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October 26, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

Oct 26-Oct 30

5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide – October 26 - 30 “Fruit That Reaches Further” Day 1: Yielding to the Spirit's Work Reading: Galatians 5:16-25 Devotional: The fruit of the Spirit is not manufactured through human willpower. Paul's letter to the Galatian church was a corrective call back to the truth that transformation belongs to God, not to religious effort. The Galatians had experienced genuine freedom through the gospel, then slowly drifted back toward self-reliance. Sound familiar? Every believer faces this same drift. The invitation is not to try harder but to yield more completely. When you surrender your agenda to the Holy Spirit's direction, even in small daily moments, you position yourself for real, lasting change that no amount of personal effort could produce. Reflection: Where in your life are you striving through your own effort rather than yielding to the Spirit? Practical Application: Identify one area today where you will consciously pause and ask the Holy Spirit for direction before acting. Day 2: Patience as Spiritual Endurance Reading: Ephesians 4:1-3, Romans 5:3-5 Ephesians 4:1-3 calls believers to walk with humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another in love. Romans 5:3-5 describes how suffering produces perseverance, which in turn produces character and hope. Devotional: Nobody wants to pray for patience because everyone knows what follows that prayer. God does not hand patience to you like a gift in a box. He provides the circumstances through which patience is forged. Long-suffering, as Paul describes it, is the ability to endure difficult people and difficult seasons without becoming someone you are not in Christ. Frustration left unchecked becomes anger, and anger left unchecked becomes harm. The Spirit's role is to interrupt that chain. When you feel squeezed by a relationship or a season, that is not a sign God has forgotten you. That is often where He is working most deliberately. Reflection: Who or what consistently tests your patience, and what might God be forming in you through that friction? Practical Application: The next time frustration rises, pause before responding. Take a breath and ask the Spirit to lead your words and actions before you react. Day 3: Kindness as Love With Hands Reading: Luke 6:27-36, Colossians 3:12-14 Luke 6:27-36 records Jesus calling his followers to love enemies and do good to those who treat them poorly, reflecting the generosity of God toward all people. Colossians 3:12-14 describes clothing oneself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience as those chosen and dearly loved by God. Devotional: Kindness is not merely the absence of cruelty. Biblical kindness is active, generous, and directed outward. It is love that has been given somewhere to go. Anyone can be kind to someone who benefits them. The Spirit-produced kindness that Paul describes moves past comfort zones and extends toward people who may never return the gesture. Jesus modeled this completely. He crossed every barrier to bless people who had nothing to offer Him in return. When the Holy Spirit is working in you, the love He has placed in your heart will eventually need an outlet. Kindness is that outlet, expressed through a word, a phone call, a meal, or simply showing up. Reflection: Who in your life needs something from you that you have the ability to give but have been withholding? Practical Application: Perform one intentional act of kindness today toward someone who has not earned it and may not expect it. Day 4: Goodness That Requires Courage Reading: Romans 12:9-21, Micah 6:8 Romans 12:9-21 instructs believers to hold to genuine good, hate what is evil, and overcome evil with good rather than repaying it in kind. Micah 6:8 summarizes what God requires: doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly before Him. Devotional: Goodness is not the same as agreeableness. Jesus was perfectly good, and yet He flipped tables, confronted hypocrisy, and told the rich young ruler a truth that was difficult to receive. Spirit-produced goodness sometimes means establishing a boundary, confronting something that needs to be named, or doing the right thing when no one is watching and no one will applaud you for it. This kind of goodness requires courage because it is not driven by what feels comfortable but by what honors God. When you belong to Him, goodness becomes a choice you make not to please people but because the God who lives in you is Himself entirely good. Reflection: What right thing have you been avoiding because it is uncomfortable or costly? Practical Application: Take one step today toward the right thing you have been putting off, trusting that God's goodness working through you will be sufficient for what is required. Day 5: Fruitfulness That Flows Outward Reading: John 15:1-8, 2 Corinthians 3:18 John 15:1-8 presents the image of the vine and branches, describing how a branch that remains connected to the vine bears fruit naturally and abundantly. 2 Corinthians 3:18 speaks of believers being transformed from one degree of glory to another as they reflect the Lord's character. Devotional: The Holy Spirit does not transform you so that the transformation stops with you. His work in you is meant to become something other people experience through you. You are not meant to be a reservoir that stores up what God is doing. You are meant to be a conduit through which the kingdom flows outward into the lives of people around you. This happens step by step, not all at once. It begins in the small moments, the patient response, the kind word, the courageous act of goodness. As you remain connected to the Spirit and keep in step with Him, fruit is the natural result. And that fruit will touch people you may never fully realize you have reached. Reflection: How has someone else's faithfulness to the Spirit's work in their life touched or changed your life? Who might God want to reach through the fruit He is producing in you? Practical Application: This week, ask the Holy Spirit each morning to make you aware of one person He wants to touch through you that day, and then follow His lead when that moment comes.Share Your Prayer Request

Freedom Church

October 19, 2026 • 5 Minute Read

Oct 19-Oct 23

5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide – October 19 - 23 “Yielded and Fruitful: Walking in Step with the Holy Spirit” Day 1: The War Within Reading: Galatians 5:16-21 Devotional: Every believer carries an internal tension. The flesh pulls relentlessly toward self-preservation, self-promotion, and self-satisfaction. The Spirit draws you toward surrender, service, and transformation. Paul makes it plain in Galatians 5 that these two forces do not cooperate — they conflict. The good news is that the victory has already been won. You are not fighting for freedom; you are fighting from it. The question is not whether the Spirit is powerful enough. The question is whether you are willing to stop insisting that your own way must win. Today, name the conflict honestly. Then choose to yield. Reflection: Where is the tension between flesh and Spirit most obvious in your life right now? Practical Application: Identify one specific area where your flesh has been driving your reactions this week. Write it down, confess it honestly before God, and ask the Spirit to take the lead in that area today. Day 2: The Fruit You Cannot Force Reading: John 15:1-8 Devotional: In John 15, Jesus describes a relationship between a vine and its branches that reveals one of the most liberating truths in Scripture. Fruit is not the goal of your effort — it is the evidence of your abiding. A branch does not strain and sweat to produce grapes. It simply stays connected to the vine. The moment a branch disconnects, production stops entirely. Spiritual fruit works the same way. Love, joy, and peace are not achievements you unlock through discipline alone. They are the natural overflow of a life that remains close to Jesus. Stop trying to manufacture what only abiding can produce. Reflection: Are you more focused on producing fruit or on staying connected to the source of it? Practical Application: Set aside fifteen minutes today with no agenda other than simply being present with God. No requests, no lists — just stillness and connection. Practice what it means to abide. Day 3: Renewed, Not Just Restrained Reading: Romans 12:1-2 Devotional: Romans 12 draws a sharp line between two approaches to the Christian life. One approach conforms — it manages behavior from the outside in, adjusting appearances while leaving the interior unchanged. The other approach transforms — it allows God to renew the mind from the inside out. Behavior management can make you look fruitful without making you fruitful. God is not interested in a polished exterior covering an unchanged heart. He wants renewal. Transformation begins when you stop white-knuckling your way through sanctification and start yielding your thought life, your assumptions, and your daily patterns to the work of the Spirit. Renewal is not a one-time event. It is a daily surrender. Reflection: In what areas of your thinking has conformity to the world's patterns been more influential than the renewing work of the Spirit? Practical Application: Choose one habitual thought pattern — worry, comparison, bitterness, or pride — and intentionally surrender it to God each morning this week. Ask Him to replace it with a Spirit-formed perspective. Day 4: Love That Goes Beyond Self Reading: Philippians 2:1-11 Devotional: Philippians 2 presents the most radical example of selflessness the world has ever witnessed. Jesus, possessing full equality with God, emptied Himself, took on the form of a servant, and became obedient to death on a cross. He did not cling to position or comfort. He yielded completely to the Father's will for the sake of others. The Spirit-produced love described in Galatians 5 flows from this same selfless posture. You cannot love the way Christ loved while remaining full of yourself. Agape love does not ask what it can get. It asks how it can give. That kind of love does not come from effort. It comes from yielding to the One who demonstrated it perfectly. Reflection: Who in your life needs a love from you that costs you something — time, pride, comfort, or control? Practical Application: Reach out today to someone you have been meaning to contact but have not. A parent, grandparent, sibling, or friend. Do not rush the conversation. Let the Spirit lead it. Give the gift of your unhurried presence. Day 5: Joy, Peace, and the Practice of Yielding Reading: Galatians 5:22-25 Devotional: Joy is not the absence of difficulty. It is the Spirit's declaration that difficulty does not have the final word. Peace is not the absence of chaos. It is the Spirit's assurance that chaos does not have ultimate authority over you. Neither joy nor peace can be manufactured by circumstances improving or problems disappearing. They are cultivated through a life that consistently yields to the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:25 issues a clear and practical challenge: since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Keeping in step is a daily, moment-by-moment decision to cooperate with what God is already doing in you. Reflection: What would it look like for you to keep in step with the Spirit in the most pressured area of your life right now? Practical Application: Return to the three questions from this sermon. Write your honest answers: What am I yielding to? Where is the Spirit trying to produce fruit in me? Am I cooperating with the Spirit? Let your answers shape how you pray and live this week.Share Your Prayer Request

