Chatham Community Church

#GodsGreaterYes

“Maybe the no feels unfair. Maybe it feels like it's killed momentum in your life. Here's what I want you to hear. God does not give noes recreationally. God is not toying with you. He's not that type of god. If he's giving you a no, it's because otherwise, you will miss the good, beautiful, true thing that he has for you. The good, beautiful thing that's next. As we are fond here at Chatham Community Church of saying, god's no is always in service of his greater yes.”

#PurposeBeyondSelf

“Cause you're at the center of your life, which I totally get. I would be there too if I did not follow Jesus. Me would be at the center of my life. Hopefully, my wife and kids are there somewhere too, but be mostly about me. And what Jesus says is, got something better for you than you at the center of your life. I made you for a mission, for a purpose bigger than you.”

#FaithOverFear

“How great would that be? What if we came alongside our neighbors who were all freaking out and we say, you know what? I'm not gonna join you in the freak out, but I will join you and try and fix the thing. I'm not stressed out. This isn't everything. My eggs aren't all in this basket. There's a real hope and real resurrection power, but I'm gonna show up not anxious, not angry. I'm gonna show up in faith, hope, love, wisdom, courage, grounded as a super conqueror in Christ Jesus.”

#FollowJesus

“And then and then then I wanna invite you, those of you who aren't God people, we love you so much. So glad you're here. Hey. I wanna call you to join the rest of us and following Jesus out of this chaos, out of this mess. We get to follow Jesus into something way better. The biblical word is repent. I wanna invite you to repent of the noise, comparison, and competition. If you're missing out, I wanna invite you, wanna invite you to repent of all that noise and follow Jesus into freedom, into joy, into peace, into the purpose that God actually wired you up for. Come with us. Come with us. Come with us. Come follow Jesus together as he leads us out of the chaos and the noise.”

#PeaceBeyondTheNoise

“But here's the core conviction for this whole series. Here's the whole core conviction for the series and where we're starting. The core conviction is this, that there's no freedom, no joy, no peace down in the noise. It's not there. We spent all the time in it, but there's no freedom, no joy, no peace in that place. Fact, studies show, and this is not just church stuff. This is studies show that the more time you spend in the noise, the less freedom, joy, and peace you experience.”

#PrelovedAndFree

“Therefore, you're free to clothe yourselves and humility toward other people. You don't need to use other people to prop you up. You don't need to make fun of people, to denigrate people, to make them feel small. You don't need to judge them in your heart. Uh-huh. I'm better than them at this. Like, you don't need to any of that. You know what? You show up to any group of people. You don't need to walk in the room to be the smartest person in the room. You're preloved. God's got you. You are preloved. You are preloved before you show up to any group of people, any situation, family reunion, high school reunion. Look how good I am. Look how good my life turned out. Like, don't waste your life on any of that. You are preloved. God sees you. He is for you. He is with you. Therefore, you're good.”

#PastRedeemed

“A hopeful thread. A life giving thread. Even out of your darkest, hardest days, even after your worst mistakes. Listen, I got really good news for some of you. In Christ Jesus, your past is not your own. It's not even yours to regret. It's just the Lord's to redeem. Your past is not even yours to regret. It's just the Lord's to redeem. Your past is not even yours to rehearse or regret or stay stuck in. It is God's to redeem, because you've given your life over to him. And this whole timeline is this, including your timeline. That's what it means that Jesus is Lord over your life.”

#SinIsThin

“little things that you can come back to. Right? The the first one I'm gonna give you is one that I come back to over and over and I'm gonna give you three phrases. This first one is one I come back to all the time. The first phrase I wanna give you is simply this. is thin. Say it with me. Is thin. By thin I mean shallow, empty, can't satisfy. It starts easy and wide. And just I just kinda graph it and feel good, feels real good. And then it gets thinner and thinner and more and more shallow. It demands more and more of you and your time, your energy, your life. Sin is thin. It cannot deliver on what it promises. There is no life in sin. There is no life in darkness. It is corrupting and destructive and death.”

