Series:  Lent

Title: Palm Sunday

The Lenten plot thickens as we come to Palm Sunday. The Trinity’s self-emptying love moves yet again from a place of power toward a place of chosen powerlessness. Jesus knew his place; he knew his calling. Let’s gather and learn from his familiar story, and may a new look form and transform us.

Series:  Easter

Title: The Throne, The Child, and The Dragon

In Revelation 12, John the Revelator sees this intense struggle between death and life. Death desperately seeks to devour life, but God’s ultimate weapon is Resurrection.  Jesus’ rising from the dead is a moment of pure apocalypse where Jesus’ life (and not just His death) reveals the ultimate meaning of life.  Join us for a different kind of Easter story in a sermon called: The Throne, The Child, and The Dragon.

Series:  Lent

Title: Thinking about God

The thing about us is that we like information. We like it a lot - more so than probably any other culture that has ever existed on the face of the earth.  And the modern world has conditioned us to think about everything - maybe to think too much. This whole modern condition has certainly in uenced our approach to God.  We’ve been trained to think about God. We try and connect with God through our thinking. And often we end up approaching God merely with our brains instead of our bodies.  Our own homemade form of Dualism or Gnosticism is when we elevate our thoughts and ideas about God over the raw experience of Him in daily life.  The danger is that we may know about God without really knowing God.  Plan to be with us as we nish out our Lenten series with a study called - Thinking about God

Series:  Lent

Title: Blame it on the Alcohol

Religion often thrives on attacking the natural pleasures of life and has frequently set its sites on wine and alcohol. Jesus turned water into wine some 2000 years ago, and it is often said that the church has been trying to change it back ever since. We tend to presume that rules and regulations are the antidote to the ills of society, but again and again the guilt, fear, and manipulation have simply caused sin to increase. The real problem is when our focus is on prohibitions (what to eat, what to drink, what

to wear) and the gospel of Christ quickly shifts from good news into personal sin management and religious moralisms. In rejecting the good gifts of creation, we may unknowingly dishonor the Creator himself. Is wine a gift of God to cheer our hearts? Plan to be with us as we explore this question in a study called - “Blame it on the Alcohol.”

Series:  Lent

Title: Money Talk$

We have been examining the importance of our material world and the pleasure and delights that it a ords us. Money is a material world commodity that plays a massive role in our lives. This area that we spend so much time thinking about is not often integrated with our spirituality. Why do we so often create a division in our mind between greenbacks and God stu ? What if instead we saw ourselves as “resource centers” for the kingdom? We want to try and navigate the ditches on either side of the road-to demonize money or to worship it. When we know that the heart of God is for us we can begin to participate in His self-giving nature. Plan to be with us as we explore the goodness of money in a study called- Money Talk$.

Series:  Lent

Title: It's a Material World (Part 2)

Where does this idea of separation from God come from? What worldviews and paradigms have in uenced the church through the centuries? Why do the New Testament writers go out of their way to emphasize that Jesus came in the esh? What did the early church mean when they said, “The unassumed is the unredeemed?”Why do so many people see the Bible as a rulebook squashing all the fun? How would it change things if we could see the Bible as a pleasure manual? What if the teachings in the Scriptures were all about enhancing our delight? What if the guidelines in Scriptures could be seen as recipes for a fully human life? We want to explore what Paul (and others in the New Testament) saw: from our identity ows our actions. Plan to be with us as we look at: It’s a Material World (Part 2).

Title: Living Between Two Worlds

This week we considered what it’s like to live Between Two Worlds. We will look at Peter’s life and the challenges he faced as he learned to understand the full extent of the Good News of Jesus Christ, and how he frequently had to allow his religious preconceptions to be altered in order to fully grasp just how wide and big and deep the love of God for all humanity really is.

Series:  Lent

Title: It's a Material World (Part 1)

This week we are going to have a short introduction to the series we will be exploring for the season of Lent. More often than not our spirituality is detached from our earthly existence. Religion often conveys that the material world is bad. Throughout the history of the church many have been taught that the gifts of this earth given to us by our Creator are inherently evil. The real problem is that we have no theology for being human. The material world eats up most of our attention, and because our idea of faith is so very uncomfortable in a material world, it loses in the end. The average Christian is caught embracing a dubious physical existence while desperately, and with limited success, trying to hold onto a faith that is antithetical to it. How might we learn to enjoy the world around us without being worldly? Our study for this Sunday is called: It’s a Material World (Part 1).

This video was shown during the service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf2MZRenJMU

* We appologize for the poor audio quality a piece of equipment failed.

 

 

Title: Comfort

”Do better, feel better, get better, look better.” This is the siren’s call that seduces us. Our churches, our work, and our friendships all join the chorus. We will take time this Sunday to consider the invitation of a good Father to be comforted. There is comfort for the weary, comfort for the regretful, and comfort for the fearful. We are comforted so that we can be image bearers, a comfort to a world in pain.

Series:  The Book of Ruth

Title: Hidden in Plain Site

We have been gleaning in the ancient book of Ruth—moving from the plains of Moab to the fields of Bethlehem and finally to the harvest threshing floor.  And now it’s early morning in Bethlehem, after a late night of celebration, proposals, and promises; and we find ourselves at the city gate to deal with legal matters and seal business transactions for the Elimelech family. Act Four is a story about how the fruit of the earth now gives way to the fruit of the womb.  We encounter the final chapter of Naomi’s movement from bitterness and emptiness to abundance and fullness. Ruth also has a trajectory from Moabite and foreigner to “daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons.”  Into the ordinary lives of two widows and a farmer, the faithful love of God has overflowed now to a national level, for we come to know that this is also a story about one of the greatest kings—David.  And here at the end of it all, God eventually comes out of hiding in the final genealogy of this unique ancestral line. Plan to be with us for the finale of Ruth in a study called: Hidden in Plain Sight.