Seneca Community Church Messages

Athletes understand that a vital aspect of competing is the importance of focus. If you are not concentrated on the goal, you will lose. The same is true spiritually - it’s deadly for us to be looking anywhere but forward. Join us as we reflect on a powerful and sobering statement from the words of Jesus in Luke 17:32 and discover how they speak to our lives today.

Have you ever been scrolling social media or watching TV and gotten sick of all the ads? It’s really easy for ads and other influences around us to get in our heads and shape our thinking from the outside. But as Christ followers, we’re called to live from the inside out! This important distinction can greatly impact our self-thoughts and our relationships. Join us as we continue our message series, "Traveler: Where is God taking me?" with Part 9: Identity from the Inside Out. We'll look at 1 Peter 3:1-7, and see how our identity in Jesus should turn our relationships inside out.

Many of us would say a large part of our identity comes from our jobs - what we do for "work." But what if that role isn't our only job in life? Where else should we be getting our identity from? And where else should we be working? Join us as we continue our message series, "Traveler: Where is God taking me?" with Part 8: Identity Crisis. We'll look at 1 Peter 2:18–25, find out what role Christ-followers are called to fill, and hear about the example Christ left for us to follow.

When we hear the word "identity," many of us think of "identity theft." This is a scary situation that gets talked about a lot but not everyone takes it seriously, at least not until it happens to them. How do identity and identity theft apply to a Christ follower? Do you know anyone with a preconceived notion about Christians? Where did that come from? Join us as we continue our message series, "Traveler: Where is God taking me?" with Part 7: Identity Theft. We'll look at 1 Peter 2:11–17 and see how the way we live is an important part of preserving our identity and pointing to Christ.

Who are the book, TV, or movie characters you first think of as helping others? Superman? Mr. Rodgers? Who else? Do you have anything in common with them? Could you play a similar role in the lives of others? Join us as we continue our message series, "Traveler: Where is God taking me?" with Part 6: Rock and Role. We'll look at 1 Peter 2:4-12 and see how we may be called to take on a role we hadn't thought of for ourselves before.

Arguing over differing opinions (especially online) is an easy habit to fall into these days. Have you ever experienced “Cancel Culture”? Were you a recipient or, dare we ask, aligned with it? How do you reconcile the two? Join us as we continue our message series, "Traveler: Where is God taking me?" with Part 5: Cancel. We'll look at 1 Peter 1:22-2:3, see what behaviors we should be avoiding, and hopefully be involved in God’s restoration of one heart at a time.

Have you ever heard of a AAA TripTik? Have you ever used one? How are they different from what we use now, GPS apps on our phones? Now stop and think about how God's direction for our lives is more like GPS than a TripTik. Does knowing that affect the way you live? Join us as we continue our message series, "Traveler: Where is God taking me?" with Part 4: Direction. We'll take a detour from 1 Peter and see how we can trust God for direction in our lives (and what that looks like).

When someone says “That’s different!” what do they mean? Most likely, they're saying that something is weird. When following Christ, what is the distinction between different and weird? Which one should we be? Join us as we continue our message series, "Traveler: Where is God taking me?" with Part 3: Different. We'll look at how Peter challenged those who follow Jesus to live holy lives, different from the culture.

Have you ever watched an episode of The Flintstones or The Jetsons? One takes place in the past and one in the future, which makes them different, but what makes them the same? How did they both connect with today? Join us as we continue our new message series, "Traveler: Where is God taking me?" with Part 2: Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Today. We'll look at how the past and the future speak to life in the present. Get a head start by reading 1 Peter 1:3–12 MSG.

What are some of the painful experiences in your life that have been worth it? What kept you going in the middle of the painful experience? Join us as we start our new message series, "Traveler: Where is God taking me?" with Part 1: Painful Pleasure. We'll find out how the pain can become a pleasure, even the pain that grows out of following Christ. Whether you are new to faith, checking out faith, or have been following Jesus for years, we are all travelers in life. There are answers, directions, and rest areas in the letter that Peter, one of Jesus' closest friends, wrote, as we'll see throughout this series as we look at the book of 1 Peter.

