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September 4, 2026 • 2 Minute Read
Support She Dreams Again at Their Annual 5k!
Join us in supporting one of our ministry partners, She Dreams Again. SDA is a faith-based organization that provides safe housing, spiritual restoration, and life skills to women who have survived trauma, trafficking, exploitation, and abuse. Their 8th Annual Sprint for Survivors 5K is coming up, and there are several ways you can get involved! 📅 Saturday, September 12
🕗 Race starts at 8:00 AM
📍 Jim Simmons Trail, Marysville You can run, walk, volunteer, sponsor, or simply help spread the word. Every step and every act of support helps bring hope, healing, and restoration to survivors. Funds raised from the Event will go towards the operations of SDA’s Transitional Home. Volunteers Needed! She Dreams Again is looking for volunteers to help with registration, setup and tear-down, course support, water stations, cheering on participants, and other event-day needs. Volunteers must arrive by 7:00 AM. If you're interested in volunteering, click here to sign up:Sign up to Volunteer here! Want to participate in the 5K? Registration is also open! Invite your family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors to join you as we come together to support survivors.Sign Up to Race Here! "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." — Galatians 6:2 Let's stand together as a church and remind survivors that they are not forgotten and that they don't have to walk their journey alone.
August 22, 2026 • 5 Minute Read
Week of Prayer & Fasting - Day 7
Week of Prayer & Fasting - Day 7 | Trust Pastor Dennis Griffin "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." - Proverbs 3:5-6 Sometimes a dad tells his young son or daughter, ‘Jump, and Daddy will catch you’. It takes most kids some coaching, but they will finally take the leap of faith. They trust that daddy will catch them. And of course, he does. The dictionary definition of trust is to believe someone is good and honest, and will not harm you. The Bible definition of trust is to have a bold, confident, and sure reliance on God. The Lord wants us to trust Him. Scripture tells us that God is for us and we can trust Him. He is good and honest and will not harm you. He will catch us just as a dad catches his child. John Sammis wrote a hymn called “Trust and Obey.” The chorus of the song says, “Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Jesus had to trust and obey. Philippians 2:8 says He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even a disgraceful death on the cross. He trusted that God would raise him to life again and he would fulfill God’s purpose. My life verse that I fall back on any time I am stressed or confused, or don’t understand is Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not unto your own understanding, acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will direct your path.” So many times, I just can’t figure out with my human mind what God is doing. So I have to trust Him just as my life verse says. When I was growing up, there wasa TV show called “Father Knows Best.” After 50 years serving the Lord, I can truly say “Our heavenly father knows best.” But I will also say that the answers to my prayers or even the words the Lord speaks to me are usually not what I imagined or expected. I don’t think David imagined he would need to hide in caves and run from Saul before God’s promise to make him king came to pass. I doubt Joseph expected to be a slave and then a prisoner before God exalted him over his brothers. I am sure Abraham didn’texpect to be 100 years old before his promised son came along. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego certainly did not expect to be thrown in a fiery furnace, yet they determined to trust the Lord even if he didn’t deliver them. What is amazing is that the king saw a fourth man or what appeared to be the Son of God in the furnace with them, yet there is no indication that the three men saw the fourth man. They were trusting even though they couldn’t see anyone with them. At some point in life, every Christian will face a fiery furnace. You might be in a fiery furnace now. A fiery furnace is where you have no control, no power, no answers, no solutions. The only thing you can do is trust God. He will never leave you or forsake you. He is there in your furnace even if you don’t see him. A couple of years ago I faced a fiery furnace in a hospital in Florida. I was in the emergency room with a heart rate in the 20s. I was hooked to monitors and at one point passed out. I was transferred to another room and Susie wasn’t allowed to come for a short time. I was all alone with monitors and tubes and crying out to the Lord when all of a sudden, peace filled my heart. Nothing really changed, but I had a peace that I was going to be OK. I had peace that I could trust Him. I had peace that he was a good father and would catch me. I received a pacemaker the next day and God restored me to health. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path.” He directed my path that day. Jesus trusted God’s plan and was obedient unto death. He trusted that he would rise again and fulfill God’s plan. He trusted that his father knew best and that if he trusted, God would direct his steps as my life verse says. All of you will face situations where you need that bold, confident trust in God, the good father. You may need some coaching just like the little child at the beginning of this message. Remember your heavenly father knows best. Trust Him, take that leap of faith and JUMP!
