Santa Maria Foursquare Church

Hold Fast – Part 2

How do we come to faith? Today we continue our look into Hebrews 10:23 and the essential role that God's promises play in this process. We'll find that without his promise, hope (and faith itself!) would be impossible. But when his promise comes alive within us, everything changes!

Hold Fast – Part 1

You only have to read just a bit of the Bible before you’ll recognize that FAITH is extremely important — to God and to our stories. This reality of God’s faithfulness is always the starting point for faith. Pastor Tim shares with us how once you come to know that God is faithful, it makes sense that you’d choose to believe what He says is true. Then it makes sense why you’d HOLD FAST to His promise.

Surprised by Jesus

Would it surprise you that Jesus will send you into the middle of trouble? But take courage – He will meet you there as well. That's what we discover in the story of Jesus walking on the water. It's where He joins His friends who were in deep trouble.

An Upgraded Faith: Knowledge

It's in 2 Peter 1:5 that Peter tells us there are essential things to add to our faith. In fact, he goes on to say in 1:8 that if we don't add to (or upgrade) our faith, we'll end up with a faith that's totally ineffective. One of the upgrades Peter says that's needed is knowledge. But what kind of knowledge is he talking about, and how can we get it? Dive in today and let's discover together.

An Upgraded Faith: Perseverance

Yesterday's good decisions were helpful — but they have little value today if we don't persevere. If we give up now, all may be lost. Perseverance is more than patience. It always has three elements: waiting, pressure, and promise. Today we explore those three things to find how we can upgrade our faith with perseverance.

An Upgraded Faith: Self-Control

The Apostle Peter tells us one of the "essential upgrades" to our faith is self-control. And we're not talking about human willpower on steroids. This kind of self-control is part of a spiritual (and even supernatural) lifestyle, empowered by God himself. It's where our decisions come into agreement with our discernment, and we say 'NO' to useless things so we can say 'YES' to those things that are useful and fruitful in our lives.

An Upgraded Faith: Serving

Did you know you can build confidence in your faith? The Bible tells us we can do this by serving well. The reverse is also true: people who never serve run the risk of being filled with doubt. Today we explore what serving well looks like (and what it doesn't look like!), and how the perfect example is found in the life of Jesus.

An Upgraded Faith: Prayer

We are continuing in our series of Upgrading our Faith and today our missionary and Pastor, Joel, teaches us about another way we can upgrade our faith – and that is by praying. While ALL prayer is communication with God, there are MANY different kinds of prayers that we discover in God’s Word.

An Upgraded Faith: Worship

We know that God reveals Himself to us, so it’s our responsibility to keep our eyes open and watch for what God would reveal to us. We have to take responsibility to be reading the Bible and to quiet ourselves to listen to the Holy Spirit. And after we receive His revelation, it’s our responsibility to respond with action. We can’t just receive the revelation and leave it at that. We must respond with action. Our active response to God’s revelation can look different depending on what God is revealing to you. So, you might be wondering if we can respond to God in so many different ways, why would worshipping in song ever be necessary? Why would God ever want you to respond that way? Pastor Kaelyn shares with us several reasons why responding to God by worshiping in song is very important for us to be able to upgrade our faith.

An Upgraded Faith: The How

Today, Pastor Lisa shares about the HOW – How do we take what we hear from scripture about goodness, godliness, perseverance and love and add to our faith so that we can be people who are effective and productive? We will be learning together over the next few weeks on How to upgrade our faith so that we will be people who posses these qualities in great measure, increasing every day!

An Upgraded Faith: Love

If faith is the operating system of Christian belief, and God's promises are the code, then love is absolutely the language in which it's written. Love is central to how our faith in Jesus is to be lived out. Without it, no matter how smart or spiritually powerful we are, we are useless! But when love is added to our faith, we become God's transforming agents of grace.

An Upgraded Faith: Forgiveness

Forgiveness is one of the most challenging upgrades to our faith — but it's essential if we want to live free from the brokenness others have splashed onto our lives. And it's essential if we're to have a faith that's useful and effective. But it's hard! So what actually is forgiveness and how do we do it? Hint: it's NOT forgetting what's happened OR giving someone a pass to continue causing pain!

An Upgraded Faith: Repentance

Faith that doesn't grow will just stop working. It becomes useless. So God's word tells us to add to our faith — or upgrade it. And the first upgrade that's needed is goodness, because faith alone doesn't make us good. And to upgrade to a faith that's good requires us to walk in repentance.

An Upgraded Faith

Did you know your faith needs upgrading? Just like your smartphone will stop working if you never update it — or worse yet it'll be hacked — Peter says your faith will become ineffective and unproductive. Dive into this new series about faith upgrades, and discover how they can cause us to thrive. Click this link for message notes: https://bit.ly/upgradedfaith-1

The Circle of God’s Will Part 5

The book of Jude is just one chapter long but is packed with powerful truths about how we're to live as God's people. In Jude we learn to defend the faith and walk in God's mercy.

A Tale of Two People

Psalm One presents a vivid picture of two types of people, the choices that they make, and the destinations they reach. Our key thought for this week will be the delight the righteous man has in reading, meditating, and applying the truths of Scripture, and the blessing that brings into his life.

Questions at Jesus Feet

There are many times when we get caught up or stuck in a place that we do not understand as we learn and explore more about God and His word. And often times when we get stuck, we choose to stay stuck because we do not want to ask questions. But, without questions there will not be a gaining of new knowledge or enhanced knowledge.

3 Critical Errors

Have you ever had a "critical error" pop up on your computer? No fun. It can totally shut you down. As frustrating as they are, what's even worse are critical errors in our lives. And they can happen all too often in the areas of our faith. Today we're looking at three errors we can make that shut our faith down.

The Circle of God’s Will: Breakthrough Moments

Do you need a breakthrough? A defining insight or event that puts you on track for the seasons ahead? What if you didn't have to wait for one of these breakthrough moments to strike from out of the blue, but could cultivate a life that grows them? Let's look at several practices of those who seem to have more breakthroughs than others.

The Circle of God’s Will – Why do I still hit roadblocks?

One of the most frustrating things in our lives — especially when we're committed to following Jesus — is continuing to run into roadblocks. Who likes running into brick walls? What purpose could they serve? Why would God allow them? Today we're diving deeper into the conversation about God's will, and exploring what He may be up to in our lives.