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’

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 int

How To Deal With Insane Pressure

Have you ever felt pressure in life?  The kind of pressure that screams at you, ‘There is no way out of this, do what everyone else is doing, do the easy thing.’  Maybe you are in school and you have felt the overwhelming pressure from the kids and from social media.  Maybe you are in the workplace and you feel pressure to go along with something that is wrong.   That’s what we talk about today.   How do we stand against and walk through pressure?

We are in chapter three o

Idol Worship Is Taking ALL and Making it Some, Most, or None - Studying Daniel 3

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. This is a massive truth, and the deeper we dive into this study, the clearer it becomes just how relevant and helpful this book is for our lives today. 

Over the last two weeks, Ken has taken us through Chapter 2, where we

How to Tap Into the Supernatural Power of God

The book of Daniel is the bible study that we are in.  The major theme of this book is how to thrive, not just survive, as you walk through the problems of life.   Remember the context of Daniel?  Daniel was fifteen years old, a prisoner of war, forced to go to Babylon, and in a three-year program to erase everything about his culture.  And get this, the reason everything in Daniel’s life was thrown upside down was because of God.  I want to read it to you.  

Daniel 1:1 Du

How Do I Walk Through A Crisis?

Specifically, in the area of problems and challenges, how did the grown-ups in your life respond to problems?  What was modeled for you?  Chances are, how you were raised has deeply impacted how you respond to problems and challenges today.  For example, if blaming others was modeled for you, then you probably, without thinking about it, blame others for your problems.  If being a victim was modeled for you, then you probably find it easy to be a victim.  If being positiv

No Pain, No Gain - 4 Things God Wants To See In Us When We Are Tested In Life

Today, we continue our big summer Bible study on the book of Daniel called Thrive.  It’s funny because we have only covered around seven verses so far, and I think you can already see how relevant this book is and how much we can learn from it.  Remember how we met Daniel?  He was a 15-year-old boy, ripped from his home, never to see his family again. The Babylonians conquered Jerusalem; they even desecrated God in the process, and he was part of the 25% of people capture

Understanding How to Thrive Through Your Problems

Today we talk about problems.  Do you have any problems or struggles in your life?  You probably feel like you have so many problems that you could divide them into different categories, right?  Maybe even alphabetize them.  Everyone has problems.  I think one of the biggest challenges people face today is understanding our problems.   We spend our lives trying to avoid them, and yet they seem to find us.  We have so many questions about our problems and struggles.  Quest

Thrive - Introduction To The Book of Daniel

Every year, after Easter, we jump into a Bible Study, and it’s always a lot of fun. There is something exciting about a Spiritual Family centering on God’s Word and diving into it.  I always look forward to it, and this year’s study will be a blast because we are jumping into a book that is more relevant to life today than it appears at first glance.  This year, we will study the book of Daniel.  We titled this series Thrive.  Why call it that?  Daniel’s life and actions

Are You Losing Hope?

Good morning, everyone.  Welcome to Easter.  Today is the greatest day of the year, and we get to talk about why.  I don’t know what you think about Jesus, God, Church, religion, and all of that stuff.  I don’t know if you grew up in church or if church is new to you.  I don’t know where you are spiritually.  So, today, I wanted to start with something that is really important to get us all on the same page.  I’m going to read it for you from the Bible.  When I read it fo

Why Do We Struggle To Experience Overwhelming Victory?

Today is a very special day in our faith.  It is Palm Sunday, which marks the start of Holy Week.  Today is the day Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem to people celebrating and worshiping Him.  They cheered, “Hosanna, son of David, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” They laid down palm leaves in reverence to Him.  It’s an epic and joyful moment that leads into the heaviest and hardest week of Jesus’ life as those same people cheering for Him on this day wi

God Math - Less Is More Vs Human Math - More is More

You know, we have been walking through this Real Faith Disrupts conversation for a while now, and I’m wondering how you are doing as week after week, we press in on the concept of real faith and its impact on our lives.  This is challenging but important because Christianity is about how we live our lives, which means life change.  We move from what we always have done and step into a new way of living.  But we can say it: Life changes, and living opposite the world can b

If Someone Takes Unfair Advantage Of You

Today we start with scripture.  Before I read it for you, I want to give you context.  The author of this letter, Hebrews, is writing to the Jewish Christians experiencing persecution.  Life for them is very hard.  There are people in their community going out of their way to persecute them.  Imagine getting a letter that says the following: 

Hebrews 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. NIV

Same ve

How Do You View Serving?

Welcome back to our winter conversation called ‘Real Faith Disrupts.’  We are walking you through 12 essential questions about our faith and have hit some critical topics so far.  We want you to see that we aren’t just talking about what these things are; the focus has been on what they mean to you personally and how they impact your life.  Why is that important?  Well, it’s because real faith leads to life change.  When God is the priority in our lives, and Jesus is both

Do You See This World As A Temporary Home or Final Destination?

We hope this series we are in is making you think through what it means to live out Christianity.  It’s a very practical series that walks us through specific areas of our lives.  If there is faith, real faith, it will disrupt our lives.  That’s why we are in a series that asks the question, ‘Has your faith disrupted your life?’ 

Let’s read what Jesus’ brother James wrote.

James 1:17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and use