Santa Maria Foursquare Church

Positively Selfless

What does it mean to be Positively Selfless? It sounds so counter-cultural — because it is! It's the way of Jesus; the way God's people are called to live for others. Discover why selflessness is the greatest characteristic of strength, and how we can begin a more selfless lifestyle today.

Positively Losing

We're continuing our series in the book of Philippians, today in Chapter 3, where Paul talks about winning through losing. Everything he'd based his identity upon before he met Jesus had to be thrown out in order to gain something incredibly better!

Positively Winning

We started a new series today called, "Positively," that's through the letter of Philippians. In this letter, the Apostle Paul is writing to his friends about many things that the world views as negative, but God says are positive. Today we're taking a new look at what it means to win — and it may surprise you — because as God's people, we can win no matter what happens! 

Becoming the Church: A Community that Follows God – Part2

The decisions we make shape the outcome of our lives. So how can we know if we are making choices that are following where Jesus is leading? Often He leads us through a process of discernment — and in Acts 15 we find the church doing four things to discern the right answer to a difficult question — things we can do as well as individuals and as a church. 

Becoming the Church: A Community that Follows God - Part 1

If the church is nothing else, it must be a community that follows after God! But how does Jesus lead us? How do we know it’s God who is calling us to take a certain path? In this first of a two-part message, we're looking at two distinct ways God led the Apostle Paul: supernaturally (through God's voice) and naturally (through the voices of other people). We have much to learn through Paul's stories of following after God! 

Becoming the Church: A Praying Community

The story in Acts 12 is about a church coming together in prayer during a time of crisis. It’s about persecution and death — faith and breakthrough — and has some hilarious, very human moments sprinkled in. It shows both the natural and supernatural ways that prayer works together in our lives. 

Acts 12 also speaks to us in our moment of cultural history when many believe the church is in a season of persecution. Is that indeed what's happening, or is something else going on we can respond to in faith?

Becoming the Church: A Ministering Community – Part 3

The church is a community that both receives and gives ministry. And in Acts 10:36, Peter — in one powerful statement — gives us a deep understanding of what we're giving when we minister. He stated, "This is the message of Good News … that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all." Let's dive in together and discover how this three-part statement shows us how to effectively minister to others. 

Becoming the Church: A Ministering Community - Part 2

When Peter and Cornelius meet up in Acts 10, they engage in an amazing conversation — one that helps us learn how to both receive ministry and give it away to others. Today we're focusing on three ways to prepare our lives to receive ministry (clue: they have to do with "presence and presents!"). 

Becoming the Church: A Ministering Community - Part 1

What do flying carpets and exploding dams have to do with becoming a ministering community? That's what Peter finds out in Acts 10. This is where he is confronted with the reality that life in Jesus would be radically different from the life in which he grew up — one where customs and traditions, mixed with some ethnic prejudice, had held him back from people who were different than him. But all that changed in Acts 10 — and we pray it changes for us as well. It's time to blow up some dams. 

Becoming the Church: A Called-Out Community

You have been chosen by God — uniquely called out to be part of His family! In Acts 9 we find the story of two men (one bad, one good) who were called out by God. Find out how their responses changed history forever and teach us about how we can respond to Jesus as well. 

Becoming the Church: A Problem-Solving Community

By Acts 6, as the church began to grow, problems emerged — not just from outside, but from inside as well. But they didn't sweep the issues under the rug. They dealt with them head-on, providing us with a model of faith-filled problem-solving!

Becoming the Church: A Resilient Community

We all go through hardship. Jesus said it would be that way, and our life experience has proved it over and over. So resiliency is critical! While we do get knocked around, getting knocked out doesn't have to be our story. Let's discover what roles hardship plays in our lives and how we can rely on Jesus to see us through.

Becoming the Church: A Generous Community

At the end of Acts 4 and the start of Chapter 5, we find three important truths about generosity and how it marked the early church — as well as two things that went terribly wrong! But through all this, we discover why the church was known as a community where, "No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, so they shared everything they had." 

For a deeper dive into the topic of generosity, follow this link to find the series, "Resurrecting Generosity" — https://sm4.org/series/res-gen  

Becoming the Church: A Miracle-Working Community

Jesus is a miracle-working God. His miracles display God's breakthrough grace, and point to His limitless and unrivaled power. And the church is to carry the expectation that God will pour out His miraculous power on them, so they can share it with the world. From Acts 3, we learn how to press into God's grace — not only by believing in God's power, but by living into our faith. If you need a miracle, this is for you! 

Becoming the Church: A Covenant Community

If the church is to be a community, what kind would it be? The story of Acts points toward something more than a group of people committed to God. They were also known by their love for each other. The church has always been called to be a covenant community, devoted both to God and to the other. When this breaks down, there is no mission — but when it flourishes, redemption flows.

Becoming the Church: A Proclaiming Community

The church discovered on day one it was a proclaiming community — dedicated to declaring the good news of Jesus! We get to echo the words of Peter in Acts 2: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!"

Becoming the Church: An Empowered Community

In Acts 2 God sends the promised Holy Spirit to empower His newly formed church! There's the sound of wind, the sight of heaven's fire, and the believers spoke in unknown tongues — all ways God was showing His mighty power. And the results were immediate: an incredibly diverse group of people, representing languages and ethnicities from around the world were united in Jesus. That's the same legacy we can experience when we rely on the Holy Spirit to empower our church and our lives. 

Near the end of this message, Pastor Tim also shares some thoughts on the amazing gift of speaking in tongues. 

Becoming the Church: A Missionary Community

Today we begin a new series, diving into the Book of Acts to discover — along with the first followers of Jesus — what it means to be "the church." In Acts One, the disciples find that Jesus had no intention of backing their political, nationalistic agenda. Jesus tells them that instead of providing political freedom for ONE nation, He would be empowering them to provide spiritual freedom to ALL nations! The first lesson for the church: you must be a missionary community. 

Finding Faith in Jesus Part 2

As we continue to pray and seek God on behalf of our nation and world, this week it is very appropriate that the second part of our two-week series, Finding Faith In Jesus, is all about the restoration and hope that's only possible because of Jesus: our healer, and soon coming King!

Finding Faith in Jesus Part 1

In this two-week series, we're looking at four powerful spiritual realities of those who put their trust in Jesus. Today, Pastors Tim & Kaelyn Mossholder look at the first two: new life and spiritual empowerment.