Shelbyville Community Church

When people try to approach God out of a contract or their performance, it becomes toxic to their soul, resulting in things like pride, superiority, complaint, and resentment. But Jesus has come to offer a new and better way to approach God. This approach is not based on a contract or performance, but grace, and grace makes all the difference.

Jesus has made a habit of embracing people who face rejection. The invitation to follow Him is quickly extended to the weak, wounded, and marginalized who easily get overlooked by the broader swath of society. The healing that He offers paves the way for us to recognize Him as the healer who’s in the business of rescuing the world from sin one life at a time.

Excuses can be toxic for anyone who would follow Jesus. The unfortunate reality is that we can be very good at explaining to God why we can’t live in His presence, or why we can’t do the thing that He is asking us to do. Excuses are toxic to the spiritual life because they keep us from life with God, the joy of obedience, the freedom of forgiveness, the blessing of generosity, and the deeper journ...

In His most famous sermon, Jesus said “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven...” in other words, treasures that actually matter and will last. Notice that He doesn’t say ‘stop desiring’ ‘stop seeking,’ ‘stop planning’ or ‘stop investing’. Quite the contrary, He is encouraging us to invest more wisely, to seek safer and better returns. Jesus is not calling us to settle for less but rather to...

In John 5, before Jesus heals an invalid of 38 years, He asks him an odd question: “Do you want to get well?” In essence, when Jesus asks this man if he wants to be made well, He is asking him if he is willing to change. Sometimes people desperately want their situation to change, but they don’t want to change. As we engage our community, not everyone will want hope and healing, but we must contin...

The message of Christianity is unique among the religions of the world. You won’t hear it anywhere else. It is also counterintuitive. Why Fish? Because God wants everyone to be saved, and because we must love others enough to want for them the same grace, mercy, and love that we’ve already found in Jesus.

In Matthew 14:22-33, we’ll see the disciples in a tough situation. Some will decide to stay in the boat, and one will decide to get out. For many of us, we want to be Peter and truly trust Jesus and follow Him. Yet, circumstances happen which distract us from Him. Many times, these distractions can cause fear.

It’s amazing what we’ll do when we see the true value of something. When we see that something is priceless, we're willing to sacrifice for it. And the Kingdom of God is no exception to this. When we follow Jesus, we’re called to surrender absolutely everything to him.

The last person in the room to know he or she is greedy is the one consumed by it. This is why Jesus warns against greed like nothing else. Greed, by its very nature, blinds us to its presence. Greed almost never exists for itself, but exists instead to feed our idols.

In John 6, many of Jesus’ followers decide to unfollow Jesus. The reason? Jesus was saying some things that were hard to hear. There will be seasons for all of us when we, like them, will be tempted to unfollow Jesus.

In Matthew 7, at the end of his most famous sermon, Jesus told a story about two kinds of builders. One was wise and one was foolish. Both faced a storm, but only one of them built their home on the right foundation, which was obedience to Jesus. What is most striking, is that Jesus didn’t call one “good” and the other “evil.” The call to follow Jesus is not simply a moral decision, but a smart on...

When Jesus spoke in parables, He challenged His listeners to really hear what He was communicating to them. He wanted His followers to ponder His deeper meaning, to reflect on the condition of their hearts, and to respond accordingly.

The idea is that we are to be so convinced of God’s goodness, so certain of His love, that no matter what life throws at us, He and I can handle it together. We are to be so sure that He is with us, that we know that there is nothing in all of creation that can separate from His love.

Jesus' call to his disciples was a call to become fishers of men. That was it. But, how often do we follow Jesus with our agenda of what Jesus should do for us when we follow Him.

The call to follow Jesus is a call to community. It’s never been a solitary deal. Matthew the Tax Collector was called to follow Jesus alongside other disciples. They disagreed. They argued. They couldn’t get along, and that was the point. Through all that friction, they learned how to forgive. They learned how to really love one another.

Have you ever wondered how you fit into God’s story? We all fit in God’s story! And…He has given each of us talents and gifts to live out who we are in His story. Together we'll learn more about how God can use you to reach our Nineveh through how He has created you and gifted you.

When we read stories in the Bible it's pretty easy to read them through our eyes. We read stories through our culture, our experiences, and our circumstances. But what happens when we read these same stories through the eyes of the characters involved? What happens when we read this story from the perspective of Nineveh? How does that change things?

After Jonah preaches a message of doom, the people of Nineveh respond in an overwhelming fashion. Jonah is so angry that God would save these people He again claims he'd rather be dead than see Nineveh saved. Jonah's unrighteous anger continues to expose his heart and God's heart for lost people.

"Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time..." Praise God for second chances, right?! Such a simple statement loaded with so much for us. How often do we find God coming to us a second time, a third time, a 50th time? His desire to pursue us and His desire to use us is pretty mind-boggling. This second time around things go very different for Jonah.

At the end of chapter one, we see Jonah get thrown into the sea where God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah up. This is where most of us tend to end the story. Jonah and the fish... But way more happens in the story. Throughout the first chapter, Jonah doesn't speak to God. Not one word... but in chapter two that all changes. This Sunday we're going to look at what Jonah had to say...

Through Jonah's disobedience, a boat full of sailors find themselves stuck in the craziest storm they've ever experienced. When they ask Jonah who he is, Jonah reveals himself to be a follower of the God of Heaven. This leads these sailors to turn their lives over to Yahweh. In their obedience, they throw Jonah overboard where God rescues Jonah with a big fish.

At the beginning of the book of Jonah, we're introduced to the two main characters in this story: God and Jonah. God calls Jonah, his prophet, to go to Nineveh and call the people to repent. Instead of going in obedience, Jonah flees in the opposite direction. Jonah's hard heart towards the people of Ninevah drove him to not only flee from his call but to flee from God himself.

As we close out our study in Hebrews, the author gives their readers directions on how to engage with each other and how to sit under the leadership of their church. The author then ends their letter with a beautiful benediction, or prayer, that declares their absolute confidence in God.

Most of us have survived the experience of shopping for a church home. People look for new churches for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, when looking for a church we tend to ask questions like "Is the church catering to me? Do I like the Music? Is the teaching inspiring me? Are my needs being met?" But when Jesus speaks about what to look for in a church, He asks a completely differe...

The author of Hebrews tells us that true contentment can only come through Christ, not our stuff. His message is simple: we love people, not our things. We trust God for our security, not our money.