It’s the most wonderful time of the year, or so the old Christmas song goes. Yet it doesn’t always feel that way—the hectic holiday schedule, financial concerns, family pressures, and emotional wounds are just a few reasons. But the Christmas season offers a unique opportunity to look backward at the coming of our Lord and Savior, but also forward to the goals we want to accomplish in 2016.  Those goals: Be more like Christ in 2016, than I was in 2015; study and apply His word to my life; and serve according to His will. 

What is forgiveness? A definition for forgiveness could be — giving up my right to hurt you, for hurting me. It is impossible to live for any length of time without getting hurt, offended, misunderstood, lied to, and rejected. Learning how to respond is one of the basics of the Christian life. The word “forgive” means to wipe the slate clean, to pardon, to cancel a debt. It is important to remember that forgiveness is not granted because a person deserves to be forgiven. Instead, it is an act of love, mercy, and grace.

Life is tough enough and filled with enough problems without dragging past ones into it. So, we have to let go of past problems if we are to find peace. No matter how much you dwell on, or stress or grieve about the past, you cannot change it. So you have to accept what can’t be changed and focus on what’s ahead, not on what’s behind and lost.

The message of Christmas is a message of peace, not political peace or social peace, but spiritual peace–peace with God. The Christmas birth set in motion the sacrificial life of Jesus that would culminate in His death on the cross. As Isaiah 53:5 says, “… the punishment that brought us peace was on him.”  We have peace with God in our life because the God of Heaven became flesh and took the punishment we deserve, to give us a salvation we do not deserve. God’s favor–God’s grace and peace rests on each of us because of Jesus. 

What is a belief? The dictionary defines it as: 1: a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing; 2: conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence. But what does it mean to believe? Some common idioms include: “I will believe it when I see it with my own eyes.” Or  “I can’t believe it!” Or “I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was four.” It doesn’t happen easily, but when people start believing amazing things happen. Former Bear coach Mike Ditka said that “ before you can win, you gotta believe. And once we started believing in each other, suddenly the chemistry hit and ‘boom’ good things started to happen.” Likewise, when Christians believe, and when the belief motivates them to take action,  good things will happen and God will be glorified. 

“I have set the LORD always before me…” ( Psalm 16:8) This was David’s way of describing his daily practice of putting the Lord first in everything. David’s works, words, thoughts and purpose were to be guided by the Lord. Everything in life was to be done according to God’s will and for His honor. David was conscious of the moment by moment presence of God. It’s another way of saying, “I’m going to live my life knowing that the Lord is always with me.” The bottom line from Sunday’s message was this: Enjoy God’s presence through God’s presents. Or in other words enjoy God’s presents through the things He gives us as demonstration of His love. 

One of the things I say so often is that our way doesn’t work, God’s way does. Psalms 128:1 says, “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways.” I know this may sound very basic, but the reality is, it is a very profound truth that is relevant to each of us no matter what stage of our walk with God we are in. The key is to stop “doing it my way” and start doing it God’s way. 

God is in the multiplication business. Not only can He make something out of nothing, God can take a little and turn it into a lot. In Luke 9:10-17, God took five tiny loaves of bread and two fishes, multiplied them and fed a crowd of 5000. It is lesson in duplication, one that has application in our lives. Matthew 25:29 tells us, “For the man who uses well what he is given shall be given more, and he shall have abundance. But from the man who is unfaithful, even what little responsibility he has shall be taken from him.”

There are so many things that clamor for our attention and devotion: our jobs, our kids, our spouses, our hobbies—the demands and distractions of life. And we have to be careful not to let them become more important or more of a priority than our relationship with God. The key to having God’s “abundant life”—His love, peace and joy—is keeping Him in His rightful place in our priorities. Sometimes it’s good when things don’t add up. It is keeping God first in our lives. When God is in the equation, we can end up with a lot more than we expected. In “Multiply”, we learn what happens when we put God first in our lives

The secret of a lasting marriage is summed up in one word: commitment.  Not romance. Commitment. It takes far more than romantic feelings to make a marriage last simply because there are times that we or our spouse are not very romantic. There are days when you will be on the mountain top and marriage is all that you hoped it would be. But then there will be days when you are between mountain tops in the valley. Suddenly things are not all that you hoped they would be. Real commitment can and will get you through the days in the valley. But it is not that easy. Most married couples claim to be committed, but do we truly grasp or fully understand the concept? It is a concept that culture has used, abused and improperly modeled for so long that it is easy to lose sight of what genuine commitment looks and acts like. Which is why we concluded the Unforgettable Love series on this subject.

Marriage is a combination of two uniquely individual people. A godly marriage does not happen by chance. To enrich and deepen the relationship takes a lot of hard work. Couples may stay together for the rest of their lives because of the commitment, but may never experience God’s design to be one unless they are totally committed to the marriage. Keep the chemistry with your spouse alive. Be committed to keeping your relationship fresh. Keeping your marriage strong, vibrant and fresh isn’t always easy. But if you put in the time and effort, you’ll discover how truly amazing your marriage can be if we simply feed the fires.

