Harris Creek Baptist Church

Do you ever feel tired as you try to live out your Christian faith? What does living faithfully for Jesus over a long period of time entail? As we continue our series, Family Matters, JP teaches through Hebrews 12:1-4, showing us the Christian life is a race and helping us understand what to expect as we run the race. KEY TAKEAWAYS-Just because you are tired doesn’t necessarily mean you are doing the Christian life wrong. You might be, but not necessarily.-Those who have gone before us in the faith from Hebrews 11 are witnessing—speaking—to us that it's worth it.-There are obstacles to the long run of faithfulness.-There are things in your life that aren't sin that hinder your faith. What are those things for you? Sports, fitness, your team, your job, shopping, social media, fishing…what is it for you?-Sin will literally weigh you down and affect you the longer you give yourself to it and hide it.-There is opposition in the long run of faithfulness.-There is no cruise control in Christianity.-The more you resist sin the more you are able to resist sin.-If you live your life by seeking out things that require little faith, you will continue to have little faith. On the contrary, when you pursue things that require more faith, your faith will grow.-When you persevere in the moment that you want to give up, you will get stronger.-People will ultimately always let you down. Jesus will never let you down.-Jesus is the object of our long run of faithfulness.-Grace both saves and sanctifies you. Only by the strength of the Holy Spirit and by daily surrendering your life can you live out good works in the Christian life.-The only way to make it through the Christian life is to preach the gospel to yourself every single day.-What are your eyes fixed on? What target are you aiming at? What race are you running? MENTIONED OR RECOMMENDED RESOURCES-Suggested Scripture Study: Hebrews 12:1-4; Galatians 5:7; 2 Timothy 4:7; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Isaiah 40:31; Psalm 119:32; Romans 5:3; James 1:2-4; Galatians 3:3; Hebrews 11-Sermon: Community

Have you ever had roommates before, or been in close proximity with other people for extended periods of time? What about living by yourself, or being alone for long periods of time? As we continue our series, Family Matters, Nate Hilgenkamp teaches us three characteristics of biblical community and the dangers of isolation by studying 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18. KEY TAKEAWAYS-Doing life with other people can be hard, but isolation is even harder and more dangerous.-Biblical community identifies needs.-There are three types of Life Groups: starving, exhausted, and potluck.-Starving groups are hungry and show up looking for other people to feed them. Everyone hopes everyone else does what they aren’t willing to do (and no one does anything).-Exhausted groups are busy doing too much all the time. They are so busy feeding others that they themselves get exhausted and worn out.-Potluck groups are made up of people where everyone brings something. Sometimes it’s more and sometimes it’s less, but what’s important is that people come and come ready.-Are you willing to lovingly call your brother or sister out when they are being idle or disruptive?-Do you care more about what people will think about you if you lovingly confront them or what will happen to them if they stay on a path of disobedience?-Someone who is disheartened does not need a lecture, a bunch of knowledge, or a list of things to do. They need someone to kindly care for them.-Don’t underestimate the power of empathy.-Sympathy feels bad for someone, empathy feels bad with someone.-When someone is hurting and you don’t know what to do, just do something. Send a text, make a call, bring a meal…just do something.-Does your group need to do a better job of challenging each other or caring for each other?-Biblical community is selfless.-When you are on mission together, your needs and desires are the last thing on your mind.-There is a huge difference between a vacation mindset and a mission mindset. Church…we are on mission! There is an enemy who hates us and we are at war against him.-Are you seeking the good of those around you or the good of yourself?-Biblical community rejoices.-No other religion or ideology can claim continual joy, prayer, and gratitude.-Christian community doesn’t make sense without Christ and the reality that this world is not our home.-Do you spend more time in community talking about the things and problems of this world or about Jesus and being on mission for Him?-When you gather together, remind yourselves of the gospel. Every single time! MENTIONED OR RECOMMENDED RESOURCES-Suggested Scripture Study: 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18-Sermon: Love

