In this second week of looking at where God is bringing us in this new year, Pastor David is sharing with us the Importance of having a discipline of meditating on the Word of God.

At the beginning of 2025, and on this amazing first day of two churches coming together to become one church to better serve God, each other, and our community, we are focusing on what this coming year will be. We are a church family dedicated to pursuing God and all He has for us!

In our last week of the Advent season, before coming to Christmas Morning, where we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we are looking at love. That love is the story through and through. From the Old Testament to the New. Jesus Christ, God the Son, come to earth to save humanity from the consequences of their sin, for all who believe, giving them eternal life. We don't just celebrate his birth, but we celebrate the love of the Trinity expressed to humanity, and rejoice at the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

In this third week of Advent we focus on the angels declaring that the birth of Jesus is good news for all people, and it is good news of Great Joy! But it's more than that. It's not just joyful news, but Jesus is our Joy. He removes our shame, our guilt, our sin, our grief and sorrow. The news of his birth is Joy!

In our second week of the Advent Season we are looking at Jesus our Peace. The bible calls Jesus the Prince of Peace. It also says that our God is the God of all peace. As we reflect on what God has done, and look forward to what He will do in and through our lives, we ask for His peace!

As we come up to celebrating Thanksgiving we are taking two weeks to focus on what it means to be thankful, why we should be thankful, and what the Bible says about giving thanks.

As we come up to celebrating Thanksgiving we are taking two weeks to focus on what it means to be thankful, why we should be thankful, and what the Bible says about giving thanks.

In our final sermon on our series on the Sermon on the Mount we are looking at Jesus' closing remarks. Following what he has laid out is like building your house on solid ground, and it will sustain through the storms. Ignore what He's said and it's like building a house on sand. When a storm comes it will collapse.

Continuing our Kingdom Ambassador series, as we are finishing up in Chapter 7 of the Sermon on the Mount, we get to a place where Jesus again challenges the mentality of righteousness obtained by good works and righteousness obtained through Him. Our good works will never outweigh the scales of our wrongs, even if we've lived "pretty good lives". We must have the righteousness of Christ made available to us through his death and resurrection!

In part 2 of True or False we look at what it means to bear good fruit. If Jesus says beware those who produce bad fruit, then we should both be on the lookout for those producing good fruit, and we ourselves, recognize that we are meant to produce good fruit. What does that look like? What is good fruit? And how does it grow?

Sometimes Jesus would bring a strong word of warning. In Matthew 7:15 he tells his followers to beware those who would come preaching and prophesying something other than the truth of God. "Beware the false prophets!" He says. Was that just for that time? Are there false prophets today? Is this just a warning against those who would call themselves "prophets", or is there more to it?

Most people don't argue with you when you say life is hard. And most people agree that the "easy way out" isn't always the best way. So, when Jesus says that it's actually the hard road that leads to a narrow gate that leads to life, should we be all that surprised? On the other side of remaining comfortable is usually where we find our greatest breakthrough in life. Big decisions make for big steps forward. Hard choices face us all the time. And this is most true when talking about the Kingdom of Heaven and what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus, who said, "If you want to be my disciple, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow Me."

Starting our new series, Kingdom Ambassadors, we are looking at what Jesus says in Matthew 7:12, what we often call "The Golden Rule". Jesus wasn't the first to say something like this, and he wasn't the last either, but the message of Jesus is not only good information, it's the Good News! It's the gospel that transforms lives. The Love of God, expressed through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit is what gives us the ability to love God, and love others. We love because he loved us first!

As we saw last week God the Father is faithful to us. He is our Father and He is trustworthy, faithful and true. And it is that faithfulness that invites us into being faithful to him.

In a short two week series we are looking at the simple reality that God is faithful, and in that faithfulness it should inspire our faithfulness toward God. Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-11 that our pursuit of God will not go unnoticed and unanswered. That if we, who are human and prone to imperfection, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Heavenly Father, who is perfect, give gifts to those who ask him. Or in another gospel he says that the gift is the Holy Spirit. But to trust that God gifts good gifts we have to trust that God is good. That God the Father is trustworthy, loves us, and as Hebrews 11 says, rewards those who seek him.

Jesus makes what could be seen as a pretty confusing statement. It seems like he's calling people dogs and pigs! What does it mean? Why is he saying it? Does he mean something else, and if so, what? And does it apply for us today at all? He is saying something quite deep, quite profound, and it can be hidden in the confusing words, but is worth looking at.

As we continue our series on Playing God and we look at Matthew 7:1-6, Jesus continues to tell us that we must deal with the issues we carry so that we can help others in their journey. Judging, condemning, pointing out someone else's flaws or difficulties when we are burdened with the same does no good for either of us. But when we allow Jesus to heal us, we can be a resource and helper to those who need healing.

In this new series we are looking at Matthew 7:1-6, where Jesus talks about making judgments. First things first, he tells us not to judge. It's not our place. Even he said that he hadn't come to the world to judge it, but to save it. Does that means there's no judgement? No. Not by any means. It means that we are in the time of salvation, where the good news of the gospel is that God's desire is that none should perish, but all come to repentance and receive eternal life through Jesus Christ!

There are three things in Matthew 6 that Jesus seems to simply just assume we will do: Give, Pray & Fast. To each he says, "When you...." Not if, but when. Fasting is meant to be a regular part of our discipleship to Jesus, yet for many, it isn't. It can be a topic of confusion, bring up feelings of religiosity or a burden to carry, and yet, Jesus says that the Father is looking to reward us when we participate in this spiritual practice in following Him.

Jesus tells us that we should be praying for God to rescue us, to deliver us from the work of the devil. We should pray for God to protect us, keep evil far from us, and when it comes to deliver us from it. Psalm 34 says we can call on the name of the Lord and he will hear us and respond! We are called to pray. Not just to ask God for help in our time of need, but everyday, "God, keep evil far from me!"