Covenant Life Church

Mother’s Day encompasses so many different emotions, situations and relationships, and too often, we paint in broad strokes. We preach messages based on the faulty assumption that all mothers are the same or the myth that the perfect mother exists.

This week, we’re going to take a closer look at four different mothers in the Bible and see if we can find encouragement, help and hope for the real moms. All four of the moms that we’re discussing have one thing in common: Egypt. Two of them are Egyptian, and the other two are Hebrew women living in Egypt.

There are some things that the two men from Emmaus experienced as they walked with Jesus after His resurrection that can help us on our own spiritual walk with Jesus. The first week, we learned that Jesus is hard to see or sense, but we know He is still with us every step of the way because He promised that He would never leave us. The second week, we found out that Jesus is a friend like no other. He listens, speaks truth and prioritizes us as people.

Last week, we discovered that walking with Jesus means you should set extra plate because He wants to come right into your life and have dinner with you as a friend. This week, there is one more thing that we should notice from the passage: if we are going walk with the Risen Savior, we’re going to need to Learn the Burn.

Over the past two weeks, we have been looking at the journey that Jesus took on the road to Emmaus following His resurrection. It seems that we don’t know what to do with ourselves after all the build-up of celebrating Easter, but through this series, we’ve learned to do exactly what the two men in Luke 24:13-33 did — take a walk with the risen Savior.

When you walk with Jesus, you will discover some things along the way. You’ll learn that He is always there for you even if you can’t see or recognize Him, and you may also find out that He is an incredible friend. This week, we’re exploring another aspect of the journey to Emmaus. If you’re going to walk with the risen Savior, be ready to set an extra plate because Jesus wants to come over for dinner.

Easter is over. We celebrated the resurrection a couple of weeks ago, but now, what do we do? We do exactly what two guys in Luke did on the day Jesus rose from the grave: take a walk with the risen Savior.

Last week, we started a new series, looking at the experience these two men had with Jesus on the road to Emmaus and learning things that might help us on our own walk with Him. In the first part of this series, we discovered that — sometimes — Jesus is in disguise, and this week, we’re exploring what it means to be friends with Jesus.

Because we spend so much time and energy preparing to celebrate the resurrection, the week after Easter can sometimes feel like a bit of a letdown. It’s possible that the people in Jesus’s day felt the same way. There was a ray of hope following the crucifixion, but how were they supposed to live in this post-resurrection world?

In the midst of the mental and emotional chaos surrounding the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, two of His followers take the short walk from Jerusalem to their home in Emmaus, and based on their experience along that road, we’re kicking off a new series today to explore some of the things we can expect to find and learn when we’re walking with the risen Savior.

“The truth shall set you free” is one of the most well-known and oft-repeated sayings of Jesus. John’s gospel records it, and countless people have said it in a variety of contexts over the last 2,000 years. However, it’s important to ask: if the truth sets you free, what does a lie do for you? If the truth sets you free and someone chooses to lie to you, they are obviously trying to keep you bound.

This is what happens in Matthew 28:11-15. Within the first 24 hours after Jesus’s death, people were already meeting to fabricate a story to cover up the truth. Why would they do that? Because the truth — especially the truth about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus — will set you free. This week, we are exploring what really happened on that first Easter in a message called “The Reality of Easter.”

Many of us would agree that the world needs saving, and it seems like everyone is looking for a hero. As babies, we cry for others to come feed, clean and hold us, and as children, we cry in the dark for parents to chase away the monsters of our imagination. Even as adults, we view elected officials or celebrities as heroes.

Although 2,000 years separate us from the events of Matthew 21, we’re really no different from the people who lined the road to Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. They were holding out for a hero, too. This week, Pastor Robby Williams helps us explore the ways in which Jesus — more than any comic book character, athlete, movie star or politician — is our true hero.

Despite the word “revival” being one of the most over-used and misunderstood words in the American church, no one can argue that what is described in Acts 2 was a revival. Even so, it leads to a lot of questions. How does a revival happen? Where does it come from? Is there a formula or pattern?

If revival is like a volcano, the explosion and outpouring of something simmering just below the surface, how do we get there today? This week, we are going to look at a variety of passages in the book of Acts to see some things that we can do to help raise the spiritual lava level — first within us and then around us.

Following Jesus often requires twists and turns that we don’t see coming, and sometimes, we come face-to-face with circumstances, events or people from our past that we thought we’d never have to deal with again. God often circles us back to those things in order to accomplish something for our good, His glory or the advancement of His Kingdom.

What do you do if you find yourself circling back to something you thought was behind you? What would be the point? This week, we’re taking a look at three times people circled back to something in the Bible to see if we can learn why God may have led them to do it — and how we can apply those lessons to our own lives.

There have been a lot of fantastic advertising campaigns throughout the decades, and one of most effective campaigns was launched only 20 years to advertise a popular western U.S. city. People who have never been to Las Vegas say some variation of the line, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” all the time because there is a notion that some things in life that should stay compartmentalized.

Unfortunately, that mindset has invaded the American church. Too many people want to come to church for one reason or another but are determined to keep what happens at church from impacting the rest of their lives. However, if what we learn, feel, experience and find at church doesn’t make it out the doors of the church, we’ve missed the point. This week, we’re going to explore this topic and talk about the vison of the church in a message called “This Ain’t Vegas.”