Marysville Christian Church Sunday Messages

Are you ever confronted with the pivotal moments in life and find yourself asking, "Okay God, what should I do next?" Chris honors our high school graduates as he points them to their relationship with God being key to those "next steps" moments.

People who believe in God would probably tell you that they want Him to work in their life. As long as it's the work they want done! But that mentality expects God to be my servant instead of my being God's servant! I'm pretty sure that's not the way following Jesus is supposed to work! So what can I learn from Acts 3-4 about letting God work in my life?

It's construction season in Ohio and the orange barrells are in full bloom! We even have detours currently to get to MCC. The thing about detours is you're never really sure where you are or how long it will take to get where you're going. We can get the same feeling when we're trying to let God work on us. What are we to do during these "detour moments"?

We look to Mothers to be a source of life and love. They nurture, protect, and encourage. They are self-sacrificing care-givers. Because of that, mothers also teach us how to trust. But life & people have a way of draining our willingness to trust others.

Jesus didn't tell us to BECOME the light of the world. He didn't say we MIGHT be the light of the world. He said we ARE the light of the world, as in, it's not optional. So whether we like it or not, what people think about Jesus is directly connected to our actions, our kindness and our generosity. The only question is: are we shining bright—or just flickering?

How do you make sense of something that doesn't make sense? Most of us freeze with indecision or “Paralysis by Analysis.” It's like trying to choose something to watch on Netflix but not being able to pick what show to watch. So, What do you do AFTER Easter? Can you even begin to imagine what it was like for Jesus' disciples after realizing: “He's Alive!?” What about you? How has His resurrection made a difference in your week?

Just because something is hard to believe, doesn't mean it's not true. The idea of Jesus being raised from the dead was initially hard to believe, even for His followers. Believing in the resurrection of Jesus is what separates followers of Jesus from every other faith. And it's the belief that God can do something that we can't even comprehend that gives us hope.

Can you even begin to imagine what it was like for Barabbas to watch another man nailed to his cross? How do you even begin to wrap your head around what just happened to you? Your guilt was no secret, but an innocent man was just beaten and executed in your place! God allowed Jesus to be treated like Barabbas, so Barabbas would be treated like Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could be right with God." So, are you willing to let the mercy of God & the willing sacrifice of Jesus humble you?

While Jesus offered peace, comfort and joy, He also created self-examination in areas we'd rather Him not make public. Are you absolutely sure you would have wanted to be in the crowd?

Our Message from our 50 year celebration service! We are excited to celebrate 50 years as a church together.  We have seen that God has been faithful through all sorts of circumstances.  And He will help us to operate in faith for the future!

Have you ever felt stuck between grace and guilt? Intellectually we believe God, in His grace and that He's willing to forgive us. But emotionally, we struggle to forgive ourselves. Today we look at how forgiveness takes place in God's heart, but healing has to happen in our heart. Ultimately, the Bible tells us God wants us to get past our guilt.

When God shows up in someone's life, the first thing He tells them is, “Don't be afraid.” When His angels announced the arrival of God-in-the-flesh, they sang of “Peace on Earth.” In a storm that convinced His disciples they were going to die, Jesus said: “Peace be Still.” And when He was preparing His friends to face the future, His reassurance was the same, "I'm giving you My peace, not the world's peace. Don't let your hearts be troubled or afraid." But, despite this, we struggle and end up asking ourselves, "Is that kind of inner peace even possible?"

In our walk we so often miss that there are contrasting paths for the Godly and Ungodly. One thing in this is true, what controls your mind will determine your future. Our special guest speaker shows us how our meditation and delight makes a difference in our lives.

At church we gather in gratitude to God for washing away our guilt. We say and we may even believe it but often times we still end up asking ourselves. “How Can I Stop Feeling Guilty?”

Where would you go, if you could travel back in time? Are there moments IN YOUR OWN LIFE that you wish you could re-visit? We all have those moments we wish we could change! We often find ourselves, "Why do I keep doing the things that make me feel guilty?”

Why do we feel so guilty? We often miss that guilt is the result of ignoring God. We end up becoming temporarily numb to His will but when that numbness wears off, we begin to feel the guilt. We lay awake at night, asking ourselves, “How did we get here?”

God can use anything to create a blessing.  That's the point made in 2 Corinthians 1:4, “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.   When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”  Believing God can use anything in life will Prepare Your Heart for the New Year.

