Westside church

#TrustGodAndObey

“But sometimes we just like to wait until it's convenient and easy for our schedule and our understanding. And if if you only obey God when his instructions make sense to you, you're not really trusting God. You're trusting your own understanding. So what has God already made clear in his word that you have been putting off? And sometimes the first ripple begins when you simply say, Lord, I will go. Sometimes just saying yes starts the first ripple.”

#FaithAndTransformation

“The cross doesn't tell us that sin is small. It tells us that God's love is amazing. And here's where we need to be careful. This nasty king story doesn't end with just a prayer. His repentance began producing a different way of living. So this nasty man has now repented and he's been forgiveness, but now real transformation is revealed by the way he lived, and real transformation is revealed by the way we live.”

#ComeToChrist

“And maybe this morning you feel unworthy to come to Jesus. Maybe you think that you need to get your life together first, but Jesus didn't come because we could save ourselves. He came because we couldn't save ourselves. morning, maybe you're not a follower of Christ. I would ask that you make that decision this morning. And, again, who told you that you're not good enough to come to Christ? Well, it wasn't God, and it's not me.”

#GodsApprovalOverPeople

“Saul's problem wasn't that he couldn't hear God's voice because he heard it crystal clear. There was no confusion in God's voice. The problem was that the voices around him become louder than the voice above him. Who told you that you needed everybody's approval? Because here's the truth. The person that you're most afraid to to disappoint in your life will eventually become the person that you're most tempted to obey in your life. And Saul was so afraid of losing people's approval that he was willing to compromise God's approval.”

#SinConsequences

“Sin advertises the pleasure. Sin has this big advertisement of how good it looks and how good it's going to feel. And honestly, that temptation and the pleasure of sin feels good for a moment. But what comes after that? Shame and fear and hiding and blame and brokenness. Sin tells you this is gonna make you happy, but it doesn't tell you what it could do to your marriage.”

#SurrenderToChrist

“If you haven't surrendered your life to Christ, then you're just going through life. And and I'm just gonna be blunt and honest. If and if it hurts your feelings, I'm sorry, but you're just wasting time. You're on a road somewhere to nowhere. Well, it's gonna go somewhere, and you're not gonna like where it goes. But the great thing about Jesus is he's ready to accept you right where you're at right in your dash, to forgive you, and to put you on the road, the right road, that road to heaven.”

#WalkIntoTheLight

“Nicodemus came in the dark to meet Jesus and had a choice to walk out into the light. This morning, you have a chance to walk out of the darkness and into the light. So if you've never given your life to Christ, walk into the light this morning. Make that decision, and it'll be okay. And you can bring all of your baggage with you, and that's okay too.”

#ComeAsYouAre

“And here's the thing that I always that I always say, and I I probably you guys hear it a million times, is you don't have to clean yourself up before you come to to Jesus. You don't have to have all of the answers. You don't even have to own your own Bible. You don't have you can be right in the middle of your addiction right now. You can be right in the middle of of whatever addiction, whatever struggle, whatever you have going on in your life, you can be right smack down in the middle, and Jesus is still going to accept you. He's still going to welcome you into his family. Isn't that great news? Because he's the one that want he's the one that can clean you up. He's the one that can fix you.”

#DontQuitTheHarvest

“So, this morning, maybe you're tired of waiting. Maybe you've been praying. Maybe you're sick. Maybe you've been suffering. James is telling us, don't quit before the harvest. Don't quit. Maybe your life hasn't been fair. Maybe you've been worrying about something that you that you really haven't prayed about. Bring that to God. Maybe somebody you love is wandering. Don't just talk about them. Go after them. Maybe God has spoken to you repeatedly during these five weeks, but you've you've done nothing with it. James would say, stop just listening to the message and start doing something with it.”

#SurrenderYourFuture

“Maybe you've planned your future and simply expect God to sign off on it. Maybe today you need to open your hands and say, Jesus, I am done fighting for control. And don't miss this promise. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Maybe your prayer today is simply, Lord, the war inside of me belongs to you. My desires belong to you. My relationships belong to you. My words belong to you. Maybe plan may my plans belong to you. Maybe your prayer is, I just surrender this morning. And if that's you this morning, I would take that opportunity to come and have an elder pray with you through this process.”

