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God is good, all the time. That proclamation is an unquestioned answer not because it is theologically suspect—it isn’t—but because it risks sounding naive and at the very moment when life tells us the exact opposite. What do you do when you don’t doubt God’s God-ness, but you question His goodness? Our problem might be that our perspective is too narrow. We’re only looking at what’s right in fron...

A lot of people stall out or quit their faith journey because they get discouraged. Some just grow disillusioned because as hard as they try to get close to God, they still don't feel connected. Isn't it true that the more you grow in your faith, the more you'll feel God's presence? But what if your spiritual connection isn't always reflected in your emotional condition? BIG IDEA: You can't equate...

He had brains, he had brawn. But he had one weakness and it eventually cost him everything. The mighty Samson was destined to be the next leader of Israel. But as his gaze drifted, so he eventually drifted far away from God. How did this drift happen? Did it happen overnight, or was it a slow erosion? Today, we will discover that most of us don’t take huge leaps away from God and our morals. Most...

There are some things that we can control and a lot of things that we have no control over. That’s what makes emotional management so tricky. Whenever we find ourselves in tough situations, the tendency is to try to control what we can’t control. We pile on worry, we cram in anxiety, we stuff in some stress, we make our mess messier and in the end, everything falls apart. What if it didn’t have to...

Think you’re strong? Even our best intentions can falter when we face temptation & distraction. Don’t believe me? Just ask Samson. He had every advantage as a boy. His birth was predicted by an angel. He had godly parents who loved him. Samson was dedicated to God, and he experienced the power of God's Spirit as a young man. Despite all these favorable factors? Samson failed to embrace his God-giv...

Cancel culture seems to be on the rise in our society. When we consider the heart of it, we see that some of it has to do with the one doing the canceling. When we look deep inside, often our desire to point out others’ faults has to do with ourselves. Our most critical voice is frequently reserved for our inner dialogue. Pointing out others’ faults often makes us feel better about ourselves. What...

It’s hard to treat people with love and respect on a regular basis, especially in today’s culture of trolling, roasting, and cancelling. When we’ve been mistreated, it may feel more appropriate to punish, ignore, or just avoid the other person. Perhaps you’ve been hurt, cheated, or victimized by someone in your life. Surely you aren’t expected just to treat that person with love and ignore what th...

In our culture, our access to power, influence, and judgment is faster than our access to knowledge and relationship. It’s easy for us to jump on the bandwagon and cancel someone without truly knowing all the facts. As we look to influence people with the platform of our lives, how do we navigate our polarized world? What does it look like to engage a culture that cancels individuals so quickly? H...

It seems like our culture is growing increasingly frustrated, contentious, and hostile. Social media is always ready to pounce on its next victim. If you are honest, under the pressure of our world, you’ve privately torn down, gossiped about, ghosted, or blamed someone this year. Culture can tell you it’s okay to hurt someone--even cancel them--in the name of truth. Jesus has a radically different...

Growth, accountability, belonging and care happen in community groups—in circles, not rows. It's easy to stumble away from faith when you are a nameless person sitting in a row on a Sunday morning. But it's almost impossible to stumble away—or to stay away—when you're in community, doing life with a group of people. BIG IDEA: It’s easier to stumble out of church & away from God than it is to stumb...

We are currently in a seller’s market when it comes to our housing boom. People are paying $50,000 or more above asking price to purchase their dream house. What makes you want to walk through the front door and take a look? Curb Appeal. You never will get to see the inside of the foyer if you don’t like the house from the curb. The same idea applies to the church. Amazing, life-changing things ca...

What does God want me to do with my life? Should I take this job? Pursue this relationship? Make this career choice? For the Jesus follower, we don’t want to miss God’s will for our life. Today, we’re going to look at two short verses that help us determine not only how to hear God’s voice, but how we can know what He wants us to do with our lives.

We all have something in our lives that it took a lot of practice or training to develop confidence in. It could be cooking, writing, building. Whatever it is you and I know that: Practice makes perfect. However, it gets better than that. When it comes to our walk with God, our spiritual life, there’s a principle that runs deeper than practice makes perfect!

Have you ever had something in your life that you know is not good for you, and yet, you always seem to lose the battle against it? Have you ever listened to the wrong voice? Here’s the awesome thing about God - He wants to speak and he doesn’t leave us to figure it out on our own.

God speaks, but we don’t always listen. In fact, we often suffer from “selective listening” when it comes to hearing God, especially through the Bible. God wants us to hear his voice, understand his voice, and act on His Word, but we can’t do it alone. BIG IDEA: You can’t understand God’s word without His Spirit.

So many times we feel like God's up there and we’re down here. Yet, the Bible teaches us that God wants to lead us, teach us, help us, and be with us. Does God intend to have a living, active, interactive, personal, and vibrant relationship with us?

We compare ourselves with others. You can imagine the results already. Either you are prompted to feel smug and proud because your strengths outweigh his weaknesses—or, more often, you begin to feel threatened, inferior, and blue because you fail to measure up. Striving to emulate a self-imposed standard, you begin to slide from the pleasant plateau of the real you to the sinking sands of I don't...

We can definitely be victims of our own success. One reason is that success can make us arrogant since we now have a reason to feel superior. Society heaps value on the winners and forgets those who came in second. And long track records of success almost certainly create an “I'm superior” attitude the more we allow the outside world to influence our ego. When everyone is telling you how great you...

Where do mushrooms grow? On top of decay and in the darkness. Shame is like that. It decays our souls and grows in the darkness of secrecy. As long as you keep the secrets in the dark, there is no hope. But when you bring it into the light? That’s where healing begins. BIG IDEA: Shame loses its power when we bring it into the light.

God wants us to connect better with others by avoiding common disconnects that hurt relationships. Whether you're sometimes your own worst enemy or you occasionally send the wrong message, we all can tend to kill connections and relationships. If you want stronger connections, understanding of how/why we sabotage relationships, and the overcoming strategies? Then buckle up! BIG IDEA: If possible,...

Very few people take Hell seriously anymore. These days, Hell has been reduced to a joke, a swear word, a cartoon, or a reality only mean-spirited people believe in. If that’s the case, why did Jesus appear to take Hell so seriously? Hell isn’t actually an Old Testament concept. While the Old Testament barely mentions Hell, the New Testament, Jesus and others talk about it a lot. What’s going on?...

So if you’re going to live forever, what’s it like? This week, we’ll look at the biblical descriptions of heaven, what role Jesus plays, what role your deeds play (they do play a role, just not the one most people think), and we’ll answer some top questions on heaven. BIG IDEA: You go to heaven based on what Jesus did for you. Your reward in heaven is based on what you do with His gift.

A lot of people struggle to believe what they read in Scripture. Instead, they argue that they’d be more likely to believe if someone came back from the dead and told them about what happens when you die. This week we’ll look at the stories of three people who did just that. BIG IDEA: If you would believe in eternity if someone came back from the dead, then why don’t you believe?

Almost everyone has an opinion about the afterlife, but so many things people believe about eternity may or may not be true. How do you know whether what you think is true...is true? To kick off the series, we’ll cover five commonly held myths about eternity (like everything works out just fine) that it’s time to bust. BIG IDEA: Some of the decisions you make today, last forever.