A lot of people think all religions are the same. Why? They assume all religions teach how man expresses his devotion to his god. But Christianity is different, because Jesus teaches how God expresses His devotion to man. Knowing that will prepare your heart to live the New Year!

Have you ever wanted to pray, but couldn't find the words ? Focus on being in His presence and your heart will do the rest. Because prayer prepares our heart for the unknown.

Preparing Your Heart for a Happy New Year is more than just making resolutions to change our behavior. Real, Meaningful Life Change comes from the inside. This begins with the heart. But what does it mean to guard the heart?

Meaningful, real-life change begins in the heart.  That's why if you want your life to be blessed by God this year you need to start with this thought from the Psalms, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  The Word of God Reveals the Life Blessed by God.  So, the more we reflect on God's Truth about life, the more motivated we are to change our life.

8% of people actually keep their New Years Resolutions.  Of those that fail, 80% of them fail by the 2nd week of February.  So, why are we so bad at change?  Most New Years resolutions reflect external, behavioral changes, but real life-change begins in the heart and flows out into our life choices.  We will focus on this as we talk about how to prepare our hearts for a Happy New Year!

The list of songs in the 60s about loneliness is endless, because it's such a familiar emotion.  That's why the Angel's birth announcement of Jesus as ‘Immanuel- God With Us' brings hope.  We're desperate for the comfort, courage & strength found in His promise: “I am with you.”

God is with us in the valleys. That's where we learn to trust Him. God is with us in the wilderness. That's where we learn we can depend on Him. God is with us in the storms of life. That's where we learn He brings us peace. But what about the times we are in doubt?

Sometimes we're able to just sail along through life with blue skies & calm waters. Life is good! But sometimes, the storm clouds roll in and suddenly you're in a storm that scares you to death. The thing we have to remember in the middle of these storms is we are never alone. God is With Us!

Matthew 1:23 says “Look, the virgin will conceive a child. She'll give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us.”  We encounter the presence of God at different times in our lives.  During the lowest of valleys and the high-points in life.  A lot of times it's when we feel like we're wandering in a wilderness. Regardless, we need to remember that the darkest moment becomes a gift, when it drives us to depend on God.

Our new series, “God with Us!” is from the angel's message to Joseph in Matthew 1:23.  "The virgin will conceive a child! She'll give birth to a son.   They will call Him Immanuel, which means God with us."  The promise of God's Presence is something all of us need, especially when life gets confusing. We crave that kind of re-assurance in a world that's constantly changing.  And that was exactly what God promised that first Christmas!

When you walk with Jesus, you learn to be Grateful! The Pessimistic become More Positive. The stressed out find peace. You'll find that with gratitude your health improves, and your relationships improve. That's because gratitude changes everything!

Walking with Jesus takes faith. But what does that mean? What gets in the way of our "faith walk"?

Have you ever prayed for a miracle? If you have, it was probably because you already believed and were desperate for God's help. Or it may have been because you were looking for a reason to believe like others. When you walk with Jesus, there will be miracles!

Most democrats, republicans, and independents agree that our country is headed in the wrong direction.  It can leave us feeling hopeless at times.  So, what are Christians who walk with Jesus called to do?  The first and most vital thing is to pray.  What should we be praying for?

Political ads can make us weary. So often they sound like little kids arguing with each other. Negative attacks don't just sting, they also stick with us. When we are walking with Jesus, we are reminded who the real enemy is.

If you think ‘Walking with Jesus' is a ‘Walk in the park', remember that God may actually wreck your plans. If you've ever thought ‘I wish God would just tell me what to do!” but when He does show up, He just might take you in a totally different direction! Are you ready to surrender and follow Jesus?

How do you know who you can trust?  A good question with our upcoming election coming up.  Granted, it's really tempting to decide that you're not going to trust anyone! The bigger question is do we really trust God?  This is vital if we are to truly walk with Him.

Have you figured out the one thing that God wants you to focus on in life? How do we find that one thing? When we look at it through our perspective, we get it wrong. That's why we need to stop shift our perspective to truly see things through the eyes of God.

Have you ever had those random thoughts and wonder, “what's wrong with me??” So often we don't understand why we act the way we do. Romans tells us that we “don't do what we know is right, but I do the things I hate.” One thing we need to realize is that if we're going to walk with Jesus, God wants us to overcome temptations.