#HeartSpeaks

“``The mouth wasn't really the deepest problem, the heart was. So, why do I say some things that I say? Why do I tear people down sometimes? Why do I gossip? And why do I have to get the last word in? And why do I have to become so defensive when somebody says something? Why do I need everybody to know that I'm right? Sometimes it's not our vocabulary. Actually, not our vocabulary at all. It's what's going on in our heart. James says, as jealousy, pride, insecurity, bitterness, self ambition, the tongue simply gives the heart the microphone. Our our tongue gives your heart a microphone. Eventually, what's inside is gonna come out, and that's what Jesus said. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So, maybe instead of praying, only God help me wash my mouth, we need to pray, God examine my heart.”

#SavedByChristAlone

“``It must be said that our works is not what saves us. James doesn't say that either. James doesn't say that it is what our works that save us. But rather, we put our faith and belief in Christ's work on the cross. That what Jesus did on the cross, when Jesus came down as a man and as God, he came down and he died for us on the cross so that we could be right in our relationship with God to make things right. And that our faith is in Jesus alone, in Christ alone. And it is his finished work on the cross that makes us complete. It is his finished work on the cross that forgives us. It is his finished work on the cross in which we are actually saved. Nothing else.”

#FinishedInChrist

“```Jesus finished his race so that we would be able to finish ours. Jesus on the cross said, it is finished. It is accomplished. It is done. It is fulfilled. That that everything that that all the work that that was from the Old Testament to the New Testament, Jesus was on the cross and he finished it so that we can complete, be complete in Jesus. That's why we run the way race. That's why we go all the way to the end of the line so that we can find our perfection, our completion in Jesus. No matter what trials we face, Jesus makes us perfect. He makes us whole and Jesus did his race. He endured the cross in order that we could finish ours. When he died on the cross, he had us in mind, in his mind and in his heart.”

#LeaveOldLifeBehind

“Maybe you've been stuck for a long time. Maybe you're not stuck at all and and you figured this all out. That's good. But Jesus is still calling people to get up, leave their old life behind, and walk in a new life that he all has to offer. So, our past may explain why we're lying here today but it doesn't have to determine where we where whether you were stay there. Jesus is still calling stuck people to get up and walk.”

#DoubtToDeeperFaith

“``But man, maybe you're a Christian today. Maybe you're a strong Christian. Maybe maybe you've been a Christian for three days or a hundred years. Doesn't matter. And maybe you're stuck in doubt, disappointment. You've been praying. You've been trusting. You've been waiting. You've been wondering where God is. And today, you're exactly where Thomas was. But today, you don't have to stay there. You can come. Notice, remember what he said, Jesus said to Thomas, do not disbelieve but believe. Thomas teaches us that doubt is not the end of faith. When we bring our doubts to Jesus, they can become the doorway to a deeper faith.”

#GodBiggerThanTheMountain

“Because God has never asked us to trust ourselves. Nowhere in scripture does God say trust yourself through this, but God through the scriptures, God is saying trust me. Trust me through these things. So imagine standing into the base of a mountain. You ever stand into the base of a mountain and you look up and the mountain seems impossible to climb? But if you turn around and look at the the one standing beside you, the god who created the mountain, it suddenly can change your perspective. The mountain hasn't got any smaller, but your God has become bigger.”

#SurrenderToGod

“``I think that if we if we don't walk out of this church today and you didn't ask yourself the serious question of what's slowing me down and what's one thing that I need to surrender over to god today, then I think that that's a failure. I think that we need to take a look at this and say, what is the habit that I need to surrender today? Because the life that you want tomorrow is being built by the choices that we make today. If you want different future, begin with different habits. And remember, you don't fight this battle alone because that same savior that died on that cross two thousand years ago, that same savior who forgives the sin and the the same spirit that lives in that rose Christ from the dead lives inside of you. That same power is the only power that can break these cycles in our lives. It's the only thing. Sin becomes a cycle when it's excused, but it loses power when it's confessed, confronted, and surrendered to Christ.”

