Hamilton Hills Church

The church is more organism than organization. Church is not man-made. Jesus Christ Himself started the church when He came to earth. It is the organism that Jesus started to bring about His Kingdom. But church is where we grow.

Have you ever met a bold or confident person? You know, the type of person that may even come across as a little intimidating? Maybe the boldness of this person attracted you or maybe you found it to be off-putting. If our confidence is not in Christ, we have a false sense of boldness, with can be “arrogance.” In order for the people of God to live bold lives, we need to serve God boldly.

You cannot be content while holding on to the chain of bitterness, resentment, and anger. When Christ died on the cross He didn’t just pay for your sin, He paid the price for you to release the chains and forgive others. When the chains fall off, and we forgive, we have the ability to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our Family members are the easiest to love, and the hardest to love...the easiest to bond and the easiest to be hurt by. God has given you your family for a purpose. In all its chaos, messiness, brokenness, and hurt. If your communication within your family does not line up with God’s Word, then you are doing the work of the enemy, intentionally or not. What conversation do you need to have with someone in your family?

We think of rest as something that helps us work more, but God views work as something we do so that we can rest. Resting in the Lord is not binge watching Netflix or scrolling social media, it is setting aside time to be still. Rest is a scheduled refueling of our souls. We need to find rest in our lives in order to be available to follow God's leading.

Many in our culture have a skewed view of faith in which certainty is demanded, doubt is shunned, and ironically, explanations are scarce. The bible teaches us to create a culture in our lives where questions are welcomed and where uncertainty is OK. When we talk with people in our lives that are not sure about the Bible and Jesus, we need to help them through their doubt.

We cannot walk in humility, unity, separation, light, love and wisdom apart from the empowering of the Holy Spirit. All believers in Jesus Christ have God's Spirit living within them, or dwelling within them but not all believers live filled or controlled by the Spirit's power. If we are obedient to Christ, filled with the Spirit and living in the fullness we will have no problem filling every position needed to function the local church.

The bible teaches us the importance of doing good with our lives, and to avoid being overtaken by lust, pleasures, envy, evil and hate.  When we have already submitted to the teaching of God’s word we will have the proper reflexes to the stressors and pressures of this world. We must commit ourselves to God and always be ready to do good.

Being totally committed means you are “Not Trying, You Are Training”. Allowing God to perfect His work in you, so that you can reflect Who He is and How He has changed your life so that other will see the work He has done. Committed doesn’t mean perfect. Committed doesn’t mean done. Committed doesn’t mean you are accomplished. The more your life mirrors and reflects the Good News of Jesus the more that you will have influence in the front row of your life. 

The model structure on the blueprint of a healthy church is that each one of us as Jesus-followers, model Jesus’ living through our lives. We all must live our lives as role models for others by standing for the truth and live out the truth that you have been taught and entrusted with. Maybe you feel like you haven’t been the role model, the mom, the dad, the friend, the example for Christ that you should be? God is able to help you if you turn to Him.

We can find a great blueprint for a healthy church in Paul’s letter to his disciple “Titus.” The more health the church is, the more health the people are. The healthier the people, the more influence you have to reach the people in your Oikos. The more the church grows, the more the Kingdom of God grows. We are called to be a church that is producing fruit.

Jesus talks about politics, but it may not be what you and I would think or want to hear. The religious law is much like the laws of today. Most laws and policies are connected to some form of morality. Where is your trust? Where are you giving God “Kingdom Reign.” Jesus doesn’t stop ruling and reigning based off of which candidate wins the election.

Pornography is scientifically more addictive than cocaine and heroine. Many children are seeing porn for the 1st time as early as 7-8 years of age. Temptation is NOT sin. Sinful actions are sin. Temptations are everywhere, but it is possible to have victory in the area of purity.  When we view pornography it takes us out of our reality. Separates us from what is real. We then start living in an alternate universe of fantasy. God can help you find victory over pornography.

What does scripture say about alcohol? The Old and New Testament both have a lot to say about the topic. This message breaks down all the details on how we can apply Biblical principles about alcohol in our lives. It is all about understanding what fills us and controls our lives.

From the moment a man and woman are married, they are unified in a mysterious way unlike any other human relationship. The book of Genesis tells us that marriage is to be a permanent bond between a man and a woman that joins them into one new union. God says that He hate divorce. However, God does not say He hates divorced people. Divorce is a difficult process that nobody likes going through. Our marriages often struggle because we seek after compatibility, physical needs, or sexual needs. We look for a spouse that will fulfill OUR hopes and dreams instead of finding someone that will fulfill God’s purpose and further His Kingdom.

Today we celebrate Mothers and everything they mean to us through their love and and support.  But on a day like today, with all the honor that is due mom’s, and rightfully so, we must also recognize that this day also is a day can also bring sorrow, hurt, and loss. So we look today into a passage in the book of Ruth. We may not compare our loss specifically to Ruth's story, but we all have dealt with a form of loss in our lives.

Although the Bible does not mention the word racism, it does speak to its root. It also mentions a lot about reconciliation among tribes, nations, and people. God gave us, on purpose, differences. It was intended to be beautiful. The sin we must face is not racism, but they lack of desire for reconciliation. Reconciliation between people that don’t think, act, look, or live like us.

Let's talk about sexual identity. It is one of the most avoided elephants in the church. The Enemy has used this topic to distort our vision and confidence in Christs love for us. The closer that our identity aligns with our Creator, the more we are living in our new nature in Christ. We must look at our own brokenness and where we might be finding our identity in anything but Christ.

God likes rebuilding broken things. He remakes the mistake, recreates the cremated, and refines the unfinished. Scripture tells us that God can take our very ashes and mourning and trade it for hope.

Jesus is the lamb, but He is also the Lion. He is not going to just concede the earth. He is going to refine it. Restore it. Heal it. This is the nature of God. Everything that was broken will be renewed and restored.