Knowing God With Heart and Mind

Wandering in the Wilderness: Love One Another

The people of God often gave up their faith in God as they wandered in the wilderness. Sadly, the unfaithful pressured others to adopt their faithless self-determination. Sometimes, they even pressured their leaders to conform. The most glaring example of this situation is the familiar story of the Israelites who melted their jewelry and formed a golden calf while Moses met with God on the mountain. Do Christians make false gods that satisfy the flesh? Do they ever call these idols the God who saved them?

Wandering in the Wilderness: Alive Inside

Sardis was built on a mountain and had a citadel (fortification) that was considered unconquerable. Nevertheless, it was conquered at least five times, twice due to carelessness. The Christians in Sardis seem to have been as apathetic as the city’s defenders. When Jesus said, “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead” it is like the impressive citadel atop the mountain in which the guards are sleeping. Do you know Christians who are apathetic about their devotion to the Lord?

Wandering in the Wilderness: Resisting Evil

Thyatira’s Christians were threatened by a silver-tongued devil whom our Lord likened to Jezebel. The unnamed prophetess and Jezebel were gifted with persuasiveness and fond of attention. Yet, their message was not from God, and their subtle efforts to undermine the body and its leaders were diabolical. How do Christians avoid Satan's traps and fortify themselves against his undermining?

Wandering in the Wilderness: Moral Truth

Every time the Israelites in the wilderness were punished by God it was because they tried to fit God into the humanist/pagan worldview of their oppressors. It was true in for Pergamum Christians before and it is still true today. Have you witnessed the blending of humanist culture with Christ’s intended culture in a local church? How were the outcomes similar to those experienced by the Israelites and the Pergamum Christians?

Wandering in the Wilderness: Suffering Servants

What's the biggest difference between the way servants of Christ endure suffering and the way others endure it? Jesus has the answer to that question in his letter to the Church at Smyrna. Join us for worship on Sunday as we learn from our Lord.

Wandering in the Wilderness: Remember Your First Love

Have you ever had your firmly held beliefs challenge by someone's rational arguments against them? What was it like to feel so unsettled? How did you recover? Or, did you change your stance? This Sunday we will talk about the need for retaining our "first love" for Christ and to defend our faith against false teaching, even while we find grace for those who are babes in the Faith.

Wandering in the Wilderness: The Pillar and Cloud

During times of trial, God offers to lead us ahead, but we must be willing to fight our need for comfort so that we can courageously embrace uncertainty in faith.

Wandering in the Wilderness: Introduction

We've begun a new sermon series that deals with the peculiar times we are living through as individuals, families, communities, and as the Church.

In this series, we will look at our current events through the lens of Israel’s wilderness wanderings. As we wander in our own wilderness time we will see how the people of God routinely gave up their liberty within God’s grace and exchanged it for slavery to popular culture.

Men After God's Own Heart: Joseph

We will celebrate Father's Day as we conclude the series, "Men After God's Own Heart" by meeting Joseph of Nazareth, the best stepdad ever. Through him, we see that God uses men (and women) who are humble, slow to anger, and open to the Holy Spirit. Please join me as we celebrate dads and all men who seek God's heart.

Men After God's Own Heart: Daniel

We continue our series especially for men called, "Men After God's Own Heart" as we meet the Prophet, Daniel. Did you know that he's the only major character in the Bible who has no notable negative traits? Daniel was handsome, smart, and courageous. Do you think those qualities define a man after God's own heart? Who do you think the Book of Daniel is about?