“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”We are in week six of our “10 Sentences to Change your Life” Series. Today, Pastor Zach takes us through Romans 6:23 and focuses our eyes on three aspects of truth: the truth about death, the truth about us, and the truth about God.As Christians, we know that death was never the original plan for us. And we reflect on the truth of who we are (sinners) and who God is (Savior), we can better understand God’s love and fight the lies that wage war in our minds. As we look to Jesus ’life, death, and resurrection, we can see what a life of trust in God truly looks like.The wage of our sins is death, but through Jesus, our debt is repaid, and we are given the gift of grace in its place.Our challenge this week is to practice thankfulness and gratitude. As Pastor Zach says, faithfulness moves forward by looking backward. What can you be thankful for today? How can reflecting on the truth about death, us, and who God is, spur you on to more profound gratitude for grace?

Christ Community Chapel - Hudson Campus

Romans 6:23

We have officially reached the halfway point of our time in Romans. This week, we are taking a break from our “10 Sentences To Change Your Life” series for a standalone message on Genesis 15 where we see a significant encounter between God and Abram.Pastor Joe will help us fix our gaze on three main points: the doubts, the covenant, and the anchor.As we see in Genesis 15, even faithful believers like Abraham experienced doubt. But when we come face to face with doubt, and our faith starts to feel unsteady, we can remember the covenant God made with Abraham and the better covenant God made through Christ that would redeem us all. Our part has been taken care of. We never need to fear. Our doubts can remind us to look to Jesus, who signed our contract for us and paid our ransom, who took away the penalty of sin and gave us his gift of grace in its place.Jesus serves as the anchor our souls desperately need. God showed us that he would do his part, and he would also do our part through Jesus. There is no other anchor we can put our hope in, no other anchor that stays consistent with time and never changes.If you find yourself experiencing doubt today, look to Jesus and see the hope of the steadfast anchor we all desperately need for our souls.

God Does It for Us

How do you know if someone loves you? Do they show you through their actions? Do they tell you in the words they say? Do they love you even when you’re at your worst?This week, Pastor Joe takes us through Romans 5:8 and shows us what God does for us, when he does it, and how he proves it.God shows his love to us and extends that love even when we are at our most unloveable. While we were still sinners, he died for us. And he proves it to us through the life, death, and resurrection of his son.This week’s challenge is to worship. Take time to ask God the question that is on every human heart: “Do you love me?” and allow him to meet you there with his answer: an undeniable yes.

Romans 5:8

As we dig into Romans 4:5 today, Pastor Zach shows us a beautiful truth: “God is in the habit of welcoming and embracing the ungodly.”So how can the ungodly be justified? Every religion will have a different answer, and they all center on solutions that involve our own energy and work. But Christianity is the only one who states that Jesus, not our efforts, is the true answer.The world will try and shout out directions for the path to justification, but the Word shows us that Jesus is the true way to justification. We don’t have to strive for it or work for it. It is freely offered to us through faith and trust in Jesus.When we trust in the one who justifies, our faith is credited as righteousness. We can rest in knowing that the work is already done, and we have nothing to prove.

10 Sentences to Change Your Life – Romans 4:5

Pastor Joe is back for Week 3 of our message series, “10 Sentences To Change Your Life.” Today, we focus on the words of Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”In a world where we are constantly seeking to justify ourselves and separate into categories of“ us” versus “them,” Paul shows us that we all belong in the same group: sinners.Jesus came and saw the mess we made and offered to clean it up. Through life-changing grace, we can live both in humility and security. We can love and forgive deeply because we are deeply loved and forgiven.The challenge this week is a big one: to recognize and take ownership of our sin.This week, confess your shortcomings to God and a trusted friend. If there is something you have been hiding in your heart, now is the time to confess.All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But all have been offered a sinless Savior who exceeds every expectation in perfect glory.

10 Sentences to Change Your Life – Romans 3:23

"God will repay each person according to what they have done.”When you read this verse, what do you feel? Does it make you think back over your mistakes in an effort to evaluate yourself and your holiness ranking? Does it make you feel defeated and fearful? Or do you feel pretty confident in how your works would measure up?As Pastor Zach tells us, the words of Romans 2:6 do not sound like good news. But as he leads us through this passage, he is going to help us see who we really are, what that really means, and what we really need.

10 Sentences to Change Your Life – Romans 2:6

Today to start our new message series, 10 Sentences To Change Your Life, Pastor Zach takes us through Romans 1:16. As a whole, our time as Christians may feel more marked by missed opportunities to talk about Jesus rather than moments we seized the opportunities before us. But, in the Scripture today, Pastor Zach shows us that Paul gives us a reason to be honest, a reason to be encouraged, and a reason to be courageous. Sharing our faith can feel uncomfortable. We may be afraid of offending someone, or we may think that conversations about religion are too personal. The truth is, it is personal, but that's part of what makes it so unique. Paul encourages us by reminding us that the gospel is good news. It's about what Jesus has done and how it changes people and their relationship with God. And it's for everyone. It's not just a story. It is our story. So, let have the courage to share our story, our testimony, with others. Face to face. Heart to heart. And let's give the Holy Spirit room to do what only he can do through us.

