The Well

Sermon Download: Galatians 5 (18MB)

I can’t wait for the chance to speak with you about Freedom at The Well on Sunday night. I heard the song, “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips this week and it got me thinking about my message on Sunday.

Here’s a line from the song that got me thinking about freedom:

I know that there is pain
But you hold on for one more day and
Break free the chains
Yeah I know that there is pain
But you hold on for one more day and you
Break free, break from the chains

 I hope this video will help you to hold on for 3 more days!  Come to The Well on Sunday–bring some friends–and learn how to “break free, break from your chains.”

Enjoy!

Arron

Sermon Download: Galatians 4 (16MB)

My wife and I had Jackson’s (our son) 1^st Birthday Party this past weekend…. And it was a blast!  I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about a birthday bash… even for any of mine, and I’ve had quite a few.  It’s amazing because we have been to several “first” birthday parties in the past several months, and every time it’s the parents or family members that are more excited about the event, rather than the one-year old child.  It’s kinda crazy what some parents do for their kids. 

Whether it’s waking up in the middle of the night to change a dirty diaper for their newborn or working a second job to feed the family or taking out a 2^nd mortgage to finance college or declining the management position to spend more time with family….. parents make a lot of sacrifices for their children…. Because they are crazy about their kids.   

You need to know that God is crazy about you!  God is always there for you, even in the middle of the night.  God is ready to provide for your needs, even if you can’t see how He will deliver.  God values time spent with you, even when you don’t value time with Him.  God sacrificed much for you and I, by offering Jesus Christ as a substitute for our sin.  God is crazy about you, and you should remember that. 

Galatians 4 tells us that, “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”  We are heirs with Christ.  God is crazy about you, He loves you.  Soak up His love and enjoy reading this week.  -Moo

Sermon Download: Galatians 3 (8.5 MB)

Ben Davidson, a regular attendee at The Well, wrote this poem about The Well.  I think it’s really good.  Check it out.–Arron

The Well

How did you get here? Were you coerced?

Devine circumstances, or do you just thirst?

You’re in the right place. Just look around you.

For everyone here, it’s Christ they’ve found too.

No matter your struggles, from present or past.

It’s not important when you got here. Whether it’s first or last.

What matters is that you’re here for today.

So have faith in God, and don’t turn away.

You’re at The Well now, there’s no better place.

As we shout praise to God, he lights up each face.

This is a place overwhelmed by the Spirit.

Three beings in one, there’s no need to fear it.

Jesus died for us. He paid the price.

So we could be free, with no sacrifice.

No sin is too much for The Well to contain.

No demon to dark for the Lord to sustain.

So if you don’t know if The Well’s right for you.

Just keep coming back; we’d all like you to.

A day without God, now that is the worst.

Welcome to The Well, it’s for all who thirst.

                                                 Ben Davidson

Hey Everyone-

I know many of you have been asking if we could post some of the worship from the Well.   Today is you lucky day!  Though the recording is not great, we do have a link for you all to hear the song Set Me Apart from the service this last Sunday.  The song is written and based off of the first 5 chapters of Galatians.   I hope you all enjoy.
(Just click on the link below)
Set Me Apart

Matt

Faith vs. Law

Which would you prefer?  The steady, stable structure of the law or the freedom-filled, fluidity of the faith?  On one hand you know precisely what you should do to obey the law…. Now, you could never fulfill every tenet, but atleast you’d know where you were wrong.  Then again, the faith infuses an element of grace…. You have a little room to maneuver you inevitable mistakes. 

A lot of folks outside the walls of the church believe that Christians are all about the law.  What are we (Church, Christians, Believers, etc.) known for?  Are we known for our love?  NO!  Are we known for our hope?  NO!  Are we known for our grace?  NO!  Are we known for our peace?  NO!  More often than not, we are known for our “rules”, our morals, our laws. 

Think about it, we would rather ostracize the single, unwed mother for her indiscretion, then hold and help her raise a child in the training and instruction of the Lord. Galatians 3:11 tells us that we are all in the same situation under the law…. Condemned.  Not one of us will ever be good enough, smart enough, holy enough, give enough to gain entrance into God’s Kingdom on our own merits.  That’s why Christ came, to relieve the curse, by being hanged on a cross.  He became a curse, so that we could receive a blessing. 

I’m thankful for what Christ did, because I could never come close to being good enough.  After almost 20 years of having a relationship with Him and I still mess up every day.  It bothers me when folks think they are “good” because they go to church, or know something about the Bible, or teach a class, or give more than a tithe…. It bothers me when I think those things too.  Have you ever caught yourself thinking along those lines?

