God is not for the religious, He is for everyone. He came for relationship. He's a secure God that came to us as a human to show us what relationship looks like, to let a fallen earth carry His glorious grace. This past Sunday, Pastor Josh Kelsey preached a message on the truth of grace. The birth of grace was for us all, all we have to do is let Him into our hearts.
What to expect when you’re spiritually expecting: Expect that there’s going to be a process. That you’re going to need God to say don’t be afraid. But also expect that when it’s God it will bring change, holiness, Kingdom into everything. This past Sunday, guest speaker Mia Fieldes, grammy-nominated songwriter, preached a powerful message on intimacy with God and the process of giving birth to a God dream. Nothing that God grows comes into the world without having to breathe through it with Him, lean into Him, trust Him through it.
There's a reason we have grace. Grace is not merely a cover up for sin but the empowerment to be welcomed into the most perfect relationship that we could ever be welcomed into. God’s grace has brought us in so that you may have access to His glory. This past Sunday Pastor Josh Kelsey preached a message on the reason for grace. His grace gives us access into the glory we were made for.
When God spoke, He created light—light because He wanted to reveal Himself to us, to show the world and all creation what kind of God we serve. To come under God’s word is to take our lives from chaos to cosmos, from dark to light. This past Sunday, guest Pastor Robert Madu kicked off our GENESIS series this Advent season by encouraging us to trust God no matter what the season or circumstance. In His word is power to create something out of nothing, and all we have to do is trust in it!
When we know our divine origin and destiny, we are free to serve others from the security of who we are in Christ. This Sunday, Pastor Filmore unpacked the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet from John 13, revealing that Jesus' humility and servant nature is available to us when we keep our eyes on Him. We were meant for love, designed not to tread on people's feet in competition but to wash their feet in humility. Only after we encounter the radical, self-giving love of Christ can our hearts come alive to pioneer in humility so that we can truly consider others greater than ourselves.
We were created to draw close to our Creator and to carry a language of thanksgiving as we enter His courts! This Sunday, Pastor Emmanuel spoke on the story of the 10 lepers Jesus healed, and how only one returned with loud thanksgiving to fall at the feet of the one who worked His miracle. We are challenged to be people who reflect the fullness of the divine love we carry by being loud in our thanksgiving, not only loud in our requests or complaint. In gratitude, we are enabled to live out our revelation of His love for us for those around, for NYC and beyond!
We are trying to create spaces for life to happen, for people to be found. For the broken to mended. We are creating space for God to move. This past Sunday, guest Pastor Dan Lian preached a message out of Mark 5 sharing on the spaces we create for God to move in. God wants to shine His light, show His love, a love that never gives up through us.
It takes sacrifice and worship to make Jesus the center of our lives — and when we do the fragrance of our worship leaves an eternal legacy for those around us. This Sunday Pastor Josh preached a message on the anointing of Jesus and how generosity flows from the revelation of His great gift to us. He reminded us that it is not until we see how extravagantly generous God is towards us that we are able to pour out that same generosity to those around us. Moreover, Pastor Josh challenges us to behold the Son of God before we count the cost of living a life marked by extravagant generosity.
God wants to bless us with the knowledge of who He is. We learn who He is by putting Him first, by trusting Him above this world. If we truly want to unlock the best of God for our lives, we have to give Him our best first. This past Sunday Pastor Josh Kelsey preached a message on generosity and the power of giving God our best and our first. We will never know how much He loves us until we trust Him first.
Love blazes a way. Love pioneers for the sake of others. This past Sunday, Pastor Josh Kelsey launched our new series PIONEER which looks at the book of Hebrews and points to our ultimate Pioneer, Jesus Christ! He made a way for us — who will you pioneer and make a way for?
No matter what you are walking through, who you are in God has never changed. Like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, God is always chasing after us — His heart is for us to know who we are in Him. This past Sunday, Pastor Josh Kelsey preached a message in our HEIRS series on our identity in Christ as His sons and daughters. Our identity is secure in Him because we are His inheritance.
Do you know that you are an heir of God? We are heirs according to His promise not because of our own behavior. This past Sunday, Pastor Josh Kelsey preached on our HEIRS series while also kicking off our 4th location in Downtown Brooklyn. You are royalty, you are heirs, you are an inheritor of all things simply by what Jesus has done. Unless we get our vision clear on who Jesus is we won't get our vision clear on others.
This Sunday, special guest speaker, Pastor Kevin Loo kicked off our HEIRS series, showing us how we can live in the freedom that God has given us as sons and daughters. Knowing our position as heirs, by knowing God as Our Father first, we’re able to stop striving for what God says is already ours. It’s not always easy, but when we create that space to allow God to speak to us, we encounter Jesus, coming deeper into the knowledge of our inheritance in the Kingdom.
