OUR PAST SERIES
Here's an archive of our past teaching series... Thanks for inviting us onto your screen! Come visit us soon so we can meet you in person!
Over the last 2000 years, Billions of people have chosen to become Jesus followers And the Church has literally changed the history of humankind. HOW? Was it an accident? Was it some mystical heavenly force? Or did normal people, through the power of God and the simple message of Jesus do it on purpose? Can we play a part in this movement? And can we also do it on purpose? A March 2018 message series.
Part 1: The Purpose
March 4, 2018
How can we be a church on purpose?
Part 1: The Purpose
Part 2: The Power
March 11, 2018
We can be God’s ambassadors because God empowers us.
Part 2: The Power
Part 3: The Process
March 18, 2018
We can do “church on purpose” when we participate in the process of church.
Part 3: The Process
Part 4: The Prayer
March 25, 2018
The prayer of a church on purpose is for the courage to work with God to save others.
Part 4: The Prayer
December 31, 2017
Everything that exists had a starting point . . . including you. You may have started on purpose. You may have started by accident (from your parents’ perspective). You may even have started through the magic of medical science. Whatever the circumstances, you had a starting point and it began before you were aware of it. Physical life is one of many starting points. Your formal education had a starting point. Your career had a starting point. Your romantic life had a starting point. Your experience as a parent had a starting
point. Faith has a starting point as well.
January 7, 2018
During childhood, you may have been handed a faith framework through which you began to view the world. For a lot of us, that childhood framework didn’t survive the rigors of adulthood. It’s not enough to say, “The Bible says . . .” in the face of real-life tragedy. Adults often need a new starting point. But the starting point for Christian faith isn’t “The Bible says . . .” It’s better than that. It’s Jesus. but more.
January 14, 2018
Three major world faith traditions—Judaism, Islam, and Christianity—claim the same starting point: a man named Abraham. All three agree that sin made a mess of the world and God started his clean-up operation with Abraham. God made a series of promises and Abraham’s responses to those promises didn’t just have implications for his personal starting point or the starting points of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. It had implications for your starting point as well.
January 21, 2018
Practically speaking, rules are often the centerpiece of religious life. Many people think the Ten Commandments are rules that make a relationship with God possible. If you follow the rules, God will be happy. If you don’t, he won’t. But what if a relationship with God doesn’t depend on our obedience? When it comes to your relationship with God, what is the role of rules?
January 28, 2018
Shame can be crippling. Guilt is powerful. We all have things in our past that haunt us. It only takes a word, a picture, or a name to bring it all back.We have sin. We know we can try to do better from this point forward, but how are we supposed to fix the past? We try… We can say we’re sorry. We can ask for forgiveness. But some of the things we’ve done hang over our lives like a fog. What can wash away our sins?
February 11, 2018
At some point in your faith journey, you will settle into a bargaining posture with God. “God, if you will . . . , I promise I will . . . .” We all do it. That’s just part of religion—every religion. In fact, it’s so much a part of human nature that even some atheists and agnostics do it when they find themselves in desperate circumstances. But is that really how God wants us to relate to him? The problem with a bargaining posture is we never keep up our end of the bargain, do we?
February 18, 2018
Everything has a starting point including your faith journey. Faith has a starting point. But faith is perhaps the most confused, misused, and abused concept in religion. But, a single event—the resurrection of Jesus—separates Christian faith from every other religious belief movement.
Every year many of us hope this is the Christmas that will finally live up to the hype. And every year we end up at least a little disappointed because Christmas just seemed so… ordinary. Where is the magical feeling we are promised in the songs, movies, and see in the story of the first Christmas? Yet, on the outside, the first Christmas didn’t live up to the hype either… until you look a little closer. Let’s explore the extraordinary story of the ordinary first Christmas and maybe this year can be our Best Christmas Ever.
Part 1: Deal with Your Expectations
Dr. Ken Silva, 11-26-17
False expectations can blind us to the real joy of Christmas.
AUDIO || TRANSCRIPT || QUESTIONS
Part 2: Hard to Believe
Jon Silva, 12-03-17
God chooses ordinary people.
AUDIO || TRANSCRIPT || QUESTIONS
Part 3: Another Ordinary Christmas
Jon Silva, 12-10-17
Extraordinary is found in the ordinary
Part 4: The Purpose
Jon Silva, 12-17-17
Jesus transforms the ordinary into extraordinary.
AUDIO || TRANSCRIPT
What Makes You Happy
Something you don’t normally hear in churches, and might actually be controversial, but… believe it or not: God wants you to be happy! No thing makes you happy. So what does make us happy? What do all happy people have in common? Watch or listen to find out more.
Download notes
You Are Happy When
What we discovered last week was you can actually have both… You don’t have to choose between God and happiness. God created us to be happy. This week we’ll look at what Jesus says about how happy people think and act.
Download notes
Peace With God
Every happy person has peace. Peace with themselves, others, and God. Peace with God paves the way to peace with ourselves and equips us to make peace with others. And it begins with faith is Jesus Christ. Not changing our behavior… just like going to Oktoberfest doesn’t make you German… acting righteous doesn’t make you righteous. The only way to get to the Kingdom of God is through faith, trusting what Jesus has done.
Download notes
Managing Money Well
Money won’t make you happy or unhappy. It’s about how well you manage what you have. Money contributes to your happiness if you manage it well. Managing money well looks like putting our stuff in proper perspective (Matthew 6:19-21), and not letting “it” be in control. We can do this by Giving 1st, Saving 2nd, and Living off the rest.
Download notes
Thieves
Have you ever watched someone else’s life and it was like watching a slow-motion car wreck? You can see self-inflicted pain headed in that person’s direction. You wonder how he or she doesn’t see it coming. Maybe you’ve been that person. Others tried to warn you, but you couldn’t see the danger that was so obvious to them. How does that happen? Why are we tempted to make decisions that hurt us in the long-run? The problem often stems from our confusion about the relationship between pleasure and happiness.
Download notes
Give it Away
We’re tempted to believe that happiness comes from things. But happiness is an outcome of what we invest in. So, one could say doing makes the difference—especially doing for others. You won’t be happy as long as you are all about you.
Download notes
God doesn’t just love religious church people. He passionately and wildly loves people who have never even stepped foot in a church building or have decided they never want to again. In this series, we addressed some of the things that have kept people away from church. And what we discovered was, most of the things some resist about church are things the church should be resisting too. Jesus came to make things brand new.