South Creek Messages

South Creek Church of God- Kokomo, IN
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Listen to our Sunday Morning Messages below

  1. 4d ago

    The Table

    The Table: Belonging Luke 15 1-2 Pastor Aaron Perry Download Dear Church Family, This past Sunday we kicked off our new series, At the Table: What Technology Can’t Replace, and this week we named something almost all of us feel: we’ve never had more ways to connect, and we’ve rarely felt more alone. Technology used to be a room in the house. Now it’s in our pockets, on our wrists, and in our kitchens, and it’s trying to take a seat at the table. About half of American adults now use AI chatbots, and the share of Americans who say they have no close friends at all has quadrupled since 1990. We used to call our buddy Floyd when the car made a weird noise, or call Mom when the baby wouldn’t nap. Now we ask a screen first. We get faster answers, but we lose something along the way. The cost of convenience is connection. Here’s the truth underneath it: technology can give us a taste of connection, but it can’t embrace us, love us, forgive us, or make us feel a part of something. Every one of us longs to be loved, accepted, and redeemed, and only the Table Maker can give us that. Jesus doesn’t send a notification. He knocks. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20) We saw it in two stories. In Luke 15, a son who wasted everything comes home rehearsing a servant speech, and his father runs down the road, throws his arms around him, and throws a feast, because “this son of mine was dead and is alive again.” And in 2 Samuel 9, Mephibosheth, lame in both feet and hiding in a town called Lo Debar, calls himself a “dead dog,” but King David gives him a permanent seat at his table “like one of the king’s sons.” He wasn’t invited because of who he was. He was invited because of who his father was. And that’s the gospel. We don’t get a seat at Jesus’s table because of what we can earn. We get it because of who our Father is. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1) That’s also why we launched two services this week. We’re not just adding a service to fit more people in; we’re setting more places at the table. Somewhere in Kokomo, someone is in Lo Debar right now, convinced they’re too far gone. The Father is still running, and the King is still setting places. So here’s the question to carry into this week: which one do you most need right now, to be loved, accepted, or redeemed? Whatever your answer, the door is open and the table is ready. We’d love to have you with us for the rest of the series. -Pastor Aaron Perry

  2. Oct 25

    Recovery Sunday

    Recovery Sunday Chuck McCoskey Download Dear Church Family, This past Sunday we had our annual Recovery Sunday in which we heard three brave people share their stories of recovery and how Jesus has transformed their lives! A common theme in their stories were honesty, forgiveness, and hope. If you missed it, follow the link below to hear their powerful words! - Pastor Aaron Perry

  3. Oct 18

    Distortions

    Distortions: No One's Beyond Redemption Luke 19:10 Pastor Jerry Ausbrook Download Dear Church Family, This past Sunday we continued our series Distortions: Naming the Things That Keep People From the Real Jesus, and this week we looked at one of the most damaging distortions of all: the belief that some people are beyond God's grace. Using the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19, we were reminded that Jesus specializes in seeking out the people others have written off. Zacchaeus wasn't just a curious man in a tree. He was a tax collector, a cheat, and someone despised by nearly everyone around him. Yet before Zacchaeus changed anything about his life, Jesus stopped, called him by name, and chose to spend time with him. The message centered on a powerful truth: grace always comes before change. Jesus did not wait for Zacchaeus to clean up his life before extending love and friendship. Instead, it was the kindness and grace of Christ that produced genuine transformation. As followers of Jesus, we are called to do the same. We can love and accept people without approving of everything in their lives, trusting God to do the work of changing hearts. We also saw that real repentance produces real action. After encountering Jesus, Zacchaeus immediately began making things right. His generosity and restitution did not earn his salvation; they revealed that his heart had been changed. As Scripture reminds us, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and the new has come." Another important reminder from the message was that no one is beyond redemption. Jesus declared that He came "to seek and to save the lost." No matter how far someone has wandered, how many mistakes they have made, or how impossible their situation may seem, God's grace is still reaching toward them. Finally, we were challenged to see people the way Jesus sees them. While the crowd saw a label, Jesus saw a person. While others saw a sinner, Jesus saw someone worth pursuing. The same challenge remains for us today. There are "Zacchaeuses" all around us, people longing to be seen, known, and loved. May we walk through this week with eyes open to those around us, extending the grace we have received and remembering that no one is too far gone for the transforming love of Jesus. - Pastor Jerry Ausbrook

