Hays Christian Church

Pastor Dana continues with the “Walking in Jesus’ Footsteps” series, showing us Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4:35-41, feeding five thousand in John 6:1-15, driving the money changers from the temple in Mark 11:15-17, and blessing the children in Matthew 19:13-15. These examples tell us that Jesus restores us with peace, abundance, holiness, and welcome. In accepting that relationship, we are as...

Pastor Dana continues with the “Walking in Jesus’ Footsteps” series, turning to Matthew 16:5-12, where Jesus warns His disciples about the false teaching of the pharisees and Sadducees. In Luke 11:37-46, 52, Jesus denounces the pharisees and experts of the law for being more concerned with appearing righteous, rather than truly caring for others. We must follow Jesus’ discernment to identify leade...

Pastor Dana returns with the “Walking in Jesus’ Footsteps” series, diving into Matthew 5:1-2, the precursor to the Sermon on the Mount, and Matthew 9:14-17, which finds Jesus answering a question about fasting through an illustration. Luke 8:4-10 is the Parable of the Sower, which Jesus explains plainly to His disciples. Then in Luke 10:38-42, Jesus visits Mary, whose priority is to be His student...

Joanne Tramel highlights the Christian impact of Frances Perkins (1880-1965), best known as the first female cabinet member, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor. Perkins held early values of the Christian duty to the poor and naturally pursued labor advocacy. After witnessing the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, she turned to politics to become pivotal in institu...

Jennie Straight speaks on the storms we may encounter that put our faith to the test, and listening to God to get through them. We can endure these storms by laying a strong foundation before they arrive, consistently and carefully reading the Scripture, keeping His Words in our heart, and actively putting them into practice. We also hear video testimony from Gracia Burnham, a missionary held host...

Pastor Dana continues to look at Jesus’ life in the Gospels. Luke 7:1-10 shows a centurion coming to Jesus to heal his servant, though believing his home was unworthy, his faith was such that only by Jesus’ words the servant was healed. Then, in Mark 2:3-12, a group of friends fight through a crowd to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus by lowering him from the roof of the house and by His words,...

Pastor Dana’s continues to look at Jesus’ life in the Gospels. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:17 & 20 that He came to fulfill the law. The pharisees rebuke Jesus on the Sabbath in Mark 2:20-3:6 for the disciples picking grains from the field to eat and in John 5:1-18 for His healing of a disabled man. But Jesus challenges the rigid rule enforcement that forgets the heart of God in favor of contro...

Pastor Dana’s continues to look at Jesus’ life in John and Luke, which sees Jesus welcome people, both respectable and socially condemned. In John 4:7-15, He invites the Samaritan woman at the well to living water. In John 3:1-3, the pharisee Nicodemus comes to Jesus in secret for answers. In John 8:10-11, He saves a woman accused of adultery and offers her forgiveness. In Luke 19:9-10, the tax co...

Pastor Dana’s continues to look at Jesus’ life in Luke 4:14-21 and John 8:12-20, where Jesus declares His identity through His words and actions. He is the Spirit-anointed liberator spoken of in Isaiah and the Light of the world. We can declare our trust in God as the source of true light in multiples ways, going beyond “good enough” to sharing the Good News in healing ways, and hearing the presen...

Pastor Dana’s continues to look at Jesus’ life in John 1:43-51 and Matthew 4:18-22. First, Nathaniel is invited by Philip to see Jesus and overcomes skepticism as they are invited to follow Him. We also see Jesus meet fishermen brothers Simon Peter and Andrew, then James and John, and He calls on them to be fishers of men. These examples reveal what it means to be called by Jesus and what it means...

Pastor Dana’s continues to look at Jesus’ life in Matthew 3:13-17, where Jesus’ cousin John baptizes Him in the Jordan River, and in Matthew 4:1-11, where Jesus goes into the wilderness to fast for forty days and is tempted by the devil. In baptism, He commits Himself to a life of following God the Father and proves it in the wilderness. Our commitment to faith in God won’t save us from trial, eit...

Pastor Dana’s new sermon series looks at the life of Jesus and how we can receive guidance for our own lives. In Luke 2:41-52, Jesus is separated from His parents after the Passover festival in Jerusalem, only to be found 3 days later at the temple. There are times that we feel Christ is absent and all we know is anxiety, but if we remember to look in places He has promised to be, we know where to...

Pastor Dana’s Lenten sermon series wraps up in Micah 6:1-8. God brings a mournful case against His people for their disobedience, but they fail to understand what God wants. No, not more sacrifices or effort in devotion, but to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. God loved us first, so we do not need to earn the gift of being wholly loved.

This Easter, Pastor Dana reads from John 20:11-18, in which Mary Magdalene is distraught to find Jesus’ empty tomb and does not at first recognize Him when he greets her. Only when He calls her by name does she realize that Jesus had risen from death. She then goes to share the news with the disciples, as instructed. The heart of Easter is faith. We must have faith that Christ is nearer than we th...

Steve Tramel’s focus this Palm Sunday takes us through Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as described in Zechariah 9:9-10, where he then spends the week denouncing sin and the pharisees, sets the bar which people will be judged by God, and ultimately offers His life for our sins. Yet, there will be another triumphal entry, described in Revelation 7:9-17. At that time, He will come to end the...

Pastor Dana’s Lenten sermon series picks up in Haggai 1:2-6, 2:2-5, and Psalm 145:4-8. The people of Israel return from 20 years of exile to rebuild their lives yet neglect the temple. God uses Haggai to remind them of a promise of restoration. In their rebuilding the temple, they rebuild their identity as a covenant people. We find renewal when we center around faithful living in our community.

Pastor Dana’s Lenten sermon series picks up in Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-3; and 3:2. God’s people have turned away from God’s righteousness and normalized violence and corruption, bringing on an invasion from the Babylonian empire. But we see that God’s intentions are not to stand away from suffering, but to take it upon Himself, beginning the ultimate work of restoration of our brokenness through the r...

Pastor Dana’s Lenten sermon series picks up in Jonah 1:3-4, 3:3-5, and 4:1-2; 11. God calls on Jonah to warn the people of Nineveh to change their ways, but Jonah resists and hopes to see their destruction, which is avoided through their repentance. God declares through the book of Jonah that no human is too deep into sin that He cannot reach them and grant them mercy and compassion. It isn’t up t...

Pastor Dana begins this Lenten sermon series in Hosea 4:1-3 and Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9. God calls Israel into account for their lack of acknowledgment and God laments about us, refusing to abandon us. The lament of Hosea finds fulfillment in the suffering of Christ: divine heartbreak becomes divine sacrifice so that sin does not get the final word.

The final spiritual discipline in Pastor Dana’s sermon series is prayer. Jesus teaches us how to pray in Matthew 6:6-13, with privacy and sincerity to nurture your relationship with God. In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul assures us that we can take our concerns to God in prayer and receive His peace in return. The Lord is near! And when we cannot find the words to pray, Romans 8:26-27 comforts us. The Sp...