II Timothy 1:5 - Timothy was one of Paul’s most beloved disciples. This passage is about as emotional as we see him get. He is writing to one of his sons in the faith. “I know that you sincerely trust the Lord, for you have the faith of your mother and your grandmother.”

Towards the end of his life, Paul starts talking more not just about faith but of the spirit of faith. When you start talking about the spirit of something, you are talking about something someone has on them and something you can catch from them and pass on to others. There is your faith, and then there is the spirit of someone else’s faith. When Paul was raising up leaders, he talked a lot about catching his spirit and his faith.
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 Pastor Dean - March 5, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Why are we so passionate about church? Why are we so focused on living out and expressing our faith by our passion for what is important to God? Oftentimes we can become trapped in the mundaneness of life and miss the big picture. God is building His kingdom. And he is going to prevail because he loves the earth and its people. In that great love for the world, he designed this amazing plan to create an environment that he could dwell in, in the midst of us, so that we could move in and spread his spirit. This plan is the church. He is building his kingdom on earth by establishing his presence on earth through us.
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 Pastor Dean - January 27, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

God wants to bring heaven to Earth, and He wants the church to reflect what heaven is. The church has traditionally been more focused on going to heaven than on bringing the kingdom of heaven to Earth. Oftentimes, when Christians don’t like their lives, they focus on the second coming. However, when heaven gets inside of us and the kingdom of God is working inside of us and in our lives, we don’t want the second coming to arrive because we already understand the joy of living in God’s kingdom. Bringing God’s kingdom to Earth gives us glimpses of heaven everyday in our own lives.
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 Pastor Dean - Sunday, December 2, 2007: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Matthew 7 - A lot of people think that God is angry, judgmental and tired of humanity. But Jesus did not come to the Earth with a big stick. He brought grace, love, and compassion.

Obedience on the outside is RELIGION. Real obedience is about the heart. We cannot judge people by what we see on the outside - that is the mistake of religion. God wants us to choose to follow him. This is the point of a free will. This ensures that we are obedient on the inside…where it counts.
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 Pastor Dean - Sunday, November 11, 2007: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Matthew 5, 6 & 7 - The Kingdom of God is not a place we go – it is a way we live.

Money:
Matthew 6:19-24 – “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasure sin heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness and if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
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We are seeds in the Kingdom. We are called to grow, bear fruit and multiply. We do this not for our own ministry or purposes, but for God’s.

Jesus said, “My kingdom is like a seed.” He also likened the Kingdom of Heaven to a treasure buried in a field. The man that found it sold all the he had in order to purchase that field. The Kingdom that Jesus taught didn’t match the preconceived notions that people had about the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of His kingdom on Earth. At the time of Christ, Israel had been occupied and in captivity for more than 500 years. Many believed that the Messiah would come to defeat Israel’s enemies and liberate them from captivity. Jesus did come to do this, but not in the way they thought He would.
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 Pastor Dean - Sunday, October 28, 2007: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Matthew 5, 6 and 7 provide the manifesto of God’s Kingdom. Otherwise known as the “Sermon on the Mount,” in this famous passage Jesus lays out for us the true nature and purpose of God’s Kingdom and it’s reality to us in the here and now.

When you come to Christ, you have a lot of “un-learning” to do. As Christians, we are no longer living for ourselves, but are living to serve God in all that we do. We come to understand that we own nothing, but are merely stewards of the gifts and blessings that God has given to us during our time on the earth. The world is a kingdom of self, and its principles are totally opposite of those that Jesus is talking about in His description of the Kingdom.
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 Pastor Dean - Wednesday, October 24, 2007: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download