Join us each week as celebrity guests pitch an idea for a film based on one of the SUPER niche sub-genres on Netflix. From ‘Steamy Crime Movies from the 1970s’ to ‘Australian Dysfunctional Family Comedies Starring A Strong Female Lead’, our celebrity guests will pitch their wacky plot, their dream cast, the marketing stunts, and everything in between. By the end of every episode, Jimmy Carr, Comedian by night / “Netflix Executive” by day, will decide whether the pitch is greenlit or condemned to development hell! New episodes on Wednesdays starting May 28th! Listen on all podcast platforms and watch on the Netflix is a Joke YouTube Channel . The Big Pitch is a co-production by Netflix and BBC Studios Audio.…
May 18, 2025 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker Revelation 21:1-8 1 Peter 5:10-11 Revelation 21:9-11 2 Chronicles 5: 13-14 Revelation 21:22-23 Revelation 21:12-16 (NET)
May 11, 2025 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker Revelation 7:9-12 “If man had his way, the plan of redemption would be an endless and bloody conflict. In reality, salvation was bought not by Jesus' fist, but by His nail-pierced hands; not by muscle but by love; not by vengeance but by forgiveness; not by force but by sacrifice. Jesus Christ our Lord surrendered in order that He might win; He destroyed His enemies by dying for them and conquered death by allowing death to conquer Him.” -AW Tozer “We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and He saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love.” -Peter Kreeft Romans 5:6-8 Acts 10:9-16 Revelation 7:13-17 “It is not great faith, but true faith, that saves; and the salvation lies not in the faith, but in the Christ in whom faith trusts...It is not the measure of faith, but the sincerity of faith, which is the point to be considered.” -Charles Spurgeon Pslam 23 (NET)…
April 27, 2025 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker John 20:19-31 “Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith… Sometimes I think it is my mission to bring faith to the faithless, and doubt to the faithful.” -Paul Tillich “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” -Fredrick Buechner Philippians 2:12-13 “The minute we begin to think we know all the answers, we forget the questions, and we become smug like the Pharisee who listed all his considerable virtues, and thanked God that he was not like other men… Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.” -Madeline L'Engle “When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate… I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.” -Brennan Manning (NET)…
April 20, 2025 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” -Chuck Colson "The devil, darkness, and death may swagger and boast, the pangs of life will sting for a while longer, but don’t worry; the forces of evil are breathing their last. Not to worry…He’s risen!" -Chuck Swindoll 1 Corinthians 15:54-55 John 20:1-18 1 Corinthians 3:16…
April 13, 2025 Associate Pastor Eric Burch Zechariah 9:9 Luke 22:67-69 Luke 23:1-2 Luke 23:4-5 Luke 23:8 Luke 23:11 Luke 23:13-15 Luke 23:27-34 Luke 23:39-43 (NASB 2020)
March 30, 2025 Associate Pastor Louise Waller Associate Pastor Justin Brunenkant Associate Pastor Eric Burch "Forgiveness and Feasting" Joshua 5:9-12 (NIV) "New Creation" 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (NKJV) "Lost and Found" Luke 15:7 Luke 15:10 Luke 15: 31-32 (NASB 2020)
March 23, 2025 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker Luke 13:1-9 "Sin a little thing? It put a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head and pierced His heart! It made Him suffer anguish, bitterness, and woe. If you could weigh the least sin in the scales of eternity, you would run from it as from a serpent and abhor the slightest appearance of evil. Look upon all sin as that which crucified the Savior, and you will see it to be ‘sinful beyond measure.’ " -Unknown “What is sin? It is the glory of God not honored. The holiness of God not reverenced. The greatness of God not admired. The power of God not praised. The truth of God not sought. The wisdom of God not esteemed. The beauty of God not treasured. The goodness of God not savored. The faithfulness of God not trusted. The commandments of God not obeyed. The justice of God not respected. The wrath of God not feared. The grace of God not cherished. The presence of God not prized. The person of God not loved. That is sin.” - John Piper Romans 3:20-23 "Am I really what I ought to be? Am I what, in the bottom of my heart, I honestly wish to be? Am I living a life at all like what I myself approve? My secret nature, the true complexion of my character, is hidden from all men, and only I know it. Is it such as I should be willing to show? Is my soul at all like what my kindest and most intimate friends believe? Is my heart at all such as I should wish the Searcher of Hearts to judge me by? Is every year adding to my devotion, to my unselfishness, to my conscientiousness, to my freedom from the hypocrisy of seeming so much better than I am? When I compare myself with last year, am I more ready to surrender myself at the call of duty? Am I more alive to the commands of conscience? have I shaken off my besetting sins?” -Fredrick Templeton (NET)…
March 16, 2025 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker “Lent is a time for discipline, for confession, for honesty, not because God is mean or fault- finding or finger-pointing but because he wants us to know the joy of being cleaned out, ready for all the good things he now has in store.” -NT Wright "There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." -Carl Jung “To be found is to be exposed. No wonder so many of us are still lost.” -Craig D. Lounsbrough Psalm 27 “The sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and must take matters into our own hands”Till we Have faces: “The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.” -Martin Luther “Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God's love encompasses us completely. ... He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken.” -Dieter F. Uchtdorf Psalm 42:11 (NET)…
March 9, 2025 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker “...the liturgical traditions of the Church, all its cycles and services, exist, first of all, in order to help us recover the vision and the taste of that new life which we so easily lose and betray, so that we may repent and return to it. ... It is through her liturgical life that the Church reveals to us something of that which "the ear has not heard, the eye has not seen, and what has not yet entered the heart of man, but which God has prepared for those who love Him." And in the center of that liturgical life, as its heart and climax, as the sun whose rays penetrate everywhere, stands Pascha.” -Alexander Schmemann “I imagine Lent for you and for me as a great departure from the greedy, anxious anti-neighborliness of our economy, a great departure from our exclusionary politics that fears the other, a great departure from self-indulgent consumerism that devours creation. And then an arrival in a new neighborhood, because it is a gift to be simple, it is a gift to be free; it is a gift to come down where we ought to be.” -Walter Brueggemann Deuteronomy 26:1-11 "The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back." -CS Lewis “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” -CS Lewis Exodus 3:17 Isaiah 32:18 (NET)…