#NoRoomForBitterness

“Some of us in this room, we've been hurt by other people. And I look at that and it's it and it it it it's it's not fair. Sometimes it's just not fair. What people have done to you, and I get that. But we have to we can't stay stuck to that. And it's not easy because if it was easy, everybody'd be able to do it the first day. Right? But here's why we have to move on because that person who hurt you may have left years ago. You may have not even have seen him for thirty years, forty years, but that bitterness keeps giving them free rent in your heart and in your head.”

#RestoredAndBelonging

“God doesn't excuse the sin but god forgives the sin. God restores the sinners. The robe that he puts on his son, this robe is for of honor. And the ring speaks of belonging. It's like a wedding ring. In America, we wear a ring when we're married. And when somebody sees this ring, I belong to somebody.”

#KnowJesusNotReligion

“``Jesus asked the question behind the entire question. I think what he's asked is, do you really know me? Do you really know me? Do you really know this Jesus leads us to the first point is religious activity is not the same as knowing Jesus. Matthew twenty one twenty three, this is where it gets scary. This is like the first time I ever read this passage. I was like, man, I think I should probably pay attention to what's going on here because Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, lord, lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

#ChooseYourRoad

“``The question today is not what road is everybody else taking. The question isn't what road are other people taking. The question is what road are you on? What road are you on? Jesus says, choose the narrow road. Follow the truth. Bear good fruit because the road you choose today will determine where you arrive tomorrow. I wanna challenge us this week as we come to the end this morning because I want you to examine your road. I want you to ask yourself, am I following Jesus or simply following the crowd?”

#GraceGivenGraceShown

“Do good to people that do bad to you. I mean, that this we we can't each week just say that was last week's lesson, and it's a new lesson. It's all one lesson. And so he's he's he's adding us on here to we'd be kind to people, treat people better than they treat you, even the ones that that we don't like, like, even the ones that are mean to us, the ones that disagree with us. Because grace received should be grace given.”

#TransformingGrace

“You do not go from killing Christians to dying for Christ unless something supernatural happens. Paul's conversion proves the gospel is not self help or religious motivation. It's a transformation. And if god can change a man like Saul to Paul and then and then nobody is beyond the reach of grace. And maybe today you walked into this church not even searching for Jesus. Maybe you have issues with the church. Maybe you've had problems in the church. Maybe your church hurt and Jesus has met you where you're at this morning.”

#HeavenlyFatherProvides

“Why do we worry about the future? We worry when we forget our heavenly father. See here, Jesus sounds like a preacher, but he also sounds like a poet. He uses two analogies probably from the scenery around him. He says, first, look at the birds in the air. They aren't farmers. They don't sow. They don't reap. They don't store food away in barns. And yet your father your father feeds them. Aren't you more valuable than they are?”

#PerfectNotRequired

“Mom, just take the pressure off a moment today and let me just tell you that you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to try to carry everything perfectly. But what you need to do is answer this is what truly has your heart because something has your heart If god has your heart, then everything else is going to find its place. If something else has your heart, everything's going to fall apart.”

#CheckYourMotives

“the challenge is to check your motives before you act. Before you say something, check your motives. Before you do something, check your motives. Before you post something on Facebook, check your motives. Pause and ask yourself, who am I doing this for god or for people? Am I trying to get the approval of man or the approval from god? And if the answer is people, then guess what? You received your reward. So, this week, do something unseen, pray something real, and check your motives because in the upside down kingdom, what matters most isn't what people see, it's what god sees.”

#GoodOverBitterness

“So, don't let people walk all over you but what this means is that you refuse to let hate live in your heart towards those people that hurt you. You choose good over bitterness. And more important that you don't return evil for evil. Paul tells us that overcome evil with good. Man, this is hard. This is a hard lesson, Jesus. Because I think we're wired. I I at least I know I'm wired to my first reaction is to go off into left field. And I have to bring everything back in and so that's not what I, that's not how I'm supposed to think.”

