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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.

How can you tell what’s right and what’s wrong? Fortunately, many would say, we live in an age where objective truth has disappeared. What’s true for you isn’t true for others, and what’s wrong for you isn’t wrong for others. But is it truly good for us when morals change from generation to generation and you can write your own? Or, are we missing something? BIG IDEA: Subjective morality leads to...

Why would anyone living today trust the Bible? After all, it’s so full of terrible instances of violence and oppression that it has to be both barbaric and outdated. Besides, you can’t really rely on a document that’s over 2000 years old. It’s been translated so often there’s very little likelihood that what we’re reading is what was written. Right? BIG IDEA: ​ ​The Bible isn’t the point of Christ...

Religion is basically how ancients understood the world, but science has taken us so far beyond that. Between what we know about evolution, astronomy, genetics, biology and so many other sciences, we’ve explained what we used to attribute to God. If science explains or will explain everything, why do we really need God? BIG IDEA: ​ ​You can’t love God with all of your heart and soul if you don’t u...

Lots of people all over the world appreciate, respect, and even follow the teachings of Jesus without believing he rose from the dead. But the people who recorded his story and teachings wouldn’t recommend that. Their message was clear: Jesus rose from the dead. He is Savior and Lord. And He came to defeat death!

Finish this sentence—“I don’t want to go to church, because the church is filled with !” What did you say? Hypocrites. That’s right. I believe that hypocrisy, more than any other issue, has kept more people out of church and from connecting with God. To far too many people, being a Christian and being a hypocrite are one in the same thing. What would Jesus undo? He would undo hypocrisy.

What Would Jesus Undo? What are the things that break the heart of Jesus? Jesus would undo hollow, empty worship that just goes through the motions.

WWJD is not a bad question. It’s just not helpful without an understanding of what Jesus would NOT do. Better yet, it is important for us to consider what Jesus would UNDO. When you’ve “been there, done that” it is easy to slip into indifference. It’s easy to be nonchalant. In fact, it’s quite normal. However, normal is not the way of Jesus. Jesus came to flip normal on its head. Jesus didn’t come...

Letters are powerful, but not as widely read as they used to be. That’s okay. What if instead of writing letters to people who are lost, we could show them the way? What if Instead of just writing letters to someone we love, we could demonstrate that love with more than words? What if instead of longing for a chance to write to someone who is gone, we could live our lives in a way that would carry...

Communication is the lifeblood of healthy relationships, especially marriage. Almost all couples (97 percent) who rate their communication with their partner as excellent are happily married, compared to only 56 percent who rate their communication as poor. When it comes to communication, we should NEVER stop growing and developing.

Think of the deals you’ve struck in your life. Your first car. Your first real job. Your first house. You saw what you wanted, did what you had to do to get it—and you came home with a done deal. No deal compares to winning a wife, though. You pursued her with all the courage, creativity, and resources you could muster. Then, one day, you closed the deal. Your wedding day was the day you proved yo...

What is the biggest need of most men? Every woman thinks they know the answer to that question, but your answer would probably be wrong. Yet asking that question might be the key for women to get what they need and want most—unconditional love.