-Moo

I had really bad acne in high school. I tried every medicine, every cream and every prayer and nothing worked. Finally after a long battle with this problem my doctor put me on a medicine called “Acutane”. Acutane was a six month treatment that was so strong that I had to get blood tests every two weeks to make sure the medicine was not messing with my liver or kidneys. The beauty of Acutane was that it was almost a guarantee to work; in six months I would have a whole new face. However, with such a great medicine there was one hitch: your acne gets worse before it gets better….. much worse! You see, the way the medicine works is by causing every clogged pore in your system to react, come to the surface and unclog. To this day, I still look back and cringe at the 6 months I spent on that medicine. My face experienced acne breakouts like never before and made me look like something that would come out of a horror film. The process was painful and ugly…literally.

I can remember in the middle of the treatment, sometime around month 4, I really thought about throwing in the towel. I began to reason with myself that it wouldn’t be bad to live with this “problem”, it wouldn’t be bad to have to try all the other meds even if they didn’t have the same guarantee as Acutane. Even with the promise of and acne-free life, the suffering was enough to make me want to go back to the way things were, bad acne and all. Well, thank God that I had a mom with more willpower than I, because she made me stick it out and at the end of the six months my dream of freedom from acne became a reality. Looking back, it would have been stupid for me to give it up with 2 months to go. What person in their right mind would hear the promise for freedom, begin the treatment of freedom and stop before the end, before actually attaining that freedom……no one right? Nope, there are many people.

In Galatians 3, Paul speaks to a group of individuals that did exactly that. They had received the promise of the Holy spirit (3:2), they began to live with the Holy Spirit (3:3) and when times got tough instead of sticking with the promise of freedom they reverted back to a life of captivity, they reverted back to a life of attaining salvation by keeping the law.

Now in my opinion the Law is kind of a goofy thing. According to Galatians 3 the law was created 430 years after the promise that a savior, Jesus, would come from the line of Abraham. Here is what I find weird, the promise of salvation (freedom for us because we disobeyed the law) came before the creation of the law, yet when the law was created people continued to try and obtain righteousness through the law. If God promised salvation through Jesus, than why 430 years later would he create an alternative way of salvation? He wouldn’t and he didn’t. The law was not created to give another way to gain righteousness, the law was created to prove to man that righteousness only comes through Jesus. The law was created in a sense to magnify our sin, prove to us the need for a savior. “The Scripture has imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” (3:22)

To me after knowing that it makes it much easier to understand why Paul opens Galatians 3 by saying, “You foolish Galatians!” They were missing the point. They received the promise of freedom from the law, they began to live in that freedom, but when things got tough (which they were told ahead of times that things would get tough) they threw in the towel and went back to a life of trying attain the impossible, righteousness through the law.

Are you foolish? Bottom line is, salvation, righteousness and freedom comes from a relationship with Christ, period. Sometimes life gets tough and you will reason with your self that an alternative life style would be much easier. Just as it was with my Acutane treatment, just as it was with the Galatians, just as it will be with you, the promise for freedom is real and worth it! Don’t accept a life of captivity because the road to freedom is hard. Jesus said, “ I am the way, the truth and the life, NO ONE gets to the father accept through me” John 14:6

Looking forward to worship with you at The Well this Sunday. Make sure to take a glance at Galatians 3 before you come. God Bless,

Matt

Have you ever felt dirty?  I mean really nasty, raunchy, disgustingly dirty… the kind where you look back and are somewhat ashamed to even think or talk about.  I’m not talking about the summers in Middle School where you went to the pool, in substitute for a shower.  I’m not talking about those days in college where you would rifle through your hamper to see which shirt was the least stinky of them all.  I’m asking if you have ever been nasty, sweaty, stinking, muddy, or otherwise dirty.  Have you ever been that dirty? 

When I’m dirty all I wanted to do is get clean?  When your body is begrimed with nastiness you want to bathe…. when your stinkiness is supreme all you can think about is a shower.  If you are dirty, then you want to get clean!  It’s the same way spiritually speaking, every one of us has felt spiritually/morally “dirty”, like our soul needs a deep scouring… WE WANT TO BE CLEAN! 

Christ came to clean & to change you. Our Father in Heaven is the only one who can take away your filth. Our Creator is the only one who can clear you completely. Our God is the only one who can take away your grubbiness and guilt. Our Redeemer is the only one who can make you righteous. Our Savior is the only one who can make you spotless. 

God wants to do more than just clean you up… He wants to change you.  He wants to make you better, stronger, smarter, wiser, more useful and productive for His work.  Living by faith means that you give God a chance to change you as He sees necessary in all areas of your life.  There is a lot of work to be done to glorify God.  If Christ has cleaned you up, then it’s time to let the Lord change you… Christ came to clean & to change you.

-Moo