July 17, 2020 |
The troubling statistics of declining church engagement combined with the increasing mental health challenges among the individuals and families in our communities, leads to why church engagement is all the more important now.
July 17, 2020 |
The troubling statistics of declining church engagement combined with the increasing mental health challenges among the individuals and families in our communities, leads to why church engagement is all the more important now.
September 30, 2018 | Romans 12:1-5 |
We all have a basic human need for physical touch. It’s definitely an important love language. But how can we apply it to expressing our love and worship of God? We can offer our physical bodies to God as worship. We can say, “Jesus, you offered your body to save us, so we’re offering our bodies back to You as worship. Use us to touch someone in Your name!” In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul appealed to believers that they offer their bodies to God as worship. We can offer our bodies to God as our expression of worship.
September 23, 2018 | Colossians 3:23-25 |
All our service, at home, at work, and at church can be an expression of love and worship for our Lord. But it has to come from the heart. It’s all about serving out of our wholehearted love for the Lord, not out of some sense of earning or duty. So how can we express our love and worship of Christ through acts of service? In the book of Colossians, the apostle Paul taught the Colossian believers that they could express their love of Christ through appropriate acts of service. We can express our love and worship of Jesus through our acts of service.
September 16, 2018 | Mark 14:3-11 |
How can we express our love and worship with all heart, soul, mind and strength? It’s only possible because God has first loved us.
How has God loved us first? He created us. He gave us everything we have and everything we are. And even though we have rebelled against Him in sin, He loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus to redeem us. And to those of us who believe in Him, He has given us His Spirit to live in us, making us His children, and promising us eternal life with Him forever in glory. That’s how He has loved us!! So what gift can you give to the Lord to express your love and worship to Him? In the gospel according to Mark, Jesus commended the extravagant gift of worship given by the woman who anointed Him. We can learn to express our worship by giving to the Lord from this woman’s example.
August 27, 2017 | Mark 12:30 |
Love and joy and celebration are connected. And where you focus your heart, where you put your affection, your first love, affects everything. What do you love first? You can tell by what you put first. Who or what comes first in your life? What are you celebrating? What is so important to you that you’re throwing a party, blowing out candles, setting off fireworks for, standing on your feet cheering for it?
Did you know that God cares about what you celebrate? In the book of Mark, Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment. In a sense he was asked to simplify all of the writings of Scripture down to one simple statment. Jesus didn’t pause. He gave them a simple command to celebrate God with all of their love.
September 1, 2016 |
“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4 NKJV). “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30 ESV). Have you noticed that we tend to celebrate what we love
October 17, 2014 |
“I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” (Psalm 122:1 ESV). As Americans, we are so accustomed to having things our own way that it should come as no surprise that we bring this way of thinking into the church. We tend to approach church attendance and church membership with
August 15, 2014 |
“It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:32 ESV). In the parable of the prodigal son, the older brother complains to his father about the party that’s being planned to celebrate the return of his younger brother. His killjoy spirit
March 28, 2014 |
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into
March 2, 2014 | 1 Timothy 2:1-15 |
Pastor Gary Combs continues the sermon series “Entrusted: An Exposition of 1 Timothy” with this message from chapter 2. In the apostle Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he entrusted him with clear instructions on how to lead worship services in the church at Ephesus. We can recognize that as God’s family, His household, we are entrusted with these same instructions for worship. The text gives five instructions to those entrusted with how to worship in God’s household. These instructions address how we should pray, share the gospel, and men’s and women’s roles in worship.