A Stone Heart | EXILED

Back in 1993, a dinosaur bone hunter named Michael Hammer (great name for dinosaur bone hunter!) discovered the remains of a Thescelosaurus. The skeleton was almost complete. Inside the dinosaur’s chest, he discovered what looked like a stone heart — the first dinosaur heart ever seen. While finding a stone heart might be cool in the archaeological sense, it’s definitely not cool in the spiritual sense. But God can fix that! He lays out the restorative process in Ezekiel 11; and that is what we get to discuss together this Sunday.

The Purpose And Blessing Of Adversity | EXILED

Are you a competitive person? I’m… in recovery… from my formerly over-competitive self. But this I know: in the realm of competition, it’s the adversity that makes it both challenging and exhilarating, and so it is for us as fully devoted followers of Jesus in this fallen world. We will face adversity; and while that adversity presents some challenges, it also has its purposes and blessings.

Love | Heart of a Healthy Church

Some of you know that I love music. I play a little piano; and during my schooling years my teacher, Mrs. Davenport, would routinely make me practice with a metronome. It keeps the beat, sets the standard, and that’s exactly what Jesus does for us as His Church. This Sunday we’ll wrap up our series on faith, hope and love by discussing the “greatest of these” and how we ourselves can attain to that metronome of love.

Faith | Heart of a Healthy Church

Some of you are aware that I don’t know how to cook. It’s true. But I’m familiar enough with the process to understand that “boiling something down to its essence” is a cooking metaphor. So, if you were to take the Bible – and the Christian life as a whole – and boil it down to its essence, three things would remain: faith, hope & love. That’s what Gene Getz calls “the divine trilogy”, and that’s what we’ll be discussing together over the next few weeks.

Faith in the Final Days | Hot Summer Topics 2020

Without a doubt, this pandemic has stirred greater interest in biblical prophecy – not only in our own country but throughout the world. So, how does this COVID pandemic fit into God’s present and future plan for this world? And, as followers of Jesus, how do we respond accordingly?

Navigating the “Gray” | Hot Summer Topics 2020

Many historians and sociologists would agree that we are now living in what they call a “post-Christian” culture. In other words, we once lived in a society that largely operated on Biblical values; but those days are past. The values that spring from secular humanism are now the norm. So, how do you and I as fully devoted followers of Jesus navigate these new waters?

Social Media | Hot Summer Topics 2020

Do you use any kind of social media? Social media has been defined as “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content, or to participate in social networking.” Obviously, it has become an international phenomenon this past decade. But the biblical guidelines of what we say and how we say it still apply here; and that’s what we’ll be discussing on Sunday.

Heavenly Wisdom In Two Words | His Word, My Story 2020

When my kids were little, we watched the movie Aladdin (Man, that Robin Williams was one funny dude!). Even though the story of the genie trapped in a bottle is around 3,000 years old, it still has a world-wide appeal. There’s just something enticing about being able to make three wishes and have them all come true. Well, in our passage this week, a king makes two wishes of God – just two – but in these two wishes we see heavenly wisdom for the here and now. I’m excited to share those two wishes with you as we dig into one of my favorite passages of scripture.

Children In The Faith | Known Everywhere

I love being a dad. It truly is one of my favorite things in life. But being a good dad isn’t easy. It takes hard work, consistent behavior, and encouraging words.  So it was with the Apostle Paul and the church in Thessalonica. He considered them like children in the faith, so he treated them like a father. That’s the heartbeat of our passage as we wrap up our series, Known Everywhere. 

In The Dark | Faith in the Dark

Have you ever been in the pitch dark? I mean, the kind of dark where you literally can’t see a thing. It’s kind of fun… for a little while. But an extended time in it would most likely bring uncertainty and fear. Well, 2,600 years ago, the prophet Habakkuk found himself in a dark place of uncertainty and fear. But, through faith, he rises above it. We’ll get to finish our journey with him as we wrap up our series, Faith in the Dark.