Search
Recent Posts
July 20, 2026 • 2 Minute Read
2026-7-20 Weekly Update
Welcome to the weekly roundup 👋 This is your one-stop spot for everything happening in our church family. From kids to adults, small groups to special events, here's how you can get connected over the next seven days. This Week: Young Adult Summer Nights: Tuesday, 7/21 at 6 PM! 18-24 year olds, come an hour early this week for BBQ! Meet you in the student center. Discovery Island Volunteer Training: Friday, 7/24 (6-9 PM) and Saturday, 7/25 (12-3 PM) in Discovery Island Life Groups: Meet throughout the week on campus and in homes. Prayer Requests: Our Mission: Pray for favor and a smooth process as we move forward with renovation timelines. Email Leslie to be added to our prayer team. Our Community: Families traveling for summer and many who are sick. World: Pray for our Honduras team as preparations are underway to travel on July 31. Upcoming Events 8:30 am Children’s Ministries - Begin Sunday, August 2nd for Babies - 4th grade. We still need your help to make sure our kids ministries are covered as we extend to all three services.New here? We'd love to connect. Watch last week’s sermon 👇Watch Online Generosity Your generosity makes our work in this community possible. We’re so grateful for you. One way you support our community is through the food pantry. We’ve given out over 100 bags this year. You can see our weekly food and household needs here, or click the link below to see our Amazon wishlist!Food Pantry Amazon Wishlist Stay Connected 📩 Subscribe to this Collection to get these updates delivered directly to your inbox. 📸 Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. 💬 Pastoral care or questions? Connect with us here. Services: Sundays at 8:30 AM, 10:00 AM & 11:30 AM
15434 Lucia Riverbend Hwy, Stanley, NC 28164
See you soon ☀️
July 20, 2026 • 8 Minute Read
How to Trust God With an Uncertain Future
Most of us spend a good deal of energy trying to remove uncertainty from our lives. We script the vacation, plan out the next few years, get detailed about as many things as we can, and quietly hope nothing catches us off guard. Certainty feels like safety. So it may sound strange to hear someone say they have no desire to live a life without uncertainty. But that is exactly what learning to trust God with an uncertain future has taught me. A life without uncertainty is a life that would not require faith. And a life of faith, as much of it as I can live, is simply a better life. When you look closely at Abraham, you see this at work. Abraham embraces uncertainty, while fear, by its very nature, tries to remove it. echo through the entire chapter for a reason worth understanding. Faith Embraces Uncertainty. Fear Tries to Remove It. Here is the difference in a single line. Faith embraces uncertainty. Fear attempts to remove it. When God called Abraham to leave everything familiar and go, Abraham went, even though he did not know exactly how it would unfold. I want you to hear this from me: I do not want to live a life without uncertainty. That might sound a little funny at first. But a life scrubbed clean of the unknown would be a life with no room left for faith. There are some things I would honestly rather not know. I do not need to know what tomorrow brings. That is a hard thing to sit with, and some of you are reading this thinking, "You don't understand. I script my vacations." Is It Wrong to Want a Plan? No. There is a real difference between being a person who likes to be prepared and being a person who is trying to eliminate uncertainty altogether. Preparation is good. I work hard on a message before I ever stand up to preach it. And yet there is a part of me every single week that says, "Lord, I don't know exactly how this is going to go. I just have to trust that it will be what You want it to be." I can prepare all I want, and there is still an element of faith. I never want to remove that. I just want to keep trusting God with the outcome. What Happens When You Stop Scripting Everything Years ago I ran into a man I deeply admired, Dr. Jack Hayford, who has since gone to be with the Lord. He pastored a church called Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California, a bilingual, deeply evangelistic church that grew to something like eight to ten thousand people. He was known as a man of tremendous integrity. The first two years of my Bible college were actually through his school, one of the original online programs for Christian students, and it was what I had available to me at the time. I got the chance to meet him and be shown around a little. We were making small talk, and he asked where I was from. I told him Michigan, and that my dad lives in Cadillac. He said, "Oh, I've been there." I could not figure out how a man in California had been to Cadillac, Michigan, so I asked him. That is when he told me how he and his wife vacation now that he is close to retirement. They pack bags with versatile clothing, drive to the airport, look up at the board, and decide where to go based on whatever the next flight happens to be. One of those flights had carried him into Grand Rapids, and he drove north until he landed in my hometown. Some of you read that, and it makes you shake. You are thinking, "I do not want a vacation like that." This is not about getting you to travel differently. What I want you to see is that there is something exciting you get invited into when you embrace uncertainty. When you can say, "We do not know exactly how this