In the first week of “The Big Ask” Pastor Nate Gagne speaks from John 1 in which Jesus gets His first few followers. Unlike social media, Jesus did not take out an ad campaign to try to coerce people into following Him, He simply demonstrated His power and what living for God is like and as people began following Him and seeing their lives be changed, they began spreading the word to others. You may be the only believer someone knows, so although it can seem scary, it’s important to genuinely share your story with as many people as you can; it may just bring someone to Jesus who brings someone to Jesus and so on. It’s important never to coerce or use scare tactics (i.e. you’re going to Hell if you don’t). The best tool you have is your testimony which includes what Jesus did in your past but also how you ‘walk the walk’ every day. We are called to shine His light throughout the world. Even at work, school or other places where it’s contentious to share your faith, let your light shine and ask God to bring you opportunities for someone’s heart to be opened.
Triggered: Week One
In the first week of the “Triggered” series, Pastor Nate Gagne speaks from the book of Colossians about ‘how to engage in an age of outrage’. In our culture, it’s okay to get upset and let your feelings dictate your behavior. However, the bible says to live in a way that pleases God, and then good things will come out of your life. Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions to re-frame your life in a way that aligns with God’s will for you. It’s not healthy to try to dismiss or bottle your feelings, however, it’s not healthy to yourself or those around you to selfishly cater to your own feelings exclusively. We are one person in a larger culture, we are one follower in a larger body of believers. You’re just as important to God as anyone else, but don’t forget, so are they. The more you show love & understanding, the more you will be loved & understood.
Family Tree: Week One
In week one of the “Family Tree” series, Pastor Andrew Zemianek speaks about his Great-Great Grandfather coming to America with only $18 in his pocket & having had to change his name, essentially his entire identity, to try to make a better life for his future descendants. And what he found out was that his Great-Great Grandfather on the other side was a pastor too. In this series, we are looking at Jesus’ genealogy in order to see the lineage from the Kings of Israel all the way down to each & every one of us. In Genesis 12, Abraham was asked to give up everything in order to become the father of the nations we know him to be now. God made a promise to Abraham, his decision whether or not to obey could have had generations worth of impacts. God had a destiny waiting for Abraham, but it was his choice whether or not to inherit it. Similarly, we have the choice to make a decision to follow God that could positively impact our family forever, or to decide not to follow Him & negatively impact our own soul for eternity. It’s not always easy to fathom, but with Jesus there are always choices.
Leftovers: Week Four
In the fourth week of the “Leftovers” series, Pastor Nate Gagne speaks about the different stages people can find themselves in in relation to giving. There are some who can’t even give your leftovers because they are just making it as is. The important part isn’t how much you give but what heart you have. If you have a giving heart, God sees that & will bless you with more because you’re a good steward of what you have. Others are able to give from a place of overflow; they have excess so they’re giving what they have up & above their needs. God loves the cheerful giver & will, as we see in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, bless you with more so “you will have plenty left over to share with others”. Giving isn’t about the act but the heart.
Leftovers: Week Three
In the third week of the “Leftovers” series, Pastor Nate speaks about how “we tend to give God not our best but whatever is left”. In Malachi 1, we see that God implores Israel to honor & respect Him as if they truly believe He is their Father & Master as they profess to. The sacrifices that were being offered were sick & diseased, the unwanted, rather than the first-born which was the required sacrifice. It’s as if you invited someone as your guest & instead of bringing a nice dessert, they bring their three day old Chinese leftovers. We tend to give God our leftovers because we incorrectly see what we have as ours rather than blessings from God Who is the reason for everything we have. Just as it’s shameful to bring a pitiful gift to a house you’re invited to, it’s shameful to give the worst to a God Who gives you the very best.
