This Sunday, we are finishing our series on faith. Every major figure in the Bible has had significant identifiable weakness.

• Abraham and Sarah were too old to have kids, and yet their entire calling depended on them having kids.

• Moses was not a good speaker.

• Gideon was the weakest in his tribe.

• Hannah could not have a son.

• David was the youngest in his family, also showed significant lapses in moral judgement.

• Jeremiah is too young.

• Mary was a virgin (how could she bear a son?)

• John the Baptist lived in the desert.

• Peter was impulsive and uneducated.

• Matthew was a tax collector.

• Paul persecuted Christians.

The Bible does not try to hide these weaknesses. If anything, it BRAGS about them. Why? Because God calls us in the midst of our weaknesses.

Faith is trusting that God is at work even in the places where we are shaky. And, somehow, through God's work, "we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken." (Hebrews 12:29)

In this sermon we will be asking the question, “What is faith?” Faith is often described as something like “intellectual assent” or “power to overcome.” But, what happens when we come to the end of our intellect? And what happens when we don’t feel very powerful? Have we lost our faith? Have we lost God?

God is with us in every season and struggle of life. Join us as we explore a faith that has room for doubt, struggle, and pain, while being anchored in a great hope.

The resurrection is good news! It means that everything has changed. Christians are called to live this out, which requires radical reorientation.

In the Christian life, we are constantly challenged by two temptations:

- We are tempted to simply “go with the flow,” thinking that the Christian life just comes naturally. This path causes us to focus our gaze inside of ourselves rather than Christ. We become susceptible to believing the other narratives in our world which speak about “the good life”: the pursuit of money, sex, power, approval, etc.

- On the other hand, we are tempted by legalism, the belief that, to be Christian is to follow a very stringent set of rules.

In Colossians 3, Paul challenges the Church to seek “Things Above,” living out Christ’s resurrection and anticipating his new world by the cultivation of Christian virtue.

Living Christianly requires vigilance, habits, and focus—all directed by the self-giving love of God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Join us this Sunday, as we explore what this looks like in our lives and in our community.

At the beginning of his letter to the Colossians, Paul makes some radical statements about Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. All things were created through him and for him. Everything holds together in him. God’s fullness dwells in him and he has reconciled all things to himself through the Son!

Big, heady stuff. Why does Paul use such big language? Why does Paul the need to say this in so many different ways, over and over again? The Colossians (like all of us) were distracted. They had many things, narratives, images around them beckoning them towards a certain kind of life.

In Christ, “all things” hold together. When we get distracted, the “many things” take our focus away from the one thing, the person of Jesus. Join us Sunday as we are challenged to see the many in light of the One.

In Luke 10, Jesus responds to the question “Who is my neighbor?” With perhaps the most recognizable of all of his parables: The Good Samaritan.The term “Good Samaritan” is now a pervasive term in culture. Whenever someone helps out, we say that they are a “Good Samaritan.” The term is used to refer to those who rescue or assist.But a fresh look at Jesus’ parable challenges our assumptions about what it means to be a neighbor. The story has incredible implications about the kingdom of God which transcends tribal identities. Just as the church has asked for centuries, this Sunday we will ask the question afresh: “Who is my neighbor?”

The proclamation that Jesus is Lord is a proclamation of peace. The Lordship of Christ means that the world is being made right, liberation has come, new creation is springing up.

And, the proclamation that Jesus is Lord is also a proclamation of woe. It means woe to the other things that we have trusted in, the idols we have built, the narratives that have enslaved the world.

The hinge point is the question: “Who will we trust?” Will we cling to our previous identities, our fading stories, our cultural status? Or will we trust in the better way?

This Sunday, we are confronted with three texts about our weakness and God’s strength.

Naaman (2 Kings 5) trusted in his military strength but had to come to grips with a weakness that he could not shake.

The Galatians (Galatians 6) were being tempted to trust in their cultural identity rather than the cross.

Some Villagers (Luke 10), were tempted to trust their own political agendas rather than embracing the peace found only in Jesus.

Join us as we seek to live as the people of the better way!

This Sunday we celebrate the reality of the Trinity. One God, three persons.

“O mystic marvel! The universal Father is one, and one the universal Word; and the Holy Spirit is one and the same everywhere,”

- Clement of Alexandria (AD 153-217)

In this sermon, we will ask, "What would it look like if God ran things? What would it look like if my life (and my world) was led by the Spirit?"

Spoiler alert: It might look like self-giving love.