The Vine Church OC

When you think of the cross, what comes to mind for you? In this Good Friday service, we got to look at the "Great Exchange" that was made by Jesus that day: our guilt for his forgiveness, our woundedness for his healing... our death for his life. We have a God who enters our pain, who carries our sorrows. The message of the cross is that if you come to Jesus for this great exchange, you can know peace with God your Creator - real, objective peace with the God of the Universe.

The first Easter didn't start with celebration - it didn't start with joy. Instead, it began with confusion, with bewilderment. So, if you don't know what to do with this whole resurrection, you are in wonderful company; because Jesus' closest friends - his most committed followers - were actually completely bewildered that first Easter morning! Pastor Michael Swanson talks about what made the difference for them, and invites us to see the incredibly good news of the reality, the significance, and the power of Jesus' resurrection.

Dr. Tony Baron invited us to use our imagination to consider what the celebration on Palm Sunday would have felt like as the people welcomed in their liberator. He talked about the Preparation, Procession, and Passion of Jesus, the King of Peace - and how so many missed him then... and how so many miss him today in this "time of visitation", too.

Do you ever feel "stuck" spiritually? Pastor Michael Swanson invites us to look at the God who makes a way forward - as we remember what he has already done, and open ourselves to what "new thing" (Is. 43:19) he may be doing in our present reality.

As we journey with Jesus in the wilderness - a place of focus and preparation, but also often a time of trial and hardship - we can sometimes find ourselves struggling with fear, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. How do we journey WITH GOD through those things? Michael Swanson looked at the life of Elijah (a man like us - James 5:17), who struggled with many of these same things - and how he was cared for and called to LIFE in the midst of his fear and anguish.

Sharing vulnerably from his own experience, Nigel Morris spoke about when things go wrong - where God's love is when we find ourselves in a desert season. Nigel suggested we have become so accustomed to the cross, we often fail to see it as the "irresponsible love of God" that it is.

Last week, we spent time with Jesus in the desert. This week, we continued to look at what God is up to in desert seasons by spending some time with Moses in the desert. Pastor Michael Swanson brought out the intensity of the Israelites' time of waiting for the Promised Land, and how when it was finally offered - but at the exclusion of God's presence with them - Moses said, "No deal". And God honored this hunger for God's presence, going with them and giving them rest.

How do you navigate a spiritual "desert" season? What is God up to in those times? Michael Swanson looked at Jesus' 40 days in the desert and how it mirrors much of our own "desert" experience. This was the first Sunday of the 40-day Lent season (modeled itself after Jesus' time in the wilderness), and Michael asked very honest questions and temptations that might come up in a season like this.

Michael Swanson asks us the question, "Have we settled for the way things are?", looking at the life of Hannah in 1 Samuel, chapter 1. Hannah refused to give up, but instead took a stand and leaned further into prayer, desperate for God to "show up". We were invited to go "all in" like Hannah, looking to God to awaken a "sleepy" church.

Michael Swanson spoke about our church's vision this week - seeing our city transformed by the Love of Christ - and how that begins with transformation in each of our own individual lives. He spoke about the cycle we see in Judges, of a whole people group going through the cycle of spiritual decline and then revival - looking especially at the life of Gideon as one person who was transformed, and how that led to the transformation of an entire people.