Woodcreek Church

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most provocative and powerful messages in history. It is not only counter-instinctive and counter-cultural. It also gives Jesus' disciples a portrait of what he wants his followers to be like and live like. (Matthew 4:23-25; 5:1-2)

God wants every believer to experience the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit who is at work transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ. The secret is living under the control of the Holy Spirit or "being filled with the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5:16-25)

And at the moment a person makes the decision to believe in Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit initiates a spontaneous spiritual chain reaction that results in some incredible, eternity-altering changes. Everything changes! (Titus 3:5,6)

Jesus, before He left the disciples, sent them (and us) on a mission to go and make disciples. But He does not send us out with first empowering them with the indwelling power of God the Holy Spirit. When we realize this it will change our lives. (John 16:5-15)

If baptism isn't necessary for salvation, then why be baptized? The reason is because Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize disciples and, therefore, this is what Christians did, have done for 2,000 years, and still do.

Without the Holy Spirit, the mission of the church is impossible. But with Him, the mission cannot fail! (Acts 1:3-8)

Christianity rises or falls on the Resurrection story. If it's true, everything changes. If it's not true, we are wasting our time believing and living as if it is. Fortunately, there is a great deal of evidence for us to believe beyond reasonable doubt. (Acts 1:1-5; Luke 24; 1 Corinthians 1:1-8; 14-19; John 20:30,31; Romans 10:9)

Christianity is not about adding Christ. It's about surrendering every area of your life to him and allowing him to live in you and through you. Contrary to what the world believes, surrender results not in weakness and defeat but in power and victory! (Luke 9:23-25; Luke 19:37-41; Matthew 26:39; 27:32-44; Luke 23:36, 39)

Part of being a disciple is obeying Jesus and teaching others to obey Jesus. It is our love for Jesus that leads to obedience and it is God's love for us that leads to the commandments He gives us. (John 14:15)

Jesus models for us how to engage people in spiritual conversations and challenges us to share his passion for reaching out people with the good news of the Gospel. John 4

Jesus models for us how to engage people in spiritual conversations and challenges us to share his passion for reaching out people with the good news of the Gospel. John 4

The heart of Jesus was the heart of serving others. We see this at every turn in His life with the ultimate act of serving at the cross. The way up is down in the Kingdom. When we serve others we are having the heart of Jesus. (Mark 10:35-45)

Why did Jesus send his disciples into the storm? For the same reason he sometimes sends us into storms. To teach us to trust him. (Matthew 14:22-33)

God not only deserves our worship but he also desires it. That truth alone should prompt us to worship God more often and to become better at it. (John 4:19-24)

There’s no greater compassion that can be shown than to introduce someone to Jesus Christ (Matt. 9:35-38, Luke 4:18-19).

The question is not what love is, but what does it take to love? We will explore that in this sermon. (Luke 7:36-50, Luke 10:25-38)

How we receive and apply the Word of God is determined by the condition of our hearts. The parable of the four soils is an illustration of how the heart of a disciple can be a place where the Word of God will or will not grow and produce fruit. (Matt 13:3-9, 18-23)

Jesus modeled for his disciples the priority of prayer and also gave us this short prayer to guide us in our praying. (Luke 11:1-4; Luke 3:21; 5:15,16; 6:12; 9:18; 9:28)

The bottomline is: If we want to become more like Jesus, then we must spend more time with Jesus. (Mark 3:13-19)

Does Jesus call you to follow him? What is your response? And what does everything mean? (Matthew 4:18-22)

In Matthew 28:19, Jesus wasn't making a suggestion or asking for volunteers. He was giving a command to his disciples to make disciples. Today, we seem to have lost a sense of priority and urgency about the mission as if Jesus didn't give it to us. (Matthew 28:18-20)

One of the things we love about beginning a new year is it gives us an opportunity to press the reset button. It's a good time to be reminded of why we exist and to recommit to living out our purpose. (Psalm 19:!: Isaiah 43:7; Hebrews 1:!-3; Ephesians 1:11-14; Psalm 96:1-3; 113:3,4; 2 Corinthians 10:31; 6:!9,20; 1 Peter 4:11; Romans 15:6)

The Christmas Story is about God pursuing us and wanting to have a relationship with us. A version of the Christmas story by Paul in Galatians 4:4-5

Those mysterious wise men model for us how to pursue Jesus and worship him not only at Christmas but every day of the year. (Matthew 2:1-12)