Category Archive

We have been talking about the ministry of the Saints for the last few weeks. First, we discussed the different offices or positions in the five-fold ministry. We have apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers and all are beneficial to the body of Christ. Last week we discussed praise and how it was different from worship and a necessary aspect of the life of a Christian, especially a mature one. This week, we continue with a topic that admittedly is NOT the most popular in the church. In Mark 9:14-29, we see the story of some of the disciples that tried to pray and deliver a demonically tormented boy. The disciples were unsuccessful so Jesus entered the picture and the boy was delivered. When the disciples asked why they couldn’t handle it, He replied in verse 29, “This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting.” I know that there are very few who actually enjoy fasting because after all, it is the sacrificing and giving up of something we like. Whether it’s an actual fast from food, or a hybrid fast of some kind where you give up sweets or entertainment etc. It’s difficult for our flesh. The flesh …

Did you know that it is actually our job as believers to praise the Lord? It’s true! It’s not your pastor’s job or your worship leader’s job to do that for you, It’s actually your job. It may be part of our pastor’s job to help facilitate praise and your worship team’s job to lead praise, but each of us that trust in the Lord are responsible for OUR praise to the Lord. If you have spent much time in the church at all, you might have heard the words, “praise and worship” used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Praise is included in worship, but not just worship. Worship involves praise, but much more. Praise can be rowdy and can even make a scene if you will. Now, I’m not referencing an inappropriate scene or a self seeking scene because our praise is to the Lord, not a performance for those around us. I’m sure at some point you have seen some crazy sports fans screaming and jumping and “praising” their team. This is a very different kind of praise but the point remains that it can get wild. Psalm 100:1-2 says, “Shout for joy to the Lord, …

God wants to build His church and help us to mature and grow! Let’s talk about the ministry of the saints today. God has called us each and every one with gifts and callings to minister to those that are lost and hurting. We are going to discuss a very important scripture and I feel it’s prudent to include the whole thing. Ephesians 4:11-16 says, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. Before we dive into the different callings in the church, let’s …

Message by William Burch Life is absolutely FULL of things that we are well aware of coming our way! Bills, taxes, painful anniversaries are just a few. In this fallen world we are unfortunately always hearing of things happening to people that they did not see coming. In fact, these are some of the most painful things to hear about much less experience. I’ve heard stories of people working their whole adult lives for the same company and months before retirement they lose their job. Some people suddenly lose a spouse to tragedy. Former Heavy weight champion Mike Tyson was quoted saying, “It’s not always the most powerful punch that is thrown in the fight that can knock you out, but it’s the one that you don’t see coming.” All those other punches and jabs, no matter how powerful can be avoided by some fancy foot work and years of training on how to cover the face. It’s the punch they don’t see coming that can take them out. Many a boxer has been injured and even killed by the punch they never even saw. We have established how realistic this analogy is to real life, but that is not …

At the end of the day, as complex as Christianity seems, it’s all very simple.  Have you ever stopped and meditated on the subject of Science and how it pertains to every day life? It can be mind-boggling when you look at things as tiny as atoms, protons and photons. Some very brilliant men throughout history did their best to come up with explanations for how things such as gravity operate. Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and others sought to understand and explain subjects such as gravity and how the earth reacts to certain things. In fact, the reason you can see anything today or experience and touch anything is because there are electrons, photons, neutrons, gluons, protons interacting with each other. If they did not interact with each other, you wouldn’t even know they were there. So the interaction causes reality. These particles exist as potential until they are interacted with by measuring or observing them. Until this happens they are not considered real. The interaction mixed with the particle’s inherent potential causes them to become real. There is something else that operates much the same way and its faith. We are all born with faith..small faith like that …

Being known as a person who calls on the name of the Lord. 

We have to do what it takes to get to Jesus!  The book of Jude is not one that we hear much about. In fact, it is literally comprised of one chapter, yet its message is as important as the rest of God’s Word. Jude verses 22-23 states, “Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear, hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” This scripture is giving us a verbal roadmap of how to handle folks with different personalities in different situations. I bet just about all of us at one time or another have heard the cheesy car commercials about bringing in your car as a trade. They say things like, “Even if your car is no longer running just bring it in..just push,pull or drag it, but get it here!” If you think about it, this phrase that pertains to cars can easily be used about people and how they may need to get to Jesus. There are some people that you can just drop an invitation or a bit of encouragement about coming to church or about turning to God and they are …

How can we get God’s attention?

I’m Perfect & Complete walking with Jesus! Perfection in the secular sense can seem daunting, particularly when we look at our lives and see blemishes of regret, missed opportunities, and stains of shame. But remember, wholeness cannot come from a broken world. Wholeness comes from holiness – from being set apart. This is where Beyonce’s song lyrics resonate, “Perfection is a disease. You’re trying to fix something, but you can’t fix what you can’t see. It’s the soul that needs a surgery.” Perfection, in essence, is an internal matter, a matter of the soul, not external appearances or accomplishments. The Apostle Paul is an excellent example of this understanding. A Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Law, respected and feared, he relinquished all his worldly gains for the sake of Christ (Philippians 3:7-8). He realized that worldly achievements, good or bad, were mere ‘fertilizer’. The idea of perfection is not about achieving a flawless state. Rather, it’s about completeness, about being whole in a fractured world. As Paul himself wrote, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians …

Each and every one of us are called by God for a very distinct purpose. Your calling might look very different from all those around you which can cause doubt, envy or even pride. Learning to trust that God knows what He is doing when He places a specific call on our lives, can save a ton of heartache. Today we are going to look at a man in the Bible who did NOT trust God’s sovereignty and paid a price for it. Our text can be found in Numbers 16 and it is about a man named Korah. Now this fella was the great grandson of Levi and first cousins to Moses and Aaron. He was very much familiar with the fact that Moses was rescued as a baby and adopted by the Pharaohs daughter. He obviously knew that Moses grew up being pampered in the palace while he and all the other Israelites were being beaten and enslaved by the Egyptians. Fast forward to when God used His mighty power to make Pharaoh release the Israelites and they were wondering in the wilderness. Moses, Aaron and Korah were all descendants of Levi which meant they were all set …