Podcast: Stand Alone Messages

(January 3, 2021) “Remember” (Covenant Renewal)

from 2 Kings 23:1-3, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Matthew 22:34-40

As much as we want to see things change AROUND us, and as much as we might like to see some things change ABOUT us in this New Year…the reality is that we will never truly find fulfillment unless we are willing to see things first change WITHIN us.

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

(December 27, 2020) “Familiar Practice and Pattern”

from Luke 2:22-40

As much as we look ahead at the coming year and want so much to be different..and rightly so…what if instead of wanting to change everything about the life we are living…we considered practicing some things that are so familiar that they have been a part of the lives of the faithful for generations…for millennia?

Perhaps the thing that needs to change for you in the coming year is to pick up some familiar practice and pattern, and see where God might meet you in that!

w/ Vern Collins

(February 23, 2020) “God’s Healing Touch”

from James 5:13-16, Psalm 103:1-5

At any given point in our lives, we feel the brokenness of this world in which we live…a brokenness that not only affects the world around us, but affects us as well. Some of our brokenness is easily seen, other wounds we keep hidden, but whatever the case, God longs to bring healing and wholeness.

What if you took your longing for healing before the Lord, and trusted His healing touch? What if you could walk in wholeness?

w/ Vern Collins

(January 12, 2020) “A Simple Message”

from Matthew 3:1-12

The call to repent is at the heart of the Gospel invitation…and yet, for so many it has left a bad taste in the mouth of those who hear it. What we stopped hearing the call to repent at the end of a pointing finger, and instead heard it as a hope-filled invitation to something new?

John’s is a simple message full of opportunity.

Perhaps you might hear it again for the first time…

w/ Vern Collins

(January 5, 2020) “…and Have Come to Worship”

from Matthew 2:1-12

Epiphany invites us to wrestle with the question, “Who is Jesus TO YOU?”

The build up through Advent to Christmas can seem immense considering how quickly it all seems to leave us…Christmas is packed away for another year…and yet if we are willing, we might just find that the Hope that has come, is present, and continues to come in Jesus…it might just mean something for us now.

w/ Vern Collins

“The Power of the Spirit to…” (Pentecost Sunday June 9, 2019)

from Acts 2

We tend to land in one of two places when it comes to the Holy Spirit…either you crave the “signs and wonders,” above other expressions of the move of God, or the idea of a Holy Spirit that is present and active just plain makes you nervous.

Acts 2 offers us, perhaps a new understanding of just what the role and work of the Spirit of God is in this world, and how we might be a part of that work by creating space for the Holy Spirit to move.

w/ Vern Collins

“Diamonds in the Rough” (Confirmation Sunday/Combined Worship Gathering) June 2, 2019

from 1 Samuel 16:1-13

As we celebrate the end of one journey and the life-changing beginning of another for a group of young people in our church…we are all invited to consider the journey that we are on with God.

How does God see us? Are the things that we spend so much time and energy pursuing, the things that are really important to God or does God look deeper than our polished exterior? If that is the case, what is God willing to do in order to bring His best out of us…in order for us to experience Him more deeply?

w/ Lory Beth Huffman

“Hearing God’s Voice” (May 5, 2019)

from Numbers 22:22-35

On a special one-off Sunday (which serves as a perfect insert in our “Encounters With Jesus” series), we recognize that as a school year wraps up, as people are preparing for transition, as one chapter ends and a new one begins, the question often asked is, “what is God’s plan for my life?”

From Creation, to the Heavens, to God’s Spirit, God is speaking…drawing us in…revealing Who He is to us. The question is, can we hear Him? Are we able to recognize God’s voice when it comes?

w/ Lory Beth Huffman

“Resurrection Repair” (April 21, 2019) Easter Sunday

from Luke 24:1-12

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

So often we think of what the Cross of Christ means we are saved FROM, but how often do you consider the empty tomb of Christ and ask the question, “what am I saved FOR?”

Why do we look for life in dead places? What if the resurrection isn’t just something that happened 2,000 years ago…what if the resurrection can happen in your life NOW?

w/ Vern Collins

“Sent” (March 3, 2019)

from John 20:19-22

From hearing from some of our missionaries, to a powerful message on Jesus’ commission of His disciples from John’s Gospel, to an important invitation following our denomination’s called General Conference vote, this is a powerful Sunday.

Even in the midst of our every day, busy, running from here to there lives…even in the midst of our doubt and our hurt and our own woundedness, we are invited to remember that Jesus not only walks into that with us, but calls us to follow Him in becoming partners in His work of healing brokenness and redeeming this world.

w/ Laura Byrch, Mason Heistand, Caitlin McVay, and Vern Collins