Freedom Church

October 12, 2026 • 5 Minute Read

Oct 12-Oct 16

5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide – October 12 - 16 “The House God Builds: Living as His Dwelling Place” Day 1: Built to Be Filled Reading: Ephesians 2:19-22 Devotional: In this passage, Paul describes believers as being joined together into a holy dwelling place for God. You are not a bystander in what God is constructing. You are the building itself. The foundation was laid not by your effort or moral achievement, but by Christ. The invitation today is not to clean yourself up before entering His presence, but to recognize that His presence is already within you. Stop waiting until you feel worthy. Holiness was delivered to you through Jesus. Begin today by simply acknowledging that God has made His home in you. Reflection: What would change in how you carry yourself today if you genuinely believed God dwells in you? Practical Application: Before you begin your day, pause and pray a simple prayer of invitation, asking the Holy Spirit to make His presence known in every conversation and decision you encounter. Day 2: Walking in Love Without Conditions Reading: Ephesians 5:1-2 Devotional: Paul calls believers to imitate God by walking in love, pointing to the way Christ gave Himself as the defining model of that love. This is not a sentimental love that avoids difficulty. It is a love that moves close when it would be easier to stay distant. Think of the image of Jesus with the basin and the washcloth. He did not turn away from the mess. He knelt down in it. The church is meant to carry that same fragrance, not the sterile, untouchable environment that keeps people at arm's length, but the warm, welcoming atmosphere of a home where love is active. Reflection: Is there someone in your life you have kept at a distance because their mess made you uncomfortable? Practical Application: Reach out to one person this week who may feel unseen or judged. Offer a word of encouragement or simply your presence, without an agenda. Day 3: Awakening the Holiness Already in You Reading: Romans 12:1-2 Devotional: Paul urges believers not to conform to the patterns of this world but to be transformed through the renewing of the mind. Holiness is not a destination you earn through years of perfect behavior. It has already been deposited in you through the Spirit of God. What the renewing of your mind does is allow your thinking to catch up to what the Spirit has already established in your inner life. Every trauma, every harsh word spoken over you, every season of shame, has layered itself over something God placed inside you before you ever took a breath. The process of renewal is the process of uncovering it. Reflection: What old words or wounds are still covering the holiness God has placed in you? Practical Application: Write down one lie you have believed about yourself for a long time. Then write beside it a truth from Scripture that directly contradicts it. Return to that truth every morning this week. Day 4: Exposing Darkness Through Proximity Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14 Devotional: Paul reminds believers that they were once darkness but are now light in the Lord, and that everything exposed by the light becomes visible. Real community requires proximity. You cannot speak light into someone's life from a safe, comfortable distance. The early church gathered in homes, close enough to know one another's struggles, close enough to gently call out what needed to be addressed. This kind of closeness is uncomfortable. It requires trust. But it is exactly the environment where darkness loses its power, because love and truth are present together, and neither one is willing to look away. Reflection: Are you allowing anyone close enough to speak honestly into your life, and are you willing to do the same for someone else? Practical Application: Identify one trusted believer in your life. Commit to a regular, honest conversation with them about where you are spiritually, not just how things are going on the surface. Day 5: Overflowing in Worship as a Way of Life Reading: Ephesians 5:18-20 Devotional: Paul contrasts being filled with wine, which leads to excess and destruction, with being filled with the Spirit, which overflows in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and thanksgiving. Worship is not a weekly event you attend. It is the natural overflow of a life being filled by the Spirit of God. When you are honest before God, when you have allowed community to speak into your darkness, when you have renewed your mind and walked in love, worship becomes less of an act of discipline and more of an act of release. The resistance melts. The reluctance fades. What remains is a heart that cannot help but respond to what God has done. Reflection: What resistance is still standing between you and a life of genuine, overflowing worship? Practical Application: Set aside ten minutes today with no agenda other than to thank God. No requests. No lists. Simply speak or sing your gratitude aloud, even if it feels awkward, and let that become the starting point of something deeper.Share Your Prayer Request

Freedom Church

October 5, 2026 • 3 Minute Read

Weekly Roundup

Welcome to the weekly roundup 👋 This is your one-stop spot for everything happening in our church. From kids to adults, small groups to special events, here's how you can get connected over the next seven days. Monday, October 5th No Activities Tuesday, October 6th No Activities Wednesday, October 7th First Wednesday ‘Freedom Night’ - 6:30 PM in The Hall at Freedom Church. Thursday, October 8th Helping Hands Food Pantry - 8:30 - 11:30 AM in the Pantry at Freedom Church. Men’s Bible Study - 6:00 PM in The Loft at Freedom Church. Friday, October 9th Women’s Bible Study - 10:00 AM in The Loft at Freedom Church. Saturday, October 10th Church Yard-Sale - 8:00 AM in The Gathering Place at Freedom Church. Sunday, October 11th Adult Small Group - Meeting at 8:30 AM before service in The Loft at Freedom Church. 10:30 AM Worship Gathering - Join us for Sunday service in person or online. Pastor Appreciation - We will honor our Pastor in person during our 10:30 AM service. Kids Church - Age-specific programming during our service for infants --> 5th grade. Upcoming Events Pastor Appreciation - Sunday, October 11th at 10:30 AM Women’s One-Day Retreat - Sunday, October 24th at 9:30 AM Communion Sunday - Sunday, October 25th at 10:30 AMNew here? We'd love to connect. Last Week's Message "Ephesians: The House That God Builds--Week Five" | Pastor Tim Dye | Ephesians 4:1-16 | What happens when every believer realizes they have a part to play? In Ephesians 4:1–16, Pastor Tim explores Paul's picture of the Church as a living body with Christ as its Head. God never intended ministry to belong to only a handful of people while everyone else watches. Christ equips His people to serve, grow toward maturity, strengthen one another, and build up His body in love. Discover how God can use what He has placed in you, both inside and outside the church, to make a difference in someone else's life. Watch the sermon here 👇Watch OnlineSubscribe To Our YouTube Channel Giving Your generosity makes our work in this city possible. We’re so grateful for you.Give Now Here Stay Connected 📩 Subscribe to this Collection to get these updates delivered directly to your inbox. 📸 Follow us on Instagram, & .Facebook, YouTube 💬 Pastoral care or questions? Connect with us here. Services: Sundays at 10:30 AM 2225 Airline Dr, Bossier City, 71111 Next Week: Pastor Appreciation See you soon ☀️

Freedom Church

October 5, 2026 • 5 Minute Read

Oct 5-Oct 9

5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide – October 5 - 9 “The House God Builds: A 5-Day Devotional Through Ephesians 4:1-16” Day 1: You Were Made for More Reading: Ephesians 4:1-3 Devotional: It is easy to drift through life measuring your worth by your productivity, your paycheck, or your ability to simply survive the week. But Paul, writing from chains, urges believers to walk worthy of a calling that stretches far beyond the ordinary. That calling is not a burden -- it is an invitation. God did not place you on this earth to merely occupy space. He placed you here as part of something eternal. Humility, gentleness, and patience are not weaknesses. They are the posture of someone who understands that they belong to something greater than themselves. Walk accordingly. Reflection: In what areas of your life have you settled for less than what God has called you to? Practical Application: Write down one specific area of your daily routine where you can consciously walk with greater intention and purpose this week. Day 2: One Body, Every Part Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:14-20 - The passage describes how the body is not made up of one part but of many, and each part is necessary to the whole. Devotional: The image of a body is not decorative language. It is theological truth with practical consequences. A body missing a hand does not simply look incomplete -- it functions incompletely. The same is true of the church when believers choose the role of spectator over participant. God did not design his people to be an audience. He designed them to be a body -- moving, serving, and building together. Your presence in the body is not optional decoration. It is structural. When you withdraw, something is genuinely missing. When you engage, something is genuinely strengthened. Reflection: Which part of the body do you believe you are, and are you currently functioning in that role? Practical Application: Reach out this week to one person in your local church and ask how you can serve them specifically and practically. Day 3: Gifts Given for Others Reading: Ephesians 4:11-13 - Paul explains that Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip believers for works of service so the body of Christ would be built up toward unity and maturity. Devotional: Every gift God places in a believer is not primarily for the benefit of the one who carries it. It is for the benefit of those around them. The teacher teaches so others grow. The evangelist speaks so others believe. The pastor shepherds so others are protected. This is the divine economy of the church -- what God deposits in you is meant to flow outward. Hoarding your gifts, or worse, leaving them undiscovered, robs the body of what it was meant to receive through you. The Spirit reveals gifts not for your comfort but for the body's growth. Reflection: What gifts has God placed in you that you have not yet offered to the people around you? Practical Application: Pray specifically this week and ask God to show you one gift he has placed in you and one person or context through which you can begin using it. Day 4: Truth, Love, and Maturity Reading: Ephesians 4:14-15 - Paul warns against spiritual immaturity that leaves believers vulnerable to false teaching, and calls them instead to speak truth in love and grow up into Christ in every way. Devotional: Spiritual maturity is not a destination you arrive at alone. It is a communal journey. Paul connects the speaking of truth with the practice of love because truth without love is a weapon and love without truth is flattery. Neither builds anyone up. Maturity in the body of Christ looks like believers who are honest with one another, committed to one another, and unwilling to be swept away by whatever cultural current runs loudest in a given season. The church that speaks truth in love becomes a stabilizing force in an unstable world. That kind of church begins with individuals who choose both. Reflection: Is there an area of your faith where you have been more influenced by cultural trends than by the truth of Scripture? Practical Application: Identify one relationship in your church community where you can practice both honesty and love more intentionally this week. Day 5: Every Part Does Its Share Reading: Ephesians 4:16 - Paul describes the whole body being joined and held together, growing and building itself up in love as each part does its work. Devotional: The growth of the church is not the responsibility of its leaders alone. It is the shared work of every member functioning in their God-given role. When every part does its share, the body grows. That is not a leadership strategy -- it is a biblical promise. You are not a passive recipient of what God is building. You are a living brick in the house he is constructing. The woman in the hospital cafeteria did not need a program or a platform. She needed someone willing to show up, be present, and let God's agenda replace their own. That is the church at its most powerful. Reflection: Who in your life is stronger because of the way you have served them in love? Practical Application: Before this week ends, identify one person inside or outside your church who needs encouragement, and go to them -- not with words alone, but with presence, time, and genuine care.Share Your Prayer Request

