matthew 16:18-16

Our Mission is to evangelize our local communities by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with love and to make Disciples of Christ by teaching biblical Truth.

We have a story to tell - if you never set out on the adventure, it's the same old story.

We have a story to tell - if you never set out on the adventure, it's the same old story.

It seems sometimes that God has a great sense of humor. When we look at the things and people that He uses to accomplish His purpose, we have to smile. It is not really a sense of humor, but a sense of knowing. He sees things that you and I cannot see, He knows things that you and I cannot know. We look at our lives and conclude that we are not worthy or capable of being used because of our temper, our background, or some other excuse we use to discount our usefulness to the Kingdom. Our world targets and pursues the darkest and lowest part of us. We become convinced that we cannot overcome what we are and who we are, so we limit ourselves by our own doubts, fears and judgements. We wish for ourselves to be different to overcome a temper, shyness, carnality or other thing that we observe about ourselves. We look for solutions to these self inflicted limitations, but we often look in the wrong place. In our first text, the angel of the Lord refers to Gideon as a mighty man of valor. Gideon’s response could have been uttered by one of us as he denied that he was anything close to mighty. The bible says that the Angel appeared to Gideon. The original word from the hebrew that is translated as appeared means that the Angel looked out Gideon. God intentionally sought Gideon with expectancy. In Matthew, Jesus ask the disciples “who do men say I am” Simon responds that “Thou art the Christ.” Jesus turns to Simon and declares that “Thou art Peter” and goes on to describe him as a rock. At that moment, Simon Peter felt that he was anything but a rock. In the coming days, Peter would deny even knowing Jesus. Jesus knew all of this, but still saw the man who would deliver the sermon on the day of Pentecost. Jesus called him in the present, what God was going to make him in the future. What God is saying about us is more important than what people or circumstances are saying about us. Jesus saw below all that was evident on the surface at that moment, and referred to him as he would be in the future. How can we call ourselves anything but what we are? God sees not what we are, where we have been or what we have done, but He sees what we can be. Jesus did not say “You ought to be Peter” He said “You ART Peter” God sees in us something that our sin, and shortcomings cannot cover up. God is here right now and He wants to look us out of what we think we are. The devil will bring up our past, what we have failed to be, and how we have missed the mark. God will never do that, and He sees past all of that to what we can be. God wants to look us out of that. God trying to say to each of us: “Thou Art”

There is power in gathering together. When we team together, life get's more real and God is more involved.

There is power in gathering together. When we team together, life get's more real and God is more involved.

There is power in gathering together. When we team together, life get's more real and God is more involved.

There is power in gathering together. When we team together, life get's more real and God is more involved.

Listen as Pastor Mark shares how we get to be part of God's activity in the world and that we have a great purpose.