The Tree Church

There is a tension that happens in the life of a person who is actively seeking after Jesus. The tension is this: How do I know what I’m called to do? This tension is not resolved in a one-time answer such as a profession. This tension happens frequently…maybe even daily as the amount of needs seem to far outweigh the resources we are able to give. Lean how to discover what God is calling you to and how to have peace with what He isn’t.

Jesus heals & saves us so that we will in turn serve. The problem for us is that the place we are where we needed to be saved from, to us becomes a disqualifier for us being used. Our past becomes a roadblock to our future, but that's never what Jesus intended. Just the opposite. Where we are saved from is the exact place He wants us to serve from. Our testimony is intentional so that we can reach specific people.

Our enemy (satan) doesn’t have any real power against us so he uses manipulation and strategy. He finds our vulnerabilities and then tries to exploit them with lies. The only way we can combat it is through the truth of God’s Word and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The message of Jesus demands a response and unfortunately, just as the people really rejected Jesus' message, we do the same. The only proper response to Jesus' message is to dedicate our lives to Him. No matter how hard or sacrificial the message of Jesus, it has to become the standard for our lives. We might have to give it all up, but it's worth it. It's also the only way to experience life...we must die.

The temptations of Jesus were unique to Jesus but the strategy behind them is the same for our temptations. satan always tries to give us a shortcut to whatever God has called us to. But God's path not only leads to life but IS life.

This message covers the genealogy of Jesus. What seams like a hard passage to teach is really a list of God’s power and grace and how He enacts His plan to come into the world through broken, dysfunctional, unimportant (to the world) nobodies.

The Holy Spirit fills the life of a believer so that he/she can accomplished the otherwise impossible task of making disciples.

The presence of God is one of the greatest gifts of God. His presence represents defense, guidance, and salvation. It did then and still does today. We have to make it a priority though. We have to make it/Him a priority as Jesus did. So many of our mental, spiritual, emotional and physical problems could be resolved in the presence of God.

God should get the first and best part of everything we have because God has given us everything we have. God gave first and we are simply giving back as a sign we recognize where it all comes from. Jesus was the fulfillment of the first born being consecrated to God. His consecration as a baby was the most powerful foreshadowing of what He would do later as He laid down His life to redeem every person back to God.

Easter weekend 2014: Striving For Life

Repentance prepares our lives for what Jesus wants to do. John was given the purpose of preparing the way for Jesus and he preached for people to repent. This is still true today.

When we follow Mary’s pattern, we are living out the gospel. We have nothing, we give all we have, God multiplies it and we gain it all.

Hebrews 12:1-11 states that we are to endure hardships as discipline. Discipline is not just a punishment but a preparation for a task the same way conditioning in sports prepares athletes for the season ahead. God’s ways will always be mysterious.

Luke was a physician and made huge sacrifices to write the book of Luke. He did three major things that can serve as examples for us: He sacrificed, he searched (for the truth) and he proclaimed it.

Embracing the love of God is the only way to experience life at its fullest.

HEALTHY church growth happens on a step-by-step progression. With each step you take, you must develop the necessary systems/processes that prepare/qualify you to take the next step. Small groups (Connect Groups) are key to LCC's next level of growth.

In the story of Josiah, who restored the kingdom of Israel back to God, we learn that we must not look to the left or right but stay focused through hard work.

It takes death to experience life which means laying our lives down as a sacrifice. We get life when die (take up cross). The way we are healthy and living is to die to ourselves.

Each one of us have expectations but when those expectations don’t turn out like we expect, we have to decide how we respond. Many times our response is one of distrust rather than trust. What God wants us to do is to choose to have faith in Him which allows us to trust in times of uncertainty.

We will only accomplish great things if we are generous. We know Jesus was/is generous and we are supposed to be like Him. So why aren’t we? The reason we aren’t generous at times is of a flawed perspective, fear and selfishness. Jesus had two things about His nature that guaranteed generosity…LOVE and FAITH and these two things change our perspective and produce generosity.