How do you know if someone is a Christian? Is it based on what they wear? How they talk? As we continue our series, Family Matters, JP teaches us how you can know if someone is a Christian by examining the Great Commandment in Matthew 22.KEY TAKEAWAYS-You are saved based on what you believe about the gospel. What you believe about Jesus Christ—who He is and what He did for you on the cross—is the only thing that impacts your salvation.-What you believe—if you really believe it—will impact how you behave.-One of the greatest offenses to God is claiming that you are a Christian and then living however you want with no regard to what God or His Word says.-When Jesus taught the Great Commandment, He was saying if you love God and love others, all the do’s and don’ts of the 613 laws in the Old Testament will take care of themselves.-Followers of Jesus are marked by love for God.-When you don’t feel God, you can still obey Him. He is the God of your emotions.-Love looks like obedience to God. Obedience to God leads to joy.-Joy is born out of a life of service to others.-What do you do that makes you love God more? Do more of those things!-Followers of Jesus are marked by love for others.-Loving your neighbor like yourself looks like putting their needs above your own.-When Jesus taught people to love their neighbor, He told a story about loving someone who all the listeners would have hated.-Love: inconveniencing yourself for the good of someone else.-Christians should treat everyone the way a loving mother treats her baby. Everyone.-When you villainize someone who disagrees with you on a topic, you have moved away from love.-Did you know that God has used global pandemics in the past to explode and grow Christianity all over the world?-Are people coming closer to Jesus based on how you are responding to the Covid pandemic?-Love is the Christian’s uniform.-It’s no accident that love is the first fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5.-People all around you are lost and looking to find their way. If you are a Christian, you have the answer and you know the way.-When is the last time you inconvenienced yourself for the good of someone else? Did something that is naturally difficult for yourself for their good?MENTIONED OR RECOMMENDED RESOURCES-Suggested Scripture Study: Matthew 22:34-40; 1 John 5:3; John 15:9-13; Romans 5:8; John 13:34-35-Sermon: Discipleship

Have you ever been discipled by someone? Have you ever discipled someone? As we start our new series, Family Matters, JP teaches us about discipleship…what it is and what it means for our lives today.KEY TAKEAWAYS-Discipleship: Spending time with people to help them follow Jesus.-How are you, in this season of your life, going to faithfully live out the Great Commission?-When the disciples doubted Jesus—even after he resurrected from the dead—He went to them. He pursued them.-The authority of Jesus assures us.-Do you spend more time following your own plans for your life or Jesus’ plan for your life?-The church is the most powerful force the world has ever seen.-The commission of Jesus compels us.-A command tells you what to do. A commission invites you into a mission with someone else.-How do you change the world? One word: discipleship.-Anytime you see maturity you should see immaturity. A mature church without any immature people is a dying church.-To make disciples, focus your life on following Jesus.-If you focus on everything you can “do” for Jesus, all of the “don’ts” in your life will take care of themselves.-Dying to yourself and hating your life in this world is the way Jesus gave us to experience eternal life.-A disciple of Jesus does everything they can to follow Jesus and help others follow Jesus.-One way—one of the main ways the Bible teaches—to experience closeness with Jesus is to suffer for Him.MENTIONED OR RECOMMENDED RESOURCES-Suggested Scripture Study: Matthew 28:16-20; 2 Timothy 2:4; Matthew 16:13-20; John 12:24-26; 1 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Timothy 2:1-3

Have you ever been in a situation where you are trying your absolute best but no matter what you do your efforts are in vain? Where you try your best and your best isn’t good enough? As we finish our series, BC, Nate Hilgenkamp teaches us about God’s presence in times of trouble as we study the life of Elijah in 1 Kings 19.KEY TAKEAWAYS-Oftentimes in life your greatest successes are followed by your greatest disappointments.-When life gets hard and you are tired, what do you run to?-God will give you more than you can handle.-Sometimes life is simply hard. Our trouble is not that we don’t love God and don’t have faith. It’s the reality that we currently live in a fallen world.-When God asks Elijah what he’s doing, Elijah answers about everyone else, but not himself. He focused on what everyone else isn’t doing rather than answering the Lord about what he was doing.-Our God is not simply powerful, but present. -God will be close in your discomfort.-Why do we feel closer to God in the pain? Why can we hear the whisper when life is hard but not other times? Because our lives are too busy and too loud.-We can establish disciplines of silence and solitude. Of slowing down. Disciplines of spending time with the Lord to hear Him all the time, and not just when life is hard.-God will restore your purpose.-How often are your greatest anxieties something that God has already taken care of?-You might not be getting attacked by the enemy because you are not out on mission against him…you are dwelling in a self-created cave. You are a cave dwelling Christian.-Close encounters with Jesus change everything.-You can’t have God’s power without His presence, and vice versa. He is a God of both.

Have you ever met someone who was consistent and faithful in most of their life but had an area of life that was confusing or disobedient? What about you? Where in your life are you justifying a behavior that simply doesn’t make sense? That’s sinful? As we continue our sermon series, BC, Scott Kedersha teaches us about false gods and the one true God by examining the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.KEY TAKEAWAYS-Decide who you are going to follow.-Do you act one way in some settings and another way in other settings?-God’s Word does not speak well toward those who are lukewarm in their faith toward God.-Christians who are inconsistent—who are hypocritical—are one of the greatest causes of atheism today.-A false god never delivers.-What false god are you prone to worship? The result of a college sports event? The engagement on a social media post? Your house, car, or income? What is it for you?-There is no binge apart from Jesus that will ever fill you up.-The true God always delivers.-God loves to stack the deck against Himself and then flex.-Any battle that involves God isn’t really a battle.-If the Lord is God, then follow Him.