March 2, 2025 Associate Pastor Eric Burch Discipleship Comes at a Cost Luke 9:22-26 But Our Future is in Glory Luke 9:27-31 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 Deuteronomy 18:15 Malachi 4:5-6 Luke 9:32 If We Listen Luke. 9:33-36 Matthew 7:24-27 John 10:27-28 John 14:25-26 (NASB 2020)
February 23, 2025 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker “God reveals himself, that is, in creation and in Christ, in ways we can see and hear and touch and taste, in place and person. Beauty is the term we apply to these hints of transcendence, these perceptions that there is more going on here than we can account for. And that is how we come to identify as apostles of the gospel the men and women and, yes, children, who use words and images and sounds and textures to wake us up to beauty latent and implicit all around us.”“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” -Eugene Peterson "...to think that creation resulted by accident is like thinking that Webster's unabridged dictionary resulted from an explosion in a print shop" -Albert Einstein Jesus reveals himself through a personal ENCOUNTER... Isaiah 6:1-4 Jeremiah 4:1-10 "Our Christian life began not with our decision to follow Christ but with God's call to us to do so." -John Stott which EVOKES a response… ( Isaiah 6:5-7 “Those who meet Jesus always experience either joy or its opposites, either foretastes of Heaven or foretastes of Hell. Not everyone who meets Jesus is pleased, and not everyone is happy, but everyone is shocked.” -Peter Kreeft and ENCOURAGES a decision to follow Him. Isaiah 6:8 “Run to and fro everywhere, holy fires, beautiful fires; for you are the light of the world, nor are you put under a bushel. He whom you cleave unto is exalted and has exalted you. Run to and fro and be known unto all nations.” -Augustine “One thing I have observed in all my years of ministry is that the most effective and important aspects of evangelism usually take place on an individual, personal level. Most people do not come to Christ as an immediate response to a sermon they hear in a crowded setting. They come to Christ because of the influence of an individual.” -John MacArthur…
Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker February 16, 2025 “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” -John Milton WE ALL HAVE A CHOICE Jeremiah 17:5-8 Deuteronomy 30:15-20 WE ALL HAVE A CONDITION Jeremiah 17:9 Jeremiah 17:1-4 Romans 7:15-20 “What does it mean to harden your heart? It means to see clear evidence of the hand of God at work and still refuse to accept His Word and submit to His will. It means to resist Him by showing ingratitude and disobedience and not having any fear of the Lord or of His judgments. Hardhearted people say with Pharaoh, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice?” "...The same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay. It all depends on the nature of the material." -Warren Wiersbe WE ARE OFFERED A CURE Jeremiah 17:10 “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..” SMITH WIGGLESWORTH: Great faith is the product of great fights. Great testimonies are the outcome of great tests. Great triumphs can only come out of great trials." -John Milton (NET)…
February 2, 2025 Associate Pastor Eric Burch Luke 19:8-10 Luke 4:21-30 God is the only True God and Jesus died so that all can experience Salvation 1 Kings 17:24 2 Kings 5:15 God is Sovereign and He can do as He pleases. Exodus 33:19 By doing Good Works among the Gentiles, God is trying to bring the Jews back to Himself. Romans 9:1-5 (NASB2020)…
Associate Pastor Eric Burch January 26, 2025 Luke. 4:14-21 Luke 4:1 Luke 2:46-47 Luke 4:18 Luke 6:20 Romans 7:21-24 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 Luke 4:19 Luke. 4:20-21 (NASB-2020)
January 5, 2025 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker "Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, one whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body. As they look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh for one who is to die." -Peter Chrysologus Ephesians 3:1-12 1 Peter 4:8-11 “All too often we regard stewardship simply as a matter of our giving to God, but this aspect is secondary. Before we can give, we must possess, and before we possess we must receive. Therefore, stewardship is, in the first place, receiving God’s good and bounteous gifts. And once received, those gifts are not to be used solely for our own good. They must also be used for the benefit of others, and ultimately for the glory of God the giver. The steward needs an open hand to receive from God and then an active hand to give to God and to others.” -Murray J. Harris Romans 16:25-27 (NET)…
December 29, 2024 Associate Pastor Louise Waller Associate Pastor Eric Burch Pam Brunenkant Associate Pastor Justin Brunenkant Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker Isaiah 6:8 Psalms 26:2-3 Psalms 139:23-24 (NET)
December 8, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, and not dealing in lies, Or being hated, and not give way to hating, and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise. (IF, Rudyard Kipling) Peace comes through surrendering to the world that which belongs to the world, embracing that which belongs to God and his will for us, recognizing that He is in control, and You are NOT! Ephesians 1:1-2 Isaiah 9:6 Zechariah 9:9 Luke 1:68-79 Luke 1:78-79 Luke 2:13-14 John 14:25-28 What is the nature of this peace that the Holy Spirit is bringing to us? Colossians 1:19-20 Ephesians 2:12-18 John 16:33 Peace comes through surrendering to the world that which belongs to the world, embracing that which belongs to God and his will for us, recognizing that He is in control, and You are NOT! Romans 12:1-2 Matthew 11:28-29…
