Marriage is not like a Hallmark movie. Sure, there's special moments where you'll look at each other's eyes and all is right with the world, but as your love matures, those moments are typically an exception and not the rule. As Pastor Ricky reminds us in today's message, that doesn't mean that something's wrong with your relationship. It means that you're real people with real problems. Enjoy the mountaintops but seek God to do the hard work of pushing through together when you're in the valleys.
Gospel Culture - Should I Get Married, Part 1
Contentment isn't dependent on our circumstances. As Pastor Ricky continues our study in 1 Corinthians today, he'll encourage us to be content in whatever place we find ourselves in life. If you're single, it can be a gift. You might long for a companion, but marriage isn't going to solve your problems. Only God can provide the fulfillment that you actually long for. If you're married don't romanticize singleness. Your marriage is an opportunity for growth for both you and your spouse, whether it's easy or hard.
Gospel Culture - How Can I Be Content with What I Have and Who I Am, Part 2
Marriage, and really all kinds of relationships, can be as challenging as they are a blessing. God designed us to need community and the help of our fellow humans, but because of sin, we're cursed to be let down, and we'll let others down as well. As Pastor Ricky warns us in today's message, if you're single and longing for a spouse, it's okay and natural, but you also have an opportunity in that station. You have a great resource of time and energy to invest in His work in this world. So don't waste it now.
Gospel Culture - How Can I Be Content with What I Have and Who I Am, Part 1
What drives your day-to-day decisions? For many of us, we're driven by what other people think of us. From the house we live in, to the cars we drive, to the clothes we wear, and how we talk. We tend to be preoccupied with how other people see us. As Pastor Ricky challenges us in today's message, our primary concern and focus should be on how God sees us. And the good news is in Jesus, He sees you as holy and complete. You don't need all of that stuff or good works to earn His approval.
Gospel Culture - The Gift of Sex, Singleness, and Difficult Marriage, Part 2
We're all given the gift of a platform for service. This can come in many different forms. Many of us have multiple opportunities to serve God and others in our lives. Some may be blessings like our family, careers, or friendships, while others might feel like curses, like diseases, financial challenges, or even strained relationships. As Pastor Ricky encourages us in today's message, we need to open our hearts to see how to turn every circumstance into an opportunity to honor God.
Gospel Culture - The Gift of Sex, Singleness, and Difficult Marriage, Part 1
Love and marriage are not about you. Our world has fostered a popular mindset that all of life revolves around us and how we feel. It's a very animalistic approach. God calls us to a higher form of living. In a God-honoring life, love isn't about what you get out of it but what you put into it and how it glorifies God. As Pastor Ricky continues our study in 1 Corinthians, he'll examine what it looks like to honor God with our sexuality, whether you're single or in the context of marriage.
Gospel Culture - Are Christians Really Anit-Sex, Part 2
The sin of sexual immorality is deeply personal, and it often ties itself closely to our sense of identity. Instead of seeking freedom from the chains that enslave us, many have decided to dress up those chains as a part of who they are. This is a grand deception that's effectively taken hold of much of modern culture and has even been embedded in many churches. As Pastor Ricky encourages us in today's message. God wants to free us from those chains, and He's made the way through His Son Jesus.
Gospel Culture - Are Christians Really Anit-Sex, Part 1
God created male and female and designed sex as a means of intimacy and reproduction for a husband and wife. He's not anti-sex. In fact, He's very pro-sex, but He designed it and set up the parameters for this healthy and beautiful expression of love between a married couple. It's more than just a physical experience, it's much deeper than that. In today's message, Pastor Ricky will examine God's design for sex and how the church should approach deviations from His design.
Gospel Culture - When Can Christians Judge Others, Part 2
Judgment does have a place in the church, but it requires the guidance of the Holy Spirit and a heart that is motivated by love. All too often we see the bad behaviors of others as an opportunity to reinforce our own self-righteousness. You might think something like this, “Sure, I struggle with this sin, but it's not nearly as bad as what they're doing.” Well as Pastor Ricky reminds us in today's message, sin does need to be confronted but only with the heart of compassion and grace for the one that's being confronted.
Gospel Culture - When Can Christians Judge Others, Part 1
Many churches are engaged in nearly identical scenarios, as we find in today's passage from 1 Corinthians. The church of Corinth was allowing and even embracing the sexual immorality that one of their members was actively living in. As Pastor Ricky will remind us in today's message, God did have grace to forgive and free this individual but the church needed to help them confront and overcome their sin, not accept or celebrate it.
