As beneficial as attending church is, it can never replace a real relationship with God. In this message, Pastor Rich highlights the need to rekindle a strong, personal relationship with God, citing that our actions should reflect our devotion to Him. He also points out the significance of repentance and the need for a revival in the church. Pastor Rich looks at 2 Chronicles 29:1 - 7 to illustrate the story of Hezekiah and his efforts to restore worship in the nation, emphasizing the role of prayer, sanctification, and purification. He exhorts us to empty ourselves and seek the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in order to walk in genuine faith and righteousness.

As a true Christian, we will experience being in places that we have never been and maybe do not want to be in, and we will do things that we have never done before. In this message, Pastor Rich walks through the account of Jesus' very intentional trip through Samaria with His disciples, found in John 4:1 - 42. Pastor Rich highlights three points we need to learn as believers: 1) our spiritual world becomes our physical world; 2) our human nature is to avoid change; and 3) if we want to see the works of Jesus, we must change.

When things seem impossible, we need to ask ourselves three questions: 1) Did we give up?; 2) Did we settle for less?; and 3) Are we living in condemnation? In this message, Pastor Rich looks at Luke 1:5 - 14 and Hebrews 13:8 - 15 and points out that the answers to these three questions can only be found in one place--the altar. He reminds us that, as children of God, we all have a ministry, something we are to be doing for His Kingdom; but, it is beyond our ability without God. So, we have a vital need to press in to God at the altar--to find His strength, His joy, His direction for our lives.

Would we recognize Jesus if He were walking around today? The truth is, we often do not see God working in our lives because we do not think about Him as a real person or being in our midst. In this message, Pastor Rich compares our similarities with the lame man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5:1 - 23. As the lame man did, we often focus our worship on a place or event rather than the person of Jesus. In the many religions of the world, Jesus is the difference. If He's not in it, it is just a time filler.

God is unchanging; and as we walk with Him, we change to be more like Him. In this message, Pastor Rich looks at two people, from Luke 18:31 - 19:10, who were desperately looking for Jesus while in the midst of people who had become apathetic to Him. Pastor Rich reminds us that when we are not actively looking for Christ, we become ashamed when He shows up because we have allowed things in our lives that are not holy.

What does "being dead" really mean? In this message, Pastor Rich expounds on Colossians 3:3 and highlights what life looks like when we are fully dead to self and hid in Christ. He reminds us that we do not get out of this world alive and, unlike in video games, we only get this one life. We must determine that we are dead in Christ, but He is alive in us, so that we are no longer limited by the things of our flesh. We have to become passionate about the things that Jesus wants.

God will complete the work He began in us and in His Church. But, do we understand what it is going to take to complete what He's called us to? In this message, Pastor Rich looks at the early church and Peter in Acts 9:31 - 43 to see what they were doing that "turned the world upside down". We must realize that, to reach the world with the Gospel, we will be inconvenienced and put in uncomfortable spots. But it is all for the magnification and glory of God.

In the three years that the disciples, including Peter, physically walked with Jesus, He told them many things about His death, burial and resurrection. But, because they had other ideas for how God's Kingdom should be established, they weren't listening. So they found themselves hopeless during the three days that Jesus was in the tomb. In this message, Pastor Rich begins with Mark 16:7 to walk through how Peter ended up in such despair and turmoil following the crucifixion. He points out that without the testing of our faith, we will always have a superficial, in-word-only faith, which leaves us open to be easily derailed when God does things differently than we think they should be done.

In our Christian walk, we sometimes think about ourselves, our objectives, what we want to accomplish, and people seem to get in the way. This is opposite to Jesus' way of thinking. We should be about people. In this message, Pastor Rich looks at the account of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1 - 14. As Naaman had to, we must lay aside our preconceived ideas of how God will work, and just be obedient. Pastor Rich lays out six things that had to happen before Naaman could be healed. As the Church, we need to adopt these attitudes to allow God to minister through us to the people around us. Instead of telling others to "get out of the way" so we can do our thing, we must tell ourselves to "get out of the way" so God can move in and through us to the people for which He gave His life.

God wants to do things more than we want Him to do things. And sometimes, our prayers become more us praying our agenda instead of seeking God's agenda. In this message, Pastor Rich looks at how a person behaves who has encountered Jesus and is actually desperate for more of Him, in the account of Mary Magdalene at the tomb, in Mark 16:9 - 20. When we get that point of desperation and expectation, Jesus will reveal Himself to us, so that we will believe enough to share the Truth.