December 1, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker Luke 21:25-36 “Optimism and hope are radically different attitudes. Optimism is the expectation that things—the weather, human relationship, the economy, the political situation, and so on—will get better. Hope is trust that God will fulfill God’s promises to us in a way that leads us to true freedom. The optimist speaks about concrete changes in the future. The person of hope lives in the moment with the knowledge and trust that all of life is in good hands.” -Henri Nouwen “The Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.” -Henri Nouwen 1 Corinthians 16: 13-14 1 Peter 5:8-9 “Look up, you whose gaze is fixed on this earth, who are spellbound by the little events and changes on the face of the earth. Look up to these words, you who have turned away from heaven disappointed. Look up, you whose eyes are heavy with tears and who are heavy and who are crying over the fact that the earth has gracelessly torn us away. Look up, you who, burdened with guilt, cannot lift your eyes. Look up, your redemption is drawing near. something different from what you see daily will happen. Just be aware, be watchful, wait just another short moment. Wait and something quite new will break over you: God will come.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer (NET)…
November 24, 2024 Associate Pastor Louise Waller Matthew 20:26-28 Matthew 25:35-36, 40 1 Peter 4:10 Yeah, but it’s HARD Yeah, but it’s ALL-CONSUMING Luke 17:7-10 Footwashing t’s worth it because Galatians. 6:7-10 Matthew 20:26-28 Grace, Community, Generosity, Service (NIV)
November 17, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker (Interview with Katy Kaakestadg from Intended Hope) Matthew 9:35-38 "When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool." -Chinua Achbee "God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering." -Augustine "Without worship, we go about miserable." -AW Tozer "When we worship together as a community of living Christians, we do not worship alone, we worship 'with all the company of heaven.'" -Marianne Micks 1 Corinthians 3:6-8 (NET)…
November 10, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker Core Value #3: Generosity We can't out give God. He is far more generous than we can imagine. In fact, He did not even withhold Jesus from us! It all belongs to God, and we in return desire to be generous with our time, talents, and resources for advancing the Kingdom of God by making a tangible difference in people's lives. "Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can." -John Wesley GENEROSITY REFLECTS JESUS John 3:16 Romans 5:8-9 Matthew 8:1-3 "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." -Simone Weil "You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you." -John Bunyan GENEROSITY BENEFITS THE GIVER Proverbs 11:25 2 Corinthians 9:10-11 GENEROSITY MAKES AN ETERNAL IMPACT 2 Corinthians 9:12-13 GENEROSITY BUILDS RELATIONSHIPS 2 Corinthians 9:14-15 (NET)…
November 3, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch Summit Ridges Values: Grace Community Serving Generosity We Value Community We are created to be in community- to do life together. Together we worship, laugh, cry, give, serve, learn, and grow as followers of Jesus Christ. We were Created to be in Community Genesis 1:26-27 What does it Mean to be in Community? Leviticus 26:11-13 Leviticus 4:13-14 Ezra 3:10-11 Acts 2:42-47 We Value Community We are created to be in community- to do life together. Together we worship, laugh, cry, give, serve, learn, and grow as followers of Jesus Christ. How do we live in Community? Matthew 5:16 Matthew 7:12 Galatians 5:22-26 Hebrews 10:24-25…
October 27, 2024 Associate Pastor Louise Waller What is God’s Grace? Romans 3:10-18 Romans 5:8 How do we receive Grace? How do we extend Grace? Attitude Practice 2 Corinthians 9:8 2 Corinthians 12:9 Grace = Agape Love Grace is Holy (NIV)
October 20, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker Jeremiah 29:11 Jeremiah 32:19 Psalms 33:11 Romans 8:28 Ephesians 2:10 Mark 10:45 Mission of Summit Ridge Community Church: To make disciples who Serve Christ by Serving People. Matthew 28:16-20 "It's just stunning to watch churches struggle to get mission statements when there it is, the Great Commission, and they should simply do what it says." -Dallas Willard “If you make disciples, you always get the church. But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples.” -Mike Breen "Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” -Dietrich Bon Hoeffer “The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed.” -Paul David Tripp Matthew 22:36-40 "You cannot obey the Great Commission until you obey the Great Command" -Al McKay "It is an incredibly difficult task to lead people from self-centered consumerism to being servant-hearted Christians. It is not a task for fainthearted ministers or those who don't like to get their religious robes wrinkled. But it is what the Great Commission is all about" -Rick Warren (NET)…
October 13, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch Galatians 3:26-29 We are a New Creation 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 Philemon 4-7 Philemon 10-14 We have a Alternative Way to Act Romans 8:28-29 Matthew 5:13-15 Philemon 20-25 Philippians 2:5-8 5 Ways to be Like Christ in this World Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB 2020)
September 22, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch We serve Christ by Serving People Colossians 4:7-8 Romans 1:1 1 Timothy 1:1-2 Colossians 4:9-13 Serving Christ by Serving People Takes Many Forms 1 Peter 3:15 Colossians 4:14-15 (NET) Romans 12:9-13 Colossians 4:16-18 1 Peter 4:10-11 (NASB)
September 15, 2024 Associate Pastor Justin Brunenkant (There were intermittent audio issues with this recording. Sorry for the inconvenience.) Colossians 4:1-6 Daniel 6:10 Luke 18:1-8 Matthew 7:11 (NKJV)
September 8, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker “Denial of one's need for others is the most common type of defense against bonding. If people come from a situation, whether growing up or later in life, where good, safe relationships were not available to them, they learn to deny that they even want them. Why want what you can't have? They slowly get rid of their awareness of the need.” -Henry Cloud SUBMIT and LOVE Colossians 3:18-19 Colossians 2:14-15 "Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honor should decline." -G.K. Chesterton “Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect.” -Wm. Paul Young OBEY and RESPECT Colossians 3:20-21 "Your children will become what you are; so be what you want them to be." -David Blye "The soul is healed by being with children". -Fyodor Dostoevsky LISTEN and SERVE Colossians 3:22-25 1 Corinthians 7:12-16 ReplyForward…
September 1, 2024 Associate Pastor Louise Waller (Technical difficulties at the beginning caused low audio.) Colossians 3:12-17 Unity and Love are REQUIRED No worship without loving community John 13:34-35 (Song: They’ll Know We are Christians by Our Love) No New Life in Christ without loving community ‘In the Name of Christ’ Loving community is The Glory of God Psalm 133 They are Worth it "It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one of other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another; all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization itself – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses." C.S. Lewis (NIV)…
