Reach Church - Everett

Our primary identity is - child of God, and yet, many of us are living with secret identities, cultivated out of shame. In order to run the race well, we need to remember who we are and find freedom in Christ who despised shame.

Discipleship is a committed journey of following Jesus as a student, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, in the company of other disciples, with the goal of progressing towards maturity and multiplication.

God the Father is beautifully remaking His broken creation! This new creation, this new work of art, this new community of believers is both Jew and Gentile - it's a big, multicultural family.

The phrase “Do not judge” is likely one of the most misunderstood yet frequently used phrases in the entirety of Scripture. The fact is, we are judging things all the time. We check reviews on restaurants to judge whether or not we’ll eat there. We visit Rotten Tomatoes to see what the critics are saying about a movie we might want to watch. Even when it comes to people, we make judgements based on first-impressions on whether or not we’d like to pursue connecting with a person a second time. So what does Jesus mean when he says, “Do not judge?” This week, we look at three directives on how we should approach judgement.

In this life we will have trouble, so how do we prepare and weather the storms? We turn to Jesus' words in Matthew 7.

There is only one way we obtain salvation and that is through the person and work of Jesus Christ crucified on our behalf. We cannot fake our way into the kingdom.

We need to ask, seek, and knock on the Father's door to obtain what's best and most satisfying for us. Our Father is all-powerful, good, and accessible. He is not far from any of us. He loves us and desires to have a relationship with each of us.

With the Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe vs. Wade, many of you may be wrestling with what you believe, how to approach conversations, how to engage. At this important cultural moment, Pastor Sean led us through a conversation about abortion and human life from a thoughtful, researched, and Biblically-based perspective.

What do you value? What do you love? Who do you serve? Who do you trust? In Matthew 6, Jesus is introducing a new kingdom and new way of living. It’s counter-intuitive to most everything our culture stands for. Throughout the entire sermon, Jesus is after one thing: the heart. This week, we dive deeper into verses 19-34 where we find that what we value has a lot of power over us.

This week, Jeff Price showed us how the Lord’s prayer should be used as our guide to our daily walk and conversations with Jesus.

The biggest hindrance to the growth of the Church, based on what people would say on the outside, is that the Church is filled with hypocrites. Jesus did not leave his heavenly throne and enter our earthly mess simply to address behavioral issues. He came to address the sinful, rebellious hearts of each and every human being. At the end of the day, God is building a kingdom and adopting a family that's supposed to look differently than the rest of the world.

Loving our enemies is a central idea to the Kingdom of heaven ethic that Jesus calls his followers into. How do we do it, though? What does it look like to be living, walking, breathing examples of God’s grace and love?

The question we're aiming to answer this week: "When someone wrongs you, do have the right to get even?" When a conflict goes too far, when someone crosses a boundary or pushes your buttons, when you feel insulted by another person - do you have the right to get even? Let's see what Jesus has to say in Matthew 5:38-42.

In our culture, we have a massive shortage of truth-tellers. We crave honesty and are desperate for the truth. Unfortunately, honest people are honestly hard to come by. How can we, as Christians, be people of integrity, people who speak the truth? Let's learn from the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:33-37.

Conquering sin in our lives is challenging. Lust is a snare. Divorce is devastating. These aren't easy issues to deal with. However, the consequences of allowing sin to persist are worse for us and for those involved. How do we bring our sin into the light and flee from it as we run towards Jesus?

Have you felt hopeless? What could it look like for you to anchor your hope in God? Let's explore this together.

This week, we begin a new series “You Have Heard…”, looking at 6 instances where Jesus uses the phrase: “You have heard it said…but I tell you…”Jesus frequently challenges his audience’s understanding of Scripture when he says this. It doesn’t mean he is contradicting Scripture, it’s that he’s bringing clarity to what the people have misunderstood about it. Secondly, his audience often limited Old Testament commandments to external actions, not inward righteousness. Jesus reveals the true intention of the law - God does not look just on the outside of the man, but at the heart. In Matthew 5, Jesus uses this phrase “You have heard it said” for the first time, and he begins by addressing the topic of murder. The question becomes, “Can I be considered a good person if I’m not a murderer?”

Last week, we celebrated Easter and the reminder that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead — he is ALIVE and engaged with us today on this earth in our day-to-day lives. And what a great reminder that is! In response to that beautiful reminder, we are invited to draw near to Jesus and allow him to be the center of our lives, however far we may be from that. We are invited to rest, to let Him carry our burdens, to do things His way. He promises rest to all who come to him.

He is risen! And that means whatever you think about who God is, what he cares about, or what he can do in your life - it’s even better than you can imagine. It means that every step you take towards Jesus is a step worth taking, because we’re talking about a God who is absolutely worthy to sit upon his heavenly throne, yet stooped down into the dirt and engaged humanity in a personal way. It means that the Good News that Jesus is alive is VERY, VERY good news.

In these days we’re living, God is calling Christians worldwide to be faithful. Not just to be casual or comfortable, but to be faithful, wherever and however that plays out in our unique context. As the people Jesus calls “a city on a hill,” we’re called to follow in his footsteps and obey his commands.