Life is hard…The good in life is hard…there’s nothing you achieve that’s good that doesn’t require some effort or pain…The bad is also hard…Poor choices also lead to the pain of regret…There is a reward on the other side of one pain and regret on the other side of another pain…Life is hard…But here’s the other reality: You get to choose your hard.

Gritty people do something that many of us struggle with;  They continue to “Go One More” even when it’s NOT COMFORTABLE because success is not a comfortable pursuit. Gritty people know that if you stay in your comfort zone, you will fail. So you need to get uncomfortable being uncomfortable if you ever want to be successful.

So many times in our lives, we want to change and do something to be better at our faith and life; however, we usually give up. When things get hard, we are done. What if we chose to have the grit to go through with it? In this series, we are going to understand that every part of our life is spiritual, and we are going to get gritty to lean and mean in our faith and lives.

What comes into your mind comes out in your life. What stronghold is holding you back? What truth from God’s word demolishes that stronghold? Write it, think it, and confess it until you believe it.

Thoughts are powerful. They change our perspective, impact our decisions, and influence our habits. What do we do when we become trapped by our thoughts? Learn how to take your thoughts captive and win the war in your mind as Pastor Trevor launches this new and powerful series.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him and His resurrection. His resurrection is resurrecting us. His resurrection CHANGES EVERYTHING for us.

When you have been radically transformed by God, the natural response is to connect with other people to make a difference.

Radical Generosity is us helping people not like us experience a Jesus who became just like us.

When we go above and beyond with generosity, people experience the love and grace of an “above and beyond” God. Today, Pastor Trevor continues our series, Difference Makers, with the message, Radical Generosity Reshapes Our World.

Being right is not the goal or the posture we will take. Being like Jesus to help others see Jesus is the goal.

Grace is the first response we have with others. We will be a grace-giving people even when it makes no sense. We will lead with and love others with the grace we have received first.

What do you need to fully surrender to God? To truly pray, “God, send me,” we need to have three things: A genuine experience with the presence of God, a genuine awareness of our sinfulness, and a genuine desire to go and do what God has called us to do.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

This prayer takes us to the place where we are most vulnerable with God. It is a dangerous prayer that David prayed in Psalm 139 when he asked God to search his heart, reveal his fears and uncover his sins.

A lot of times, we think that the voice of God is going to be the big and booming audible voice of God. How do we learn to lean in and hear what God wants to say?

Why is it that we, as followers of Jesus, know that we have access to go boldly before the throne of grace, that God hears our prayers, he’s moved by our faith, and yet so often, our prayer life can be inconsistent, can be haphazard, and is often faithless in so many ways?

Let’s start the new year with Dangerous Prayers. Today, we’ll spend some time on worship and prayer, where you’ll get the opportunity to pray through our campus and the various ministries we represent.

Merry Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of Christ! Today, Trevor DeVage shares the Christmas story of Jesus’s birth and how Joseph and Mary might have felt as new parents of the Messiah. When we find ourselves in challenging moments of wonder and awe, how do we be the people God created us to be? What is God putting on your heart for this coming year that will require you to lean into him?

We will have a moment of communion during our reflection time today; have some bread and juice ready.

We hear the best Christmas Ever, but we don’t understand that Christmas in all of its goodness was actually really hard…but that is what makes it great. Joseph, gets what we think of as the best news, and it will be, but this is a hard moment.

We hear “best” Christmas Ever, but we don’t understand that Christmas in all of its goodness was actually really hard…but that is what makes it great. Joseph, gets what we think of as the best news, and it will be, but this is a hard moment. His obedience is what makes this the Best Christmas Ever. 

We long to paint the picture of the best-looking family. We have matching pj’s, peppermint mochas, and the perfect card to send to all our Instagram-worthy friends. Yet, if we look at the family line of Jesus, we realize that he came from the most messed up and non-idealistic lineage ever.

To be more open-handed with our generosity (our time, talent, and treasure for the Kingdom), it starts in community. As we develop a devoted community that meets for movement and growth, we will generate a generosity so deep and so pure that there will be no one in need around us.

Paul is in chains again. Paul is before the king. Paul stays bold knowing by the law he could die, but by Jesus, he would be delivered. If Paul is not bold, he does not have the opportunity to go to Rome and shake the epicenter of the world by empowering them with the Good News of Jesus. Every time Paul faces opposition…he moves the Good News Forward. It is by being empowered in opposition that he empowers the early church to seismically shift the world.

