(June 19, 2022) “Summer in the Psalms: Psalm 51-Receiving Grace”

from Psalm 51

Walter Bruggemann says of the Psalms: “On the one hand, Israel’s faithful speech addressed to God is the substance of the Psalms.  The Psalms do this so fully and so well because they articulate the entire gamut of Israel’s speech to God, from profound praise to the utterance of unspeakable anger and doubt.  On the other hand, as Martin Luther understood so passionately, the Psalms are not only addressed to God…They are the voice of the Gospel, God’s good word addressed to God’s faithful people.”

Where do you need to be given permission to be honest with God? With what you are feeling. With your frustration. With sadness, or disappointment, or fear, or anger. With great joy and thanksgiving. This summer journey with us as the reality of what it means to be human collides with the goodness and unending faithfulness of God.

w/ Ben Fitzgerald

(June 13, 2021) “Living Revival: Bearing Witness”

from John 4:27-30, 39-42 and John 9:24-25

Psalm 85:6 reads, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

This longing undergirds our series and this season of revival we are asking God to bring. What is hindering your rejoicing? What is getting in the way of you living completely surrendered to the love and presence of God in your life? Where do you need revival? 

We are naturally wired to share good news, and yet the BEST NEWS is one of the things we have the most difficult time sharing with others.

What has Jesus done in YOUR life? How are you telling other people about it? Inviting them to experience the joy that you have experienced in encountering and knowing Jesus…

w/ Vern Collins

(November 24, 2019) “Glimpses of Jesus: Running”

from Luke 15:11-32

What is your understanding of God’s love for you? Is it something you simply know about, or is it something you have experienced for yourself?

In this story Jesus tells in Luke’s Gospel, our understanding of the love of God our Father might just be challenged…in life-changing ways…regardless of where you find yourself in relation to Him right now.

What if you knew God was calling you home to Him? What if you knew God was running toward you in the Person of Jesus? What if you allowed yourself to experience that embrace? What about your life might just change?

w/ Vern Collins

(November 17, 2019) “Glimpses of Jesus: Healing”

from Mark 5:21-43

In this week’s glimpse of Jesus, we find two similar yet very different encounters with Jesus. Both people who come to Jesus are seeking healing, and both experience healing in very different ways.

Perhaps you have longed to see healing in your life or in the life of someone you love. Perhaps you have sought God for that, praying that healing would indeed come. Maybe it did…maybe God answered those prayers in the way you hoped…praise God for that.

But what if it didn’t? What if healing didn’t come in the way you hoped for or expected? Is it possible that Jesus is working to bring healing in your life in places deeper than an injury or an illness? Is it possible that Jesus wants to heal completely…even if it means you may still bear the pain of injury or illness?

What if you sought that kind of healing? What if you trusted Jesus enough to heal in the way you or those you love need most?

w/ Lory Beth Huffman

“Healing Connections: Forgiveness” (October 28, 2018)

from John 8:1-11

Often times we can know that God loves us and calls us to love those around us…to be LIKE JESUS to the world around us.  We can know that God loves us so much that He gave His Son as a payment for our sin.

If we know those things, what keeps us from feeling like we are living the new life that Jesus promises?  Why do we feel “stuck” somewhere between where we were and where God is calling us?  For many of us, it can be boiled down to one word: FORGIVENESS.

Too many of us carry the stones of condemnation or anger or frustration or hurt around, hindering our walk in the freedom of grace that God offers us in Jesus.  Maybe it’s our inability to forgive someone who has hurt us, or maybe it’s our inability to forgive ourselves…regardless, the invitation is to out those stones down and walk in freedom!

w/ Vern Collins

Easter “Hope Beyond Fridays” (April 1, 2018)

from John 20:1-18

We have a great tendency to hope for things that will not last.  Sure, like the end of the week, they may bring relief or rest for a brief period of time, but ultimately they are as fleeting as Fridays.

What if, instead of hoping for temporary newness, and the wrong kind of resurrection…you dare to believe that Jesus brings lasting hope and a new life that will not spoil or fade?

Imagine the possibility.

Jesus is RISEN!

w/ Vern Collins

“God Is: Compassionate and Just” (January 28, 2018)

from Matthew 18:21-35

week 3 of our “God Is” series…

while it would be easier to be able to define God as having ONE attribute, the reality is we will never see God for Who He is, and will never live pursuing the life He longs to give as long as we continue to limit our view of Him.

w/ Vern Collins

“Pray Like Jesus: Forgive” (January 22, 2017)

from Matthew 6:12

We live in a world that is full of hurt, and many of us carry that hurt around inside us.  Whether we hurt over the things we have done that we feel guilt over, or whether we have been hurt by others…our lives are marked with pain of some sort.  The question is, what do we do with that hurt?  Do we simply learn to deal with it, or are we willing to release it?  To seek forgiveness, to be forgiven?  What about forgiving others?

Are we willing to name our pain, and trust that God can release us from it?

Are we willing to release others from the pain they have caused us?

Too often not…but it is not impossible.  Perhaps all it takes is a new understanding of forgiveness, what happens when we are forgiven, and what can happen when we forgive.

w/ Vern Collins

“Questions God Asks: Do You Love Me?” (April 19, 2015)

*This week’s message includes the announcement about our senior pastor, Jason’s Byassee new appointment starting July 1st.  We are incredibly grateful for his leadership, we love he and his family deeply, and pray God’s blessing on their faithfulness in this call.

from John 21:15-19

People do crazy things for love…quit jobs, move half way around the country, get tattoos, change lifestyles…what do you do to show love to those you in fact love?  What are you willing to do to show love to someone?
Are you willing to protect them, willing to commit to them, willing to challenge them…would you be willing to jump out of a boat for them?  Peter did all of these things for Jesus.  Perhaps, the greatest example of Peter’s we have to follow, however, is his willingness to meet Jesus on the shore of his need for grace, hear the question, “do you love me?” and be willing to follow Him once more into a life of surrender to the cause of the Gospel.
What are you willing to do?
w/ Vern Collins