#CovenantOverConvenience

“Jesus didn't make a contract with you. He made a covenant with you and he sealed it with his blood and god is not casual about what we treat casual. The world runs on convenience. The kingdom runs on commitment. We live in a culture that says, if it gets hard, I'm out of here. Oh, you know what? This isn't benefiting me, so I'm out of here. This doesn't make me happy. I'm just in a league. Thank god Jesus doesn't do that for us. Thank god, right? Thank god that Jesus doesn't just run off every time it's we we mess up. God says, if it matters, fight for it.”

#IntegrityOverPerformance

“And as Christians, we need to understand that Jesus is telling us here that this righteousness and integrity, they go together because we can't fake god out. We need to try and try and try to live this out and to have that integrity. Jesus didn't raise the bar so that you could try harder. He raised it so you would realize that you needed him.”

#LookIntoTheTomb

“He'd already risen. So, what why is the tomb rolled away then? Because it wasn't moved so Jesus could out could get out. It was moved so we could look in. It was moved so we could look in and see that the tomb was empty with our own eyes. The disciple's eyes. The ones that are going to tell us the story And you might say to yourself, how is this possible that a dead man come back to life? That's hard to believe.”

#SeekAndSave

“Who's in charge of your life? And if we put our hope in politics, we're always going to be disappointed. If we put our hope in a man or a woman that's going to lead us, we will always be disappointed. And Jesus tells us exactly why he came in Luke nineteen ten. For the son of man came to to seek and save the lost. Jesus came to save and find the lost. Jesus didn't come to fix our situation. He come to fix our soul.”

#SaltAddsFlavor

“We don't withdraw from the world as Christians. We need to influence the world. Yes, sir. We don't conform to the world. We change the world, and it starts right here with us. Salt doesn't help by staying in the salt shaker. Just because you have salt on your dinner table doesn't mean it's gonna make your food more flavorful. You still have to use that salt. Point to which brings us to point two. Salt adds flavor to a tasteless world. Salt also enhances the flavor. The gospel makes life meaningful.”

#CarryTheLight

“Speak with graced grace and stand with truth. Love when it's hard. Forgive when it's, well, unforgivable because here's the truth. We may be the only glimpse of Jesus that somebody may see this week. No pressure. Just say yes. So let's shine even when it's uncomfortable, even when it's inconvenient, even when it may cost you something because light always stands out in the darkness. You don't the light, you carry the light. So again, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.”

#YouAreTheLight

“The world is lacking salt and light. The world is lacking people who actually live like Jesus. The the the Jesus didn't say and it's, you know, this isn't me saying this to try to make you feel guilty or to feel bad. This is just what Jesus said, and I'm just repeating what Jesus said. And if we're Christians, this is what Jesus said to us. Jesus didn't say go out and try to be the salt. He didn't say go out and work on becoming the light. He said, you are the light. You are the salt. You are the light. To me, this means that Jesus is saying this isn't an optional thing that we get to decide to whether we want to do it or not. This is you are the salt and you are the light, and this should be our identity as Christians.”

#BuildOnTheRock

“And finally, it forces us to make a decision. Jesus' sermon forces us to make a decision. Jesus ends with these two foundations. You either build on his words or you just collapse. There's no middle ground here. There's no middle category. You can't just admire it and then ignore it. I mean, I guess you can, but you will collapse. That's why it's the greatest sermon ever preached because it was delivered with divine authority. It exposes our heart, and it overturns world values, and it it defines what true eousness looks like and then it demands us to have an allegiance with Christ to be on his team.”

#ComeAsYouAre

“And so my question for you is, have you gone to God with your cardboard sign? Have you asked God that you need him? Have you come to God as a spiritual beggar? Or are you still trying to do it on your own? Are you still trying to be rich in the kingdom of God? Are you still trying to be a spiritual guru, trying to know it all and have it all together, but it's just not working out for you? Well, God says, come to him as you are, empty handed with nothing to offer him. All you have is is is needs that need to be filled, and this is the kingdom is for you because God's somebodies are spiritual nobodies.”

#RealReturnAction

“So, I want you to identify an area. Not everything, just one and I want you to ask yourself this question, what would real return look like? What would it really look like if I was to return back to the lord and then take one concrete step not to apologize because I don't want you to go home and I don't want you to apologize to the lord for your actions. I mean, I do but I don't want you just to go home and say, I'm sorry. What I want you to do is I want you to go home, say that you're sorry, and put an action and plan to how am I going to make this situation in my life better and god's going to say, here, I can help you. So, god isn't looking for better words. He's looking for a surrender of the heart.”