  4. Oct 11

    Distortions

    Distortions: The Problems with Power Mark 8:34-36 Pastor Aaron Perry Download Hey South Creek Family, This past Sunday we continued our series Distortions, and this week we named one of the most common ones: that Jesus is about power. Getting it, keeping it, and protecting it. It’s not hard to see where that idea comes from. Throughout history and still today, people have taken the name of Jesus and used it to hoard power for themselves. We saw it show up in three ways. In politics, Jesus gets fused to a party or a platform, from every side, and the church starts looking like one more power bloc fighting to win. In prejudice, whoever holds power gets to define what “normal” looks like and then calls it Christian, and people who don’t fit that picture conclude Jesus isn’t for them. And in protection, churches and leaders protect their reputation instead of the people who were hurt. Each of these is the exact opposite of how Jesus used his power. Here’s the truth underneath it: hoarded power harms, but power given away heals. Jesus had every chance to take power. He was offered all the kingdoms of the world and said no. He told Pilate his kingdom was not of this world. And on the night before he died, knowing the Father had put all things under his power, he got up from the table, wrapped a towel around his waist, and washed his disciples’ feet. Jesus said it himself: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”Mark 10:45 Jesus never enforced the kingdom. He embodied it. His power didn’t build up and stay in him; it flowed out of him, and people were healed. He didn’t change the world from the top down. He changed it from the inside out, through relationships, meals around tables, and a cross. And he calls us to do the same. We don’t get to make God into our image. We need to be formed into his. Most of us will never hold political office or run an institution, but every one of us has power: at home, at work, with our kids, with our money, and with our words. So, here’s the question we left with on Sunday: Where do you have power right now, and who is it serving? -Pastor Aaron Perry

  5. Oct 4

    Distortions

    Distortions: I Have to Qualify to Belong Ephesians 2:8-9 Pastor Aaron Perry Download Hey South Creek Family, This past Sunday we continued our series Distortions, and this week we named one of the most common ones: "I have to qualify to belong." Most of us know the feeling of scanning a list for our name and not finding it. Few things wound us like being left out and feeling like we're not enough, and rejection has a way of seeming to confirm our deepest fears about ourselves. As I've read through baptism stories from the past few years, the same theme kept coming up: people felt there was a checklist to faith they could never keep up with, and they were convinced everyone else could. The enemy is good at making us feel like we're the only one. But the truth is that we were all sitting in the same room, holding the same checklist, each convinced we were the only one who couldn't finish it. That distortion is dangerous. It keeps some people from ever coming to Jesus because they've decided they won't belong. It wears others out as they try harder and harder and it's never enough. And it causes us to miss the heart of the gospel, treating salvation as something to earn rather than something to enter because of what Jesus has already done. Here's the truth underneath it: over and over in Scripture, God draws near to people who don't qualify, and then He qualifies them. Jesus welcomed Zacchaeus before he changed anything, while the crowd grumbled about who deserved a seat. When the early church argued over whether outsiders had to meet a standard to get in, Peter said: "We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." (Acts 15:11) We are not called to be the gatekeepers of God's grace. In Jesus, we see a God who doesn't just send an invitation; He is the invitation: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28) Because of that grace, we talked about three intentions to integrate, not instructions to follow, that keep us out of the checklist and connected to Christ and His mission: humility, vulnerability, and hospitality. Each one frees us, and each one helps free the people around us. We closed with the tax collector in Luke 18, who had nothing to offer but "God, have mercy on me, a sinner," and went home justified. I know what it feels like to pray like that. At summer camp, singing "The Heart of Worship," I finally surrendered to Jesus and understood that grace was never about me being worthy. It was about Him being worthy, and Him making me worthy. Superiority will not save you; only surrender to Jesus will. - Pastor Aaron Perry