Leftovers: Week One
In the first week of the “Leftovers” series, Pastor Nate Gagne speaks from the book of John, chapter 12 in which Mary Magdalene washes Jesus’ feet with an expensive bottle of perfume. Some others at the party were weary of this, however, Jesus doesn’t just deserve our leftovers, He deserves the best we have to offer. Jesus deserves our gatherings, like this one recorded in John 12, He deserves our praise for all the blessings in our lives, He deserves our service helping the least of His children (Matthew 10:42), He deserves our everything as He gave it all when He died for our sins.
Haunted House: Week Four
In the final week of the “Haunted House” series, Pastor Nate Gagne speaks about how you should honor & separate from your parents & in-laws once you are married but also defend your spouse from them in the event there is a difference of opinion. For example, a daddy’s-girl or mama’s-boy, once married, should instead differ to their spouse’s opinion when it comes to financial & child-rearing matters. Additionally, although your in-laws may not be your favorite people in the world, you should honor them by not talking about them behind their backs & respecting their opinions, even if you don’t agree with them. Your in-laws don’t have to haunt you, like Jackie Gleason’s mother-in-law in the show ‘The Honeymooners’. After all, it can be hard for parents to think of their children as someone else’s partner instead of simply their child. However, a healthy in-law relationship is marked by mutual respect & agreed upon boundaries.
Haunted House: Week Three
In the third week of the “Haunted House” series, Pastor Nate Gagne speaks about a story of a family that at first started out following God but became far from Him to their detriment & ultimate demise. In the book of 1 Samuel, Eli’s sons use their father’s position to their advantage & live dangerously; committing debauchery & theft. Eli does not correct them & actually benefits from their sins by partaking in the best offerings they steal from the altar. Pastor Nate points out Eli’s flaws; he didn’t discipline his sons, he didn’t differentiate their lifestyle from those of the unbelievers & he didn’t disciple them in the ways of the Lord. Unfortunately, the family was ultimately destroyed due to their sins. A once great man of God was disgraced & his legacy muddled. Parenting is one of the most difficult yet most important roles we can have in our lives. Our kids may act like monsters, but it’s important to lovingly correct them while they are still young enough to want to make the right decisions. There may come a day where they no longer heed your advice if your don’t act as you encourage them to act.
Haunted House: Week Two
In the second week of the “Haunted House” series, Marriage & Family Therapist, Bonnie Reiff, shares some principals for having a healthy marriage & healthy close relationships in general (child/parent, coworkers, neighbors, etc). Bonnie starts out encouraging us to have a realistic vision of ourselves & not let our own negative thoughts of ourselves overpower who God says we are. How we see ourselves impacts how we interact with others. Secondly, we need to wear ‘grace glasses’ & look at others as Jesus does. When God sees us, the bible says we seem faultless to Him because His grace covers the multitude of our sins. It’s important for us to have grace with others, not just because God told us that’s how we can have grace given to us, but because it helps our relationships run more smoothly. Lastly, humility is the key to good relationships with others. If we cannot be humble, even when we were ‘right’ or the other person ‘wronged’ us, we won’t be a very nice person to be around, especially for those closest to us. Any close relationship is a give/take system, so the more humility you give when you’re right, the more you’ll be shown when you’re wrong.
Haunted House: Week One
In the first week of the “Haunted House” series, Pastor Nate Gagne’s wife, Michelle, speaks about not letting your past & the heritage you were born or adopted into dictate your future. Michelle shares about her childhood & the legacy from her father of always giving up. It was when God called her to go back to school at age 22 with a husband & 2 small boys at home that she found a story she could relate to. In John 9, Jesus helps the blind man by giving him a seemingly impossible task; go to a river, wash your face, you’ll see. To us, that sounds impossible, as this man has been blind since birth & likely cannot easily navigate to a river. However, he took Jesus at His word & his sight was gained. In Michelle’s story, she trusted Jesus to bring her through & is now graduating with a Master’s degree, in a field helping people with some of the issues that impacted her family life growing up. God has a plan to bring us freedom & purpose, but we have to get out of the mindset that we screwed up or our parents screwed us up, or else we’ll never get up & walk toward His promises.
