confronts these difficult questions through an examination of Jesus’ teachings.
To many today, it can feel proud and even intolerant to claim that there’s only one way to God. Are those charges true? How should we respond? This message looks at an event in the early church that dealt with this issue and seeks to address it honestly.
For many people, Christian attitudes toward sexuality seem discriminatory, outdated, and prudish. ‘God has no place in the bedroom!’ they say, and there’s a genuine struggle to understand why God would want to put restrictions on love. This message takes those concerns seriously and looks for answers in the Bible and the experience of people today.
Life can overwhelm us, and we find ourselves asking, What good is God if I’m going through all of these trials? This message looks at the help and assurance God provides when times are tough.
Growth as a Christian isn’t a random self-help project. God is at work in every circumstance of our lives to make us more like Jesus and ensure that the work He has begun in our lives will be completed.
Life is often hard and each of us eventually feels its pain in different ways. What we hope in dramatically impacts how we face that pain, however. This message looks at the incredible hope the Bible holds out for us to lay hold of in suffering and the help that the Spirit gives us as we do.
We often come to God with shame and frustration over our attempts at true righteousness. And it’s possible to bring our old mindset into our new relationship with Him. But the Holy Spirit does for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. This message looks at what the Holy Spirit provides for us and what He calls us to.
Self-help books line the bestseller lists, promising personal growth to all who follow their seven easy steps. But the testimony of the Bible is that even the greatest list of rules was unsuccessful in changing people. What’s wrong with the lists? Why don’t we do what we want to do? And how can we really change? This message looks at what went wrong under Old Covenant, so we don’t make the same mistakes under the New Covenant.
People see the commands of God and feel their condemnation. Shame leads to defeat which leads to sin and more shame. The gospel breaks this cycle. We now live under the principle of double jeopardy. This message looks at how our death to sin’s penalty enables us to walk free of its condemnation and serve God in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Never before have we pursued freedom as a society like we do today. We hold it up as our highest good, but we seldom define it, and when we do, there’s usually not an accompanying discussion of consequences. This message looks at a biblical definition of freedom and how we can grow in it.
People assume that Christianity is either a straitjacket of morality or a licence to sin. When they discover that it is neither, they can be confused as to what the believer’s motivation is in avoiding temptation. This message looks at how reckoning with our union with Christ declaws temptation’s hold on us.
Sometimes, especially recently, we all feel like we are in a dark tunnel, just waiting for the light to come at the end. In Psalm 57 we find David literally stuck in a cave and afraid for his life, but still praising God. This message looks at the prayer that God gives him, and how we too can find our refuge in God and realize that He is our light, even while still in the dark times.
