Messages

Christmas Glory

This Advent and Christmas season, we’ll focus on the profound theme of God's glory. It can be challenging to define God's glory since it manifests in numerous ways throughout the Bible. It embodies the greatness and perfection of His character and attributes. Additionally, God’s glory reveals His special presence in the world, evident in both creation and His redemptive acts. We can also glorify God through our worship and praise. However, it was on that first Christmas that the ultimate expression of God's glory entered our world with the birth of Jesus. Yet, Jesus came not only to display God's glory but to invite us to embody and reflect it in our own lives. This may surprise us; we might think God's glory is reserved for exceptionally spiritual people, for extraordinary acts, or even for the realm of fantasy and escape, but we can experience and reflect God’s glory right here and now by following Jesus and living out God's call in our everyday lives. In fact, Isaiah 43:7 says that we were created by God for His glory!

God is incredibly generous. He’s given us everything we have, including our very lives. In turn, God calls us to be generous as well. The idea of being generous people may appeal to us, but navigating our way to generosity isn’t as simple as we’d like. It’s easy to get turned in the wrong direction or to get lost along the way. With this series, we’ll focus on steering clear of greed and selfish motives and toward trusting in God’s provision so that we can reach our destination of becoming generous people.

One of the greatest gifts God gives us is the community of the Church. This community supports and encourages us in so many ways. It is also an important witness to the world and an essential tool for ministry as we reach out to those who don’t know Jesus and seek to draw them into the church. Yet, life in community isn’t always easy. For that reason, this fall, we’ll be looking at what are known as the “one another” passages. To paraphrase Scott Hubbard, the one another passages offer a brilliant picture of life together in community, not only under the lordship of Christ, but also in the pattern of Christ. Rightly understood, the one-another
passages are nothing less than the life of Christ at work in the people of Christ to the glory of Christ.

Our hope is to have vibrant and alive faith. Yet, try as we might, it’s easy to end up going through the motions in our spiritual lives. Sometimes, without even realizing it, we can slip into living our spiritual lives on autopilot, falling into tradition and habit, doing what we think we ought to do, what others expect from us, or simply trying to appease God rather than to really know and love Him. With this series, we’ll seek to look at some of the foundational concepts of faith with fresh eyes and open hearts to avoid ending up just going through the motions.

Esther is the only book in the Bible that doesn't mention God. On the surface, God seems absent from this story. Sadly, that's a familiar idea for many of us. Sometimes, we may feel like God is absent from our lives and world. But the story of Esther reveals that God is always present behind the scenes, often working with great power, even when He may seem albescent to us. Esther is the story of God's loving and sometimes hidden providence, the truth that He is over all things working out His will, and the amazing truth that he uses ordinary, flawed people to accomplish His plans. In the end, through a series of stunning reversals, we find that God is definitely not absent but is, in fact, the central character in this story and that He is always at work for the good of His people and for His glory.

Throughout the Gospels, people had amazing encounters with Jesus. These were ordinary people who were forever changed by their encounters with Him. With this series, as we walk through the season of Lent, we'll see how these people were changed by Jesus and recognize that through our own encounters with Jesus, He can change us, too. With this series, we will also refocus our hearts and minds on Jesus, on who he was, what he taught, and the meaning of his death, as we prepare to celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Hey there! Thank you for stopping by our website. If you are searching for a good church, we know we are the place for you. Feel free to check out the "New Here" page linked below where you can find the answers to all your questions. If you have never been to our church before, come by this Sunday! We would love to get to know you. We want to see lives changed here by the power of Jesus Christ, and we see that happen every week when someone steps through our doors. We look forward to meeting you! God bless.

Pastor Matt Hoyt