Anthems: Week Four
In the fourth week of the “Anthems” series, Pastor Nate Gagne compares Psalm 41 to Lewis Capaldi’s song ‘Someone You Loved’. In both song’s the artist speaks about the pain of rejection. Whether that be by a romantic partner as Capaldi sings about or a close friend as King David laments about on his death bed, it’s easy to try to run to things to dull the pain. However, the way to heal is through God. Just as we may feel betrayed at times by our friends, Jesus was betrayed on a grand scale leading to His crucifixion; worst of all is He knew it was going to happen. But Jesus was not looking to get even or take away His pain, He did what Pastor Nate encourages us to do now. Jesus prayed about it & left it for His Father God to remedy. Dwelling on the wrongs you’ve done or those done to you does nothing but to torment you, like Judas was tormented until his untimely death for his betrayal of Jesus & Capaldi was tormented by the loss of his love.
Anthems: Week Three
In the third week of the “Anthems” series, Pastor Nate speaks about the song ‘Old Town Road’ and the stance of the artist, Little Nas X, when he was faced with adversity. Instead of becoming upset when the Country Music Charts removed his song, Little Nas X continued to pursue his dream. He reached out to a famous country artist to help him get back onto the charts. In the bible, Joseph received great opposition about the dream God placed in his heart when he decided to follow God. In Psalm 109, David wrote a song about his experience throughout life, meeting opposition to his dreams. Instead of “getting even”, David asks God to take care of those who caused him adversity. Similarly, Little Nas X let the Country Charts lose their own popularity when the fans became outraged about the injustice served him. It’s not for us to stop pursuing our dreams because of adversity, so long as we trust in God, He’ll make a way for us to achieve our dream, so long as it brings others to Him.
Anthems: Week Two
In the second week of the “Anthems” series, Pastor Nate Gagne compares the song “Happier” by Marshmello to Psalm 67. Often times, we think God’s objective is the same as Marshmello’s, “I want you to be happier”. We pray for things that are selfish but will make us happier, we curse God when things happen that make us sad. As we see in Psalm 67, God’s objective is for us to be blessed & to turn around & use those blessings to further His kingdom message. If you’ve ever worked on a group project or tried picking out a piece of furniture with your family, you’ll soon find out fulfilling 4 people’s ideals is impossible, can you imagine if God tried to make all 8 billion people happy ever day? The more we ask God to make us happy, the less we are thinking about what He’s called us to do which is reach those who don’t know Him. The more we realize that God wants to bless us so that we can show His love to others, the more our happiness will stem from what’s happening around us rather than within us.
Anthems: Week One
In the premiere week of the “Anthems” series, Pastor Nate Gagne compares the popular song “If I Can’t Have You” by Shawn Mendes to a Psalm in the Bible written by King Solomon. In the song, Mendes laments about being unable to accomplish anything without thinking of the companionship he doesn’t have; ‘everything means nothing, if I can’t have you’. In the psalm, Solomon, who to this day is thought to be one of the wisest people who ever lived, relates a similar message, but isn’t of a romantic companionship, he longs for a relationship with his heavenly Father. Solomon goes on to detail the blessings that God gave him & warns against putting other gods & relationships above a relationship with God. The idea of a relationship that supersedes all else is not new. If we make that relationship with God, He’ll never let us down as Psalm 16 says.
Quit Church: Week Four
In the final week of the “Quit Church” series, Pastor Andrew Zemianek speaks about quitting ‘church friendships’. Even from the beginning, God made a companion for the first man, Adam. God intended for us to have deep relationships with others so that we would have people to lean on in the difficult times & be those people for others in their difficult times. God wants us to fellowship, which means join together in common interest, with other believers in order to strengthen our approach to delivering His message. The more unified the church is, the more people we can reach & let know the greatest fellowship they can be a part of is between themselves & Jesus. Just as you cannot play softball or complete tasks at work without a team, we cannot truly reach people if our only relationships have a shallow root system, or worse yet if we’re in isolation altogether.