Freedom Church

September 28, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Weekly Roundup

Welcome to the weekly roundup 👋 This is your one-stop spot for everything happening in our church. From kids to adults, small groups to special events, here's how you can get connected over the next seven days. Monday, September 28th No Activities Tuesday, September 29th No Activities Wednesday, September 30th Young Adult Bible Study - 6:00 PM in The Loft at Freedom Church. Thursday, October 1st Helping Hands Food Pantry - 8:30 - 11:30 AM in the Pantry at Freedom Church. Friday, October 2nd Precept Bible Study - 10:00 AM in The Loft at Freedom Church. Saturday, October 3rd No Activities Sunday, October 4th Adult Small Group - Meeting at 8:30 AM before service in The Loft at Freedom Church. 10:30 AM Worship Gathering - Join us for Sunday service in person or online. Kids Church - Age-specific programming during our service for infants --> 5th grade. New Member Lunch - Lunch after service in the Loft for those joining Freedom Church. Upcoming Events NEW First Wednesday - Wednesday, October 7th at 6:30 PM Church Yard-Sale - Saturday, October 10th at 7:00 AM Pastor Appreciation - Sunday, October 11th at 10:30 AMNew here? We'd love to connect. Last Week's Message "Ephesians: The House That God Builds--Week Four" | Pastor Tim Dye | Ephesians 3:14-21 What makes God's house strong? In Ephesians 3:14–21, Pastor Tim explores Paul's prayer for believers to be strengthened from the inside out through the Holy Spirit, rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, and filled with the fullness of God. Discover why spiritual strength isn't ultimately found in what we can build around us, but in what God is building within us. Watch the sermon here 👇Watch OnlineSubscribe To Our YouTube Channel Giving Your generosity makes our work in this city possible. We’re so grateful for you.Give Now Here Stay Connected 📩 Subscribe to this Collection to get these updates delivered directly to your inbox. 📸 Follow us on Instagram, & .Facebook, YouTube 💬 Pastoral care or questions? Connect with us here. Services: Sundays at 10:30 AM 2225 Airline Dr, Bossier City, 71111 Next Week: Communion Sunday See you soon ☀️

Freedom Church

September 28, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

Sep 28-Oct 2

5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide – September 28 - October 2 “The House God Builds: A 5-Day Devotional Through Ephesians 3:14-21” Day 1: The Posture of Dependence Reading: Ephesians 3:14-15 - Paul describes kneeling before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its identity. Devotional: The position of the body reveals the posture of the soul. Paul was in chains when he wrote these words, yet his first movement was downward - knees to the ground, face toward the Father. He did not strategize, complain, or perform. He prayed. The church that believes God is its source will kneel. The church that believes it is its own source will stand in pride. Examine what your daily habits reveal about where you believe your strength comes from. Release the illusion of self-sufficiency. Kneel before the One who holds every family, every future, and every outcome in His hands. Reflection: What does your daily routine reveal about your source of strength? Is prayer your first response or your last resort? Practical Application: Set aside ten minutes today to kneel - physically if possible - and bring one specific burden to God in prayer rather than attempting to solve it through your own effort. Day 2: Strength From the Inside Out Reading: Ephesians 3:16-17 - Paul prays that God would grant believers to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in their inner being, so that Christ might dwell in their hearts through faith. Devotional: God is not primarily interested in renovating your circumstances before He renovates your interior. He wants to strengthen what no one else can see - the inner being. Most people bring God their broken situations and ask Him to fix the outside. But God's strategy is always inside out. Christ does not want to visit your heart on occasion. He wants to take up permanent residence. There is a profound difference between a house that is toured and a house that is lived in. Throw open the interior rooms of your soul and invite Him to dwell, not just to pass through. Reflection: In what areas of your life are you asking God to change your circumstances before He has been allowed to change your interior? Practical Application: Identify one internal struggle - fear, bitterness, anxiety, or pride - and intentionally surrender it to the indwelling Holy Spirit today, trusting that His work begins within. Day 3: Rooted in Love That Surpasses Understanding Reading: Ephesians 3:17-19 - Paul prays that believers, being rooted and grounded in love, would have the power to comprehend the width, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ, which surpasses human knowledge. Devotional: A foundation built on disturbed soil will shift when pressure comes. God wants His people rooted thirty feet down into undisturbed ground - the unchanging, unshakeable love of Christ. This love is not sentimental warmth. It is the love that sought you before you sought it, that sustains you when circumstances collapse, and that forms you into something capable of carrying His presence. Your own understanding will fail you. Your circumstances will lie to you. But the love of Christ, once it becomes your foundation rather than merely a concept you affirm, will hold when everything else shakes. Reflection: Are your roots drawing from the love of Christ, or from approval, success, comfort, or control - things that shift like disturbed soil? Practical Application: Spend time meditating on Romans 8:38-39, which declares that nothing can separate believers from the love of God in Christ. Write down two or three things you have been trusting more than that love and consciously redirect your trust today. Day 4: Carrying His Presence and Purposes Reading: Ephesians 3:19-20 - Paul prays that believers would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, and then breaks into praise, declaring that God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. Devotional: God does not want a people who look strong on the outside while the interior joints remain unbolted and vulnerable to collapse. He wants a people filled - not partially, not occasionally - with the fullness of Himself. The power Paul references is not somewhere above you waiting to descend. It is already within you, placed there by the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. The question is not whether the power is available. The question is whether you will stir it up. A church that carries His presence must first be a people who have stopped outsourcing their spiritual strength to programs, personalities, and performances. Reflection: Do you live as though the power of God is within you, or as though it is distant and inaccessible? Practical Application: Read 2 Timothy 1:6-7, where Paul urges Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God within him. Identify one area of your life where you have been passive and make a deliberate, faith-driven decision to engage the power already placed within you. Day 5: Glory in the Church Reading: Ephesians 3:21 - Paul declares that glory belongs to God in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Devotional: The church exists for more than gathering sinners and sending them home improved. It exists as the primary place where Jesus Christ receives the glory that is rightfully His. Every brick - every individual believer - joined together in love becomes a dwelling place where His presence is not just welcomed but magnified. When the church is rooted in love, strengthened by the Spirit, and built on Christ rather than on human effort or recognition, it becomes something the world cannot explain and cannot ignore. You were not created to build a house that bears your name. You were created to be part of a house that bears His. Reflection: Is the local church you are part of oriented around the glory of Christ or around the comfort and preferences of its people? Practical Application: Commit to one act of sacrificial love toward another member of your local church this week - something that costs you something and draws no attention to yourself - as a deliberate act of worship that declares Christ is the center.Share Your Prayer Request