#WoundedFatherLove

“This is not an angry god. This is a wounded father and god feels betrayal because god's love is reality. God is not distance and he is not cold. He is not detached and love can be wounded without being withdrawn. Ephesians four thirty says this, do not grieve the holy spirit of god. So god's love can be wounded without ever being withdrawn. God's love may ache, but it will never abandon.”

#DistanceDrawsGodCloser

“``And Gomer we're didn't stumble do here. She bolted off. She left. God still says to Hosea, go again. God doesn't wait for Israel to come crawling back. He goes after him. And this wrecks our ideas, doesn't it? Doesn't this wreck our ideas of what's going on here? We we think that distance pushes God away. If I can get away from God and create distance from him, he's just gonna leave me alone. Scripture says that distance activities, activates the pursuit of God. The further we go, the closer he gets.”

#CelebrateLife

“``A woman who didn't just live life but celebrated life. A life marked by love and faith, devotion to family, and a quiet but powerful persistence that touched many lives. That, Sherry, is whose life we celebrate today.”

#ObeyBecauseFree

“``Man, what a we keep just keep seeing this pattern. Your old self's dead. Paul keeps saying your old self's dead. So you don't obey to become free, you obey because you are free. As Christians, we don't obey to become free. We obey because we are free. Obedience is not the price of freedom. It's the proof of it. We don't obey God hoping that he's gonna set us free. We obey God because he already has set us free. This flips the whole script.”

#TakeUpYourCross

“``Jesus never promised comfort. He promised life. Jesus says, if you wanna come after me, there's some translations that says, if you wanna be a disciple of mine, must count the cost. Now what's a disciple? A disciple is a learner. A follower is a learner. If you wanna Jesus, if you truly wanna follow me, not just believe in me or just be a fan of me, If but you wanna be a follower of me, he says, take up your cross. And crosses are uncomfortable by design. I will tell you we have this cross in the back that we put up on Easter, and just taking it from the back over here is uncomfortable. It's a heavy cross.”

#NoExcuses

“``And I really hope that God doesn't play this game film of my whole life and says, why did you do that? Or why didn't you do that? Because I don't wanna be sitting in that seat like a kid trying to make excuses while I was being double teamed, coach. So this this month, we're we're trying to break those excuses, and so like I like I said, I don't wanna be sitting in that hot seat watching the game film. So I pray to God that that's not what's going to happen. But if that's what's going to happen, I wanna be able to sit in that seat and not make excuses.”

#InterruptTemptation

“Spiritual growth doesn't remove temptation. It raises resistance. Here's the thing. Paul's or James says, each person is tempted. He's talking about we will be tempted. And what are we going to be tempted by? Lured and enticed by our own desires. What you desire in your heart is what you will be tempted on. Temptation loses strength when it reckon when we recognize it early. Mature believers don't entertain temptation. We interrupt it. We say, nope. Not today, Satan.”

#JesusConfrontsDarkness

“Jesus did not avoid the darkness.And thank God, because how many of us did Jesus show up in our lives when we were in the darkest parts of our life?Some of us in this room were not like Zacchaeus.And some of us wore down and out.And some of us were in pretty dark places.And Jesus found us in those dark places.Because he's not afraid of the darkness.He confronted it.He confronted darkness, and he crushed it.When Jesus opened his mouth, and when Jesus would come into places, demons trembled when he spoke.Stronghold snapped under his authority, and Jesus stepped into the dark places, and he turned the lights on.”

#CrossBeforeCradle

“``christmas isaiah didn't describe a baby he described the savior he described the mission behind the miracle so before wecelebrate his birth we're going to first of all learn to understand his death and before we appreciate the cradle we're going to appreciate and go back and look at that crossbecause you can't celebrate his birth until you comprehend his death”

#GratefulInChrist

“``So the truth of it is, is we can enjoy some blessings without Jesus. However, you cannot know true gratitude unless you know who Christ is. Blessings without Jesus may last a day. Blessings when you know Jesus will last a lifetime. The one thing that we should have learned in the last 30 days is gratitude isn't rooted in circumstances. It's rooted in the Savior who never changes. Everything that we have as a Christian is, we have hope, we have forgiveness, we have peace, we have salvation, we have eternal life, and all of those things that I just listed off comes only through Christ, only comes through Jesus.”

