Highway Sermons

The struggles and trial that will come into every life should not be waved away, and we should not pretended they don't exist.

However there is a way to view the trial that sets our eyes on something further back, something beyond the affliction, something that will transform us in the midst of the struggle to be a people of abiding joy!

Often we have the tendency to zoom past our ordinary, mundane moments of work to get to the exciting, extraordinary things.

But what if each of these moments were actually taking place on holy ground? Part of rethinking work is the chance to experience every mundane work moment as a burning bush moment.

In our culture, work can be overly consumed with getting the product or outcome completed with the utmost efficiency. We can be tempted to shortcut the struggle of work in order to get our tasks done.

But the Bible gives us a vision of God as a creator who works with great attention and care. God is an artist who imbues the universe with beauty and wonder.

If we are made in the image of God, this means we are created to work with care and attention like him. Like an artist. 

What would it look like to work not just for outcomes, but to allow the Spirit of God being more beauty than needed into all spaces of the world.

Most of us treat rest like something we have to earn. But what if that's exactly backwards? A conversation about Sabbath, the hamster wheel, and a different kind of economy.

How does being a follower of Jesus change how we view the definition and purpose of our work? Join us as we study Passages from Genesis and Revelation to see how God has designed us to work in response to his calling, in his presence, and for his purposes.

How do we hold our disappointments in God? How do we walk through seasons of suffering, or bear witness to the suffering of others, and not lose heart? Does God even know what is going on or should we be looking somewhere else for answers? Turns out we're not the first to ask these questions. In fact, the bible is full of people asking these exact things, directly to God. Today's message offers helpful insight into God's response, and spoiler alert, it doesn't tie everything up in a neat bow.

In an era of easy transportation to beautiful natural wonders, and of podcasts from great bible teachers readily available, and of worship music at the press of a button curated to your specific style, why go to church?

Maybe there is something more happening in the gathering of people who journey together with Jesus? Maybe there is something that moves us outside of ourselves, and possibly even beyond ourselves.

Maybe, in the local community of other Jesus-followers, there is opportunity to transcend the limitations of your personal ability, transcend your personal viewpoint, and possibly even encounter God outside of the managed spaces we expect God to be in.

How to we think about the way God acts in the stories before Jesus? And how do we think about the nature of God, and who Jesus is, when the picture is so complex?Today's sermon provides important handles to hold on to in understanding who God is and how Jesus is a key part of that understanding.

Maybe you've wrestled with this. You look at Jesus — gentle, radically hospitable, revolutionary — and something in you is drawn to him. But then you look at the people who claim to follow him, and you think... what happened?

The politicians invoking his name while spewing contempt at their enemies. The church that made you feel like your questions weren't welcome. The protestors with the signs. The televangelist selling miracle cures. And somehow, all of it — in the name of Jesus.

What if I told you: you're not wrong.

Jesus himself saw this coming. Two thousand years ago, on a hillside in Galilee, he looked out at a crowd and said — watch out. Some people are going to use my name. Loudly. Constantly. And they won't actually know me.

He even gave us a test. Not a theology quiz. Not a doctrine checklist. A gardening metaphor. You'll know them by their fruit.

So what does the real fruit look like? And what does it mean that some of the most breathtaking, world-changing, history-bending acts of love in human history came from people who actually knew Jesus — not just wore the jersey?

That's what we're digging into today. And there's a twist at the end that I think might surprise you.

Whether you love Jesus and can't stand his people, or you've been going to church your whole life and somewhere along the way lost the thread — this one's for you.

When and where life cracks open, that is where the person of Jesus, and his resurrection life, is powerfully at work.