August 25, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker Colossians 2:14-15 “Both God’s love and God’s wrath are ratcheted up in the move from the old covenant to the new, from the Old Testament to the New. These themes barrel along through redemptive history, unresolved, until they come to a resounding climax — at the cross. Do you wish to see God’s love? Look at the cross. Do you wish to see God’s wrath? Look at the cross.” -DA Carson “Learn to know Christ and Him crucified. Learn to sing to Him, and say, ‘Lord Jesus, You are my righteousness, I am Your sin. You have taken upon Yourself what is mine and given me what is Yours. You have become what You were not so that I might become what I was not.’” -Martin Luther Galatians 6:14 1 Corinthians 1:18 "Nothing on earth has greater potential to change lives and carry out His kingdom work in your community, than your local church.There’s nothing like the local church when it’s working right. Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited. No other organization on earth is like the church. Nothing even comes close." -Bill Hybells "The life function of [the local church] is to love the God who created it – to care for others out of obedience to Christ, to heal those who hurt, to take away fear, to restore community, to belong to one another, to proclaim the Good News while living it out. The church is the invisible made visible." -Chuck Colson KEEP LOOKING UP Colossians 3:1 "Jesus came to announce to us that an identity based on success, popularity and power is a false identity- an illusion! Loudly and clearly he says: 'You are not what the world makes you; but you are children of God." -Henri Nouwen "Child of God, you cost Christ too much for him to forget you." -Charles Spurgeon Psalm 71: 1-3 (The Message Paraphrase) KEEP YOUR HEAD UP Colossians 3:2-11 "If you are a child of God, you don’t lose your status if you have a bad week." -Timothy Keller Philippians 3:12-16 (NET) ReplyForward…
August 11, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch Ephesians 4:4-6 NET We have been Freed from the Law Colossians 2:16 Mark 7:18-19 Romans 7:4-6 We are a Priesthood in Christ Colossians 2:17 1 Peter 2:9-10 Romans 10:1-3 So, Serve in All Humility Colossians 2:18 Proverbs 16:18-19 Colossians 3:16 John 3:11-12 For Your Sake and the Sake of the Body Colossians 2:19 Revelation 2:13-16 Romans 12:3-5 We have been freed from the law and we now belong to the priesthood of Christ so serve in all humility for your sake and the sake of the body.…
August 4, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch As You Received, So Live Colossians 2:6-7 Colossians 2:5 Ephesians 4:4-6 Ephesians 4:13-14 Guard Your Mind and Heart Colossians 2:8 Romans 12:2 Proverbs 3:5-6 Accept the Fullness of Christ Colossians 2:9-10 Colossians 1:27-28 Enjoy the Fellowship of Christ Colossians 2:11-12 John 15:4-5 Celebrate Your Freedom Through Christ and the Cross Colossians 2:13 Colossians 2:14-15 Romans 6:21–23 (NET)…
July 28, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker "Ministry is giving when you feel like keeping, praying for others when you need to be prayed for, feeding others when your own soul is hungry, living truth before people even when you can't see results, hurting with other people even when your own hurt can't be spoken, keeping your word even when it is not convenient, it is being faithful when your flesh wants to run away." -John Holt “Ministry means the ongoing attempt to put one’s own search for God, with all the moments of pain and joy, despair and hope, at the disposal of those who want to join this search but do not know how.” -Henri Nouwen “I would like to encourage you to stop thinking of what you're doing as ministry. Start realizing that your ministry is how much of a tip you leave when you eat in a restaurant; when you leave a hotel room whether you leave it all messed up or not; whether you flush your own toilet or not. Your ministry is the way that you love people. And you love people when you write something that is encouraging to them, something challenging. You love people when you call your wife and say, 'I'm going to be late for dinner,' instead of letting her burn the meal. You love people when maybe you cook a meal for your wife sometime, because you know she's really tired. Loving people - being respectful toward them." -Rich Mullens Ministry TRANSFORMS lives Colossians 1:21-25 Isaiah 53:6 “Men will allow God to be everywhere but on his throne. They will allow him to be in his workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow his bounties. they will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth." -Charles Spurgeon “What is sin? It is the glory of God not honored. The holiness of God not reverenced.The greatness of God not admired.The power of God not praised.The truth of God not sought.The wisdom of God not esteemed. The beauty of God not treasured. The goodness of God not savored.The faithfulness of God not trusted. The commandments of God not obeyed. The justice of God not respected. The wrath of God not feared. The grace of God not cherished. The presence of God not prized. The person of God not loved. That is sin.” -John Piper God wants everyone to know their lives can be TRANSFORMED Colossians 1:26-2:5 2 Peter 3:9 "We must school and train ourselves to deal personally with the unconverted. We must not excuse ourselves, but force ourselves to the irksome task until it becomes easy." -Charles Spurgeon “Personal ministry is not about always knowing what to say. It is not about fixing everything in sight that is broken. Personal ministry is about connecting people with Christ so that they are able to think as he would have them think, desire what he says is best, and do what he calls them to do even if their circumstances never get "fixed." It involves exposing hurt, lost, and confused people to God's glory, so that they give up their pursuit of their own glory and live for his.” -Paul David Tripp “We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and He saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love.” -Peter Kreeft (NET)…