will work out, but we know we have heard from the Lord to obey Him," it becomes exciting, because you get to watch Him do something only He can do. The Best Decision We Ever Made This is how God has worked in my own life. When my wife and I were in our early 30s, we began to feel like God was bringing our story in Michigan to a close. It was where we were from, where we had lived our whole lives, where I had pastored for about twelve years. I just knew it was not there anymore. God had made that clear through a variety of means: His Word, other people, and our own prayer time. It was time to go. Some people I trusted sat us down and made sure I understood what I was leaving. They said, "You are at a church with its own Christian school. You have two boys, two and four. You can raise them in a wonderful Christian school, probably for free. Your wife is a teacher, and they will give her a job. You have earned all this trust and credibility over ten years. Why would you leave that?" Then they asked, "Do you even know where you are going to live in Florida?" We did not. We were going to stay temporarily at a pastor's empty house. "Do you know where your kids will go to school?" No. "Do you know where your wife will work?" No. "What are you thinking?" I said, "I think God's got it." They said that seemed irresponsible. I said, "It's called faith." I have come to believe that if we have a few fill-in-the-blank questions left in our lives, He likes to fill them in Himself, and then He likes to get the glory and the credit for it. To live a life where He gets the glory is a better life. It is not about what I was able to pull off. When God says go, we go. We were young. We were basically kids, a little family that jumped into a 1998 Chevy Malibu convinced it would make it to Florida. It did not. It broke down in Valdosta, Georgia. Our boys, Max and Malachi, were so small then. On our very first Sunday, Max had a total meltdown and could not be brought up on stage, but little Malachi was there, and God started something that day. When I look back, I can only say that He wrote a better story than I would have. He wrote a better story than I would have, and I am confident He is still doing that. Is the Center of God's Will Really the Safest Place? My wife and I have tried our whole lives, because of the people who discipled us, to stay in the center of God's will. But one of the great lies that gets caught more than it gets taught in the church is the phrase, "The safest place is in the center of God's will." Let me step right on that. The safest place is not the center of God's will. Hear me carefully. It is the most fulfilling place. It is the right place. But it is not the safest place. When God called Abraham from Haran to Canaan in Genesis 12, He was not calling him into safety. He was calling him into faith. We get so obsessed with keeping everything as safe as possible, wanting every part of life secured and settled. God has not called us to live safe lives. Faithful, Not Fearless Did Abraham still struggle with fear? Of course. When he stepped into new territory, he was the one who said, "Let's tell them you are my sister." He was not a fearless man. But he was a faithful one. In the big moments, when God said get up and leave, he got up and left everything he knew and every connection he had. That is the invitation, and it comes with a cost. You do not get to experience the benefits of faith without paying the price of obedience. Trusting God with an uncertain future will not guarantee that everything will feel safe. What it offers is better than safe. It is the chance to watch God write a story you never could have written on your own, if you are willing to get up and go when He says go.
July 13, 2026 • 2 Minute Read
2026-7-13 Weekly Update
Welcome to the weekly roundup 👋 This is your one-stop spot for everything happening in our church family. From kids to adults, small groups to special events, here's how you can get connected over the next seven days. This Week: Route 56 Camp: Monday, July 13 - Friday, July 19 Photo Team Meeting: Tuesday, July 14 at 6:30 pm in the worship center lobby. Current team members or those interested in photo and video at Real Life are welcome. Prison Ministry: Thursday, July 16 at 6 pm Honduras Team Meeting: Sunday, July 19 at 1 pm in Discovery Island Life Groups: Meet throughout the week on campus and in homes. Prayer Requests: Our Mission: Pray for our Route 56 Camp this week – praying for great weather, attitudes, energy levels, and hearts touched by Jesus! Email Leslie to be added to our prayer team. Our Community: Families traveling for summer and many who are sick. World: Pray for our Honduras team as preparations are underway to travel on July 31. Upcoming Events 8:30 am Children’s Ministries - Begin Sunday, August 2nd for Babies - 4th grade. We still need your help to make sure our kids ministries are covered as we extend to all three services. Sunday, July 19, 6:00 pm - Hesed House MealNew here? We'd love to connect. Watch last week’s sermon 👇Watch Online Generosity Your generosity makes our work in this community possible. We’re so grateful for you. One way you support our community is through the food pantry. We’ve given out over 100 bags this year. You can see our weekly food and household needs here, or click the link below to see our Amazon wishlist!Food Pantry Amazon Wishlist Stay Connected 📩 Subscribe to this Collection to get these updates delivered directly to your inbox. 📸 Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. 💬 Pastoral care or questions? Connect with us here. Services: Sundays at 8:30 AM, 10:00 AM & 11:30 AM
