Last week, we started talking about our "Employable Skills." Each of us has work to do, but thankfully, everyone has a special enabling given to us by God. People often get confused about what the gifts look like or where they come from. As we learned together, the work does not have to be spiritual in nature; it has to be spiritual in why and how it's used. All gifts from God and should be used for His Kingdom. This week, we're continuing this discussion by looking at five specific gifts. Verses in Ephesians 4 address what is commonly referred to as the five-fold ministry. There are five offices mentioned, but at best, the modern American church only has two of them: pastors and teachers. We never talk about evangelists, prophets and apostles — at least not in a way that is biblically-accurate.

Last week, we began a series called “Employed by the King” to help us address the issue of spiritual unemployment. We have to allow our faith to influence our activities, attitudes and decisions because there is important work to be done. Before engaging in the work of the Kingdom, however, we must first develop the character and nature of Christ. This week, we’re continuing the series by looking at our “Employable Skills.” This portion of the series will be in several parts, and it’s rooted in this idea: when you love King Jesus, you will naturally want to start being employed by Him, but people often believe that they don’t have anything to offer. Verses like 1 Corinthians 12:7 and 1 Peter 4:10 tell us that everyone has been given gift.

The church in America is suffering from an ailment that was present even in the time that Jesus was trying to establish the church: spiritual unemployment. In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus tells His disciples that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. We don’t have a shortage of lost people; we have a shortage of saved people who are devoted to discipleship. This week, we’re starting a new series called “Employed by the King” to help us address the issue of spiritual unemployment, which is rooted in the false notion that you can be a person of faith without allowing that faith to influence your activities, attitudes and decisions. Being a part of the Kingdom of God is not just about what you believe; it’s about what you do. It’s about faith-fueled work.

When you consider the intricacies and beauty of the world around us, it’s easy to think of God as somewhat OCD. His attention to detail is unmatched. He created 20 different shades of green in the trees and put the earth exactly far enough away from the sun that we don’t burn up but close enough that we stay warm. The list goes on and on. If anybody understands efficiency, it’s the Lord. Given this, it’s baffling to read about His interactions with people after the resurrection. From an efficiency standpoint, they don’t make a lot of sense. There seems to be a lot of wasted time. This week’s message is called Encounters with the Risen Savior. By looking at the way Jesus interacted with people after His resurrection, we get insight into His passions and priorities, and in the process, we might find out just how important we are to Him as well.

The old song that many of us grew up singing says that on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross. That cross is what we reflect on during Good Friday. While the cross certainly is far away from where we are standing or sitting right now, it’s important to consider a question about a different kind of distance: how far are you from the cross? When you think about the cross of Jesus, how far away do you stand? In recognition of Good Friday, we’re going to talk about the cross from a distance and see how we can be close enough to the cross of Christ to be forgiven, grateful and changed.

Matthew 21 details the Triumphant Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. This momentous occasion is recorded in all four Gospels, and churches around the world celebrate it each year on Palm Sunday, which marks the start of Holy Week and is named for the types of branches the crowd laid and waved before Jesus. This week, we’re diving deep into this passage to understand its significance for the Jewish people of that time and learn how we can have Jesus enter our everyday lives with the same prestige and prominence that He received during the Triumphant Entry.

The weather is warming up in Georgia, which means that snake season is quickly approaching. In addition to physical snakes, there are also spiritual snakes. From the first book of the Bible, the enemy has been portrayed either literally or figuratively as a snake or serpent. As part of the curse that God pronounced in the Garden of Eden, the offspring of Eve and snakes were set up as enemies. The offspring is Jesus, and crushing the head of the snake is exactly what He did on the cross. Even so, until God brings this earth to an end, there are still spiritual snakes trying to bruise the heels of His spiritual heirs. This week, we’re going to learn about these spiritual snakes, when they show up and the ways they attack us, so we can be prepared to defeat them.

The Bible says in multiple places that Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. He’s the Creator of the literal lights in the world, but He’s also the only source of spiritual light in the world. In the skewed, stained light of the world, everybody gets graded on a curve. We compare ourselves with each other and with our intentions. However, the pure and bright light of Jesus is accurate; it reveals our sin and illuminates our need for Him. This week, we’re looking at three groups of people and the different responses they have to this True Light: those walking in the light, those walking in darkness and those standing in the light with a decision to make.

This week, Pastor John delivers the annual State of the Church address to provide a detailed look at giving, attendance, spiritual growth, discipleship and more in 2023 — and share his vision for 2024.

Even though we live in a digital age, most of us has seen a Polaroid picture. It pops out of the camera and is pretty much blank, but given enough time and the correct conditions, you begin to make out the image in the picture. Eventually, it’s crystal clear because it’s fully developed. In Galatians 4:19, Paul expresses his hope that the Galatian believers would continue to grow until Christ is fully developed in them. This process is not as fast as a Polaroid, but it’s important that we give it the time and effort it deserves because there is nothing worse than a fuzzy picture when it comes to issues of eternity. This week, we’re going to look at three concepts that can help us — and our children — become fully developed in Christ.

