Chestnut Mountain Church

In looking at the Trial of Jesus, we see we have more in common with Pilate, the governor of Judea, than we can imagine. As the crowd brings Jesus to Pilate for Jesus' trial, Pilate is faced with the question, "What shall I do with Jesus?" Pilate knows Jesus is innocent, but the crowd wants Jesus crucified. On the brink of a riot from the people, Pilate has to make the choice whether t...

In this episode of Let's Go, Pastor Jared looks back on Pastor Brian's message about exercising dependence as we conclude The Lord's Prayer in our How To Pray series. God does not tempt us but He does lead us into tempting and trial. God loves us so much that He allows us to face trials and tests so that we will run and depend on Him. There is always a purpose for what He leads us to....

To say we are dependent is one thing, but to exercise dependence is another thing. The Lord's Pray is showing us and putting us in a posture of exercise dependence. We can say we want to be dependent on God, but it's a whole other thing to actually exercise that dependence. As the Lord's Prayer ends, Jesus prays, "do not lead us into temptation." In this verse, we are reminded...

In this episode of Let's Go, Pastor Jared looks back on Pastor Brian's message about praying "give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts." Forgiveness is such an important and difficult part of the Christian life. We are to forgive as Christ forgave us. Who do we need to forgive? If there are people that we are not forgiving in our life, we are creating a prison for...

"Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." When Jesus prayed this in the Lord's Prayer, what did this mean of giving us our daily bread and forgiving our debts? In this part of the Lord's Prayer, we see the importance of surrender and how surrender leads to dependence. We must remember that God is our provider. Of all the man...

In this episode of Let's Go, Pastor Jared looks back on Pastor Brian's message about praying "Your will be done." It's one thing to say "Your will be done," but it's a different thing to walk in. The moment that we pray that His will be done and not our own, we are declaring war between our will and God's will. When we pray this prayer, we are bowing to God as L...

In the Lord's Prayer, after Jesus prays, "Your Kingdom come," He prays "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." There will be times when God directs, instructs, and convicts that will go against our plans. Our battle between our flesh and God's will is of what we want versus what God knows. Even Jesus had to pray for God's will to be done as He prayed before the...

In week 3 of our Daniel Fast and in beginning our How To Pray series, Pastor Jared, Pastor Brandon, and Pastor Brandon talk about how this fast has torn down our kingdom and elevated God's Kingdom. Before we can pray for God's Kingdom to come, we have to be willing to pray for our kingdom to go. The purpose of this fast is not to advance ourselves for personal gain but to advance His Kingd...

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus prays, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Do we fully understand though what "Your Kingdom come" means though when we pray for that? We are inviting and begging for God's Kingdom would come in the here and now. In order for His Kingdom to come to fill the earth, it must first fill you. It first starts with us and...

In week 2 of our Daniel Fast and in beginning our How To Pray series, Pastor Jared, Pastor Brandon, and Pastor Brandon talk about the importance of living a disciplined life as a Christian. Freedom does not have to be separate from discipline. Discipline is a very freeing thing in terms of our walk with God. Let's Go is a series of podcast episodes where we look back on the message from Sunday...

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave us an example of how not to pray and how to pray. Prayer should not be praying just so people can hear you or praying repetitive things just to check it off the list. Our prayer life is important and we must discipline ourselves in our prayer life. We must make an effort to set aside time and a place to pray. In looking to the Lord's Prayer as our model,...

As we begin our church-wide Daniel Fast, Pastor Jared, Pastor Brandon, and Pastor Brandon look back on what God has taught us during our Reset series in the book of Haggai as well as how we move forward in this corporate fast together. We have to remember that fasting is not about us. We are fasting not for us to get more of God but for God to get more of us. During a time where the actual foods w...

In the last verses of Haggai, God spoke to Haggai for him to speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah. We see how God used a man of failure to fulfill His purpose, to fulfill His promise. Despite our failures that we have experienced in our past and present, God still meets us right where we are because He loves us. In our seasons of discouragement, there needs to be a reminder that God loves you an...

