Our world tempts us every day to make life about us. We're tempted to think about what we have to do, what we have going on, what we need, but Jesus turns this way of life on its head and says that life is really found not when we focus on ourselves, but when we serve others. Serving can look a lot of different ways.

Followers of Christ are meant to be people of service. That is why it is one of our practices here at The Gathering. And over the past two weeks we have talked about the power of serving, and what it can mean to serve both inside and outside of the church. But today I want to talk about something broader. Because when Jesus talks about serving, he doesn’t only mean acts of service, volunteering in the community, being on a team at church – as important as those are. But Jesus also wants us to develop a heart of service.

Our world tempts us every day to make life about us. We're tempted to think about what we have to do, what we have going on, what we need, but Jesus turns this way of life on its head and says that life is really found not when we focus on ourselves, but when we serve others. Serving can look a lot of different ways.

This week we’re talking about what it looks like to serve the world. After, all, our guy Jesus is pretty into serving and has a lot to say about how we, as his followers, should move in this world. We know we’re called to serve one another in humility and grace to bless others since we too have been blessed, that we need to be mindful of our posture of serving, and that we are to love one another. Together, we can show the world who we are by our love.

Our world tempts us every day to make life about us. We're tempted to think about what we have to do, what we have going on, what we need, but Jesus turns this way of life on its head and says that life is really found not when we focus on ourselves, but when we serve others. Serving can look a lot of different ways. In this series, we'll talk about what it means to have a life of service and how to practice it in your everyday life.

We’re starting today with serving within the church. Now before you slump in your chair or groan. This isn’t some ploy to get more people to serve the church (though you will be invited to do so).  Because as we’ll see, serving is about being more like Jesus.

Today we are wrapping up our series Shift Happens: When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned. We are talking about how to move through seasons when our life takes a left turn, goes off track, or isn’t working out as we expected. Each week we are looking at a different reason why by reading the stories of people in scripture who had their own plans fail for different reasons. As we read their stories we are learning strategies for how God can lead us through those same circumstances in our own life.

Today I want to end by talking about yet another reason that life doesn’t go as planned – because sometimes the world is an unfair place. This is true is large scale nation, political and historical ways. Injustice is part of our fallen world, as we've seen on the news this past week in Minneapolis. On a personal level, unfair things happen all the time; processes don’t always work as they should, people betray us, systems disadvantage us. To try to understand how we navigate these periods, I want to read the OT story of Joseph.

Today we are continuing our series Shift Happens: When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned. We are talking about how to move through seasons when our life takes a left turn, goes off track, or isn’t working out as we expected. Each week we are looking at a different reason why by reading the stories of people in scripture who had their own plans fail for different reasons. As we read their stories we are learning strategies for how God can lead us through those same circumstances in our own life.

Today we are going to look at the prophet Jeremiah. If I could sum up the story of Jeremiah, I would say that he is the guy who did everything right, everything that he was supposed to do and that God asked of him, and yet all he experienced was failure and the falling apart of his plans. And yet, Jeremiah had this incredible capacity to keep going, to keep hoping, even in the face of setback after setback. So today I want to talk about how we keep going when it feels like all we are dealt is obstacles and curveballs.

Today we are continuing our series Shift Happens: When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned. We are talking about reasons that our plans get upended and how we move forward when that happens. Each week, I am talking about a different reason our plans get messed up. We are looking at a different character of the Bible, and how they dealt with failed plans. As we explore their stories, we will learn strategies for how we can deal faithfully with those same situations in our own life.

Sometimes shift happens because of choices and decisions that we make. So today we are going to talk about a character who had his life planned out from the time he was a kid. He had gifts, talent, opportunity, and a strong call on his life. He had a plan. But things did not turn out as he imagined, and it was due to his own choices.

Over the next 4 weeks, we are going to explore characters in scripture who experienced plans shifting for a variety of reasons. We are going to learn what happened to them and how they moved through it. Each of them deal with circumstances that are universal, things that we all deal with. As we explore their stories, we will learn strategies for how we can deal faithfully with those same situations in our own life.

Today, I want to start with one of the most universal experiences we have – loss. Probably the most common way our life changes or plans fall apart happens when we lose something that we rely on. A person, a job, a marriage, a set of friends, a family situation. Loss destabilizes our plans and suddenly leaves us in a new place that we must navigate. And just as we all experience it, so did so many who came before us. One of the most inspiring stores of moving through loss is found in the story of Ruth.

As I was praying about this morning—this first Sunday of 2026—I started wondering: What if we had "The Gathering Wrapped"? What if we could pull the data on our spiritual life as a community? If God ran the algorithm on The Gathering McCausland for 2025, would our "Minutes Listened" be skewed toward fear and anxiety, or toward hope and action?

This morning is our "Visioning Sunday", wherein we look ahead. But I think we need something different this year. I think we need to look at our "Wrapped." We need to look at the raw data of 2025—the good, the bad, and the messy—to understand who we actually are, so we can decide who we want to be in 2026.

Today, we are going to focus on the bit after Linus Van Pelt’s recounting of the Christmas tale. What happens next after Jesus is born?

Through the remembrance of the Christmas story, we’re called to be transformed. To have our lives changed in light of God’s willingness to become a person like you and me, and be God with us, here in creation. We are called to have our expectations of the world subverted and changed from what the world would tell us. We’re meant to disrupt systems that harm our most vulnerable siblings. We’re meant to lead a life that says I will not stand by while the world continues its reign of oppression, I’m going to go another way.

Today we finish up our Peace series. The question today is how do we have peace with God? It’s not about what we think or feel so much as it is how God sees us, humanity.

Now we could go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible and name the ways God views us as humanity, so today’s few points are not an exhaustive list by any means. But what I hope you know is that God's stance through millennia and into eternity is rooted in an unwavering steadfast love for us from the books of Moses, to the prophets to the gospels. God is with us and for us.