Gospel Culture - What Does a Successful Christian Leader Look Like, Part 2
Our culture promotes the go-getter, type A personalities. We tend to look down on people who inherit their wealth or position and admire and tell stories about the people who have attained it because of their ambition and hard work. Now don't get me wrong, those stories are impressive, and hard work is admirable. But as Pastor Ricky reminds us in today's message, in the kingdom of God, the focus shifts to the glory of God and the good of others and away from independence and self-promotion.
Gospel Culture - What Does a Successful Christian Leader Look Like, Part 1
Often we'll see a church that's growing rapidly and assumed that they must be doing something right, they must be a successful ministry. In some cases that's true, it is a work of God. But in many cases, a church can experience impressive growth due to the things that actually contradict the Kingdom of God. As Pastor Ricky explains in today's message, the message of the cross can be a big turnoff for many people, and when it's preached with integrity, it's just as likely to scare people away as it is to draw them in.
Gospel Culture - How Do You Avoid Building a Disaster, Part 2
In the routines of life, we often lose sight of that, don't we? We get into a flow, enjoying the ease and convenience that we take for granted. And often we might find ourselves getting annoyed with the people that God put around us over the most minor things. As Pastor Ricky reminds us in today's message those precious souls were made in God's image and Christ valued them so much that He went to the cross for them. We need to keep that in mind as we interact and struggle through this process together.
Gospel Culture - How Do You Avoid Building a Disaster, Part 1
How you build is just as important as the materials that you build with. A new apprentice isn't going to build as well as the master carpenter, even with the exact same tools and materials. Today, as Pastor Ricky continues our study in the Gospel Culture found in 1 Corinthians, he'll remind us that building our church culture requires intention and divine guidance. Ultimately the structure must be built on the foundation of Christ, not on human reason or popular trends of the day.
Gospel Culture - Why Build Around the Weakness of the Cross, Part 2
Why do we need mirrors? If you go into a bathroom that doesn't have one, its absence is immediately noticeable. We want to see ourselves. We don't want to rely on feel or input from others. We want to see and analyze ourselves so that we can fix any issues and look presentable. As Pastor Ricky illustrates in today's message, scripture offers us a spiritual look at ourselves and reveals some major problems. The thing is, we can't fix them on our own. We need help. And only Christ can provide it.
Gospel Culture - Why Build Around the Weakness of the Cross, Part 1
The cross was an awful thing. It wasn't just a symbol for the people of the early church, it was a tool of torture and execution that may have had some traumatic associations for many people. Sadly, they would have been desensitized to its cruelty because of how heavily it was used by the Roman Empire. Yet as Pastor Ricky points out in today's message, instead of despising it and banning even the mention of it, the early church claimed it as a symbol of the grace of their Savior.
Gospel Culture - Why Have Hope For Hopeless People, Part 2
That is the assurance that we can cling to in Christ. It changes our whole outlook on life, on others, and our own struggles with sin. As Pastor Ricky will remind us in today's message, our God is faithful. It's one of His core characteristics and it's not ever going to change. He sent His son to die in our place for our sin and when we accept that amazing gift, it's not dependent on what we do. He sees us as not guilty, and we should build our identity and the way we look at others around that fact.
Gospel Culture - Why Have Hope For Hopeless People, Part 1
Have you ever watched a movie or read a book, and you thought it was wonderful, but then you talked to your friend or family member, and they didn't enjoy it at all? How can two people, people that otherwise get along and share lots in common, experience the same thing in such different ways? As Pastor Ricky explains today, the lens we look at our world through has a huge effect on how we see it. It greatly influences how we deal with each other and pursue God's will for our lives.
Gospel Culture - 100 Year Culture, Part 2
When you operate in pride and a sense of self-righteousness, repentance becomes very hard. Repentance only happens when you humble yourself and you acknowledge that you've done wrong and that you need grace and forgiveness. As Pastor Ricky begins our study in the book of 1Corinthians, he'll challenge us to foster a gospel culture in our own lives and in our churches. Our relationships should be categorized by the grace that we've been given. We've been forgiven so much, and we should be quick to forgive others.
Gospel Culture - 100 Year Culture, Part 1
What is weird about your family? What about your church family? As Pastor Ricky will illustrate in today's message, every family has a unique culture. You might consider your family to be the typical American stereotype but trust me, you've got some quirks. Our churches are much the same way, no two are identical. With a variety of personalities and backgrounds, we're bound to have some cultural traits, some may be good and some bad but how do they line up with Christ’s vision for the church?