Freedom Church

September 21, 2026 • 7 Minute Read

Sept 21-25

5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide – September 21 - 25 “The House God Builds: A 5-Day Devotional Through Ephesians 2:11-22” Day 1: Remember Where You Came From Reading: Ephesians 2:11-12 Devotional: Paul's instruction to "remember" is not an exercise in shame but in gratitude. Before Christ, the condition of every human soul was defined by separation, exclusion, and hopelessness. We were outside the covenant, outside the promise, outside the house entirely. Remembering this is not meant to discourage you but to anchor you in the reality of what grace has accomplished. When you forget where you came from, you begin to take for granted what was given to you at great cost. Let the memory of your former condition fuel a deeper worship and a wider welcome toward others who are still outside. Reflection Questions: What does your life look like before Christ when you examine it honestly? How does remembering your former condition change the way you treat those who do not yet believe? In what ways has gratitude for your salvation grown or faded over time? Practical Application: Write down three specific ways your life has changed since coming to faith in Christ. Keep this list somewhere visible this week as a daily reminder of what grace has done. Day 2: But Now — The Power of the Cross Reading: Ephesians 2:13-14; Romans 5:6-11 Paul describes in Romans 5 how Christ died for the ungodly and how through him we have now received reconciliation. Ephesians 2:13 declares that those who were once far off have been brought near through the blood of Christ. Devotional: Two of the most powerful words in all of Scripture are "but now." They mark the turning point between what was and what is. The cross did not simply improve our standing before God. It demolished the distance entirely. Christ did not negotiate peace from a distance. He became peace. He absorbed the hostility of sin, of division, of separation into his own body so that what was broken could be made whole. The same blood that reconciles you to God reconciles you to your brother and sister. You cannot receive one reconciliation and refuse the other. The cross is not partial in its work. Reflection Questions: Where in your life do you still live as though you are far off, even though Christ has brought you near? How does understanding that Christ is your peace, not merely the giver of peace, change how you pursue it? Are there relationships in your life where you have accepted reconciliation with God but resisted reconciliation with another person? Practical Application: Identify one relationship in your life that carries unresolved tension. Pray specifically over that relationship today, asking God to show you what step toward peace he is calling you to take. Day 3: One New Humanity Reading: Ephesians 2:15-16; Galatians 3:26-29 Galatians 3 describes how in Christ there is no distinction of background, status, or identity that supersedes the identity found in him. Ephesians 2:15 declares that Christ's purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of two divided groups. Devotional: The church was never meant to be a collection of individuals who happen to share the same building on Sunday mornings. Christ's purpose, as Paul states it plainly, was to create one new humanity. Not two groups learning to tolerate each other. Not separate communities agreeing to coexist. One. The walls that divide us by race, class, age, history, preference, and personality were not merely inconvenient obstacles. They were expressions of a broken world. Christ did not patch those walls. He destroyed them. The church that is worthy of Christ is one that takes this seriously, not just as theology but as lived reality among its people. Reflection Questions: What categories do you use, even unconsciously, to divide people into insiders and outsiders? How does the identity of being "in Christ" challenge the other identities you hold most tightly? What would it look like practically for your church community to embody one new humanity this week? Practical Application: Intentionally spend time this week with someone in your church community who is different from you in background, age, or life experience. Approach the conversation with the goal of learning, not just socializing. Day 4: Fellow Citizens, Not Strangers Reading: Ephesians 2:17-19; 1 Peter 2:9-10 First Peter 2 describes believers as a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation — people who were once not a people but have now received mercy. Ephesians 2:19 declares that believers are no longer foreigners or strangers but fellow citizens and members of God's household. Devotional: There is a profound difference between being a visitor and being a member of a household. A visitor is welcomed temporarily. A member of the household belongs permanently. Paul's language here is deliberate. You are not a guest in God's kingdom. You are not on probation. You are not sitting in the back row waiting to see if you qualify. You have been given full citizenship. You have a seat at the table. The tragedy of the modern church is that many believers live as perpetual visitors, never committing deeply enough to experience the full weight of belonging. God's design is not a church of visitors. It is a household of family. Reflection Questions: Do you experience your church community as a household or more as a place you visit? What contributes to that? What does it mean to you personally that God calls you a member of his household rather than merely a recipient of his benefits? How might your engagement with your church community change if you fully embraced the identity of fellow citizen rather than outsider? Practical Application: Take one concrete step this week toward deeper belonging in your church community. This could mean joining a small group, introducing yourself to someone you have never spoken to, or volunteering in an area of Sunday service. Day 5: A Dwelling Place for God Reading: Ephesians 2:20-22; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 First Corinthians 3 declares that believers together are God's temple and that his Spirit dwells among them. Ephesians 2:20-22 describes the church as a building joined together with Christ as the cornerstone, rising into a holy temple where God lives by his Spirit. Devotional: The final vision Paul gives is breathtaking. God is not simply building a religion or an institution. He is building a dwelling place. He is building a home for himself among his people. Christ is the cornerstone, the fixed reference point from which everything else is measured and aligned. When the cornerstone is honored, the whole structure holds together. When it is neglected, everything drifts. The church is not a building made of stone or steel. It is a living structure made of people who are being built together. This is not something you can experience alone. It requires you. It requires the person sitting beside you. It requires the one you have been tempted to write off. God is building something, and he is building it with all of you together. Reflection Questions: What does it mean to you that God's desire is to dwell among his people, not just within individuals? In what ways might you be resisting the process of being "built together" with others? How does keeping Christ as the cornerstone of your life practically affect the decisions you make and the relationships you invest in? Practical Application: Close this five-day reading plan by writing a personal prayer of commitment. Express to God your willingness to be part of what he is building, to tear down whatever walls remain in your heart, and to embrace the household of faith as your own family. "In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord." — Ephesians 2:21Share Your Prayer Request

Freedom Church

September 21, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Weekly Roundup

Welcome to the weekly roundup 👋 This is your one-stop spot for everything happening in our church. From kids to adults, small groups to special events, here's how you can get connected over the next seven days. Monday, September 21st No Activities Tuesday, September 22nd No Activities Wednesday, September 23rd Young Adult Bible Study - 6:00 PM in The Loft at Freedom Church. Thursday, September 24th Helping Hands Food Pantry - 8:30 - 11:30 AM in the Pantry at Freedom Church. Men’s Bible Study - 6:00 PM in The Loft at Freedom Church. Friday, September 25th Women’s Bible Study - 10:00 AM in The Loft at Freedom Church. Saturday, September 26th No Activities Sunday, September 27th Adult Small Group - Meeting at 8:30 AM before service in The Loft at Freedom Church. 10:30 AM Worship Gathering - Join us for Sunday service in person or online. Communion Sunday - We’ll remember Christ’s sacrifice and celebrate His grace together during our 10:30 AM Worship Gathering. Kids Church - Age-specific programming during our service for infants --> 5th grade. Upcoming Events New Member Lunch - Sunday, October 4th at 12:30 PM NEW First Wednesday - Wednesday, October 7th at 6:30 PM Church Yard-Sale - Saturday, October 10th at 7:00 AMNew here? We'd love to connect. Last Week's Message "Ephesians: The House That God Builds--Week Three" | Pastor Tim Dye | Ephesians 2:11-22 The Gospel doesn't just bring us near to God. It changes how we belong to one another. In Ephesians 2:11–22, Pastor Tim looks at the walls that divide us, the cross that tore them down, and the family God is building with Jesus as the cornerstone. Watch the sermon here 👇Watch OnlineSubscribe To Our YouTube Channel Giving Your generosity makes our work in this city possible. We’re so grateful for you.Give Now Here Stay Connected 📩 Subscribe to this Collection to get these updates delivered directly to your inbox. 📸 Follow us on Instagram, & .Facebook, YouTube 💬 Pastoral care or questions? Connect with us here. Services: Sundays at 10:30 AM 2225 Airline Dr, Bossier City, 71111 Next Week: Communion Sunday See you soon ☀️

Freedom Church

September 14, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Weekly Roundup

Welcome to the weekly roundup 👋 This is your one-stop spot for everything happening in our church. From kids to adults, small groups to special events, here's how you can get connected over the next seven days. Monday, September 14th No Activities Tuesday, September 15th No Activities Wednesday, September 16th Young Adult Bible Study - 6:00 PM in The Loft at Freedom Church. Thursday, September 17th Helping Hands Food Pantry - 8:30 - 11:30 AM in the Pantry at Freedom Church. Friday, September 18th Precept Bible Study - 10:00 AM in The Loft at Freedom Church. Saturday, September 19th No Activities Sunday, September 20th Adult Small Group - Meeting at 8:30 AM before service in The Loft at Freedom Church 10:30 AM Worship Gathering - Join us for Sunday service in person or online. Kids Church - Age-specific programming during our service for infants --> 5th grade. Upcoming Events New Member Lunch - Sunday, October 4th at 12:30 PM NEW First Wednesday - Wednesday, October 7th at 6:30 PM Church Yard-Sale - Saturday, October 10th at 7:00 AMNew here? We'd love to connect. This Week's Message "Ephesians: The House That God Builds--Week Two" | Pastor Tim Dye | Ephesians 2:1-10 You don't have to build a better version of yourself to become worthy of God. In Ephesians 2, we discover the incredible difference two words can make—“But God.” See what happens when grace takes us from death to life and we surrender our lives to the Builder. Watch last week’s sermon 👇Watch OnlineSubscribe To Our YouTube Channel Giving Your generosity makes our work in this city possible. We’re so grateful for you.Give Now Here Stay Connected 📩 Subscribe to this Collection to get these updates delivered directly to your inbox. 📸 Follow us on Instagram, & .Facebook, YouTube 💬 Pastoral care or questions? Connect with us here. Services: Sundays at 10:30 AM 2225 Airline Dr, Bossier City, 71111 Next Week: Sunday Service See you soon ☀️

