Grow Deeper

In a very real sense, we are all members of one body. Yet, as Paul instructs using our physical body as an illustration, though we are all one body, we are many different members, each with a different function and gifts. Just as our hands are not our ears, so too are we not identical. Yet, just as our hands work with our ears so that all that is needed in our physical bodies are covered, so too is how we are called to work together. None of us are here by accident. Our different gifts, talents, personalities, experiences, and lives all contribute to make Bluff Park UMC who we are

Sermon Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

"One Body" – S02E79 of Grow Deeper: A Bluff Park UMC Podcast

Welcome to the Grow Deeper podcast. We’re pastors Kevin Payne and Ross Furio from Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama. Each week we share our Sunday sermons, and occasion guest preachers, on the podcast to inspire and encourage you to grow in faith and in life. We're glad you've joined us on this journey.

#unity #body #gifts #service #members #work

World Communion Sunday is celebrated all across the many expression of the Christian faith. It is a Sunday where we remember that what we hold in common is far more important than any differences we may have. We are all members of one body, and we all seek to be the hands and feet of Christ to the world. In the passage we are sharing together today we are reminded by Paul that he has passed on to us what we he received. Gathering around the Table of Grace is a gift from God that has continually been passed down from generation to generation. It is at the Table we experience communion with God, with the saints who have gone before, and with each other.

Sermon Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

"The Table of Grace" – S02E78 of Grow Deeper: A Bluff Park UMC Podcast

Welcome to the Grow Deeper podcast. We’re pastors Kevin Payne and Ross Furio from Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama. Each week we share our Sunday sermons, and occasion guest preachers, on the podcast to inspire and encourage you to grow in faith and in life. We're glad you've joined us on this journey.

#unity #body #communion #grace

The Power of Communion is hard to miss. It's the grace that we receive as a people of faith when we eat of the bread and take of the cup. Jesus talks often about a bread that never perishes, one that lasts eternally. Join us this morning as we consider how this bread of heaven collides with our communion table here in 2022. Our hope is to be a people who are saying yes to the grace being offered to us.

Sermon Scripture Text: John 6:22-29

"The Power of Communion" – S02E77 of Grow Deeper: A Bluff Park UMC Podcast

Welcome to the Grow Deeper podcast. We’re pastors Kevin Payne and Ross Furio from Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama. Each week we share our Sunday sermons, and occasion guest preachers, on the podcast to inspire and encourage you to grow in faith and in life. We're glad you've joined us on this journey.

#unity #body #communion #grace

Rev. Stanley Davidson, Director of Children's Ministry at Bluff Park UMC leads us in a look at how we are expected to love one another as Christians!

Sermon Scripture Text: 1 John 3:11-18

"What Not To Do" – S02E76 of Grow Deeper: A Bluff Park UMC Podcast

Welcome to the Grow Deeper podcast. We’re pastors Kevin Payne and Ross Furio from Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama. Each week we share our Sunday sermons, and occasion guest preachers, on the podcast to inspire and encourage you to grow in faith and in life. We're glad you've joined us on this journey.

#neighbor #love #careforothers #genuinefellowship #family

Just as we have experienced the love of God we are called to share it. John makes a difficult point in the passage we shared last week: how can we profess to love God, who we have not seen, if we can’t love our neighbors that we can see? We are going back in our final sermon in this series to explore just what John is telling us about what it means to love our neighbors. This is more than some emotions, feelings, or well-wishes. It is a call to a radical way of seeing and living in the world!

Sermon Scripture Text: 1 John 3:11-24

"Love One Another" – S02E75 of Grow Deeper: A Bluff Park UMC Podcast

Welcome to the Grow Deeper podcast. We’re pastors Kevin Payne and Ross Furio from Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama. Each week we share our Sunday sermons, and occasion guest preachers, on the podcast to inspire and encourage you to grow in faith and in life. We're glad you've joined us on this journey.

