Great Oaks Community Church

Pastor Dan talks about his passion -- raising kids to live a God-honoring life. In this message, he gives you 3 creation truths that have to be in yours and your kids spiritual foundation.

Pastor Bill starts our "My Passion" series out with an awesome message about how to find your passion. Have you lost your passion or never really found it to begin with? If you have a passion that drives you, is it from God? Listen to this message from Pastor Bill to help you in your journey!

Pastor Jake preached a sermon on Mark 4, 5, and 7 called “The Power of One”. In Mark 4, Jesus and His disciples get into a boat to cross over the Sea of Galilee. But it’s not some mundane trip. They were going over a region of cities called the Decapolis that was known to be a very dark, pagan place. In fact, most Jewish families at the time believed that they would be cursed if they ever went there. So, the disciples were probably not very excited for this trip. And sure enough – they have problems right after they set sail. A huge storm threatens to sink their boat. The panicked disciples wake a sleeping Jesus, who simply stands up and tells to the wind and the waves to stop directly. And they recognize and obey His voice! Implication? There’s power in the One – Jesus. He’s strong enough to overcome the storms in your life. http://bible.com/events/333707

Pastor Jake talks about what Immanuel (God with us) really means for you. http://bible.com/events/331689

On Sunday, Pastor Jake wrapped up our “Rhythm” series with week 7 – Family Rhythm. God has created us to function in a certain way...a rhythm. That goes for every area of our lives, including our family. God, in His infinite wisdom, has set forth a specific rhythm for our family to operate in. But parenting is hard! There are ups and downs, and sometimes it seems more down than up. And yet that makes sense, because we will do nothing of more value with our lives than mold the little souls God has given us to mold. The stakes are as big as they can possibly get. But this family rhythm thing doesn’t just happen on its own. It takes understanding and purposeful action. In a Biblical family rhythm, God is central. http://bible.com/events/328189

Pastor Jake continued our “Rhythm” series with week 6 – Marriage Rhythm. God has created us to function in a certain way...a rhythm. That goes for every area of our lives, including our relationships, especially our marriage. God has made marriage to work in a rhythm. When He created Adam, a suitable helpmate was not found for him in all of creation, so God had to make something different – woman. Adam and Eve enjoyed God’s perfect rhythm in the first marriage – no mind games, pride, confusion, etc. – until the Fall in Genesis 3. When sin entered the world, it fractured the Marriage Rhythm, just like it fractured everything else. First, sin’s fracturing of God’s Marriage Rhythm caused something that has plagued every marriage since the first one: passive laziness. Adam silently watched as Eve was tempted and deceived. We (especially men) have struggled with this passive laziness since Genesis 3. Many men just won't lead. They won't engage. Why? Th

On Sunday, Pastor Jake continued our “Rhythm” series with week 5 – Present Rhythm. We were created by God to be image-bearers and agents of reconciliation in this world. And yet, most of us aren’t really here. We’re not fully present. We’re always somewhere else – stuck in the past, consumed with the future, or distracted by another place or someone else’s life (via our phones). There’s no way to hold on to time. There’s no way to slow it down or speed it up. It just is. It marches on. December, Christmas, New Year’s, all that will come and it will go. Time marches on. Like drops of water, days fall from the sky and turn into pools of weeks, and then streams of months, until you find yourself watching a raging river of decades pass you by, wondering what happened? Where did all the time go? God has created us to work best by being fully present. http://bible.com/events/320633

On Sunday, Pastor Jake continued our “Rhythm” series with week 4 – Sabbath Rhythm. We were created by God to be image-bearers and agents of reconciliation in this world. And yet, most of us are too hurried, tired, and stressed out to even think about that. We’re out of step with God’s rhythm for our lives. God sees us and says, “you need the Sabbath!” The Sabbath is a rhythm that goes all the way back to creation – God created for 6 days and on the 7th He rested, making it holy. It’s one of the big 10! In Exodus 31, God even said that if you don’t keep the Sabbath you should be killed. Even so, we live like this command isn’t even in the Bible (or at best just a nice suggestion). If we’re going to be in step with God’s rhythm, we need to change that. Sabbath is serious business. It’s not an option. It’s a command. Not to add stress to our lives and chain us up, but instead to take stress away and liberate