In this episode of Let's Go, Pastor Jared looks back on Pastor Brian's message on why motive matters as we continue our Reset series in Haggai. As we prepare to launch our church-wide Daniel Fast in the next week and lean into this season of choosing obedience and sacrifice, we see that motive matters. We don't fast to get more of God or to get something from God. Our motive should be...

In Haggai 2, we examine the motives of the Jews as they rebuild the temple. Haggai was telling the Jews that their motives were wrong for how they were rebuilding the temple. They were trying to work their way back into the blessing and favor of God. Like the Jews were trying to work to make their good performances erase their bad mistakes, we too have to examine what our motives are for what we d...

In this twentieth episode of Let's Go, Pastor Jared and Sam Roberts look back on Pastor Brian's message on how to take courage, keep working, and do not fear as we continued our Reset series in Haggai. As adults, we must empower the next generation. What we are doing has an impact on our children and our families. We don't have to know the exact thing to say but it's more about the...

There's nothing wrong with talking about the past but when we are so locked on the past we don't recognize what God is doing in the present. In Haggai 2, the Jews of the current generation were becoming discouraged because of what had been seen in the past generations versus in the present for them. Just as the Jews couldn't let this discouragement stop them from doing what God had cal...

In this nineteenth episode of Let's Go, Pastor Jared and Marcus look back on Pastor Brian's message on how God doesn't bless our disobedience as we continued our Reset series in Haggai. While we can examine the disobedience we are seeing in our nation and culture today, we first need to examine and consider our ways in our own homes. Is Jesus priority in our house? Are we being obedien...

In Haggai 1, we see that the Jews are living in disobedience to God. In comparison to our own world that we are living in today, we see that God will not bless disobedience. We often want the blessings of God without God, and it's not going to happen because God does not bless disobedience. In obedience, we have to surrender to the authority of who God is and lay down self. We cannot claim one...

In this eighteenth episode of Let's Go, Pastor Jared looks back on Pastor Brian's message on continuing to build the Kingdom of God as we continued our Reset series in Haggai. In the season and time that we are currently in, we have to realize that we must continue to build the Kingdom of God and not build our own kingdoms. It's time to continue to build His Kingdom because God's K...

When God leads us to do things that don't make sense, this an opportunity for Him to prove who He really is. The Jews stepped out on faith with nothing. It was along the journey that God provided the Jews with what they needed to rebuild the temple as seen in the book of Haggai. When we step out, we will watch Him provide. God will provide everything to fulfill what He has called us to do. Are...

In this seventeenth episode of Let's Go, Pastor Jared looks back on Pastor Brian's message about considering our ways as we started our Reset series in Haggai. As we look into this new year and what's to come while also reflecting on 2020, the Lord is speaking over us, "consider your ways." Are we building our own temples or are we building the Kingdom of God? Considering our w...

In the book of Haggai, the temple has remained desolate for sixteen years as the Jews received opposition to rebuilding it from the government. Haggai relays a message from God to the people that the time is now to begin rebuilding the temple. In 2020, we faced all types of opposition and obstacles. Many days it paralyzed us to the point that maybe we forgot the mission God has set before us. Howe...

In this sixteenth episode of Let's Go, Pastor Jared looks back on Pastor Brandon's message from Matthew 11:25-30 about the heart of Jesus and what it means for us as we enter into 2021. If you've been embraced by God, you want others to be embraced too because you know it's the most comforting place. Because we know the heart of Jesus and what it means for us, our response is that...

In Matthew 11, we see Jesus express His heart. We get a glimpse of who He is. Jesus is saying, "Come to Me." In this new year of 2021, we need to lift our eyes. We need to look to Jesus. We need to go to Jesus. We need to run to Jesus. Jesus is saying, "Come to me and I will give you rest." Jesus is pulling us into His heart. Jesus is pulling us into His embrace. When Jesus is guid...