In the opening lines of John 15 Jesus clearly communicates ways His Father, the vinedresser would always be at work in our lives…but then he teaches us what actions we are to take in order to abide in him and thus be fruitful. I believe you’ll be encouraged and challenged as you listen in today, and we explore this teaching of Jesus, discovering how we can be active in seeking to continually abide in him by listening to His voice.

In the Scriptures, as the church was born and the gospel of Jesus spread throughout the world, a pattern became increasingly clear regarding leadership for the church. In the New Testament, each local church that was planted, at the appropriate time, was to have appointed for them a unified team of godly, Scripturally qualified, and diversely gifted elders (or overseers) to govern and shepherd the local church. Jesus being the Chief Shepherd perfectly modeled this kind of leadership, and spoke about it often in his teaching. Through his redemptive work on the cross and resurrection, Jesus has empowered by his Spirit leaders for his church that are marked by the same kind of courageous humility, servant heart, and care that he displayed. Our heart is to actively apply the teaching of Scripture to our context today by the leading of the Holy Spirit. If you are a part of Antioch Lake Cities, we are inviting you to be a part of this discernment process with us which I will share about toward the end of the message.

In this week’s episode we are continuing our series centered around the teaching of Jesus in John 15, where Jesus teaches his followers about the process of spiritual growth and bearing good fruit. He didn’t want this to be a mystery to us, but clearly wanted all his followers to know how God would be at work to help us abide in Him and bear much fruit. Right now God is at work pruning your life in many ways so that you can continue to bear fruit in this season. But what is pruning? How does it work? Why is it necessary? Listen in as we explore this teaching of Jesus and discover fresh ways God is at work to enable us to live fruitful lives.

In this week’s episode we are kicking off a new series centered around the teaching of Jesus in John 15, where Jesus teaches his followers about the process of spiritual growth and bearing good fruit. He didn’t want this to be a mystery to us, but clearly wanted all his followers to know how to abide in Him and thus live a fruitful life. In the opening lines of John 15 Jesus wants us to be keenly aware of what Father God is doing and how he would always be working to cause his people to bear fruit.

This summer, our church is engaging the book of Proverbs, seeking to apply God’s wisdom to the various areas in our lives. From the very beginning it has always been God’s desire that the first and primary expression of discipleship and training in God’s ways happen in the HOME. Today, there is a lot working against parents and grandparents in this call, but I believe as we lean into God’s Word, trusting His ways, we will be equipped to fulfill this great call to train children in the way of Jesus. In this message we learn from the Scriptures practically how to TRAIN UP our kids in the way of Jesus.

This summer, our church is engaging the book of Proverbs, seeking to apply God’s wisdom to the various areas in our lives. All throughout the Scriptures we see that our words really matter…they have power. In fact, Jesus says we will be held accountable for every word we utter. So thinking about what we say, and even further, why we say the things we say…is really important. In this message from, Grant Stine, we learn about life and death in the power of our tongue.

This summer, our church is engaging the book of Proverbs, seeking to apply God’s wisdom to the various areas in our lives. In this message, we learn from God’s Word about applying God’s wisdom to stewardship of finances!

This summer, our church is engaging the book of Proverbs, seeking to apply God’s wisdom to the various areas in our lives. In this message, we learn from God’s Word about the pursuit of wisdom.

This summer, our church is engaging the book of Proverbs, seeking to apply God’s wisdom to the various areas in our lives. In this message, we see how God’s wisdom intersects with the workplace where God has placed us to bring glory to his name.

We live in a world where the soul work underneath our physical work can be incredibly exhausting, yet finding rest for our souls is much harder than physical rest. This is why Jesus’ promise to give “rest to our souls” is so incredible. From the beginning of creation, God established the Sabbath as a sign throughout all generations that would point people to the cross of Jesus, where we find rest for our souls.

In this message we look at an incredible interaction at the foot of the cross between Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary. In this interaction, Mary, the mother of Jesus, serves as a godly example of motherhood for all mothers seeking to fulfill their glorious call and Jesus gives us an incredible example of how to honor our mothers.

The Bible addresses the issue of human sexuality with unrelenting frequency, urgency, and wisdom from cover to cover because God deeply cares for the well being of people. God intricately designed every physical detail of the human body, both male and female, and he designed the human sexual experience for a glorious purpose. Sin has distorted, twisted, and perverted all areas of life, especially the sexuality of humans. But Jesus death on the cross accomplished a sanctification in our physical bodies, and thus our sexuality, where now through our bodies God can be glorified!

The Scriptures describe marriage as a great mystery that is given its deepest meaning and revelation through the cross of Jesus. In this message we learn from the Scriptures how the gospel applies to marriage and empowers us to live the abundant life God intended from the beginning.

From the beginning it was God’s intention to display His glory through a multi-ethnic and diverse human race. Sin brought about separation and hostility between people, with racism being a fruit of sin. Jesus Christ came to deal with sin on the cross, making a way for people to be unified with God and thus unified with one another in Christ. Jesus died so that every tribe, nation, language, and people could be reconciled to God and reconciled with one another, and now as his followers it is our turn to play our part in fulfilling His ministry of reconciliation.

HIS HEART BEATS! The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the center point of history and central theme of Christianity. As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, we remember that through his sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead, we have also been raised to new life. In Christ we are a new creation and have a new identity, one that comes not from what we’ve done or what others have said, but from what God and done for us and said about us.

Many people (Christians and non-Christians alike) are familiar with the idea that Jesus saves. You may have heard someone talk about “getting saved” or “being saved”. The language of salvation is all through the Scriptures, but has been easily misunderstood or partially understood by people throughout the centuries. In this message we look through the teaching of Scripture to understand the gospel message of our salvation and how it impacts every moment of our lives past, present, and future.

Jesus humbled himself in becoming a man, but further humbled himself by becoming obedient to God’s will even to the point of death on the cross. It’s only through the lens of Jesus’ humbled obedience to God that taking up our cross daily in humble obedience begins to make any sense. In this message we explore the humble obedience of Jesus and what it means to receive Him as Savior and follow Him as Lord.

God doesn’t simply require innocence to enter his kingdom, he requires righteousness. But how could God possibly cancel our unrighteousness and establish our perfect righteousness in His sight while perfectly upholding His holy justice and righteousness? Upon the cross of Jesus our sin was paid for establishing our innocence before God, and at the same time Christ’s perfect righteousness was accomplished and credited to us as a gift. Therefore, God is both just and the justifier of those with faith in Jesus.

Learn from Jesus how God fully displayed his unrivaled glory (his character, nature, and ways) at the cross and invites us to behold him with unveiled face.

In Acts 2 we see a snap shot of the life, rhythms, and values of the early church as they continued the mission Jesus started in partnership with the Holy Spirit. In this message, special guest Drew Steadman, U.S. Director of Church Planting with the Antioch Movement shares stories of God’s continued work around the world and unpacks from the Scriptures the Acts 2 call God has for Antioch Lake Cities.