August 21, 2026 • 6 Minute Read
Week of Prayer & Fasting - Day 6
Week of Prayer & Fasting - Day 6 | Praise & Thanksgiving Pastor Matt Mason "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." - Acts 16:25 Today as we continue through our series in believing God for ________, we are talking about praise and thanksgiving. We are talking about worshiping while we wait. We know that we’re supposed to worship God in every circumstance. We know that our praise isn’t supposed to be determined by our emotions or what we’re going through because God is always worthy of our praise, but just because we know something to be true doesn’t make it always easy. It’s a lot easier to worship God and thank Him for what He has done in the past or what He is doing currently right now as we witness God’s goodness, but am I really expected to worship God when things aren’t going well? Before The Gathering, I was a worship leader for many years going back to leading worship in my youth group as a high schooler, leading worship at my parents’ church as a young adult and becoming a worship pastor throughout college and into adulthood. I’m guessing you can imagine that through high school, college, and young adulthood you can have quite the range of emotions. Highs and lows and everything in between. There are times when life is great and it’s a joy to get to worship and lead people into a time of worship. But not every week is a great week. Sometimes you have a week when you get in a car accident and you have to figure out your finances. Sometimes you deal with drama among friends. Sometimes you go through breakups or not loving working at Taco Bell (hard to believe, I know). And yet, every week, Sunday comes around and you have to be ready to get up there and lead people in worship and you’re struggling on the inside. It can cause you to feel fake. Why am I up here when my life feels off right now? How can I encourage people to sing and lift their hands when I feel discouraged? Talk about imposter syndrome, right? Thank goodness I never feel that way now when I preach (please read that sentence with the sarcasm it is intended to have). It took me a while to realize that when I worship, whether I’m off or on the stage, I’m not attempting to hide everything that is happening in my life or pretending like I have everything together and therefore I can worship God and lead others. Instead, I am choosing to worship God and trust Him despite the fact that life isn’t perfect. I can acknowledge I’m not in the best place or situation in my life and choose to worship anyway. This isn’t being fake. It’s choosing to have faith and worship anyway and believe that God is going to turn things around and that my life as it stands now is not a permanent situation. I’m worshipping because I choose to continue to believe God is going to move despite my current feelings or problems. When I think of people who didn’t have a reason to sing, I think about Paul and Silas in Acts 16. It’s a very casual story of two men heading to a prayer service and along the way they run into a girl who is demon-possessed and follows them around everywhere crying out that they are servants of the Most High God. This girl continues to yell for days following them around until Paul gets annoyed (you would be too) and casts the demon out of her. The owners of the servant girl get angry because they were making money on this situation and now the girl is no longer lucrative because Paul took her fortune telling abilities away. So, these men grab Paul and Silas and take them to city hall to accuse them of disturbing the peace of the city. So, Paul and Silas go from heading to a prayer service to getting beaten with many blows by rods, thrown in prison, and hung up in the stocks. What would you do in this situation? You did nothing wrong. You were headed to a prayer service for crying out loud! You were going to go pray to God, and you’re beaten up and thrown in prison? No way would I want to shout, “I raise a hallelujah!” or sing “Your goodness is running after...it’s running after me!” But what did Paul and Silas do? Acts 16:25 - About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them Paul and Silas weren’t ignoring the reality of the situation. They couldn’t hide the fact that things weren’t going well, but yet they praise anyway and the prisoners listened to their continued devotion to God. When we worship in difficult times and worship when we’re still waiting and believing God for something, it’s one of the great sacrifices that we can make and worship is a sacrifice. Think about a demonstration of your love to someone, you are willing to make sacrifices for someone that you love. Are you willing to sacrifice your time, energy, and passion to worship God when things are difficult? That’s what Paul and Silas did, and God honored their sacrifice because the next verse tells us that suddenly there was a great earthquake that caused the foundations of the prison to shake, and all doors were opened and all chains were broken. I want to challenge you today as you are believing God for ________ to take the time now to worship Him in the middle of the waiting, the hurt, and disappointment. I thought I would give you a song suggestion to listen to that talks about what happens when we wait on God and believe in Him. Hope this helps you wait and believe that He will renew your strength.Listen Here!
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