#BringItToJesus

“Jesus says that no one gets through the father except through him. So don't let whatever is holding you back from experiencing Jesus, from experiencing God's love. I want to challenge you today to lay that at the feet of Jesus. To let it go, because Jesus didn't come to the earth. He didn't put on flesh. He didn't go through a mock trial, get crucified, was dead and buried, conquered death, risen three days later only for some of your sins. He came from all of them. He came for all of them. And you can experience that too. Later today, we'll have our prayer team in there, and I want you to go I want to encourage you to go and talk the prayer team. If you need to confess something, confess something. If you need help with something, ask for help, ask for prayer. Don't let something hold you back from being able to delight in the Lord to experience love.”

#SeenJesusSeenFather

“``Jesus says to you and to me, you wanna know what God looks like? I look just like him. Not only do I look like him, I act just like him. Like, if you've seen me, Jesus says, you have actually seen what the father looks like, who the father is, the character of God. Really good news, my friends, because some of you some of you grew up at this understanding of God. You got, like, angry God and nice Jesus. And what Jesus says is there's no angry God behind Jesus. His heart is the same for you. The father and the son both are all in on reconciling you to God. This displaying, demonstrating perfect love forever and ever. Amen. There is no angry God behind Jesus. There's only the God that Jesus shows us. He's that good. Because if you've seen Jesus, you've seen his heart, you see how he talks to people, how he relates to people, how he heals people. You see great what great lengths he goes to demonstrate his love for you and for me. That's the same father that you and I have. That's the heart of God the father.”

#BlessedAlready

“Friends, the god who we get to delight in isn't waiting for us to get to a particular point in success or in achievement in order to bless us. The god who we get to delight in is already poured blessing out on us. He's given and is and will continue to give all that we need. He has held nothing back, not even his son. So we can persist in doing good and living rightly anchored in that. We can anchor our right living and good actions to a relationship with a good, a loving, an eternal, and a just god.”

#BelieveInJesus

“``So Lego Movie has the right verb, believe. They just have the wrong noun. Believe in yourself, dead end. Believe in Jesus, it unlocks all that peace, all that power, all that grace, all that mercy, all that love. Not just for eternity, not just like life insurance when you die, you end up in heaven, like actually right here, right now, in real time, living out of that life, living out of that grace, living out of that mercy. That's the power of belief when you orient it toward the right object, The resurrected king, and the god who made you and who loves you.”

#MakeRoomForJesus

“``The lord created your heart to be his home, and you will not be at home until you allow him to take up residence in your heart. And any room of your heart that you've kind of walled off or locked him out of will be disordered, will lead you astray. Any place of your heart, any area of your life, your past, your present, your future that does not have access that Jesus does not allow it into, that's gonna be disordered until you open up and unlock that door and say, yeah, Lord, come and make your home in my heart. Every bit of it. All of it.”

#IdentityInGod

“```It is consistent because it is what the father has said. God relates to us like the father in the parable. God's steadfast love for and commitment to us is the unshakable ground on which we can build our identity and our sense of value and our sense of worth. We don't need to define who we are or prove our value and worth by what we do or what others think of us or what we accumulate or control. We get to live out who God says we are in what we do and in what we have and how we steward it and what we how we relate to people, and that's an entirely different way to live. You're never chasing after something. You're living out of something. It is a free life. And god has made the way to that free life through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.”

#ReceiveGrace

“```We couldn't and can't rescue ourselves, folks, and we don't need to. We don't need to try. God has done it. It had nothing to do with how much effort you've put in, how good you've been, how good you plan on committing to being. He did it because he loves us. He did it out of his love. God's rescue mission is driven by his love for us. Receive it. Receive it. Our part, once again, is to take the leap and trust. Our part is to receive. If you've not done it yet, do it today. While I pray now, trust, embrace, commit, and believe.”

#RescueByGrace

“``We couldn't and can't rescue ourselves, folks, and we don't need to. We don't need to try. God has done it. It had nothing to do with how much effort you've put in, how good you've been, how good you plan on committing to being. He did it because he loves us. He did it out of his love. God's rescue mission is driven by his love for us. Receive it. Receive it. Our part, once again, is to take the leap and trust. Our part is to receive.”