On Sunday, Pastor Jake continued our “Rhythm” series with week 3 – Thanksgiving Rhythm. God has created the world to function in a certain rhythm. He did that in Genesis 1 & 2 (on a big level), but He also does that with each one of us. Psalm 139 talks about how God has knit each of us in our mother’s wombs. He is intimately involved in making us the way we are – outwardly and inwardly. He is not a God who has created, gotten the ball rolling, and walked away. He is near. One of the ways you can feel that you are out of step with the way God created you to function (the rhythm He created you to live by) is that you are worried, anxious, overwhelmed, and stressed. And one of the many reasons that happens is that we fail to live by a rhythm of thankfulness. Thanksgiving is a foundational rhythm that affects many areas in our lives. http://bible.com/events/313664

On Sunday, Pastor Jake continued our “Rhythm” series with week 2 – devotional rhythm. Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came to give us “life, and life abundantly”. And yet most people are not experiencing that life. The good thing is that Jesus doesn’t just make that promise and walk away. He’s like the “master” in the dojo – patiently walking beside us showing us how it’s done. God has created the world and your life to work in a certain rhythm. But because of sin and the Fall in Genesis 3, like a saxophone playing on the wrong beat or out of tune in an orchestra, you and I are naturally out of rhythm with the way God – the one who wrote this song – has designed things to work best. And it’s painful. But the good news is that God has not been silent about this rhythm; this pattern; this way that God designed life to work http://bible.com/events/310108

On Sunday, Pastor Jake started our new series “Rhythm”. Have you ever known someone who has no rhythm? They can’t clap, much less dance or play an instrument? Have you ever sat through a Middle School band concert? Painful, right? That’s because songs were written to work at a certain tempo and rhythm; in a certain key, etc. When that’s not followed, it causes a very unpleasant feeling. And even your heart is supposed to beat at a certain rhythm, isn’t it? And if it doesn’t, that’s called “arrhythmia”. And it causes you pain. God created the universe to work in a certain way – a rhythm. Not just the big stuff like planets and stars. He created your life, your body, your relationships, and more to work best in a certain rhythm. We see this best in Genesis 1 and 2. But in Genesis 3, Satan is allowed to introduce chaos into the order and rebellion into the rhythm of Creation. Be sure to Listen as Pastor Jake begins to unravel from

On Sunday, Pastor Jake talked about Kingdom Builders for the second week. Building God’s Kingdom is about global missions, local church expansion, and compassion ministry. We want everyone in our church to step up and be a Kingdom Builder by committing to 1) serve in a ministry at Great Oaks; 2) serve in a compassion ministry outside of Great Oaks; and 3) give financially to the Kingdom Builders Fund in a one-time gift and a monthly gift (above and beyond normal tithe). After Pastor Jake explained this, we were able to hear from some people in our church that are already building God’s kingdom in significant ways: Mike Hasselbusch, Kristen Springer. Kevin & Debbie Rauh, Lizzy Blanchard, and Justin Rauh. http://bible.com/events/301759

On Sunday, Pastor Jake introduced a new Great Oaks initiative called “Kingdom Builders”. Before he got into the nuts and bolts of that though, he taught on the concept of “the Kingdom of God”. Jesus taught on the Kingdom of God (or Heaven) more than any other topic. In our American culture, though, it can sometimes be difficult to understand the idea of a “kingdom”. Kingdom just means “the King’s domain.” So in one sense, everywhere is God’s Kingdom. It’s all His. But in another sense...not so much. Pastor Jake used the phrase “already, but not yet.” There is this cosmic war that started with Satan’s rebellion in heaven. God has already won that war. That happened on the cross. But the culmination (realization; manifestation) of His Kingdom will not take place until Jesus returns. Already...but not yet. The wide angle and the close-up. We live in between. The war is won, but the battle is still being fought from

