In our last episode, we talked about the mystery of unanswered prayer. There are times when God, in His sovereignty and love, chooses to say “No” to our requests.However, the Bible also tells us that our Father loves to say “Yes” to His ...

Have you ever begged God for something that mattered more than anything — and He didn’t come through the way you hoped? That very thing happened to the great King David. After years of conquest, Israel was now unified and at peace. ...

When we look at the life of Jesus, we see that prayer wasn’t a responsibility to be pushed into for Him; it was a relationship to be pulled into. It was in prayer where He found rest, strength, and direction, and where He experienced the Father...

It has often been said that prayer is the greatest force in the universe. And yet, it remains a largely untapped resource for so many Christians. Why is that?There are a lot of reasons why we don’t pray, but I think they can be summarize...

As we come to the end of our journey through the book of Joshua, our hero is now elderly—over 100 years old. He realizes his time of leading his people will soon be over. So, he calls the people together and gives a remarkable farewell speech.&...

They were ready to fight. They thought they knew the truth. They were wrong.Joshua 22 shows how fast things can go wrong when we rush to judgment. As the Israelites were making their way northward toward Canaan, some of the t...

After twelve chapters of action, miracles, and conquest, our journey through the book of Joshua enters a long stretch of mind-numbingly boring descriptions of towns and boundaries. What in the world could the division of the land into tribal te...

When the going gets tough—and the battles don’t end as quickly as we hoped—it’s easy to grow weary and discouraged. That’s where Israel found themselves in Joshua 11. Victory didn’t come in a single day or even a single campaign. It took years ...

Today, we’re going to be considering one of the most remarkable occurrences in all the Bible.  It happened on a day when an ordinary man asked an extraordinary God for a miracle of the highest order. He asked for the sun to stand still. An...

If there’s one lesson to learn from today’s message, it’s this: As freely as God’s blessing is given to those who obey, it can be removed from those who disobey.After Israel’s miraculous victory at Jericho, the next strategic targ...

The story about how the walls of Jericho came “a-tumblin’ down” is a favorite. But it’s also the target of a great deal of skepticism. Today, we’re going to look briefly at three of the most frequently asked questions related to the battle of J...

You would think that after miraculously parting the torrent of the flooded Jordan River, bringing fear to their enemies, God would have said to Joshua, “Now, go! Strike hard and fast while you have the momentum!” But He didn’t. God brought ever...

She wasn’t anyone’s first pick for a hero, but God had other ideas. She showed a courageous faith that changed her life—and history—forever.Her name was Rahab, a disreputable woman from the pagan Canaanite city of Jericho. The word the B...

As we open the book of Joshua, our hero is standing at the edge of the Promised Land, the destiny they have been hoping for. He is entering the third “leg” of his journey of faith. For the first 40 years of Joshua’s life, he was a s...

We’ve been talking about how to build a big connection to Jesus because the stronger the connection, the better the fruit, and the greater the joy. In this message, I want to look at a practice we don’t often think about in terms of spiritual r...

In this series, we’ve been exploring ways to build a strong connection with Jesus. In John 15, He calls it “abiding” in Him. What we’ve discovered is that the stronger the connection, the better the fruit and the greater the joy. 

In John 15, Jesus tells us that if we hope to have lives of fruitfulness and joy, we must abide in Him. We must remain intimately connected with Him at the soul level. The stronger the connection, the better the fruit and the greater the joy...

In John 15, Jesus uses the analogy of a vineyard to describe the life of a disciple. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. Like branches grafted into a grapevine, so it is with our relationship with Christ: the stronger the connection, th...

With the powerful hold idols have over us, is there any hope that we might dethrone these counterfeit gods?  The answer is, “Yes!” …IF we take to heart this foundational truth.  Idols cannot simply be removed – they have to ...

You’ve probably heard the saying “Money talks.” What would money say to you if it wanted to be your idol? And what might God say in contrast?1.     Money says: “Look at how much more others have than you.”

An idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your attention and affection more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.Idols can take on many forms: money, success, power, popula...

Most of us believe nothing could be better than seeing our dreams come true. In that pursuit of happiness, it never enters our minds that getting our heart’s desires could, in fact, be the worst thing that ever happened to us. Good things can g...

The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel wrote, “These men have set up idols in their hearts.” (Ex. 14:3) I would suggest that those words written thousands of years ago could easily apply to us. Though we may not bow to idols of stone or woo...

We are wrapping up our series on the topic of worship with some honest talk, because here’s the thing: worshipping God from the heart isn’t always easy. There are times when worship comes easily—when life is good, prayers are answer...

Psalm 73 is one of my favorites because it’s just so true to life. Here we have a guy named Asaph who was a worship leader in his day. But he starts this song by admitting that he nearly lost his spiritual footing. He was ready to quit.