When God looked at the world He had created, He said that it was “good”. But there came a time when God looked at the world and saw that people had changed. Despite that God in all of his mercy did not give up on us! 1 Timothy 2 says, “God wants everyone to be saved and to know the whole truth. There is only one God, and Christ Jesus is the only one who can bring us to God. Jesus was truly human, and he gave himself to rescue all of us.”

There is an unseen world all around us, that is just as real as the one you see today.  Jesus even spoke about this “unseen world” in Matthew 25:41. Even though it may be hard to explain or comprehend, that doesn't mean it's not real. When you look at life through the eyes of God, you'll realize there is a spiritual world, and knowing that will change how we live our life.

Nobody wants to live in a constant sense of failure, guilt, or shame. Trying to live up to someone else's expectations can be exhausting and demoralizing. If I can't ever be good enough for your approval, why should I even bother trying? That's why a lot of people leave jobs, relationships or church. It leaves us with one question that can overwhelm us, "Can I be good enough for God??"

Many Christians get so focused on God as Father & Jesus as His Son and unfortunately the Spirit of God becomes ‘that unnecessary Other Guy'!  We will sometimes view the Holy Spirit like the multiple silverware at a fancy restaurant, not knowing what to do with the tiny fork.  But 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us, “God gave us a Spirit, not of Fear but of Power, Love & Self-Control.”  There is so much more to the significance to the Holy Spirit in our lives.

If we want an answer to the question “Why are we here?” we need to explore a few other questions first. Questions like “Who created this world?”, “Why was this world created?”, and “Is there hope for this world?”  We explore these questions on part one of our new series, “Looking at Life Through the Eyes of God.”

Can we know God's will for our life?  The simple answer would be yes.  Unfortunately, God is more interested in revealing his will than we are in receiving His will.  That's why the biggest challenge in ‘living our faith' isn't ignorance but too often it is obedience.

How does pride and prejudice affect the way you live your faith? No, we are not talking about some quaint English Romance novel by Jane Austen. The Bible tells us that what we believe about God affects how we treat others. After all, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God and then to love your neighbor as yourself. Unfortunately, how we treat others is usually determined by what we believe about them. That's why our pride and prejudice can get in the way of living our faith.

What does the Holy Spirit actually do for us? Unfortunately, a lot of Christians view the Holy Spirit like a Participation Trophy. Everybody gets one, but does it really mean anything? But when you gotta live your faith, can the Holy Spirit really help or make a difference?

The world so often tries to get us to compromise our Christian convictions and follow it's pattern instead. Where does this lead us? How do we overcome this. Our special guest speaker Chris Clinger explores this as we go into Romans 12.

It can be hard to live your faith, when your heart's been broken! So much of the Christian faith can be summed up by the word “love”. But how can I live my faith and love others or for that matter, allow myself to be loved when the situations of life have hardened me?

What, exactly, is faith? Is it something you believe or think? Is it a mental acknowledgment that God is real? Is it an emotional response to an experience? In today's message we look at this to realize that real faith has to be more than what we think or feel. Real faith is what we live!

When you're a young child, the world is full of wonder and hope.   Anything is possible! Until you experience certain realities of life.  There's no greater sense of disappointment than when you disappoint yourself.  But know that failure does not make you a failure!  The Bible is full of stories about real-life people who learned to trust God instead of themselves.  They were convinced that God is greater than their disappointment.  We need to understand that faith isn't just something you believe about God it is something we have to live!

Nobody has to teach us to be selfish. It just comes naturally to us. No parent has ever sat their kid down & had that hard talk: “You're being too thoughtful!” No one should be surprised when a child's behavior is ‘Self-Centered'. But how does being ‘Self-Centered' affect our sense of ‘Why Church is Important'? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marysvillechristian/message

For the past several years, our lives have been dictated by worry about being contagious. But not everything infectious is necessarily bad.  Such as things like a yawn, smiles, or even kindness.  The thing to consider is the thought of people asking, “Why do we need church?” if the church was contagious? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marysvillechristian/message

Every Christian church since the days of Jesus has practiced baptism in one form or another.  But how and why they baptize is frequently done differently.  Some baptize infants and others baptize adults. Some sprinkle, some pour & others dunk you like a donut!  But underlying this we cannot escape the question, “Why does the church think baptism is such a big deal?” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marysvillechristian/message