  6. Sep 27

    Distortions

    Distortions: Nobody Cares About My Pain Genesis 16-13 Pastor Aaron Perry Download Hey South Creek Family, This past Sunday we continued our series Distortions: Naming the Things That Keep People From the Real Jesus, and this week we named one of the most common ones: Nobody cares about my pain. Here's the truth underneath it: at our core, everyone wants to be seen, heard, and cared for. When we're not, it doesn't just wound us, it distorts how we see God. He becomes distant, mean, or not real. We talked about how, good or bad, people's experiences will often inform their outlook more than information. When someone has been let down, abandoned, or rejected by people, it can feel like they've been let down, abandoned, or rejected by God. And when it's Christians who didn't show up, that distortion only compounds. We looked at John 11, where Jesus deliberately waits two days after hearing his friend Lazarus is sick. When he arrives, Martha and then Mary each say the same thing to him: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus doesn't correct them or defend himself. He already knows he's about to raise Lazarus, and still, the shortest verse in the Bible says it all: "Jesus wept." Those tears aren't weakness. They're what his care looks like. This is the same God Hagar called "the God who sees me," and the same Jesus who cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He doesn't stand at a distance from our pain. He enters it. So what do we do with our own pain? We talked about three simple steps: name it, reframe it, and reclaim it. Your feelings are always valid, but they're not always true, and reframing isn't rewriting what happened. It's refusing to let what happened write the story of who God is. Then we invite God to reclaim it, trusting him to use even our sorrows for good so that we can be the comfort to someone else that we've received. We closed with the story of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" in the middle of a national war and his own devastating loss. His poem admits real despair, and then answers it not with an explanation, but with who God is: not dead, not asleep, and not done. That answer doesn't stay in the room. Whether you're carrying a wound from someone who didn't show up for you, or you realize you may have been that person for someone else, the real Jesus is still here, still weeping with us, and still not done. -Pastor Aaron Perry

  7. Sep 20

    Distortions

    Distortions: Christians Are Hypocrites Matthew 7:3-5 Pastor Aaron Perry Download Hey South Creek Family, This past Sunday we continued our series Distortions: Naming the Things That Keep People From the Real Jesus, and this week we named one of the most common ones: Christians are hypocrites. Here's the truth underneath it: hypocrisy is receiving grace and refusing to give it. We talked about two kinds. There's obvious hypocrisy — when we know exactly what's right and choose the opposite anyway. And there's oblivious hypocrisy, the kind we don't even see, because it's just what we've always known and no one's ever shown us otherwise. Either way, the result is the same: people are told one thing about Jesus — grace, love, mercy, a seat at the table — and then experience something else entirely from us. We looked at Mark 2, where Jesus sits down to eat with tax collectors and sinners — the very people everyone else had decided didn't belong. When the religious leaders objected, Jesus answered simply: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Jesus never ranked people by how acceptable their sin looked from the outside. We often do — and when people notice that gap, it doesn't just disappoint them, it disorients them. It makes them wonder if anything they've heard about Jesus is even true. We closed with the story of a servant who was forgiven an impossible debt and then refused to forgive someone who owed him almost nothing. The king's question is the one we are left with: "Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?" That question doesn't stay in the room. Whether you've been the one withholding grace — on purpose or without even realizing it — or you're carrying a wound from someone else's hypocrisy, the real Jesus is still at the table, still extending mercy he doesn't owe, still inviting you to come as you are. May this week you choose to remove the planks from your eyes so that you and others can see Him more clearly. -Pastor Aaron Perry

  8. Sep 13

    Distortions

    Distortions: Distortions and Doubt Mark 9:24 Pastor Aaron Perry Download Hey South Creek family, This past Sunday we kicked off a new series called Distortions: Naming the Things That Keep People From the Real Jesus. Here's the idea we'll come back to again and again over the next six weeks: A distorted picture of Jesus leads to a distorted response to Jesus. But a real encounter with the real Jesus invites us to real life. So many of us didn't meet Jesus first, we met a version of him that had already passed through other people's hands: a church, a parent, a headline, an argument online. Somewhere along the way, the message got distorted. And what we've responded to isn't always actually him. Our goal at South Creek isn't to add to that static, it's to be a community that helps people see the real Jesus. We opened the series with one of the most honest distortions there is: doubt. And we were grateful to have a guest voice, Pastor Dave Perry open it up for us. He reminded us that doubt isn't something to be ashamed of — even Abraham, Moses, Peter, and Thomas wrestled with it. As he put it, quoting Mark 9:24, our honest cry can simply be: "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief." A relationship with God matters more than having every question answered. You don't have to have it all figured out to follow Jesus — and that's an invitation, not a requirement. Over the next several weeks, we'll keep naming these distortions honestly and looking to be Jesus followers how to not add to the distortions but rather help people find and follow the real Jesus. We'd love to have you with us for the rest of the series. Come along for the ride of faith. Pastor Aaron Perry

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  • Creator
    South Creek Church of God- Kokomo, IN
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    80
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2018 South Creek Church of God
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    South Creek Messages