Element Christian Church of Santa Maria

God made man, in part, to steward His creation. We are not to worship creation (the planet), we are to worship Jesus. Many well meaning people have confused love for creation with love for God. Many other people have confused love for God with a disregard for the things God has created. We must be a people who love and worship God and steward correctly the things that He has created.

This is blessing and gift. God allows us to do SOMETHING with His creation...as we are PART of that creation. What God makes, He made for His glory and our joy. It is meant to be a benefit to you and I and today God has blessed us and we in turn respond by blessing Him back.

Genesis is not exhaustive; it doesn’t tell you all there is know, but simply what you NEED to know…especially when it comes to the creation account. It is not a book about dinosaurs and monkeys, it is a book about God…and man.

Working with God (stewarding, participating in, and guiding creation) this is what God intended from the beginning. The story starts in Genesis and returns to it in Revelation. Hebrew story telling doesn’t go beginning, middle, end...it and goes Beginning, middle BEGINNING.

"Church is not an event. It’s a Community. Mission is not an event. It’s a lifestyle. We are called to live ordinary life with Gospel Intentionality." -Tim Chester

Growing in Christ-likeness is the result of God’s gracious working as well as our direct efforts.

Christmas Eve Service, 2011

Our Great God is a gift giver, offering us love and redemption. He is our great Shepherd (our senior pastor). His righteousness makes us saints as well.

Mary is a tough subject for Protestants. Protestant Christians do not focus on Jesus’ mother much at all (unless it’s a Mother’s Day sermon). In part, this is an overreaction to the improper emphasis upon Mary among other religious traditions, but in other ways it is a travesty.

The term “saint” in the New Testament comes from the Greek word Hagios. Many times translations do not always represent the true power of words they are translating. In a real sense, because God is pure, that purity would make His priests also pure. Hagios in its true and proper meaning is “to dedicate, to consecrate;” more specifically to consecrate to God. In the New Testament this word also ind...

When we become Christ followers, we accept the gift of eternal salvation from our Creator. Through the process of sanctification God transforms our lives to mirror His image, an image we were created in. In order to understand God’s character it is important that we seek Him regularly through the study of His Word. Acknowledging that the creation is not greater than the Creator, and His ways are g...

In our lives, you and I will know hurt and uncertain tomorrows. We may suffer and experience tragedy, yet we can face the future expectantly. We may have to wait a while for the full experience of the good that God intends for us, but God is fully committed to every one of His children.

The Cinema. Today's modern day pulpit... telling today's story through the digital story form. We'll watch these popular movies and follow up with an expository exploration of the narrative themes and spiritual parallels of these movies.

Special Guest Speaker: Dave Kraft

Jesus always compelled those around him to be something MORE than they were. People knew Jesus’ love, grace, and righteousness by simply being around Him. They didn’t feel condemned, they felt called to something GREATER.

Through His death upon the cross Jesus has, once and for all, tasted the abandonment from God that we deserve. Though we will know times of dryness and depression with God seeming absent from us, He abandoned His Son so He never leaves or forsake us.

The Old Testament never shifts from the conviction that relationship with God is the ultimate ground of hope. It is God himself who is the hope of Israel. It is only by focusing our gaze on Him that we find a source of confidence and patience.

In its most basic sense, “hope” is a relational term. It is a great affirmation of trust in God, not because the believer knows what is ahead, but because God is known as wholly trustworthy. • Psalm 119:49-50 “Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.” • Psalm 130:7 “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with...

Singleness is a gift, just like marriage is a gift. Instead of viewing singleness as something that we are stuck with, we should view it as a blessing, a period in life where we can fully devote ourselves to God and His work. 1 Corinthians 7:33,34. IF you are single, do you believe any of the lies that the world tells about singleness and dating? IF you are married, are you encouraging these lies...

In bringing to a close the Song of Solomon, there is a final thought we would like to leave with you concerning all we have talked about. Nothing involving sex exists independent of, and disconnected from everything around it. How we act determines the kind of world God calls us to steward.

God’s Love is personal (He Loves You), protective (steps between you and the enemy), powerful (redeems us from sin), possessive (calls you His child), passionate (God pursues His children with great love), it perseveres (He holds us when we fall), and it is priceless (our salvation is secured through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection). Our love for each other is to echo God’s love for His peo...

Worship for a Christian was never supposed to stop at the church doors; it was to be an integral part of every aspect of their lives. For a believer, worship is everything that they do, as everything is to be done in a way that honors God.

God intends that husbands and wives experience true sexual freedom in marriage.

The Cinema. Today's modern day pulpit... telling today's story through the digital story form. We'll watch these popular movies and follow up with an expository exploration of the narrative themes and spiritual parallels of these movies.

We have been given grace; relationships will be restored when we offer that grace to others as well.