Today, Lance looks at Pontius Pilate, the only human mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed (other than Jesus), and reminds us that this is a real historical event. This really happened.

Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent, and he keeps trying to keep Jesus from being killed. But Pilate could not save him, because Jesus was here to give himself away - so that everyone would have have a way to the Father.

John 18:28-19:16

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In the heat of summer, we get to remember the gift of Christmas.

In Jesus, we seen the beauty in life, what life was intended to be. And because of that, we can be truly alive, and can fully live.

“The virgin will have a song and his name is God Is With Us” - the story of Christmas is a story we shouldn’t be thinking about just once a year.

Colossians 1:15-20

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When Lance left the hospital with his first child, he couldn’t believe they were sending him out without an instruction manual.

But in life, we are not without direction. God sent Jesus Christ to show us to be fully alive - for us, he IS the instruction manual.

Jesus is the exemplar of what it means to be divine. He made the face of God known on this earth - one of sacrifice, and self-emptying love.

And he taught us how to follow him.

Philippians 2:5-11

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On our next step through the Apostles’ Creed, Lance covers “God as maker,” and how the very presence of creation around us reminds us that God is always with us. The stars in the sky above us show us that our God never leaves the one behind.

Then, a trip to Homeboy Industries in California, where gang members find their way into the church.

Isaiah 40:10-14, 18-31

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As we begin a period of what the church calls “Ordinary Time” - though Lance thinks it should be called “Extraordinary Time” - we begin a series defining what we believe, guided by the Apostles Creed.

We start with the story of the Prodigal Son, but it’s not a story about a son. It’s a story about a father. A father willing to run to his son and welcome him home during a time when no one could comprehend something like that. And it’s about a God that Jesus taught us to refer to as OUR Father.

Luke 15:11-32

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When Nicodemus came to visit Jesus, he was confused about how Jesus was asking him to be “born again” - wasn’t the first time enough?

It wasn’t - but Lance reminds us that being born again is more than just a single moment, a story to look back to. What about the moments that are happening now?

Our call to faith isn’t a one-time thing. We don’t have to look back and say “that was the moment!” What about the moments that are happening now?

John 3:1-17

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On Senior Sunday, Lance tells the graduates - and all of us - to wait on God’s timing. As he ascended to heaven, Jesus called the disciples to intentionality. To pray, and believe, and wait for the Spirit. He calls for us to do the same.

“My prayer for you is that you hunger and thirst for the Lord more than anything else in this world.”

Acts 1:1-13

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Not long after Jesus returned, we see how the disciples have returned to their old life, despite Jesus having sent them off to spread the gospel to all the world.

But there is no place that we can run, no place that we can hide, that our Savior will not find us.

John 21:15-19

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In today’s story, we meet the disciples where they are fishing on the lake - they have returned to something familiar, some place they feel safe, in their grief. But Christ is coming to change all that, and give them a new spirit.

We can be trapped in grief, in distraction, the endless scroll of life. But, “if we’ll only look up, if we’ll only look within - we will find Jesus there.”

John 21:1-14

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