Freedom Church

September 14, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

Sept 14-18

5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide – September 14 - 18 “The House God Builds: A 5-Day Devotional Through Ephesians 2:1-10” Day 1: You Were Dead, But God Remembered You Reading: Ephesians 2:1-3 -- Paul describes humanity's condition before Christ: spiritually dead, shaped by the patterns of this world, and driven by the desires of the flesh, with no ability to rescue itself. Devotional: Before grace found you, you were not merely struggling or misguided. You were spiritually dead. There was no flicker of life in you that could earn God's attention. Yet God saw you in that condition and did not look away in disgust. He looked at you with profound compassion. This is where honest faith begins -- not in pretending you were never that far gone, but in acknowledging exactly how far gone you were. The depth of your death only magnifies the miracle of your rescue. Today, sit with the weight of where you were. Let it produce not shame, but awe. Reflection Question: When did you last allow the reality of your spiritual condition before Christ to genuinely move you toward gratitude? Practical Application: Write down three specific ways your life reflected spiritual deadness before Christ, or before a season of renewal. Bring those to God in prayer and thank Him for what He interrupted. Day 2: But God -- The Two Words That Change Everything Reading: Ephesians 2:4-5 -- Paul pivots sharply from humanity's hopeless condition to God's decisive action, rooted in His great love and abundant mercy, making alive those who were dead. Devotional: Two words carry the full weight of the gospel: but God. You were dead -- but God. You were following the world -- but God. You had no ability to save yourself -- but God. These words are not a footnote in your story. They are the hinge on which everything turns. God did not wait for you to clean yourself up before He reached toward you. He reached into your deadness and breathed life into you, not because you earned it, but because He is rich in mercy. That word rich matters. His mercy is not rationed. It is abundant, overflowing, and entirely undeserved. Reflection Question: Where in your current circumstances do you need to insert the phrase "but God" and actually believe it? Practical Application: Throughout this day, when a discouraging or anxious thought arises, pause and speak aloud: "But God is rich in mercy." Practice this as a deliberate act of agreement with Scripture rather than a dismissal of your struggle. Day 3: Raised, Lifted, and Seated Reading: Ephesians 2:6 -- Paul describes three movements God has made on behalf of believers: making them alive with Christ, raising them up, and seating them with Christ in the heavenly places. Devotional: God did not simply rescue you from death and leave you on the floor. He made you alive, raised you to a new standing, and seated you in a position of security and victory alongside Christ. In the ancient world, being seated beside a king meant sharing in his authority, his rest, and his protection. That is where God has placed you -- not eventually, not conditionally, but now. The problem is not that God has failed to seat you. The problem is that many believers spend their days living as though they are still lying on the floor. Your identity is not your past. It is your position. Reflection Question: In what area of your life are you living beneath the identity God has given you, thinking and behaving as though you are still trapped by what Christ has already delivered you from? Practical Application: Begin each morning this week by stating three truths aloud: "I have been made alive. I have been raised up. I am seated with Christ." Do not wait until you feel it. Speak it in agreement with the Word and allow your feelings to follow. Day 4: Grace That Cannot Be Earned, Only Received Reading: Ephesians 2:8-9 -- Paul declares that salvation comes entirely through grace, received through faith, and is not the product of human effort or achievement, leaving no room for boasting. Devotional: The human instinct is to earn what we receive. When someone gives us a gift, we reach for our wallet. When God saves us, we reach for our performance. But grace, by definition, cannot be purchased, improved upon, or deserved. The moment you begin trying to prove you were worth saving, you have confused the gift with a transaction. God's delight is in giving. His greatest gift is His Son. To spend your Christian life trying to pay that back is to misunderstand the nature of what was offered. You cannot work your way into what can only be received. Open your hands today and simply receive. Reflection Question: In what ways have you been quietly trying to earn God's approval or prove your worth to Him rather than resting in what He has already declared over you? Practical Application: Identify one area where you have been striving to perform for God rather than trusting His grace. Surrender that specific striving to Him in prayer today and ask Him to replace it with genuine rest. Day 5: You Are His Poem -- Walk in the Purpose He Wrote Reading: Ephesians 2:10 -- Paul reveals that believers are God's workmanship, the Greek word carrying the meaning of something crafted and inspired, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand. Devotional: You are not God's renovation project. You are His poem. The word Paul uses carries the sense of something intentional, crafted, and inspired -- the same root from which we get the word poem. God did not reluctantly patch you together. He authored you with purpose and intention. The good works He prepared for you are not how you earn His favor. They are the outflow of a life that has been made alive, raised up, and seated in Him. Your life, with all its chapters of struggle and breakthrough, is the very story God is writing. The question is not whether you are worthy of the story. The question is whether you will walk in it. Reflection Question: What good works do you sense God has prepared specifically for you in this season, and what is preventing you from walking in them with confidence? Practical Application: Identify one concrete act of service, encouragement, or obedience that you have been hesitating to step into. Commit to taking one step toward it this week, not to earn anything, but because you are God's workmanship and that is what His workmanship does.Share Your Prayer Request

Freedom Church

September 7, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

Sept 7-11

5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide – September 7 - 11 “The House God Builds: A 5-Day Devotional Through Ephesians” Day 1: Open the Eyes of Your Heart Reading: Ephesians 1:15-19 -- Paul's prayer that believers would receive spiritual wisdom, revelation, and an enlightened understanding of the hope and power available to them in Christ. Devotional: It is possible to be surrounded by the activity of God and still miss it entirely. Paul does not pray that the Ephesians would receive more information. He prays that they would see differently. The eyes of the heart are not opened through effort or intelligence -- they are opened through surrender. Consider what circumstances in your life you have been measuring only by what is visible. Ask God today to reframe what you see. The same power that is at work in the universe is at work in you. You do not need new circumstances. You need new eyes. Reflection Question: What visible thing in your life is currently overshadowing your view of God's power and presence? Practical Application: Spend five minutes in quiet prayer asking God specifically -- not generally -- to illuminate one area of your life where you have been relying on sight rather than faith. Day 2: The Power That Raises the Dead Reading: Ephesians 1:19-20 -- Paul's description of the immeasurable greatness of God's power, the same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the highest place of authority. Devotional: Paul does not point to creation or the parting of a sea as the ultimate demonstration of God's power. He points to resurrection. The most profound thing God has ever done is not making something out of nothing -- it is bringing dead things back to life. That is the power that is available to every believer. Whatever in your life feels lifeless, buried, or beyond recovery is precisely the kind of territory where resurrection power operates. God is not intimidated by your dead places. He is drawn to them. The question is not whether he is able. The question is whether you believe. Reflection Question: What area of your life -- a relationship, a dream, a sense of calling -- feels buried right now? Practical Application: Write down one specific thing you have stopped believing God for. Pray over it today using the language of resurrection: "Lord, bring this back to life according to your will and your power." Day 3: Far Above Every Shadow Reading: Ephesians 1:20-21 -- The declaration that Christ has been raised and seated far above every rule, authority, power, dominion, and name, in this age and in the age to come. Devotional: Every generation has its temple of Artemis -- some dominant structure of power, culture, or ideology that casts a long shadow over the people of God. The Ephesian church lived under the shadow of one of the ancient world's greatest monuments. Paul's response is not a strategy for competing with it. His response is a revelation about Christ's position. Jesus is not slightly above these powers. He is far above them. When something in your world feels overwhelming -- politically, culturally, personally -- the answer is not a louder voice or a stronger effort. The answer is a clearer view of where Christ is seated. Reflection Question: What power, fear, or cultural pressure is currently casting a shadow over your faith? Practical Application: Find a quiet place today and physically look upward. Let that posture remind you that Christ is seated above every authority that feels pressing in your life. Speak his name over what is troubling you. Day 4: You Are the Body, Not the Audience Reading: Ephesians 1:22-23 -- God's appointment of Christ as head over all things for the church, which is described as his body and the fullness of the one who fills everything in every way. Devotional: The church is not an event you attend. It is a body you belong to. Paul's language here is intimate and irreplaceable -- Christ is the head, and the church is his body. A head without a body cannot act in the world. This means that when the church gathers, something essential is present that cannot be replicated anywhere else. But it also means that when you leave the gathering, you do not leave the body behind. You carry it with you. You are his hands, his voice, his presence in every room you enter today. That is not a metaphor. That is your identity. Reflection Question: In what ways have you been treating church as something you consume rather than something you embody? Practical Application: Identify one specific person in your life who needs to encounter the presence of Christ this week. Commit to being intentional about carrying that presence to them through a conversation, an act of service, or a moment of prayer. Day 5: The Foundation That Cannot Be Shaken Reading: Ephesians 2:19-22 -- The description of believers as members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ himself as the cornerstone, growing into a holy temple and dwelling place of God by the Spirit. Devotional: Every structure eventually reveals what it is built on. Rome looked permanent. The temple of Artemis looked permanent. Neither was. The only foundation that will not be shaken is Christ himself. This is not a comforting abstraction -- it is a daily decision. It means examining what you are actually trusting to give you security, significance, and peace. Careers, reputations, relationships, and personal strength are not evil, but they are terrible foundations. They were never designed to carry the weight you place on them. When exhaustion sets in, it is often because you have been doing what only God can do. Return to the cornerstone. Let him bear what only he can bear. Reflection Question: What have you been building your sense of security on that was never designed to carry that weight? Practical Application: Write down three things you are currently trusting for security or identity that are not Christ. Bring each one before God in prayer, releasing it from the role of foundation and placing it back under his lordship.Share Your Prayer Request

