Thrive Harbor

There are people who sit in church every Sunday, who serve the homeless, clothe the naked, and care for the sick—but who are on their way to hell. In this message on Romans 2:17-29, Michael Bouterse, Thrive's local director, unpacks the Bible's astonishing teaching that even the most scrupulous religious observance is insufficient to save us. Whereas religion often leads to self-righteousness and...

Why are human beings so good at destroying relationships with those we love? According to the Bible, the answer is that the human heart is hard-wired to justify itself. In this message on Romans 2:1-16, Michael Bouterse, Thrive's local director, unpacks Paul's profound teaching on human hypocrisy, its deadly results, and the cure we desperately need. Scripture passages cited in this message includ...

Periodically in Thrive's Romans series, we're pausing to take up a "hot potato in Romans"—a topic that is culturally "hot" and hard to handle. In this talk, Michael Bouterse, Thrive's local director, takes up Paul's controversial words about homosexuality in Romans 1:26-27. According to this passage, is God homophobic? Is Christianity bad news for those who experience same-sex attraction? The answ...

Michael Bouterse, Thrive Harbor’s local director, continues Thrive's series on Romans by looking at the second half of Romans 1. Like a prosecuting attorney, Paul in 1:18-3:20 constructs an air-tight case that all humanity is guilty and in need of a savior. In this section, Paul first tells us why humanity is guilty, and secondly he shows us how God responds to our sin—by giving us over to the ver...

Tim Cedarland, Thrive's regional director, opens a several-month journey through the "cathedral of the Christian faith," the book of Romans. Besides teaching on the first half of chapter one, Tim takes us on a whirlwind, high-flying overview of the entire book, in order to show how all the different pieces of Paul's letter fit together into one big picture.

Dennis Fuqua, director of International Renewal Ministries and special speaker for Thrive's 2018 Christmas Formal, looks at the classic Christmas word "Immanuel" (meaning "God with us") in order to show that the Christmas story is actually far more than what that word implies. It's amazing enough that in being born as a human, Jesus is God with us. But because of His life, death, and resurrection,...

Often it's assumed there's a tension between a community that is inwardly focused—concerned with the needs of insiders—and outwardly focused—concerned with the needs of outsiders. But Christian community is both at the same time. When Christians love, serve, and build each other up, the result is a community that showcases the love of God to a lost and hurting world, or in other words, a community...

Christian community helps answer the profound longing of the human heart to be deeply loved and deeply known at the same time. It's a space where it's possible to really tell the truth about your deepest struggles and yet still be loved and welcomed—a community not just of truth but trust. What does that kind of community look like? It looks like a band of believers who pray for each other, confes...

Salvation by grace is the crucial foundation of Christianity, distinguishing it from all other world religions. But how does grace affect community? The famous parable of the prodigal sons shows that sin and self-righteousness inevitably destroy community but that the grace of God creates community—a community marked by love, diversity, and humility.  Scripture passages cited in this message...

What gave such vibrancy to the early Christians? It wasn't fancier worship or slicker preaching. All that the early church did was a fresh, organic explosion of awe at Jesus and what He had done—creating a new kind of community that the world had never seen. Passages cited in this message include Acts 2:42-47.