Emmaus Road Church | Fort Collins, Colorado

Sermon Scripture: Genesis 32:22-32 (NRSV)

The namesake of God’s covenant people is that they wrestled with God in the same way their forefather had. To have an “Israelite” faith did not mean to be certain about all your beliefs about God; it meant to wrestle honestly with those beliefs. You see this throughout the biblical narrative, particularly in the Old Testament!

In 2007, Rachel Held Evans started a blog where she wrote about her questions, doubts, and changing beliefs.

As it turned out, questions and doubts defined much of Rachel’s life. She exemplified an “Israelite” faith, and just like her ancient brothers and sisters, her questions were a sign of faithfulness. They meant she took God seriously. Her doubts meant that she was genuine in her faith, no matter how uncertain.

“Whether you are part of a church or not, whether you believe today or your doubt, whether you are a Christian or an atheist or an agnostic…you know this truth deep in your bones: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return. Death is a part of life. My prayer for you this season is that you make time to celebrate that reality, and to grieve that reality, and that you will know you are not alone.” -Rachel Held Evans

Further Reading: https://rachelheldevans.com

Thank you for joining us for our Advent Reflections series. Each reflection is accompanied by a song recorded by the Emmaus Road Worship team. 

This week, Pausing to Remember as inspired by Andrew Peterson's "Gather'Round Ye Children Come."

A video version of this episode is available on our website, theroadfc.org, or on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/EmmausRoadFortCollins/)

This week, we light the first purple candle of HOPE.

Please await instruction given during the podcast for the time to light your candle. 

May God bless you as you listen and worship.

Sermon Scripture: Luke 2:36-40 (NRSV)

This week we begin a new series called "Her Story." 

Our motivation for this series is to try and elevate the stories of women who have done important work for the Gospel and whose lives are a faithful witness to Christianity. I want to elevate these stories because for too long portions of the Christian church have held down the stories of women or have relegated women to corners of the kingdom when, in fact, women have always played a key role in furthering the good news of Jesus. During this series, we'll look at stories of women found in the scriptures as well as women throughout history who have embodied the Good News found in the scriptures.

We begin, with Anna the prophetess.

Sermon Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NRSV)

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

I imagine these words from the Apostle Paul would hit you differently based on your current circumstances. If things are going pretty well "Rejoice ALWAYS" or "give thanks in ALL circumstances" feels doable. However, if you are going through a really tough time right now and you don't feel grateful at all, these words are more difficult.

Join us as we consider the power of gratitude in our daily situations.

Sermon Scripture: Matthew 26:26-28 (NRSV)

Gratitude is always social because we are grateful for something, grateful to someone, and quite often, grateful with others. The social nature of gratitude is clear even when you are alone, or with a small group of people.

All of life is a gift, we receive it with gratitude and when we do so it connects us to others in profound ways because gratitude is always social.

Sermon Scripture: Psalm 100 (NRSV)

You may know the feeling - someone did something for you or gave you a gift, but instead of being grateful, you feel indebted, obligated to return the favor, duty-bound to reciprocity. In this kind of commodity exchange, resentment is fostered instead of gratitude.

"There would be no benefactors if they were not first the recipients of grace. In other words, gifts come before givers. We do not really give gifts. We recognize gifts, we receive them, and we pass them on."

Sermon Scripture: 2 Peter 1:3-11 (NRSV)

Self-control is really about gaining freedom. 

-- Freedom from that destructive habit.

-- Freedom from debilitating debt

-- Freedom from  poor choices. 

-- Freedom from an out of control schedule. 

-- Freedom to seek after things we desire.

Join us as we finalize our series on the Fruit of the Spirit by discussing how self-control allows us to live more fully into our identity in Christ.

Sermon Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 (NRSV)

We live in a culture that values, maybe even worships, strength. More often than not, the strength we want so badly is expressed as power-over others. Power-over means that to be stronger than someone you must demonstrate that you can over-power them. As you might guess, this often leads to violence.

In a world of violent strength, Christians have an opportunity to display the strength of gentleness and servanthood.

Join us as we investigate the upside-down strength that comes from gentleness.

Sermon Scripture: Matthew 22:15-22

Sometimes, when we talk about faith, what we mean is having confident belief. There is a time and place for that, but that is not the fruit of faithfulness. Faith is best described as allegiance. Faithfulness, then, is being steadfast in our allegiance to Jesus, who is Ruler over all the nations; Creator of life, the Eternal Word of God. 

What does allegiance to Jesus look like? How are we to know when there are people on both sides of the political spectrum and of all perspectives who invoke the name of Jesus to defend their position? 

Join us as we persue the Fruit of Faithfulness this week.