15434 Lucia Riverbend Hwy, Stanley, NC 28164
See you soon ☀️
July 13, 2026 • 8 Minute Read
How to Trust God When You Can't See What He's Doing
Some seasons of following God ask you to move before you can see where you are going. You sense Him leading, but the outcome is invisible, the timeline is unclear, and everyone around you seems to be asking how you can be so sure. Learning how to trust God when you can't see what He is doing is not a lesson reserved for spiritual professionals. It is the ordinary work of faith, and Scripture hands us an ordinary man to show us how it is done. In Hebrews 11:7, the writer holds up Noah: "By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen." Those first two words, "by faith," echo through the entire chapter for a reason worth understanding. What Does It Mean to Have Faith? At its root, faith is implicit trust in the character and nature of God. That phrase repeats over and over in Hebrews 11, and the repetition is deliberate. The writer is speaking to the early church, a suffering and struggling people, and he is working to build their faith. To trust God's character is to trust two things about Him: His goodness and His power. We trust that God is genuinely good, exactly the way He explains Himself, and that He is powerful enough to do what He said He would do. How do we know He is good? The cross. It is the most powerful demonstration of love, kindness, and goodness in the history of the world. How do we know He is powerful? The empty tomb, because He is the only One who has ever defeated sin and death like that. He is good because of the cross. He is powerful because of the empty tomb. If you hold onto nothing else, hold onto that. Faith Is Believing God Will Do What He Said Essentially, faith is believing that God will do what He said He will do. When you read "by faith" stamped over Noah's life, you are reading a man saying, "I believe God will do what He said He will do." I have an uncle who was a pastor, and one year he served as my camp counselor. I was around fifteen, and he taught a series of devotionals I have never forgotten. That very line came straight from him: faith is believing that God will do what He said He will do. Then he added a second step. Faith is also believing that God is good, and that He will do what He said He will do for you. It is not merely a broad, blanket statement for everyone. It is true of you, individually. That still builds my faith today. When God's Character Is Hard to Understand God warns Noah that something is coming. In Genesis 6:13, He says, "The end of humanity has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence," and He instructs Noah to build an ark of gopher wood. Yet in the same warning, He makes a promise, telling Noah in Genesis 6:18, "I will establish my covenant with you." This is where some of us have to wrestle honestly. We serve a loving God who looks at humanity, sees it overcome with violence, and chooses to end all but one family and start over. That is a difficult thing to sit with. Some have looked at God and called Him a murderer, even accused Him of genocide. If that makes you uncomfortable, the discomfort is worth facing rather than smoothing over. Why should it feel good to learn that humankind had become so corrupt that violence was an everyday practice everywhere you looked? What it really meant was that the iron rule was in effect. Whoever was most powerful took whatever they wanted from whoever they could, all the time and everywhere. The Golden Rule was being practiced nowhere. People were not doing to others as they would have others do to them. So what part of God's character do we see here? We see God as a judge. In our culture, when a judge sentences someone to prison, we do not call the judge an abuser. When a judge hands down even the hardest sentence, we generally understand the judgment as fitting the crime. God, our Creator and the Judge of all things, is saying the punishment fits the crime, and we have to trust Him with that even when it is hard to see. He will judge every one of us; He will judge the nations, and His judgment is perfect and right. That same judgment is also what spares Noah and his family. Faith in Things Not Yet Seen Here is where the story becomes genuinely interesting. Hebrews 11:7 says Noah was warned "about things not yet seen." In Genesis 6:17, God declares, "I myself am bringing the flood of water upon the earth." There had never been a worldwide event like this. Noah is being warned about something he has no concept of. He does not fully understand it; he does not even know how it will happen; he simply knows it is coming because God has told him. The writer of Hebrews includes Noah to remind us of one thing: our faith is not in what we see; it is in who we know. Noah is a wonderful example of an ordinary person who put his faith in an extraordinary God. His posture was simple. "I can't fully understand what is going to happen, I can't see it, I have never experienced it before, but if You said it, I believe it. I'll take You at Your word." That is exactly how the chapter opens. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen." To be a follower of Jesus, to be His disciple, means believing not only in the supernatural but in the invisible. That is difficult for our culture, and for skeptics to accept. How to Trust God When You Can't See Him Working Every day I pray to the Lord whom I cannot see. I surrender my life again; I lay it down before Him, and I pick up the cross He has given me in order to follow Jesus, a man I have never met. I see God's activity around my life. I believe I have a personal relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and that He speaks to me. But these are invisible things. It is by faith that we read the Word, by faith that we pray, and by faith that we trust the Holy Spirit is speaking to us and through us. Living that kind of life is awesome. You will find yourself saying things to other people and wondering whether the Holy Spirit just spoke through you, because you know you are not that smart or that good on your own. You will hold faith in moments when others cannot understand how you have any peace at all. The reason is simple. Something invisible is at work inside you. They cannot see it, but you can feel it, understand it, and know it. It is all an act of faith. Paul says the same thing while writing about death. In 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, he writes that we are "always of good courage," that "we walk by faith, not by sight," and that he would prefer to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord. Think of Enoch, a man who walked with God and then was simply with God, with no record that he ever died. Do you think that took courage? I have to imagine it took real faith. It is hard to picture the conversation where God says, in effect, "Enoch, your time is done, why not come spend time with Me here, since we already spend so much time together," and Enoch simply answers, "Okay." Most of us would freeze at "right now." But Enoch trusted God, even in the face of death. Faith in Who You Know Noah had faith in things he could not see. So did Enoch. So can you. The invitation of Hebrews 11 is not to manufacture certainty about outcomes you can predict and control. It is to anchor your trust in the character of the God who is speaking to you. He is good, proven at the cross. He is powerful, proven at the empty tomb. And He is good to you, individually, not just to everyone in general. When you cannot see what God is doing, remember that your faith was never meant to rest on what you can see. It rests on who you know. That is what turned an ordinary man like Noah into such a beautiful picture of faith, and it is what can steady you the next time God asks you to trust Him before the outcome is ever in view.
July 6, 2026 • 7 Minute Read
How to Walk With God: What Enoch's 300 Years Teach Us
Most of us want to be close to God. We want a faith that feels real, steady, and alive. Yet if we are honest, our walk with God is often not what we want it to be. It starts strong and then stalls. It shows up on the good days and quietly disappears on the hard ones. Long before us, a man named Enoch showed a different way. Scripture says he walked with God for 300 years (Genesis 5:22). Not for a season, and not only when it was convenient, but day after day for three centuries. His life answers a question many of us are quietly asking: what does it really mean to walk with God? The answer begins with the foundation of his faith, found in Hebrews 11:6: "without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." The Foundation: A Faith That Pleases God Enoch's faith, and ours, begins with a simple recognition: real faith is God-centered rather than self-centered. There is nothing good within me that can earn God's favor or please Him. I cannot outgive Him. I cannot become holier than Him, because He is God and I am not. So faith starts by admitting that it is about God and what pleases Him, not about me and what I want. Faith Believes That God Is Real Faith also acknowledges that God actually exists. The people of Enoch's day were not much different from people today. Many did not believe in the Creator God. They ignored the spoken witness of Adam and his sons, Seth and Enoch, and their descendants, and they ignored the witness of creation itself. As Psalm 19:1 says, "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies proclaim the work of His hands." Despite the evidence, many rejected the Creator outright, or they tried to reduce Him to an idol they could grasp and control. That denial led them to believe they could live however they pleased, with no thought of judgment or consequence. This is why sin always thrives wherever God's existence is rejected. Faith Believes God Rewards Those Who Seek Him Believing that God exists, however, is not enough for a relationship with Him. James 2:19 reminds us that "even the demons believe and tremble." A faith that pleases God must also believe that He rewards those who seek Him. We do not seek God in order to collect rewards. But as we seek to know Him, we begin to see that He is holy and I am not. We see that the sin in my life has created a separation, a gap between God and me that I cannot bridge on my own. And as we keep seeking, we discover that God loved the world so much that He built the bridge Himself. That bridge was built on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. When we diligently seek God the Father, He leads us to Jesus every time. This is why Scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments, calls us to actively seek God. Jeremiah 29:13 promises, "You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." Matthew 6:33 adds, "but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Faith is belief in action, and that action is