(March 29, 2020) “Trusting God’s Way”

from Matthew 4:1-11

In a time of testing, what is the way you choose to cope…to be comfortable…to get through to the other side of the testing? Is it the path that seems easier, or is it the way God would have you walk in order that you might experience more of Who He is in your life?

w/ Vern Collins and Lory Beth Huffman

(March 22, 2020) “Trusting God’s Silence”

from Psalm 89:38-52 and Jeremiah 29:1-14

There is a difference between seeking to discern God’s voice in your life, and feeling like God has gone silent.

Silence from God, if we’re not careful, can affect our relationship with God in incredibly difficult ways. We might begin to question God’s love for us, we might begin to question God’s faithfulness, or whether or not God even cares what we are walking through. Too often, these feelings or questions, left un death with, can lead us to no longer seeking God…

And yet, what we find in our passages from Psalm 89 and Jeremiah 29, are both the permission to be honest with God about how His silence hits us, and direction from God in the midst of those seasons of unknown.

May we approach Him with boldness, and dig in deeply in the place where He has us.

w/ Vern Collins, Jeff McClain, and Ben Fitzgerald

(March 15, 2020) “Trusting God’s Leading”

from Exodus 19:1-8, 32:1-14, 19-20

As we continue our series on trusting God, we see God’s grace and sovereignty in inviting us to consider what it truly means to trust God in the midst of such a time of Global and national unrest as we navigate a season of new normal with the onset of COVID-19.

Not only in this trying time, but even in your own every day life, what does it mean to trust God’s leading? What does it look like to trust that God is still good when things around us don’t seem to be? What does it look like to trust that God is not only with us, but that God is still leading us?

w/ Lory Beth Huffman, Laura Byrch, and Ben Fitzgerald

(March 8, 2020) “Trusting God’s Provision”

from Genesis 22:1-19

Sometimes it seems that one of the most difficult areas in which to trust God, is in whether or not we will be provided for. If I surrender my life to him, will I truly have all I need? Will I have the kind of income I want, the kind of house I want…what about relationship? So often, when we think of provision, we find our thoughts wrapped up in material possessions, but what if what God promises to provide goes deeper than the material?

Can we truly trust that God will provide all that we need? What if the trials and the challenges in our lack, is not God ignoring our plea, what if it is God teaching us to walk in faith?

w/ Vern Collins

(March 1, 2020) “Trusting God’s Truth”

from Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-13, 21-24

In Psalm 16, David says to the Lord, “Your boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places,” but the reality is that many of us don’t think of boundaries in our lives as being pleasant, rather we tend to think of them as being restrictive. So in order to be able to pursue life as we feel it should be, we begin to create a truth for ourselves that is often outside of God’s Truth for us.

What if we began to see God’s Truth…the boundaries that God’s Truth creates, not as restrictive, but as gracious…as permissive…as life-giving?

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

(February 16, 2020) “Your Next Steps: Growing Spiritually”

from Luke 10:38-42 and Acts 2:42-47

Perhaps the greatest step we can take in this discipleship journey is the one that places us at the feet of Jesus…and yet in a world of busyness and seemingly endless demands on our time, this is the thing that tends to fall off of our list of priorities first.

What if, starting now, you made time at the feet of Jesus a priority instead of an afterthought? Imagine how it might help you to reorder your day as you begin to grow in your love for God and His Kingdom.

w/ Vern Collins

(February 9, 2020) “Your Next Steps: Serving”

from Isaiah 58:1-12

When you think of worship or the practice of religion, what comes to mind? More importantly, what do you believe the purpose of our worship or the practice of religion is FOR?

Are we simply checking boxes, or are we placing ourselves humbly before God in hopes that we might be transformed…in hopes that we might moved beyond our self-focus in order to focus on those around us?

