(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

“Healing Connections: Humility” (October 7, 2018)

from Philippians 2:1-8

Not only were we created for relationship with God, but we were actually created for relationship with one another as well.  We know that Jesus makes possible through His death and resurrection, relationship with God.  But Jesus also makes life-giving relationship with one another possible through that same death and resurrection.

The problem is, something that is meant to be such a gift and such a reflection of Who God is in the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…relationship with one another…is the cause of some of our greatest frustration and hurt in this world.

So how do we love one another well.  How do we operate in ways that are healthy and foster relationships that reflect Who Jesus is to the world around us?

We begin with humility.

w/ Vern Collins

“Framework for Faithfulness: Christ at the Center” (September 23, 2018)

from Luke 10:38-42

We are conditioned, many of us, to compartmentalize our lives as a means of surviving the pace at which we tend to operate.  We can call it self-preservation, and while it might help us feel like we are keeping our heads above water, when that mentality creeps into our spiritual life it becomes dangerous.

Without realizing it, it means that define what is at the center of our lives by determining what Christ can touch and what He must leave alone.  We set aside time to connect with Him, and often in doing so, try to decide the parts of us that He gets to connect with.

What if everything we do is meant to be an act of worship, and act of placing and keeping Christ at the center of who we are?

w/ Vern Collins

“Framework for Faithfulness: Values” (September 9, 2018)

from Daniel 3:1-18

What drives your decisions?  What determines the way you spend your time, your resources, your energy, the things you pursue?  Follow the trail of those things and you’re not too far off from being able to determine what you value most.

If Vision (see the message from 9.2.18) determines the path on which we are journeying, then our Values determine HOW we journey that path.  The questions we must wrestle with in this are: Are the things we tend to value worth the value we assign them? And are the values by which we live in fact life giving or are they stealing life from us?

w/ Vern Collins

“Summer Reading-John: I Am The Vine” (July 29, 2018)

from John 15:1-17

What is your life oriented around?

There is a saying often used in the business world that states, “All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results  they are now getting.  If we want different results, we must change the way we do things.”

While your life is not an organization or a system, the same truth is applicable.  If Jesus says that we are to bear fruit for His Kingdom, it begs the question: what kind of fruit are you bearing?

What if our primary focus isn’t the fruit, but what our lives are rooted in?

w/ Vern Collins

“Let the Journey Begin” (July 15, 2018)

from Genesis 12:1-9

In the first of a special two-part series (and brief break from our “Summer Reading” series), we welcome new Senior Pastor Lory Beth Huffman who challenges us to consider what it might look like for us to journey TOGETHER with the future that God is calling us in to.

God is calling.  Right where you are.   Will you follow?

w/ Lory Beth Huffman

“Summer Reading-John: Nicodemus” (June 3, 2018)

from John 3:1-18

Have you considered what coming face to face with the Good News of the Gospel of Christ might truly mean for your life?

It has the power to shape the way you view your life, understand your purpose.  It has the power to change the way you view others.  It has the power to define who you are.

In this, Pastor David Hockett’s last Sunday with us, he proclaims a powerful, hopeful, and inviting message that is at the core of who we are invited to be as individuals, and who we are called to be as the church.

w/ David Hockett

“Life Together: The Day With Others” (April 22, 2018)

from Hebrews 10:23-25

Mission Celebration Sunday!  How is God calling you to deeper discipleship?  Deeper trust in His call?  Deeper dependence on His leading and His provision as He draws you deeper into the full life that Jesus promises in John 10?

w/ testimony from some of our very own Crossroads family and a word from Pastor Laura Byrch

“Life Together: Community” (April 15, 2018)

from Ephesians 2:11-22 and Psalm 133

As we begin a new series inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic work, Life Together, consider what makes you unique?  Or what is one unique thing about you?

All of us…all of humanity possess some unique quality that distinguishes us from others.  The question is, how is it that our distinctions can become the things that divide us?

It is perhaps one of the greatest arguments against the church…that the Body of Christ is often as fractured as the world around it.  What if, instead of defining ourselves by the things that set us apart, we find our distinction in the One thing that unites us?  Christ.

w/ Vern Collins

“What You Believe” (April 8, 2018)

from John 20:19-31

What you believe determines how you live.  How you respond in a given situation is dictated by the set of beliefs upon which you’ve built your life.

What you believe about love determines who you are in a relationship.  What you believe about time determines how you use the time you have.

The same is true for what you believe about Who Jesus is…it impacts everything about how you live your life.

If Who you believe Jesus to be determines how you live, then what you have experienced in your walk with Jesus determines what you are living for.

w/ Vern Collins