Crossroads at Boone United Methodist Church
Messages and Media
from John 2:1-11
How would things change if you knew you had not yet seen the best that God has for your life? How would it change your perspective? How might you live differently knowing that the best was yet to come?
Now, what would God’s best for you look like?
What if it has little to do with what God wanted to do for you, and more with what God wants to do THROUGH YOU?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 3:15-18, 21-22
You often look at the start of a new year as an opportunity to examine your life and make changes toward becoming the person you really want to be…
Whether that is to be a healthier person, a kinder person, a more patient person, a more prompt person, a stronger person…whatever the case, a new year tends to mean a fresh start…a chance to make a change.
The question becomes, why is making a change so important? Why do we spend so much time and energy and money toward making these change? Because for so many people, identity is found in how one performs, how one perceives self…how one is perceived by others. The problem is, this can be an exhausting roller coaster of self love and self loathing, of being sure of who one is and in the next moment have more questions than answers when it comes to self.
The reality is, we are all a mess…and yet there is a truth we find and embrace in baptism that calls us to the end of our search for identity…because in baptism, you are invited to embrace the truth that before you acted-good or bad, you are the beloved of God.
*NOTE-in this week’s recording we have chosen not to edit out the invitation to baptism and remembrance of baptism. Normally, the audio would not include the invitation to respond (be it to prayer, communion, or in this case-baptism), as it is to receive something tangible for those who are gathered on Sunday morning. However, it seems appropriate given the message to include the invitation…it is an invitation to all, to remember that you are the beloved of God, or to embrace for the first time the truth that you are the beloved of God…may you find your identity in that hope!
If you would like to speak with one of our pastors you may do so by finding us online at www.booneumc.org
w/ Vern Collins
from Ephesians 3:1-12
The season of Epiphany is about the hope of humanity being revealed in the birth of Christ.
Epiphany. Revelation. The Ah-ha moment. The time when things become clear…when there is knowledge of something not previously possessed…if knowledge is power, it begs the question , “what kind of power are you in pursuit of?”
Paul has experienced a deep revelation of Christ…and it has empowered him in significant ways…but perhaps not in the way we tend to think of power…
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 2:22-40
How do we reconcile the anticipation and promise of hope and joy and peace that we are immersed in during Advent with the harsh reality that is a hurting and broken life or this broken world in which we live?
In Luke’s account of Mary and Joseph’s encounter with Simeon and Anna in the temple, we find that Simeon (and as a result, Mary) is very much in touch with long suffering and pain…and we find that perhaps it is not something we are meant to explain away or shy away from.
What if, like Mary, we embraced God’s hope for our lives…both in the good and the bad…and in embracing it find that we are able to point the world around us to the hope we find in Christ?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 2:1-20
Order. We spend a great deal of time and energy in our lives seeking to achieve and maintain some sort of order. And yet, all it takes is a phone call, a meeting at work, a notice in the mail, a visit to the doctor to realize that at any given moment we are a breath away from chaos breaking in and disrupting our safe, calculated lives.
The good news is, as a census was being taken in the Roman Empire…as order was being set…Jesus was entering the world…not in the midst of order, but on the fringe of it…on the edge of chaos.
In unexpected ways to unlikely people the birth of Jesus and news of His birth came…with a proclamation that through Christ, God is coming to make peace in the midst of the chaos…
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 1:57-80
Have you ever thought of yourself as a tour guide? While you may not make a living directing sightseers, you are living a life that people are watching.
With that said, the question becomes: what is the life your living pointing to? In the way you spend your time, energy, finances…the passions you pursue…what does your life point to as being of utmost importance? Is it truly worth pointing others to?
What if, in this Christmas season, you began living a life pointing to Jesus?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 1:26-38
God will act. Things will change. This is the hope of Advent. But have you ever stopped to consider HOW God initiates and brings about this change in the world?
Have you ever considered that God might just ask YOU to be a part of His kingdom breaking in to the world…in to LIVES around you?
Many of us would shy away from such an invitation because we are convinced that there is nothing in us that would qualify us for such a task. What it as long as you thought such a thing…that meant you were right where God wants you to be…poised to change the world around you?
w/ Vern Collins
from Zephaniah 3:14-20/Luke 1:46-55
Advent is about expectation…the expectation that God will continue to fulfill His promises. And if God is still fulfilling His promises then isn’t God still acting…and if God is acting, then things will change? Right?
Right. The problem is we don’t often see it. We look for change in our lives, but don’t see it, we expect our circumstances to improve, but aren’t seeing any thing different…so if God is acting, why aren’t things changing? The question, perhaps, is not whether or not things are changing, but, “are you looking for change in the right place?”
w/ Vern Collins
from Jeremiah 33:14-16
The season of Advent is about waiting, it is about expectation, it is about hope…the hope that things will change, the hope that this is not all there is, the hope that God will act.
