What does it look like to father the way God the Father fathers? Pastor Frank looks at the two biggest ways that fathers tend to get it wrong.
Read MorePentecost was the day the church was born. The presence of God is on earth living in His people. Little temples to go. Religion to go. The Gospel of Jesus is the only true religion and the church is how it works in the world. Religion=How people get closer to God.
Read MoreDon’t do things hoping that people will notice how awesome you are. Jesus wants to protect us from the soul-rotting cancer of making a prideful show of how spiritual we are.
Read MoreJesus wants us to be a new kind of humanity—bringers of light and hope by loving people that we would naturally not love. To be supernatural. To be perfect. It’s kinda the whole point of everything.
Read MoreIt’s not about just knowing the right things, or believing the right things. Faithfulness flows from faith—wisdom is faith in action.
Read MoreWe love a grudge. We love to think about getting even. We’re pretty sure what Jesus actually meant was, “Do unto others before they do something to you.” But then we…
Read MoreJesus wants us to be people who keep the vows we make. To live in the truth and let our yes be yes and our no be no. If we, the people of God, can’t show each other that we mean what we say, then when we proclaim His promises—they’re gonna sound pretty hollow. We need to show this world, all the people who need hope, that God’s promises are true. That’s why it’s so important for us to follow through on the things we say—because it’s a testimony to the promises that God has given to us.
Read MoreEver wish you could just start all over? There have definitely been times when I wished I could start over. Get a redo, hit the delete button, but some things can’t be undone. Like when I say something and
Read MoreWhat are your biggest disappointments? The difference between whether you’re gonna be disappointed or not depends on if what you’re hoping for is true or not. Are you building up your hopes to be disappointed in God? Matthew 21:1-11
Frank Hart talks about what it means to share our Christian hope. It begins with an excerpt of his son Angel performing "Heathens" by Twenty One Pilots. This was talk #3 of his three presentations at Epicenter in Houston, TX. http://gotoepicenter.com/
Read MoreWhen things get hard, that’s when we have to trust what we know. We have to trust our training. Trusting God means trusting what He’s told us—trusting His promises. Trusting the things we read in the Bible.
What if you
Life is awkward. It’s full of gross and embarrassing moments. We all have a story, and when we’re in the middle of it, it’s pretty hard to see where it’s going. It’s pretty hard to know where we are. The thing is, God has a really great story for you to live. But, sometimes
Read MoreWhat is marriage? When is divorce okay? Who gets to decide gender?
Where does Jesus answer these questions?
We live in a society that seems to be unable to agree about any of those ideas. As we continue in our message series "The Teaching of Jesus," we are going to find that He solved these "riddles" a long time ago.
Read MoreAmerica’s favorite pastime—it’s not baseball, or football, or Nascar. It’s not movies or TV or music. It seems to be porn. Jesus says if you look at a person with lust then you have already committed adultery in your heart. The 6th Commandment. God doesn’t tell us what to do and what not to do to make us miserable—He’s protecting us from ourselves.
Read MoreAnger’s a really important emotion. We’re not supposed to ignore it, but we’re also not supposed to let it control us. We're to be Slow to speak. Quick to listen. Slow to anger. The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Anger needs to point us in the direction of resolving conflict, not escalating it, not ignoring it. Jesus says trying to harm people with words is as bad as murder. Matthew 5:21-26
Read MoreSo how does Jesus relate to the Old Testament? And what about us? Now that we have the New Testament, what are we supposed to think about it? God didn’t send Jesus into the world so we wouldn’t do what He wants. He sent Jesus into the world so it would be possible for us to do the right things for the right reasons. God still wants us to live good lives, do good things, live holy lives. Matthew 5:17-20
Read MoreWe have a lot to celebrate and be thankful for, we also have some serious challenges we’re facing. We know that God has led us here and He will see us through. He’s not done with us, He hasn’t abandoned us, He’s gonna finish what He started. God is faithful. God is good, and God is in control.
Read MoreWe all want to change the world but we don’t want to change. Jesus says you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. You know all those things you think are wrong with the world? Draw a circle around your feet and start making those changes inside the circle. Let your good works shine to lead people through the darkness—so that they will praise your heavenly Father. To salt the earth—live the extraordinary lives of normal people, uncorrupted by all the impurities of the world. You've got to be the difference you want to see in the world.
Read MoreJesus takes an interesting turn on the last Beatitude—in the previous eight blessings He said “Blessed are the poor, the meek, the pure in heart—for THEY shall see God, THEY shall be called the sons of God, for THEIRS is the kingdom of heaven. They. Theirs. The ninth Beatitude is different—This just got personal.
Read MoreThe Beatitudes are the doorway to understanding Jesus’ teaching. If we get them wrong, we get everything wrong. It’s a question of how we see the world: Are we trying to do something so God will bless us? Or are we responding to God’s blessing in how we live our lives?
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