Generations Community Church

If someone we KNOW & TRUST gives us a testimonial, we generally accept it, whether that's for an InstaPot, a lawn service, or a church. But if a stranger gives us a testimonial, we hold it as suspect, dubious. So why do we trust all these strangers on Amazon & Google? We ASSUME that because there are SO MANY of them, the truth must be in there. And we also ASSUME that every single review is legiti...

You are going to encounter people who CLAIM to be on Team Jesus, but who are selfish, mean, and hateful. In fact, the more you get the know them, the less gracious, kind, loving, or forgiving they are. Instead, they are angry, spiteful, and hateful. Despite their claims of religiosity, despite their insistence that they follow Jesus, they are lying to you and to themselves. The Apostle John will h...

Americans, like everyone else, RESIST change. And more than one church has uttered the phrase...that's the way we've ALWAYS done it. But what could happen if we allowed God to change us - to work inside of us and through us? Does it really take an evangelist to reach others?

On the one hand, God's got the whole world in his hands. On the other hand, Jesus said that the world hated him - and would hate his followers, too. So what gives? Why are we told in 1 John to NOT love the world?

Strangely enough, there IS an expectation from people that Christians should be DIFFERENT. They should have integrity. They should be honest. They should work hard. They should be loving people. And strangely enough, God seems to think the same thing. In the Bible, this expectation that God's people will be DIFFERENT is called holiness, and in 1 John, we get a picture of what that should look like...

Faith: trusting in what you can't see because of what you can see.

Have you ever noticed that you NEVER see a Mormon missionary come to your front door ALONE? They’ve always got a partner. They’re always “on mission” with someone else or with a team. That's not by accident. Isolated and alone, we tend to be overly critical (of ourselves and others), overly discouraged (by the results of our efforts) and overly prone to giving up or walking away. Jesus KNOWS we ha...

In 2009, Tim Keller told his congregation in New York City, “We want to feel beautiful. We want to feel loved. We want to feel significant. And that’s why we’re working so hard.” And those people “had lived their whole lives with parents, music teachers, coaches, professors, and bosses telling them to do better, be better, try harder.” In America (like ancient Rome), we applaud and celebrate the a...

On any given day, we can feel happy, sad, angry, betrayed, frustrated, delighted, excited, scared, or bored. More often than not, these feelings are not simply random occurrences. They are frequently connected to our thoughts, to what we are thinking on a regular basis. A Jesus-based, Jesus-infused identity will require us to CONFESS (thoughts/beliefs which are untrue) and BELIEVE (that Jesus is e...

We've all known people like Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent who have been marked with a curse or marked with a blessing. And in our community, their stories have been shared in two places: (1) In our county jail – one STORY after ANOTHER - of men addicted to drugs, because they are trying to mask the pain of their upbringing and lack, and (2) At Asbury’s outpouring – one STORY after ANOTHER – of men an...

A part of our identity is forged in our childhood - from what we receive (or don't receive) from our parents. But it shouldn't surprise us when we receive a curse from our parents. Why? Humanity's first parents, Adam and Eve, decided that they couldn’t trust God, they had to figure things out for themselves, they had to determine what’s right and wrong, and they wanted to be in charge – so they to...

Unlike traditional cultures, we tell people in America to find certain dreams, feelings, or intuitions they have (on the inside) and assert them, express them, follow them, and MAKE them HAPPEN! Don’t let anyone (else) tell you what to do (or how to live your life)! Especially your parents. But this way of identity formation nearly always leads to comparison, anxiety, and condemnation. In this mes...

Adults and students alike are plagued with social media feeds of everyone else's best moments and highlights, perfectly cut and curtailed to LOOK amazing. As you scroll through, you wonder why YOU have to struggle so much when it seems like everyone else is flying. But this way of living is fragile and exhausting...and it's NOT the Gospel way. In this message, Max Vanderpool, explores what it mean...