The Bible contains many different names for God, including Adonai, El Shaddai and Jehovah, and for those who grew up in church, this might have caused confusion. Why would God have so many names? This week, Cindy Diaz shares how the names of the Lord show various aspects of the Lord’s character. There are times in our lives when we don’t recognize Jesus because things are too dark or distracting for us to look for Him, but make no mistake: He can be found. He can show up as El Roi (The God Who Sees Me) or Emmanuel (God With Us) even in the most unexpected places and difficult moments of our lives.

Acts 9 gives the account of Saul’s surrender. At the time, he was the most passionate persecutor and executioner of early Christians, but after an encounter with Jesus, he became Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. His transformation was so complete, so incredible and so surprising that God changed his name. This week, we’re going to learn more about what surrender IS by exploring what it’s NOT. We’re going to look at the lifestyle of surrender embodied by Paul — who wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament — to discover what surrender looks like for us today.

Due to the subject nature being discussed, this message is only intended for viewers age 11 and older (middle school and up). — We live in what has to be the most sexualized and sex-saturated generation in history. From video games and commercials to advertising and entertainment, sexual messaging and content is everywhere, and the attitudes of people toward sex and sexuality are different than that were a generation or two ago. This week, we’re continuing our Surrender Series with a look at sexuality, diving into the idea that there is virtually no difference in what we believe about sex and sexuality inside the church compared to the culture at large. We have lost — and desperately need to reclaim — the clear biblical foundation of truth about sex.

When we say that a follower of Jesus has to live a life of surrender, it may be difficult to think of a person we admire who was also completely surrendered. Often, we look up to the rebels, the mavericks and the ones who bucked the system to lead people to a better place. We build statues to the courageous and bold — not those who were fully surrendered. A few weeks ago, we started the Surrender Series, exploring the different aspects of surrender and how it interacts with things like our will or desire for control, and this week, we’re going to look at what it means to be fully surrendered by turning to the greatest example of surrender in the Bible: Jesus Christ. No one went all-in on things or surrendered more than Jesus.

We started a new series a couple of weeks ago called the Surrender Series. These messages bring together different things that the Lord has been sharing with Pastor John about the new year, and what ties them all together is the need to surrender. We have already talked about surrender in the life of Joseph, and last week, we explored the importance of getting out of the boat. This week, we’re diving deep into the topic of control. Control is our effort to bring order to a disorderly world; it’s how we try to make sense of things that are senseless and guarantee a specific outcome in an uncertain world. Control appears to be strong, courageous and full of faith. In reality, it is weakness, fear and pride in disguise — all hindering our ability to surrender.

Pastor John’s messages in the latter half of 2023 carried a tremendous weight each week. We spent much of last year digging through the ways that we’re hurting, grieving and suffering. We spent a lot of time looking in the spiritual mirror, and the Lord laid out some tools and processes we can use to find the healing that we need. If last year was about getting honest with ourselves about our need for healing and getting to the One who can actually heal us, the message for this year is this: it’s time to get out of the boat — just like Peter did in Matthew 14. There is a season in which it’s okay to be in the boat for safety, healing, reflection or rest, but at some point, we have to start living, loving and doing the work of ministry again. It all starts with surrender. NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, we could not record and stream our service as usual, which is why the audio for this message sounds different than it usually does. Thanks for understanding!

This week, we’re starting a new series called “Surrender,” and for the first message in this new series, we’re going back to the Christmas account to look at Joseph’s role in the birth of Jesus. In Matthew 1, we see Joseph intuitively demonstrating an understanding about who he was supposed to be that we need to learn and apply in our walk with Jesus. This is the first message of the new year. This is a time when people reflect on the old and look forward to the new, and a lot of people also get more serious about their spirituality at this time of year. They are determined to change something, so they can be who they are supposed to be in Christ. Surrender plays an important role in this transformation.

To capture monkeys in Africa, people set out cages equipped with bait sticks to lure them inside. The monkeys are too smart to go into the cages, so they reach through the bars to grab the sticks. However, this traps them because sticks are too large to fit through the bars, and the monkeys refuse to let go of the sticks. A similar thing is happening in countless churches around the world. The devil has set out cages in an effort to trap believers, but because we're too smart to go inside the cages, he adds a bait stick: offense. This week, we're exploring the fact that the most common tactic being used today to destroy the lives of believers is to get us offended.

John 1:1 and John 1:14 are not typically considered Christmas scriptures, but together, they lay the foundation for the whole thing. Additionally, it also describes the main difference between Christianity and all the other religions. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead, the One through Whom everything was made stepped out of heaven and came to earth. He didn’t come to reveal Himself in all His glory. He didn’t come to demonstrate His power, might, splendor and majesty. Instead, He came as a poor Jewish baby in a troubled region of the Roman Empire. The passage says that the Word became human. This week, we’re exploring the amazing fact that Jesus, the Son of God, became one of us.

This week, we're wrapping up our Know-vember Series. Over the past four weeks, we have been trying to provide answers to questions that people within our congregation have wanted to know, and one of the big questions was about Israel. We started by discussing current events before looking ahead to the future fulfillment of prophecy. So far, we have talked about the rapture of the church, the tribulation, the judgment seat of Christ, the marriage supper of the Lamb, the Second Coming of Christ and the battle of Armageddon. There's still more to come, but we're now in the home stretch before we arrive at our eternal state as believers.