My vision for Biblical Worship at Harvest is to encourage, develop, and raise up true worshippers who worship the Triune God in spirit and truth within all aspects of life; that we might be a people who grow in our understanding of God and respond by making much of Him with our lives not just music....
Rob Maxey was a friend to as many people as he could meet. He was tireless in his service in God's Kingdom, relentless in his pursuit of teenagers for the sake of Jesus, and abounding in hope and joy and love that came from a heart captivated by the good news that Jesus forgives sinners and changes lives for eternity. He is and will be deeply missed. ...
So many questions, so little time! We had over 30 questions come in on Sunday morning during our services, and of course we couldn’t get to all of them from the front. But, we can provide some brief answers to the ones that didn’t get mentioned, and that’s what we are doing here. The goal is not an exhaustive answer, but helpful, direct, biblical answers. And, we provide links to reliable sources where possible because many of these questions already have good answers....
At Harvest, "walking with Christ" is the process by which you consistently grow as a disciple in community, growing in your love for Jesus and other people. Being a disciple is never a one-person show....
You were created to worship. There isn’t a single soul on this planet who isn’t wired this way. We are all worshipers. The question is simply who or what you worship. People can deny God exists all they want, but far from denying His existence, they prove his existence as they live out a life of worship. ...
"Meditation" is a popular practice for many people, yet also a confusing one for many Christians. Is it OK to meditate like other people do, seeking to cleanse or empty the mind of all distractions, worries, burdens, etc? Is meditation spoken of in the Bible similar to that, or altogether different?...
There’s no denying that we each come to the Bible with our own presuppositions, biases and assumptions, and there are a slew of contributing factors. So when you come to God’s word, your commitment must be to let the Bible say what it says and mean what it means even if it changes the way you’ve always thought about it......
Every presidential election season seems to create a feeling of "When will this be over?" by the time we are all actually voting. We've heard about candidates for years already in some cases, then we hear from their "camps" every day for months and months, then we hear from candidates themselves incessantly down the home stretch. This race feels, to me, to be more polarizing than any I've seen in my relatively brief 32 years of life......
Anniversary celebrations bring perspective and expectation. Perspective of what’s God has done and expectation about what another year of walking with the Lord will produce in our hearts, in our church, and in our community. Our third anniversary has once again prompted both. People have asked me, “three years ago, is this where you expected to be?” And it’s difficult to answer that question. ...
I believe there is so much that God has in store for us, but were I to sum up all that the Lord has impressed upon my heart for this upcoming year of ministry, I could summarize the focus in two words: All in! This is our theme for the year. If we’re to be the type of church that I believe God is calling us to be, it’s going to start with each and every person committing to being “All in.” This year, we’re going to get off the fence of mediocrity. We’re going to stretch ourselves beyond our levels of comfortability. We’re going to establish a clear focus on the right priorities. And we’re going to be sold out for Jesus unreservedly. ...
How could I encapsulate the top 3 lessons learned in the past 3 years at Harvest? Answer: I can’t. So, I’m ditching the idea of “top” 3 lessons, and instead want to put forward the following 3 lessons that we’ve learned at Harvest. There have just been too many lessons to count, some more significant than others. But for your consideration…...
As I reflect back on 3 years of ministry at Harvest, my heart is overwhelmed with thankfulness. Were I to speak of every form of thankfulness that has welled up in my heart, I would likely never stop writing. So in light of three years of ministry, I wanted to speak of my thankfulness in 3 ways......
The Trinity is one of the most complex and mysterious Christian doctrines, but there is certainly a strong Biblical basis for this concept. The foundational idea is that God is one God who eternally exists in three persons. Bruce Ware summarizes it well when he writes......
For the better part of a year, we will be studying the book of Mark together and the series title is Discipleship Defined. In light of the mission and the momentum God has been building in our church, I felt that it would be essential to define what our mission is again, which is glorifying God by making disciples. If you were to poll an assortment of Christians and ask them about discipleship, I believe......
Begin by reading Romans 12:1-2 Before we parachute into chapter 12 of Romans, I thought it might be helpful for context to ask ourselves what the "therefore" is there for in verse 1, especially since Paul is appealing to the reader, on the grounds of mercy, to be living sacrifices. Some topics previously covered so far by Paul in Romans, were first the bad news of humanit...
Keep ReadingStart by reading Philippians 4:1-9 After Paul's pastoral heart overflows again with love and longing for his beloved church family, his joy and his crown, he reminds them to stand firm in the Lord. He calls for disputing members to agree that going to heaven is far greater than whatever their disputing over. We are then commanded to rejoice, rejoice in the Lord always tha...
Keep ReadingStart by readingPhilippians 1:18b-30 Rejoicing that transcends all restrictions, distances, circumstances, yes, even life itself. When a people's greatest hope is in the gospel, Christ will be magnified, and His people will rejoice. Yes, they will rejoice! The Apostle Paul was doing his second, two-year term in prison, shut off and separated from his beloved church famil...
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