The Ridge – Weekly Message

In this week's BTS discussion, Will is joined by Doug Applegate (Director of Family Ministries). Listen in as they discuss the various obstacles that stand in the way of whole hearted faith, as well as some ways we can grow to trust God more in our lives. Read the Beyond the Sermon devotionals :  Get the devotional each week! Sign up to receive the Beyond the Sermon blog in your inbox.

A Message from Doug Applegate: In all his wisdom, Solomon encourages us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. Often we determine whom we can trust by knowing the person and his or her character. How a person acts and speaks over time tells us a lot about how much we can trust him or her with various aspects of our lives. When it comes to God, we have a little mover 750,000 words spread out ove...

Daniel Chapter 4 - In Daniel chapter 4, King Nebuchadnezzar has a pride problem. He has grown powerful and influential and has fallen in love with his own legend. So God issues a rather radical consequence, yet Nebuchadnezzar's response is just as extreme. Through it we see that in our deepest problems—in our deepest hurt—God has more. He has something good. If we, like Nebuchadnezzar, just raise...

Daniel Chapter 3 - To live as an exile is a challenge, certainly. In fact, here in Daniel chapter 3, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego find themselves yet again at odds with King Nebuchadnezzar when they refuse his order to bow to a statue of gold. The punishment for disobedience to this command? To be thrown into the fiery furnace. It seems there are two potential outcomes here: God rescues Shadrach...

Message by Will Herron - Jesus was the master of illustration and parable. And He uses such a story in Luke 11 to communicate the nature of God and the nature of prayer. Cultural insights are helpful to understand what Jesus is telling us, as is looking at the characters and their actions. From all of it, we learn that God wants us to come to Him with honesty and boldness and with an understanding...

Daniel Chapter 2: When Daniel was faced with the impossible—when his very life was in jeopardy—he prayed. And God answered. He provided Daniel with revelation. He gave Him the meaning of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which was a prophecy foretelling future events. This situation and prophecy from 2500 years ago is still applicable to us today. It (along with a whole lot of other Bible verses) teach...

Daniel: Chapter 1 - The kingdom of Judah is conquered, and Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian King, takes more than the nation's treasures. He takes its people. Not all of them, just some—the best. He takes them and immerses them in the culture of Babylon, teaching them its language and literature. Why? So they would forget the customs and culture from where they came and assimilate to their new surro...

Daniel: Hope in/for a Hostile World - To fully understand what God is telling us in the book of Daniel, we need to understand Babylon and that begins in Genesis 11. One world language allowed engineers to engineer and builders to build. It allowed for the creation of an architectural feat—the tower of Babel. And it allowed for something harrowing. Those involved were working and achieving and livi...

A Message from Julie Wiemann - Even the smallest, seemingly innocent crack can ruin a foundation and cause what was built to crumble. No one is immune to or exempt from trials in this life. Life is hard. Life is painful. And we crack. But as we deal with the cracks, our foundation is repaired, and our faith remains sure—it won't be reduced to rubble. As we apply what Jesus teaches us and live as H...

Minor Prophets: Joel - The book of Joel isn’t as it seems, at least not how the first four verses read. Yes, the wages of sin are still death—and not just physical death, but death of integrity, character, trust, relationship, even preferred future. Sin has consequence, yes. Yet sometimes God allows those consequences to get our attention. He uses them to change things and to change us so He can u...

Minor Prophets: Haggai - The issue in Haggai isn't one of wealth or the misuse of it. It's not about time or how it Is spent. It's not about trying harder or doing more. It's a heart issue. God is teaching the Israelites that their priorities should be based on what they treasure most, which should be God and their relationship with Him. Just like them, we should be so captivated by God's love and...

Minor Prophets: Zechariah - Just like the Israelites, we are called to shine. And just like them, we are surrounded by darkness. We live in a culture that more often than not advocates the opposite of what Jesus taught. Culture says love things; Jesus says love people. Culture says seek happiness; Jesus says seek holiness. Culture says indulge yourself; Jesus says deny yourself. Culture says consu...

Encounter Sunday: Mike's Story - Through Mike's story, the value of community is apparent. For him, it's meant sustained recovery—a brotherhood who supports him, makes sure he's on the right path and that he's going in the right direction.

Encounter Sunday: An interview with Kayla Routson - Our Encounter interview with Kayla Routson shares what it is like to do life in community—where church is home. At The Ridge, she found where she belongs.

Encounter Sunday: A Message from Will Herron - The Christian walk was never mean to be a solo experience. The Bible has a lot to say on this, and it is clear: God made us to be in community—to worship together, to study together, and to share life with one another. Don't stay within the confines of church as a weekly event. It was never meant to be that way.

Minor Prophets: Nahum - Our culture says it's OK to do what we want to do as long as we don’t hurt anyone. The Bible says otherwise. The book of Nahum teaches us that sin is real, that it causes real pain and that it will not go unpunished. Through the Bible, God invites us out of the hurt and pain of sin. He wants us to trust that His way is good.

A Message from Doug Applegate: Christian worship songs are full of verses proclaiming that Jesus is greater, stronger and more powerful than anyone or anything else in existence. But is this true? And if so, what does it mean to our lives? Jesus’s greatness is one of the central messages of the book of Hebrews, which Doug Applegate digs into in this sermon.

Minor Prophets: Micah - The Israelites were the people of God, but they weren't really living like it. They had been blessed by God, but they didn't seem to understand why he had bothered to bless them. Micah teaches us that we’ve not only been saved from something but that we've also been saved for something. To this day, God continues his work of restoring, healing and blessing, and He invites u...

Minor Prophets: Zephaniah - If Jesus returned tomorrow, what would that mean for you? The prophet Zephaniah referred to Jesus' return as "the Day of the Lord," and he tells us that there are only two possible fates for us when that day comes. It will be both a day of judgment and a day of salvation. Which will you experience? Depends on what you do with Jesus. If you have accepted him as your lord...

The people in the Old Testament only heard God's voice when a prophet delivered it. That all changed when Jesus came and God spoke to his followers directly through His Spirit. Now, through scripture and the Holy Spirit, we can hear God speak. The question is, are we listening?

God often has us wait. We don’t like that, but it can be good for us. It reminds us that he is the leader and we are the followers. God's plans may not come when or how we want them to, but we know his ways are higher and better.

Joey Weber, Youth Director, teaches on this familiar passage. We need Jesus to have peace and freedom in our lives.

Minor Prophets: Obadiah - Did you know there's no such thing as an innocent bystander in God's eyes. Obadiah teaches us that God didn't create us merely to observe the problems of the world but rather to engage with them. When Edom's neighbor Isarael was raided and pillaged by a foreign power, Edom didn't join in — and that's where it went wrong. God calls us to a life of service, a life of purpos...

Will Herron, director discipleship, shares with us that worship is a response to God, a way to reorient ourselves to Him, and a place of renewal.

God accused the people of giving less than their best. Our actions can hurt God or give him great delight.