Orchard Community Church Sermon Audio

Life is messy. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do, every life has some mess to it and operates in a messy environment. This sermon examines the messiness of the early church and how God's design, strength, and glory was displayed through that beautiful yet messy group of people. This passage is a prayer that teaches us a lot about our need for God's design, strength and gl...

The gospel is amazing. It is the good news that through Christ we can be restored to a wonderful relationship with God. But Paul understood that the work of the gospel in our lives doesn't stop there. To accept the gospel of salvation by God's grace is to also accept a call to share that message with others. In this sermon we look at Paul's understanding of his own ministry in Ephes...

Have you ever been a stranger somewhere? In Ephesians 2:19-22 Paul writes to the church to tell them that they are not strangers to each other. He emphasizes that what joins us together in Christ is greater than anything that can join us together in this world. Our new belonging in Christ means that we have a new citizenship in God's kingdom, a new family, and a new purpose. This sermon looks...

This Sermon is by guest preacher Marc Vellake: Have you ever wondered why Israel has had a history of worshiping God in humble sincerity in one chapter, but you flip the page and find they are suddenly worshiping pagan idols? How could they fall so far, so fast? What about you? If you are like me focusing on Christ is natural and intentional when the pressure is on, but when the struggle is over t...

The apostle Paul loves to talk about who Jesus is and how we are saved through him. This topic often leads right into another one that is very important to him which is that the unity believers have in Christ. If we are saved by Christ and brought into a new relationship with God then we are also brought together in a new relationship with other Christians. Orchard Community Church  www.orchardcom...

There are times we feel so distant from God, or see others who are distant from God, and we struggle to have hope that this distance can be overcome. This sermon looks at Ephesians 2:11-13 where Paul tells us that in Christ we are brought near to God. The distance that is insurmountable to us was conquered by Christ! This shapes who we are as we remember where we were and what Christ has done for...

He is risen! Those words have echoed throughout history as people realize that the resurrection of Christ changes everything for our world and for us as individuals. There is hope in those words as we understand that in the darkness of our lives and of our world a light has dawned. Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God has, once and for all, conquered sin and death. The morning that we celebrate on E...

Imagine being in Jerusalem and hearing that the Messiah, the great promised king of your nation, was entering the city! You run to outskirts of the city, push through the crowds to catch a glimpse of this incredibly important person. When you finally see him, though, you wonder, "What's the big deal?" This sermon is from Palm Sunday when we remember Jesus' entry into Jerusalem...

It is a tragedy when the disease of alzheimer's causes someone to lose the ability to remember the close relationships they have with others. We are in danger of a spiritual alzheimer's in our relationship with God. We all too easily forget who God is, what He has done for us through Christ, and the hope that we have in belonging to God through Christ. In Ephesians 1:15-23 Paul prays tha...

Relationships can be fickle. The things that hold our relationships together are often based on changing circumstances or attitudes and can be all too quickly broken. These experiences then color how we see our relationship with God. We wonder if he loves us when we let him down or when it appears the world is against us. But what if we could see our relationship with God as unbreakable? Ephesians...

"Come on in!" You know you are at the home of a friend when you ring the doorbell and hear that phrase. It is a phrase that means you are welcome and possibly that they were expecting you. This sermon looks at just two verses, Ephesians 1:9-10, but in these two short verses Paul makes a bold statement. He says that God's plan is to bring unity to everything in heaven and earth in Ch...

We often feel a sense of connection to those whose life experiences or personality characteristics are similar to ours. The greater the overlap, the greater the sense of connection. Ephesians 1:1-10 presents us with a list of blessings we have through Jesus Christ. These blessings shape a new identity that is defined by the past, present, and future work of Christ in our lives and the world around...

This sermon is the first in a series on the New Testament book of Ephesians. Everyone wants to belong and to have meaning in our lives. We seek relationships in this world and define ourselves, intentionally or unintentionally, by cultural boundaries. This gives a sense of identity and belonging, but it is never enough. The ever-increasing strife and tension in our world testify that our ways of s...

This sermon is a bit different. The previous Sunday at our annual meeting the church approved three men to serve with the Senior Pastor as the first elders of Orchard. This sermon is directed to these new elders as we commissioned them as a church to shepherd the people of Orchard. After the sermon, the elders stood before the church to make a commitment to the church and then the members of the c...

This Sunday was a historic day for Orchard Community Church. At the annual meeting after the second worship service we voted to approve our first group of men to be elders. Every sermon this month was planned to help prepare the congregation to be able to make this choice prayerfully and according to scripture. This sermon, preached on the day of the vote, looks at the biblical qualifications for...

In a dance one person leads and the other follows, but each dancer must know his or her steps in order for the dance to be successful. This Sunday we are looking at an important component of healthy church leadership which is the responsibility of the follower. This applies to more than just church leadership, however, as we all need to take responsibility for those things that are our "steps...

At any given moment we are all both leaders and followers. We are looking to someone for guidance and leadership. Meanwhile, others are looking to us. Sometimes, possibly even most of the time, this happens without us really thinking about it and this can be dangerous. We may not even know what criteria are we using to judge whether or not someone is worth following or whether or not we are being...

This sermon continues our brief sermon series called "Keeping Life on Track in 2016" as we look at a few more "Guardrails" in our life. The previous sermon looked at guardrails that had to do with loving God. This sermon looks at guardrails that have to do with loving others. Orchard Community Church  www.orchardcommunitychurch.com Listening to sermons online can be a great way...

It is important in life to know what is most important. This is true for individuals and for churches. This sermon looks at the importance of understanding our mission in this world and the core values that function like guardrails to keep us on track. We are going to look at the mission statement and core values of Orchard Community Church over the next two weeks so that we can be sure that we fo...

This sermon looks at "The Big Picture: God's Plan from Genesis to Revelation." The Bible is not just a collection of random stories with good ideas about how we should live our lives. It is the big picture of who God is and what He is doing throughout all of history and in our lives as well. When we can see God's big picture we will be able to trust Him in the day to day things...

This Sunday, the last Sunday before Christmas, we will be looking at the final Advent theme of "Love." Scripture gives us a standard of God's love that is incredible. We see throughout God's Word a definition and example of love that cannot be found in our culture today. This love shines forth in the Christmas story when our Savior is born. Orchard Community Church  www.orchard...

The angels told the shepherds news that was great joy for all the people. This sermon looks at whether joy is simply the optional wrapping on the Christmas message or if it is actually an essential part of the gift. Orchard Community Church  www.orchardcommunitychurch.com Listening to sermons online can be a great way to keep up with a sermon series if you are unable to attend church but should ne...

Guest speaker and inner-city church planter, Chris Holdridge shares on "True Compassion". Orchard Community Church  www.orchardcommunitychurch.com Listening to sermons online can be a great way to keep up with a sermon series if you are unable to attend church but should never be a substitute for regular attendance of a gospel-centered and bible teaching church.

This sermon is for the first Sunday of the Advent Season. Advent means "coming" or "arriving" and is usually used to refer to the coming of someone particularly important. The four weeks of advent prepare us to celebrate the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that first Christmas so long ago. This sermon looks at the theme of hope in 1 Peter 1:3-5 and is called "...

This sermon concludes our series on the early chapters of Genesis called, "The Plan from the Beginning." It looks briefly at Genesis chapters 18-21 and then more closely at Genesis 22:1-19 where Abraham must make a difficult choice. Is he going to trust how he thinks God's plan should work, or is he going to trust God to carry out His plan His own way? We are all faced with this cho...