Viewing entries tagged
faith
Sometimes, people try to add a little religion to their lives or act Christian without really coming to terms with faith in Jesus. This message looks at the conversion of Christianity’s most unlikely convert and what it teaches about how to believe when there are lots of reasons not to.
Acts 9: 1 - 19
It’s easy to feel distant from God. Sometimes, the feelings come in response to problems in our lives. Other times, the problems are in our own hearts. This message looks at the promise of Immanuel that was given to people who had hit rock bottom. They felt a million miles from God and wondered whether they would ever feel close to Him again.
Ezekiel 37:24-28
Disappointment can come to us in many forms. And it’s not long before a disappointment with our circumstances can turn into disillusionment with God. This message looks at what God was doing in Joseph’s disappointments and teaches us how to trust God when people let us down.
Genesis 40:1-8
Almost everything has gotten faster in our world today. We have fast food, fast fashion, and fast lanes, but some things still seem to take forever. And we’re not very good at waiting! This message looks at how God can help us to wait when we feel impatient.
James 5:7-12
The main activity that takes place in most church ministries is teaching, and so the impression can be given that faith is mostly about getting the right answers. This message looks at the difference between dead and living faith and how you can learn to live out your faith.
James 2: 14-26
What is God’s blueprint for passing faith to successive generations? Why is family faith formation important? Who is responsible? And how do we do it?
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
When God feels absent in our trials, we face different kinds of temptations. Anger, doubt, and despair come easily to us. This message looks at how to deal with the silence of God and why we can trust Him when it feels like He’s not there.
Matthew 1:5; Ruth 1:1-18 | outline
Ruth lost her husband and was uprooted to a foreign land where she felt the searing eyes of discrimination. What future would there be possible for her?
Matthew 1:5; Joshua 2:1-14 | outline
Rahab turned to prostitution to make ends meet in a city that was so far gone that it’s destruction was assured. What hope could there be for someone like her?
We all long to be happy, but often happiness feels beyond our reach. This message looks at a person who made the pursuit of happiness an extended research project and considers the wrong paths and ultimate direction of the joy that we all seek.
The good news message about Jesus stresses faith so much that people can think that God sends people to heaven as long as they’re not atheists. As a result, you have mobsters who pray before they commit murder and people whose lives seem to completely contradict what they say they believe. This message looks at how James clarifies saving faith in contrast to dead faith and the faith of demons. In the process, we learn how to evaluate our own faith and find assurance that we don’t cling to a false hope.
So much of our lives can be traced back to a hunger for acceptance. We devote ourselves to people and causes to show that we’re worthy of acceptance. And we fixate on things that we’ve said or done that might threaten our acceptance. But how does God see us? How can we know if God will accept us? What standard does He use? This message looks at one of Jesus’ famous stories about a Pharisee and a tax collector and considers what it teaches us about our yearning for acceptance and the grace God offers us.
Unfortunately, it is not an uncommon thing to see people who grew up in the church and always had the right answers walk away from their faith completely. This message looks at how although Solomon had all the right answers, was a great leader, and heard from God directly, he still didn’t get a free pass. This should serve as both a warning of what things do not equate to salvation and a reassurance of what it is that we can truly trust in.
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.
Stress, isolation and uncertainty have led many Christians to pull back from Christian fellowship during the pandemic. In the first century, Jewish Christians faced the temptation because of persecution. This message looks at the reasons they were given to persevere and how they can help us finish the race in our day.
We imagine ourselves to be rational people who take precautions in responding to warnings, but the Bible makes it clear that there are many things that keep us from the truth. This message looks at the last days before the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem and the reasons people ignored the warnings and the courage one man showed in responding to them.
There are many terms we can use to describe the various fears which we have in our lives. But all the way from the time of today’s passage to the present day, one of the most powerful kinds of fears we have is the fear of other people. This message looks at the only true way we can conquer this fear in our lives - through a different kind of fear.
Easter for many people is a celebrated holiday and a family tradition, but according to the Bible it is central to the Christian faith. Even for people who love to celebrate Easter, it’s easy to miss the implications of Jesus’ resurrection. This passage considers how Easter ought to define our faith and shape how we live.
