Bel Air Church

God is an alchemist. Nope. I can't give that one away. You'll have to hear Dr. Sams unpack that one for you. In his third sermon in the series on the book of Philippians, we find the ultimate challenge of Scripture: to live is Christ. In reality, that's difficult to believe, and even more difficult to live. As much as we know the "churchy" answer, the challenge remains. Bu...

God is an alchemist. Nope. I can't give that one away. You'll have to hear Dr. Sams unpack that one for you. In his third sermon in the series on the book of Philippians, we find the ultimate challenge of Scripture: to live is Christ. In reality, that's difficult to believe, and even more difficult to live. As much as we know the "churchy" answer, the challenge remains. Bu...

Pastor Drew continues his series on Philippians, A Life Like No Other, specifically focusing on Philippians 1:7–11. Resources for a life of following Jesus, every day, everywhere, with everyone.

On resurrection Sunday, Dr. Sams again reminds us of God's love for our souls by opening the book of Philippians, launching a new sermon series, "A Life Like No Other". Using the Apostle Paul's own words, Dr. Sams shows us the power of God's love to transform us from potential saints into masterpieces of sainthood. To illustrate this, a special guest takes the platform to...

On resurrection Sunday, Dr. Sams again reminds us of God's love for our souls by opening the book of Philippians, launching a new sermon series, "A Life Like No Other". Using the Apostle Paul's own words, Dr. Sams shows us the power of God's love to transform us from potential saints into masterpieces of sainthood. To illustrate this, a special guest takes the platform to...

On Palm Sunday, Dr. Sams closes the "Drawing Near" series by showing us exactly how near God draws to us all. Jesus draws so near, in fact, that His identity is stamped onto our souls. The blessing of Palm Sunday is that Christ makes us citizens of heaven, and this informs our identity exclusively. All other aspects of our identity are secondary - by a great deal. We walk in supreme grac...

On Palm Sunday, Dr. Sams closes the "Drawing Near" series by showing us exactly how near God draws to us all. Jesus draws so near, in fact, that His identity is stamped onto our souls. The blessing of Palm Sunday is that Christ makes us citizens of heaven, and this informs our identity exclusively. All other aspects of our identity are secondary - by a great deal. We walk in supreme grac...

In contrast to how our society loves, Christ shows us that our need to be loved cannot be filled in this world. Our world loves in order to fulfill itself. In the end, we end up using people, and love is cheapened. In contrast, true love expects nothing, needs nothing, and acts for its own sake. Christ loves because He loves. In the fourth "Drawing Near" sermon, Dr. Sams shows us Christ...

If we are at all familiar with the gospel, we know we are lost. There is no question about it. The real question is whether we are willing to be found, because once He finds us, He sends us out to do work. Many of us stop short of that. We want to be found, and only found. Jesus goes to great lengths to recover his lost sheep. But once recovered, we are called to follow. There is good news for tho...

We try to control and manage things, our lives being paramount. Many times, we treat God no differently. We place conditions on our love for God. If He behaves how we want, we love Him. This is exactly opposite of how God treats us. Whether our sin is riddled with consequences, or it is so minor that only we and God are aware, we still all fall short of God's perfect standard of righteousness...

We all have places in our hearts that are "off limits". Usually, these are the places where we are the most guilty, the most ashamed, the most filled with sin, the most corrupt. In the first sermon of our "Drawing Near" series, Dr. Sams reminds us that as we draw nearer to each other, and courageously share our spiritual messes, we discover we're drawing near to Jesus, the...

This week's message is so simple. The gospel shows preference to those of least stature in our society. Our guest speaker, Bishop W.C. Martin, comes from Possum Trot, Texas. His church doesn't have members in the thousands, and budgets in the millions. Yet, at Bennet Chapel, Bishop Martin's church of 200, they have adopted 76 children who needed homes. Possum Trot isn't Bel Air...

This week's message is so simple. The gospel shows preference to those of least stature in our society. Our guest speaker, Bishop W.C. Martin, comes from Possum Trot, Texas. His church doesn't have members in the thousands, and budgets in the millions. Yet, at Bennet Chapel, Bishop Martin's church of 200, they have adopted 76 children who needed homes. Possum Trot isn't Bel Air...

