Arise Church with Brent Simpson

Devouring One Another | Throwing Shade | Part 3 | with Kat Cunningham

This weekend, we all did some devouring. We devoured our Thanksgiving meals. Check out some of these “devouring” Thanksgiving statistics:

 

• Around 46 million turkeys are eaten in the USA on Thanksgiving Day.

 

• Americans consume between 2,500-4,500 calories at the Thanksgiving table. (That's the equivalent of eating between four and eight Big Macs in a single sitting.)

 

• Campbell's makes 40% of its total sales of cream of mushroom soup for the year leading up to Thanksgiving — (and much of it goes into green bean casserole.)

 

• Americans consume 80 million pounds of cranberries during Thanksgiving, including 5,062,500 gallons of jellied cranberry — (enough to fill nearly eight Olympic-sized swimming pools.)

 

• Shoppers purchase nearly 214 million pounds of potatoes and 50 million pounds of sweet potatoes from US supermarkets in the weeks before Thanksgiving.

 

• People purchase nearly 19 million ready-made pies ahead of Thanksgiving.

 

Now, while we love to devour food, especially this time of year, have you ever felt devoured by someone else’s words through criticism and gossip?

 

In this message we discuss how Christ followers shouldn’t devour one another with their words, but that Christ has called His followers to build one another up.

Dealing with Difficult People | Throwing Shade | Part 2 | with Brent Simpson

A man working in the produce department was asked by a lady if she could buy half a head of lettuce. He replied, "Half a head? Are you serious? God grows these in whole heads and that's how we sell them!"

"You mean," she persisted, "that after all the years I've shopped here, you won't sell me half-a-head of lettuce?"

"Look," he said, "If you’d like, I'll ask the manager."

She indicated that would be appreciated, so the young man marched to the front of the store. "You won't believe this, but there's a lame-braided idiot of a lady back there who wants to know if she can buy half-a-head of lettuce."

He noticed the manager gesturing, and turned around to see the lady standing behind him, obviously having followed him to the front of the store.

"And this nice lady was wondering if she could buy the other half" he concluded.

This weekend at Arise we will learn how to not only speak the truth, but to speak the truth in love!

How to Handle Conflict | Throwing Shade | Part 1 | with Brent Simpson

Years ago, a large statue of Christ was erected high in the Andes on the border between Argentina and Chile. Called "Christ of the Andes," the statue symbolizes a pledge between the two countries that as long as the statue stands, there will be peace between Chile and Argentina.

 

Shortly after the statue was erected, the Chileans began to protest that they had been slighted -- the statue had its back turned to Chile. Just when tempers were at their highest in Chile, a Chilean newspaperman saved the day.

 

In an editorial that not only satisfied the people but made them laugh, he simply said, "The people of Argentina need more watching over than the Chileans.”

 

In this message we start the series "Throwing Shade" where we will learn to be peacemakers amidst our world at war!

What is Holiness? | It's the End of the World as We Know It | Part 13 | with Brent Simpson

Our family once took a road trip all the way to Canada. We drove over 3,500 miles and saw all types of amazing places along the way. Yet we ended the trip at the same familiar place we started it… our driveway! And even though the trip was amazing, we were so glad to be home!

In this message we wrap up our journey through Revelation by examining the exciting conclusion of the Bible, and we’ll discover that it ends at the same place it began…

- Pastor Brent

Who is the Antichrist? What Does 666 mean? | It's the End of the World as We Know It | Part 12

Children trick or treat all over the United States on October 31st. While they may say “trick or treat,” most of these kids thoroughly expect a treat and have no plans for a trick.

But there is coming a day when a supreme global trick will be played on the world… and yet it will appear as a treat. The antichrist will be masked in charisma, intelligence, and peace.

But when the mask comes off, he will be revealed as a nightmare from which you can’t wake up. He will demand allegiance through a mark, and anyone not accepting the mark will be hunted down and killed.

This isn’t a scary story… this is real life! And it’s coming sooner than you may think… In this message at Arise we unmask the antichrist, the mark of the beast, 666, and what it all means to you!

