Emmaus Road Church | Fort Collins, Colorado

Sermon Scripture: Ephesians 4:25-5:2

This week, as we continue studying the book of Ephesians, we see what appears to be a list of dos and don’ts to guide and shape our behavior, but really what scripture is reminding us is that the whole range of human emotion and experience is God given, but it is so important to use our strengths wisely and well so that they do not become weakness or sin.

Sermon Scripture: Ephesians 2

We are all following a map, but is it the right one? Then, if we discover we are headed in the wrong direction we need help in changing course. 

By allowing God to reconstruct our journey, we might finally discover what we have been missing all along — a new way of living and being human that satisfies all that is unsettled in us. This new journey in Christ is what God desired for us to experience all along.

Sermon Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-14

As we begin a new four week series walking through the major themes of the book of Ephesians, we see God as the master architect of a beautiful plan bringing life to all humanity and all creation. 

God has a plan, this plan comes with promises, and engaging in them inspires our praise.

Sermon Scripture: Mark 3:31-35

There's an ancient proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” Throughout history, teachers of the way of Jesus have likened apprenticeship with him as a spiritual journey. This long winding journey of becoming a person of love in God is a journey that we were designed to go on together in community.

To become an apprentice of Jesus is to become a part of a new family, one that transcends all the lines that divide us, race, class, gender, politics, all of it. You can't follow Jesus alone — not you shouldn't, but you can’t.

Sermon Scripture: Mark 2:13-17

Jesus once said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” * He likened sin to a disease and himself to a healer. Trying to go on the spiritual journey of discipleship without healing from sin is like trying to run a marathon with a broken leg — you’re not going to get very far, and it’s not going to be very fun.

A key step in our apprenticeship to Jesus is healing from sin.

Sermon Scripture: Matthew 26:36-39

Jesus once said, in this world, you will face trouble in this life. We carry our history in our body and live our past in our present, sometimes comfortably stowed away below the surface. but, all too often our unhealed emotional pain sabotages our spiritual formation into people of love.

So the question for today is, when pain and suffering come knocking on our door, what do we do?

Sermon Scripture: Matthew 11:28-30

If you were to follow Jesus around for a while, you would notice a set of repeating practices. You would see him preach the gospel and heal the sick and cast out demons, and you would also see him keep Sabbath, read scripture and spend time in solitude and prayer.

Sermon Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

In most Christian churches, generosity is described as one of the core values of the Christian life. The Bible records Jesus saying these words – “it is better to give than to receive.”   

At Emmaus Road, one of our core values is Partnership; we believe “our faith calls us to give our lives away in service to others.” This is often in opposition to the spirit of competition of our age, where, in order to survive and come out on top, we are taught to focus first on ourselves. 

How does one develop a spirit of generosity? In today’s lectionary passage, Paul describes generosity as the grace of giving.

Sermon Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-7

Life just just happens. We wake up, go about our days, years go by, and one day we realize we've been formed into a particular shape. Then, when we begin to walk the path with Jesus, we realize we are not starting with a blank slate because we've already been deformed, not into the beauty of Christ, but into the ugliness of selfish sin and shame.

Therefore, at some level, what Jesus is inviting us into is a life of counter formation. To be formed to be like Jesus will require an intentional, thoughtful, conscious way of life to counteract the many forces that malformed our soul.

Sermon Scripture: Romans 12:1-2

Spiritual formation isn’t a Christian thing or even a religious thing; it’s a human thing. To be human is to grow, to mature, to adapt over time. Formation is simply the process by which our “spirit,” or inner person, is formed into a particular shape or character. Over a lifetime, we are spiritually formed by a complex alchemy of genetic inheritance, family patterns, childhood wounds, education, habits, decisions, relationships, environments, and more.

The problem is, most of our spiritual formation is unintentional. It just happens. And often, we are “conformed to the pattern of this world,” more than “transformed by the renewing of our mind.”