Your Story In The Wilderness Is A Good Story

David was “the man after God’s own heart”, the greatest king in Israel’s history and someone who experienced incredible prosperity. Yet, his life was also riddled with grueling experiences in the wilderness - both literal and metaphorical. Most of us will never experience the wrenching isolation, injustice, deprivation or grief that David did.

In every wilderness episode we walk through in our lives, “the story we believe we are in determined what we think about ourselves and consequently how we live”. In the Psalms, we see David wrestling with the competing stories about what was happening to him. At the end of the day, though, only one story won out. David knew that because God was his God, he was in a good story. Listen to this week’s sermon to learn about the true story in your wilderness.

Listen To This Week’s Sermon here.

God Brings Us Into The Wilderness To Bring Us To The End Of Ourselves

God led the Nation of Israel into the wilderness after liberating them from the hands of the Egyptians. He promised to be their God and bring them into a land of promise; a “new Eden”. But on their way, they complained about the wilderness and even expressed a desire to return to Egypt. When they saw the promised land, they feared the power of the current inhabitants. When God denied them entry on the basis of their lack of faith, they tried to force their way in.

Israel teaches us that in the wilderness, settling for lesser Edens and trying to force our way out of the wilderness are equally ineffective. There is only one way out of the wilderness - and the answer may be surprising to you.

Listen to this week’s sermon here.

A New Series To Help You Understand, Persevere In and Trust God In The Current Season

As we remain in a season of the effects of a global pandemic dictating new norms for daily life, social and political turmoil and the regular everyday challenges of life, it can become difficult to know where this is all going. Or if God is doing anything at all. This past Sunday, as we began our series concerning the Biblical concept of “wilderness”, we learned that every wilderness is a part of and subsumed by the first wilderness experience - the exile from the Garden of Eden because of sin. We also learned that because of God’s redemption, those who trust in Christ are being led bak to Eden as we walk through the wilderness. We also learned from the first of 6 characters in Scripture who walked through a distinct wilderness of their own - Moses. Moses stands as an example of how God will oftentimes use the wilderness to divest of worldly influence and prosperity in order to make us useful for His Kingdom. Listen to this week’s sermon and consider what God might be stripping you of during this season of wilderness to make you useful for His Kingdom.

Listen to this week’s sermon here.

If You Don’t Understand The Wrath of God, You Can’t Make Any Sense of The Gospel

This past Sunday, we were treated in all kinds of ways - we were able to Livestream our service from our new Sunday home - the Ebell Club of Santa Ana. We also heard from the wisdom of Jim Cunningham. Further, we were able to hear him teach compassionately, yet courageously on a subject we might not have expected we needed to hear during this crazy season. Jim reminded us from Romans 1 that the greatest threat to humanity has nothing to do with the crises of 2020, whether it’s massive wildfires, a pandemic or even racism, deplorable as it is. The greatest threat to humanity is God’s wrath. And it threatens everybody. But contained within the pages of Scripture is also the only solution to the greatest threat - the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Take 40 minutes out of your day and listen to a message that everyone - Christian or non-Christian, could do well to listen to.

Listen to this week’s sermon here.

A Wonderful Ending to Our Time in 1 Thessalonians

After months plumbing the depths of truth and grace contained in the pages of Paul’s first letter to the church in Thesslonica, we encountered his final words to the church. These last four verses reflect Paul’s friendship toward these brothers and sisters and teach us something about a subject very infrequently taught in churches - Christian friendship. We find that Christians should be the best kind of friends, because we’ve been befriended by the very best Friend Himself.

Listen to this week’s sermon here.

The Captain Will Get Us There

God will do what you can’t to get you to where you want to be. While you and I are called to follow the directives of 1 Thess. 5:12-22 with vigor and sincerity, at the end of the day, no amount of obedience will get us to the end. Only God, working by His Spirit, through the finished work of His Son, will bring us to the end. Our ultimate hope is in Him. And 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 poignantly reminds us of this. Listen to this last Sunday’s sermon from Christopher Erkelens to learn how God secures us until the end.

Listen to this week’s sermon here.

You’re Being Barraged With Information

You and I and everyone else have an innate desire to know. During this season of crisis, that desire is oftentimes intensified. But in a world and in a time when information is more abundant and available for immediate access than ever before, where do you go for the best information?

Know Which Information is the Best Information

Since God is the origin and source of truth, we need to limit our information diet as much as possible to whatever comes from Him. In this week’s message from 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, we discover that God speaks through the men and women around you who are filled with His Spirit. We need to listen for God’s voice in them. However, we would all do well to constantly test everything, including social media and the news, against what we know beyond a shadow of a doubt is God’s voice.

Listen to this week’s sermon here.

Lessons From Little Green Aliens

Who knew that the little green aliens from Toy Story could ever teach us anything genuinely valuable? Their memorable phrase, “you have saved our lives, we are eternally grateful”, is an accurate reflection of the appropriate disposition of our hearts toward God. The Gospel stands as the foundation of our gratitude - Jesus saved our lives through His death and we, in turn, have reason to be perpetually grateful.

Friend, your life should be characterized by gratitude. And the wonder is that gratitude breeds even more gratitude. Do you want to be more grateful? Do you want to know how such gratitude is possible?

Then listen to this week’s sermon here.

Exercise Your Liberty Through Prayer

Paul issues a 3-word command in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - a command to pray unceasingly. This verse communicates the need for a Christian to be continually postured in dependence toward God. But it also reflects the awesome reality that because Christ has made a way to access God and because God has promised that He hears those who have been purchased by the blood of His Son, we CAN express our dependence on God through prayer. In a moment in history when people’s rights and liberties are the talk of the town, as Christians, it’s an opportunity for us to consider our liberties, because liberties that we have in Christ - liberties like prayer - far exceed the privileges that any American liberty might afford you. Do you want to become a more prayerful Christian by the end of this pandemic? Do you want to be able to exercise your dependence on the Lord through prayer more frequently? Do you want to learn more about the nature of Christian prayer? Listen to this week’s sermon and respond to God’s gracious invitation to pray to Him.

Listen to this week’s sermon here.

Rejoice Always Because You Can

One of the shortest verses in the Bible is a command to rejoice. For anyone without Christ, this is a hard command. Sorrow, pain and anxiety hamper attempts at constant joy. Further, any lesser joy cannot sustain the constancy that Paul envisions in his command. But there is a single source of joy that makes following this command possible - God. God is the perfection of joy itself. Further the Gospel is a message of a Jesus who saves us into that very joy and tells of a Holy Spirit who sustains that joy. Do you want to know the not-so-secret secret to joy? Listen to this week’s sermon here.