Escalate Sermon Blog & Connection Point Questions

Maintaining a right perspective all of the time can be a very difficult thing to do. There are many different things that can cause us to loose a right perspective. Excitement, fear, and stress are just a few things among many that can cause us to think and behave differently. But maintaining a right perspective is important in life. It's important that we see things a...

The generation of Israelites that came out of the wilderness and into the Promise Land was (at least for a time) an extraordinary generation. While we often think of the Israelites in the OT as a disobedient and idolatrous people, this generation, as we have seen over the last few weeks and will continue to see this week was exceptional in the way they believed and follow...

Have you ever watched one of those big award ceremonies on television like the Oscars or the Grammys? Do you ever get the feeling that the individuals who win the awards are just thanking others out of a sense of obligation? Do you think that they spend time throughout the course of a regular day thinking about those individuals and the difference that they have made in ...

Have you ever had someone around you whose very presence created a new reality for you? Perhaps you knew someone who was able to get you backstage at a concert or on the playing field of an NFL football game. Most of us will never have an opportunity to do something cool like that because most of us don't know someone who works for an NFL team or who is a member of a ver...

Over the last two weeks we emphasized the importance of the God-appointed shepherd over the Israelites in the OT. We spent time talking about what the God-appointed shepherd was to do and be for God's people. We also talked about how Jesus fulfilled those same things as the 'Good' Shepherd for God's people today. This week we will see what exactly a God-appointed shephe...

Joshua 1:1-9 is one of the most well known passages in the OT. Verse 9 is one of those verses many of us memorize and do our best to apply to our lives. But I wonder sometimes if we miss some of the bigger points of the text? While Joshua 1:1-9 has some encouraging exhortations, God's plan and God's call in the text have HUGE gospel implications. While we often read th...

It's not hard to look around our community and find jobs that are incredibly important. But on some occasions we encounter jobs that make us wonder, "Is that job really necessary?" One job position that comes into existence with Moses is the role of 'shepherd' for God's people. It was a position that God-appointed Moses to and a position that God has continued to appoin...

We all know that bad habits are hard to break. And the earlier we can make good habits a regular part of our daily living, the more likely we are to continue in those healthy habits. On of the things many of us begin to practice early on is the habit of following our own hearts and our own desires. Unfortunately, those are bad habits that often lead us away from followi...

Does God call Christians to be pacifists? Certainly the Bible says that we are to love others (including our enemies), to forgive, and to show compassion and mercy. But I would also argue that the Bible teaches that there is a time to fight. The question is, when are we to fight and what are we to fight for? Jude takes on that question and in his letter and helps us to mak...

Does God call Christians to be pacifists? Certainly the Bible says that we are to love others (including our enemies), to forgive, and to show compassion and mercy. But I would also argue that the Bible teaches that there is a time to fight. The question is, when are we to fight and what are we to fight for? Jude takes on that question and in his letter and helps us to...