Jesus is here! We just celebrated Jesus' arrival on earth for Christmas and we celebrate believing in Him. So… what now? Are we done and life is only waiting to go to heaven? As the New Year starts next week, let's ask ourselves, "How are we going to live?"

Join us as we finish our Christmas message series, Home for the Holidays, with Part 5: Home for Good

Do you love your home (and feel at home there) or do you sometimes sense that God has something else in store for you (eternity)? How does that make you feel when you realize that Jesus left his home of heaven and put it all on the line so we could be at home? Join us as we continues our Christmas message series, Home for the Holidays, with Part 4: Living at Home

When did you last feel that you didn’t have a sense of belonging? How did you express that longing for home? Join us as we continue our Christmas message series, Home for the Holidays, with Part 3: Longing for Home. We will keep looking at the concept of “home” and the ultimate place to be.

Hope is Here in the person of Jesus! Does the reality of that statement create an awe that takes your breath away? For many of us, the unconvinced or the convinced, not much creates a state of awe in us. We live in a culture that has basically stripped all of our awe away. Just think of the news that has caught or even captivated your attention recently. The awful gets our attention, but not the awesome. Mary, the mother of Jesus, had a moment to decide whether the news of Gabriel was awful or awesome. She decided awesome and responded: “I belong to the Lord, body and soul,” replied Mary, “let it happen as you say.” And at this the angel left her. (Luke 1:38 Phillips) What would it take for our awes to be more on the side of awesome rather than awful? We will try to unpack that idea in this message, as we learn what it means to live out of the reality that Hope Is Here, especially for the fearful!

When you think of the word “Home” what do you feel? Some of us feel warm, others not so much. Why is that? Join us as we kick off our Christmas message series, Home for the Holidays, with Part 1: Losing Home. We'll take a look at the home we lost in the garden of Eden and how, despite the brokenness of sin, we can find the hope of returning to our true home. Often Dave uses concepts and ideas from a variety of resources when writing a message. If you have any questions regarding these sources, please don't hesitate to contact Dave at daves@senecacommunitychurch.com.

What is the silliest thing you've complained about lately? Slow "high-speed” internet? Broken A/C in your second car? A cracked phone screen? Nothing to watch on TV? Can't find something in the grocery store? It's easy to forget about gratitude when it comes to the "small" things in our lives, but it can happen with the big things, too! Join us for a stand-alone message, "Grateful". We'll see what an attitude of gratitude could unlock in our lives.

Do you remember when stereograms (also known as magic eye or hidden pictures) were popular? Some people loved them and some didn’t, probably due to being able to see them more than anything else. Why does the concept of vision go farther than seeing a stereogram image? Join us for the next installment of our series, Twisters: When God's Words Get Twisted. We will look at Proverbs 29:18 and find out the importance of really seeing!

Are you familiar with the classic movie, "The Princess Bride"? If you are, you can probably complete Mandy Patinkin's famous line, "My name is Inigo Montoya..." At the end of the movie, he says this: "I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life." While most of us probably haven't shaped our lives around payback as much as Inigo, it is still easy to let revenge (or even the desire to make things right) quietly control our lives. In our society, it's normal to hit back when we are wronged. We may even justify it by remembering this verse: But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Exodus 21:23–25 NIV Join us as we continue our series, Twisters: When God's Words Get Twisted, with Part 11: An Eye for an Eye, and look at what God wants us to do when we are wronged. The Program and Message Listening Guide (printabl

When have you seen the wrong tool used for the right job? What was the result? Join us for the next installment of our series, Twisters: When God's Words Get Twisted. We will look at 2 Chronicles 7:14, a verse that can be used with good intentions but the wrong way.