What does it mean to have Christian faith? Pastor Rich shows us through the life of Abram that Christian faith is shown when we don’t allow fear to control our lives, when we rely on God’s protection, when we believe in God’s Word and when we receive God’s grace.
In this sermon, Pastor Rich looks at the Way of Abram and the Way of Lot in Exodus 13. Abram made mistakes, but continued on a path of faith toward God. Lot instead chose to be more self-reliant by taking matters into his own hands. Pastor Rich shows us how to engage in a long obedience in the same direction like Abram did.
Our new series, "The Journey of Faith" examine the faithful life of Abraham. In this message, Pastor Rich demonstrates how Abraham modeled a life of faith for us in the Old Testament. Like Abraham, we should follow God's call on our live, believe God's promises, loosen our grip on this world, and be ready to meet our Father on a regular basis.
Pastor Rich and Dr. Charles Montgomery share the pulpit to deliver a powerful message about the joys and the challenges of building a multi-ethnic congregation. Both share pieces of their personal journey that lead to catalytic moments of change. They challenge us to acknowledge our need for God’s grace so we can be the church he intends: A city on a hill. The light of the world. An alternative community that functions differently than the way the world functions.
The message ends with an encouragement to share the Lord’s table and our own dinner tables to break down the barriers that separate us. To participate in 1000 Shared Tables, please sign up at this website: www.vineyardcolumbus.org/1000sharedtables
God did not intend for us to worship with and build community in just one generation. He calls us to build a multi-generational church. In this sermon, Pastor Rich describes God’s intention for the church to break down dividing walls of age.
Pastor Rich started a new sermon series, Different Together, with a sermon on how people with differing political views can live together in peace. He touched on four C’s that should mark the way Christians engage in politics: having Character, showing Civility, making Contact with those with different views and being Christ-centered.
Sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way we planned it. In this message, Pastor Rich talks about how even when things aren’t going well, we can hold onto God’s word and his ultimate purposes.
Forgiveness is at the core of Christianity. Christians are called to forgive in all circumstances. In this sermon, Pastor Rich lays out the five M’s of forgiveness: measure, meaning, myths, method and motive.
Spiritual abuse isn’t often talked about in churches. In this sermon, Pastor Rich looks at wounds caused by leaders in the church and how God can heal us from those wounds.
Pastor Rich uses the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to illustrate the tough decisions we have to make as Christians in a secular world. When is it okay to go along with culture and when should Christian’s take a stand? In this message Rich explores the question, “Where do we draw the line?”
Daniel and his friends were in a land that was hostile to God. The Babylonians (and many people in our culture today) believe that we live in a universe that is closed to God or anything beyond the Natural. Pastor Rich compares this worldview to living in a windowless room where we have no direct access to God. In this message, Rich shows that our God is powerful enough to break through that windowless room and give us that direct access to him.
Christians ought to feel uncomfortable in whatever culture they live because they are not merely citizens of their country, but also citizens of the Kingdom of God. In this sermon, Pastor Rich begins a series that explores how Daniel and his friends navigated the secular society of Babylon. From them we can learn how to live successfully in our culture.
Friendship is one of the chief ways that we experience love in this world but study after study has found that intimate friendships in America are on the decline. In this sermon, Pastor Rich speaks of the amazing opportunity we have to experience the love and friendship of God.
It’s fascinating that many of the most popular loves songs are about cheating and unfaithfulness when most people's desire for love is to find someone who they can totally trust. The deepest desire of the human heart is to find someone who will stand by us no matter what we do or what life brings our way. In this sermon, Pastor Rich talks about the faithful love of God.
We often think that love is the opposite of discipline. Many parents struggle to discipline and set boundaries for their children because they think it's too much work or they want their kids to like them. In this sermon, Pastor Rich talks about a much neglected edge of God the Father’s love; his tough love. Our Father in Heaven’s love is not sentimental gush, instead our Father loves his children enough to discipline us.
Many in America grow up with an emotionally or physically absent father. Study after study shows the importance of having a father figure in young people's lives. In this sermon, Pastor Rich talks about our perfect Father that is eager to adopt us as his children.
Every human being on earth desires to find a love that will never give up on them. In this sermon, Pastor Rich talks about our salvation in Jesus and God's persevering love. God our Father will never leave us or forsake us. His love will never give up on us.
People have many different definitions of love, but when Christians define what love is we don’t go to a dictionary, we go to the cross! God revolutionized our understanding of love when he gave his son to die on the cross for our sins. In this sermon, Pastor Rich describes God's shocking love.
In this Easter message Pastor Rich explains why Jesus’ physical, bodily resurrection matters.
Many people think of Christians as somber and boring but the founder of the faith was anything but dull. So many of Jesus' stories involve parties, great banquets and celebrations. In this sermon, Pastor Rich talks about why we should celebrate and have joy.
Why don’t we feel the same compassion that Jesus felt toward people in need? In this sermon, Pastor Rich talks about what causes our hearts to shrink and how we can grow our hearts of compassion.
While we spend tons of time in the United States taking personality tests to make hiring decisions, build teams, and assess our marriage partners, most of us have never seen a character test designed to measure our degree of honesty, morality, or integrity. In this sermon, Pastor Rich talks about how our character is essential for us to live the good life.