Thrive Harbor

If we encounter God through prayer, that must also mean that He encounters us—in all our brokenness, unbelief, and messy emotions. Is it okay to bring our "difficult" emotions before God? Does he really give us permission to be raw and vulnerable before him? According to Psalm 39, the answer is yes. Through Jesus Christ, prayer is a kind of divine invitation to come before God just as we are, know...

How can prayer shift from being a routine space to a relational space, a space where God becomes real to your heart? In this opening message for Thrive’s series on praying the Psalms, Michael Bouterse, Thrive’s local director, teaches through Psalm 73. Psalm 73 revolves around an encounter that Asaph had with God that changed his life forever. This is what prayer is meant to be: not just a churchy...

The coronavirus has exposed the fragility and uncertainty of our world. Can we have hope for the future? In this message on 2 Peter 3, David Baumgaertel, one of Thrive’s alums, walks through what Scripture says about Christ’s glorious return, answering along the way key questions about the end times, such as: Why does it seem like Jesus is taking so long to come back? What is “the Day of the Lord”...

We live in a world of fake news—and of fake gospels! In this message on 2 Peter 2, Ed Longabaugh, pastor of Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church , expounds Peter’s dire warning about false teachers and how to spot them. Along the way, Ed also points out how secularism—the dominant worldview in our culture today—is eerily similar to the very false teachings Peter writes about.

How can you be certain that something is true? In this message on 2 Peter 1:12-21, Matt Edwards, pastor at Believers Fellowship , explains how Peter makes the case that one day Jesus will return. As one who beheld Jesus in His glorified state on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter invokes his own eyewitness testimony, as well as the testimony of the prophetic Scriptures that predict the Messiah’s...

Being a Christian is like going up the down escalator—without forward motion, you’ll go backwards! In this message on 2 Peter 1:1-11, Mac Davis, one of Thrive’s own, teaches on what it looks like to have a faith that grows and is active rather than passive. A growing faith is a God-centered faith: we advance in the Christian life when our focus is on knowing God better! And when faith grows, so to...

The Bible is full of assurances that God is a shelter to all who belong to him. But at the same time, following God is risky. God is a God of adventure, sometimes calling us to places of danger we’d rather not go. In this message on Luke 8:22-25, Michael Bouterse, Thrive’s local director, teaches on a story where the disciples learned this firsthand. Invited by Jesus to venture out onto the stormy...

The last few years have witnessed a host of Christian leaders who have lost their positions due to scandal and abuse of power. The result is a tremendous hunger in our world today for leaders of character and integrity. In this message on 1 Peter 5:1-11, Tim Stobbe, lead pastor of Waypoint Church , unfolds Peter’s exhortation to those in leadership, which calls authority figures to be mindful of h...

According to 1 Peter, Christianity is often the path not of least resistance but of most resistance. In this message on 1 Peter 4:12-19, Dustin Langley, lead pastor of Peninsula Life Church , teaches on the cost of discipleship, emphasizing that following Jesus is a choice we make on a daily basis, even if to do so opens us up to pain and suffering. Scripture passages cited in this message include...

If you knew that the world were ending tomorrow, would you change how you live today? In this message on 1 Peter 4:1-11, David Shohradov, one of Thrive’s own, gives four attitudes that Christians are called to have in light of the imminent return of Jesus. Along the way, David also sounds the Bible’s call to make a total, radical break with sin.

From slandering your opponent, to lashing with words, to shouting down the other side, toxic dialogue has become a fixture of our not-so-civil discourse. Is there a better way? In this message on 1 Peter 3:8-16, D’Vante Rolle of One Hope Church unfolds Peter’s instructions to respond with love to those who resist you, in order that our words and actions might be aimed at reconciliation, not retali...

As marriage rates decline and gender roles shift, does the Christian vision of marriage have anything to offer? In this talk on 1 Peter 3:1-7, Michael Bouterse, Thrive’s local director, unfolds 1 Peter’s instructions to husbands and wives, addressing along the way its many cultural “landmines,” such as: What does the Bible mean by submission? What is “a gentle and quiet spirit”? And why are wives...