Have you ever had an injury that caused you to walk with a limp? Experienced something in life that left a mark and changed you? As we continue our sermon series, BC, Drew Greenway teaches us about how wrestling with God gives us a new identity, intimacy, and humility as he examines the story of Jacob wrestling with God.KEY TAKEAWAYS-It’s through the valleys in life that we grow the most.-If you can worry about it you can pray about it.-Wrestling with God gives new identity.-It was when Jacob was finally alone that he experienced God’s presence.-We worship a God who is willing to get in the mess with us.-If your identity is in anything other than Christ, it is an idol. You are not your enneagram number, your sin struggle, or your accomplishments.-Wrestling with God gives intimacy.-Jacob’s encounter with God is the closest encounter with God in the entire Old Testament.-Have you ever felt like God was distant?-When you face hardship, you have two choices: run to God or run away from God. That’s it.-To gain intimacy with God you must give up control.-Wrestling with God gives humility.-Only in the Christian life does surrender bring victory.-God’s economy takes worldly wisdom and flips it on its head.-What does God want you to surrender? What is He asking you to relinquish control of?-Are you harboring bitterness toward someone? Are you running away from God?-God may leave you limping toward Heaven so you aren’t running toward hell.-Our wounds remind us of our identity in Christ.

Has there any been a time in life where you knew the rules and expectations but you broke them anyway? Where you disobeyed (no matter how small the offense)? As we continue our series, BC, Jon Green teaches us about the cost of disobedience by examining the downfall of King Saul.KEY TAKEAWAYS-Saul was the very first king of Israel. He was handsome, tall, and wealthy. He’s the type of guy everyone would want to follow.-Never fear (the) people more than God.-All 66 books of the Bible point to Jesus. The Bible is one story pointing to God’s redemption of fallen humanity through Christ.-If you were alone and enemies were coming toward you, what would you do? Would you take a shortcut and go against something you know God forbids?-The desire to be accepted and fit in is part of the human experience. However, God created us to find our acceptance in Him, not other people.-Where are you prone to find acceptance in people as opposed to God?-Never get ahead of God.-Are you numb to your sin? Today can be your day to confess and bring it into the light.-If we are in sin, we pin our sins on other people and normalize things that are against the ways of God.-Your feelings are real, but they are not always reliable.-If your feelings are the driving force behind your decisions you are going to experience hurt and disappointment in life.-There are plenty of commands throughout the Bible—both the Old and New Testament—we treat like suggestions and ignore.-Self-reliance is completely contradictory and opposed to the gospel.-Disobedience always comes at a cost.-Sin always had consequences. Always.-There is always a ripple effect to your sin. It never hurts or impacts just you.-You are only fooling yourself if you think you can get away with your sin.-God’s instructions aren’t to rob us of freedom. They are to give us discipline, which leads to freedom.-Don’t be someone who starts well and then falls. Trust Christ—every single day—and finish well as you trust in Him.MENTIONED OR RECOMMENDED RESOURCES-Suggested Scripture Study: 1 Samuel 13:5-15; 1 Samuel 12:14-15; Galatians 1:10; 1 Samuel 12:20-24; Romans 6:1-2; Romans 6:1-2-Sermon: David and Goliath

Have you ever met someone who has great faith in something? What about you? Where in life are you most prone to put your faith? As we continue our series, BC, Rich Bartel teaches us about misplaced faith and properly placed faith by studying the story of David and Goliath.KEY TAKEAWAYS-Misplaced faith leads to arrogance.-Sometimes when we experience success we forget the grace of God and forget all the people who helped us along the way.-What’s the source of your arrogance? Where have you misplaced your faith?-Misplaced faith leads to fear.-What comes through the “what if Rolodex” of your mind when you lay down at night?-God is enough. Period.-What do you fear? Why?-David did what David had always done. He was a servant and a shepherd. Serving others, protecting his flock, and trusting in God, his Shepherd.-What is God asking you to do that requires great faith?-Faith placed in God always prevails.-David believed God when life brought obstacles his way. He knew God would prevail when circumstances suggested otherwise.-Where does your mind and heart go when you are faced with obstacles and challenges?-You are not David and you never will be. God doesn’t bring Goliath’s in your life, and He doesn’t ask you to channel your inner David. He asks you to trust in Christ.MENTIONED OR RECOMMENDED RESOURCES-Suggested Scripture Study: 1 Samuel 17; Proverbs 16:18; James 4:6; James 4:6; 2 Chronicles 16:9-Sermon: Naaman and Elisha