Orchard Community Church Sermon Audio

Sometimes Christmas morning doesn't quite go to plan.  Maybe as a kid you expected that one perfect gift that you asked for and anticipated and it just didn't happen.  Maybe as an adult you had plans for a perfect celebration that were altered at the last minute.  For generations God's people had ideas about how their glorious savior and king would come, but God had other, better pl...

We are looking at Luke 1:26-56 where Mary learns that she is to have a baby who will be the Son of God and the savior of the world.  The sermon is called "Rejoice in God our Savior" because God tells Mary that the baby she will bear will be "the Son of the Most High" and that she is to name him Jesus (which means "He Saves").  Mary puts all of this together in a song...

Preparations are underway for Christmas!  Christmas trees are being set up and decorated, lights are decorating yards, even some gifts are being purchased. There is a lot that goes into getting ready for Christmas.  But are we truly prepared in the right way?  God knew that people needed to be prepared for the birth of Jesus.  This earth-changing, history-making, and life-saving radical event need...

How can we know that what we believe is true?  Is Christianity just some made up religion?  Is the birth of Jesus just another story we tell to children along with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny?  We are starting a new sermon series on the Gospel of Luke.  Right at the beginning of his book, Luke tells us why he is writing by saying, "so that you may know the certainty of the things you hav...

We conclude our sermon series on "Fear and Hope" by looking back at what we have learned from Scripture about living in the fear of the Lord and how this ties into having hope in the Lord.  I pray that we will take away from this series a greater understanding of the majesty, power, and awesomeness of our God as well as a deeper appreciation of the love, grace and mercy He has shown to u...

So many things clamor for our attention.  We jump from one fear to another and from one hope to another.  For about 10 weeks we have looked at the relationship between the Fear of the Lord and having Hope in the Lord.  This does not happen by accident nor can we be passive about it.  This sermon is called "Growing in Fear and Hope in the Lord" and looks at how Scripture instructs us to g...

This sermon is called "Fear, Hope, and Faithfulness" and looks at how our fear of the Lord and our hope in the Lord are seen in our obedience to God.  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-...

In a world filled with conflict, the desire of every person is to live a life filled with peace.  In John 14, Jesus declares that he wants to give us peace in this world.  But the Peace of God is a kind of peace that is unique and only given by Jesus.  What is this Peace that God gives and how can we experience it?  In a sermon titled "Peace Beyond All Understanding" we explore John 14 t...

Did you know that we become like what we worship?  The bible tells us that we were created in God's image and created to worship God.  When we do this, we reflect God's character in our lives.  But when we turn away from God and give priority to something else we begin to reflect the values of that person or thing in our lives.  Worshipping something other than God is called idolatry.  W...

What is the purpose of our lives?  This question has consumed philosophers through the ages.  The biblical answer is actually fairly simple.  We exist to worship God.  Worship is more than just an hour long activity for Sunday morning.  It is more than singing songs, praying or reading the Bible.  It is certainly more than just a spiritual feeling that we get when we feel close to God.  Worship is...

We have spent the last five weeks in our sermon series looking at the relationship between the fear of the Lord and our hope in the Lord in Scripture.  In this sermon we see how these important concepts impact our day to day lives as we seek to see everything in our lives and in our world through the lens of who God is.  In Scripture, this perspective is known as wisdom.  This sermon is called &qu...

The beating heart of the Christian faith is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The gospel is the good news that Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and then rose from the grave conquering sin and death and offering eternal life to all who believe in Jesus as their savior.  Without this truth, Christianity becomes a self-help movement and the church becomes a civic or...

Hope is a powerful thing.  In moments of dark despair hope can be a shining beacon.  But we must be careful where we place our hope because the source of our hope must be stronger than our struggles.  Greater despair comes when we realize that the thing in which we have put our hope is weak and ineffective.  We  continue our sermon series on "Fear and Hope" where we are looking at the re...

Fear is usually thought of as a negative thing (unless you are one of those strange people who enjoy horror movies).  We try to avoid or overcome fear.  We want to feel safe, certain, and secure rather than fearful.  We often cry out to God because we are afraid of situations in our life so we ask for God's help.  Yet when we dig into God's Word we learn that there is an important emphas...

We use the word great with casual frequency.  A movie is great.  That new ice cream flavor is great.  Our favorite pro athlete is great.  What do we really mean by saying something is great?  Great compared to what?  In Isaiah 40, God's people are struggling and God is sending them a message to comfort them. He does this by giving them an immense perspective of his greatness.  This sermon is...

What are you afraid of?  Fear is rampant in our society today.  We are barraged by images and ideas that stir up a sense of lostness, hopelessness, and fear.  We grab onto those things that we think will fix our fear.  We put our hope in things that promise an answer to, or at least some sense of relief from, our fears.  Where we put our hope reveals our fears and what we fear will determine where...

Worry, anxiety, fear, and cruelty seem to be the prevailing spirit of our culture and all too often within the church.  The media, advertisements, internet personalities and politicians prey upon these emotions and are constantly fueling the fire in our hearts.  It is easy for us to fall into the trap and get swept along.  In a sermon titled "Guarding Your Heart", we look at Philippians...

Someone humorously lamented, 'I've always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.'  How do you want people to view you? How do you identify yourself when asked?  How do you portray yourself on social media?  Often people’s identity is wrapped up in their job, their hobbies, their kids or grandkids, their ministry or volunteering.  But a believer, a fol...

First impressions are always tough to navigate. You want to leave the people you are meeting with a good representation of you. But what can make those first impressions difficult is when the people you are meeting come in with preconceived notions of who you are. They might assume things, misunderstand you, and even attribute actions to you incorrectly.   In this sermon, we look at a very similar...

We conclude our sermon series on 2 Peter with a sermon simply called "Growing in Grace." We look back on the main themes of this letter and explore how we can and should continue to grow in grace today.  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 neve...

How do we grow in grace?  This would seem an impossible task since grace is something that is given to us.  As we look at the final passage in our 2 Peter Sermon series called "Growing in Grace," we will see that Peter gives us several ways that we can grow in grace.  We need to nurture a focus in our lives on what Christ has done for us through his death and resurrection.  While we cann...

I've called this sermon on 2 Peter 3:8-14 "Preparing for the End of the World."  (How's that for an attention-grabbing, click-baity title?)  I have found that there are basically two types of Christians: those who get obsessed with studying the end times and those that want to avoid anything to do with it (largely because they want to avoid talking about it with the first group...

Some people struggle with feeling like God just doesn't care or that he really isn't involved in the affairs of this world.  Just over 2000 years ago Jesus ascended into heaven and said he would come back to take us to be with him.  But where is he? As time goes by, it is easy to give up hope.  In a sermon called "The Power of God's Word" we look at 2 Peter 3:1-9.  In this...

In all of the political turmoil going on right now, never once have I heard someone say,  "You know what we need? We really need to go back to being a British colony!"  Can you imagine going through the Revolutionary War, fighting for freedom, winning, gaining our independence... and then just going back? In a sermon called "Trading Treasure for Trash" we look at 2 Peter 2:13-2...

In a sermon called "A Problem with Authority," we look at 2 Peter 2:1-12 as part of our sermon series on 2 Peter called "Growing in Grace."  In chapter two of this letter, Peter highlights some false teachings that have infiltrated the church.  He warns the people against these teachings and these teachers.  We look at the first aspect of their false teaching, which is that the...