This Sunday, we celebrated our 4th Anniversary, and as we look forward to our fifth year as a church, Pastor Josh Kelsey preached a message from Ezra 9 on how God's revival leads to rising! When we repent, turning back to God and surrendering our hearts anew to Him, we are filled with the true refreshment and energy of His Spirit so that we can be part of His restoration of our city and beyond. Our vision is Jesus Christ. Our mission is people. Our cause is love.
This week in our HELP series, Pastor Josh showed how Ezra's heart to rebuild the temple wasn't an accident but rather the hand of God on his life. Like a father putting his hand on his child, the hand of God brings us courage and keeps our praise connected to His unchanging character, not our own performance. No matter what discouragement we face, in Christ we know the hand of God is on our lives—He is with us and for us!
This past Sunday, Pastor Filmore Bouldes brought a message in our HELP series out of the book of Ezra on the promise of God. Although we may not be able to see the fulfillment of God’s promise to us at the moment, we can rest in the fact that He will fulfill it, giving us all the more reason to praise in the process. When we as believers come around a united purpose to share God’s love with this city and the world, we can be confident in knowing that it’s His consistency and perfection that is going to build the kingdom. Let’s start by using our praise as a witness even when the walls aren’t built, because our foundation is in Christ!
We serve the God who stirs our hearts and calls us home. This Sunday, Pastor Josh Kelsey preached out of Ezra on the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the temple. Our God is actively at work to free us; His grace declares an end to exile and brings us home to rebuild the ruins of our lives. When we’re stirred, the result is always a unified vision of worship through obedience — God reveals what He wants to rebuild in your life when we say “yes” to Him!
Worry is misaligned care, misused imagination. This Tuesday, Pastor Josh Kelsey gave a powerful message out of the Sermon on the Mount, calling us to cast our worries on God so that our imagination can be filled with faith for the Kingdom calling on our lives! We were created to care, but never to carry our worries and cares on our own — Christ's heart is that we would be set free from worry as we turn to Him.
This Sunday Pastor Josh Kelsey preached a message out of Acts 16, where Paul and Silas were thrown into prison after casting out an evil spirit and setting a young girl free. Although innocent, with every reason to complain, in their darkest hour Paul and Silas sang hymns and praised God from their jail cell. This shows us that praise isn’t about our circumstance, but about Jesus’ position in our lives. We too can be encouraged to praise even in the toughest of situations. Our freedom and our praise has the opportunity to set others free!
The transformation from Saul to Paul is a story for each of us. This week Pastor Filmore Bouldes preached a message out of Acts 9, where Saul encountered Jesus on the road the Damascus and Ananias encountered Saul to reveal his calling. How incredible that God works through other people to reveal our own calling! Many times we can doubt God’s plan for our lives or feel shaken by prayers that seemed to go unanswered, but this story examples just how suddenly God can work when we keep trusting in Him. Jesus comes into our lives, changing our desires and mission in life, and bringing glory to His name — all so that we can share that hope with others.
This Sunday Pastor Josh Kelsey preached a message out of Acts 4 of opposition and boldness. Things of this world compete for our worship, but when we’re found in Christ we can confront our trials with a supernatural boldness and continue to endure hardships knowing that our identity rests in Him alone. We have the been given the authority to speak out in Jesus’ name freedom and healing over others’ lives just as Peter and John did. As we continue to endure through trials and opposition, we rest in knowing that they’re producing the character and hope of Christ in us.
Each of us has the opportunity to live with great expectation and anticipation—Jesus has made each of us a new creation! This Sunday Pastor Josh preached a message out Peter and John’s encounter with the lame man by the temple gates. Through Peter and John’s faith in the power of Christ within them, they were able to give the lame man more than he was asking for—they not only gave him physical strength and healing but they gave him access to Jesus. By putting our own faith in action, we can now reach out to others and give them the same access of Christ inside us.
Jesus enters into our pain. He connects with us in our sorrow and brings comfort in our hearts when we need relief. This Sunday Pastor Emmanuel Hastings encouraged us out of John 11 as we looked at Jesus raising Lazarus back to life. Christ came to bring resurrection and life, and He is working through our situation — not just for our own lives but for those around us to reveal His glory in His time.
Jesus always initiates and then He illuminates in our lives so that we can see Him. He wants to save and restore us as we look to Him. This Sunday, Pastor Filmore Bouldes preached a message on John 9 on how we are all blind without Jesus. When we see Jesus we see ourselves, we find our true identity and our vision is restored.