The One Thing That Will Change Your Day And Ultimately Your Life

We are talking about the fastest-growing disease in the Western World.  What is it?  Stress.   No matter who you are, you will experience stress.  And remember, we said, even if you are a Christian, you will experience stress.  So, the real question is, how do we deal with stress God’s way?  And that’s the series we are in.  This series was intentionally built to lay out a practical pathway to deal with stress God’s way.

Step 1: Let go and allow God to lead our lives.  The

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Step 2 In Dealing With Stress is Trusting God With Our Lives

This fall, we're discussing stress.  This is important because stress is something we all face.  Now, we would love to avoid it, but the reality is, we all deal with it.  So, if you think about it, stress is a common experience for all of us, which means the most important thing we can do is learn to manage it well. What we want you to see is that God has given us a pathway to managing stress in a healthy way, right in Scripture.  That is what we are laying out for you thi

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Step 1 In Dealing With Stress

What is something we all have in common?  Stress.   It doesn’t matter who you are or how old you are; we all experience stress.  That’s what we are talking about.  More specifically, how do we deal with stress in a Godly way?  To do this, we are talking about stress on Sunday, but we want to give you more.  With our App, you can see the video of the sermon and the sermon text all week long.   Also, every day we will be giving you a daily discipleship to help process each t

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We Need Restored To Our Factory Default Settings

Today is a big day, and one we have been looking forward to for a while.  We are jumping into our first conversation of the fall, focusing on stress.  Stress is something that we all face in our lives.  It’s something we all experience, which makes this a particularly relevant conversation, especially in North American culture, where stress is often considered normal, almost a badge of honor in people’s lives.  As people, we wish we didn’t have to deal with it, and we woul

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How To Unlock Your Prayer Life

Today is a big day in our Sunday Conversations.  We are supposed to be finishing up our study of the book of Daniel with one last talk about prayer.  This time, we discuss praying with humility and honesty.  And, hey, we will talk about prayer, but to do this, we are going to move beyond the book of Daniel to some of Jesus’ teachings that are too important and clear on this subject to ignore. We have spent the last few weeks discussing prayer, examining various characteris

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The Secret to Being Grateful or Miserable

Welcome to Labor Day weekend.  Where did the summer go?  For those of you who love Christmas, we are only sixteen Sundays away.    

We are in Daniel 9.  And in this chapter, Daniel is 85 years old.   Now remember, when the book of Daniel began, he was a prisoner of war at age 15.  Now 70 years later, Daniel is reading Jeremiah and learning that his time in captivity is almost over.  He’s excited to go home, but there is a problem.  Israel has pushed God away.  They aren’t f

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The Secret to the Christian Life

To get us to start thinking today, I want to start with some big questions.  Was seeking after God modeled for you growing up?  Was it normal for you to see the adult in your home put God’s kingdom first?  Was it normal in your home to see your Mom and Dad pray, read scripture, that led to becoming emotionally and spiritually healthy?  Did your parents prioritize God and the church?  That’s where we go today, we will get back to those questions.

Let’s jump into Daniel.

Danie

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When Those You Love Push God Away

I want to start with a quote today.  

“If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” – Mother Teresa

We will come back to that quote.  

Real quickly, let’s look back at last week.  I wanted to bring up a huge point Sam gave us last week.  Daniel wasn’t a preacher.  Daniel wasn’t a king.  Daniel wasn’t a social media influencer.  Truth was, Daniel started out as a prisoner of war.  However, because of how Daniel lived, the king demanded that everyone serve Go

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Let's Talk About The Heart Of The Christian Life

Over the last few weeks, we have been diving into Daniel 6; you could say we have spent the last few weeks with Daniel in the Lion’s Den.  This allowed us not only to dive into one of the most epic and popular stories of scripture, but it has also sent us into a challenging conversation about our faith and how we live our lives as Christians.  That may have snuck up on you as we move into this story, but it shouldn’t.  Life, pressure, adversity, gut-wrenching pain, these a

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What Has Been Your Christian Experience?

Today, we start off with a question to get you thinking.  What is it like for you to be a Christian?  What has been your experience?  I want to see if you connect with one of six possible Christian experiences.  Nothing scientific.  These may not apply to you.  Ready?

First.  Do you feel like you are trying to be a good person?   Some days are good.  Some days are not so good.  And you have noticed that over time, when it comes to religion, you feel tired and guilty because

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Overcoming Like Daniel - The Importance of Inner Healing

Today, we continue our study of the book of Daniel, where we are learning to thrive, not just survive, in this challenging world.  Last week, we moved into Daniel 6, which leads us to the story that probably comes to mind when you think of Daniel in Scripture: Daniel and the Lion's Den.  Today is going to be a little different. We will discuss Daniel 6, but I want to take a step back and share something about Daniel’s life that struck me as I began preparing for this talk.

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Daniel 5 - Knowing What To Do Versus Doing It

Welcome back to our summer Bible study on The Book of Daniel, called Thrive. In this study, we are learning that regardless of what life throws at us and how difficult our circumstances may be, we can thrive, not just survive, in this challenging world.  Last week, we worked our way through Daniel Chapter 4, a beautiful chapter which is quite literally King Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony.  It is also a crucial warning for us about pride and the dangers of success, comfort, and

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Daniel 4 - The Test of Success and Dangers of Pride

Welcome back to our summer Bible study on The Book of Daniel, called Thrive. In this study, we are learning that regardless of what life throws at us and how difficult our circumstances may be, we can thrive, not just survive, in this challenging world.  Today will be a lot of fun because after four weeks working our way through Chapter 3 and the epic tale of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and the fiery furnace, we move into Daniel 4.  While this particular story isn’t told

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If The Crisis Didn't Change You, It's A Tragedy!

Preparing for this message, I had to laugh a little.  Sam and I, last week and this week, are sharing things you probably don’t hear a lot.   We share them because we care deeply about you.  You probably won’t hear this kind of message in a church that is heavy on liturgy or theology.  You probably won’t hear this message in a church that believes that if you are positive and give money, God will give you success, health, wealth, comfort, and happiness.  You probably won’t

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Trusting God In The Fire

Welcome back to our summer Bible study on The Book of Daniel, called Thrive. In this study, we are learning that regardless of what life throws at us and how difficult our circumstances may be, we can thrive, not just survive, in this challenging world.  Today marks our third week in Daniel Chapter 3.  We are taking our time and working our way through the incredible story of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and the Fiery Furnace.  We are working through this chapter very inte

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