Seneca Community Church Messages

Everyone loves a good story. That is why Americans fork over tens of millions of dollars each weekend at the movies. Most of us would say that good stories need to include some combination of impending tragedy, beautiful people, hopes of romance, a villain, and a happy ending. Typically, the absent element is the unseen providential God. Yet that is exactly the way the Bible tells the story of Esther. God’s name is never mentioned. There is not a single prayer. Esther is the story of The Unseen Sovereign, which can also feel a lot like today.

Join us as Pastor Len Robinson reminds us to "Keep in Touch with the Tower," with three foundational Biblical principles for all Christ followers from Ephesians 5:15-21.

Discovering who you really are and your place is always important and even more so in these days we find ourselves in. Community does that! Christian Community specifically does that. Christian Community is the mutual bond that Christ followers have with Jesus and others, which flows out of sharing common attitudes, interests, and direction. Discovering and remembering who you are and your place gives a strength to life and a direction we could all use a little more of today. And our world needs more people who are following Christ and really know who they are and their place. Hope you will be able join us as we talk about the impact of Community, finding out how staying focused in a noisy world changes everything-inside out!

This is a video message by Rick Cramer from Berean Bible Church

Join us as we wrap up our Christmas series with part 5: Hope for the Troubled.

Hope is Here - Part 4: Forgotten by Dave Spencer

Hope is Here in the person of Jesus! Does the reality of that statement create an awe that takes your breath away? For many of us, the unconvinced or the convinced, not much creates a state of awe in us. Actually, we live in a culture that has basically stripped all of our awe away. The awful gets our attention, but not the awesome. Just think of the news that has caught or even captivated your attention. Solomon wrote: The starting point for acquiring wisdom is to be consumed with awe as you worship Yahweh (one of the many Hebrew words for God). To receive the revelation of the Holy One, you must come to the one who has living-understanding. Proverbs 9:10 TPT Mary, the mother of Jesus, had a moment to decide whether the news of Gabriel was awful or awesome. She decided awesome and responded: “I belong to the Lord, body and soul,” replied Mary, “let it happen as you say.” And at this the angel left her. Luke 1:38 Phillips What would it take for our awes to be more on the side of awesome rather than aw

Hope really is here in the person of Jesus! We don’t have to wait for it! But (you knew there was one) often when the expression of hope (Jesus) is not what we expected, after time we are left discouraged, heartbroken, and yes, even skeptical. This is the place we find Elizabeth (Jesus' mother Mary's cousin) and Zechariah as they process their lives with a delayed realization of hope. Luke described the couple this way: Zechariah and Elizabeth were both good people who pleased God. They did everything the Lord commanded, always following his instructions completely. Luke 1:6 ERV At first glance it doesn't add up that "good people who pleased God" waited almost a lifetime for a response from God. God is quiet, yet Elizabeth and Zechariah don't quit on Him. It is remarkable that God's lack of a response doesn't seem to affect their response to Him. Join us as we unpack how we can experience a Hope that is Here that touches our everyday life, even when being discouraged could become the flavor of our life.

Christmas is a time of anticipation. Children anticipate that toy they have longed for. We anticipate a specific gift, sometimes just hoping it’s money and not a sweater. Then there are many of us who anticipate special moments around the table with family and friends. Anticipation is a part of what makes Christmas wonderful. The older word Advent focuses our anticipation on what Christmas originally was all about. Advent means “a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the coming of the Messiah.” That was the hope many were looking for before that first Christmas. Today, that hope is here and we can actually experience it. We don’t have to wait for it! Join us this Christmas season as we discover how we don’t have to wait for hope any longer, we can have a hope that touches our everyday life. Hope really is Here! We can live in that hope because it is here!

Join us as Pastor Lynn Kent shares an encouraging message from John 14.

No one likes to have regrets. Often they are just too painful or are a reminder that we fell short in an area of life. What if the pain of regrets could actually be a catalyst for something good in our lives? What if we could leverage our regrets to bring change in our life that produces something beautiful in our life? The apostle Paul expresses it this way: Distress that drives us to God... It turns us around… We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets… 2 Corinthians 7:10 MSG Join us as we talk about seeing our distress in relationships as something that can move us towards God rather than away from Him. We will hopefully find ourselves in a better place, a place where we can say genuinely, "I have No Regrets!"

As we continue on with our series Leftovers, we will be looking at "Why we need to direct desire that was designed for intimacy" with Part 3. For some, this message will be very timely, while for others it will be good for helping them to stay the course they already are on. It doesn't take much for any of us, at any stage or age, to find life mired in the hurt and mess of intimacy gone wrong. This is a PG-13 message - all that means is that Parental Guidance is strongly recommended, making this message a gift for parents to have age-appropriate conversations with their kids. Please don't miss that opportunity!

Last weekend, we began our series Leftovers with the statement, "Either you love leftovers or you don't!" For some, this week's message may feel fresh and not like a leftover, while others will have "tasted" it before. Whatever your age or stage of life, as we look at two core Symbols of the Christian faith, Baptism and Communion, we hope you find the "meal" tasty and energizing as we look to follow Christ.

In this message, we are going to enjoy a Leftover called Blended. This leftover will have us diving into how blending two lives, and sometimes two families, can work so that we would call it a SUCCESS.

This is Us - Part 6: Sharing Life by Dave Spencer

Keep calm and pretend that today is Monday. Do you know that most people dread Mondays? Research shows that on Mondays, 50% of employees are late to work, productivity is at its lowest, and the average person doesn’t smile until almost noon! Why is it that so many dread Mondays so much? Imagine if we could turn the most dreaded day of the week into a day full of purpose and impact. We were made for so much more than just 'surviving' our work week. We were made to thrive in it! What if we could all move to the place we discovered that we were Made for Mondays?

In this message, we’ll look at another challenging subject for parents and others trying to influence the next generation - Correcting Kids. Before you stop reading, especially if you believe influencing kids is outside your wheelhouse, realize that all of us, at every age and stage of life, need to first look at our own relationship with our Heavenly Father before thinking about correcting kids. As a Christ follower, it all starts there! Even if you don't consider yourself a Christ follower, there is a basic question that needs to be answered, “What do you do with correction in your own life?” We need to think about how we process that answer before we correct anyone else's life. Join us as we look at what it means to Correct Kids and what the implications are for us, no matter what our stage or age is. We will begin with a letter written to the Hebrews. The Hebrews lived in a difficult world similar to ours. This is what the writer says: …have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that Go

Resources for this series include messages from Life Church, North Point Community Church, Saddleback Church, and Mecklenburg Church.

This is Us - Part 3a: Family Life by Dave Spencer

No one likes feeling set up by someone. When it does happen, we often feel embarrassed that we fell for it. What about when we set ourselves up? Sometimes we are walking ourselves into a setup and don't even realize it. This can be disastrous when it happens spiritually, especially when we don't understand the difference between a promise and a principle in the Bible. For example: A gentle answer turns away wrath... Proverbs 15:1 NIV When you expect this Proverb to be a promise, you can be hurt, discouraged, and even disillusioned with God when you give a gentle answer and it doesn't turn away wrath. If you take it as a principle, you'll normally expect a gentle answer to turn away wrath and you have a direction for difficult conversations, something to try in a heated moment. In this message, we will take a look at another spiritual principle that when taken as a promise can be spiritually dangerous.