03-28-2013 Holy Thursday- Pastor Mark Rossington

Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday, is the celebration of the day where Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples, instituted communion, and was also his last supper before he was arrested and later crucified. Before Jesus celebrated Passover, as per Jewish custom for all Jewish people, he would have to have certain things for the meal to take place. That was when he saw the Temple and it being turned into a marketplace and not into a place of worship, and that's when we see him flip tables in disgust of what it was turned into. It was a place of worship to God and was sacred ground and it was turned into a place of money and greed. Pastor Mark uses that as a basis for his sermon and goes into more detail about the events and significance of the event, and how it related to us. The sermon that starts things off for Holy Week can be found right here.

03-24-2013 Palm Sunday- Pastor Mark Rossington

Palm Sunday is the day where we celebrate the event of Jesus coming to Jerusalem while riding on a donkey and where people were laying palm branches on the ground in celebration of his arrival. The people knew who Jesus was when he came and knew about his acts of healing and casting out the dead, sot hey had no doubts of who he was and what he was able to do. But that was back then, right? It's been hundreds of thousands of years since then, and we really can't be sure if he really did those those things, right? There must  be a reason of some kind to dismiss such things, and even if Jesus did, he must not be able to do it for me, yeah? Pastor Mark talks about those claims and much more in his sermon on Palm Sunday and goes into depth on what those human claims really mean and how we should just have faith Jesus in his abilities like the people back in Jerusalem did. That sermon from Palm Sunday can be found right here for your listening pleasure.

03-20-2013 Love Through a Sponge- Pastor Mark Rossington

This sermon is a bit of a departure to what the rest of the series is like because we are now in the part of the story where Jesus is now crucified. That part of the story is sometimes not drawn into great detail because it's fairly self-explanatory. Jesus endured a beating, nailed to a cross, and then was left there until he was dead. Pastor Mark takes on a role as a coroner doing a typical investigation on the death of Jesus. So, he's going to go in great detail on what happened to Jesus before he was crucified, how he died, and as well as reports from Roman guards to confirm what happened. As a warning, this will get gruesome since the manner of which Romans carried out crucifixions were gruesome, but Pastor Mark wanted to make the point that what Jesus did for us was not an easy task and suffered greatly for us. The last part in the Lenten series can be found right here.

03-17-2013 Sacrifice for Your Vocation- Pastor Mark Rossington

At one point in everyone's life there was a vocation that we absolutely hated and never enjoyed being there. It can be working in the customer service realm, or even in a place such as a bank, but it's a place that we dread going to everyday. It doesn't even have to be a paid vocation either where we feel that way, it could also be something you volunteer for, or it could even be taking care of a family member that can't take care of themselves anymore. Is there some way to make it more enjoyable and not feel like a chore? In the last part in the series of sacrifices, Pastor Mark talks about making sacrifices in your chosen vocation, and how changing one aspect of it can make it much more beneficial to yourself and to the people around you. That last part in the sermon series can be found right here.

03-13-2013 The Highest Stakes- Pastor Mark Rossington

If we are to continue on with the events of Jesus being crucified, there was a moment where the Roman soldiers took Jesus' cloths and gambled them off to see who would take them. That doesn't sound like it would important and as well as not sounding like it would mean anything. It's just something that would most likely happen in that setting considering what was happening not too far from them, so why even make a note of it? Does it actually mean something? Pastor Mark expands on that event and does go into detail on what it means, and how we all cast lots on various things that we may or may not own, and how greed can be a very nasty thing. That fifth installment in the Lenten series can be found right here.

03-10-2013 Sacrifices for Ministry- Pastor Mark Rossington

One of the things that churches are known for is their ministries, and if you go to a church long enough you will probably join one. Typically, when someone joins a ministry it's normally something that fits their skills and something that they find fun. Soon enough a person becomes so attached to a ministry that it's hard to imagine them not in it. Now, what about the other ministries? The natural response is that it's not something their into, or something of the like as a reason why someone won't do a certain ministry. But is that a really good reason not to do one? Is there a good reason not to do a certain ministry? Pastor Mark continues on with his sermon on Sacrifices and talks about the ministries within a church. He goes into depth on the real reasons to do a ministry and what it means going into one. The next part in the sermon series can be found right here.

03-06-2013 Nailed- Pastor Mark Rossington

People have the option to forgive each other when we sin against each other, and when we do forgive each other it's sometimes forgotten and sometimes not. In any event, we actively ask for forgiveness and for an apology for what we've done. Now, when we hear that Jesus took our sins to the cross and forgave us some 2,000 years ago it sounds too good to be true. What does that mean though? In the fourth installment in the Lenten sermon series, Pastor Mark talks about how Jesus went to the cross and took all of our sins with him and forgave everything not only for past sins, but for the sins that we will commit in the future. The hear more about what he has to say on that very topic, you can go right here to hear more.

03-03-2013 Family Sacrifice- Pastor Mark Rossington

Ask anyone with a family what kind of sacrifices that they had to make for them and there will be a huge laundry list of things that were given up for their family. It could be big things, or it could even be the smaller things that might be put off to a later time. Whatever the thing that was given up, it's understood that sacrifices have to be made for family. Pastor Mark continues one with his sermon series on Sacrifices and talks about that in the sense of a family, what that means for everyone, and much much more. That part in the sermon series can be found right here.