National Community Church Audio Podcast

Esther leveraged her power, position, and privilege to serve others. Xerxes released control in order to reverse the narrative. Both required a special kind of courage. A courage that makes decisions based on values, convictions, and opportunities instead of fear, insecurity, and avoidance.

At critical junctures in our lives, situations present themselves that call for courage. Are you going to let FEAR or FAITH dictate your decisions? Are you going to OFFEND GOD or OFFEND PEOPLE? Are you going to PLAY IT SAFE or TAKE A RISK? These are the days when decades happen. The courage of calling is risking ME for WE. The courage of calling is enduring present-tense PAIN for eternal GAIN. The courage of calling is living according to biblical convictions—no reserves, no retreats, no regrets.

It would be great if we could make things happen on our terms, without hassles, holdups, and sometimes having to push through hell. But often, in order to get to the other side of our dreams, our calling, and the things we envision, there is usually inconvenience. Because inconvenience and opportunity usually go together. And that means discomfort, which no one loves. But if we are ever going to maximize our potential and live out who God desires for us to be, we will have to be courageous enough to embrace inconvenience. And by the way, embracing the inconvenience is not about us and our glory, it is about God being at work in and through us to redeem and restore his creation.

Conviction is the antidote to a thousand compromises. We tend to take life as it comes to us, making decisions in the moment, without guiding values. Which leads to a thousand regrets. But if we take time to make pre-decisions to explore that which we are CALLED to do, God will grant us peace, no matter the outcome. Because we are then living in PURPOSE. In today’s message, we will look at one of the lessor known figures in the book of Esther. She makes a courageous decision against the grain of what was expected of her. She acts with courage. Join us as we explore living out a life of faith-filled courage that comes from Godly conviction.

What we perceive to be our problems are often presenting problems. The root problem? Unforgiveness. We take offense, and let a seed of bitterness grow roots. The net result is unforgiveness. That’s when and where and why we get stuck spiritually. Hurt people hurt people by projecting their repressed pain. Forgiven people forgive people. There is nothing easy about living unoffended, but it’s the solution to a hundred presenting problems!

Love the one who hates you. It was shocking and revolutionary when Jesus taught it, and it remains shocking and revolutionary today. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus invites us to imagine a world transformed by people who make decisions against themselves to love across labels, categories, and divisions.

Seeing love as the immoveable, unconquerable thing in our lives that lasts forever.

The call to DREAM again is not only an invitation but a responsibility. Dreaming is not just for the self-identified "Dreamer", but a responsibility for us all. Join us as we walk through what it means to live from and toward a DREAM way of life!

God is raising up a REMNANT—a creative minority, a company of prophets—that operates with an Issachar anointing. They understand the times—supernatural insight. And they bring supernatural solutions to the table—supernatural foresight. God is raising up this DREAM COLLECTIVE to usher in a new season of REVIVAL in the church, REFORMATION in the kingdom, and RENAISSANCE in culture.

We have a core value—the church belongs in the middle of the marketplace. We don’t curse the darkness. We light candles. We’re not just building a church. We’re blessing a city. We want to be more known for what we’re FOR than what we’re AGAINST. We criticize by creating! We write better books, make better music, draft better legislation, produce better films, start better businesses. How? With the help of the Holy Spirit.

If you want to REPEAT history, do the way it's always been done. If you want to MAKE history, do it the way it's never been done before. The solution to our problems is very rarely MORE or LESS of the same. It's DARING to be different. It's DARING to dream again.

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. It's time to DREAM again! We're believing God for nothing less than Revival, Reformation, and Renaissance in our nation, in our generation. The capacity to dream is part of the image of God, and the supernatural byproduct of a Spirit-filled life. Show me the size of your dream, and I'll show you the size of your God. It's time to dream big, pray hard, and think long!

We often miss out on the fullness of joy because of our misconception of it in relationship to everything else we experience in life. In the story of the coming of Jesus, and then throughout His life and into the life of the early church we see JOY in relationship to the rest of life. Getting this right could be the next step to your joy being made full.

God is love. It's who he is and it's what he does. The story of Christmas is not a saccharine-coated, sentimental folk tale. It is the story of ultimate sacrifice- a king who left his throne to be God with us. A king who would hang on a cross to be God for us. As followers of Jesus, we are called to walk the difficult way of love as outlined in 1 Corinthians 13.

Hope. It’s become a frail and weakened concept. The consistency of hope being deferred or hope being disappointed has taken a toll on our society. Are we speaking of a hope or a wish though? There’s a big difference between the two! To hope is something that is grounded in possibility or even probability. To actively hope in Christ, is to live and work in confidence with an eternal perspective on all the events of our life. As expectations are disappointed through life, how do we continue to live a hope-filled existence? We have to examine the object of our hope and the longevity of perspective as well. We’ll allow the scripture to speak to this critical concept as we continue in this season of advent.

The Hebrew word for peace is SHALOM. Shalom is RELATIONAL HARMONY and it’s four-dimensional. It’s right relationship with God, Self, Others, and Creation. How do we experience the peace that passes understanding? First and foremost, peace is a PERSON. His name is Jesus, the Prince of Peace. If you want to experience shalom, there are three keys: 1) Confess Your Sin 2) Love Your Enemies 3) Prophesy Your Praise

You were created on purpose, for a purpose, to share a purpose. This not only lays a foundation for how we see ourselves but moves us toward an understanding of our place in this world and the fulfillment that happens when we know what to do with what we've been given. Let's take a journey on what this looks like through a missional lens.

As we continue our A18 Missions series, the way of Jesus is about finding safety and comfort in order to heal, restore and live from God's love. But it's so much more than that. The mission of God and call of the missional Church is far more than our personal peace and prosperity - it's about love-based risk - going where Jesus is - places where humanity is most at risk, at the intersection between darkness and light, soil and spirit, heaven and earth. We call this living from the redemptive edge. What does this look like, how do we grow in discipleship to follow Jesus into love-based risk? You'll hear many stories of ordinary people, empowered by God's spirit, doing what Jesus did, all over the world.

Staying with the theme of Acts 1:8, I will focus on the role of the Holy Spirit and the importance of the Presence of God in fulfilling the Missio Dei. I will share some of my personal testimony of what I/we have been experiencing as a church the last few months since we started meeting in person again and the lessons I have learned about the presence of God.