Sermon Media

Christmas Eve 2016 worship service

Despite our most fervent prayers, there are times when God doesn't show up the way we want him to. The cancer isn't cured. The company fails. The foreclosure goes through. In this message, Bobby tells us what to look for when it feels like God is ignoring our cries for help.

For 400 years, God did not speak to the Jewish people. The promise of a coming Messiah at the end of the Old Testament era was beginning to get lost in the stunning silence. And generation after generation of people died and there was no fulfillment of that promise. They prayed and they waited and they prayed and they waited. Some remained faithful while many of the Jews peeled off into other things and abandoned their faith because they concluded it must be a myth or a fairy tale. But there were some who, in spite of the absence of God’s voice, held on to the promise, even after 400 years of “Silent Nights”.

The opposite of confidence is doubt. Life is too short to spend it doubting – doubting our abilities, our faith, our convictions, and most of all God’s plan for our life. One of the basic truths of Christianity is that God has a purpose for your life. We will discover a great action plan from the Bible to help overcome doubts and live the life God has for us.

Creek’s End partners with communities and orphanages around the world through the organization Coreluv International. We work in impoverished areas to provide an orphan's six basic needs and to see hope returned to children, families and communities across nations. Mike Reiszner, the founder of Coreluv, will share with us how we can go beyond ourselves and rise up to defend the orphan, for they cannot defend themselves.

If you ask most people what you have to do to get into heaven (assuming they believe in heaven or an afterlife), the overwhelming response will be some form of “being a good person.” Most, if not all, religions and worldly philosophies are ethically based. Whether it’s Islam, Judaism, or secular humanism, the teaching is common that getting to heaven is a matter of being a good person—following the Ten Commandments or the precepts of the Quran or the Golden Rule. In this message we will learn from Jesus that being good is not good enough.

You can believe all of the right things, but if you don’t apply what you believe to your life, it is useless to you. Bobby will show us that faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. God will use what you believe to preserve your life, finances, and family through applying what you believe. That’s a better choice.

Does forgiving someone mean they get away with it? If not, why does it feel so good to hold a grudge? In this message, we will hear an explanation of how Jesus’ death on the cross teaches us to release the grip of our grudges. We can choose better —to forgive.