Speaker: Jason Cusick

Accomplishing good things requires effort. It’s easy to get discouraged when we face obstacles, challenges, and roadblocks. Rather than negatively reacting to our circumstances, we can be a positive influence by finding resilience with God! This week, we’ll see how Jesus pursued God’s good plan for his life by expecting challenges and wisely bringing people along with him in his goals.

What you do matters, but who you are matters more. It’s easy to get keep our eyes on the best results, largest profits, and the most followers and miss the foundation of true influence and leadership – character. Instead of focusing on the right kind of outcomes, we should be attentive to being the right kind of people! This week, we begin our series by seeing how Jesus viewed God’s good gift of power and how we can follow his lead by practicing humble influence!

Many of us know that engagement with God and the church are life-giving. Growing together in our relationship with Jesus can be fun, exciting, and transformational. But what about those aspects of the Christian life that are a little less glamorous, like the challenge to sacrifice and rely on God for strength? What would it take to overcome the hurdle of personal comfort and enter into real, vulnerable dependence on God? In this week’s message we’ll explore how each of us can embrace the value of sacrifice for a vibrant connection with Jesus.

Almost everyone would agree that having great friendships and strong relationships would make a positive difference in our lives.  And yet, many of us also recognize that connecting with other people isn’t always easy.  Relationships involve being stretched outside of our comfort zone, trying to understand different perspectives, and may even come with some tension.  But what would it take to overcome our hesitations and really connect with people around us?  How do we get unstuck and move toward more vibrant friendships?  Let's explore those questions and more together in this week’s message.

What can we do when we see suffering and injustice in the world?  In ancient times, God chose special messengers called “prophets” to call people to live with compassion and fairness.  This week, we’ll explore the genre of biblical prophecy and see how it guides us to remember what God has said, repent from sin, and ready ourselves for God’s good future with Jesus!

Great poetry awakens the imagination and appeals to our emotions. Simple artistic writing and imagery can surprise us with life changing wisdom. God is the creator of all things beautiful and speaks to us through Psalms, Proverbs, and other “wisdom books.” This week, we’ll learn how to read these genres of the Bible and how can help us express ourselves to God and wisely follow Jesus.

What keeps the world from spiraling out of control? Laws! From the laws of nature to the laws we create, the purpose of law is to help us live well in God’s good world. As we begin our series looking at different genres of the Bible, we start where the Bible starts. God gave a specific set of laws to the Jewish people to help them live in a unique way. We’ll see how the laws God gave them encouraged freedom, not legalism, and reflected God’s concern for all areas of life! And we’ll also see how, through Jesus, we can honor the principles of those laws by loving God and loving others!

Whenever we go the doctor, they check our vitals to see if we're healthy. What are the vital signs of a healthy spiritual life?  This weekend, we’ll look at four teachings of Jesus that can help us check our spiritual vitals so we can have a healthy and growing faith!

Constructing or reconstructing our faith is not a solo project. We must connect with and rely on each other for input and encouragement. This week we’ll look at a biblical example of how people on the journey of faith can form a solid team that keeps them stay motivated, disciplined, and focused on the goal of building a strong faith.

What’s the best way to navigate the journey of faith? How do we best go... read more

We do not have endless time and energy. Building our lives around the world’s constant demands will... read more

There are times in life when we just “hit a wall.” It could be the loss... read more

What defines your identity: your performance, your possessions, your popularity… your passions? Instead of letting these... read more

Our friendships can help us move toward God or away from God. As we finish our series on Friendship Essentials, will explore the topic of alignment. The closer our friends, the more they should help us move toward God’s great mission of love and forgiveness.

Many of our friendships center around shared interests; we have the same hobbies and interests or spend time together doing activities that we both enjoy. But what if our friendships had the shared value of helping each other be and become better versions of ourselves? This week, we’ll look at the friendship essential of mutual growth. Coming from the great wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, Jesus shows us how we can embrace God’s good plan for personal growth and invite our friends to speak into our lives!

Recent studies have revealed a growing epidemic in the realm of friendships: people are reporting having fewer friends or even no friends and feeling less satisfied with the friendships they do have. Is there anything we can do to reverse this trend? A great place to start would be to realize that Jesus called his followers his “friends” and lived a life defined by great friendships. As a Jewish man in first century Palestine, we know he would have read the Bible book of Proverbs, a collection of time-tested wisdom, which includes powerful insights on friendship. During this five-week series, we’ll see how the Proverbs Jesus loved can help us improve our ability to give and receive friendship, and how we can be counted among Jesus’ friends.

One of the most personal ways Jesus referred to God is as Father. He even recommended prayer our prayers to begin with “Our Father.” The word “father” can bring to mind so many different thoughts and feelings. Pastor Jason looks at some of what it means to call God our Father and how in our times of hurt, we can experience the parental compassion of God.

Pastor Jason kicks off the AKA God series as he shares how we can experience God as Elohim—the Creator of all things good and beautiful.

New Year's 2023 Message