There’s a Place For You Here

Do you have a God-given talent and love for music?  Join our dynamic adult music ministry team,  United Voices of Praise,  in presenting the glorious message of our Lord Jesus in song!  Be prepared to use your talents to glorify the King through the praise and worship ministry at Cross Pointe as an instrumentalist or vocalist.   Plan to be a part of a dynamic, high-impact musical service.  There is a place for you at Cross Pointe; come join us!

Being a part of our church family is so much more than finding a place to be served and fed. Fellowship at Cross Pointe involves finding a place to be of service to others, and to share the gospel of Christ with the lost.   We find our greatest calling is in service to others; leading a lost world to Christ and making disciples of those who trust Him as Lord and Savior.

We encourage you to find a point of ministry at Cross Pointe; to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our community.  There’s a place for you.  Come and join with us in the work of reaching a lost world for Jesus.  Together we can make a difference in the lives of others.

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Have You Come To Yourself Yet?

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!" – Luke 15:17 (NKJV)

My brothers & sisters in Christ, the story of the Prodigal Son is one of the more popular parables and describes us all, as children of God.

So often we are all unfaithful children of our benevolent God. We all have squandered the abundant
inheritance he so graciously has given to us. And we all —at one time or another— have known what it is to finally “come to ourselves”.

Sin is insanity. It is an unreasoning, illogical, self-destructive way of life. It ignores the plain hand of our heavenly Father and follows after the hallucination of worldly pleasures and fulfillment. But we do it anyways. We curse another drive who has cut us off. We envy our neighbor's new promotion at work. We desire a colleague or friend. Then we sin some more to try and obtain those self-destructing goals.

But when we finally come to ourselves, when we see the light, (often times it takes a smack to the back of the head so-to-speak), we realize that starving out in the pigpen is not what our Father planned for us. We are the God’s children! No one in his house is hungry or wanting, and yet here we are in the mud pit of sin because we walked away from the house of our Father. When we finally come to our senses, we finally come back to him. We take the long walk back home to His loving heart. We give up the miserable quest for self-gratification and begin to seek the abundant life that is found in God alone. We come back humbled by his ever-lasting love and forgiveness.

Have you come to yourself yet? Have you turned your feet back to the Father? If so, know that there is always a warm welcome for those who come to God by his Son Jesus Christ.

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Pray, It Makes a Difference

Confess your trespasses[a] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. – James 5:16 (NKJV)

After pondering the perfect sovereignty of God, many have asked the question “Why should I even bother praying then? If God is always going to do his will, and his will is always perfect, then why should we ever pray?”

The answer, it is important to recognize, comes from the same God who tells us that he “works all things after the counsel of his own will.” This very same God informs us that effectual, fervent prayer on the part of his people avails — not just a little bit, or for a little while, but much!

How can this be? How can an immutable, all-knowing, eternal God listen to our prayers and allow them to influence the outcome of events great and small? Frankly, we may never know or understand. But this we do know: God tells us that our prayers make a tremendous impact.

So then, how should you respond to temptation or trial? Pray. What should you do on behalf of sick, or wayward, or feeble loved ones? Pray. What is your responsibility toward those that have authority over you? Pray for them. How can you make a difference in the world around you? Pray.

The hard work of sincere and fervent prayer gains much ground, does great good, God says. Do you believe him? Do you pray like it makes a difference?

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What We Believe at Cross Pointe Baptist Church

1. We believe in one God, maker of heaven and earth, and eternally existent as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

2. We believe the Bible, composed of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, is God’s inspired and infallible Word. It is inerrant and is the authority for conduct, belief, and practice.

3. We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His death on the cross; that He rose bodily from the grave, ascended into heaven, and will return to earth in power and glory.  And, that through His substitutionary death on the cross, His shed blood for mankind has paid for the sins of the world.

4. We believe in the deity of the Holy Spirit, that His present work is to reveal Jesus Christ to people, to regenerate those who believe, and that He indwells Christians to mediate the life of Jesus Christ in them.

5. We believe people were created in the image of God. Through Adam all people obtained a sin nature which produces sin. Because of sin, all people in their natural condition are separated from God and are under the wrath and condemnation of God.

6. We believe people may be saved from the wrath of God, be forgiven of sin, be justified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and be reconciled to God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are eternally secure in Him. This salvation is a free gift of God’s grace to all who believe.

7. We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and lost: they that are saved to the resurrection of life in Heaven, and they that are lost to the resurrection of damnation in Hell.

8. We believe in the spiritual unity of all believers in Christ. We believe the church, as a local body, was commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to make disciples of all nations. We believe the two ordinances of the church are baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper; they are representations of the Lord’s death and resurrection for the believer.

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Think of where we'd be without the Lord?

Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. James 5:11 (NKJV)

There has been a time when we question if the light at the end of the tunnel will ever be visible. Will the pile ever get smaller? Will the worries ever stop? When will the Lord show up? Allow me to tell you a story of an acquaintance.

A young man had been married for 15 years, but his marriage wasn't what it used to be. They had grown distant and cold to one another. "Going through the motions" was putting it lightly. If there had been an opportunity to sleep in separate bedrooms they would have. How much could he endure?

