Burnt Hickory | Sermons

As Christians, we see that worship is the only logical response of a life that realizes what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do in eternity. Worship is so much more than just a song that we sing, it’s putting God’s worthiness on display, and we live this out in so many ways throughout our lives. We learn from scripture that there is danger in flippantly approaching and worshipping the Holy God,...

In continuation of our sermon series called Rethink Your Life, we explore our relationship with the word of God. We know we can trust the word of God because not only is it a reliable collection of historical documents and is written directly by eyewitnesses, if fulfills so many specific prophecies. As Christians, we can place faith in the fact that its ultimate author was God, not man. Even Jesus...

We start an amazing sermon series this week where we will take time over the next few weeks rethinking our lives in light of scripture. This week, we look at our relationship with Jesus. While sin is an action, it is also a universal starting condition of all of mankind’s hearts. We so often replace living inside God’s authority while we follow our own desires. What we see from scripture is that G...

As we stand on the brink of a new year, our hearts resonate with the journey of the Wise Men who sought the King—the true Messiah sent by the Father. In this New Year's Eve reflection, we'll explore the timeless lessons from these seekers of truth. Guided by divine signs, the Wise Men recognized a wondrous star leading them to the King. Similarly, our worship is a journey guided by divine signs, r...

It’s Christmas Eve at Burnt Hickory, and a perfect time to discover true hope because our Savior Jesus is born unto us. He is Emmanuel, Christ with us. Not just a baby in a manger so long ago, but the true Mesiah sent by the Father for us today. We see in Galatians that in the fullness of time, God sent His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might rece...

Today, we look at the aspect of joy in the glory of God through our advent sermon series. We see that when God shows up, His glory exposes us to who we really are, men of unclean lips. His glory also drives out fear and replaces it with true joy and it creates trust and confidence in His promises. God’s glory changes out priorities in the routines of our day-to-day life, so that even in the mundan...

In our sermon series around the themes of Advent leading up to Christmas, we explore absolute love this week. God is always faithful and always fulfills His promises. God’s love deeply knows all of each of us, from the beginning to the end, and He constantly provides His life-giving power to us. Because of His love, He richly extends His eternal mercy to us and will reward a humble heart. Because...

We begin the Christmas season with a sermon series diving into the aspects of the advent – hope, joy, love, and peace. This week as we look at the source of our true hope, we see that it comes from a God who has come to earth to be among us. Hope is the expectation of future blessings and the confidence that the best is yet to come. As Christ followers, we can have true hope because Jesus removes...

This Missions Sunday, we get to celebrate what God is doing through us both here and around the world. We also get to hear a sermon from Jonathan Ekman from Voice of the Martyrs on encouragement from the persecuted family – churches around the world in hostile areas seeking to proclaim the gospel in the face of opposition. We see that if we focus on an eternal perspective, we can have true joy in...

God’s presence is no longer to be celebrated for falling on a place, because it has now fallen onto and into His people. We see in Acts what it truly means to be Spirit led as we trust and submit to God’s timing. As we study scripture, we learn that following God means standing assured in God’s promises and not in our own strength. The power of the Holy Spirit comes in the form of us as Christ fol...

We celebrate vulnerable children’s day this Sunday by learning about a new mission partnership and diving into scripture. We learn that God has a special place in His heart for kids, especially vulnerable kids. Rescuing hurting kids is not just a charity for us to support, it’s a rescue mission for all the church. Our compassion is what leads us to action, and because we are no longer slaves, we a...

We wrap up an amazing Disciple Now Student weekend by hearing from our Kenya Mission Partner, Peter Abungu. He leads us through scripture as we look at the difference between being conformed and transformed. We see that transformation belongs to believers because the unbeliever can’t break the world’s control over them without Christ. Believers are promised that the Spirit who lives in them is gre...

Today, we celebrate believers’ baptism. We see from scripture that baptism doesn’t save us, its purely a symbol of the change that has already happened in the heart of a believer. An outward public declaration that through Jesus’ saving work, you know have spiritual life as His follower. But even though it’s a symbol, we cannot be indifferent to baptism, we should follow Jesus in this proclamation...