On Sunday, Pastor Jake wrapped up our “Neighboring” series with week 6 – Neighboring Church. We’ve talked over the last 5 weeks about taking the Great Commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves literally – to reach out to our actual neighbors individually. But what would it look like to not just be a neighboring person or family, but to be a neighboring church? What would it look like to do this individually and collectively (as Great Oaks)? After all, what is the true fruit of a church? Is it disciples or disciple-making churches? Just like God has sovereignly and providentially placed you and your family next to your neighbors, so has He placed us (as a church) next to our neighboring communities. These are towns and cities we currently out of our reach. God expects us to multiply – to reproduce ourselves in other communities in order to reach people in whose lives we currently have no influence. When we read the book of Acts, it becomes clear that this was God&

On Sunday, Pastor Jake continued our “Neighboring” series with week 5 – Plans. If you really care about something and want to see it happen, you’ll plan for it. That’s when things get serious. You can talk about a vacation, but until you sit down and start researching pricing, tourist spots, and timing, it’s just an idea. You can talk about getting healthier, but it remains an impotent idea until you sit down and start planning the how. In life, you are only as effective as you are intentional. It’s the same with following the Great Commandment. You can talk about it, but until you make a plan your words don’t really matter, do they? It’s a big endeavor, so if you’re going to go from nice neighbors to gospel-centered neighbors, it’s going to take some planning and intentionality. http://bible.com/events/291458

On Sunday, Pastor Jake continued our series called “Neighboring” with week 4 – Rewards. The greatest commandment starts with loving God with all our lives and then moves to loving our neighbor as ourselves. But it’s like hinges on a door...what good is a door with one hinge? Jesus said that all of the Law and Prophets hang on these (together) in Matt. 22:40. You cannot separate these two commandments. But to be clear, loving God with all of you isn’t about a feeling. It’s about loyalty, commitment, and obedience. It’s about action. Feelings of love towards God are good, but it’s how you fulfill the Great Commandment (both parts) that proves you are in Christ (not feelings or words). http://bible.com/events/287217

Pastor Jake continued our series called “Neighboring” with week 3–Excuses. Loving your neighbor as yourself –your actual neighbor next door –isn’t easy! It’s a big task! With that in mind, our tendency is to make excuses and convince ourselves that we cannot possibly do this. But excuses are just reasons without reason. They don’t pass the sniff test. They’re easy to spot in kids, because they can be so ridiculous and unrelated, but they are just as prevalent in adults. Pastor Jake talked about 2 excuses that we lean on when it comes to the great commandment. The first one is “I don't have time”. We live in a culture that wears busyness like a badge of honor. We get our validation from how full our schedule is –the fuller it is, the more important we think we are. But the simple truth is that every single one of us has the exact same amount of time to love our neighbors as ourselves each day. http://bible.com/events

Pastor Jake continued our series called “Neighboring” with week 2 – Motives. Loving your neighbor as yourself begins with loving your actual neighbors. It’s not metaphorical or symbolic. The definition of neighbor may include other people, but it starts with those God has sovereignly placed next to you. But it can’t just be about making friends, right? It has to be more than that. There’s the Greatest Commandment that includes “love your neighbor as yourself”, but there’s also the Great Commission to “make disciples”. We can have ultimate motives though. In other words, your ulterior motive in neighboring cannot be to share the gospel, but your ultimate motive must be.

Pastor Jake started our new series “Neighboring”. What if when Jesus said that you are supposed to “love your neighbor as yourself”, He meant it literally? What if He wasn’t talking about some metaphorical neighbor, but your actual neighbor? And it’s not just Jesus who said it. It’s all over the Bible –Leviticus, Romans, Ephesians, and James. Yet the many of us struggle to even list the names of and a little more information about the people who live in the 8 houses nearest our own. How could loving our neighbor be so obviously present in the Scriptures and yet so glaringly absent in our lives?It's because we've exchanged our real neighbors for metaphorical ones so we don't have to actually do anything

On Sunday, Pastor Jake preached the final week in our 3-week miniseries “Church is _______.” Church is more than a hobby, an activity, or a social club. It has to be. And since behavior follows belief about what something is, defining what exactly the church is seems like a pretty important endeavor. So far, Pastor Jake has taught on the fact that church is family and church is mission. But really it’s even more than that. Church is life.