Messages

Jesus is one of the most influential leaders in history! The secret to his lasting influence was something he called “abiding.” It involves remaining in an intimate spiritual connection with God. In our last message of this series, we’ll explore one of Jesus’ stories that shows what it takes to find and nurture this abiding relationship with God and how we can invite others to experience it too!

Power is not meant to be held; it’s meant to be given away. It’s a natural urge to want to acquire and retain power, but real influence is a dynamic process of “catch and release.” Rather than holding onto our power, God invites us to share who we are and what we have with others. This week, we’ll see how Jesus believed that we are better together and teaches us to intentionally invest in others.

Sometimes good leadership means treating everyone the same. But great leadership that bring true justice and transformation is often more nuanced than that. This week we’ll explore the underutilized power of candor and connection, learning to treat people as individuals and adapting our influence to be the most helpful in each unique situation.

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.

You’ve spent enough time this summer lounging on the side of the pool, drinking your iced tea in the shade.  Now it’s time to really join the fun and dive in!  During this 3-week series, we’ll look at what it would look like to do a cannonball into full engagement with God and his mission.  We’ll launch this first week of the series by looking at what a huge difference participation can make as we prep together for the best fall of helping others connect with Jesus.  Alright, on the count of three…

Its always easy to have faith, right? Well, if you have been a follower of Jesus for more than an hour, you know this isn’t always true. While we live here on this earth, Jesus himself said we will have trials and sorrows. So how do we maintain our faith when its hard? This week we will discover just that as we hear one of the most famous stories of the Old Testament! We will see how resilient faith makes it possible to face any circumstance.

In our culture, it’s easy to think that the issues we’re the most passionate about or against are the most important issues. But God wants us to remember that He’s the most important thing, and that giving him our singular focus would lead to a much stronger and more life-giving connection. How do we take the necessary steps to center our lives more on God? This week we’ll talk through a famous story from the Old Testament of the prophet Elijah, and learn the value in letting God alone have the most important place in our hearts.

We don’t always understand the ways in which God shows us his faithfulness through the difficulties, disappointments, hardships, unmet dreams, unanswered prayers, joys, and ordinary times in our lives. Join us this weekend as we learn through the story of Ruth how we can trust in the faithfulness of God.

What does it mean to worship God?  Is it just great singing and great songs at church?  How do we know if that worship we’re giving is the worship that God wants?  What would it mean to really give God the worship he deserves?  In this week’s message, we’ll explore the famous Bible story of Cain and Abel and discover how we can experience the fullness of what it really means to worship God.

What’s the difference between how followers of Jesus live and the way the rest of the world operates? Should there be a difference? How can people see God’s love through the way Christians think and act? This week we’ll explore different aspects of how our daily lives can reflect Jesus. We’ll look at key ways we can explain a Christian life to people that may be interested in pursuing God.

What is the Church? What does it really mean to be part of a church like Journey of Faith? Are we defined by the buildings we meet in, the songs we sing, or the pastors that lead us? Or is the real definition of the Church something more, something bigger, something more vital? How can we have a better understanding of what the Church really is to help the people in our lives who have never experienced God and his people before? This week we’ll hear from our Student Ministries pastors as they help us consider the best ways to introduce our friends, neighbors, and coworkers to the family of God.

For Christians, the Bible is the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, the Good Book. We believe it’s fully inspired by God and ultimate authority for the way what we believe and how we act. But how can we explain that to someone who doesn’t yet know Jesus? How can we capture the beauty and importance of the Bible to someone who is spiritually interested, but has no faith background? This week we’ll work together to learn how to introduce people to the Bible in a way that would allow them to take a step closer to God.

When we talk to people about God we are talking to people who may have personal skepticism, questions, and doubt. It is so important for us to recognize about how we have conversations with people in our lives about God! Over the next four weeks, then, we’re going to learn about and practice that skill together. Starting this week we will find motivation to have spiritual conversations with people in our lives, recognize and honor where our friends/coworkers/neighbors might be on the continuum, and then actually have 2-3 spiritual conversations with someone who isn’t a follower of Jesus yet. These are VERY lofty goals, but I think we can do it. In fact, I know we can, because these are part of God’s heartbeat for the world! We can learn to have great spiritual conversations that will help people we love move toward Jesus.

When is the last time you received a letter that encouraged you… or challenged you?  A… read more

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!