Freedom Church

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

View Author

October 14, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

TBD

There is a quiet lie that many believers carry with them into every week. It whispers that your life is essentially the sum of your commute, your paycheck, your routine, and your struggles. It tells you that church is something you attend, faith is something you hold privately, and that the work of building the kingdom belongs to someone else, someone more qualified, more gifted, more available. It is a convincing lie. And it is wrong. The truth is far more compelling. You are an inseparable part of what God is doing in the earth right now. Not someday. Now. The House God Is Building Long before there were modern church buildings with coffee bars and production lighting, there was a people. They were called people of the way. After the events of Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit descended and ignited something that could not be contained, these men and women began to spread a message that changed the world. They did it not because an institution demanded it, but because the Spirit of God had set something alive inside them. The Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Ephesus from a Roman prison cell, was trying to articulate something that generation needed to hear, and that we still need to hear today. In Ephesians 4, verses 14 through 16, he describes a body that is joined and held together by every supporting ligament, growing and building itself up in love as each part does its work. Every part. Not a few dedicated parts. Every part. God never designed the church to be a house where a handful of people do all the work while everyone else watches. He designed it to be a living body, and a body does not function when only one part is active. The Construction Crew Problem Imagine walking onto a construction site and finding twenty people sitting in lawn chairs while one exhausted worker carries lumber, runs electrical wiring, frames walls, lays flooring, and hangs drywall all by himself. You ask what is going on, and someone cheerfully tells you they are building a house. When you ask who is building it, they point to the one man drenched in sweat. That is not a construction crew. That is one exhausted person with an audience. It is also, if we are honest, a painfully accurate picture of how many churches function today. A pastor, a handful of leaders, a faithful few volunteers, and a congregation of observers. Paul would not recognize that as the body he described. A body does not have one functioning part. It has hands, feet, eyes, ears, joints, and muscles, and every single one of them has a purpose that contributes to the whole. Walking Worthy Is Not a Solo Act In Ephesians 4, verse 1, Paul urges believers to walk in a manner worthy of the calling they have received. We tend to read that as a personal challenge about individual behavior, a reminder to be moral, to be kind, to represent Christ well in our private lives. But that reading strips the verse of its full meaning. Walking worthy, in the context Paul is writing, is not something you do alone. It is something you do with the body. With humility, gentleness, and patience. Bearing with one another in love. Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. The worthy walk is fleshed out in community, in commitment, in the sometimes uncomfortable and always refining work of doing life together with other believers. God does not call the individual believer to go off alone, work out their character in isolation, and return when they have it figured out. He works out character in and through the body of Christ. The friction, the forgiveness, the bearing with one another, that is not a flaw in the design. That is the design. Every Part Has a Purpose Paul writes in Ephesians 4, verses 11 and 12, that Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for a specific reason: to equip the saints for the work of ministry, so that the body of Christ might be built up. The offices exist not to do the work for everyone else, but to equip everyone else to do the work. This means the ministry belongs to you. The question is not whether you have a role. You do. The question is whether you know what it is and whether you are willing to step into it. Verse 16 contains a thought that should stop every believer in their tracks. The body grows as each part does its work. Not as the pastor works harder. Not as the most gifted people carry more of the load. As each part does its share. The growth of the church is directly tied to the participation of every member. When parts sit idle, growth is stunted. When every part functions, something remarkable happens. The Cafeteria Moment Consider what it looks like in the most ordinary of settings. Someone stops in a hospital cafeteria to grab a quick lunch before visiting a sick friend from church. A stranger sits down at the same table, and in the course of a brief, unplanned conversation, tears fall. A woman carrying the weight of her own medical scans pauses, looks at the situation of the person being visited, and says quietly that she counts her blessings today. That moment did not happen because someone had a strategy. It happened because someone showed up. Because someone chose to be present, to be available, to let their agenda become God's agenda for the hour. That is the church without walls. That is what it looks like when a member of the body simply does their part. Your Part Is Needed Three questions are worth sitting with this week. First, what has God placed in you? Every believer has been gifted by God to serve the body of Christ. Second, who can you build up this week? Who is stronger because you showed up, served, and loved? Third, where is your place? God has something in you that his house genuinely needs. You are not an observer. You are not an audience member. You are a member of the body, and the body needs you to function. Do not waste the life you have been given. You were made for more.Request prayer

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

October 12, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Preparing the House for More

We had a great morning together as we closed out our series on the house that God builds. If you were with us, we hope this recap stirs something fresh in you. If you missed it, we are glad you are here now. Key Takeaways: Christ has already made us His dwelling place. Every spiritual blessing has been given to us. Holiness is not something we reach for - it was delivered to us in Jesus Christ, and the work of renewing our minds is simply uncovering what God has already deposited in us. Real community requires proximity and trust. The New Testament model of the church was never a polished, untouchable environment. It was men and women, broken and being restored, close enough to one another to speak truth in love - not to condemn, but to help each other see what we are blind to on our own. You are called to be healed and then trained. God never intended for His people to remain spectators. The reset happening at Freedom Church is an invitation to stop sitting on the fence, let the old resistance be washed out, and step into the purpose and training God has prepared for each of us. There are things in my life that God's still working on. That is the invitation extended to every one of us - to be open and honest before the Lord and willing to be used and filled by Him. Greater measure is coming for this church. It is coming. With you in this, Pastor Tim Dye

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

October 7, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

You Were Made for More Than You Think

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

October 5, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

There Are No Spectators

What a powerful morning we shared together in the Word. It is always a privilege to gather as a body and be reminded of who we are in Christ and what we are called to do together. Key Takeaways: Every believer is gifted and necessary. God has placed something in you that His body genuinely needs. The gifts listed in Ephesians 4 were given not for personal benefit but for the equipping of the saints and the building up of the body of Christ. Discovering and using your gift is not optional -- it is an act of obedience. The church grows when every part does its share. Ephesians 4:16 makes clear that growth in the body is directly tied to every member functioning in their role. When parts are inactive or disconnected, the whole body suffers. Unity, character development, and maturity are not solo pursuits -- they are forged in community with one another. Your everyday life is a mission field. The church does not only exist within these walls. Whether you are in a hospital cafeteria, a workplace, or a neighborhood, you carry the presence of Christ with you. Keeping your agenda open to God's agenda positions you to advance His kingdom in ways you may never have planned or expected. As you go into this week, take time to sit with Ephesians 4:1-16 and ask the Lord to show you where you fit in the body, who you can build up through service and love, and how your daily life can reflect the calling you have received. You were made for more than just getting by. You are part of the house God is building, and that house needs you. Let’s keep going, Pastor Tim Dye

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

September 30, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

Strength From the Inside Out

There is a difference between a house that looks strong and a house that actually is strong. That difference is not always visible from the outside. It lives in the joints, the roots, the foundation — the parts no one sees until the storm arrives. In 1995, an architect made a terrifying discovery about a skyscraper he had designed years earlier in Manhattan. The building was striking - 59 stories of glass and steel, an engineering marvel that sat on four massive pillars positioned along the sides of the structure rather than at its corners. Years after construction, a routine question from an engineering student prompted the architect to recalculate the building's wind load. What he found was alarming. The contractors had used bolt joints instead of welded joints in the load-bearing pillars. A significant storm with quartering winds would cause those bolts to shear, the pillars to buckle, and the entire tower to collapse onto the streets of Manhattan. Rather than hide the flaw, the architect coordinated a quiet, months-long emergency operation. Welding crews worked through the night, reinforcing every weak joint with thick steel plates until the structure could bear the pressure it was always meant to hold. This is a picture of what God is doing in the lives of his people right now. The Prayer That Changes Everything In Ephesians 3:14-21, the apostle Paul writes one of the most remarkable prayers in all of Scripture. He is under house arrest in Rome, writing in chains, facing an uncertain outcome. And yet his posture is not anxiety. It is not complaint. He kneels. That single word - kneel - carries enormous weight. It reveals everything about where Paul believes his strength comes from. If a person believes that everything depends on themselves, they stand in pride and self-reliance. But if a person believes that everything depends on God, they kneel. The posture of a life reveals the source it trusts. Paul's prayer is not a request for better circumstances. He is not asking God to remove the chains or change the political climate. He is praying that God would strengthen his people with power through his Spirit in their inner being. He is praying that Christ would dwell - not visit, but dwell - in the hearts of believers through faith. He is praying that they would be rooted and grounded in love. This is the kind of prayer the church desperately needs to recover. Strength Begins on the Inside One of the most persistent temptations in the Christian life is to look for strength in the wrong places. More resources. More programs. More activity. More recognition. More control. The assumption is that if we can make the house bigger, it will become stronger. But God is not interested in the size of the house. He is interested in the depth of the people inside it. Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:16 is that God would grant his people to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in their inner being. Not first in their circumstances. Not first in their finances or influence. In their inner being. This is a profound distinction. Much of modern life — and much of modern Christianity — is built on the exterior. We are shaped by what we see, what we want, what others think of us. But God says there is a place on the inside that he wants to reinforce. A place where no one else gets a vote on who you are. A place where God speaks his truth over you regardless of what the world is saying around you. Christ is not looking for visitation. He is looking for habitation. The goal is not that Jesus would show up occasionally when circumstances are desperate. The goal is that Christ would be at home — dwelling — in the hearts of his people through faith. Roots That Go Deep Enough Paul uses two powerful images when he describes what a spiritually strong life looks like. The first is agricultural: roots growing downward into the soil, like a tree. The second is architectural: a foundation going deep into the ground, like a building. Both images point to the same reality. Stability is not found at the surface. It is found in depth. There is a concept in foundation work that speaks to this directly. When the ground is unstable, engineers must drill down past the disturbed soil — past all the shifting, settling, unreliable earth — until they reach undisturbed soil. In some cases, that means going thirty feet down. Only then can a foundation hold. This is exactly what God is calling his people to. If life feels shaky, if circumstances feel chaotic, if you are constantly tossed by whatever is happening around you, the answer is not to rearrange the surface. The answer is to go deeper. Disturbed soil shakes. Undisturbed soil holds. And what is that undisturbed soil? Paul names it directly. Love. The love of Christ. He prays that believers would have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is — a love that surpasses knowledge, a love that keeps, sustains, forms, finds, seeks, and empowers. This is not sentiment. This is the load-bearing wall of everything God is building. The Future Belongs to the Rooted Paul closes his prayer with a burst of praise that has echoed through centuries. He declares in Ephesians 3:20 that God is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us. Not around us. Within us. The future of any life, any family, any community of faith is not determined by what is happening externally. It is determined by what is happening internally. Information can fill a mind without changing a life. But transformation — the kind that comes from being so deeply rooted in the love of Christ that it becomes the foundation from which you live — that changes everything. The question worth sitting with today is simple but searching: What are your roots in? If they are in circumstances, circumstances will change. If they are in people's approval, people will fail you. If they are in success, success will eventually give way to suffering. But if the roots go down into the love of Christ, they reach something that never moves, never fails, and never runs out. That is the house God is building. And he is building it from the inside out.Request prayer

