http://theaterchurch.com/media Video messages from National Community Church in Washington, DC. National Community Church Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:50:45 -0400 The Magi and their gifts represent something intangible, yet vastly important. They looked beyond the immediate moment to see who Christ would become. In giving a gift they had to give, they shared a story we had to hear. Sun, 21 Dec 2008 10:00:43 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-gift-of-jesus/ Hope is our birthright as Christ-followers. We’ll face challenges and problems like everyone else. But the gift of eternal life puts them into perspective and fills us with hope.  Sun, 14 Dec 2008 10:00:26 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-gift-of-hope/ In John 14:27, Jesus promises us the gift of peace of mind and heart. How do we experience this gift of peace in the midst of the chaos of life? Peace has less to do with the absence of conflict and more to do with inviting the presence of Christ into the middle of the conflict. That’s precisely the peace he brought that we celebrate at Christmas. Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:00:15 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-gift-of-peace/ It’s the nature of God to give us good gifts. And though we know that, do we really believe in our hearts? Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:00:03 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-gift/ God used the repetitive nature of circumstances to get Elijah’s attention and draw his heart back to the heart of God. In the same way, God uses the repetitive nature of our own lives to draw us to Him. These moments are sacred echoes, where God illuminates something important in subtle, yet repetitive ways in order to encourage and affirm us. Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:00:30 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-sacred-echo/ We live in a world of stories. And we live in a world of self. In this message, we discover how the Story of Scripture can help us move beyond ourselves, reducing self-interest and producing self-controlled lives centered on the needs of others. Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:00:32 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/stories/ Do we need another reformation? The short answer is yes. Every generation does. But it’s not about discovering something new. It’s about rediscovering something old. The Historical Elephant rediscovers the five solas that sparked the Protestant Reformation. Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:00:02 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-historical-elephant/ We need to think critically, biblically and tactfully about every issue facing our country. But the Church exists to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. All too often, politics get in the way of that message. Our positions can be obstacles for some to find salvation. Sun, 02 Nov 2008 10:00:54 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-political-elephant/ Let’s address our culture’s perception of the Church. Why do people respect Jesus, but disrespect the church? We need to redefine what mission we are called to as Christ followers. Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:00:52 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-unchristian-elephant/ The Earth is the perfect environment to sustain human life. Is that a result of evolution or intelligent design? There is a tension between faith and science, but the two are inclusive of each other. The separation of science and faith is a false dichotomy. Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:00:25 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-evolutionary-elephant/ When we face challenges that seem to contradict the character of God, asking “why” will not help us get through it. But as we face those challenges, it’s how we respond that matters. Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:00:13 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-suffering-elephant/ What we know is determined by what we see. Our education is determined by what we see or don’t see. But the Spirit of God is our sixth sense. And God wants us to live beyond our ability, beyond what we know. In this message, we discuss whether spiritual gifts are in operation today and what the Bible says about speaking in tongues, words of knowledge and miracles of healing. Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:00:57 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-supernatural-elephant/ We need to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Instead, we need to start playing offense with our lives. The world needs more people with more daring plans. Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:00:46 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/cage-of-fear/ Sometimes our plans have to fail in order for God’s plans to succeed. Divine detours and delays are the ways God gets us where He wants us to go. Sun, 21 Sep 2008 10:00:17 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/cage-of-failure/ The Enemy’s tactics haven’t changed since the Garden of Eden. He tries to neutralize us spiritually by getting us to focus on what we’ve done wrong in the past. Satan uses guilt to turn us into reactionaries. Jesus came to recondition our spiritual reflexes and turn us into revolutionaries for His cause. As long as you are focused on what you’ve done wrong in the past, you won’t have the energy left to dream kingdom dreams. Sun, 14 Sep 2008 10:00:15 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/cage-of-guilt/ Our assumptions keep many of us from chasing the Wild Goose. As we age, many of us stop believing and start assuming. We stop living out of right-brain imagination and start living out of left-brain memory. And we put eight-foot ceilings on what God can do. Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:00:21 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/cage-of-assumptions/ At some point in our journey, most of us trade adventure for routine. While some routines can be good, we have to be careful. Sacred routines become empty rituals that keep us caged. Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:00:45 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/cage-of-routine/ Our God-ordained passions can get buried beneath day-to-day responsibilities. Without even knowing it, we start practicing irresponsible responsibility. The Wild Goose Chase begins when we come to terms with our greatest responsibility: pursuing the passions God has put in our heart. Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:00:54 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/cage-of-responsibility/ We must facilitate a connection to Christ for others. We should be friends with people who are notorious sinners. Let’s invite people into an environment where people can meet Jesus, a place where our friends can ask questions about Christ and where we can be a friend’s spiritual tour guide. In the end, it’s about walking with people through their life journey. Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:00:00 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/who-are-you-bringing-to-the-table/ What would happen if we were the Church as God wants to be? In this message, we learn creative ways to be the Church and hear a powerful presentation of the body of Christ by our guest from Ethiopia. Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:00:43 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-body-of-christ/ As missionaries to Indonesia, Jamie and Tasha Kemp first realized they needed to pursue their dream for missions while ministering in a U.S. church. Jamie was challenged by a passage in Isaiah 6. When God asked, “Who will go?”, Jamie responded. And they went. What dreams are you called to follow? Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:00:33 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/a-dream-for-missions/ What if, in one year, we were able to be the hands and feet of Christ to orphans, widows, prostitutes, families in need, the poor, the homeless, the spiritually destitute, the hopeless? aone:eight takes “what if” to “we will”. Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:00:21 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/we-will/ You’ve got a green light. To be on mission is to be proactive. Don’t be weighed down by the distraction of sin and possession. Travel light and be a blessing! God’s heart to bless us enables us to bless others. So our prayer is, “God, make us missional.” Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:00:13 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/make-us-missional/ You won’t immediately have the wisdom necessary to be the person you want to be. You must harvest wisdom. Personal experience through consequence makes us wiser. Yet to have wisdom beyond our own experience, we have to share the experience of others. God’s Word offers excellent experiences from which we can glean wisdom. Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:00:25 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/make-us-wise/ Our culture has created us to be talkers. It’s so easy to talk about something, but we should turn down the volume on our voices and amplify our actions. James challenges us not to simply be hearers of God’s Word, but to be doers as well. Doers are people who inspire, influence and make a difference—often they are heroes simply doing what they are called to do. Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:00:06 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/make-us-doers/ It’s easy to forget that 2,000 years ago “disciple” was synonymous with danger. We tend to remove the danger from the Gospel. Jesus did not die to keep you safe. He died to make you dangerous. As a church, we cannot afford to be safe. We must continue living dangerously. Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:00:31 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/make-us-dangerous/ This week, Pastor Dino Rizzo of Healing Place Church continues the One Prayer series. God is the ultimate model of extreme generosity and Jesus is the manifestation of extreme generosity. How can the Church follow the model set by our Creator to become truly generous? Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:00:26 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/make-us-generous/ In a world where the Church is struggling to find unity, Craig Groeschel discusses three points that will unify us. We have one enemy who is out to steal, kill and destroy. We have one heart for the lost, broken and hurting. We have one purpose, to serve God and help others find Him. Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:00:02 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/make-us-one/ Prayer is key to our spiritual life. Prayer is the way for us to experience “escape velocity.” God is always speaking, but we don’t hear him because we aren’t tuned in to his frequency. We should live as though the “best I can do is the best God can do.” Sun, 08 Jun 2008 10:00:26 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/make-us-prayerful/ We were created by and for community. Yet, our sin destroyed community. Then Jesus restored community and the Kingdom of God is established through it. Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:00:30 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/community-the-final-apologetic/ In this message, Dick Foth offers a template for life. Every journey has a starting point and a destination. Jesus simply wants us to do things “with” Him, so that we see ourselves as friends. That shifts the dynamic of our journey with Him. The essential theme of the Kingdom is doing life together. In Acts 3, a chance encounter at the gate called Beautiful paints a vivid illustration of this principle. Sun, 25 May 2008 10:00:15 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-last-sermon/ The Holy Ghost is intangible. He hovers over the chaos of our lives, bringing order. We must understand that our limits are not our ability, but what an unlimited God does through us. Our gifts are the manifestation of the Holy Spirit within us. The Spirit is our omnitient, omnipresent counselor who gives us peace and joy. He works in the realm of our emotions through the fruits of the spirit. And He makes our synapses fire in unique ways and jogs our memory to surface things that we need to remember. The Holy Spirit also empowers us to be witnesses by heightening our sensitivity and passion for people and by giving us the words to say. The Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us. Sun, 18 May 2008 10:00:07 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-x-factor/ The moment you put your faith in Christ, you become apart of life’s biggest dream. When you serve God by giving and doing, you become apart of the reality of seeing that dream come to life in other people. God poured out His Spirit, beginning in the Upper Room, to make us dreamers. Yet, somewhere along the way, the modern Church has become fixated on the sin of commission. In reality, we often sin by omission---by not doing. God’s greatest dream isn’t that we sit on a pew each week. God dreams of a great destiny for us as Spirit-filled people. And He wants to make us dreamers. Sun, 11 May 2008 10:00:03 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/the-great-dream/ In this special message, Pastor Mark discusses the topic of mentorship with his long-time mentor, Dick Foth. Sun, 04 May 2008 10:00:56 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/mentoring-conversation/ In the third chapter of the book of Timothy, we discover 14 dimensions of leadership. Nine of those dimensions are discussed in this message: living to a higher standard, selfishness, temperance, self-control, respect, hospitality, teaching, responsibility and gentleness. Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:00:47 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/dimensions-of-leadership/ We must view our potential the way God views our potential. To reach our true potential, we should do several things. Discover our gifts. Throw ourselves into our tasks. Learn from our mistakes. Don’t be afraid to fail or look foolish. Underpromise and over-deliver. Develop daily disciplines. And stay in the Word! Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:00:45 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/fan-into-flame/ As you look at the tombstone of your life, what do you want it to say? To really find our potential, we have to start with the end in mind. There is a mindset and an attitude we need to find our potential. We live in a “now” culture. But to find our potential, we should learn from Paul’s advice to Timothy: it takes endurance. And it takes enduring together, with fellow Christians. Fight the good fight. Finish the race. Remain faithful. Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:00:26 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/endurance/ One of our greatest problems is that we don’t define important things in life. We must define our goals, virtues and values. Don’t compromise what you know is truth for that moment of indulgence. You may forfeit your potential. Don’t major in minors. Speculation is pointless. And keep learning—it is the key to reaching your potential. Some people reject ideas they don’t understand. Some people accept ideas they don’t understand. You must “own” your faith through continual learning. Sun, 06 Apr 2008 10:00:14 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/sound-doctrine/ If you haven’t had the chance to define yourself, it doesn’t mean that God is without a great definition for you. How do we find God’s definition for us? How do we get ourselves out of the routine of our lives and discover our true potential? We need to take responsibility. In the books of Timothy, Paul gives us five things to take responsibility of: speech, life, love, faith and purity. Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:00:37 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/taking-responsibility/ Two-thousand years ago, in a place just outside of Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth was nailed to a cross, gave up His life and was placed in a tomb. Three days later, something happened. Something was different. When others arrived at the tomb, they found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. A new normal was introduced. Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:00:38 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/a-new-normal/ In this message, we discover the reality of the crucifixion of Christ. As the veil to the Most Holy place was torn in two, we received access to God by virtue of what Christ completed on the cross. Jesus was crucified between two thieves. One thief turned to Jesus and said, “Remember me.” Christ responded, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” Life is full of predicaments that leave us wondering, ‘How do we get out?’ Jesus invades our hopeless situations. Our only hope is in Him. Christ has a knack for re-writing the end of stories and He invites us to acknowledge our sin, confess our faith and enter into a relationship with Him—an eternity with God. Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:00:53 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/with-me-in-paradise/ We are commanded to forgive. Jesus Christ proved that all men need forgiveness and should seek to forgive others. Sun, 09 Mar 2008 10:00:55 -0400 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/father-forgive-them/ This is a pilgrimage back to where it all spiritually began: the foot of the cross. Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:00:50 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/it-is-finished-media/ We’re called to be both grace-givers and truth-tellers. Grace means, “I’ll love you no matter what.” Truth means, “I’ll be honest no matter what.” Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:00:04 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/love-others/ Words cannot express how much God loves us. In fact, God’s love surpasses our knowledge and is something that we cannot comprehend. Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:00:22 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/love-god/ Crafting healthy relationships takes real work. This message uses the baseball diamond to present an approach to love and relationships that shifts our thinking by applying four “bases” to the relationship-building model: history-giving, affirmation, covenant, dreaming. Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:00:35 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/how-to-build-healthy-relationships/ This message focuses on the theory and practice of the ancient discipline of fasting. You will learn why it is important to fast and you will be given a simple plan of how you can begin implementing this practice into your physical and spiritual life. Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:00:30 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/how-to-fast/ We ARE the church. This message will challenge us to step up and be the church that God has called us to be. Sun, 27 Jan 2008 10:00:26 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/how-to-be-the-church/ As we earn money and experience gain in our resources, it is important to be good stewards of all that God entrusts to us. In this message, we learn practical steps to decrease spending habits, avoid the debt trap and increase saving and investing. Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:00:43 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/how-to-manage-finances/ The Bible teaches us about God, teaches us how to live, and gives us a sense of purpose and destiny. This message outlines seven principles for reading the Bible: choose an appropriate translation, read critically, read devotionally, write down observations, read in community with others, develop a plan and apply it to your life. Sun, 13 Jan 2008 10:00:42 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/how-to-read-the-bible/ Big goals make big people. How to Set Life Goals will help you turn dreams into reality by outlining ten practical steps to setting goals. Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:00:45 -0500 david.russell@theaterchurch.com http://theaterchurch.com/media/message/how-to-set-life-goals/