"the big picture" Tagged Sermons

3 Faith Increasing Beliefs

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given unto him.  But he must ask in faith, without doubting…” (James 1:5-6a) We are called Believers, not Feelers.  We are a Faith-Based Community and not a community of Thinkers.   Our feelings, thoughts and actions are meant to follow our FAITH.  Instead, we allow our thoughts, emotions and experiences shape our faith.   When we believe God’s…

A Culture of Faith & Risk

Faith is confidence in God–that God is who He says He is and that we are who He says we are.  Faith is confidence in the voice that comes from the One we cannot see.  Without faith it is impossible to please God, yet we almost always see faith as the way to see miracles instead of the way to enter into a deeper, more trusting relationship with a Good Dad (see Hebrews 11:6).  It is from the midst of…

A Culture of Joy

 God says, “I made you awesome and unique, to bring glory to My name!” and then we add in the fine print “And you will be miserable and unhappy and won’t have any fun at all”. (Pastor Les) Whenever joy is brought up really good Christians often go on a rant about how God doesn’t care about us being happy or about having fun.  It is almost as if any conversation exploring joy must be shut down before someone smiles…