This week's message is so simple. The gospel shows preference to those of least stature in our society. Our guest speaker, Bishop W.C. Martin, comes from Possum Trot, Texas. His church doesn't have members in the thousands, and budgets in the millions. Yet, at Bennet Chapel, Bishop Martin's church of 200, they have adopted 76 children who needed homes. Possum Trot isn't Bel Air...

In the second story of our series, Dr. Sams reminds us of Ruth, a story of courageous "going." Ruth leaves her native home to join the Israelites in Judah, leaving behind everything she knows to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi. As the story unfolds, Ruth is transformed by her own courage, and Naomi is transformed by Ruth's transformation. Naomi's hope feeds Ruth's hope, an...

In the second story of our series, Dr. Sams reminds us of Ruth, a story of courageous "going." Ruth leaves her native home to join the Israelites in Judah, leaving behind everything she knows to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi. As the story unfolds, Ruth is transformed by her own courage, and Naomi is transformed by Ruth's transformation. Naomi's hope feeds Ruth's hope, an...

In the second story of our series, Dr. Sams reminds us of Ruth, a story of courageous "going." Ruth leaves her native home to join the Israelites in Judah, leaving behind everything she knows to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi. As the story unfolds, Ruth is transformed by her own courage, and Naomi is transformed by Ruth's transformation. Naomi's hope feeds Ruth's hope, an...

God's call is powerful (loud, clear, and usually with a big scope) and qualifying (as in, if he calls us, we're qualified). In the first of a pair of sermons, Dr. Sams explores how we "go" as God calls us to go. No matter how much we engage with others and pretend we're "all-in", God's call to us remains. It's a personal beckoning and demands a personal...

In the scripture Dr. Sams examines with us on Vision Sunday, we learn a new Greek word: Kairos. Kairos represents events, deeper experiences instead of a measurement of minutes or months. Our culture is fascinated and driven by Chronos. Both words translate to English as "time," but Chronos is measured and finite. Think, "It's time to get in shape." Kairos. "It's...

In the scripture Dr. Sams examines with us on Vision Sunday, we learn a new Greek word: Kairos. Kairos represents events, deeper experiences instead of a measurement of minutes or months. Our culture is fascinated and driven by Chronos. Both words translate to English as "time," but Chronos is measured and finite. Think, "It's time to get in shape." Kairos. "It's...

This Sunday we had the privilege of hearing the Word of God preached by Dr. Emmanuel Bellon, international leadership consultant, and friend of Bel Air Church. Dr. Bellon comes to us from Nairobi, Kenya, and is largely responsible for establishing our partnership with CECA church in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dr. Bellon opens the scriptures to encourage us with his thoughts about our...

This Sunday we had the privilege of hearing the Word of God preached by Dr. Emmanuel Bellon, international leadership consultant, and friend of Bel Air Church. Dr. Bellon comes to us from Nairobi, Kenya, and is largely responsible for establishing our partnership with CECA church in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dr. Bellon opens the scriptures to encourage us with his thoughts about our...

Continuing with the trend of making all of us uncomfortable, Dr. Sams reminds us that in the conflicts we will face with evil, we ourselves fall short of God's standards. Our righteousness is worthless. Yet, there are steps we can follow to be filled with Christ's righteousness. Though our brokenness gets the best of us again and again, we can choose another way, Christ's Way. Would...

Continuing with the trend of making all of us uncomfortable, Dr. Sams reminds us that in the conflicts we will face with evil, we ourselves fall short of God's standards. Our righteousness is worthless. Yet, there are steps we can follow to be filled with Christ's righteousness. Though our brokenness gets the best of us again and again, we can choose another way, Christ's Way. Would...

If you've been to Bel Air Church or listened to our sermons for the past 3 years, you've probably heard Dr. Sams use an intriguing word: xenophilia. Basically, this is love of stranger, and is embodied in the word "hospitality". This isn't the kind of "being nice to your house guests" hospitality (although that kind is included). It's the kind where you are...