Shartel Church

It’s not what you know, it’s who. That’s how you get many of the opportunities in life. It’s also how you get to come into the presence of God. Jesus opened the door for us to have full access to the Father. We can come to Him, talk with Him, listen to Him, and worship Him. We can come with the same assurance of a child who knows their daddy loves them. We can come daily. We can come instantly. We...

What is the truth, Is it relative? Not according to God. In fact, God has the market cornered on truth! In this verse, God makes a promise to us, if we abide in His Word, and if we take time to tend to our relationship with Him, then He will let us in on this truth. This message will focus on what it looks like to abide in the Word, and why it matters…that God seeks to use the truth to free us fro...

God has plans for you. When it seems life is against you, God has plans for you. When tragedy strikes or life turns upside down, God has plans for you. When you’ve failed greatly and find yourself in the pig sty of bad decisions, God doesn’t quit on you…and He still has plans for you! This verse will look at the relentless faithfulness of God in the ups and downs of life. No matter where we are on...

Jesus didn’t come to simply teach us. He came to TRANSFORM us. He wants us to live right side up in an upside-down world. He called us to be HOLY…set apart, consecrated, and uniquely changed by God. It is not an instantaneous process, but a life-long pursuit. This message will be about making our lives “attractively different.”

We kick off our new series, Your Verse, with Pastor Steve's life verse. This verse reveals to us that God wants more than just a superficial relationship. God wants us to experience Him. He wants us to know Him. This verse will kick off our New Year with a challenge to know God in a more personal and powerful way.

The shepherds kept celebrating long after they left the stable. Their joy wasn’t just in that moment there by the manger. They took it with them! This message will look at how we keep the joy alive. We’ll explore what it takes to keep a sense of that Christmas joy all year long!

What Song Do You Need? by ShartelChurch

Can you imagine after seeing and hearing the angels, the shepherds NOT going to Bethlehem? I wonder if some did. I wonder if there was a shepherd or two that offered to stay behind with the sheep. Sometimes we want just enough of an experience with God to feel “spiritual” but not change. God invites us to see Him, know Him, and touch Him. Joy isn’t knowing about Jesus. It’s knowing Jesus!

The shepherds were tempted to run from the angel. Who could blame them? It was an awesome and frightening experience, but it was a direct message of God. In this message, we’ll look at how we often duck the messages of God in our fear of what He might be saying or fear of what He might want to do through our lives. God has a message for you that you won’t want to miss!

The angels came to lowly shepherds in the darkness of the night. That’s a place that many of us can relate. Painful losses, embarrassing failures, and overwhelming circumstances have shrouded many of us with a thick darkness of loneliness, grief, and shame. God’s joy was sent for just such a time as that! This message will look at reclaiming God’s joy when darkness is all we see.

Gideon had a hard time believing God. Instead of taking the angel at his word, Gideon asks the angel to do something to prove it was really God. Beneath this “sign from God” was insecurity and doubt. It was another form of hiding. This message will focus on what seeking a “sign” is all about and how we can learn to take God at His Word. That is the essence of faith!

Gideon had a lot of insecurity. He didn’t have the confidence to believe he could overcome the Midianites and do what God was calling him to do. He forgot something that MANY of us forget. It’s not about us! The angel’s promise was that GOD would be with him, and GOD would be enough to do what needed to be done!

Gideon was hiding. Afraid the Midianites would steal his grain, he hid like everyone else. The angel of God reminded him that was meant for more than that. It was time for Gideon to stop hiding and reclaim the identity that God had given to him. This message will ask the question, “What are YOU hiding from?” You are “more than conquerors through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The people of God were stuck because of their disobedience. They tried to do it their way rather than God’s way, and now they were being overrun by the Midianites. God sent them a prophet to remind them of a simple lesson: Listen. Listening to God is the beginning of wisdom. It’s also the first step out of the rut we’re in.

It’s funny how people think being “free” is being able to do whatever they want to do. They don’t even realize the bondage that they’re experiencing. When we commit our lives to Christ, we shake off the shackles of that bondage. We find in chaining ourselves to Christ that there is a freedom we never knew. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from fear. Freedom from living lives that are meaningless. As “s...

Seeing is believing—except with God. Then, believing is seeing! Faith is such an important part of our connection to God that He asks us to believe Him in advance for things we will later see. Things we can see don’t take faith. That’s why Jesus’ conversation with Thomas is so insightful. Thomas believed when he finally saw it. The ones who are truly “blessed” are the ones who believe without seei...

One of the great temptations in our journey of faith is to believe we can handle life by ourselves. We often set ourselves up for failure by attacking life with nothing more than our own human resources. Paul reminds us that it’s actually when we’re weak that we’re the most powerful. It’s when we realize how dependent we are upon God that we become the most dangerous. When we’re aware that we are...

The cross of Christ doesn’t make sense. The whole gospel doesn’t make sense. That’s because God doesn’t think like we do, and we don’t know what God knows. It is only when we come to terms with how foolish our human thinking really is that we can begin to think as God thinks and see things the way God sees them. We may look foolish to the world, but there is a deep wisdom in our foolishness.

Pride is the root of all sin. Humility is the root of all virtue. This message will look at why and how being humble places us in a position to be exalted. Humility in our relationships with others breeds trust, confidence, and adoration. Humility with God allows Him to protect, direct, and empower us. As we bow down, God lifts up!

This message looks at how Jesus flipped the script on what it means to be a great leader. It’s not about power, image, or the ability to command. Great leaders are servants of a cause. They are servants of a people. They lead by example and not by intimidation. Our families, jobs, churches, and positions in the community are great opportunities to express the model of Jesus’ servant leadership. Up...

The most blessed people in the world are the most generous. They are not generous because they are blessed. They are blessed because they are generous! When we give ourselves fully and freely away, it opens the heart of others to us. It also positions us to be blessed by God. “Blessed to be a blessing” is an ancient and ongoing command for us. This message will look at how we put that into practic...

The first four-letter word most of us learn is MINE. Our self-consumption is one of the biggest reasons why we find it difficult to follow Christ. We can’t cling to Him while we’re still clinging to ourselves. Only when we give up all of who we are can we embrace all of who HE is.

Our race is not a sprint. It’s not even a marathon. It’s a RELAY. That’s why one of our focal points is “Preparing the next generation for faith and leadership.” We can’t take our eyes off this goal. This message will look at the incredible responsibility we have and why we make children, youth, and leadership development priorities. We’ll talk about what that means as a church and what that requi...

Reaching the world for Christ is not a program. It’s a personal responsibility. This week we’ll look at “Sharing our faith through investing and inviting.” God has called us to build bridges of love to people who are far from Him. Instead of withdrawing into our religious fortresses, we are to do what Jesus did: Become friends of sinners. We are to become the light the world is looking for. If you...

This message looks at “Serving our community at their point of need.” If Shartel mysteriously ceased to exist next week, would the community even know we were gone? Jesus walked among His community. He tended to their needs. He helped them with their troubles. He was a Savior of the people and for the people. That’s why they loved Him so much. That’s how we want to live. We’re our best version of...