What if this week, you took a step toward serving someone around you? Recognizing where they might have need, and being willing to come alongside them…just as God, in Christ, has come alongside you.

w/ Vern Collins

(February 2, 2020) “Your Next Steps: Connecting”

from Luke 8:4-15

Wherever you are on your journey with Christ, there is a thread that binds all who are on that journey (or even considering that journey) together. That is that not a single one of us is called to walk this journey alone.

Using Jesus’ parable of the sower, we consider the value of connecting with others in this journey of growing in Christ.

w/ Vern Collins

(January 26, 2020) “Your Next Steps: Transformed Disciple”

from Ephesians 4:1-3, 14-32

Too often we have a tendency to think of life as a Christ follower as meaning little more than behavior modification. What if we lived into the truth that Jesus did not give His life merely to modify our behavior, but He gave His life and offers us life in order to transform our nature?

Wherever you are on the journey, God longs to meet you and to draw you into deeper relationship with Him…and offers you grace in all of the ups and downs as you seek to follow.

w/ Vern Collins

(January 19, 2020) “Your Next Steps: Discipleship Journey”

from Matthew 3:13-17

A life of following Jesus if full of challenges. There are many times that we wonder if it is all worth it. We might have doubt, we might have fear of what is ahead, we might wrestle with guilt over feeling like we’re not doing this well.

Unlike trips we might take in life: vacations, road trips to see a friend or some exciting place…what if in life with Christ the thing that sustains us is not the destination, but what is spoken over us at the beginning?

Imagine how your perspective of following Jesus might change if you allowed it to be sustained and rooted in the truth and good news of the beginning…that you are the beloved of God, and that God has called you into life…a life He promises to walk through with you.

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

(December 22, 2019) “Looking for Light: Leading Others to The Light”

4th Sunday of Advent

from 1 Peter 2:9-12

Who are you?

We tend to answer a question like this by talking about the things that we do. What if defining who we are was not connected to the things you do, rather the things you do is a direct result of who you are?

The coming of the Light of Christ, and choosing to walk in that Light, to build your hope on Who Jesus begins to mean something for WHO YOU ARE. What if your life began to be defined by what God proclaims over you as His child?

That becomes a life worth living. That becomes a story worth telling. That becomes an invitation worth offering…

w/ Vern Collins and testimony by Darcy Carson

(December 15, 2019) “Looking for Light: Walking in the Light”

3rd Sunday of Advent

from Titus 2:11-14

“If only I had __________, then my life would be different.”

How would you fill in that blank? The things we hope for are often the things that shape our lives…how we spend our time and energy, how we spend our resources, the things we pursue…and so often, those are the same things that leave us frustrated.

What might be different if we had something to hope in that was more than just a fleeting desire. What if our hope could be rooted in something eternal, something that would transform us…SOMEONE Who came to find us? Imagine how life could change if we lived life built on the foundation of hope made possible by Jesus.

w/ Vern Collins

(December 8, 2019) “Looking for Light: Jesus is the Light”

2nd Sunday of Advent

from Isaiah 9:1-7

After establishing the relationship we tend to have with darkness…that is, that we long to see it done away with in the world around us and yet at times, learn to make friends with it within us…once we come to terms with the darkness we must allow ourselves to ask, “Who is this One Who was born into the darkness?”

In his first letter, when speaking about God, John says, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:6) How is it that the One in Whom there is no darkness, would willingly enter into the darkness of this world…into our darkness?

Isaiah paints a picture for us of the manner in which Jesus comes…one that is inviting, one that is meek, yet powerful; King, yet humble. What if the power of this Light to dispel darkness is wrapped up in the manner in which this Light comes?

w/ Vern Collins

(December 1, 2019) “Looking for Light: The World Jesus is Born Into”

1st Sunday of Advent

from Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 and John 3:19-20

Advent is meant to be a season of hope. Hope that God has not left us alone. Hope that things can change. Hope that this is not all there is…

Throughout Scripture the work of God, the presence of God, the coming of Christ are all associated with Light. We mark the season of Advent with the lighting of candles to remind us of this Light that has come and is coming…but can we truly appreciate this Light unless we are willing to understand the darkness into which it has dawned?

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