What is a biblical marriage? Did Covid bring forward some issues in your marriage you and your spouse are still struggling with today? How do you resolve conflict without hurting your spouse? How do you maintain a healthy marriage and still focus on your own mental health? Today, we dive into a focus on healthy marriages and how we as Christ followers should approach our relationships and home lif...

We conclude our sermon series throughout Galatians called Freedom in Christ by studying chapter 6. We learn that to experience Holy Spirit power, we must live lives constantly pointing to the gospel, and when we try to seek glory from anything but the gift of the gospel, we will stay empty. Walking in the spirit requires healthy and loving responsibilities and relationships within the body of Chri...

As we continue our sermon series through Galatians, we look to chapter five this week for our Freedom in Christ. We learn that God’s desire is for our heart to be so in love with Him, that the commands to love, experience, and submit to God feel like freedom because it is who we truly are and what we joyfully desire. You cannot simply experience the gospel, justification, adoption, and the infusio...

We dive into Galatians Chapter 3 in today’s sermon and discover that salvation is not just a change of attitude or thinking, it’s a literal transformation of our core identity, our desires, our purpose, and our future. Paul is reiterating to the church of Galatia that our justification makes us right before God the Judge, but the gift of adoption into God’s family shows us that we are deeply and e...

As we continue our study through the book of Galatians, we learn that as we grow in Christ, it’s through the same way we began our walk, by focusing on the finished work of Christ. If you first received the Holy Spirit by faith, then why would you think that you grow in the Holy Spirit any other way? As we continually renew our faith in the finished work of Jesus, the power and clarity of the Holy...

The gospel, the good news of Jesus, is not just the ticket that gets you into God’s kingdom. The gospel is the fuel, the power, and the map that enables you to live the Christian life out. As we continue through the book of Galatians in the bible, we learn that we are justified through our faith in Jesus, which means that God’s grace is given freely to us to forgive us, pardon us, and make us righ...

We begin our new sermon series through the chapter of Galatians where we explore the tension of the law and freedom in Christ. Today, we define what the gospel means. It’s the good news that Jesus, the perfect Son of God; died for our sins, rose again, conquered sin, and now gives eternal life to those who believe, repent, and trust in Him as their Savior and Lord. Some truths we discover about th...

We finish our sermon series called God’s Not Done With You by studying arguably the best comeback story in the bible, David. Davis was blessed by God in so many ways, but he was isolated and in a place to be tempted. The truth is everyone sins. It’s our response after the sin that makes the difference. Whether you cover it up, hide it, move on, or try to make up for our sin, God loves us, even in...

Just because we don’t clearly see God’s plan in this moment, it does not mean that He does not moving in an amazing way to save us. Sometimes, even when we don’t see God, He still wants us to stand for Him. We continue our sermon series called God’s Not Done With You, and we read from scripture about Esther. What we learn is that God is always working to position and prepare us to make a stand for...

As we continue our sermon series called God’s not done with you, we dive into the story of Jonah. We learn that the discipline of God comes from His heart of love to draw us back to him, not to push us away. Sin starts with small decisions but ends with major disasters because it starts with us saying no to God and yes to our own desires. We also see that sin causes us to live as people we swore w...

God loves you, and He wants to give you peace, power, deliverance and hope. As we study Elijah’s story today in scripture, we see a road map to despair paved with emptiness, opposition, fearfulness, and loneliness. But also, we see in the bible that God will always provide just what we need, right when we need it. Our role as Christ followers is to trust in God’s provision and listen to Him. God g...

No matter the circumstance we find ourselves in today, God will be faithful. He is always working for our eternal good and his glory; therefore, we should boldly live with an eternal focus, not a sin-stained, limited, earthly perspective. As we continue our sermon series called God’s Not Done With You, we look in Genesis at the story of Joseph. What we can learn from this scripture is that even if...