As the post-Christian West grows increasingly antagonistic toward the claims of Jesus, how can Christianity win a hearing? In this talk on 1 Peter 2:11-25, Tim Cedarland, Thrive’s director emeritus, unpacks 1 Peter’s instructions for how Christians can be a powerful witness in a hostile environment.

The opposite of loneliness is belonging—to feel totally safe and at home. In this message on 1 Peter 1:22-2:10, Michael Bouterse, Thrive’s local director, explains how the gospel speaks to this basic human need, enabling us to belong to God and to His family, the church.

We’ve all met hypocrites—people who speak one way and act another. And religious hypocrisy can be worst of all. God’s solution to rescue Christians from hypocrisy is to make them holy: to change them from the inside out so that their lives and behavior resemble Jesus. In this message on 1 Peter 1:13-21, Michael Bouterse, Thrive’s local director, describes what holiness looks like and how God makes...

According to our culture, the good life consists of comfort, success, and personal fulfillment. But the Bible casts a different vision of the good life as one of cross-bearing, suffering, and discipleship. How can this be? In this opening message in Thrive's series on 1 & 2 Peter, Michael Bouterse, Thrive's local director, offers three reasons from 1 Peter 1:1-12 that God invites us to reinter...

Radical faith produces radical Jesus followers. But where does faith come from? Andy Abramson, founder and national director of elementum , explains that faith comes from falling in love with God in this message based on Hebrews 11.

Jake Chambers, pastor and church planter of Local Church , walks through Psalm 101, an invitation for believers to be deliberate and intentional in pursuing Christ, despite the siren calls of our culture.

God has a plan, and he’s let us in on it! In this message, Michael Bouterse, Thrive’s local director, turns to Matthew 13:1-52, where Jesus gives his disciples a “big reveal” about the future of his kingdom. On the one hand, Jesus teaches the disciples that the kingdom has arrived. But it’s arrived in a much different form than they’d expected! During this present age, the world is living in reje...

“Scary,” “weird,” “confusing”—these are common first impressions of the Book of Revelation. In this message, Michael Bouterse, Thrive’s local director, gives an overview of this last book of the Bible, which reveals how history will come to a close. And the best part? Jesus gets the final word! Scripture passages cited (or alluded to) in this message include Revelation 1:1-3, 9, 17-19; 4:1, 11; 5:...

Jesus is coming again—and soon! Yet today the Second Coming is often given little attention. Offering an overview of what Christians ought to know about Jesus' return, guest speaker Michael White zeroes in on what Matthew 24 says about the Second Coming, incorporating other material regarding God's plan for the ages from throughout the Scriptures.

D'Vante Rolle of One Hope Church walks through Psalm 51 in a powerful message on the importance of repentance in the life of a Christian.

Jake Chambers, pastor and church planter of Local Church , gives four talks at Thrive’s Fall Retreat on the theme of “learning to be with Jesus together.” In this final talk, Jake walks through how the Gospel of Mark describes the Kingdom of God. God's Kingdom is a kingdom of life, love, hope, and healing, and as we learn to be with Jesus together, God causes that Kingdom to overflow to a lost and...

Jake Chambers, pastor and church planter of Local Church , gives four talks at Thrive’s Fall Retreat on the theme of “learning to be with Jesus together.” In this third talk, Jake looks at Acts 2:42-47 to address how being with Jesus is something that we do corporately. Our culture promotes a philosophy of "mine" and "more." But the early church lived a simple, shared life that put Jesus at the ce...

Jake Chambers, pastor and church planter of Local Church , gives four talks at Thrive’s Fall Retreat on the theme of “learning to be with Jesus together.” In this second talk, Jake zeroes in on what it looks like to be with Jesus. Our culture encourages us to be in a hurry. But Jesus was relaxed. Jesus was present to God and to those around Him, and He calls us to be likewise through abiding in Hi...