Cape Elizabeth Church of the Nazarene - Weekly Sermon Podcast

1 Peter 3:13-16, Deuteronomy 5:12-15
What do you think of when hearing that someone lives a “questionable lifestyle?” What if we are the ones who are called to live by this description? Guest preacher Pastor Kim Richardson joins us and asks these questions, using 1 Peter and the book of Deuteronomy to discover how living a life that puts God first affects both us and the others around us.

“Breaking New Ground”
Text: Isaiah 43:14-21
Today, the church held its Annual Meeting, where we celebrated what God has done in our midst during the past year. Pastor Tim read for us encouraging words from the prophet Isaiah, saying that God’s promises for His people are promises for us too. When God says that He will make a new way in the wilderness, this is a promise that He will break ground in places and areas that we haven’t seen or let God move before. Even where we haven’t seen God at work yet, we can know that God is still interested in moving and He invites us to be a part of that work.

Text: Mark 16:1-8
He is risen! On this Easter Sunday, we read the Gospel of Mark’s account of the resurrection of Jesus. The story of Easter is that God is pleased to raise one who is absolutely forgotten and rejected from the dead. This is our experience as well; no one is forsaken or forgotten. Each of us is invited into the resurrection story and find ourselves given over to the commitment of love and life for others in this world. In sacrificial living there is the promise and hope of resurrection and redemption for all of us. He is risen, indeed; Alleluia!

“Still Breathing Life into Dust: Sabbath Work”
Text: Mark 2:23-28
We continue our study of the second chapter of Mark by seeing how Jesus responds to the Pharisees questioning what they perceive to be His disciples breaking the sabbath rules. Jesus refers to an Old Testament story where David, acting on authority given to him, was able to feed those in need with bread usually given only to priests. By invoking this story, Jesus has the authority as God’s link to humankind to change our expectations and reinterpret for us what our faith looks like.

“Still Breathing Life Into Dust: Living in the New”
Text: Mark 2:18-22
We continue our Lenten series from the Gospel of Mark, where the Pharisees ask Jesus why His disciples do not fast. His reply reminds us that the grace of God is not determinant upon our preconceived notions; like new wine in old wineskins, it bursts through old expectations. As we’ve seen in previous weeks, the grace of God works in ways and places that we can hardly imagine or expect. This idea extends to our own lives as well; there is nothing we could do or have done that would prevent God’s grace from working in our lives; we just have to let His Holy Spirit fill us and burst through precisely where we are.

Still Breathing Life into Dust: Imperfect Followers
Text: Mark 2:13-17
Today we look at a story about those whose lives are not fully shaped the way we fully expect after an encounter with Jesus. Levi is a tax collector who began to follow Jesus, however he still has ties to his previous life, spending time and eating with other tax collectors and sinners. Jesus also spends His time with them, showing that wholeness and completeness are not prerequistes for enjoying the presence of the Lord. In fact, holiness of God is pleased to break into our lives at our most unworthy moments and reside there with us.

“Still Breathing Life into Dust: Forgiven”
Text: Mark 2:1-12
Today, we mark the first Sunday in Lent by beginning a new sermon series called “Still Breathing Life into Dust,” recognizing that God’s work did not stop when He breathed life into Adam. Even when we are still marked by the ashen moments in our lives, God is still working and doing His work through us. In this week’s passage from Mark, Jesus forgives a paralytic man before He heals him; we should also be committed to loving and bringing forgiveness to those whom God brings us.

“How We See Jesus”
Text: Mark 9:2-13
As we prepare to enter the season of Lent, we read about Jesus’s transfiguration on the mountaintop before His disciples. This story allows us to recognize that the faith that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ can be something more than just something to hold onto each day but the impetus to how we are going to live; that we can recognize that Jesus has invited us into His family and alters our life trajectories.

“Where the Kingdom Draws Near”
Text: Mark 1:29-45
In today’s passage from the Gospel of Mark, Jesus starts proclaiming “the Good News” but we usually think of the Good News as His death and resurrection or heavenly promises, so what is it? Jesus states that “the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has drawn near.” In Jesus, God is breaking into our world, our messes, and our situations, and that is where God’s grace is pleased to be. We should recognize that the gap between us and God isn’t something that we need to find a way to surmount – God has already bridged that gap for us and is actively seeking for us.

Authority for Freedom
Text: Mark 1:21-28
We continue reading the Gospel of Mark to gain a better understanding of who Jesus is. In the story of Jesus driving out an evil spirit at the synagogue, we not only find that there is no power greater than God, but also that God is present and willing to walk beside and work among us in the midst of the worst trials and temptations in life.