Burnt Hickory | Sermons

As we continue our sermon series Moving Forward, we focus on how personal and corporate prayer are a vital part of momentum in our lives as Christians. As we follow Jesus, the first thing we should do is pray, but usually it’s the last thing we think about. We see in Acts that the early church took prayer very seriously. They prayed regularly and with honesty. They prayed with balance but also spe...

As we continue to move forward, we look again to Joshua in scripture and the story of the city of Jericho. We learn that resistance to God’s word is a big deal, way bigger that we think, and that not fully submitting to God has serious consequences. Partial submission gives us a false sense of security and keeps the focus on us and not God. When we fully submit to God, it positions God in his righ...

We begin our new sermon series Moving Forward, by looking at Joshua and the Israelites journey crossing over the Jordan river. God wants us to move forward on our journey, and we need to stand behind God and seek his holiness. We see in scripture that holiness always precedes God’s movement, and we have to be in continual pursuit of living set apart to accomplish what God has set before us. We als...

We explore the scriptures today as we look at what matters to God, and why it should matter to us. Pastor Chip shows us that often we try to make God about us and not about Himself, and when we do that, we don’t understand His character fully. We matter to God, and because of that, we need to stay faithful and act like we have been set free through Christ. We need to understand that we’re not a co...

Pastor Alan shares some characteristics of a church in deep water, not being in trouble, but following God’s commands to go deeper in following Him and fishing for men in a lost world. We see in scripture – Luke 5:1-11; that we need to have deep water experiences in our faith, and we need to have them more often. The greatest catch in the disciples’ careers ended in them abandoning everything and...

Our Radiate Students just got back from their mission trip to Alaska, and Pastor Eli challenges us to have a broken heart for the lost. We learn that we need to live on mission, not just go on mission. That as we live out the daily rhythms of life, that we need to share the hope of Jesus to everyone with boldness. Take the example of our students and dig into scripture, be transformed, and reach o...

We conclude our sermon series on being Joyful Exiles with a special celebration looking forward to Independence Day tomorrow. As we consider living in freedom, Pastor Marty shows us in 1 Peter that God wants to deliver us from bondage and have us live in His freedom. God wants us to see the lies of Satan and understand that hardships are normal and also temporary, that God is there to handle our a...

As we continue to explore 1 Peter, we learn how to live with the end in sight. We see in scripture that the end of all things is near, and because of that, we need to be alert and sober minded. God’s desires need to be placed before ours and we need to love each other deeply while practicing caring hospitality. The real question is, if you knew Jesus was returning today, what would you change abou...

Struggling in life is inevitable, but as Christians, we don’t have to be miserable when life gets hard. As we continue looking at 1 Peter, we see that we can find joy even in the hard times of life. Pastor Matt shows us that we can seek peace through being humble, compassionate, and by loving one another. We know that suffering is coming, and when we prepare for it and turn the suffering into a wi...

As we explore more in 1Peter, we dig deeper into the Christian life and learn that we have to mature. We see in scripture that we should love the word of God, and that the word endures forever, it is good, and when we apply it to our lives, it gives us confidence. We also need to embrace our identity in Christ, because the 1Peter lays out that we are chosen, royalty, part of the priesthood, we are...

First Peter begins with – to the exiles scattered throughout the provinces who have been chosen. Peter is trying to encourage these fledgling Christians who are scattered to remain steadfast in the joy of Christ. Pastor Matt shows us that we too can live out joyfully even though we are exiles in this world. We should remember that God has chosen us, and He gives us a living hope. We walk out that...

We really need to consider what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and to be like him. Jesus was betrayed, doubted, persecuted, had no social life, spent 40 days fasting in prayer, and was crucified. We have to ask ourselves; do we really want to be like Jesus? What we focus on develops in our lives, and if we are relying on the one who has given us life to the fullest, everything else will be ad...

Most people don’t even know where Haggai is in the bible, but this short scripture offers a lot of wisdom and instruction for life. Living sacrificially is a counter cultural way of life, but it’s the life we are called to by the Spirit. But the extent or size of that sacrifice isn’t an indication of God’s acceptance, it’s more about our intentions and placing God’s pleasure above the desire for o...

