Lessons We Are Learning in Isolation: Fighting Battles with Peace

On Sunday, August 2, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice and Pastor Kim Nowlin share a conversation on YouTube Live. They continue their discussion about the armor of God, focusing this week on the gospel of peace. The passage encourages us to wear peace as footwear, bringing with us God’s message of peace that comes through Christ.

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
Ephesians 6:11-15 (NIV)

Lessons We Are Learning in Isolation: Guard Your Heart

On Sunday, July 26, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice and Pastor Kim Nowlin share a conversation on YouTube Live. They continue their discussion about the armor of God, focusing this week on the breastplate of righteousness. As the breastplate protects our hearts, we must be mindful of how our heart can be affected if we don’t properly utilize this part of God’s protection for us.


Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.
Ephesians 6:11-14 (NIV)

Lessons We Are Learning in Isolation: The Lies We Believe

On Sunday, July 19, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice and Pastor Kim Nowlin share a conversation on YouTube Live. They explore the lies that our flesh, the world, and Satan use against us and give practical tips to embracing God’s truth concerting us and how to walk in it.


Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.
Ephesians 6:10-14 (NASB)

Lessons We Are Learning in Isolation: Where Are You Vulnerable?

On Sunday, July 12, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice and Pastor Kim Nowlin share a conversation on YouTube Live. They discuss ways to stay connected with God and how to formulate a plan to disarm Satan’s advances in our lives.


Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
Ephesians 6:10-13 (NASB)

Lessons We Are Learning in Isolation: Get Above It All

On Sunday, July 5, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice shared a conversation on YouTube Live. Pastor Stuart encouraged us to use this time during the pandemic of 2020 to draw closer to God and make sure Jesus is the center of our lives.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV)

Lessons We Are Learning in Isolation: A Prayer for Today

On Sunday, June 28, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice and Pastor Kim Nowlin share a conversation on YouTube Live. This conversation is based on the Apostle Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church. Stuart and Kim encourage us to receive God’s strength in our spirit, remember that Christ is our foundation, and tap into the vastness of God’s love in order to love others.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19 (NIV) 


Lessons We Are Learning in Isolation: Getting a Spirit that Destroys Division

On Sunday, June 21, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice and Pastor Kim Nowlin share a conversation on YouTube Live. They explore how when we choose love first it changes us so that our heart is for unity instead of division.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:7-12 (NIV)

Lessons We Are Learning in Isolation: Finding Spiritual Unity in the Midst of Natural Division

On Sunday, June 14, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice and Pastor Kim Nowlin share a conversation on YouTube Live. They invite us to consider an others-centered perspective as a way to share God’s love during difficult and divisive times.

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Philippians 2:1-4 (NIV) 

Lessons We Are Learning in Isolation: Seeing Clearly in Times of Crisis

On Sunday, June 7, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice and Pastor Kim Nowlin share a conversation on YouTube Live. They encourage us to take stock of our lives and see if there is anything we need to lay aside in order to see clearly in order to live a life of integrity.

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Colossians 3:8-12 (NIV)

Discerning God's Calling in Challenging Times, Part 7

On Sunday, May 31, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They encourage us that gracious and kind responses can turn a situation for the good.

So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they seized the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb . They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.
Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, “Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian? ” And they challenged him vigorously.
But he answered them, “What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren’t the gleanings of Ephraim’s grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer? God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?” At this, their resentment against him subsided.
Judges 7:24 - 8:3 (NIV)

Discerning God's Calling in Challenging Times, Part 6

On Sunday, May 24, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They encourage us to trust the Lord for strength and to stand in that strength as God works out our victory.

He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.” Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.
“Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’”
Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.
When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.

Judges 7:15-22 (NIV)

Discerning God's Calling in Challenging Times, Part 5

On Sunday, May 17, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They encourage us to trust the Lord for provision in what God is asking us to do.

Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon ) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead. ’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.
Judges 7:1-8 (NIV)

Discerning God's Calling in Challenging Times, Part 4

On Sunday, May 10, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They discuss seeking guidance from the Lord in its different forms.

Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.
Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.
Judges 6:33-40 (NIV)

Discerning God's Calling in Challenging Times, Part 3

On Sunday, May 3, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They discuss the importance of laying down things that we hold up as idols and instead build up an altar to the Lord.

And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means “the Lord is peace”). The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day. That night the Lord said to Gideon, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one that is seven years old. Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. Then build an altar to the Lord your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down.” So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town.
Judges 6:24-27, NLT

Discerning God's Calling in Challenging Times, Part 2

On Sunday, April 26, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They share with us how to hear from the Lord and encourage us to step out in faith according to what we have heard from the Lord.

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
The Lord answered, “I will be with you , and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”
And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”
Judges 6:12-18 (NIV)

Discerning God's Calling in Challenging Times

On Sunday, April 19, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They encouraged us to recall how God has called and empowered us to walk in that calling.

The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. ” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
Judges 6:11-14 (NIV)

Following Jesus Through the Darkness

On Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They shared an encouragement to continue to seek Jesus, even while it’s still dark.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered his words.
Luke 24:1-8 (NIV)

Real Peace Now

On Sunday, April 5, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They shared the encouragement to remember that the Lord is near and that in God’s presence there is peace.

The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:5b-7 (NIV)

Defeating the Spirit of Oppression

On Sunday, March 29, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They shared encouragements about defeating the spirit of oppression.

Delight yourselves in God, yes, find your joy in him at all times. Have a reputation for gentleness, and never forget the nearness of your Lord. Don’t worry over anything whatever; tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer, and the peace of God which transcends human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus. Here is a last piece of advice. If you believe in goodness and if you value the approval of God, fix your minds on the things which are holy and right and pure and beautiful and good.
Philippians 4:4-9 (PHILLIPS)

Allowing Crisis to Shape Us and Promote Growth

On Sunday, March 22, 2020, Pastor Stuart Nice hosted a conversation on YouTube Live with Pastor Kim Nowlin and Grant Teagarden. They discussed how difficult times can shape us and help us grow.