In John 11:25-27 Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life." This radical statement, made in the context of Lazarus' death, reveals Jesus' ultimate power over death itself. In this Advent message, Colby leads us on a deep exploration of this text and what it means to us— reminding us that while we believe in a future resurrection, we remain deeply vulnerable to the pain and mystery of death. However, Jesus offers us more than just hope for the future— He gives us eternal life now. As believers, we're already spiritually resurrected, living a new life in Christ. This truth should transform how we live, encouraging us to embrace our identity as God's children and live righteously. The message challenges us to confront our fears about death and find comfort in the promise of eternal life, urging us to live as resurrected people in the present.

In this powerful exploration of Jesus as the Christ, we delve into the profound meaning behind this title. The sermon takes us on a journey through Scripture, from Peter's bold declaration in Matthew 16 to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. We're challenged to consider: what does it truly mean to proclaim Jesus as the Christ? It's not just a name, but a declaration of His identity as the long-awaited Messiah, the Anointed One, and the eternal King. This message invites us to move beyond intellectual understanding to a heart-level encounter with Jesus. Just as Peter's faith evolved, we too are called to grow in our understanding and surrender to Christ. The sermon reminds us that believing Jesus is the Christ isn't a one-time event, but a lifelong journey of discovery and deepening faith.

The iconic account of Jesus' birth in Luke 2 opens with the words, "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered." It is not by accident that from the very beginning of the Gospel story, Luke sets up Jesus and Caesar as polar opposites as one another in his gospel. In those days, Caesar Augustus was referred to as the "son of god" throughout the entire Roman empire in reference to his father, Julius Caesar. Also, Augustus was worshipped as the king who had brought peace and prosperity to the entire world.

The subversive truth about Jesus is that we all are left with a choice: is Jesus Lord, or is Caesar? Is Jesus the Son of God, or is Caesar? In this first message of the advent season, Brock reminds us of the Lordship of Jesus, and that there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved.

Listen to our Advent Theme for this season, "No Name" by Red Rocks Worship, here

Many of us let the fear of failure keep us from doing what we know God has called us to do.

We live in a results-driven society, and consequently it is easy for us to place more importance in the results of our actions, than we do in who told us to act in the first place. The scripture is clear: our role is to obey what the Holy Spirit tells us to do. The thing is, the Spirit doesn’t always lead us into spaces where things go the way we would like them to. As a matter of fact, sometimes the Holy Spirit intentionally leads us into things that are hard.

In this message, Brock walks through two stories where people are given the choice of whether or not to obey, all the while knowing that their obedience would not yield good results. Sometimes we are led directly into hardship and into suffering. The Christian life is not a promise of an easy existence, but rather a promise of a life where we are never alone, and a life of peace beyond what makes sense.

There's a bit of a grind to the Christian walk that doesn't get talked about all too often. Oftentimes, a real faith isn't so much about knowing the right things as it is about a willingness to continue to walk the narrow road even when we don't feel like it. We are called to keep walking even when we are wounded, even when we are anxious, and even when we are tired.

The book of Isaiah was written to a people in ruins. They were beaten down, they were hopeless, and they were exhausted. They felt like they were far from home, and like God had forgotten about them and their pain. They were in despair.

The pain and the pressure we feel from living in the world will get to you sometimes. It will leave you tired; and not in the sense that you are tired after a long day of work, but deeply, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. In this message Colby digs into the reminders and promises of Isaiah 40, which are just as applicable to us as they were to the people they were originally written to— promises of renewed strength and hope for those who wait on God; promises that God still sees you, and God still cares.

"Anxiety" has been a buzzword in our culture for quite some time now, and it doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. It's no secret that we are experiencing an epidemic of anxiety, depression, and despair in our time.

One of the hard things about anxiety and depression is that there are no easy answers for it. There is no three step process to fix it; there is no easy way out of it. But in spite of that, there is one thing that is abundantly clear: if you read the scriptures you'll realize that anxiety is not a new. People have struggled with it going all the way back to the beginning, and if you do struggle with anxiety, you are not alone.

In this message, Brock opens up and vulnerably addresses anxiety in his own life, and rather than giving a quick fix for anxiety, he points us to the hope and peace available to us in and during our anxiety.

We all love a good underdog story. Stores of people who have overcome great adversity, hardship, or obstacles inspire us to pursue greatness. But for some reason, that doesn't translate to most of our faith journeys. Many people within the church, when confronted with obstacles to walking in their calling, let the obstacles have the last word. The truth is that we are all gifted in unique ways for the advancement of the Kingdom of God on the earth, but many of us let excuses like "I'm too busy," or, "I've been hurt before, and I'm not going to let that happen again," stop us from using those gifts.

This series is all about the power in God's people deciding to "Do it Anyway," in spite of the obstacles.

In this message, Cody starts off the series by talking about the importance of choosing to "Do it Wounded"— choosing to continue to show up even though we have been hurt, and choosing to serve even when we are living with the casualties of living in a fallen world.

As we round out our series through the seven spiritual gifts of Romans 12, we turn to the final gift listed in the text: Mercy.

Mercy is a topic that is discussed heavily in the gospels, but Jesus, surprisingly, didn't talk all that much about it. People asked Jesus to show them mercy all the time, but there are only a few times where Jesus actually uses the word "mercy" in his teaching; three to be exact. In the third of these three stories, Jesus heals a demon-possessed man, and then tells him to go and tell his friends how the Lord has had mercy on him.

Now, if that story is the only record we have of Jesus describing something he did as being merciful, we could probably stand to learn about the gift of mercy by digging into that story. In this message, Brock breaks down the true meaning of mercy by drawing insights from the healing of the Gerasene Demoniac, and then gives three traits that mark people with the spiritual gift of mercy.

As we've gone through the seven spiritual gifts that Paul lists in Romans 12, one thing that has become clear is that the gifts are not intended to box people into one or two particular areas of service. In other words, just because you are gifted in one area, doesn't mean that you don't have to do the activities associated with the other areas of giftedness. We are all called to prophesy, some of us are just spiritually gifted at it. We are all called to serve, some of us are just spiritually gifted at it. It goes on down the list.

The same thing is true of giving. We are all called to give and to be generous. Some of us are just supernaturally gifted at it. In this message, Cody lays out what the New and Old Testaments say about what role giving should play in the life of a follower of Jesus, and lays out traits that mark people who have been supernaturally gifted by the Holy Spirit to give and empower the church.

We hear Jesus referred to as the "lamb of God" a lot, but what does that actually mean? Many people will tell you that a great way to sum up the gospel is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he GAVE..."

We know that Jesus is the Lamb of God because he gave himself as an offering on our behalf. But there's so much more to it than that. In this message, Brock takes a deep dive on the idea of the "lamb of God" as it appears all through scripture, and by doing that we can see that Jesus is ultimately revealed to be the answer to a question going all the way back to Genesis: "Where is the Lamb?"