July 21, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker “We cherry-pick our favorite traits and words of Christ and run with them - amplifying some parts while silencing others - to suit our personal visions and preferences. In doing this, rather than the true and the whole, we create caricatures and distortions of His character - false Christs made in our own images - and are left with no mystery as to why He would say we must deny ourselves daily in order to follow Him.” -Criss Jami Matthew 24:3-6 Jesus is GOD in the flesh Colossians 1:15 “Man's maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.” -St. Augustine of Hippo “The nativity mystery “conceived from the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary”, means, that God became human, truly human out of his own grace. The miracle of the existence of Jesus , his “climbing down of God” is: Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary! Here is a human being, the Virgin Mary, and as he comes from God, Jesus comes also from this human being. Born of the Virgin Mary means a human origin for God. Jesus Christ is not only truly God, he is human like every one of us. He is human without limitation. He is not only similar to us, he is like us.” -Karl Barth Jesus is the CREATOR of all Colossians 1:16-17 Romans 1:20-23 "God is the Creator God, he doesn't want to say, "Okay, creation was very good, but I'm scrapping it." He wants to say, "Creation is so good that I'm going to rescue it." -NT Wright Jesus is LORD Colossians 1:18 Philippians 2:10-11 Jesus is SAVIOR Colossians 1:19-20 John 14:6 "It is faith that looks up at the creator God and knows him to be the God of love. And it is faith that looks out at the world with the longing to bring that love to bear in healing reconciliation, and hope." -NT Wright 2 Corinthians 5:17-18…
July 14, 2021 Associate Pastor Louise Waller What is worldly wisdom? Wisdom: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Genesis 3:4-7 We Are Fools Wisdom is nonsense to those who don’t believe Isaiah 55:8-9 1 Corinthians 1:18 Matthew 11:25 What is Godly Wisdom? Colossians 1:9-14 James 3:17 How do we get God’s wisdom? Luke 11:11-13 Proverbs 9:10 Proverbs 3:5-7 James 1:5 (NIV)…
July 7, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker “The good news is that Christ frees us from the need to obnoxiously focus on our goodness, our commitment, and our correctness. Religious has made us obsessive almost beyond endurance. Jesus invited us to a dance...and we've turned in into a march of soldiers, always checking to see if we're doing it right and are in step and in line with the other soldiers. We know a dance would be more fun, but we believe we must go through hell to get to heaven, so we keep marching.” -Steve Brown Colossians 1:1-8 The Gospel inspires FAITH "Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat out denial of the gospel of grace." -Brennan Manning The Gospel inspires LOVE “Some Christians try to go to heaven alone, in solitude. But believers are not compared to bears or lions or other animals that wander alone. Those who belong to Christ are sheep in this respect, that they love to get together. Sheep go in flocks, and so do God’s people.” -Charles Spurgeon "When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy.” -Corrie Ten Boom The Gospel inspires HOPE “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” -Tim Keller Galatians 5:5-6 Ephesians 4:2-5 1 Thessalonians 1:3 1 Corinthians 13: 13 (NET)…
June 30, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch (Audio issues during the first two minutes or so.) Matthew 4:8-11 “One of the greatest ironies of the history of Christianity is that its leaders constantly give in to the temptation of power- political power, military power, economic power, or moral or spiritual power – even though they continued to speak in the name of Jesus, who did not cling to divine power but emptied Himself and became as we are.” -Henry Nouwen We want to be God instead of Worshiping God Genesis 3:5 Mark 10:33-34 Mark 10:35-37 Isaiah 14:12-14 Phillipians 2:5-9 Power can be used overcome fear Matthew 2:1-3 1 John 4:17-18 Power is easier to wield than love “It seems easier to be God than to worship God. It is easier to control people than to love people. Easier to own life than to love life.” -Henry Nouwen 1 John 4:7-8 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NASB 2020)…
June 16, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker Not all testing is bad Matthew 4:1-4 Deuteronomy 8:2-3 Testing reveals who you really are Testing prepares you for your life as a Christ-follower. “We live in a culture that has replaced soul with self. This reduction turns people into either problems or consumers. Insofar as we acquiesce in that replacement, we gradually but surely regress in our identity, for we end up thinking of ourselves and dealing with others in marketplace terms: everyone we meet is either a potential recruit to join our enterprise or a potential consumer for what we are selling; or we ourselves are the potential recruits and consumers. Neither we nor our friends have any dignity just as we are, only in terms of how we or they can be used." -Eugene Peterson "By our uncritical pursuit of relevance we have actually courted irrelevance; by our breathless chase after relevance without a matching commitment to faithfulness, we have become not only unfaithful, but irrelevant; by our determined efforts to redefine ourselves in ways that are more compelling to the modern world than are faithful to Christ, we have lost not only our identity but our authority and our relevance. Our crying need is to be faithful as well as relevant." -OS Guinness “A primary task of the community of Jesus is to maintain this lifelong cultivation of love in all the messiness of its families, neighborhoods, congregations, and missions. Love is intricate, demanding, glorious, deeply human, and God-honoring, but — and here’s the thing — never a finished product, never an accomplishment, always flawed in some degree or other.” -Eugene Peterson…
June 9, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker James 5:19-20 Isaiah 53:6 3 Causes of Wandering: 1) Believing that following Jesus is easy Matthew 7:13-14 "Following Jesus is simple, but not easy. Love until it hurts, and then love more. Charles Spurgeon: You cannot be Christ’s servant if you are not willing to follow him, cross and all. What do you crave? A crown? Then it must be a crown of thorns if you are to be like him. Do you want to be lifted up? So you shall, but it will be upon a cross." -Mother Teresa 2) Listening to anyone who claims to speak for Christ Matthew 7: 15-23 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 3) Believing that words are more important than actions Matthew 7: 24-27 "Faith and works are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God trusts God; and he that trusts God obeys God. He that is without faith is without works; and he that is without works is without faith." -Charles Spurgeon “We are the Bibles the world is reading; We are the creeds the world is needing; We are the sermons the world is heeding.” -Billy Graham (NET)…
June 2, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch James 1:2-4 NASB Go to God First James 5:13 “James means that there is no time in which God does not invite us to Himself.” -John Calvin “Our whole life should be so angled towards God that whatever strikes us, whether sorrow or joy, should be deflected upwards at once into His presence.” -Alec Motyer Don’t Go It Alone James 5:14-15 Acts 20:28 Matthew 18:19-21 Hebrews 10:35-37 Reconcile Sooner than Later Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. -James 5:16a Matthew 5:23-24 James 4:1-2 Make Human Effort, expect Supernatural Results A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much. -James 5:16b The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective -James 5:16b (NIV) James 5:17-18 (NASB)…
