Messages of the Orchard Church

Just about everyone is a fan of peace, so long as peace is on their terms. Is it God's will that we only accept people if they are totally agreeing and practicing what we think is correct? No. Just as Jesus welcomes us and is with us despite our failures, peacemakers welcome others as they are, and not as we wish them to be.

If you are serious about spiritual growth, then you will be serious about loving others. Love always means getting closer to others who we'll find are different and sometimes challenging. Conflict will happen. Though strenuous, it needn't be overwhelming or exhausting. How will you respond? Most of us have a natural tendency to address conflict in a particularly unhelpful way, so it is important t...

Many of us may think that gossip is a small thing, but it isn't thought of that way in Scripture. Gossip is likely the very reason that people of a church want to stay private, or superficial, or seeming as if they have no struggles. This opening message is intended to shine a light on the problem with gossip, not only helping us to understand how the Bible describes it, but also why the Bible imp...

The parable of the sower describes a farmer distributing seeds on four types of soil: hard, rocky, weedy, and good. Only one of the soils is successful. We could tend to use this parable to judge others and their response to the Gospel, but do you really think Jesus intends this parable to help us feel spiritually superior to others? No. It is a parable intended to help us realize unsuccessful res...

Two of the shortest parables about the Kingdom of God describe a man searching and finding a treasure of such value that he sells everything to acquire it. Jesus described the elements of these parables elsewhere in places like Matthew 6:21, Matthew 19:21, and Luke 12:33. Three simple questions arise from these parables: Are you looking for the treasure? Do you really expect to find something of s...

Let's say that you are one of those who are at The Party described in Luke 14:15-24. Now what? There are several parables Jesus told that seem to indicate that the party could last a long time. And, though we might be tempted to fall asleep, or go off and do our own thing, that isn't what God has in mind. As Uncle Ben in Spiderman famously says, "With great power comes great responsibility."

The Party is a parable that describes a banquet or celebration in which the invited guests come up with excuses to not attend. Upset, the host of the celebration tells his servants to go out and bring in anyone they can find. This message includes a modernized depiction of the story. While you are listening, remember that a party is never about the invitation ... it is about who will be there.

Judas is widely thought of as the disciple who was a mistake - he was the one that betrayed Jesus. Did Jesus somehow not know this when he appointed Judas as one of the twelve? Was he selected intentionally to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 11:12-13? Or was it something else? Scripture has just a few things to say about Judas, but they all seem to suggest that Judas loved money more than Jesus,...

Paul's writing in Romans can be confusing. He uses words that are often unfamiliar, and he is describing religious attitudes that we've never encountered. So I wondered ... what kind of analogy might help us to better understand what Paul is saying? Maybe I could compare the church to a karate dojo, and illustrate how karate belts represented aspects of our knowledge and maturity with God. And tha...

There are a lot of "sin lists" in the Bible. You may know them as the "thou shalt not" scriptures. Many times, people will weaponize these lists to condemn others, to feel superior, and to win arguments. But in doing so, they mishandle that list from Romans Chapter 1 in a way that Paul clearly condemns in Romans Chapter 2. The ways we handle scripture is important. Today I want to help you see a c...

In the introductory paragraphs of Romans, Paul uses these first words to set a tone and thesis for the whole book … simply, it is the humble person who finds the truth and power of the Gospel.

A big benefit of being a Christian is that God frees us from the bondage of sin. Put another way, if we have a destructive behavior - even as destructive as an addiction - the power of God frees us. That's what God does. God frees us from the sin, but we have to flee from the sin. We have to want to walk away from those cancers.

The word "wealth" is often understood to be an abundance of money and possessions - the storehouses of resources we idle for the future. Typically, the wealthier a person, the more stingy they become. So, what happens when one becomes a Christian? As we love more, our stinginess changes to generosity. But this generosity of wealth goes beyond just money, for love also unlocks two other treasures:...

Where are you headed in life? Do you want to have a big family, or be famous, or more loving, or a better follower of Jesus? For most dreams to be successful, you will need to surround yourself with like-minded people who share a similar vision, and wish to support one another toward those goals. So, what changes when we become a Christian?

Marriage has been a part of societies since prehistoric times - it isn't unique to any particular religion or culture. And, generally speaking, marriage is viewed by most every one of these societies as a superior status in life over singleness. This attitude can also be felt in the churches. People who are single can be made to feel as if they aren't quite measuring up, or that there's something...

There is an overwhelming amount of technology that surrounds us - every year it is more and more, with a pace that now seems to be doubling every few years. And, whenever some new tech or innovation is introduced, doesn't it seem that we just blindly adopt it, without considering if it could have a negative impact on our life? Just because we can add new tech and surround ourselves with so much of...

The Bible describes a fairly simple phenomena of spiritual living that goes something like this: If you genuinely pour yourself into seeking God, you will find him. You will!

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, "seek and you will find." His words are quite similar to what prophets and writers of the Old Testament said of God, like from Jeremiah, "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." Even though God is all around us, God can seem quite hidden from us. I wonder if people experience a lack of God because they aren't really seeki...

Imagine that your life is focused on climbing a mountain. All your training, vision, partnerships, and effort are focused on this mountain. Maybe you've been climbing it for 20 years or 60 years. You are probably struggling to get to the top, because only a few get there. For those who struggle, how do you react when an expert mountain climber tells you he can help you get to the top of a mountain...

Who wants to have an addiction in their life? An addiction robs us of time, money, relationships, joy - for that quick hit, there is a lot of cost to one's life. With the word “addiction”, you may be thinking of things like alcohol, drugs, or the nicotine that is in vaping and cigarettes. Yet, there are other addictions that we overlook or minimize - we don't think they are serious because we just...

Everyone has fear from time to time. If temporary, fear can be a good emotion because it helps us get away from danger. But, a frequent pattern of fear can sometimes turn into what is called trepidation. Trepidation can result in sluggish movement in the directions of God - it can look like procrastination, or avoidance, or being lukewarm, or even substituting something else for the will of God. G...

Truth is important. Truth helps us to find directions for our lives that are healthy, and deceptions can point our lives into hazardous directions. Yet, every day we are overwhelmed with both truth and deception. How do we figure out which is which? Well, a wise approach is to not merely learn something, but to experience it. Jesus did not merely present us with truth, but he challenges us to put...

Do you know someone who is lonely? Is it you? A lot of previously unlonely people have begun to realize the darkness of loneliness as this pandemic continues. Loneliness arises not simply due to the absence of other people, but the absence of meaningful connection to other people. And, even though we might try to combat loneliness with Zoom, FaceTime, or social media apps, these often do not get u...

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt powerless? Of course you have, because everyone encounters events and environments where we feel powerless - it is part of our lives, and this pandemic is a big example of that. Different people respond in different ways to powerless situations. Some fight. Some take flight. A few freeze. But, God describes a fourth response, and that is trusting in...

Whenever we think of hell, we think of fire and suffering. There's also imagery of pitchforks, Satan with horns and a pointy tail, and lots and lots of the baddest of bad people. History has added so many layers of legend to the imagery of hell that it can come across as mythical or cartoonish, not much different than believing Napoleon was short or that Adam and Eve ate an apple. True, some of th...