Reach Church - Everett

God is sovereign over all kingdoms and he is gracious to confront us in our pride.

When we go through trials (external circumstances that come against us) we are being given opportunities to let our faith be strengthened into something more resolute. Oswald Chambers said, “Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds.” If we don’t get this down, then trials will consistently feel like times where God is abandoning us rather than walking with us in the fire.

We exist in a world that is run by corrupt human leaders. For millennia, we have seen the rise and fall of great kingdoms and national superpowers. Yet, this is our hope that we find in Daniel 2: the true God of heaven, the one who establishes and removes earthly kingdoms, wants his people to know that all human kingdoms will ultimately be replaced with his everlasting Kingdom!

We’re called to live a life of conviction in a culture of compromise. That message isn’t just for us. It was true for the people to whom the book of Daniel was originally written. Today, we focus in on Daniel 1.

Often during transitional seasons, what gets neglected is our spiritual lives, and yet, there’s nothing more important than our spiritual health! God strengthens us through His Word and through His Spirit. This week, we focus in on being strengthened by the Holy Spirit.

With Fall rhythms kicking into gear, it’s easy to get consumed by school schedules, work projects, even recommitting to that gym membership! But what about our souls? How can we tend to what matters most? One of the most transformative practices Christians can maintain is a healthy rhythm of reading scripture. God's Word is a gift, one we should never take for granted! Without it, we lack the wisdom and knowledge we need and greatly benefit from if we endeavor to grow stronger in our relationship with God.

When we look at the life of Jesus, we see he took time to notice people, he saw them, he paid attention, and he had compassion. How might you slow down enough to notice people God has placed before you and to genuinely listen to them?

Our primary identity is - child of God, and yet, many of us are living with secret identities, cultivated out of shame. In order to run the race well, we need to remember who we are and find freedom in Christ who despised shame.

Discipleship is a committed journey of following Jesus as a student, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, in the company of other disciples, with the goal of progressing towards maturity and multiplication.

God the Father is beautifully remaking His broken creation! This new creation, this new work of art, this new community of believers is both Jew and Gentile - it's a big, multicultural family.

The phrase “Do not judge” is likely one of the most misunderstood yet frequently used phrases in the entirety of Scripture. The fact is, we are judging things all the time. We check reviews on restaurants to judge whether or not we’ll eat there. We visit Rotten Tomatoes to see what the critics are saying about a movie we might want to watch. Even when it comes to people, we make judgements based on first-impressions on whether or not we’d like to pursue connecting with a person a second time. So what does Jesus mean when he says, “Do not judge?” This week, we look at three directives on how we should approach judgement.

In this life we will have trouble, so how do we prepare and weather the storms? We turn to Jesus' words in Matthew 7.

There is only one way we obtain salvation and that is through the person and work of Jesus Christ crucified on our behalf. We cannot fake our way into the kingdom.

We need to ask, seek, and knock on the Father's door to obtain what's best and most satisfying for us. Our Father is all-powerful, good, and accessible. He is not far from any of us. He loves us and desires to have a relationship with each of us.

With the Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe vs. Wade, many of you may be wrestling with what you believe, how to approach conversations, how to engage. At this important cultural moment, Pastor Sean led us through a conversation about abortion and human life from a thoughtful, researched, and Biblically-based perspective.

What do you value? What do you love? Who do you serve? Who do you trust? In Matthew 6, Jesus is introducing a new kingdom and new way of living. It’s counter-intuitive to most everything our culture stands for. Throughout the entire sermon, Jesus is after one thing: the heart. This week, we dive deeper into verses 19-34 where we find that what we value has a lot of power over us.

This week, Jeff Price showed us how the Lord’s prayer should be used as our guide to our daily walk and conversations with Jesus.

The biggest hindrance to the growth of the Church, based on what people would say on the outside, is that the Church is filled with hypocrites. Jesus did not leave his heavenly throne and enter our earthly mess simply to address behavioral issues. He came to address the sinful, rebellious hearts of each and every human being. At the end of the day, God is building a kingdom and adopting a family that's supposed to look differently than the rest of the world.

Loving our enemies is a central idea to the Kingdom of heaven ethic that Jesus calls his followers into. How do we do it, though? What does it look like to be living, walking, breathing examples of God’s grace and love?

The question we're aiming to answer this week: "When someone wrongs you, do have the right to get even?" When a conflict goes too far, when someone crosses a boundary or pushes your buttons, when you feel insulted by another person - do you have the right to get even? Let's see what Jesus has to say in Matthew 5:38-42.