Covenant Life Church

As we continue our series called “Patriarchs, Prophets and Priests,” we’re looking at the men and women of the Old Testament who formed the foundation of our faith. We’re learning the events of their lives and the lessons they can teach us. Knowing the entire Bible is from Jesus and points to Him, we are also trying to identify the types and shadows of Christ we see throughout the OT. Last week, w...

All scripture is inspired by God and given to us for a purpose — not just the verses about Jesus or those that appear in the New Testament. All 66 books are important. They seem like stories, but they are accounts of actual people and their actual experiences, and the Bible teaches us that those experiences have been recorded, preserved and transmitted to us to teach us what to do and what not to...

We don’t have to be defeated, doomed and depressed another day of our lives. The gospel of Jesus Christ still has the power to change lives, but those who have been going to church for years may be asking, “Why isn’t this working?” It’s because Christians have been mirroring the feelings of the world around us rather than relying on the Bible for strength and stability. We want to do everything el...

According to the Bible, our mission as believers is to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching these disciples to obey all of the Lord’s commands. As we carry out this mission, God has given us unique gifts, talents and responsibilities, and He encourages us to know and understand that He is always with us — no matter what we...

This is the time of year that people talk a lot about freedom. Most of these discussions revolve around political freedoms and civil rights, but there is a freedom that the Bible talks about that really has nothing to do with any of those kinds of external freedoms. It’s the kind of freedom Jesus was talking about when He said, “If the Son sets you free, you are truly free!” Truly free. That’s tru...

If you have attended more than one service at Covenant Life, you have probably heard us talk about The Jericho Project. As a matter of fact, if you’ve just driven near the church campus, you have likely seen the banners that we have about The Jericho Project. You may know about its existence, but you may not know exactly what it is. This week, we’re going to talk about The Jericho Project — what i...

The relationship that Jesus had with His 12 closest disciples was a special one. They were hand-picked by Jesus after a whole night of praying about which of the larger group of disciples would get pretty much unrestricted access to Him 24/7. He was many things and filled many roles for them, but when you think of it all together, Jesus was fathering these men. He was a living expression of our He...

Jesus once told a parable about two houses, and if you looked at the two houses side by side, it would have been hard to tell the difference. However, Jesus introduced a variable: torrential rain. This turned out to be the deciding factor because one of the houses was built on sand, and when the rain washed away the sand, the house collapsed. Every person builds their lives on something, and those...

People don’t seem to have an issue with songs, shirts or sayings about Jesus, but things tend to get weird when we mention the Holy Spirit. In light of Pentecost Sunday, it’s time to see what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, so we can get to the root of this standoffishness and learn to respect and welcome Him in the same way that we welcome Jesus. Part of the problem is that, when it comes t...

When Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3, God responded by asking, “Where are you?” Because of His omniscience, God did not need to know Adam’s physical location; instead, He was asking about his location relationally. Something had changed in their relationship, and God wanted to encourage introspection and remind His creation of the way things ought to be. As believers today, we must regularly asse...

The word “rapture” does not appear in the Bible and comes from a Latin word meaning “to carry or snatch away.” That is the definition of the word that appears in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and is defined as “caught up.” This means that the rapture is the snatching away or catching up of all believers from the earth, and it is a common teaching in most evangelical churches. Because of its level of detail...

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Covenant Life Church is pleased to continue the Taboo Series, a series of messages designed to address topics that are considered “taboo” and are not talked about in many church services and sermons. As part of the latest installment, Pastor John and his wife, Valerie, are opening up about their mental health journey and sharing the lessons that the...

The word “soul” in the Bible refers to the core of a person and the place where thoughts originate, decisions are made, and feelings are experienced. Anything that changes what you think, how you feel or what you do changes your soul. What we know about biblical motherhood is gleaned from the examples of mothers found in scripture, and no example is as prominently displayed as Mary, the mother of...

The first time Jesus came to earth was all about being the sacrifice for our sins. The next time He comes, He will set up His earthy Kingdom, and we will rule and reign with Him forever. However, there was another period that He was on the earth in the flesh that doesn’t often come to mind. We may understand the purpose of the first coming and the second coming of Christ, but what about the 40 day...

This week, Bruce Deel — who founded City of Refuge in 1997 — teaches on Jesus’s encounter with the “woman at the well” in John 4. By examining the four ways that Jesus interacted with the woman, we will learn more about how we can effectively meet the needs of those around us and open doors to share the live-saving message of the Gospel. Located in one of Georgia’s toughest neighborhoods, City of...

When it comes to Easter, it’s easy to get caught up in the hype, and we often put undue pressure on ourselves to say and do all the right things. The reality is that this day is special all by itself because God came to earth in the form of a man, lived a perfect life, died on a cross, was buried in a top and rose again from the dead. We can rejoice today because Jesus is alive and lives forever,...

God wants to draw us close and bring understand. He wants to heal, comfort, strengthen and renew, but if we're going to allow God to do these things in our lives, we must be willing to get real. Sometimes, we have to say aloud the things that have been holding us hostage inside. This week, we're going to dive into Psalm 73, going verse by verse to see what God wants to say to His people. Together,...

What are you pursuing? Are you locking your eyes on Jesus, or are you easy prey for deceit? Many people think that godliness is a way to material gains; they try to bargain with God and say things like, "If you do this, I'll do that." Instead of trying to acquire and achieve more, we must realize that we can rest in God's sufficiency and know that we have all we need because of the Holy Spirit dwe...

We live in a nation of doers. It’s the American way. We are addicted to activity, and if we ever find ourselves with a spare moment, we feel compelled to fill it with something — social media, news, streaming, reading and more. Why do we act like this? Because we’ve been groomed to believe that if we’re not doing something, we’re wasting our time. It’s into this crazy lifestyle that verses like Ps...

We’re coming to the last couple of messages in the CL 168 Series until after Easter, but we must continue to put into practice all that we have learned. We must work hard to become a church that leverages every hour of every week to move the needle on the Kingdom of God — not just the one hour of the week that we are together. Our foundational scripture in Ephesians 5 tells us that we all have som...

We are in a series called CL168, exploring the fact that the American church spends more time focusing on the one hour per week that we HAVE church than on the ways we can BE the church during the other 167 hours each week. Last week, we learned about being an empowered church and talked about the need to wade out into deeper waters in the river of the Holy Spirit. As you start to put this into pr...

We’re continuing our CL168 Series, exploring how we can be a church that leverages our one hour of corporate worship to empower and equip the body to be the Church for the other 167 hours of each week. This week, we’re looking to the Bible to learn more about the person and purpose of the Holy Spirit, so we can understand why we are encouraged so often in scripture to be filled with the Spirit. If...

This week, we're continuing our CL168 series, learning how we can leverage the one hour we spend in church together to prepare us for the other 167 hours of the week. We must become a church that moves the needle on the work of the Kingdom every hour of the week — not just during our services on Sundays. To do this, the leaders of the church are called to train and equip, but because we don’t full...

We’re continuing our CL168 Series, exploring how we can be a church that leverages our one hour of corporate worship to empower and equip the body to be the church for the other 167 hours of each week. This week, we’re talking about what church membership looks like biblically. Instead of deconstructing church membership in order to refute some of the common membership myths, we’re getting to the...

To ensure that our concept and understanding of church has not become skewed, we must first figure out who the church is. There is a capital Church and a lowercase church. You can be part of the Church and not be a part of Covenant Life, and if that is true, you might be right where God wants you. However, what you don’t want to do is be part of Covenant Life or some other lowercase church and not...