Verve City Church: Weekly Messages

Week 2 - "Be a Goldfish" How do we move on from a painful past? It’s a common misconception that goldfish only have a 10-second memory. While the science doesn’t back it up, goldfish are often used as a metaphor: we’ll be happier if we don’t dwell on the bad experiences of our past. How does Jesus teach us to find the strength to learn from our previous pain and forgive those who have wr...

Week 1 - Be Lieve The story of Jesus invites us to step into a particular set of beliefs: about Jesus, about God, about the world, and about ourselves. But is this particular set of beliefs…believable? How does “belief” even work? And what might cause us to re-examine everything we thought we believed? Series overview: The hit television show Ted Lasso took the world by storm because of its positi...

Okay, real talk: if the Church is to be a force for good in the world, what is your role? What is Jesus inviting you to do with your time, your talent, and your treasure? And how do we hold on to HOPE when we find ourselves surrounded by the cynicism of a troubled world around us?

While the New Testament spends a great deal of time telling the stories of early Christian missionaries, another major theme emerges: many of the first Christians understood the Gospel as something that is also very local. What if the Gospel is more powerful than we imagine, and more pertinent than we know? What would happen if we began to see our lives as a platform for the Gospel? This message f...

In the first half of the 20th century, Christianity in America was embattled by a controversy that seemed to pit two of the church’s goals against one another: battling for souls versus battling for society. For the last one hundred years, churches have fought over whether it is more important to emphasize “Gospel proclamation” or “Gospel demonstration.” The fact that many churches outside of the...

We enter into our marriages with hopes, dreams, and desires that then become our spouse’s expectations. When we are blind to this reality, trying to make sense of our disappointment can brutalize a relationship and end in criticism, defensiveness, stonewalling, and contempt. Armed with knowledge of this dynamic and the example of Jesus, how can we revive and renew our marriages, friendships, and r...

Jesus taught that “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” And the church has been arguing about what he meant almost since he said it. For people walking through divorce, the counsel they receive from their Christian friends can sometimes be painful and feel judgmental. For Christians struggling through a...

Our culture plays a significant role in how we think about sex and dating. But what did Jesus teach about sexuality as it relates to our discipleship and how do his teachings affirm or push back against our cultural understanding? How can Christians honor God and others with their bodies while living in a hookup culture? 

What’s one of the biggest differences between good relationships and strained relationships? Bidding. We are bidding for each other’s attention in large and small ways all the time. How we respond to the bids of others will largely determine the quality of the relationships that we have. 

This week’s feature is THE IMPOSSIBLE! Starring Tom Holland, Naomi Watts, and Ewan McGregor, this film about a family attempting to reunite following a devastating tsunami has much to teach us about God’s relentless love.

If you've ever experienced regret, then this week's message will HIT HOME! Field of Dreams is a movie about baseball, and family, and dreams coming true... but above all, it's a movie about wishing we could have a "do over" and how we can experience freedom from our past mistakes.

Jurassic Park is about a lot of things: dinosaurs, evolution, technology, survival. But at it's core, Jurassic Park is a film how our desire for control can sometimes lead to our ruin or to the ruin of others. This week we explore the power Jesus demonstrated for us when he willingly gave up control in order that we might be rescued. Next week At the Movies: Field Of Dreams! Plan a visit here...

Each year we revisit the vision of Inland Hills Church and what it looks like to connect people to Jesus in a post-Christian culture. How can we as a faith community meet our friends, families, and neighbors in the places they are while living out the vision God has for our lives?

Present experiences can lead to future transformation. This is a message both about youth and about you. The next generation is wrestling with many questions, but are these questions so different than the ones we are asking ourselves?

Our human desire for “greatness” can lead us to do some pretty crazy things! What’s Jesus’ idea of greatness, and how can we follow His teaching and example of loving God and loving others? A personal journey through foster care offers one lens for understanding how we can put “both/and” loving into practice.

Heart conversations can be hard conversations, but they are necessary to confront the false statements and narratives we tell ourselves. You can not change what you do not confront.  When we are not transparent with our words and our thoughts, they become a hiding place and create disconnection. 

When we're freaking out about something, we often want other people around us to support us by freaking out too. But the presence of calm doesn't mean the absence of care. Jesus was often calm and walked at his own pace, even when those around him were not. Our fears pressure us into wanting more control. But the opposite of fear is love, not control. God loves you, and he has good surpr...

When we first put our faith in Jesus we are usually hyper aware of our need for him. But as he begins to transform us there can be a tendency to forget where we came from and to begin judging those outside of the church who don't live like us. Sometimes we’re so thankful for who we are that we forget who we were.  Josh Crain kicks off our weekend teaching series, Voices: Practical Ideas for L...

Today, Josh Crain closes out our teaching series called Bringin' Home the Bacon. Sometimes we need to stop and celebrate the things that God is doing in the midst of our community. Because of your generosity we have seen people commit to Jesus, lives transformed, and communities blessed this year. We celebrate today because your giving is changing lives. 

Two things are true: it’s your money. And it’s *not* your money. It’s your money, so you should find ways to spend it that delight you and make your world a more enjoyable place. And it’s also all a gift that you steward as it flows to you and it flows away from you. The great wisdom teachers found in the Scriptures are constantly giving us two paradoxical instructions about money: 1) grab hold of...

If we push past the discomfort of talking about money, we’ll discover a powerful truth: money is always teaching you. Money can act as a mirror, reflecting and exposing the narratives and resentments we have. If we shift our mindset around finances, we’ll discover there’s a wealth of wisdom and understanding to be found.

Jesus is usually admired as a good moral teacher even by those who deny his divinity. But is “good moral teacher” a category we can place Jesus in? Did he claim to be God? Is it possible he was crazy? Did his first followers radically alter the message that he preached? Did he actually rise from the dead? The goodness of God and the validity of Christianity hangs on the answers to these questions....

The tragedy of the Uvalde shooting this past week, along with the recent shootings in Laguna Woods and Buffalo, are a horrific reminder of the brokenness of our world. Our hurting nation and communities need the message of Jesus more now than ever before... but has the institution of “the evangelical church” lost its influence due to its own leaders’ mess-ups and cover-ups? What will it take for t...