How We Will Overcome | It's the End of the World as We Know It | Part 11 | with Brent Simpson

Louis Pasteur’s coworker in the demonstration of what used to be called the germ theory was Dr. Felix Ruh, a Jewish doctor in Paris. The physician’s granddaughter had died of black diphtheria, and Dr. Ruh, vowing he would find out what had killed his granddaughter, locked himself in his laboratory for days. He emerged with a fierce determination to prove, with his colleague Louis Pasteur, that the germ theory was more than a theory.

The medical association had disapproved of Pasteur and had succeeded in getting him exiled, but he did not go far from Paris. He hid in the forest and erected a laboratory in which to continue his forbidden research.

Twenty beautiful horses were led out into the forest to the improvised laboratory. Scientists, doctors, and nurses came to watch the experiment. Ruh opened a steel vault and took out a large pail filled with black diphtheria germs, which he had cultured carefully for months. There were enough germs in that pail to kill everyone in France. The scientist went to each horse and swabbed its nostrils, tongue, throat, and eyes with the deadly germs. Every horse except one developed a terrific fever and died. Most of the doctors and scientists wearied of the experiment and did not remain for what they thought would be the death of the remaining horse.

For several more days this final horse lingered, lying pathetically on the ground. While Ruh, Pasteur, and several others were sleeping on cots in the stables, the orderly on duty had been instructed to awaken the scientists should there be any change in the animal’s temperature during the night. About two o’clock in the morning the temperature showed a half-degree decrease, and the orderly awakened Dr. Ruh. By morning the thermometer had dropped two more degrees. By night the fever was entirely gone, and the horse was able to stand, eat, and drink.

Then Dr. Ruh took a sledgehammer and struck that beautiful horse a deathblow between the eyes. The scientist drew all the blood from the veins of this animal that had developed the black diphtheria but had overcome it. The scientists drove as fast as they could to the municipal hospital in Paris. They forced their way past the superintendent and the guards and went into the ward where three hundred babies lay, segregated to die from black diphtheria. With the blood of the horse, they forcibly inoculated every one of the babies. All but three lived and recovered completely.

They were saved by the blood of an overcomer. You have also been saved by the blood of an overcomer! Listen to this message as we share how you can also overcome by the blood!

Worship: The Environment of Heaven | It's the End of the World as We Know It | Part 10

True worship sets our lives on fire in a way that no substitute can compare.

But what is true worship?

William Temple defined it like this: For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose -- and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.

Listen to this message discover what worship looks like in heaven!

Come Up Here: The Reality of the Spiritual Realm | It's the End of the World as We Know It | Part 9

For most of history, man did not realize that just below their natural eyesight was a hidden atomic world of cells, bacteria, and viruses. Scientists call this sensory limitation. We now know that the naked eye is not a reliable guide to all there is in the world because modern microscopes reveal a marvelous and minuscule world that remained hidden from eyesight throughout antiquity.

In Revelation, John is invited to see into the spiritual realm. He learns that a whole other world exists just past his natural eyesight. And what does he find? What is this world like? Well, that's the subject in this messages from Arise! Listen to this message for an eye opening look into the world just beyond our own!

The Divide: The Church of Laodicea | It's the End of the World as We Know It | Part 8

There’s an old, well known story of a chicken farmer who found an eagle’s egg.

He put it with his chickens and soon the egg hatched. The young eagle grew up with all the other chickens and whatever they did, the eagle did too. He thought he was a chicken, just like them.

Since the chickens could only fly for a short distance, the eagle also learnt to fly a short distance. He thought that was what he was supposed to do. So that was all that he thought he could do. As a consequence, that was all he was able to do.

One day the eagle saw a bird flying high above him. He was very impressed. “Who is that?” he asked the hens around him. “That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” the hens told him. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth, we are just chickens.”

So the eagle lived and died as a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was. In this message we learn how to break the mold of conformity and live out our greater calling!

Hold on to the Essentials: Church of Philadelphia | It's the End of the World as We Know It | Part 7

The word “essential” has become a buzzword this year. When the pandemic first began, many businesses were temporarily shut down because they were considered non-essential.

We all asked the questions:

Are fast food restaurants essential?

Are clothing stores essential? What makes this business essential, but not this one?

Am I not essential?

While we have things in our culture that we now consider essential and non-essential, God has some things that He believes should be essential in the life of every believer and church.

In this message, we continue our current series by studying the Church of Philadelphia. A church that held onto these essentials. Together, we learn what these essentials are, and how we can be the church that Christ prefers.