Emails left open and phone bills increasing in price led to the inevitable... an affair was occurring. How much could he endure?

Their ten year-old just diagnosed with something they felt all along: Autism. Slowly tearing their family further apart. How much could they endure?

Flustered and frustrated with life, his wife missed an important meeting a client. She showed up on Monday to discover that she had been let go because the company missed a six figure deal. How much could she endure?

But we know the Lord walks with us all the time. Think of where we'd be without the Lord? We can endure. It may not be the happy ending in storybooks we want, but we will be given another day to endure by the Father.

Job, as he was enduring the pain and sorrow of his lengthy ordeal, felt as if he had been utterly forsaken by God. But the example of Job should remind us that even when grief or turmoil hide the face of God from us, he is still working tenderly toward our sanctification and glory.

For this reason, James declares, we count them happy which endure. Those who steadfastly endure the trials God sends their way are, in the end, the most blessed people on earth. Their lives have brought glory to God, their testimony has pointed to eternity, and their faithfulness has reminded us of God’s goodness.

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Nor Shall The Flame Scorch You

When Times Are Tough

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you. Isaiah 43:2 (NKJV)

I pray brothers and sisters that your life is going just as the Lord has planned AND that you are free of any trials or perils. But perhaps you are experiencing the drowning, crushing, burning power of a trial right now. Perhaps you are just overcoming one or for whatever circumstances you know of one coming. If so, then you need to know, first of all, that this is part of life.

I recently was told a story about a young girl whose mother had just passed. It was unexpected, unplanned, and devastating to say the least. Where was the hope for this little girl? Where was God for her? What great sin had she committed to be punished by God like this? She had not!

No matter who you are, or where you come from, or what decisions you make in life, you will face illness and pain and loss. No human lives forever and no one is perfect. Sickness and mistakes are part of the human experience. Embedded in the promise of this text is the reality of suffering: when you pass through the waters, when you walk through the fire. God’s children are not exempted from tragedy.

This is not bleak, this is God's plan for us. But there is hope friends. When you do face life’s difficulties, here is the promise for every child of God: He will be with you, the trials will not overcome you, and you will not be harmed.

For this reason, you need not fear no matter what obstacle or heartache you may be facing. “Fear not,” God says, “for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine” (43:1). He knows exactly what is going with your situation and has already dedicated himself to YOUR salvation; you belong to his heart, and therefore will not let anything or anyone harm you.

If you have given yourself to Christ then you have been redeemed by God and he will not let anything happen to you that is not for your good (Romans 8:28). No difficulty will drown you, no trial will overwhelm you, no sorrow will destroy you. It is this knowledge that we take into our darkest times.

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And Joseph Came In To Them In The Morning...

And Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad. Genesis 40:6 (NKJV)

Let's think about this: how unlikely was it that Joseph would notice the sadness of his cellmates? He had plenty of problems himself, without taking on any more. His brothers had sold him into slavery and then his boss had fired and imprisoned him on false charges. Yet, Joseph noticed and cared about others.

Brothers and sisters, there is hope and the quickest way out of a dark pit of discouragement is to think of and serve others. The surest way to deepen your dark times is to draw into, and think more about, yourself. Joseph is perhaps the best example in the Old Testament of a selfless, servant-spirited saint and it is no coincidence that, in every situation in which he found himself, he continually rose above his trial and glorified God.

The old saying of walking a mile in someone eles's shoes most certainly applies. How often on social media do we see a heartwarming video of someone overcoming a deficit or tribulation? People post or comment on how "lucky" they are to not be in the same situation. So let us be thankful for what we have including our dark and difficult times. The Lord is teaching us something even though we might not see it right away. Reach out a hand to your neighbor; help a stranger; forgive a debt or friend.

Are you going through difficult times? Have others wronged you? What has been your response? Do you think of others and how to help them, or only about yourself and your own problems? Look around you: there is a world of opportunities to help, and they are all open doors that lead out of your darkness. Helping others through the darkness will bring you to the light as the Lord intended.

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Hebrews 11:7 (NKJV)

 

By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household... – Hebrews 11:7 (NKJV)

We all have a lesson to learn from Noah, whether we are fathers, husbands, brothers, or sons. Noah trusted God, believed his warnings, and obeyed his commands… as a result, he was able to save his entire family from the destruction of the worldwide flood that came as promised.

Notice that Noah was warned by God, but he was warned about things that he, himself, had not yet witnessed — he was warned “of things not seen as yet.” This is where faith comes in. When we are able to trust what God has told us in his Word—even when it contradicts what everyone around us is proclaiming or what our own experience has been thus far — it is then that we are able to truly walk by faith.

What about you? When you look at the many instructions and warnings in God’s Word, do you believe him and act accordingly or do you ignore his Word and keep on walking in your own way? Husbands, are you loving your wives sacrificially? Fathers, are you nurturing your children in the Lord? Children (of any age), are you honoring your parents?

Those who listen to God’s Word and obey it by faith prepare for the destruction and judgment that are coming upon this world. As a result, those around them are positively affected, being influenced by the faith that they see.

May you, like Noah, be moved by a healthy fear of God to a determined, faithful preparation of your own life and your own house, in obedience to his Word.

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