Life has its ups and downs that’s for sure! Some days you’re flying on top of the world and then other days you just hit bottom so hard you’re not sure the ground can even stop you. Some days you wake up and wonder if you could be any grouchier. Some days you just want to hit the restart button and go back to the beginning or the fast forward button to just get it over with already! Continue reading
There is one thing in life that really matters. It’s not our power nor our prestige. It’s not a clean bill of health at the doctor’s office. It’s not even living a debt free life. The one thing that really matters is…Listen as Pastor Derrick shares the answer to what really matters in life.
Today is only Monday but it feels kind of like I’ve lived an entire week in just one short day. And my day wasn’t nearly as stressful as the days of the people I had a chance to serve today! From children’s hospital with family who was anxiously awaiting good news about their son’s heart trouble to in a few hours I’ll be sitting with another family as they say goodbye to a long time four-legged friend. These days when emotions go wild and when your heart breaks for the people around you do you have someone on whom you can lean? Continue reading
The church is much larger than we all realize. In this message we look beyond the holy Christian church into the church that spans the living and the dead. Listen as Pastor Derrick shares what it means to be part of the communion of saints.
Man sometimes life can just stink! I mean you plan and prepare and have everything all lined up and then WHAM! out of nowhere your day just goes down hill and I mean quick! It’s tempting in these moment to just throw in the towel and give up. It’s easy to just let that feeling of defeat overwhelm you. But what should you do when it’s all but over? Continue reading
In week 4 of our series titled One Foundation, Pastor Derrick shared what it means to wait. No one likes to wait especially when we don’t know exactly what the outcome of our waiting will be. But how we wait matters. Listen as we learn what it means to wait well.
If you know me at all, you would probably say that I don’t always fit the norm. I tend to walk to the beat of a different drum. I don’t like to do things just because they’ve always been done that way. It’s been said that I don’t fit the normal mold. I’ve been told that I tend to think outside the box. Some have even said that with me the box doesn’t exist. All this is to say that I’m unique, and sometimes unique can be distracting but other times unique is a really good thing. Continue reading
How do people outside the church see those in the church? Unfortunately we don’t always give a good demonstration of what the church is supposed to be. We fail to contend for the faith we confess. This week listen as Pastor Derrick shares the importance of the content of our faith.
If you know anything about photography, then you’ll know that a filter is a cover or lens through which you see things. A filter can be used to make a picture have a desired warmth, color hue, or tone. Filters can alter the way we see things. Filters can be used to make differences appear, well more different.
Our daily lives have filters as well. Often we use filters and don’t even know it. Unlike camera filters, the ones we use in our day-to-day lives aren’t as easily removed. All too often we use them and we don’t even understand what purpose they serve. Filters can be good but, if we don’t know their purpose, they can be useless at best and harmful at worst.
And if this wasn’t bad enough, we tend to pull out these filters in the church as well. The church however is a place where these filters really should not be present. The Apostle Paul teaches in Galatians 3:27-28,
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
You see it’s easy for us to point out our differences. It’s easy to see someone who looks different and focus on that. Our world is riddled with division and difference. But not just the world, the same division is also finding its way into the church. We focus on things like color, gender, nation of origin just to name a few. We bite and pick each other apart just because we’re not all exactly the same.
But the message of the gospel is that no matter our starting point the end can be the same in Christ. When we surrender our lives to the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection, then all of those colors – genders – nationalities – and other things that divide us fade away. You see the gospel isn’t about where you start but who gets you to the end. Salvation isn’t dependent on what you bring to the table but it’s dependent on what Jesus did for you. A life that’s completely surrendered to Jesus knows little of these divisions because, as Paul says, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
The point of our lives is the person and work of Christ. When we clothe ourselves in the life of Jesus that’s what people see in us and that’s what we see in others. To be a follower of Jesus in a way means that we live a life with #nofilters.
Today try to look around you with clear eyes. Lose the filter of racial divisions. Lose the filter of prejudice and injustice. Lose the filter of hatred and disgust. It’s when these filters are gone that we can see with the eyes of love that God placed in our heads. No this doesn’t mean that we are all physically the same. Nor does it mean that all of our decisions are ok. It just means that when it comes to salvation and the message of the gospel there’s no room for these ridiculous filters.
So let’s live the life of grace that Jesus lived for us. Let’s live a life of #nofilters.
Sometimes life seems like you just can’t keep your head above water. The demands of life keep crashing in like the tide hitting the beach. It seems like when we just get ahead a little bit that another wave is pushing right behind the last one. As I write this post I’m still trying to figure out the reason behind daylight savings. I was sitting in the office and realized that one clock wasn’t changed. And yep that’s the clock we were using to determine the length of our conversation. Needless to say a frantic pace ensued as soon as we determined that we were a whole 60 minutes off! Continue reading
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