#neighbor #love #careforothers #genuinefellowship #family

In our Scripture out of 1 John this week we find a truth that gets to the core of our faith. God is love. Everything that God does flows from a place of love, and every way that we experience God is rooted in that love. That has implications for how we experience God in the world around us, and for who we are called to be as a people of faith. Join us this week as we explore this love of God!

Sermon Scripture Text: 1 John 4:7-21

"The Love Of God" – S02E74 of Grow Deeper: A Bluff Park UMC Podcast

Welcome to the Grow Deeper podcast. We’re pastors Kevin Payne and Ross Furio from Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama. Each week we share our Sunday sermons, and occasion guest preachers, on the podcast to inspire and encourage you to grow in faith and in life. We're glad you've joined us on this journey.

#love #grace #forgiveness #natureofGod

So often when we think of love we imagine butterflies in a beautiful field, or some sentiment that would fit well on a greeting card. We tend to consider love purely in emotional terms: the feeling of love, acts of love, even love languages. Yet, what John is telling us in the 4th chapter of his first epistle is that love is so much more! Love is what changes the world. Love is the primary attribute of God, out of which everything that God does emerges. In fact the very nature of God, the very “stuff” that God is made of is love. The greatest commandments we are given is to love God and love neighbor. It must be really important.

Sermon Scripture Text: 1 John 4:7-21

"God is Love" – S02E73 of Grow Deeper: A Bluff Park UMC Podcast

Welcome to the Grow Deeper podcast. We’re pastors Kevin Payne and Ross Furio from Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama. Each week we share our Sunday sermons, and occasion guest preachers, on the podcast to inspire and encourage you to grow in faith and in life. We're glad you've joined us on this journey.

#Love #grace #forgiveness #natureofGod

Join us this week as we continue our walk through 1 John! This week we focus on the advocate that we have Jesus Christ. It means that even when we slip, we can know that God is with us, God is redeeming us, and God is loving us through it. Thanks be to God for that!

Sermon Scripture Text: 1 John 2:1-11

"Our Advocate, Jesus" – S02E72 of Grow Deeper: A Bluff Park UMC Podcast

Welcome to the Grow Deeper podcast. We’re pastors Kevin Payne and Ross Furio from Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama. Each week we share our Sunday sermons, and occasion guest preachers, on the podcast to inspire and encourage you to grow in faith and in life. We're glad you've joined us on this journey.

#1John #advocate #redeeming #sacrifice #love #intercession #grace

We have an advocate, a defender, a paraclete in Christ. Christ makes intercession for us before the Father. In his atoning sacrifice he takes our sin upon himself so that we might be clothed in his righteousness. When we stand before the Father it is through Christ we are forgiven. This is not the action of some tyrannical, dictatorial deity. Rather, this shows us the extent God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, goes to redeem a fallen creation. We never have to doubt if God is for us, for we know through the life and testimony of Jesus the Christ, our Advocate.

Sermon Scripture Text: 1 John 2:1-11

"Christ our Advocate" – S02E71 of Grow Deeper: A Bluff Park UMC Podcast

Welcome to the Grow Deeper podcast. We’re pastors Kevin Payne and Ross Furio from Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama. Each week we share our Sunday sermons, and occasion guest preachers, on the podcast to inspire and encourage you to grow in faith and in life. We're glad you've joined us on this journey.

#advocate #redeeming #sacrifice #love #intercession #grace

1 John 1:5-10 is about as practical as it gets. First we get two truths- God is light and we are sinful. Out of those truths, we receive two charges - We are called to be a people who are willing to name our sin, meanwhile invite God into the messiness with us, and trust that we never have to face it alone. Let us be a people who are willing to name and face our sin, trusting God is with us every step of the way.

Sermon Scripture Text: 1 John 1:5-10

"Name It" – S02E70 of Grow Deeper: A Bluff Park UMC Podcast

Welcome to the Grow Deeper podcast. We’re pastors Kevin Payne and Ross Furio from Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Alabama. Each week we share our Sunday sermons, and occasion guest preachers, on the podcast to inspire and encourage you to grow in faith and in life. We're glad you've joined us on this journey.

#1John #Sin #NameIt #FaceIt #Truth #Charge