What hinders a church's growth? In short--communion. Our communion with God and communion with each other determines our growth. In this message, Pastor Rich looks at several passages, including 1 Corinthians 10:16, 17, 1 Corinthians 11:23 - 26, and Psalms 106:8 - 15. He emphasizes our need to die to self in order to see God's best. He also points out what we can learn from the Israelites time in the wilderness and the pitfalls we must avoid in order to move on into all that God has for us.

In one night, centuries of prophecies were fulfilled in the birth of the Savior, Jesus. Do we, the twenty-first century Church, have anything to learn from the responses of the different people and people groups to that event? In this message, Pastor Rich looks at the nativity account as recorded in Luke 2:8 - 17 and Matthew 2:1 - 18. From those accounts, he answers three questions that are critical to our Christian walk: 1) Do I respond or take action when I hear the Word of God?; 2) Do I defend myself when I hear the Word of God?; and 3) Do I do nothing when I hear the Word of God?

We are each accountable for what we do with the measure of faith we have been given. And what we do with that faith determines where we ultimately end up. In this message, Pastor Rich looks at several passages, including Habakkuk 1:2 - 4, 2:4, John 6:53 - 64, and Matthew 26:40 - 41. He highlights the misguided illusion that everything will be easy with God; but, as we see in the garden of Gethsemane, it was not easy for Jesus to lay down His life. As He did, we must keep our eyes on the Father, follow Him and be obedient to His Word.

God is unchanging; and as we walk with Him, we change to be more like Him. In this message, Pastor Rich looks at two people, from Luke 18:31 - 19:10, who were desperately looking for Jesus while in the midst of people who had become apathetic to Him. Pastor Rich reminds us that when we are not actively looking for Christ, we become ashamed when He shows up because we have allowed things in our lives that are not holy.

What does "being dead" really mean? In this message, Pastor Rich expounds on Colossians 3:3 and highlights what life looks like when we are fully dead to self and hid in Christ. He reminds us that we do not get out of this world alive and, unlike in video games, we only get this one life. We must determine that we are dead in Christ, but He is alive in us, so that we are no longer limited by the things of our flesh. We have to become passionate about the things that Jesus wants.

God will complete the work He began in us and in His Church. But, do we understand what it is going to take to complete what He's called us to? In this message, Pastor Rich looks at the early church and Peter in Acts 9:31 - 43 to see what they were doing that "turned the world upside down". We must realize that, to reach the world with the Gospel, we will be inconvenienced and put in uncomfortable spots. But it is all for the magnification and glory of God.

In the three years that the disciples, including Peter, physically walked with Jesus, He told them many things about His death, burial and resurrection. But, because they had other ideas for how God's Kingdom should be established, they weren't listening. So they found themselves hopeless during the three days that Jesus was in the tomb. In this message, Pastor Rich begins with Mark 16:7 to walk through how Peter ended up in such despair and turmoil following the crucifixion. He points out that without the testing of our faith, we will always have a superficial, in-word-only faith, which leaves us open to be easily derailed when God does things differently than we think they should be done.

In our Christian walk, we sometimes think about ourselves, our objectives, what we want to accomplish, and people seem to get in the way. This is opposite to Jesus' way of thinking. We should be about people. In this message, Pastor Rich looks at the account of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1 - 14. As Naaman had to, we must lay aside our preconceived ideas of how God will work, and just be obedient. Pastor Rich lays out six things that had to happen before Naaman could be healed. As the Church, we need to adopt these attitudes to allow God to minister through us to the people around us. Instead of telling others to "get out of the way" so we can do our thing, we must tell ourselves to "get out of the way" so God can move in and through us to the people for which He gave His life.

God wants to do things more than we want Him to do things. And sometimes, our prayers become more us praying our agenda instead of seeking God's agenda. In this message, Pastor Rich looks at how a person behaves who has encountered Jesus and is actually desperate for more of Him, in the account of Mary Magdalene at the tomb, in Mark 16:9 - 20. When we get that point of desperation and expectation, Jesus will reveal Himself to us, so that we will believe enough to share the Truth.