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

September 28, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Built From Within

What a powerful time we had together this Sunday. If you were with us, we pray this recap stirs your heart again. If you missed it, we trust these words will encourage and challenge you right where you are. Key Takeaways: The posture of the house is kneeling. Paul wrote from chains in Rome and his first response was prayer, not anxiety. The posture of a church reveals what it believes about its source. If we believe everything depends on us, we will stand in pride. If we believe everything depends on God, we will kneel. A church can be organized, active, and prayerless all at the same time. Let that not be said of us. The strength of the house is the indwelling of Christ. God's priority is not first to fix your circumstances but to strengthen your inner being through his Spirit. Christ is not looking for visitation in your life - he is looking for inhabitation. There is a place in your innermost being where no outside voice gets the final word. That is where God speaks, strengthens, and sustains you. The roots of the house are love. Paul uses both agricultural and architectural language - rooted like a tree, grounded like a foundation. Information can fill your head without strengthening your house, but transformation happens when the love of Christ becomes the foundation from which you live. If your roots are in circumstances, approval, or success, they will shift. The love of Christ never does. As you head into this week, we want to leave you with three simple invitations from the message: release control and stop trying to hold your own house up, hand over the keys and let Christ truly dwell in your heart, and build on what lasts by going deeper into the love of God. Communion this Sunday was a reminder that everything we hold in our hands came to us through love. May that love be the ground beneath everything you do this week. With you in this, Pastor Tim Dye

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

September 23, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

Torn Down

There is something deeply human about building walls. We do it instinctively, almost without thinking. We sort people into categories — insiders and outsiders, those who belong and those who do not. We organize ourselves by neighborhood, by preference, by history, by hurt. And over time, those walls stop feeling like walls at all. They just become the culture. They become the way things are. But what if the cross of Jesus Christ was not only about restoring your relationship with God? What if it was also about tearing down every wall you have ever built between yourself and another person? That is exactly what the Apostle Paul is driving at in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 through 22. And it is a passage that demands more than a casual reading. Remember Where You Came From Paul opens this section with a word that carries real weight: remember. He calls his readers to look back at what they once were before Christ entered the picture. The list he stacks up is sobering. Separated from Christ. Excluded from the covenant. Foreigners to the promise. Without hope. Without God in the world. This is not Paul shaming his audience. It is Paul grounding them. Because you cannot fully appreciate what you have been given until you honestly reckon with what you were without it. Every single one of us, before we came to faith, was on the outside looking in. We were not part of the family. We were not citizens. We had no claim on the promise. That is the baseline. That is where we all started. But Now Then Paul pivots with two of the most powerful words in all of Scripture. But now. In Ephesians 2:13, he writes that those who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. The distance that once defined us has been collapsed. Not by our effort, not by our merit, not by our religious performance, but by the blood of Jesus. And then Paul says something that ought to stop us in our tracks. He does not say that Jesus gives us peace as though peace were a product Christ distributes to individual consumers. He says that Jesus himself is our peace. There is a world of difference between those two statements. One treats peace as a benefit to be received. The other recognizes peace as a person to be known. This distinction matters enormously for how we understand the church. We live in a culture that has trained us to approach faith as consumers. We want the benefits of belonging to Christ without the inconvenience of belonging to one another. We want peace, joy, and healing, but we want them delivered privately, personally, and on our own terms. The problem is that this is not the design Paul is describing. The Wall That Was Torn Down In Ephesians 2:14, Paul says that Christ has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. In the ancient world, this carried a vivid and literal meaning. In the Jerusalem temple, there was an actual physical barrier separating the court of the Gentiles from the inner courts where Israel worshipped. Gentiles were not permitted beyond it. The wall was real, and what it communicated was unmistakable: you do not belong here. Christ demolished that wall. Not metaphorically. Not eventually. He demolished it through the cross, by setting aside the law with its commands and regulations, as Paul writes in verse 15, for the purpose of creating in himself one new humanity out of two. Read that again. One new humanity. Not two groups learning to tolerate each other. Not two communities agreeing to coexist politely. One new people, formed together in Christ, reconciled both to God and to one another through the same cross. This means that the same cross that deals with your sin before God also deals with the hostility between you and the person sitting across from you. You cannot separate those two realities. They are both accomplished by the same act. The House God Is Building By the time Paul reaches verses 19 through 22, the language shifts to architecture. You are no longer strangers and foreigners, he writes in verse 19. You are fellow citizens with God's people and members of his household. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone, the whole structure is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. God is not building a collection of individual spiritual retreats. He is building a house. A dwelling place. A temple in which he himself lives by his Spirit. And you are part of it. Not a visitor. Not a guest with limited access. A member of the household. This reframes everything about what it means to follow Jesus. It means your faith is not a solo endeavor. It never was. The walls between you and other believers are not incidental inconveniences to be managed. They are structural problems that contradict the very thing Christ died to accomplish. What Walls Need to Come Down in Your Life The question Paul's words press us toward is both personal and uncomfortable. What walls have you built? Some are built on preference — they do not worship the way I do, they do not come from where I come from, they do not do things the way I would do them. Preference is not inherently sinful, but preference becomes dangerous when it becomes a boundary for belonging. Some walls are built on history. Something actually happened. Someone hurt you, betrayed you, or walked away. Those wounds are real, and wisdom sometimes requires a boundary. But there is a difference between a healthy boundary and a kingdom of bitterness. The gospel refuses to let what happened to you become your permanent identity. And underneath all of it is the question of identity itself. Paul's answer is clear. Your deepest identity is no longer defined by your background, your ethnicity, your politics, your denomination, or your wounds. Your deepest identity is that you are in Christ. Not near him. Not beside him. In him. When that becomes the foundation, the walls lose their authority. And what begins to rise in their place is something far greater than any wall you could ever build — the house that God himself is building, a dwelling place where there are no strangers, only family.Request prayer

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

September 21, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

No More Strangers

What an awesome Sunday we had continuing our series in Ephesians. If you were with us in person, we hope this recap stirs your heart again. If you missed it, I hope this summary will encourage and challenge you as you go about your week. Key Takeaways: Unchecked walls become culture. Whether rooted in preference, personal history, or pride — can quietly become the culture of a church if left unchallenged. We must regularly examine our hearts and ask what walls we have constructed that God never authorized, and be willing to let the Holy Spirit tear them down. The cross made us one family. The cross did not simply make enemies into better neighbors. It made them one family. Jesus Himself is our peace, not merely the one who delivers peace to us. That means true unity in the church is not manufactured through programs or personality, but through a shared and deepening surrender to Christ as Lord. Our identity in Christ outranks every label. Our deepest identity is no longer defined by background, wound, denomination, or preference. We are in Christ. That identity outranks every other label we carry, and when we truly live from that place, the walls lose their authority over us and over our community. As you go into this week, take a moment to reflect honestly on who you have mentally placed outside the house. Is there someone you have dismissed, avoided, or written off? The same cross that brought you near has brought them near as well. Let that truth move you toward someone this week. We are so grateful to do this together. You are not a visitor here. You are family. Pastor Tim Dye

