from Luke 10:25-37
The season of Lent is an invitation to examine one’s heart and consider the journey of Jesus’ own suffering that makes possible a life lived in the freedom of God’s grace and the wholeness in which we were created to live.
While the season of Lent is typically marked with “giving something up,” this season you are invited to consider that the journey toward, “life to the full,” that Jesus offers is more costly than simply giving up chocolate or coffee…perhaps it could mean a complete re-ordering of your priorities…and in costing you your busyness or your dignity or your treasure, what if in the process you find more than you ever dreamt possible?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 9:51, 57-62 and 14:25-33
The season of Lent is an invitation to examine one’s heart and consider the journey of Jesus’ own suffering that makes possible a life lived in the freedom of God’s grace and the wholeness in which we were created to live.
While the season of Lent is typically marked with “giving something up,” this season you are invited to consider that the journey toward, “life to the full,” that Jesus offers is more costly than simply giving up chocolate or coffee…perhaps it could mean a complete re-ordering of your priorities…and in costing you your busyness or your dignity or your treasure, what if in the process you find more than you ever dreamt possible?
w/ Vern Collins
from Psalm 139:23-24
John Ortberg writes, “The human longings that are deep inside of us never go away. They exist across cultures; they exist throughout life. When people were first made, our deepest longing was to know and to be known. And after the Fall, when we all got weird, it’s still our deepest longing-but it’s now also our deepest fear.” In one of the most beautiful prayers captured in the Psalms, we find Ian invitation to awe and wonder, and invitation to humility, and most importantly an invitation into the freedom of knowing and being known by the God of Creation.
w/ Vern Collins
from Psalm 139:19-22
John Ortberg writes, “The human longings that are deep inside of us never go away. They exist across cultures; they exist throughout life. When people were first made, our deepest longing was to know and to be known. And after the Fall, when we all got weird, it’s still our deepest longing-but it’s now also our deepest fear.” In one of the most beautiful prayers captured in the Psalms, we find Ian invitation to awe and wonder, and invitation to humility, and most importantly an invitation into the freedom of knowing and being known by the God of Creation.
w/ Vern Collins
from Psalm 139:7-12
John Ortberg writes, “The human longings that are deep inside of us never go away. They exist across cultures; they exist throughout life. When people were first made, our deepest longing was to know and to be known. And after the Fall, when we all got weird, it’s still our deepest longing-but it’s now also our deepest fear.” In one of the most beautiful prayers captured in the Psalms, we find Ian invitation to awe and wonder, and invitation to humility, and most importantly an invitation into the freedom of knowing and being known by the God of Creation.
w/ Vern Collins
from Psalm 139:1-5
John Ortberg writes, “The human longings that are deep inside of us never go away. They exist across cultures; they exist throughout life. When people were first made, our deepest longing was to know and to be known. And after the Fall, when we all got weird, it’s still our deepest longing-but it’s now also our deepest fear.” In one of the most beautiful prayers captured in the Psalms, we find Ian invitation to awe and wonder, and invitation to humility, and most importantly an invitation into the freedom of knowing and being known by the God of Creation.
w/ Ed Glaze
from Psalm 139:13-16
John Ortberg writes, “The human longings that are deep inside of us never go away. They exist across cultures; they exist throughout life. When people were first made, our deepest longing was to know and to be known. And after the Fall, when we all got weird, it’s still our deepest longing-but it’s now also our deepest fear.” In one of the most beautiful prayers captured in the Psalms, we find Ian invitation to awe and wonder, and invitation to humility, and most importantly an invitation into the freedom of knowing and being known by the God of Creation.
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 3:13-17
In the waters of our baptism we step into our identity and our purpose in the Kingdom of God. As you remember your baptism, may you hear that you are called Beloved, and may you live into making the beauty of God’s Kingdom known and present in this world.
w/ Vern Collins
from 2 Kings 23:1-3
As we begin this new year, let us consider what it might mean to renew our commitment to relationship with God…or let us consider what it might mean to be open to a relationship with God for the fist time.
Wesley Covenant Prayer:
I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you, Praised for you or criticized for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service. And now, O wonderful and holy God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, you are mine, and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, Let it also be made in heaven. Amen.
w/ Vern Collins
*Combined Christmas Eve Worship Gathering
from Isaiah 9:1-7
J.B. Phillips writes, “The towering miracle of God’s visit to this planet on which we live will be glossed over, brushed aside or rendered impotent by over-familiarity.” Advent season comes and goes each year, and yet our hopes remain.
What if, this year we allowed the deep longing we carry inside us for this world to be different…to be the catalyst for seeing the hope of the season of Advent anew? Rather than becoming numb to the miracle of the incarnation…of Emmanuel, “God with us,” we listen back to the words of the prophet Isiah and hear this promise that God has not and will not leave us alone…that He has come and that He is coming again.
May the thrill of such hope stir in our hearts an expectation for God to move anew in our lives.
w/ Ed Glaize
from Isaiah 7:10-16
J.B. Phillips writes, “The towering miracle of God’s visit to this planet on which we live will be glossed over, brushed aside or rendered impotent by over-familiarity.” Advent season comes and goes each year, and yet our hopes remain.