For the past several decades, pastors, church leaders, and Christian conferences have told folks to get up early in the morning. Read your Bible (alone). Pray (alone). Journal and reflect on your life, your life issues, and where God might be at work in your life and the world around you (alone). So when Americans READ or HEAR Ephesians 6 and the Apostle Paul's admonition to put on the armor of Go...

American Protestants divide over all kinds of issues: what type of music to use, what type of programming to employ, whether women can be pastors, and whether speaking in tongues is a thing or a thing that's over. The trouble is we value being right MORE than we value being together. And if Jesus and the Apostle Paul are to be believed, God cares more about unity than about being right.

On the one hand, the Church (with a capital "C") has sinned and erred and hurt and (at many different times) born a bad witness for Jesus. On the OTHER hand, how it is even possible to talk about experiencing God's LOVE apart from His Body? In this message, Max Vanderpool makes a case for why the most profound experiences of God's love are found in relationship and communion with other believers w...

We introduced the virtue of FORGIVENESS (which we define as "deciding that someone who has wronged you doesn't have to pay"), and we looked at an encounter with Jesus, a Pharisee named Simon, and a woman who had done many things requiring forgiveness. But she wasn't the ONLY person in the room who needed to be forgiven.

Marwan Bishara, writing for Al-Jazeera in 2002, explained that it's obvious why Palestinians HATE Israelis. But he couldn't understand why Israelis hated Palestinians so much. As it turns out, one ethnic group HATING another is normal. It's THE normative experience for human history. Which is why Paul's statement in Ephesians 2 is so striking. The Apostle Paul claims that Jesus KILLED ethnic hosti...

Are demons real? Are angels? Chances are, your religious background (or lack thereof) has affected HOW you answer those questions. And are demons and angels like what we see on television or in movies? In this message, Max Vanderpool teaches on the Apostle Paul's use of powers and authorities and what Paul meant by them. Their influence can be seen, not just in individuals, but also in societal, p...

Americans believe that the PERFECT gift is both spontaneous AND something given with no strings attached (and no obligation of reciprocity). And so when we read that salvation is God's GIFT to us, that's HOW we tend to see it. But throughout the ancient world (the Hebrew world, the Persian world, the Babylonian world, the Roman world, the Jewish world), gifts were nearly always given with the expe...

Because Jesus is God - when Jesus says something, God is saying something. When Jesus does something, God is doing something. And when Jesus feels something, we're given a picture into how God feels about something. And DESPITE being God, Jesus spent a ridiculous amount of time around ORDINARY people - people who weren't necessarily the brightest, most beautiful, or most powerful. And we see somet...

How you think about the future matters, because how you think about the future affects the decisions that you make (today) and the feelings and attitudes you have. Among theologians, this is called ESCHATOLOGY. But make no mistake, the way in which the American church has tended to see the future (the world's going to burn, etc.) has affected how American Christians live out their faith. But what...

Blessing. Predestined. Forgiveness. Blameless. Grace. God's Will. Adopted. Redemption. Glory. Believe. These are all words the Apostle Paul uses right out of the gate in his letter to the Ephesians. But as AMERICANS, we have a tendency to read a few things INTO these words - particularly words like predestined - and chosen. But what if we allowed Paul to define those words? And what exactly is Pau...

Paul's letter to the Ephesians hits on many BIG themes like salvation, the nature of family, belonging, reconciliation, identity, powers, and holiness. And at the heart of this letter is Paul's insistence that, when what's been hidden gets revealed, it can change EVERYTHING. In this first message on Ephesians, Max Vanderpool attempts to allow Paul to speak to us today - and will be making a case t...

In this final act in the Book of Esther, we see see the effects of a great reversal. Mordecai (the Jew) is vindicated. Queen Esther is vindicated. The Jews still living throughout the Persian Empire are vindicated. And, at the end of it all, God (Himself) is vindicated...because God always keeps His promises. At the end of everything, God will be vindicated, and those who put their trust in Him wi...