Paul in Acts 17 goes to Athens and instead of judging them for their pagan worship, their gods, and their differing views, he took the opportunity to meet them on their turf, engage their “unknown God” and lead some of them to Jesus. He was willing to find common ground on their ground to shake the ground of their faith towards Jesus.

Saul, who will become Paul, is literally imprisoning and persecuting Christians. Then he has the earth-shaking and life-altering moment with Jesus. He will go from murderer to the Messiah. From destroyer to disciple-maker. From Killer to Convert. From Murderer To Miracle Worker. When you become a difference maker God will use your past mistakes to make something new.

Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to scatter them throughout the world to reach as many people as possible. He tells them not to scatter until the Spirit comes on them. But when it does…it is going to shake the world to its core.

There are times when we simply are cynical about others knowing Jesus. We don’t want them to have hope and redemption, yet God calls us to go into ALL the world. The story of Jonah reminds us that God will use us and show us his grace through it, even when we don’t want it.

We must see people the way Jesus sees people…as opportunities to receive forgiveness and redemption. It is easy to get into our hopeless judgment of those living in sin and forget that we too are sinful.

When we are dealing hope, are we willing to do anything possible to get the world in front of Jesus?

Maybe you have grown up with many different beliefs in things or people. Maybe you grew up with your parents’ faith. However, at some point, we all have to answer the question Jesus asks, “Do you believe this?”

In a world that tries to give us many paths and roads to choose, Jesus gives us one and it is him. He tells us that he is the gate through which we must enter.

For many, life in this world is spent living in the darkness of our guilt and shame. However, Jesus longs to bring dark things into the light, and light brings freedom.

This world offers many different cravings, but if we truly want to understand true saving…then we must change what we are craving. The bread of life is what sustains. 

We live in a very disunified world. The world feels very Jurassic at times. It feels like we are always up against large beasts. We are at odds with politics, pandemics, peace, and what we praise. The church has been the epitome of disunity when the world needs to see the church unified for a cause and that cause is Christ and his mission. True unity (Freedom) in Christ is when we come together for a common goal of Go and Making as many disciples as possible together to defeat the large enemy (T-Rex) of this world.  

In a world where everyone wants the villain dead and gone, what would happen if we say the villains of this world or in our lives as redeemable and created in the same image of Christ as we are. At one point, we were all enemies of God in our sin. Yet, redemption is not through destruction but sacrifice for the villain. 

In a world where over 33% of kids live in a home with absent fathers, how can we change the culture and tide of absent fathers? We must be willing to go back to classic examples that God gives us to reclaim our families and our culture.

We celebrate Pantano’s 60-year anniversary as we look back and forward while never forgetting our vision, mission, and purpose. God has called Pantano to be a church that is a catalytic force to bring God’s kingdom and influence anywhere he leads us. Our mission is to love people to Jesus. We launch passionate people to make a God difference, wherever God sends them. Pantano always has and always will be focused on expanding God’s kingdom and influence. This is who we’ve been. This is who we are. This is who we’ll continue to be!

For three days life was filled with uncertainty. Life was dark, Jesus was dead, hope was gone. Friday was full of mourning. Saturday was full of doubt. Life was sinking in the life of those that were following Jesus. Maybe you feel the same way. Maybe your life is sinking and you feel as if it is dark and hopeless. However, there is good news. God does the unthinkable when life seems the most sinkable. Your life might be hanging onto a Friday or Saturday moment…but Sunday is here.

The path of following Jesus is the path of being at peace and making peace with all, for he is the Prince of Peace. Jesus came to make peace with us. As his children, it’s our nature to make peace. We invite others into a life-giving relationship with Jesus so they can be at peace with God. We make peace with those we have conflict with. We see peace and unity between people and groups that need to be reconciled. Making peace is the ultimate spiritual activity that Jesus calls us to engage.

We are on a spiritual journey. It starts when we know we are nothing and need (poor in spirit). Then we admit we are deeply sorry and want to change or repent (mourn). That leads us to this step: we’re ready for God to have his way with us. We surrender control of our life once and continually. We allow God to shape us, mold us, and direct us. We allow the Spirit to transform that which we surrender.

From time to time, we all can allow comfort to keep us from doing what God has called us to do; GO. A response to God will lead to the redemption of others, and he wants us to take risks in order to rescue those that don’t know Jesus. If we are going to be rooted in Jesus in 2022, we must be All In.