Emmaus Road Church | Fort Collins, Colorado

Sermon Scripture: Exodus 33:12-23

Throughout all the ups and downs of the Exodus stories, all the triumphs and failures, all the starts and stops, this one thing never changes. Moses insists on the Lord’s Presence among the people and guiding the people. “Show us your Glory or Lord.”

Sermon Scripture: Exodus 32:1-14

And all throughout scripture, old testament, new testament, and beyond, all throughout church history, God has been calling us to be aware of our Egypt problem.

For as much as we desire to be free and whole, we equally desire to feel safe and in control of our lives and environments. So when we are uncertain, we tend to craft answers and solutions for ourselves rather than relying on God.

Sermon Scripture: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-27, Matthew 21:33-44

Among Hebrew scholars, it is well accepted that most modern Biblical translations of the Ten Commandments have misrepresented the intent of Exodus 20. The words might work, but they don’t really fit the spirit of God’s work in the Exodus event. The “commandments” begin with an act of redemption. The law begins with grace. So why would we assume these are heavy burdens laid on us with wagging fingers and furrowed brows? God isn’t commanding obedience; God is inviting us into a new way of being with these verses. We shouldn’t read them as commandments as much as descriptions.

This week we invite you into the Presence and Pattern of God at work in our lives.

Sermon Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7

We all have a working model of reality that we try to fit the world we experience into. These are the rules, laws, and expectations not only for nature and science and biology, but also for society and relationships and experience.

But when our model is shaken, we often look to our leaders to explain it all, to assure us, to close the gaps for us, otherwise all that we have crafted to prop up our understanding of the world might begin to come crashing down around us.

Sermon Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:1-4, 8:7-9, 8:12-15, 9:6-12

In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul is detailing some general principles for giving that still guide us today; generous giving should be done wisely and faithfully, giving should come from love and joy rather than obligation, and it is a privilege to give as partners in the Kingdom of Heaven

Join us to discover six ways in which we can engage in generous giving in partnering with God in the work of the Kingdom.

Sermon Scripture: 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19

In a fallen world like ours, where corruption is so tempting to our hearts, money can certainly reveal the taint that is in all of our hearts. And of all the topics that we grapple with in our modern world, money is one that the scripture has LOTS to say about. There is an over abundance of warnings, admonitions, and counsel on money through the Bible. 

The love of money after all gives birth to all kinds of evils as the scripture says, but money in and of itself is not evil and it has great potential for serving God and serving others. So the way we use our money ought to reflect the character of the God who has saved us.

Sermon Scripture: Romans 13:8-10, Philippians 2:1-8

According to Jesus, the whole point of the Old Testament law, and of all the commandments, was to teach Israel how to love God and to love their neighbor. (Matthew 22:36-40).

Last week we spoke about the generosity of God as demonstrated by Jesus and we focused on the mindset of abundance rather than that of scarcity. The beginning of generosity comes from this shift in focus, but the essential next step is the transition of a heart turned inward to that of an outward focused heart.

Sermon Scripture: Luke 12:22-34

Creation is an expression of God’s generous love. He’s the host, and we are his guests in a world of opportunity and abundance. But God does not stop there. We’re then called to keep the party going and to spread his goodness. This is a beautiful picture, but it’s not the way we tend to experience the world. Instead, all too often we experience a world of scarcity and struggle, NOT abundance.

God is exceedingly generous, and even when our circumstances or our mindset might deceive us into a posture of scarcity, he reminds us that by trusting him we can experience abundance in lavish proportions — providing more than enough to join him in becoming a generous host to all that we meet.

Sermon Scripture: Isaiah 58:1-12

Fasting is a way to bridge this gap, between “the haves” and “the have nots.” Going back at least as far as Isaiah 58, it has long been a vehicle for biblical justice, a way for those with too much food to share with those in need of food.

This simple practice of giving away the money we would have spent on ourselves has the potential to transform not only the lives of the poor, but also our own lives and communitie

Sermon Scripture: Acts 13:1-3, Jonah 3:3-10

Fasting and prayer go together. Like two wings of a bird, together they take flight. You can pray without fasting, and you can fast without praying, but when you combine the two, there’s a noticeable amplification of our prayer before God. 

This comes as no surprise, since fasting is a kind of praying with our body. When the request of our heart is coupled with the yearning of our body, our prayer is purified of its dross and presented like a precious metal before the Father, for him to do as he will.