from Luke 24:1-12
Whether you’ve grown up in church or not, the story of the Resurrection is at least mildly familiar. Each year the church looks to an empty tomb and proclaims the Hope that walked out of it…but by the end of the week is the hope still a reality, or have we allowed life to dull the song of salvation and cloud the light of a new dawn?
How is it 2,000 years later the Resurrection might still have the power to transform, the power to call us to life, the power to break the chains that bind us, and the power to send us into the world?
Perhaps it is time, like the first disciples, to allow ourselves to be surprised…maybe even confused by the Resurrection again. Perhaps it is time to stop stopping short at an empty tomb and look for the One Who walked out of it.
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 21:1-11
It has been said that your doctrine determines your doxology…that is, what you believe about God or Who you believe God to be dictates your worship of God. While there is truth to this, it places an awful lot of ownership on you to keep God at the center of your life in order that your worship might flow in the direction it needs to.
Perhaps worship is not only meant to be a response, but a means of focusing our attention and affection on God, that God might continue to reveal Himself to us through His Son Jesus.
What if worship weren’t just your response, but it also dictated the direction of your focus?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 4:14-21
Often when we think of new beginnings, we look forward to what is coming in hopes of forgetting what is behind.
In a culture of the next new thing, what do you expect from the Lord? What do you expect when you gather with the church in worship? What do you expect to hear? What do you expect the church to be about?
Something new? Something fresh? Something flashy and engaging?
What if what you heard was the same old news? Would it be enough?
What if when you sought the Lord all you got was the same old news? Would it be enough?
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 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 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 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
How long, O Lord…how long? So many around the world, those affected by the events told in the headlines and those who watch from afar, find themselves asking this question.
How long? How long must this go on…this hurt and pain?
As we begin our 5 week “Overwhelmed” series, we do so by looking at the headlines. We are overwhelmed with difficulty in this world…a world that is beginning to look much like that which Jesus describes to His Disciples in Matthew 24.
Perhaps, though, rather than worry about when, we would do well to worry about where.
Where is Jesus in the midst of this? What if you lived knowing He was right in the middle of the storm with you? In a place of peace, and faith?
w/ Vern Collins
from Philippians 3:3-16
What goals have been set before you? What are you chasing? What are your dreams for your life? Have you accomplished any of those goals? Are you in the midst of chasing them? What happens when you’ve completed them? What happens when you accomplish your goals?
What are you going to do now?
How does that accomplishment leave you feeling? Satisfied? Empty? Worn thin? Like you have purpose, or like life has been stolen from you?
What if you pursued the dream that Jesus and the dream He has for you with the same drive that fuels the pursuit of your own dreams?
What if the dream Jesus has for you was enough?
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 5:1-12
Once we truly begin to wrap our minds and hearts around God’s dream for this world…that all will be made right…that even now, Christ, through His church is working to make things right, to bring hope, to bring healing, to offer something “more,” to a hurting world…once you find yourself open to that in your own life, it becomes a compelling invitation to make that dream real for the world around you.
But it is difficult.
While it is a dream the world needs, it is one that often seems out of place…like it is somehow competing with the dreams this world has and the things the world chases.
Perhaps a better understanding of the things Jesus values in the Kingdom He came to inaugurate gives us a better understanding of what God sees as beautiful…and a deeper willingness to embrace those things in your own life.
w/ Vern Collins
from John 1:35-51
Have you experienced something so amazing that you wanted to tell everyone you know…yet at the same time, you didn’t really want to tell anyone because you were afraid of what might happen to that experience?
How have we come to the place where we treat the Gospel the same way? How have we come to the place where we treat the Hope found in Jesus like something we want to protect for our own? Jesus is God’s dream for humanity, God’s dream in the flesh…open for all…and yet so many are never invited into the dream.
Perhaps being reminded of your own invitation into the dream…perhaps being reminded that the invitation we offer to others was never meant to be complicated…it was meant to be as simple as, “Come and See.”
w/ Vern Collins
from John 6:24-35
The journey through this life is full of transitions…transition between jobs, transition in relationship, transition in faith, transition in family, transition in seasons of life…we’ve talked about what it means to navigate those transitions, but the questions remains: what anchors you in those transitions? Do you have what you need for the journey?
In our passage this morning from John’s Gospel, we find Jesus promising a bread that will last…what is this meal He is offering? Is it still available today? If so, where do we find it, and how could it be so lasting?
Come to the Table, and see…
w/ Vern Collins
from Ephesians 3:14-21
For many the idea of committing one’s life to Christ is committing to a life full of rule-following and void of freedom. In Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus, he prays that they would be rooted and established…but he is not praying that they would be rooted and established in RULES, rather in LOVE.
Perhaps it is not about a loss of freedom that Paul is after for followers of Christ, but that they may know what freedom truly is. A freedom from fitting the mold the world tries to force you in to, so that you are open to inviting the world into a life grounded in the One Thing that doesn’t change. God’s love for humanity and His desire that they may know the fullness of life only found in Him.
w/ Vern Collins
from John 3:16-17
While it might just be a verse so familiar that you have become numb to the weight of it, John 3:16 carries for you a foundational truth that will anchor you in any transition or season of life you happen to find yourself in. The keys to appreciating the power in these words of Jesus are recognizing the desperation of your situation, understanding the difficulty of this kind of love, realizing the reality of the remedy, and seeing the danger in keeping your distance from this life-giving truth.
w/ Vern Collins
from Mark 9:2-8
We came away from week 1 of our “Transitions” series daring to believe that transitions not only carry the possibility of being good, but also necessary for what God desires to teach us…about Who He is…about who we are…not only does God teach in the midst of transition, but He is faithful to use transition to prepare us for what is next.
So knowing that God is not surprised by your circumstances, that God does not waste time, and that He knows you intimately…just how do you go about allowing God to maximize the transitions in your life to the fullest extent?
Simple.
Listen. That’s it. Listen to Him. That’s the starting point. That’s the instruction for the journey…listen.
w/ David Hockett
from Acts 10:44-48
In our final week of our “Questions” series, we wrestle with perhaps one of the most piercing questions yet.
Have you experienced the love of God? Do you share it with others, or do you find yourself being choosey with whom you decide to share it? Have you experienced the grace of God? Do you freely offer grace to both your friends and your enemies? Have you experienced new life in Christ? Do you share that new life with the world around you, or is it something you keep to yourself?
In this week’s passage, we find in Peter a willingness to trust the end without seeing it, a willingness to go to the fringes, and a willingness to offer the hope of Christ to the most unlikely people…
Are you willing to do the same?
w/ Vern Collins