Quit Church: Week Three
In the third week of the “Quit Church” series, Pastor Will Lapian encourages us to quit hoping people will show up. God didn’t simply hope people would come to know Him, but He met us where we are at by sending part of Himself (Jesus) to walk among us. Jesus shared trials & triumphs with ordinary men & women like us. Similarly, we cannot expect people to know the loving, saving, accepting God that we know without giving up part of ourselves (time, finances, empathy) to show them the God we know. We must invite people to church, invest in the mission of the church & their salvation, and include them in our community. In this way, we can quit expecting people to show up & start fulfilling our mission to reach ‘just one more’.
Quit Church: Week Two
In the second week of the “Quit Church” series, Guest Speaker Mike Younus relays the message to quit simply giving our money away. God loves a cheerful giver, and desires to bless us, but as Pastor Nate spoke about in the fourth installment of “Upsidedown Kingdom”, God will use your measure to give back to you. So if you are not faithful & generous in your giving to others, neither will God be in His giving to you. Additionally, there’s no meaning behind it if you simply give just because you think you should or to get something back, God says to give sacrificially, which can be uncomfortable for us, but makes us that much more appreciative of the miracles once we experience them. Lastly, in Matthew 6, Jesus says that wherever your treasures are, that’s where your heart will be. So, if we store our treasures here on earth in the bank, that’s where our heart lives, but if we give to spreading the Good News of Jesus, our treasure is in Heaven with Him.
Upsidedown Kingdom: Week Four
In the final installment of the “Upsidedown Kingdom” series, Pastor Nate Gagne illustrates Jesus’ principle of ‘give & it will be given to you’ through an example from the show Stranger Things. In the show, one of the boys nurtures a creature from the upsidedown world within the show. Because he gave food, love & shelter to this creature, when the time came, this creature whose nature it was to hate the boy actually allowed him & his friends to go free; ‘give & it will be given to you’. Jesus didn’t ask us to give money, forgiveness or mercy in order to receive anything in return. He desires for us to give sacrificially as He did when He laid down His life for us because of unconditional love. In our current culture, it’s difficult to imagine giving anything, let alone not having it be a painful experience. However, Jesus didn’t come for us because He owed us anything, He did it because He had a heart for us & wanted to see us saved from our sins. ‘Give & it will be given to you’ may seem an upsidedown statement, but the more kindness, mercy & grace you pour out, the more you will receive back.
Upsidedown Kingdom: Week Three
In the third installment of the “Upsidedown Kingdom” series, Pastor Nate compares living to playing a game of softball. You can play to win or play trying not to lose. Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 16 that if you want to ‘win’, you have to lose. Jesus says if you try to save your life you will lose it whereas the person who gives up their life for Jesus will save His life. Jesus isn’t talking about here on earth but your eternal life. Things in life aren’t always going to go our way, just as things went from praise to persecution within a matter of weeks for Jesus. However, in losing His life, Jesus saved it because He was resurrected by God. In this way He modeled for us how to go through the trials of this life with grace. No matter what comes against us, the more we proclaim God’s message, we lose our earthly life but save our spiritual one.
Daniel Gil - American Ninja Warrior
In this special service, Daniel Gil, better known as “The Kingdom Ninja” from the popular show American Ninja Warrior shares his story including; how his parents dedicated their family to Christ, his home-schooled years & the unorthodox journey he took to ninja. The reason he made it to American Ninja Warrior was because he remained faithful to God & kept his ‘life verses’ in mind, one of which being Jeremiah 29:11 which states that the Lord has plans to prosper us & not to harm us. And even as Daniel’s fame grows, he continues to give God the glory & use his platform as a way to get God’s name out there & not his own.