Faith Community Church

God's love transforms. The grave becomes a stage for life. Where once guards secured a lifeless body, an angel protects a monument to victory, a garden of hopeless grief becomes the scene of celebration - all because God's love has won. Christians pushed worship from the end of the week to the beginning because they wanted to always remember the amazing display of love, life, hope and peace that e...

To watch the video Pastor Mike references in this week's message: https://www.rightnow.org/Content/VideoElement/164591   Throughout the record of the Old Testament, God demonstrates, displays, and describes His loving  nature but there is the sense that it is like looking at a photo of the Grand Canyon. You see it and  catch glimpses of its majesty but don't fully comprehend it. So God sends Jesus...

To watch the video Pastor Mike references in this week's message, go to: https://youtu.be/TaNM_T1d1as   God's love is the reason why people turn to Him during times of suffering. Sometimes we realize that  the suffering is the consequence, as warned by God, for our actions. We feel the pain of our choices  and realize our folly so we turn in humility to God. Sometimes, we suffer because the world...

To watch the video Pastor Mike references in this message, go to: http://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/james-caldemeyer/   God's love becomes the reason why we can ask Him to forgive our sins. He first demonstrated it in the  Garden when He covered Adam and Eve's shame. Forgiveness and mercy became part of the  description of His nature. Because He knows our inability to not sin, He promises forgivene...

To see the video referenced in this message: https://youtu.be/UrvaSqN76h4   God's love provides the motivation to prayer. We come to Him because we know He wants us to come  to Him. We can walk into His presence with confidence, not fear because our Father loves us. God  knows us intimately, even knowing what we will ask before we bring it up. He wants to provide in a  way that demonstrates His lo...

To see the video Pastor Mike references in this message: https://youtu.be/VCdqwowpr4Q When Moses asked God to show Himself.  God chose to describe Himself in terms of love. While all  the other religions emphasized power and holiness and fear, the God of Israel emphasized His love.  The term He used as the primary description of His nature is as indefinable as He is. It is a description  of love t...

God is amazing. People who come to see God's nature and understand His works find Him astounding. Whenever we discover something or someone we find beautiful, pure, rare, unparalleled or infinitely good, we marvel. Whether the work of an artist, the character of a hero or the beauty of nature, we find our attention locked and our spirits lifted. We praise it, applaud it, stand stunned before it, s...

People rush into weekend services harried, busy, distracted, bored, frustrated, and disengaged. They skip weekend to weekend like a stone on water without ever sinking into God's presence during the week. The affairs of the week washes away the impact of the last weekend they attended. They forget their commitments, their experiences of the divine, their insights that were supposed to change how t...

It is hard to worship God. Our desires, our attention, and our affections are constantly drawn away from God to other people or other things. Even as we draw closer to God, we are tempted to pull away. Sometimes we are tempted by people who do not understand our desire to worship God. They mock, persecute, minimize and try to woo us away. Sometimes we are tried by the difficult experiences of life...

Genuine worship includes honesty. The Gospels are full of encounters between Jesus and people who confessed their sin, doubts, weaknesses and failings. They came to God without pretense or façade. The Gospels are also full of people who came to Jesus feeling that they deserved to be recognized by God. They took pride in their religious practices, expressed contempt for the sinful practices of othe...

We do not blink an eye to see countless Wise Men occupying “made in China” plastic crèche scenes decorating shops at Christmas time: a scene that would be shocking and disturbing to First Century Israelites. One simply does not expect pagan astrologists at the birth of the Jewish Messiah of God (let alone crusty shepherds, but that’s for another sermon). Yet it seems consistent with this outrageou...

Five hundred years pass between the end of the last book in the Old Testament and the Christmas story. These are centuries where God's people remain faithful but His silence is deafening. When God finally did speak, it was through the life of Christ. God's silence is broken by words woven into a human life. Suddenly the God who seemed distant is near. You can see Him in Christ's deeds, hear Him in...

The Christmas story has a lot of strife. There is a broken relationship between a man who believes his finance has been unfaithful. There is the despot, full of fear and hatred who seeks to kill a child. Blood runs in the streets from his violence. Despite this, the story speaks of a peace that is available to everyone. Its the same today. We live in a world where people inflict senseless violence...

Life can feel overwhelming. Something like a unanticipated pregnancy can send our world spinning. Mary was on her own with the threat of losing her marriage, being rejected by her family and becoming a single mom without an income. For us, it doesn't have to be a surprise pregnancy. It can be job loss, unexpected illness, infidelity, the break up of a family, depression, and much more. Into these...

In this first message, we'll look at the gift of God's plan. The world can seem like a chaotic place. There are stories of war and violence, suffering and tragedy, economic uncertainty and social instability. The people in the Christmas story had all these same uncertainties. Incredibly, God had a plan! He was working in their world and through their lives to achieve something great. He is doing t...

"Christians seem to have strong beliefs about what happens when someone dies. They talk about a heaven and a hell. What are these places like and why should I care where I go? Who (or what) determines where someone goes when they die? Why would a loving God send anyone to hell or deny anyone heaven? Christians seem to tie a decision regarding Jesus Christ with access to heaven. What does Christ ha...

"Christians claim they know right from wrong. They judge people according to a standard that was developed in ancient societies. Because of that, they have justified slavery, suppressed women and promoted outdated sexual mores. Anyone who doesn't fit their narrow definition of morality is unaccepted and even ostracized. How can they say that there is a universal code that transcends all cultures o...

"The stories in the Bible are like the myths developed by other ancient civilizations. They didn't possess the knowledge and technology that we have today so they interpreted the world through their primitive perspectives. They believed in miracles, gods who worked in supernatural ways and heavenly messengers. No rational person with our understanding of the natural world could take faith seriousl...

The world is full of suffering. Sometimes it is the result of natural disasters: earthquakes, famine, tsunami, etc. At other times, suffering comes from the hands of evil people who inflict pain upon others. It could be the child who contracts cancer or the despot who oppresses a whole nation for personal gain. Whatever the cause, the suffering induces pain, leaving long-term affliction or results...

"There are so many religions in the world, how can Christians think their way is the only way to God? What does that say about the other religions? There are over a billion people in China alone, most of whom are not Christian. Are they all wrong? What about all the people who have never heard about Jesus Christ? What happens to them? It seems simplistic and naive to believe that Christians posses...

"Christians place a lot of stock in the Bible. They study it, memorize it and try to teach it to others. They talk about it as a source of truth but how is it really different from the spiritual record of other faiths? Isn't it just a compilation of stories, folklore and myths that were created to communicate how one religion understood reality? How can you believe that miracles actually happened?...

Many people carry a burden of guilt or shame from their past actions. They don't know how to come out from the shadow of the shame in order to find forgiveness. As a result, the weight affects their relationships, their identity, and their perception of God. As Christians, we have been tasked with the privilege of helping them find the forgiveness and cleansing that Christ offers. We should look f...