The Prophet Amos asked, “How can two walk together unless they agree?” (Amos 3:3) The obvious answer is, they cannot. Conflict in marriage is inevitable, so the ability to resolve conflict in a way that produces agreement between husband and wife is critical to the success of the marriage. When a couple takes time to review where they’ve come from, where they are, and come to agreement on any conflict, they are able to make tremendous strides in their relationship and in life. This week’s message was on how couples can unplug conflicts and how to plug into God’s plan for marriage. 

When you read the Song of Solomon you think warm fire, Marvin Gaye playing in the background and the woman or man of your dreams silhouetted in the fire. Song of Solomon is the story of a young man and woman who fall in love in the springtime and sing each other songs about their feelings and desires. It is at times both steamy and at times pretty mushy. This book touches on relationships, and romance, and sex. But, at the end of the day it teaches us about love. In week 3 we are looking at sex and intimacy.

We are all attracted to something. What does God's Word have to say about attraction? How can applying Biblical principles to our views of attraction revolutionize every relationship in our lives? Listen in this week as Senior Pastor, Marty Martin, answers these questions and more! 

Are we living in the last days? That is the question that countless numbers of people are asking. Comparing todays news headlines, with ancient Biblical prophecies, would seem to point us to a resounding YES to that question. The real question should be, "What are we doing with our last days?". The truth of the matter is, we are all living out our last days. Some have thousands of days left, others have hundreds, and some have just a few. The truth is, we aren't promised tomorrow, so what are we doing with today? Join us a Pastor Marty unpacks this and more! 

Whether it's a relative, co-worker or an acquaintance, we've all met people who are difficult to deal with. So, how do we take the high road rather than get trapped in a foolish argument? Join us as we learn from God's Word how to deal with difficult people.

What causes you stress? Confrontations, your job, parenting, money problems, pace of life, your marriage? Join us as we learn how to keep from stressing out!

Anger, handled in the right way and at the right time, can be a good thing. However, we all know of times when uncontrolled anger has pushed us and others to do things we later regret. Join us as we dive into history and learn, along with Moses, the high price of a hot head. 

There are some exciting times approaching here at Northstar! We hope that you are encouraged as you hear of this exciting news! God has shown the way and given us a clear path for the future of Northstar. It is now Our Move...

Why is baptism such a big deal? Why should it be important to me? Is it actually relevant for today? 

Join us this week as Guy Strickland, Pastor of our Panama City Campus, answers these questions and more! 

When & Why I’m Convinced, Compelled, and Committed to running the bases backwards.

My Purpose is In My Creator, Not My Career

Join us this week as Marty shares with us the source of victory to win within. 

It's easy to stand in faith when everything is going well. It's the trials we go through and the tough situations we face that make it difficult to stand. Join us this week as Roy shares with us how we can stand strong, no matter the difficulties we may be facing. 

We all have situations in our lives that we can't control. Many times, those situations lead us to pray and lean on our faith in God and His ability to change the situation. What do we do when our prayers do not seem to change anything? What can we cling to when our faith begins to turn to doubt? Join us this week as Marty teaches us a powerful lesson from the life of Daniel on learning to have hope when it seems that all hope is lost.

In this four-week series, learn about Daniel and five important points in his life when he stood for God. Covering everything from him being first captured as a boy to the lion’s den to the fiery furnace, we’ll see Daniel and his friends Stand Up, Stand Strong, Stand In, and Stand Firm for God. 

Relationships are a vital part of our lives. When we experience relational conflict with our friends, co-workers, college friends, children, parents, siblings or that someone special it always makes life more difficult. None of us want to experience relational pain; we want our relationships to bring us joy and fulfillment. However, we all know that conflict and pain are inevitable. We each can identify places where we have SABOTAGED our relationships, sometimes we may not even be aware of how it happened. Join us at Northstar in February as we explore how to overcome behaviors that undermine love, and relationships that matter to us. We think it’s time that we start living with relationships and love that is free from SABOTAGE.

Relationships are a vital part of our lives. When we experience relational conflict with our friends, co-workers, college friends, children, parents, siblings or that someone special it always makes life more difficult. None of us want to experience relational pain; we want our relationships to bring us joy and fulfillment. However, we all know that conflict and pain are inevitable. We each can identify places where we have SABOTAGED our relationships, sometimes we may not even be aware of how it happened. Join us at Northstar in February as we explore how to overcome behaviors that undermine love, and relationships that matter to us. We think it’s time that we start living with relationships and love that is free from SABOTAGE.

Relationships are a vital part of our lives. When we experience relational conflict with our friends, co-workers, college friends, children, parents, siblings or that someone special it always makes life more difficult. None of us want to experience relational pain; we want our relationships to bring us joy and fulfillment. However, we all know that conflict and pain are inevitable. We each can identify places where we have SABOTAGED our relationships, sometimes we may not even be aware of how it happened. Join us at Northstar in February as we explore how to overcome behaviors that undermine love, and relationships that matter to us. We think it’s time that we start living with relationships and love that is free from SABOTAGE.

Sabotage - Overcoming the behaviors that undermine love. 

We often want to see big changes in our lives. Too often, we miss and over look the small changes and adjustments that can be made to see those big changes. Join us in this series, "Small Things, Big Difference" as Pastor Marty uncovers the often overlooked small things we could do to make a BIG difference in our lives!