#LiveGrateful365

“And so when we come to this being thankfulness, it's a lifestyle, it's a holiness of being different from the rest of the world. And God just doesn't want you just to feel grateful. He wants you to live grateful. It's one thing to just feel grateful all of the time. But we're called as Christians to live out that gratefulness. Not just in November, but every day of our lives. 365 days out of the year, we are called to be thankful. Every season, every circumstances.”

#ChooseThankfulnessNotComplaints

“Paul says I want you to give thanks in all circumstances. That's not a seasonal thing that's an everyday thing. That's an everyday thing in all circumstances. When we go through trials and we go through seasons and we go through storms and we go through these things in our life that sometimes it's hard to take all of our circumstances and give thanks. You get a bad diagnosis on a health report Paul says give thanks. You get in a car accident because a Roseburg driver hits you, give thanks. You get a flat tire on the side of the road, give thanks.”

#FreedomIsNotFree

“The thing that I want to talk about today, those veterans understand something that sometimes we forget. They understand that freedom has cost something and it isn't free. And freedom always has a cost. It's paid by sweat, sacrifice, and sometimes blood. And when we understand that cost, we respond. And we should respond with no complaints, but with gratitude that gives back. In the same way, our salvation came at the highest price with the blood of Jesus Christ. He purchased our spiritual freedom with his life. And the right response is not to live complaining about everything, but to start thanking Jesus for what he did for us on that cross. So we honor sacrifice best when we live it like it matters.”

#GiveToTheLord

“We should wake up in the morning and decide to the Lord, what are we going to give to the Lord this morning? Is it going to be my time? Is it going to be my resources? Is it going to be my money? Is it going to be my gifts? We wake up in the morning and we should decide right then and there, what are we going to give today to the Lord?”

#ChooseFaithOverFear

“You may be surrounded by darkness But the shepherd never leaves his sheep. John 1.5 says, The light shines in the darkness And the darkness has not overcome it. The valley may be dark But the darkness can't put out God's light.”

#WalkingThroughValleys

“Sometimes we get into valleys. Sometimes it's because we make a bad decision and we're in a valley. Sometimes valleys just come our way. Bad things are going to happen to good people. Bad things are going to happen to good Christians. Sometimes we're going to find ourselves in these dark valleys of our lives. But we must make a decision to walk through these valleys, to get to that pasture that's on the other side.”

#BonesRepresentIsrael

“What I think this is showing us is that life itself comes from God. Life comes from God. You may have everything else lined up perfectly, but unless it is the breath of life from God himself, it does not live.”

#VictoryInTheValley

“The battle was not decided on the mountaintop. It was decided in the valley. And that's where our battles are fought, not when we're the strongest. You know, sometimes we're on that mountaintop and everything's going good. And our spiritual walk is going good, our physical walk is going good, and we're on those mountaintops and everything's going great. And if you're on a mountaintop today, thank God for that mountaintop. But the battles that we're going to find fight are going to be when we're in the valley, when we're in the weakest part of our lives, in the darkest part of our lives, when we cry, when we say to ourselves, God, where have you gone? That valley of trouble become a valley of triumph.”

#ValleysBuildTestimonies

“In our valleys as Christians, in our valleys where we struggle, in the valleys where we're dark, where we think about giving up sometimes. And those valleys is actually where we build our testimonies as well.”

#TogetherWeBurnBright

“When we take ourselves out of the church and we take ourselves out of the fellowship, it's not going to hurt the fellowship as much as it's going to hurt us individually. That you're going to be put out in the side, the fire will burn out. One believer alone will get burned out. But when we're together, the blaze of the fire.”

#SpiritKnitsCommunity

“And so what we see here is the Holy Spirit doesn't just empower us individually. He knits us together as a community. We see that the church is forming and people coming together, and they're starting to discover what fellowship looks like in Christ here in Acts.”