#ForgivenNoMatterWhat

“``There's no sin you can invent. No mistake that you have made that Jesus can't forgive. In fact, got really good news for you for you. No matter what you have done, Jesus has already forgiven it in someone else thousands of times before you were born. You're not that special. You're not. There's nothing you've done so bad that Jesus can't forgive you. In fact, there's nothing you've done that someone that Jesus hasn't forgiven someone else who's done something much worse than you have over and over and over again. Good news, my friends. There's a power greater in the universe than the biggest mistakes you've made, and then the evil one who would steal, kill, and destroy. His name is Jesus. He laid down his life. He was pierced for your transgressions, my transgressions, your sins and my sins, that we might know the freedom, the lightness, the joy, the power of his life and his resurrection.”

#TurningPointPrayer

“One of the things that was true about Chan's story that we just watched, which is similar to Ryan's story a couple weeks ago, was that there were a number of key people throughout the course of his life that spoke the gospel, that lived out the gospel, that helped him find his way to lead the foundation. But here's what happened for both of them, for both Ryan and for Chan. The turning point for them was a prayer alone in their house that was basically help. I need help.”

#PrayForTheLost

“That prayer seemed to go unanswered, except the man shows up at the funeral. And at the funeral, the gospel is presented. And at the funeral, the invitation is extended. And at the funeral, the last one comes to faith. It is worth it to pray thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of prayers if it will lead to someone spending eternity in what they were made for rather than separated from God. Pray that someone would go to those you love.”

#CreatorNotCreated

“So Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. Really good news. The real God of the universe is the God who made everything. He is not served by human hands. He doesn't need us to prop him up, and he's not like he's not like a desperate housewife of Atlanta. It's not who he is. It's not who he operates. He's issuing a correction and a challenge. He goes on, rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”

#HeartForTheLost

“And then somehow I ended up at a conference, one of those weekend conferences that was about god's heart for lost people. I didn't realize that's what I was getting into, but that's what I got into. And over the course of the weekend, I realized Jesus when Jesus says that he came to seek and save the lost, to come after lost things, that was God's priority. And there's this beautiful phrase in the old testament about king David. King David is described as a man after god's own heart, and I still wanted to be that, to be me. I wanted to be me. I wanted to be who I was. I wanted to be a man after god's own heart, and I realized I can't be a man after god's own heart if I don't care what god cares about.”

#PresenceOverProductivity

“``Doing for God will not always equal being with God. And I wanna revisit the question that I posed to you at the beginning, why do I serve? But I want to add to it. Why do I give? Why do I teach? Why do I host or encourage? Why do I lead? Because all these things are good, they're necessary. I value or is it because I value productivity over presence? We need to be able to answer that that why because again we can be in the room with Jesus and not and still miss him while we're present.”

#ReturnToGodsLove

“Even at the worst moment, even after the biggest mistake, eve even after the costly being caught out, return to me. With all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning, rend your heart. Return to the lord your god for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. He will meet heartfelt repentance with restorative love. That restorative love was demonstrated on the cross. Jesus demonstrated god's heartfelt restorative love as he gave his life for us and even on the cross asked that god would forgive the very people who were crucifying him. It fueled the early church.”

#GodUsesYourGift

“Second most influential only to Jesus. Number two in terms of in terms of human influence over the whole earth. But here's a really good news. Saul, soon to be Paul, did not set out to write some of the most influential literature in human history. He didn't set out to do that. He just said, I got a gift. Holy Spirit, you can use it however you want. God took care of the rest. Hey, listen, my friends. When you identify your gift and you live surrender to the spirit, there's no telling what God's gonna do with you.”

#FreedomNotLaw

“Freedom is lived out not in binding yourself to the law, but in following the spirit's lead. So what is Paul getting at when he talks about the desires of the flesh? To some of us, desires of the flesh might sound like it's all about indulgence and excess and self centeredness. Surely, there is a dimension of this of this that is that, but it is broader than that. It is broader than that. The desires of the flesh has to do with that bend, that bend that we all have to do it, life our own way.”

#SaltyAndBright

“Jesus said you're gonna be salty and bright. Salty and bright. Listen. What could be any more popping and crazy and miraculous than a church that wasn't killing each other across political lines? That would be salty and bright. Amen? Like, that one of the most distinctive things about Jesus' people in 2026 might just be that we're humble before each other, even people we disagree with politically, that we're gentle with each other, that we fight for the unity of the body even when we disagree over really important issues. That would be salty and bright. Let's fight for that. Amen? It's worth fighting for.”