May 26, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker James 5:12 "Neither can oath nor promise bind any such people to obey and maintain tyrants against God and against his truth known." -John Knox Matthew 5:34-37 Leviticus 19:11-12 (NET)
May 19, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker Psalm 133:1 Romans 12:18 START waiting James 5:7-8 James 1:2-4 "The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."-Leo Tolstoy "Pampered bodies grow sluggish through sloth; not work but movement and their own weight exhausts them. Prosperity unbruised cannot endure a single blow, but a man who has been at a constant feud with misfortunes acquires skin calloused by suffering; he yields to no evil and even if he stumbles carries the fight on upon his knee." -Seneca STOP Complaining James 5:9 “The truly patient man neither complains of his hard lot nor desires to be pitied by others. He speaks of his sufferings in a natural, true, and sincere way, without murmuring, complaining, or exaggerating them.” -St. Francis de Sales Psalm 142:2 Psalm 88:15-18 STAY the course James 5:10-11 Hebrews 12:1 (NET)…
May 12, 2024 Associate Pastor Louise Waller James 5:1-6 Why are riches dangerous? The World’s Lie: Money = Power = Safety YOU CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS Matthew 6:33 1 Timothy 6:17-19 Acts 4: 32-35 Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness Luke 12:34 Malachi 3:10 (NIV)
May 5, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker "Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast." -Jane Austen "The petty man is eager to make boasts, yet desires that others should believe in him. He enthusiastically engages in deception, yet wants others to have affection for him. He conducts himself like an animal, yet wants others to think well of him." -Xun Kuang "It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church." -Matthew Henry James 4:13-17 Ecclesiastes 10:14 Jeremiah 9:23-24 1 Corinthians 1:26-31…
April 28, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker James 4:11-12 Matthew 5:21-22 Matthew 5:27-30 Matthew 3:31-37 Proverbs 6:16-19 Socrates: “Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.” Ephesians 4:29-32 Mother Teresa: “These are the few ways we can practice humility: To speak as little as possible of one's self. To mind one's own business. Not to want to manage other people's affairs. To avoid curiosity. To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully. To pass over the mistakes of others. To accept insults and injuries. To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked. To be kind and gentle even under provocation. Never to stand on one's dignity. To choose always the hardest.” (NET)…
April 21, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker "When divisions are rife in religion, it is bound to happen that what is in men’s minds will soon erupt in real conflict. For while nothing is more effective for joining us together, and there is nothing which does more to unite our minds, and keep them peaceful, than agreement in religion, yet if disagreement has somehow arisen in connection with it, the inevitable result is that men are quickly stirred up to engage in fighting, and there is no other field with fiercer disputes." -John Calvin "What! At peace with the Father, and at war with His children? It cannot be." -John Flavel "Divisions in the church always breed atheism in the world." -Thomas Manton "The cause of sin is never so much helped as when Christians waste their strength in quarreling with one another, and spend their time in petty squabbles." -J.C. Ryle James 3:13-4:6 "Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live" -Oscar Wilde ”Nothing is bloodier than a religious war. Issues aren’t just as human squabbles; everything is elevated to eternal importance… How tempting… to mistake our will for God’s. How devilish to believe that disagreeing with me is disagreeing with God.” -Marshall Shelly James 4:7-10 Romans 7:15 (NET)…
April 14, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch James 3:1 1 Corinthians 12:27-28 James 3:2 Genesis 3:12 Romans 313-14 1 Peter 3:10 James 3:3-4 The Tongue is the Master Key for Keeping Our Whole Body in Check. James 3:5a The Tongue has Enormous power to do Harm. James 3:5b-6 Matthew 16:22-23 The Tongue is Humanly Uncontrollable. James 3:7-8 Acts 2:2-4 We struggle with Consistency. James 3:9-12 Romans 7:21-24 Matthew 12:33-37 (NASB 2020)…
April 7, 2024 Associate Pastor Louise Waller James 2:14-16 Faith without action is dead Matthew 25:41-45 Action without faith is dead Matthew 7:15-23 Faith and Action are one Galatians 6:7-8 Ephesians 2:8-10 Faithful Action bears good fruit (NIV)
March 31, 2024 "Why is Easter Sunday Still Relevant?" Associate Pastor Justin Brunenkant "What Does it Mean to be Born Again? Associate Pastor Eric Burch "The Physical Resurrection" Associate Pastor Louise Waller "Without the Resurrection Nothing Else Matters" Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker
March 17, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker I CAN’T ANGER MY WAY TO RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS! James 1:19-21 “Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.” -Aristotle Proverbs 17:28 “There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person…But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer I CAN’T FAKE MY WAY TO RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS James 1:22-26 To serve one another by following the example of Jesus Christ ensuring others are seen, heard, valued, and cared for as deeply valued members of God’s family and this church. 1 Peter 4:8-11 I CAN OBEY MY WAY TO RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS James 1:27 “The real act of, say, building a friendship or creating a community involves performing a series of small, concrete social actions well: disagreeing without poisoning the relationship; revealing vulnerability at the appropriate pace; being a good listener; knowing how to end a conversation gracefully; knowing how to ask for and offer forgiveness; knowing how to let someone down without breaking their heart; knowing how to sit with someone who is suffering; knowing how to host a gathering where everyone feels embraced; knowing how to see things from another’s point of view.” -David Brooks (NET)…
March 3, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch James 1:5-8 NASB What does the Bible mean by Wisdom? Luke 2:52 Matthew 13:54 Acts 7:22 1 Kings 3:9 1 Kings 3:11-12 What does James say here about God? James 1:5 Psalms 103:8 Matthew 7:9-11 Matthew 7:7-8 What does James say about our sincerity? James 1:6-8 Matthew 21:20-22 John 17:20-21 Colossians 2:6 (NASB 2020)…
