Orchard Community Church Sermon Audio

Dependable.  That is a word that seems to have fallen out of use.  Whether it's because the stuff we buy is purposely designed to only last a short time or because people in our lives (including ourselves) often let us down.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:24 we read, "The One who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."  We are told that God is faithful...completely dependable.  In this se...

I hate driving at night in the rain.  It's hard to see through the water on the windshield.  The wipers are distracting as they flick back and forth.  Headlights seem less helpful than normal as they bounce off the glossy wet surface making the road lines almost invisible.  As I drive in the rainy darkness, my brain has to work overtime trying to decipher what my eyes are seeing and my ears a...

As I write this, I am looking out at a beautiful lake in the Adirondack mountains with mountains reflecting on the surface of the lake which shimmers in the morning sun.  It is the final morning of our annual family vacation here and this picture is what comes to my mind when I think of the word "peace."  But we will be leaving in a few hours and heading home.  Peace looks very different...

Have you ever had a bad boss before?  Nothing in life can be as painful as working for someone that is bad at making decisions and leading through difficult times.  When you need leadership from someone but don't receive it, it can really make your job tough.  In Scripture, we find one of the best examples of what a "bad boss" looks like in Samson.  Someone that was called to lead,...

Are you ready for the end of the world?  Things felt very surreal this week as we looked out at orange skies because of the smoke from the wildfires in Canada.  While strange, not exactly the end of the world?  For some, being prepared for the "end times" means gathering survival food and equipment.  For others, it means meticulously studying Scripture to find signs and to calculate date...

We take a short break from our "Faith out Loud" series to remind ourselves of the purpose of the church by taking a look at Acts 1 and 2.  It describes the early practices and activities of the early Christian community shortly after the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and many people were converted to Christianity.  Let us look at these passages in a se...

Sometimes it is hard to hold on to hope in difficult times.  It is during those times that we must see our difficulties through the lens of the gospel.  In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul helps us to see what it means to have hope because of the gospel - the truth that Jesus died and rose again.  He specifically applies this to how we deal with death. In a sermon called "Resurrection Hope"...

What is our purpose in life?  The changing answers to this question have shaped human history.  We often don't realize how we are answering this question or what it means for our lives and our world, but we are answering the question.  It is as simple as being in a situation and doing what we want rather than what we should do.  Even the notion of something that should be done instead of what...

Love is an active thing.  It does not remain in our hearts or thoughts, but spills over into our actions.  We are to love others through how we think of them, how we speak of them, and how we treat them.  This sermon is called "Love in Action" and looks at 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13.  We spend most of our time on the last 3 verses of this passage where Paul prays that the Thessalonians'...

How do you care for your soul and should we have any responsibility to care for the souls of others?  As we continue our Faith Out Loud sermon series on 1 Thessalonians, we look at 1 Thessalonians 2:17 - 3:5 in a sermon called "Soul Care."  Here we see how Paul was intensely concerned for the condition of the faith of the Thessalonians.  In this passage we see things that we need to make...

Faith must have direction.  For some, their faith is more directed toward themselves. They want to experience happiness, success, or some other kind of fulfillment.  For others, they have a faith that is directed toward other people.  They want to serve and to help others.  But Scripture gives us the proper direction of our faith which is toward God.  Paul says in 1 Thess. 2:4, "We are not tr...

Have you ever heard a thunderclap that seemed to go on and on for several minutes? It is amazing to think of the power that echoes out through that sound.  Wave after wave of sound hits your ears as you feel the deep rumbles in buildings or even through your body.  This sermon is called "The Thunderous Gospel" and looks at 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 as part of our "Faith Out Loud"...

We are starting a new sermon series titled "Faith Out Loud" on the New Testament book of 1 Thessalonians.  In this short letter, Paul writes to a church that he had planted and then had to leave suddenly because of persecution.  He knew they were in a difficult city with many people that wanted to stop the gospel from spreading. Paul prayed for them and waited to hear news about how this...

On Easter morning we greet each other with the words "He is Risen!" to which you should reply "He is Risen Indeed!"  This greeting has been used by Christians throughout the centuries to remind us that we have a Savior who has conquered sin and death and has risen from the grave promising eternal life to all who believe!  In this sermon we look at the question "What Was St...

As we prepare to celebrate the Resurrection, we turn to Hebrews 3 and 4.  The text focuses on how great Christ is and the work accomplished on the Cross.  But Hebrews turns a corner and also gives us warnings to not be like the Israelites in the wilderness.  While Moses was leading them, they constantly rebelled against God, and rejected His invitation to enter his rest in the Promised Land.  Hebr...

We are concluding our "Focal Point" sermon series on the whole bible with a sermon called "All Things New."  We are looking at the amazing last two chapters of the Bible (Revelation 21 and 22) where we see many themes brought together from the rest of Scripture.  In making "everything new" (Rev. 21:5), God is bringing about the plan that was started all the way back i...

We are blessed to have one of our missionaries, Mark B., coming to preach and to give us an update on his missions work.  Mark oversees the translation of resources so that pastors and church leaders in difficult circumstances can receive training to help them persevere in their work of proclaiming the gospel.  Mark is also be preaching the sermon.  His title is "God Ordained Roles in the Fam...

There is an old saying which was quoted by Charles Spurgeon which states, "Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength."  As we near the end of our sermon series called "Focal Point" which looks at all of Scripture, we  look at the book of Revelation in a sermon called "Jesus is Lord of the Past, Present, and Future."  In...

When you enter some banks you might see a security guard.  The bank has valuable things in it which must be protected.  This sermon is called "Guarding the Church" and looks at what the New Testament letters have to say about the important topic of guarding the church against things that would undermine or distract from the gospel. This is part of our "Focal Point" sermon serie...

We continue our "Focal Point" sermon series on the whole Bible by looking at another key theme in the New Testament letters.  In a sermon called "The Church and the World" we look at the difficult mission of being Christians who are called to be different from the world yet sent into the world for the cause of the gospel.  At the core of this topic is the question "What sh...

We often have an identity crisis as Christians.  We still feel the pull to live the way the world does, yet we have been given new life in Christ.  We struggle to live out this new identity.  The letters in the New Testament talk about this struggle a lot.  This sermon is called "New Identity" and looks at the amazing truth of who we are in Christ and the difference this should make in o...

What makes a church a church?  What is the purpose and focus of a church?  What is the mission of the church?  These are important questions because if we get this wrong then we are no longer serving the purpose that God has for the church in the world today.  As we continue our overview of the Bible sermon series called "Focal Point," we look at the letters written to the church in the...

As we continue our sermon series called "Focal Point" where we look at all of the Bible, we look at the spread of the early church in the book of Acts.  We see what formed the beginning of the church and what was essential to the church as it spread. Throughout the book of Acts there is an emphasis on the presence and work of the Holy Spirit.  So, in a sermon called "The Holy Spirit...

So far in our "Focal Point" sermon series we have looked at some big themes from the Old Testament as well as important aspects of who Christ is and what he did to save us.  Soon we will be moving on to look at the rest of the New Testament, but there is one more truth about Christ that we must look at before we can understand the rest of Scripture.  After Jesus died and rose again, he a...

 In this sermon we are dealing with the most important subject in all of Scripture.  All of the Old Testament sets up this topic and all of the New Testament is based on this topic.  In fact, it would not be an overstatement to say that the topic for this sermon is the most significant topic in the history of the world, and indeed in all of eternity.  This is a bold claim, but we are looking at th...