Understanding God’s will for our lives might seem complicated, but it might be because we are not interpreting our involvement correctly. Perhaps we are not supposed to find God’s will because it was never hidden, and our role is just to walk in it faithfully. We can be aware of walking in God’s will through remembering God’s mercies and through resisting conforming to culture in our thoughts and...

We celebrate mothers and mother figures today on this special Sunday, and we dive into scripture to see some principles from women in the bible like Deborah. God calls and equips both men and women for leadership in his kingdom. We also see that women can lead and flourish inside of God’s design for our lives. God does his greatest work through simple acts of obedience, and he never needs our abil...

Transitions in life are hard. They’re full of turbulence and it may seem that we are going through them alone. But we see through studying the bible today, that God does not always lead us to places that are convenient or comfortable, and that he also delivers us as we rely on him. It’s Senior Sunday, and we get to celebrate our high school seniors as they take the next big step in their lives. Pa...

Once you become a Christian, life isn’t perfect. Everyone still has questions and struggles and luckily, God loves us through our struggles in our faith. As we look into scripture today, we can learn that even when we can’t see God’s hand, we can trust his heart because we remember what God is like. His character is always the same, and he is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding...

Jesus is alive, he is alive indeed! Why is this such an amazing thing to celebrate in these modern times? The simplicity of this is the truth of the gospel, and its life changing. The resurrection of Jesus is of first importance, it was physically real, and it is for us. If Jesus had not raised from the dead, then our faith would be rendered of no use. His death was an actual event that happened i...

Our guest preacher, Dr. Johnny Hunt, teaches through 1 Corinthians 1:17-25, and we get to dig into the reason behind our hope. Dr. Hunt teaches us that the cross is the heart of the gospel, and the central theme of Gods plan in our salvation. We see all over scripture that the message of the cross is dynamic, and the wisdom of God is demonstrated through that message. The gospel is foolish to some...

Today, Pastor Chip preaches on the power of the name of Jesus, and how our life as a Christian is worked out because Christ has made us alive. Religion is doing, but the gospel is living in Christ, it’s not about what you do, it’s about why you do what you do. We see throughout scripture that salvation is found only in Christ, and there is no other name given to us where we can be saved. This hope...

DNOW – short for Disciple Now, is an intensive weekend for middle and high school students to gather together for amazing worship, in depth bible studies, competitive recreation, and bonding fellowship. This year was an amazing weekend, and it spills over into Sunday morning with our DNOW guest speaker, Ryan Fontenot leading us in how to reach Gen Z for Jesus and how to keep them on the path towar...

We conclude the sermon series on Jonah today by looking at chapter 4 and the final scenes of Jonah’s heart. The fish has spit him back on land, he has proclaimed the gospel, people have repented and been saved, and now Jonah is angry. As we study the conversation between Jonah and God, we see that Jonah’s heart is idolatrous and ignorant. He has built his identity on something other that God, and...

As we study the third chapter in Jonah, we see Jonah come to terms with his calling, and finally obey God in proclaiming the gospel to the Ninevites. We also see how our role and mission of evangelism defines us as God’s people and how urgently people around us need to hear the good news of Jesus. We also learn that God does not delight in judgement, but in mercy, and because of this, we see a peo...

We dive deeper into Jonah this week by looking at Chapter 2 as we see the storm that overwhelmed Jonah and now, he’s in the belly of the fish seeking repentance. We can also gather through scripture that God uses storms in our lives for protection, perfecting, and correcting. Being stuck inside the fist for three days, Jonah started to pray. He thought he had been abandoned and banished from God’s...

We kick off our next sermon series called Runaway Prophet this week, and we’re going to be diving into the book of Jonah. As we study the bible, and specifically in the story of Jonah, we can learn lessons from the run – the disobedience of Jonah to God’s call. We see that rebellion is simply saying no to God. We learn that not every open door is from God, and our disobedience will always affect o...