Powell Butte Christian Church

Youth Pastor Ethan Waud

 Hard times were coming for Israel; big needs, big challenges to come. They desperately needed help. Enter Isaiah - a prophet with a word from the Lord. What will it be God? After all, in the past, there were 10 plagues and the parting of the Red Sea to get us away from Egypt. There was that time when the wall around the city of Jericho fell down so that Israel could just rush in and take it. Ther...

In just a few short days we will celebrate Thanksgiving Day. It is a shame that we have only one day set aside each year to give thanks to God as a nation. We should have some time set aside each day, to give our praise to Him who has blessed us so richly. As God's people it is fitting that we should focus our thoughts, not only now but often, upon the goodness of God and offer our gratitude...

Remember the mirror? How God's Word is a mirror for each of us individually? Remember how much courage it takes to stand there, allowing God to show you what needs to be changed? Well, did you ever think that maybe churches need mirrors as well? We have come to a short passage where we get to hold a mirror up to us as members of a church body. It's amazing how many different experiences...

This morning I wanted to use this time together to really highlight the Perspective course coming up in the first part of 2025, and to encourage all of you to prayerfully consider making that gutsy call to step forward and put yourself out there and take the course. Perspectives is a globally-focused discipleship class that is hosted in churches and universities around the world. It's a 15 we...

What’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning? Whatever it is, it’s probably the same thing every day. Everybody seems to have their own morning rituals to get them going. Some part of everybody’s morning ritual is coming face to face with the mirror. Most of us probably get our first look at ourselves while we’re still pretty scary looking. Our eyes have that bleary, dazed look; ha...

John Adams, in a letter to the Massachusetts militia, dated October 11, 1798, said this: Because we have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion, avarice, ambition, revenge, and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and reli...

Opening up a can of worms this morning. Gonna talk about something that I haven't heard much about from the pulpit in my life. Gonna talk about addiction, which is something very easily demonized by good Christian folk. Too easy to think it's not a problem because it's not a problem for YOU. It's on THOSE people, in your opinion. They made their bed so to speak. Or maybe too ea...

Last week we talked about some of the trials of life - stuff that happens simply because we live in a fallen world; and how God uses what we go through to help us through what I called the Perfecting Process (perfect being a Biblical term that often just means complete and whole, or mature). We saw how if we watch, if we ask WHAT GOD and not WHY GOD, then we can cooperate with the perfecting proce...

I'm sure you've heard of Murphy’s Law: “If anything can go wrong it will.” I just discovered this week that there are a few other laws of Murphy as well… - “The chance of the toast falling jelly side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.” - “When you drop your phone while driving, it will find the gap between your seat and the center console." - “The light at the...

 Open your Bible to the New Testament Book of James. This morning begins our next Bible book study, and for those who have been hungry for some applicable lessons to connect with all the theology we've been studying for the past year, this is for YOU! This letter, broken down in modern Bibles into five chapters, is all about living out what you believe. And this morning, I'm just hoping...

Authority. Who gets to say which course gets changed? And where do they get that authority? “You’re not the boss of me” “You can’t tell me what to do.” Especially in Western culture, where we are used to having the right to do what we want to do, it’s difficult to submit to authority. But as Christians, the whole idea of Lordship involves submitting with the correct perspective of authority: Matth...

A 5-year-old girl was sitting at the breakfast table one morning and, in between bites of sugary cereal, she sang with one hand in the air and the other cradling her spoon. Her mom asked her what she was doing. “I’m praising God, Mama.” Then, in a huff of overly dramatized exhaustion, she dropped her hand on the table saying, “But sometimes praising God is hard. My arms get sooooo tired.” Do you r...

A couple of weeks ago, as I was gearing up for the children’s performance down in Bend, I had a conversation with one of the dads of the kids in the theater group. He is a film-maker and he and I started up this conversation about potential collaborations. And in the course of the conversation it was brought up that he was a Jew - but he was quick to point out he wasn’t a “practicing Jew.” Now, I...

 Olympics - runners. Some pretty amazing finishes! as you're running there's something that happens even in a marathon when you're completely fried when you're completely tired when you've hit the wall but then somehow when the Finish Line comes into view when when the Finish Line hits that Horizon something reinvigorates you you get that second wind you can pick up speed...

Do you remember the old slogan for Avis Car Rental? Hertz, apparently, had taken the top spot on the list - and of course, they let people know: “We’re #1!” Avis’ approach was intriguing to me. They were like: “We’re #2…BUT WE TRY HARDER.” While there’s something to the idea of trying your best, in my experience I have found that by adopting this motto in our spiritual growth, more often than not...

As we begin, I want to make sure you know a truth about this book, the Bible): this isn’t A book; this is 66 books with over 40 authors, written over a period of 1500 years on 3 continents - and yet there is amazing harmony throughout. And scripture helps us interpret and understand scripture; when you get to one passage that may be difficult to understand, you can be sure that there’s most likely...

We don’t know a whole lot about him, and what we do know is buried in mystery. We know that he was the King of Salem, we know that he was a priest of the Most High God, we know that he had a funny name and we know that Abraham thought enough of him that he made an offering of ten percent of everything he owned to him. He is fairly obscure. He’s first mentioned in Genesis 14 where he is given a tot...

One of the greatest problems we face today is a loss of trust. It used to be that in the past a man’s word was a sacred bond. Contracts would be signed with a handshake and one’s word. There was little need for lawyers or documents. If a person promised to do something, their honor depended upon them following through with their pledge. Not so much today. Today we have grown cynical and question e...

We read from the Author of Hebrews how important it is to maintain momentum in understanding and living out faith in Jesus. He said in Heb 5:11-14: “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not soli...

Mother’s Day is probably the toughest day of the year to preach. That’s primarily because it seems that Mother’s Day is a minefield of different emotions for so many in any given church. In the 8 years I have preached here at PBCC, I have not ever preached a Mother’s Day sermon. We have taken time out of the service to honor moms, but I typically have just barreled through with the sermon series w...

 I have long been fascinated with Western Turkey, and the area of the world where the seven churches of Revelation were located. In fact, one day, my hope is to visit that area to see for myself the places that I have studied for over 30 years now. Of course, the actual cities where the churches that John addressed in The Book of Revelation no longer exist as they did in the First Century - but th...

It’s been said that an essential key in life... is the wisdom to navigate life WITH THE END IN MIND. IOW, when we understand what we want our life to lead to, we are able to form a life that is consistent with that end. So it’s vital that as a believer you bear in mind WHERE are you headed? What is the end aim for your life? Is there an aim - or are you just shooting your arrows at trees and then...