February 25, 2024 Associate Pastor Louise Waller James 1:1-4 Trials of many kinds …To Test Our Faith Hebrews 12:1-3 “…Let us run with…" "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when you get diagnosed with cancer or when you have to declare bankruptcy or when you just lost your job or when you just got served divorce papers. How we think about tests and challenges will determine the outcome they produce in our lives. Tests and challenges can utterly ruin people or renovate them. We are not to be broken by the trials but broken by God in the midst of trials. To be broken by God means to be healed of our sick and willful ways of dealing with life. To be broken by God means to finally come to the place where we can admit that we do not have what it takes; that we have exhausted our resources, are at the end of our rope, and that we are poor in spirit. It means to finally be brought to the place where we are ready for an entirely new way of living life—God’s way, filled with God’s power, moment by moment. This is how our faith is perfected." -J.D. Walt Reward: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control 1 Peter 1:3-7 (NIV)…
February 18, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker "I believe that every Christian ought to be joined to some visible church; that is his plain duty, according to the Scriptures. God’s people are not dogs, else they might go about one by one; but they are sheep, and therefore they should be in flocks." -Charles Spurgeon “The Church needs more people willing to wash feet, not just point out they're dirty or complain that they smell.” -Mark Hart Revelation 3:14-22 "Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress. The contented soul is the stagnant soul." -A.W. Tozer "We need to repent of the haughty way in which we sometimes stand in judgment upon Scripture and must learn to sit humbly under its judgments instead. If we come to Scripture with our minds made up, expecting to hear from it only an echo of our own thoughts and never the thunderclap of God's, then indeed he will not speak to us and we shall only be confirmed in our own prejudices. We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior." -John Stott (NET)…
February 11, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker “Family is the one human institution we have no choice over. We get in simply by being born, and as a result we are involuntarily thrown together with a menagerie of strange and unlike people. Church calls for another step: to voluntarily choose to band together with a strange menagerie because of a common bond in Jesus Christ. I have found that such a community more resembles a family than any other human institution. Henri Nouwen once defined a community as “a place where the person you least want to live with always lives.” -Philipp Yancey Revelation 3:7-13 (NET)…
February 4, 2024 Associate Pastor Eric Burch Joel 2:12-13 Revelation 3:1-6 Revelation 3:1 James 2:14-17 Revelation 2:2-3 Mathew 10:22 Revelation 3:4 Revelation 3:5-6 (NASB 2020)
January 21, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker (Due to technical difficulties, approximately the first three minutes were not recorded.) “As I look around on Sunday morning at the people populating the pews, I see the risk that God has assumed. For whatever reason, God now reveals himself in the world not through a pillar of smoke and fire, not even through the physical body of his Son in Galilee, but through the mongrel collection that comprises my local church and every other such gathering in God’s name." -Philip Yancy “Persecution for Christians is not a possibility, it's a promise, it's not a maybe, it's a surely! Following Jesus can mean finding the trouble you've been looking for!” -Kingsley Opuwari Manuel: Revelation 2:12-17 Matthew 15:11 “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,..." -CS Lewis (NET)…
January 14, 2024 Lead Pastor Dr. Dan Acker “The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart.” -John Calvin Psalm 94:3-7 Revelation 2:8-11 “Jesus lost all his glory so that we could be clothed in it. He was shut out so we could get access. He was bound, nailed, so that we could be free. He was cast out so we could approach. And Jesus took away the only kind of suffering that can really destroy you: that is being cast away from God. He took that so that now all suffering that comes into your life will only make you great. A lump of coal under pressure becomes a diamond. And the suffering of a person in Christ only turns you into somebody gorgeous.” -Tim Keller “Persecution for Christians is not a possibility, it's a promise, it's not a maybe, it's a surely! Following Jesus can mean finding the trouble you've been looking for!” -Kingsley Opuwari Manuel 1 Peter 5:10 Hebrews 10:25 (NET)…
December 31, 2023 Associate Pastor Louise Waller Associate Pastor Eric Burch Millie Ethier Worship Pastor Deborah Murphy Lead Pastor Dan Acker Psalm 148 (NET)
Associate Pastor Eric Burch December 17, 2023 James 3:13-17 NET Which Do You Want To Be? Psalm 126:1-6 Psalm 126:1-3 Daniel 4:3 Isaiah 61:1-4 (NIV) Psalm 126:4-6 Which Do You Want To Be? Romans 5:8 “Let our hearts gratefully remember the lovingkindness of the Lord; we were sadly low, sorely depressed, and completely past hope, but when Jehovah appeared He did not merely lift us out of depression, He raised us into wonderful happiness. The Lord does nothing in halves; those whom He saves from Hell He brings to heaven. He turns exile into ecstasy and banishment into bliss.” -Charles Spurgeon. Romans 15:13 (NIV) (NET)…
December 10, 2023 Associate Pastor Louise Waller Psalm 91:1-16 John 14:27 Luke 2:14 The Peace Romans 8:1 The Veil Hebrews 6:19-20 Shalom John 16:33 Hebrews 2:14-15 At War for Peace "A repentant sinner beset again by the devil will ask himself, “How can God love me and bless me?” But as he looks at Christ dying on the cross, buried, and rising again, he says, ‘I know he loves me. I cannot understand it but I know he does. He has done that for me.’ It is not mere sentiment or feeling; he has solid facts of history to prove that God loves him. God does not merely tell us that he loves us, he has given the most amazing proof of it. Nothing is more wonderful than to know that God loves you; and no man can truly know that God loves him except in Jesus Christ and him crucified." -Matthew Henry "Approach, my soul, the mercy seat, where Jesus answers prayer; there humbly fall before his feet, for none can perish there. Bowed down beneath a load of sin, by Satan sorely pressed, by wars without and fears within, I come to Thee for rest. Be thou my shield and hiding place, that sheltered near thy side, I may my fierce accuser face, and tell him thou has died!" -John Newton "The devil will try to steal your peace by accusing you of your sins. ‘What can I tell him? I cannot tell him that I am a good man, I cannot tell him about my past or even my present. There is only one way of silencing him; “I can my fierce accuser face, and tell him Thou hast died”. The man who believes vaguely in the love of God cannot do so, for the devil will not listen to him. The man who says ‘I feel happy’ will soon be made unhappy by the devil, for he is more powerful than we are. There is only one thing that the devil can never answer and that is the argument of ‘the blood of Christ saves me’. He will come back again, but you will always be able to silence him, and thus continue in a state of peace." -Unknown "Peace even when you fall into sin? In Jesus, God has dealt with your sin, once and forever. He is now dealing with your righteousness." -Graham Cooke Philippians 4:5-7…