seeking God. What Does God Reward Us With? So what are the rewards Hebrews 11 points to? Simply this: everything God could give for your good is yours. Being made right, counted sinless in God's eyes through faith in what Christ has done, is one reward. But He gives so much more. He gives forgiveness, a new heart, the Holy Spirit, eternal life, blessing, mercy, grace, peace, joy, love, and heaven itself. Everything that is for our good, He gives. That is the foundation of a faith that pleases God: believing that He is, and that if you seek Him, you will find Him. It was the foundation of faith for Enoch, and it is the foundation for you and me. What Does a Walk With God Actually Look Like? If that is the foundation, what did Enoch's faith look like in practice? His life reveals two clear marks of a walk with God. A Walk With God Is Consistent Enoch did not walk with God for a little while. He walked with God for 300 years. I have been trying to walk with God for about forty years, and Enoch's three centuries put that in perspective. His was a walk of day after day, moment by moment, a deep and steady connection with God the Father. A consistent walk has to be intentional because no one falls into good habits by accident. It takes intention and effort. Are you intentional about reading your Bible? About attending services regularly? About serving, about your generosity, about praying? This is not meant to produce guilt. It is meant to help you see clearly that you cannot walk with God while you wait until you feel like it, because that day rarely comes. Enoch did not walk with God only when he had nothing else to do, only when he was having a good day, or only when he felt like going for a walk. His walk was consistent because it was intentional, something he put real effort into. A Walk With God Is Relational A walk of faith is not only consistent, but it is also relational. Let us be honest: many of us are not very good at relationships. We struggle to build deep bonds with others, often because we fear rejection or getting hurt. Here is the good news. God already knows how messed up you are, and He loves you anyway. You do not have to hide anything from Him, because He already knows. You can be honest with Him and share your deepest struggles, your darkest fears, and even your doubts. You can also share your joys. The Creator of the universe takes pleasure in you. He wants to take walks with you every day. He wants to hear everything you are learning about Him, and He wants to teach you more about Himself than you have ever dreamed of knowing. Enoch walked with God because he loved God more than anything else. So if your walk with God is not what you want it to be, stop and ask what is getting in the way. What do I love more than God? Some of us love sleep more than God. Some love money, some love pleasure, and some of us love ourselves more than we love God. Are You Walking With God, or Asking Him to Follow You? That question cuts to the heart of it: am I walking with God, or am I simply asking Him to follow me? Enoch's consistent, intentional, and relational walk pleased God the Father and was evident to everyone around him. The same walk is open to you. It rests on the faith that He is real and that He rewards those who seek Him, and it grows through a daily, honest relationship with the God who already knows you and still loves you. He built the bridge to close the gap through Jesus. The invitation now is not to ask God to follow your life, but to begin walking with Him, one intentional and honest day at a time.
July 6, 2026 • 2 Minute Read
2026-7-5 Weekly Update
Welcome to the weekly roundup 👋 This is your one-stop spot for everything happening in our church family. From kids to adults, small groups to special events, here's how you can get connected over the next seven days. This Week: Monday, July 6: Church office CLOSED for the holiday. Life Groups: Meet throughout the week on campus and in homes. Prayer Requests: Our Mission: Pray for those in our church family who are recovering from surgery or illness. Email Leslie to be added to our prayer team. Our Community: Families are dealing with addiction and need healing in their situations. World: Pray for our Honduras team as preparations are being made and flights are being booked. Pray for the earthquake victims in Venezuela and for the rescue teams and humanitarian aid groups arriving to help. Upcoming Events Route 56 camp: Monday, July 13 - Friday, July 17 8:30 am Children’s Ministries - Begin Sunday, August 2nd for Babies - 4th grade. We still need your help to make sure our kids ministries are covered as we extend to all three services. Tuesday, July 14, 6:30 pm - Photo Team Meeting - Current team members or those interested in photo and video at Real Life are welcome.New here? We'd love to connect. Watch last week’s sermon 👇Watch Online Generosity Your generosity makes our work in this community possible. We’re so grateful for you. One way you support our community is through the food pantry. We’ve given out over 100 bags this year. You can see our weekly food and household needs here, or click the link below to see our Amazon wishlist!Food Pantry Amazon Wishlist Stay Connected 📩 Subscribe to this Collection to get these updates delivered directly to your inbox. 📸 Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. 💬 Pastoral care or questions? Connect with us here. Services: Sundays at 8:30 AM, 10:00 AM & 11:30 AM
15434 Lucia Riverbend Hwy, Stanley, NC 28164
See you soon ☀️