Sermons at Granite Creek Community Church

Pastor Josh Talks about the parable of the talents. In the parable of the talents, it appears that Jesus is stressing the importance of a person using their talents. The Parable of the talents is given by Jesus right after he talks about his second coming and that no one know the day or the hour and so a believer must be using their talents. So which one are you a faithful servant or one that hides their talent and their profession of faith in christ. You can find this parable in Matthew 25: 14-30

Pastor Josh talks about The Parable Of The Prodigal Son. The Parable Of The Prodigal Son is one of the parables of jesus. According to the story, a father has two sons. The younger son asks for his inheritance before the father dies, and the father agrees. The younger son, after wasting his fortune, goes hungry during a famine, and becomes so destitute he longs to eat the same food given to hogs, unclean animals in jewish culture. He then returns home with the intention of repenting and begging his father to be made one of his hired servants, expecting his relationship with his father is likely severed. Regardless, the father finds him on the road and immediately welcomes him back as his son and holds a feast to celebrate his return, which includes killing a fattened calf usually reserved for special occasions. The older son refuses to participate, stating that in all the time he has worked for the father, he never disobyed him; yet, he did not even receive a goat to celebrate with his friends. The father reminds the older son that the son has always been with him and everything the father has belongs to the older son. But, they should still celebrate the return of the younger son because he was lost and is now found. 

Pastor Josh started a new series called Storytime. We all have a story to tell and we talked about the seeds of love through the parables. Today we talked about The Parable of the Sower. The parable of the sower conerns a sower who scatters seed, which falls on four different types of ground. The hard ground "by the way side" prevents the seed from sprouting at all, and the seed becomes nothing more than bird food. The stony ground provides enough soil for the seeds to germinate and begin to grow, but because there is "no deepness of earth," the plants do not take root and are soon withered in the sun. The thorny ground allows the seed to grow, but the competing thorns choke the life out of the beneficial plants. The good ground recieves the seed and produces much fruit. To summareize the point of the Parable of the Sower. " A man's reception of God's Word is determined by the condition of his heart." A secondary lesson would be " Salvation is more than a superficial, albeit joyful, hearing of the gospel."

Pastor Josh talks about how your past leads or determines our identity. Also that we are not our past and today is a new day. One thing God does is forget. He also talks about how we can win the victory and the mindset of present future. Like in Napolean Dynamite Uncle Rico says that he could have gone pro and buys a time machine to go back in time. 

Pastor Meko taught us about the evils of anger. Seeking dark global agendas stream rolling over goodness, truth, and freedom throughout the world is more than enough to make anyone feel angry, negative, and even enraged. We as a humanity, along with all our rights, are under siege and the most common response to being attacked is either through anger and aggression, or fear and retreat-which is based on a raw fight or flight reaction. While it sometimes seems there is no other way to respond, there is danger of becoming the very thing we've set out to defeat if we act through aggression or hatered in any way. Just like in the video when anakin starts to turn. He let his anger become the best of him. 

The value that stood out the most was "believing the best" about other people. Think about that for a minute. What does believing the best actually mean? How often when we talk or relate with someone do we believe or assume the absolute best about the other person? What could happen if we did? What would it take to get there? I believe there are three areas we can all improve that will make a difference. Those areas are: How We View Ourselves, How We View Others, and How We Relate and Communicate With Others. The apostle Paul understood as well as anyone what it was like to be deserted, doubted, envied, distrusted and disdained — even by his fellow Christians. If anyone should have had a guarded, cynical view of people, it was Paul. Paul’s confidence wasn’t in God’s people, but in God who indwells his people. He learned to see fallible people through God’s infallible eyes. He was also living out the Golden Rule of treating people how he would want to be treated. All of us want others to believe the very best of us, so why are we reluctant to extend that same courtesy to others? We often think that by not believing the best, we are protecting ourselves from hurt, but this usually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we entertain suspicious, judgmental or critical thoughts, people will most likely mirror those same attitudes and assumptions back toward us. Conversely, if we think kindly and positively toward them — assuming the best — then they usually pick up on that and strive to live up to our noble expectations. 

Pastor Josh talks about good v evil. With the help of Yoda they also talk about that God is everywhere, faith, force and how you have to believe and how you view God. 

Pastor Josh talks about the gospel according to star wars called discovering who you really are. Who we really are is buried under layers of a protective shield created by years of building a defense against society around us. Most of us have been conditioned by the world, friends, family and others to think like the world. Or we have been in dysfunctional families that didn't give us a chance to love ourslves unconditionally. 

God put a piece of divine nature or creative energy inside us. If we meditate and look for this, we will discover who we really are. We are a beautiful being, a child of Light often smothered by darkness. Negative, dark and evil forces try to destroy us from birth. This is to put out the spark of creative energy inside us, so we will be miserable and fearful in a world of evil doers. Self forgiveness, acceptance and unconditional love of self and others sets us free to see who we really are. 

Pastor Larry talks about Living With Victorious Intent. Living with intent is living a life that is healthy and purposeful, but also joyful. It's asking ourselves what will make ourselves happy. Intents come from our soul, whereas goals come from our mind. Finding Intent is about asking yourself three main questions: Who am I? What do I want? How can I serve? Ultimately you have to ask yourself what makes you happy, it's often very different from all the external expectations people have. We don't have to be the Superhero, but we can do great things in our everyday lives. Intent doesn't have to be all about meditation and sould searching. It's supposed to be fun. It's all about being joyful and happy and free. 

Pastor Larry finsishes on The Power Of Christmas Part 2.