December 3, 2023 Lead Pastor Dan Acke “The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.”-DIETRICH BONHOEFFER Hope is here because… God still SITS on the throne. Pslam 80:1-3 Hope is here because... God does not REMAIN angry forever. Psalm 80:4-7 Psalm 103:8-10 Micah 7:18 Hope is here because... God will RETURN back to us. Psalm 80:8-19 (NET)…
November 26, 2023 Lead Pastor Dan Acker God expresses himself as a SHEPHERD. Psalm 100:1-3 God expresses himself as a GOOD SHEPHERD. Pslam 100:4-5 Isaiah 53:6 Ezekiel 34:11-16 John 10:11-18 "It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them." -Tiberius "God has not abandoned us any more than he abandoned Job. He never abandons anyone on whom he has set his love; nor does Christ, the good shepherd, ever lose track of his sheep." -J.I. Packer “We have all things and abound; not because I have a good store of money in the bank, not because I have skill and wit with which to win my bread, but because the Lord is my shepherd.” -Charles Spurgeon…
November 19, 2023 Lead Pastor Dan Acker Proverbs 16:9 Proverbs 16:1 Proverbs 19:21 Proverbs 20:24 Proverbs 21:30 Isaiah 46:8-10 "It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or Devil, but the Lord Almighty who is ruling the world, ruling it according to His own good pleasure and for His own eternal glory". -Arthur W. Pink "God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil". -A.W. Tozer "This is God's universe, and God does things his way. You may have a better way, but you don't have a universe". -J. Vernon McGee:…
Lead Pastor Dan Acker November 12, 2023 I love to give because... Jesus loves to GIVE 2 Corinthians 8:1-10 Philippians 2: 4-8 “For it is in giving that we receive.” ― St. Francis of Assisi I too have been in NEED 2 Corinthians 8:11-14 I have ENOUGH 2 Corinthians 8:15 1 Timothy 6:6 “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” ―John Bunyan (NET)…
October 29, 2023 Associate Pastor Eric Burch Associate Pastor Louise Waller Associate Pastor Justin Brunenkant Worship Pastor Deborah Murphy Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17 (NET)
October 22, 2023 Associate Past Eric Burc 1. God Rules Psalm 99:1-3 Psalm 2:2-4 Psalm 100:3 Ezekiel 18:20 Colossians 2:13-14 Hebrews 12:28-29 “God is good all the time and all the time ____________” “God is sovereign and holy all the time and all the time God is sovereign and Holy.” 2. He is Just Psalm 99:4-5 Matthew 5:11-12 Numbers 23:19 3 He Answers our Prayers Psalm 99:6-9 Deuteronomy 5:5-6 Exodus 24:1-2 (NET)…
October 15, 2023 Lead Pastor Dan Acker God is so good to us because… He IS good. Psalm 106:1-8, 19-23 Luke 18: 18-19 Psalm 14: 1-3 "What is sin? It is the glory of God not honored. The holiness of God not reverenced. The greatness of God not admired. The power of God not praised. The truth of God not sought. The wisdom of God not esteemed. The beauty of God not treasured. The goodness of God not savored. The faithfulness of God not trusted. The commandments of God not obeyed. The justice of God not respected. The wrath of God not feared. The grace of God not cherished. The presence of God not prized. The person of God not loved. That is sin." -John Piper God is so good to us because…everything He DOES is good. Psalm 106:43-48 "With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures." -AW Tozer "A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God." -Brennan Manning (NET)…
October 1, 2023 Associate Pastor Louise Waller Psalm 78:1-17 Why teach? Teach What? God is great. God is good. People are rebellious and forgetful. God punishes the rebellious to bring them to repentance. God is always eager to forgive the penitent. Teach by Example; Show and Tell Tell the stories Show the discipline Show the intimacy Show the repentance Show the obedience Show the faithfulness Show and Tell each other (NIV)…
September 24, 2023 Lead Pastor: Dan Acke CS LEWIS: “The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express that same delight in God which made David dance.” I praise God because he is GREAT. Psalm 145:1-7 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: “I may not be the man I want to be; I may not be the man I ought to be; I may not be the man I could be; I may not be the man I truly can be; but praise God, I’m not the man I once was.” ALICE COOPER: “I was one thing at one time, and I’m something new. I’m a new creature now. Don’t judge Alice by what he used to be. Praise God for what I am now.” Luke 10:19-20 I praise God because he is GOOD. Psalm 145:8-16 Psalm 34:8 Thomas Merton: To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference. I praise God because he is GENEROUS. Psalm 145:17-20 Ephesians 1:7-8 (NET Bible Version)…
September 17, 2023 Lead Pastor: Dan Acker GLENN PEMBERTON: “We live in a world that is beyond our control, and life is in a constant flux of change. So we have a decision to make: keep trying to control a storm that is not going to go away or start learning how to live within the rain.” EVERTON WEEKES: "Redemption is not just a nice word to use in church. It has the power to restore us back to the status we had with God before the fall. Redemption gives believers the same legal status that Jesus had with the Father, while He was walking on the earth." COVER Psalm 114:1-2 Ephesians 2:19-22 CROSSING Psalm 114:3-4 Matthew 27:45-46, 50-53 COMPLETION Psalm 114:5-8 AW TOZER: "The greatest encouragement throughout the Bible is God's love for His lost race and the willingness of Christ, the eternal Son, to show forth that love in God's plan of redemption. The love of Jesus is so inclusive that it knows no boundaries. At the point where we stop caring and loving, Jesus is still there loving and caring." Philippians 1:6…
August 27, 2023 Lead Pastor Dan Acker Psalm 124 “The Psalms offer us a way of joining in a chorus of praise and prayer that has been going on for millennia and across all cultures. Not to try to inhabit them, while continuing to invent non-psalmic 'worship' based on our own feelings of the moment, risks being like a spoiled child who, taken to the summit of Table Mountain with the city and the ocean spread out before him, refuses to gaze at the view because he is playing with his Game Boy” -NT Wright Psalm 44:3 Genesis 4:7 1 Peter 5:8-10 Romans 8:31-32, 35-38 (NET)…
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