#ValueRootedInGod

“Jesus didn't hold back his life in order to rescue and redeem us and the issue of our value will be reaffirmed over and over again in the new heavens and the new earth as we get to enjoy life in all of its fullness for all of eternity. We flourish and we bless as we grow in seeing ourselves as god sees us. The value that we have is not based on the gifts that we are given or on the things that we have done. Our value is rooted in god's very self. It is unchanging and unshakable.”

#UseYourGift

“If God gave you a hammer, there's a nail you need knocked down next month, next year. Do not do not do not discard your gift because God created you. God knows your future. He's prepared good works in advance for you to do. And the only reason that you're gonna be able to execute on those works is if you take the gifts God's given to you and put them to good use. Do not discard your gift. You're gonna need it.”

#ResurrectionRevealed

“Engineering nerds love these videos. They watch them all the time because that's exactly what these buildings were designed to do. They were designed to absorb the shock of this earthquake because here's what earthquakes do you know what earthquakes do? Earthquakes expose things for good or for bad. Earthquakes expose things for good or for bad. And these earthquakes showed that what have been engineered stood firm. When God sends a violent earthquake, an angel of the Lord comes, it's exposing something that is true. The remarkable truth in all of human history that Jesus Christ who was crucified is not in that tomb. He is risen. Roll away the stone. There he isn't.”

#JesusIsLord

“Only one name. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue confess. And he's Lord. On heaven and on earth and even under the earth. All of hell will have to say, yep. He's Lord. We don't like it, but he's Lord. Every man, woman, child, even if you don't like it, here's a really good news. Jesus is lord. You can either surrender to it and celebrate it or you could be crushed by it, but you cannot avoid it. There's one lord. There's one king. His name is Jesus.”

#AlwaysJoyInJesus

“Do you want to know the truth about the joy that can be yours at all times and all seasons? Jesus is the truth about that joy. Set your heart on the surpassing greatness of knowing him. Do you want your life in all of its seasons to be evermore strengthened by the joy of the lord? You will be met by joy as you follow the lord of all joy. Get out of the way and let the way get into you. Become eccentric. Fire your bookkeeper. Make the critical move. Practice the secret.”

#SmallGiftsBigImpact

“He gathers it up. Our little resources, our little prayers, our little efforts, our few dollars. He gathers it up. He says, this is more than enough. I'll take it and bless it and break it. I'm gonna multiply it to bless all kinds of people in ways you cannot even begin to imagine. That's what God did with the Philippians few dollars to fund Paul in jail.”

#StewardNotOwner

“So David declares, listen. Everything, everything, everything comes from the Lord. We're only giving what comes from your hand. He's anchoring relationship with money and a much larger reality. That is when you when it comes to money, you are a steward of money, not an owner of money. And when your relationship is a steward of God's money, not an owner of your own money, it shifts the relationship so that you can rejoice over money without worshiping the money.”

#YouBecomeWhatYouWorship

“But, like, it's all about what do you see? What do you devote your heart to? Your thoughts to your mind? It's not what you do for an hour on Sunday morning. It's what you do the other six days and twenty three hours of the week. That's what you're worshiping. What you think about, what you give money, time, attention to, what you bend over backwards to make sure it happens, that's what you are worshiping. As a result, everyone worships something. That's a biblical. Right? If if if you're breathing, you're worshiping. You can't stop worship from flowing through you. You can you can steer that flow toward better or worse places. So everyone worships Christian, not Christian. Spiritual spiritual stuff never made any sense to you. All of us all of us all of us have something in our lives that is most worthy or a constellation of things. And we say that's most important. I'm gonna build my life around that. So the scripture has a really key principle, and the key principle in the scriptures is this. That is that you become like whatever you worship.”

#EverydayWorship

“What's most important? What's most valuable? What do you give your attention to, your loyalty to? What are you putting your trust in? See, worship is not about what you do for one hour on Sunday. Worship is what you do the other six days and twenty three hours of your life. That's what worship is about. Are you living a life that's genuinely integrated, that is aligned with worship of the god who created you and who loves you? That's the invitation from the scriptures to step into a life of worship. So worship is not about sort of showing up and singing. Worship is about how you live and how you what you trust in. Everyone worships something. It's not a question. If you're breathing, you're worshiping. You can't stop it, but you can steer it some direction or another.”