10 Sentences to Change Your Life – Romans 1:16

What comes to mind when you hear the word “growth” as it concerns the Christian life? Maybe you think of knowledge and how much someone knows about God, the Bible or theology. Maybe you think of it more in terms of what a person does and how their behavior has been changed during their Christian walk.But as Pastor Zach shows us in 1 Peter 2, neither of these descriptions are at the foundation of Christian growth. While we often think of growth as knowing and doing, Peter encourages us to look at it as being. Our identity and what we believe about ourselves shape us more than any other influence in our lives. In a world that is constantly shouting about who we should be, the Christian’s goal is to grab hold of the voice of God and who he says we should be. As we delve into the concept of Christian growth, Pastor Zach fixes our thoughts on three points to consider: what is Christian growth, why does it matter, and how does it happen?

Why Growth Matters

“If we can trust that Jesus saw us as worth dying for, we can trust he is worth living for.” These beautiful words were brought to us by Pastor Ken Prabucki as he discussed Acts 2:42-47 and the concept of community. In his three points, we learned about the kind of community we want, the kind of community we get, and the kind of community we can have. Our hearts desperately want to be welcomed as we are and part of something bigger. The communities we find ourselves in often don’t allow for our authenticity or our messes. But Jesus isn’t afraid of our mess. And in Jesus, we can become more ourselves than we could ever imagine. Through the finished work of Christ on the cross and the ongoing work of the Spirit within us, we can be a part of true, lasting community. Just like the early church, we can walk alongside one another in the mess and experience the unity Christ calls us to partake in together.

A Place to Belong

Pastor Mike shows us how to reflect on the requests Jesus teaches us to make in the Lords Prayer: daily bread, daily forgiveness, and daily help against temptation. And in these requests, we can stop and marvel at the Truths we find: God is faithful to sustain us every single day, he teaches us the power of giving and receiving forgiveness, and he is with us in our daily battles against temptation.In this prayer journey, Christ greets us with his compassion and kindness. He walks with us as Teacher and shows us the way as Savior.The Lords presence changes everything about our lives. And, the Lord’s Prayer changes everything about our prayer lives.

Teach Us to Pray – Matthew 6:11-13

In this message, Pastor Zach uses Matthew 6:10 to help us reflect on what it truly means to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done.” It is easy to acknowledge the need for a regime change in the world, but we are slower to admit the need for a new King in our hearts and minds. In prayer, we can go to God with our despair and our discouragement over the broken kingdom of the earth. But we also must acknowledge the state of our own hearts and our desperate need to surrender to our Savior. If left to our own devices, our kingdoms will always lead to death. But, Jesus’ kingdom begins with death and births an eternal life. Through Jesus, we see a prayerful and purposeful life of surrender to God. Surrender is vital to the Christian life. It is essential to pray that we have the power to bring a heavenly kingdom to our hurting earth. Your kingdom come, God. Your will be done. On earth, as it is in heaven.

Teach Us to Pray – Your Kingdom Come

Too often, we think of prayer as a discipline or a duty, but it is so much more than that. Jesus came so that we would know, without a doubt, that our God is willing and able to help us and that his glory and our good are linked.As Pastor Zach so beautifully puts it, “As a Christian, you never look at the circumstances of your life to know if God is willing and able to help you. You always look to the fixed point of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Don’t look to circumstances. Look to Jesus.”And as we continue to look to Jesus, we will be emboldened to bring our prayers, big and small, to the feet of a heavenly Father who loves us and wants to hear from us. *We are starting a 97-day prayer journey as a church beginning August 30th and going to the beginning of Advent. It will be a corporate meditation on the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer journey books are available for sale in the Atrium for $5 each. Please, join us as we watch the Lord work mightily in our midst through prayer.*

Teach Us to Pray – Where Prayer Begins

Pastor Jim Colledge walks us through Matthew 6:5-8 and the practical tips that Jesus gives us regarding prayer. Through Pastor Jim’s message, we learn a little more about the wrong way to pray, the right way to pray, and how Jesus helps us make the transition.The wrong way to pray involves performing and pretending. The right way to pray is about authentically pursuing God. And, through Jesus, we can learn how the right kind of prayers help us approach our heavenly Father with confidence and security.Our Father in heaven wants us to come to him, and Jesus is the Great Shepherd who leads us there.God doesn’t expect perfect prayers. He doesn’t want performances or pretending. He wants us to be present with him, pursue him, and seek him with our authentic selves daily.

Teach Us to Pray – Before You Pray

This week, Pastor Zach finishes our One Story One Hero message series by teaching about Jonah and the fish.

One Story. One Hero. – Jonah and the Great Fish

Christ Community Chapel is located in Hudson, Ohio. With campuses in Hudson, Aurora, and Highland Square, Ohio, we exist to see people come to know Jesus, grow in him, and serve him daily.

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Christ Community Chapel - Hudson Campus

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