What if, this year we allowed the deep longing we carry inside us for this world to be different…to be the catalyst for seeing the hope of the season of Advent anew? Rather than becoming numb to the miracle of the incarnation…of Emmanuel, “God with us,” we listen back to the words of the prophet Isiah and hear this promise that God has not and will not leave us alone…that He has come and that He is coming again.
May the thrill of such hope stir in our hearts an expectation for God to move anew in our lives.
w/ Vern Collins
*from our Combined Worship Gathering for our Christmas Cantata
from Isaiah 35
J.B. Phillips writes, “The towering miracle of God’s visit to this planet on which we live will be glossed over, brushed aside or rendered impotent by over-familiarity.” Advent season comes and goes each year, and yet our hopes remain.
What if, this year we allowed the deep longing we carry inside us for this world to be different…to be the catalyst for seeing the hope of the season of Advent anew? Rather than becoming numb to the miracle of the incarnation…of Emmanuel, “God with us,” we listen back to the words of the prophet Isiah and hear this promise that God has not and will not leave us alone…that He has come and that He is coming again.
May the thrill of such hope stir in our hearts an expectation for God to move anew in our lives.
w/ Vern Collins
from Isaiah 11:1-10
J.B. Phillips writes, “The towering miracle of God’s visit to this planet on which we live will be glossed over, brushed aside or rendered impotent by over-familiarity.” Advent season comes and goes each year, and yet our hopes remain.
What if, this year we allowed the deep longing we carry inside us for this world to be different…to be the catalyst for seeing the hope of the season of Advent anew? Rather than becoming numb to the miracle of the incarnation…of Emmanuel, “God with us,” we listen back to the words of the prophet Isiah and hear this promise that God has not and will not leave us alone…that He has come and that He is coming again.
May the thrill of such hope stir in our hearts an expectation for God to move anew in our lives.
w/ Vern Collins
from Isaiah 2:1-5
J.B. Phillips writes, “The towering miracle of God’s visit to this planet on which we live will be glossed over, brushed aside or rendered impotent by over-familiarity.” Advent season comes and goes each year, and yet our hopes remain.
What if, this year we allowed the deep longing we carry inside us for this world to be different…to be the catalyst for seeing the hope of the season of Advent anew? Rather than becoming numb to the miracle of the incarnation…of Emmanuel, “God with us,” we listen back to the words of the prophet Isiah and hear this promise that God has not and will not leave us alone…that He has come and that He is coming again.
May the thrill of such hope stir in our hearts an expectation for God to move anew in our lives.
w/ Ed Glaize
from Philippians 4:4-7
Scripture is full of reasons to give thanks. It is full of instruction toward gratitude and thanksgiving before God. A Spirit of Thanksgiving ought to be one of the things that marks the people of God and sets us apart from a world that has a difficult time being able to place deep-rooted hope in anything lasting. But what do we do when Thanksgiving is difficult? What do we do when a Spirit of Gratitude seems hard to muster? Is there hope of finding reason for thanks in all seasons? Reasons for gratitude no matter the circumstances? Imagine how different life might be if we actually could…
w/ Vern Collins
from Hebrews 12:28-29
Scripture is full of reasons to give thanks. It is full of instruction toward gratitude and thanksgiving before God. A Spirit of Thanksgiving ought to be one of the things that marks the people of God and sets us apart from a world that has a difficult time being able to place deep-rooted hope in anything lasting. But what do we do when Thanksgiving is difficult? What do we do when a Spirit of Gratitude seems hard to muster? Is there hope of finding reason for thanks in all seasons? Reasons for gratitude no matter the circumstances? Imagine how different life might be if we actually could…
w/ Vern Collins
from Hebrews 12:1-3
Scripture is full of reasons to give thanks. It is full of instruction toward gratitude and thanksgiving before God. A Spirit of Thanksgiving ought to be one of the things that marks the people of God and sets us apart from a world that has a difficult time being able to place deep-rooted hope in anything lasting. But what do we do when Thanksgiving is difficult? What do we do when a Spirit of Gratitude seems hard to muster? Is there hope of finding reason for thanks in all seasons? Reasons for gratitude no matter the circumstances? Imagine how different life might be if we actually could…
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 28:16-20
“Go and make Disciples.”
The command seems simple enough. The invitation to BE a disciple is inviting enough (on the lips of Jesus, that is)…inviting, but unapologetic in what it costs to follow Him well…to follow Him TRULY and FAITHFULLY.
Over the course of this series we are going to consider as many facets of this encounter the disciples had with the Risen Jesus…to consider the setting…the ask…the promise…the doubt…the worship…all in hopes of hearing the call in our own lives and taking seriously enough what we are being invited to and what is being asked that we are willing first to truly BE disciples and second to be a part of the work of MAKING disciples!
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 28:16-20
“Go and make Disciples.”
The command seems simple enough. The invitation to BE a disciple is inviting enough (on the lips of Jesus, that is)…inviting, but unapologetic in what it costs to follow Him well…to follow Him TRULY and FAITHFULLY.
Over the course of this series we are going to consider as many facets of this encounter the disciples had with the Risen Jesus…to consider the setting…the ask…the promise…the doubt…the worship…all in hopes of hearing the call in our own lives and taking seriously enough what we are being invited to and what is being asked that we are willing first to truly BE disciples and second to be a part of the work of MAKING disciples!
w/ Vern Collins
