Crossing Community Church

This week we had the pleasure of having Gary Bailey speak to us and challenging us to consider that every day has great reasons to live for God!!

Today Pastor Tim speaks from 1 Samuel on the well-known battle between David the shepherd and Goliath the mammoth warrior. With stories such as this that are so familiar to us, we have to look deeply into them to find who they apply to our lives today. In this case, Pastor Tim encouraged us to consider the David's convictions that gave him the courage to confront Goliath and how we need the same convictions and courage to confront the cultural Goliaths of our day. 

This week we began a new sermon series based on the life of King David. 1 Samuel 16 records the anointing of David as the king of Israel. The question Pastor Tim asked us is how we see the people in our life and whether we see them the way God sees them. 

Today, Pastor Tim took us through a biblical tour of God's heart for the nations. Beginning in Genesis, through Psalms, Matthew, Acts and ending in Revelations, we saw how God has always had a plan for redeeming all mankind back to himself!

Joe McDermott did a wonderful job of honestly and humbly sharing how God has healed his life. He shared how he fixed things for a living but couldn't fix his own life until he finally came to a place where he understood that the One who created him was the only one who could fix his life. 

What if Jesus stayed dead, never rose from the grace? Consider how that would have altered history! But He did and by doing so He opened the door to heaven and possibility for you and I to change the course of eternity for ourselves through faith in His substitutional death@

Jesus enters Jerusalem know all that is going to happen in the days to follow. They call out praise only to cry for His crucifixion days later. 

This parable strikes at our sense of fairness. But the Lord's point was that He can forgive sin of anyone and that no one is outside the reach of His grace. That can be hard for some people who think that others don't deserve forgiveness. When we think that way it reveals our own unforgiving heart. 

Scott Brubaker shared with us today about the peace and purpose Jesus brought to his life since he was saved in 1988. In the years since he trusted Christ, he has had many seasons of life to prove Jesus keeps His promises. He lost a 17 year old son to suicide. Was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in the brain, liver and lungs. Has had heart issues -- and through all of that he found Jesus to be true!

Teaching from the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18, Pastor Tim encouraged us to know God's Word so we can be certain of His promises, because He is the righteous judge that we can depend on for true justice. 

The Good Samaritan is a well-known story. It is one that penetrates to the heart of each of us as we struggle with our inability to love others well, especially those who are our enemies. But the central truth Jesus is conveying is that no one can attain eternal life by what we do, because we can never do enough!

In the parable of the prodigal son, most readers focus on the younger, rebellious son. Some also see the self-righteousness of the older brother. If we look long enough, we find ourselves in both brothers!! But the main character of the story is the father! This parable showcases his grace and forgiveness to both brothers -- to all of us!

In the second sermon in our Parable series, Pastor Tim teaches from Luke 12, about the rich man who based his life on all that he owned and challenged us about how we can live our lives day to day in this world in a way that makes me rich towards God.  

This Sunday Pastor Tim began a new series on the Parables of Jesus. After a brief introduction on parables, he led us through a study of Luke 6:36-50 and the parable of the two debtors, asking his listeners, "Who would love the most?" What began as a dinner hosted by a pharisee to investigate Jesus, became an investigation of the heart of the Pharisee -- and each of us!

Dan Andros shared today about how he had years of practice at going to church, but never understood the grace of God and the salvation He offered him until his years in college. By then, he had to untangle years of false teaching and sin. He shared how God has changed his life and replaced that false teaching with the joy of knowing the truth of Jesus. 

Today Pastor Tim begins a new series on the parables. His teaching included an introduction on interpreting a parable and then a short lesson from Luke 7, challenging us to consider that our sin is as bad as the most evil sin of mankind in God's eyes.

Scott Brubaker presents part two of his messages on holiness. This week's sermon is based on Hebrews 10:14 whereby believers become progressively, and imperfectly more and more like Christ in the sanctification process as they mature as they mature in their faith.  

This week, Scott Brubaker, one of church elders, taught about the all sufficient sacrifice of Jesus in full and final payment for the sin of the world, applied to individuals by grace, through faith wherein believers have been credited ‘once for all’  with the perfect holiness of Christ from God’s point of view.

God never ceases to expand who we think He is and what we think He is going to do. The perfect example of that is when we consider the holy God, transcendent and separate from all creation, offended by the sin of mankind,  and He still wants a relationship with man. He still wants his creation to know Him and to experience His love and mercy and benevolence. But it goes even further! God accomplishes this through the sacrifice of His own Son!!

As we continue our series on the holiness of God, this week Pastor Tim teaches on the relationship between God's holiness and the reality of hell. Many believe that hell is extreme and too harsh for a loving God, but they fail to consider that God is not only loving, but pure and utterly holy and sin is an offense to his holiness that demands punishment in keeping with the crime. Hell is that punishment.