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

September 16, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

Dead Men Made Alive

There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from trying to construct a version of yourself that God will finally be pleased with. You know the feeling. You attend more services, volunteer more hours, clean up your language, cut out the bad habits, compare your progress against the people around you, and still walk away with the quiet, nagging sense that it is not quite enough. That you are not quite enough. This is the treadmill of self-construction, and it is one of the most spiritually draining places a person can live. The second chapter of Ephesians tears that treadmill out of the floor entirely. The Raw Material God Actually Uses Paul opens Ephesians 2 not with a motivational charge or a list of qualifications. He opens with a funeral. He describes the human condition before Christ as one of spiritual death, a state in which people were not merely struggling or misguided or underperforming, but genuinely, completely dead. Dead in trespasses and sin. Shaped by the surrounding culture. Driven by personal desire and appetite. Subject to the judgment that such a condition rightfully invites. This is not Paul describing a bad week. This is Paul describing a condition. And the distinction matters enormously, because we live in a culture that is very good at diagnosing bad weeks. We have self-help frameworks and positive thinking strategies and motivational content designed to lift us out of our low moments. None of that is entirely without value. But none of it can resurrect a corpse. A corpse does not become alive by becoming a better corpse. The problem was never that humanity needed better behavior. The problem was that humanity needed life. This is where Paul's three-part description of the unredeemed condition lands with such weight. Dead to sin. Following the course of the world. Driven by the desires of the flesh and the mind. These are not three descriptions of bad habits. They are three ways of saying that without Christ, the human soul has no independent capacity to turn itself toward God. The direction of a life apart from Him runs consistently away from Him, shaped by forces that are not leading anywhere good. But God Two words in verse 4 change everything. But. God. These may be the most dramatic pivot in all of Scripture. Everything Paul has just described, the death, the disobedience, the deserved judgment, the utter helplessness of the human condition, gets interrupted by the character and initiative of God Himself. Not because humanity earned an interruption. Not because someone finally got their act together enough to deserve a second look. But because God is rich in mercy and moved by great love. Mercy, in this context, means God withholding the punishment that the condition actually deserved. And Paul does not merely say that God is merciful. He says God is rich in mercy. Abundantly, extravagantly, overwhelmingly merciful. This is not a God who reluctantly extends grace to people who have finally cleaned themselves up enough to qualify. This is a God who looked at dead people with profound compassion and moved toward them anyway. From that mercy and love, Paul describes three movements that God makes on behalf of those who were spiritually dead. He made them alive with Christ. He raised them up. And He seated them with Christ in the heavenly realms. Each movement builds on the last. First, life is given where there was none. Then, a completely new standing is established, one that is no longer defined by the old condition. Then, a position of spiritual security and rest is granted, the ancient image of sitting beside a king and sharing in his victory. This is not a moral upgrade. This is a resurrection. The Gift That Cannot Be Earned Ephesians 2:8-9 contains perhaps the most well-known statement in the entire letter. Salvation comes by grace through faith, not as a result of human effort or achievement, so that no one has grounds for boasting. Paul is closing a door firmly. The gift cannot be purchased, earned, or deserved. The moment someone tries to pay for it, they have misunderstood what it is. There is something quietly liberating about this, and also something that requires a genuine shift in thinking. So much of the religious impulse, even among sincere believers, runs toward proving worth. God saved me, so now I must demonstrate that I was worth saving. But that framing, however well-intentioned, corrupts the gift. It turns grace into a transaction. It places the burden back on human effort and reintroduces the exhaustion that grace was meant to end. The goal of the Christian life is not to pay God back. It cannot be. The gift does not work that way. A Poem, Not a Renovation Project Verse 10 introduces a word that reframes everything. The Greek word translated as workmanship or handiwork is the word from which we derive the English word poem. Believers are described as something God has crafted, composed, and inspired, not a building project that humanity is managing, but a work that God Himself is authoring. This distinction is significant. A renovation project starts with something existing and tries to improve it. A poem starts with intention, with something the author wants to express, and builds toward that from the beginning. God is not renovating people. He is writing something. And the story He writes begins not with impressiveness, but with death, and moves through grace toward life, purpose, and good works that He himself prepared in advance. Those good works are not the means of salvation. They are its outflow. They are the evidence that something real happened, that a life once pointed in one direction has been turned and is now moving differently, participating in what God is building rather than straining to construct something on its own. The Only Question That Matters All of this lands on a single, searching question. Are you alive? Not, are you doing enough? Not, are you better than you used to be? Not, are you better than the person next to you? Simply this: have you received the life that God offers through Christ? Because if you have, then your past does not define you, your failures do not trap you, and the circumstances pressing in around you this week are not the measure of your worth or your future. You were dead. But. God. That is the whole story. And it changes everything.Request prayer

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

September 14, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

You Were Dead, But God Made You Alive

What a powerful morning we shared together as we continued our series, The House That God Built. The Word of God met us right where we are, and I pray it continues to work in you throughout this week. Takeaways: Stop trusting in your own construction. You cannot moralize, serve, attend, or perform your way into what only God can do. The invitation is not to renovate yourself but to receive what he has freely given. Salvation is a gift, and gifts are not earned. Let your past be gone. Your past may explain where you have been, but it does not get to define where you are going. Paul writes of death in the past tense and life as a present reality. You have been made alive, raised up, and seated with Christ. That is your identity today. Ask what God created you to do. You are not here simply to exist. You are saved to participate in what God is building. The good works he has prepared for you are not the means of your salvation — they are the outflow of it. Step into them this week. As you move through your week, I want to encourage you to keep this truth close: the measure of your life is not your circumstances, your failures, or your struggles. It is the life that has been breathed into you by a God who is rich in mercy. You were dead, and he made you alive. Let that reality shape everything. I am grateful to walk this journey with each of you. See you next week. Pastor Tim Dye

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

September 9, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

The House That Stands

If you walked into a city and someone told you to find the strongest building, what would you look for? Most of us would gravitate toward the tallest structure, the thickest walls, the most impressive architecture. We would follow the money, the influence, the visibility. Strength, we assume, looks like strength. But what happens when the most powerful thing in the room does not look powerful at all? That question sits at the heart of one of the most remarkable passages in the New Testament. In Ephesians 1, the apostle Paul writes to a church located in one of the most affluent and influential cities of the ancient world. Ephesus was a commerce hub, a center of wealth and political power. And towering over the city stood the Temple of Artemis, one of the ancient world's most breathtaking structures. It was the kind of monument that made people feel small. It was the kind of thing that made power look permanent. And yet Paul, writing from prison while chained to a Roman guard, does not tell the church at Ephesus to compete with any of it. He does not pray for more influence, more visibility, or a bigger platform. He prays that God would open their eyes. That distinction matters enormously. The Trap of What We Can See We are conditioned to measure reality by what is visible. We measure churches by attendance and budgets. We measure people by careers and neighborhoods. We measure our own lives by what we can control and what we can afford. None of these things are inherently wrong, but they make terrible foundations. Visible things can give the appearance of security without the substance of it. The Temple of Artemis looked permanent. Rome looked permanent. Caesar looked permanent. None of them were. This is precisely why Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:17-18 is so striking. He does not ask God to give the church more resources or more recognition. He asks that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened. He is not praying for more information. He is praying for an entirely different way of seeing. Christianity is not simply the act of receiving new information about God. It is receiving new eyes through which to interpret a new reality. You can look at the same set of circumstances and see them in completely different ways depending on where your vision is anchored. Paul was in prison. Jesus was on the throne. The church was small. Christ was filling everything. Rome looked powerful. Jesus was Lord. Same world. Entirely different vision. The Power That Cannot Be Borrowed or Threatened Paul does not stop at the prayer. He goes on to describe the power that is already available to those who belong to Christ, and the language he uses is staggering. He stacks word upon word in the original Greek to try to capture what human language can barely contain. There is dunamis, the explosive, dynamic power from which we derive the word dynamite. There is energia, a working, active power. There is kratos, strength expressed through authority. There is ischus, the raw capacity and force behind something. All of it, Paul says in Ephesians 1:19-20, is directed toward those who believe. And then he anchors it to a single, defining event. This is the same power, he writes, that raised Christ from the dead. Think about what that means. The greatest demonstration of God's power was not that he created something out of nothing. It was that he brought dead things back to life. And that same resurrection power is not theoretical. It is not dormant. It is not borrowed, and it is not threatened by anything happening in the world around us. The question that follows is deeply personal. Are there areas of your life where you have been living as though that power is unavailable to you? Places where dead thinking has settled in, where exhaustion has taken root, where you have been straining to steer your own life through sheer effort? The invitation here is to stop praying in vague, general terms and start naming things specifically. Transformation tends to happen in the specific, not the general. When we bring particular struggles, particular fears, and particular needs before God, something shifts. The Body, Not the Building Paul closes this section of Ephesians 1 with a declaration that reframes everything. God placed all things under Christ's feet and appointed him as head over everything, and then Paul identifies what that means for the church. The church, he writes in Ephesians 1:22-23, is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Not his audience. Not his customer base. Not a weekly event. His body. This is the identity that changes everything. The church is not an institution that Christ founded and left behind. It is the living expression of his presence in the world. Those who are in Christ carry that reality with them not just inside a building on a Sunday morning, but wherever they go throughout the week. And the foundation of that body is not its size, its programs, its reputation, or its leadership. The foundation is Christ himself. The house stands because he is. Everything else, every earthly construct built on something other than him, will eventually be shaken. A Question Worth Answering So here is the honest question this passage puts before us. What are you trusting right now to give you security that only Christ can give? A career, a relationship, a financial position, your own ability to manage circumstances? These things were never designed to carry that weight. And the reason so many of us are exhausted is that we are doing what only God can do. The invitation today is threefold. Repent from false foundations. Ask God to open the eyes of your heart to see what he is actually doing. And reorient your understanding of what the church is and what it is for. The only house that will ultimately stand is the one the Lord is building. And the remarkable news is that if you belong to Christ, you are already part of it.Request prayer

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

September 7, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

We Are the House That God Builds

What a powerful morning we shared together as we launched our new six-week series in the book of Ephesians. It was a reminder that what God is building among us is far greater than anything we could construct on our own. During the message we explored Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1 and what it means for the church to be the body of Christ -- the house that God builds. Drawing on the backdrop of Paul writing from prison to a small church overshadowed by the massive temple of Artemis in Ephesus, I challenged us to stop measuring God's work by what is visible and to instead ask God to open the eyes of our hearts. The same resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him above every rule, authority, power, and dominion is the very power at work in us as believers. The church is not an institution, a weekly event, or a fan club -- it is the body of Christ, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Here’s a Few Key Takeaways for Us To Remember: We must confront the trap of measuring God's house by what we can see. Visible things -- attendance, budgets, buildings, influence -- can give the appearance of strength without the substance of it. Paul's prayer was not for the church to compete with the powers around them, but for the eyes of their hearts to be opened to a different reality altogether. The power available to believers is resurrection power. It is the same power described in Ephesians 1:19-20 -- not theoretical, not dormant, not borrowed, and not threatened. God's greatest demonstration was not making something out of nothing; it was bringing dead things to life. That power is personally and specifically available to each of us who believe. The church exists because Christ is building it, not because we have built it. We are his body, and our foundation is not our programs, our reputation, or our pastor -- it is Christ himself. When we labor to fix what only God can build, we exhaust ourselves. The call is to repent from false foundations and reorient our lives around what Christ is doing through his Spirit in his body. I am grateful to walk this journey with each of you. See you next week. Pastor Tim Dye

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

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