Good Shepherd Gardendale

What are the blessings that you have that help you follow Jesus? One that you may not even realize is that you are a "peacemaker". God has given you the ability to not only be at peace with God but to be at peace with others. As we enter 2026 this is a great opportunity to think about this being a year of peace. First, we enjoy the peace we have with God because Jesus has made peace with...

Welcome friends as we worship the Lord on this Sunday after Christmas! We rejoice that the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay is our King of Kings forevermore. The Word Made Flesh reigns over heaven and earth, and we are loved and forgiven members of the Kingdom of God to life everlasting.

On this Christmas Eve, we celebrate and ponder the humble birth of Jesus as he rests in a manger of straw, though he is the Son of God. Jesus is the Word Made Flesh who is God With Us.

In this fourth service in The Word Made Flesh series for Advent, we rejoice that Jesus brightens our lives through his birth, dispelling the darkness of sin to bring forgiveness to light. How does light shine in darkness? Where do you need light to shine in your life today? What does it mean that Jesus is the light of the world, and we are lights also.

In this third service in The Word Made Flesh series for Advent, we give thanks that Jesus is our rock, a solid foundation on which to build a life of joy. When the storms come and life gets challenging it's so good to know we have something rock solid to cling to. May the Lord bless our time together in week 3 of our Advent Journey.

In week 2 of our "The Word Made Flesh" series for Advent, we remember that Jesus calls us to flavor the earth and to savor the good things that come from him through his birth. We are called to be the salt of the earth, but what does that mean? Why are we the salt of the earth? Can we lose our saltiness? And how does God make us the salt of the earth? May the Lord bless our time of worsh...

In this first service in "The Word Made Flesh" series for Advent, we celebrate that Jesus is born in Bethlehem, the House of Bread, to nourish and strengthen us in our faith and feed us with his Word of truth to fill our lives. Today we explore what is the bread of life? Why do we need the bread of life? And how do we receive the bread of life? May the Lord grant his grace as we journey...

As we wrap up this series on the book of James, we are reaching a decisive moment if you will. James has been demonstrating how we take the gifts of God and oftentimes abuse them. But now we are given a gift that we cannot abuse but rather, it's a gift that brings healing and life. As we confess our sins before God we are forgiven, and as we confess our sins before one another we are healed. T...

What’s the limit of your patience? Do you get frustrated waiting in line at the grocery store? Do you hate sitting in traffic? Do you find yourself losing it when others are late? Now what would happen if what you are being patient for took a lifetime of waiting. This morning we tackle the issue of patience in Part 10 of our series James: Real Faith. Real Life. May God bless our worship!

It was once said that arrogance is a creature. It has only a sharp tongue and the pointing finger. Today James addresses the arrogance in all of us as we look at the words we speak, the judgments we make, and the plans we push forward. How do we address this arrogance in all of us. This is part 9 of our series James: Real Faith. Real Life. May the Lord bless our worship as we are encouraged by him...

Anger is real. We feel it for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s not bad and sometimes it is uncontrollable. When anger strikes we can stuff it down or it can erupt. Today James tackles the issue of anger, where it comes from and how it affects us and others. This is Part 8 of our series James: Real Faith. Real Life. Today we also celebrate what is known as All Saints Sunday as we give thanks to...

Welcome to this special service for Reformation called "Trusting Only Thee." In this service, we celebrate and give thanks for the "ETERNAL GOSPEL" which points us to Christ Jesus, the one who came to save sinners. The Reformation is not about celebrating Luther and the reformers, it's about celebrating how God helped bring to clarity the powerful Gospel message we all need...

Throughout the book of James we are discovering the path of seeing what a faith that is active and alive looks like. A faith that allows you to see what a hearer and doer of the words of Jesus looks like. A faith that clings to the cross but also expresses itself in deeds. And today is no different. Today we see how James gives us clarity on how to relate to others with wisdom. That same wisdom th...

What you say has the power to build a life or destroy it. You may think you are spiritual and not self-centered, but your words betray what’s in your heart. In this message, Pastor Dave continues our journey through the Book of James and offers insight on how to filter what you say by trusting the Holy Spirit to guide your heart and manage your mouth. This is Part 6 of our series James: Real Faith...

This morning we tackle one of the toughest and most-debated questions around: How does this combination of faith and works play itself out? Are you saved by faith alone? Are you saved by a combination of faith and works? Can you have a real faith and no works? What is a work? Find out today in Part 5 of our series James: Real Faith. Real Life as we explore: "Faith? Works? How Does it Work?&qu...

The book of James is written to followers of Christ who are scattered and living among people who are different. They talk differently, they were raised differently, and they worshipped different gods. So the question becomes "How Do We Treat People Right" who are different from us? This is Part 4 of our series James: Real Faith. Real Life. May the Lord bless our time together in worship...

What kind of life are you living? Are you living a self-serving life which is all about you and what you want and what you want to accomplish and what you want to do with what you have? Are you living a scattered life which means you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to balance work, school, kids, friends, church, and any other commitment that comes your way? Or are y...

In order to have a real faith that translates into a real life, our understanding of God has to be solid. There are many half-truths and false ideas about God floating around the world. They show up in Tiktok videos and viral soundbites. They are shared by the world but also false preachers and teachers. Today we are going to clear up 3 lies with 3 powerful truths about who God is. This is Part 2...

What do you consider pure joy in your life? A really good steak dinner? A delicious bowl of homemade peach cobbler with ice cream? A quiet trip to the mountains? Or how about some fun in the sun? We all have things that we would consider "pure joy," but trials are not one of them. Going through hard seasons of being tested doesn't make the list. And yet today we are invited by God to...

For the past couple of weeks we have been exploring the impact of devotion upon our lives. We saw in week 1 the importance of the four devotions: apostolic teaching, prayer, breaking of bread, and fellowship. In week 2 we saw the impact of these four devotions as we experience: the awe of God, unity, radical generosity, and a joyous spirit. And now we bring it all together as we see how God takes...

Last week we began our new series DEVOTED as we unpacked the 4 Devotions that are essential to our life in Christ. Those 4 Devotions are: Prayer, the Apostolic Teaching, Breaking of Bread, and Fellowship. This week in Part we will see the impact that these Devotions had on the church. We will see what happens to the church when life is lived this way.

On the day of Pentecost, we see the church come to life as the Holy Spirit poured out on thousands of new Christians. But what made the church so lifegiving and supernatural? What made the church so impactful that it changed the most powerful empire on the planet? What did the church look like as it gathered? This week we begin a brand-new three-part series called "DEVOTED" as we look at...

Sometimes life gets a little chaotic ... ok, sometimes life gets really chaotic. What do you do when life begins to feel out-of-control and scary? Today we are going to look at the Biblical Process you can walk through when life feels out of control.

You don’t want to miss this weekend as we continue our God on Film series with the movie Twisters, what to do when life takes an unexpected turn. The truth is…life is full of unexpected twists: going through a divorce, getting a prognosis of cancer, losing a loved one, suffering a miscarriage or losing your job. What does God have to say to us when we experience these moments in life that catch us...

Pastor Dave shares a report from the National Youth Gathering, the beautiful message of endurance, and the words of our teens who attended the gathering.