Whether it’s something in your life you’re dealing with, or the state of this world we live in…holding on to such hope can seem foolish…
And yet maybe that’s exactly what is needed…a bit more foolishness…a deeper investment in the hope that God will act…because God has been faithful to act before.
w/ Vern Collins
from Joshua 24
Options. Many live in a culture full of options. Options for clothing, cars, the way you spend your time…upgrade options, warranty options, media options, options for the way you connect with others…it is a culture that caters to the consumer.
What if, however, we have become so accustomed to crafting this life to be the most comfortable it can, that we have made optional things that should not be?
Take serving and loving others for example…Jesus never presented it as an option…even in our Old Testament passage from Joshua, we see that amidst the options of lesser gods, Joshua makes it clear that those options are no option at all, really.
What if the way you served was a life style, not simply another option on your list?
w/ Luke Edwards
from John 15:1-17
How is it that we’ve boiled Christianity, that is, what it means to be a follower of Jesus, down to NOT doing the things we shouldn’t do, and being sure to do the things we should?
The invitation of Jesus is to life…a full life to be more specific. Yet, we have somehow bought in to this idea that life with Christ is little more than behavior modification.
In this week’s foundation of Connecting, we consider that what we DO for God is simply not as important as how we are WITH God through our connection in our relationship with Jesus. Perhaps the fruit, or what we “do” comes as a byproduct of abiding in Christ as He calls us to do in John 15. Not only in relationship with Jesus, but in relationship with one another do we find that God is able to bear fruit in and through our lives that is beautiful in His sight.
Rather than focusing on, “doing and achieving,” what if your focus became, “abiding, and being?”
w/ Vern Collins
from Revelation 7:9-16
Silent Mediation. Old Hymns. Traditional. Contemporary. Praise and Worship. There are as many different opinions about what worship should be as there are people worshiping…or as there are people in church.
As we begin our “Foundations” series by looking at both foundations of the faith and foundations of who we are as a church and how we accomplish our mission of, “Loving our Community and inviting all to discover life in Christ,” we begin with worship as being a vital piece of that identity.
What your worship were not a matter of preference of style, but was the, “True Worship,” Jesus refers to in John 4, and that we catch a glimpse of in the vision of the throne in Revelation 7?
w/ Vern Collins
from 1 Timothy 6:11-19
Time, Relationships, Headlines, Money…these are just SOME of the things in life that overwhelm us. For the past four weeks, we’ve considered what it looks like to navigate those times when you feel overwhelmed by one or any number of these things.
What if the key was not just to navigate the overwhelming things, what if the goal was not just to get through them…what if the goal was to live an overwhelmed life?
A life overwhelmed by the reality of the goodness, and faithfulness, and love of God…present right in the midst of the rest that you are carrying.
Perhaps then you would find as Paul says, “the life that is truly life.”
w/ Vern Collins
from Deuteronomy 5:12-15
n an average lifespan (minus the time spent sleeping), you have 394,200 hours to get everything done you need to get done…
A LIFETIME to get things completed…and yet many of us live our lives as if time is slipping through our fingers. “To-Do” lists grow longer or keep getting pushed to tomorrow, calls are left unreturned, emails are left unanswered, the amount of demand continue to grow and time seems to continue to shrink…so how are we meant to keep our heads above the water? How are we meant to do it all?
You’re not. You’re not meant to do it all…you’re meant to abide in the One Who can.
And you begin by stopping and resting.
w/ Vern Collins
from 2 Corinthians 8:1-7
Whether it is the worry associated with not having enough, or the pressure of knowing how to steward if you have it, money continued to be for many one of the greatest causes of stress in many people’s lives.
While it is a necessary part of living in this consumer-driven culture, surely God’s intention was never for it to become the burden that it is.
In 2 Corinthians 8 Paul is telling of a group of believers who though they find themselves in the midst of severe persecution and poverty, are begging for the opportunity to participate in the offering for the Jerusalem church.
How is this possible, when many of us stress over paying bills for the roof over our heads.
Perhaps our problem is less a money issue, and more one of perspective…imagine how you would view the things in your life, money included, if you had a bigger view of God.
w/ Vern Collins
Ephesians 2:11-22
In the Creation story in Genesis we see that were not only born out of the relationship of Who God is in Three Persons, but we were created with relationship in mind. Add to that science’s understanding that physically and emotionally we have to have relationship (because without it both the mental and physical state of our bodies suffer), and we know we need relationship.
If this is the case, then why are relationships often one of the biggest burdens and largest source of stress in our lives? Because we are broken people trying to be connected to broken people.
What if you approached relationship differently based on the relationship God has mended with you through Jesus Christ?
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 24:1-8, Mark 4:35-40
from Revelation 21:1-6
from Deuteronomy 34:1-12
from Philippians 3:3-16
