“Set Free: Peace” (October 1, 2017)

from John 14:22-31

What keeps you awake at night?  What makes you nervous or anxious?  Is it a relationship, concern for a loved one?  Is it the state of the world right now, or our country?

How do you navigate that anxiety or unrest?  Where do you turn?  Do you just hope to survive it, or are you willing to believe that God is present in it?  Imagine how things might begin to change if you believed that not only was God present in your worry, but offers you peace in the midst of it.

w/ Vern Collins

“Set Free: Joy” (September 24, 2017)

from Habakkuk 3:17-19

In our series on the Fruit of the Spirit (from Galatians 5:22-25) we look next at the fruit of “Joy.”

What is joy to you?  Is it an intense feeling?  Is it momentary or is it lasting?  Is it the same as happiness or different?  Is it some religious outburst or something that resides quietly within?

What if joy were all and none of these things?  What if a response of joy had more to do with trusting God whatever your circumstances and offering a response of rejoicing as a result of that trust?  How might your perspective on this life change of you chose a response of joy in the midst of trials?  How might the lives around you be changed?

w/ Vern Collins

“Easter: Not the End” (April 16, 2017)

from Mark 16:1-8

In each of the Gospels we are given an account of the resurrection of Jesus…that moment, that event which took place on the third morning when Jesus walked out of the tomb.  The event that changed everything.  The hope of the church, and the world hangs on that one event.  The one that says death and sin DO NOT have the final say.

We hear that story each year on Easter morning…hear that hope proclaimed.  But how do you make more than just the retelling of an account of something that happened 2,000 years ago?  How do you, like Peter for example, EXPERIENCE the resurrection…the LIVING HOPE of the resurrection…the hope that affects your life NOW right where you are?

Mark’s Gospel gives us an idea of how we might go from hearing an account to be transformed by this Savior!

w/ Vern Collins

“Disordered Love: Gluttony” (March 5, 2017)

from Matthew 6:25-33

As we enter the season of Lent, we begin by considering St. Augustine’s idea that one of the marks of a Christ-honoring life is that our love is properly ordered….God first, other, even enemies, as well as self.  While this seems good and right, the truth is, we spend much of our life loving in a way that is disordered…and at the core, the result is sin.

What happens when we love the things of God more than God?  What happens when we use the things God has given us as a substitute for God, or when we turn to those things as a way of escape?  When we worry about having, not just what we need, but what we want…and enough of what we want, then we have allowed our love to disorder our understanding of what is necessary in this life.

What if the goal was not all?  What if the goal was not even enough?  What if the goal was God?  What if rather than covering your weakness with excess, you took this season of Lent to rest in your brokenness and frailty and allowed God to meet you in that place?

w/ Vern Collins

“Pray Like Jesus: Deliver Us” (January 29, 2017)

from Matthew 6:13

It’s not just that we feel overwhelmed from time to time…many of us are living lives in a constant state of being in over our head…and yet we tend to spend our time and energy looking to people and powers and systems in this world to change things…to give us hope.  What happens when those are the very things that seem to be stealing hope from us?

In our final week on the Lord’s Prayer, we look to Jesus’ petition for our protection and deliverance…a protection and deliverance He would make possible because He Himself was not protected from suffering.

w/ Vern Collins

“As For You: A Life Worthy” (October 30, 2016)

from Ephesians 4:1-16

It does not take long in this life before we begin working to be seen as being worthy…worthy of affection, worthy of attention, worthy of responsibility, worthy of advancement, worthy of acceptance.  Too often, we will go to great lengths to prove our worth, and too often come away feeling more unworthy for what we sacrificed in the process.

What if you began to live out of the worth you are already given in Christ?  What if you rather than living to prove your worth, you strived to live a life that reflects the fact that you have already been called, “worthy.”

And what would it look like to do that in the context of the Body that is the Church?

w/ Vern Collins

“As For You: This Grace Was Given” (October 16, 2016)

from Ephesians 3:1-13

To have an understanding of Gods’ grace in your life is  to know the power of forgiveness, the power of hope, the deep value in knowing that you are loved and desired, and ultimately that the God of the universe is FIR YOU.  This is displayed in the lengths God was willing to go to in order to present His Son, Jesus as a sacrifice for your sin, thus opening the way for you to be invited into life with Him.

What if that grace wasn’t meant to stop with you?  What if it wasn’t so much about how it makes you feel loved and accepted and believed in?  What if you stewarded that grace in such a way that it wasn’t trivialized…rather it was leveraged for the transformation of lives around you?

w/ Vern Collins

“As For You: Hope” (September 25, 2016)

from Ephesians 1:15-23

Too often we allow our circumstances to determine our perspective…when you are having a good day or things are going your way, then life is good, right?  But, when you’re in a tough season, or you’ve just gotten some terrible news, then life is NOT good.

What if, instead, you allowed your perspective to determine how you view your circumstances?

There is reason to hope…hope that penetrates and permeates any circumstance you might be walking through…and it is a hope born out of the power of the resurrection.

w/ Vern Collins

“As For You: Identity and Purpose” (September 18, 2016)

from Ephesians 1:1-14

At any given point in life you may feel like you are in the midst of an identity crisis…if, “crisis,” feels too strong, then we could call it an, “identity challenge.”  From the moment you become self-aware, you also become conscious of how that self fits into the world around you, and whether or not others’, “selfs,” like what they see in yours…

And it’s not just a constant evaluation of self that you have to worry about…as you get older, you then begin to ask what your purpose in this world is.  That combined with the worry over identity and we are often left not sure if we like who we are because we’re not sure we know what we are supposed to do.

We begin our series through Ephesians by starting with these two basic struggles and find that in Christ we are offered the answer to both…

w/ Vern Collins

“You Asked For It: How Do I Interact With the World?” (September 11, 2016)

from Matthew 5:13-16

ou’ve likely heard that Christians should be, “in the world, but not of the world.”  This saying comes from something Jesus says in the 17th chapter of John’s Gospel as he is praying to His Heavenly Father on behalf of His disciples.  While this saying is not incorrect, too often we have a tendency to view it as the finish line when in reality, Jesus meant for it to be the starting point.

What if you began to think of being set apart as having purpose, rather than thinking about it as simply being sequestered from the rest of the world?  Imagine what your life, leveraged in every situation for the sake of the Gospel, might begin to look like!

w/ Vern Collins

“You Asked For It: How Do I Deal With Fear?” (September 4, 2016)

from 1 John 4:7-21

There is plenty to be afraid of in our world today…perhaps it is the headlines recounting terrorist attacks, or it is racially driven hate crimes in our own communities…regardless, it seems that the world is more on edge than ever before.

And if those aren’t the things you are afraid of, then perhaps it’s the recent report from a doctor visit or worry about the future, or concern over the lives of your children…or maybe you’re just afraid of spiders…

While fear is not always a bad thing (it can keep us safe in some instances), at times it can feel crippling, and yet we are told in John’s letter that perfect love drives out fear.  This can feel like a trite Christian pat on the back that doesn’t really address what you may be dealing with.

What if John is not saying, DON’T have fear, instead suggesting that once you come face to face with the depths of God’s love for you, there is simply no longer room for fear to take up residence in your life?  Perhaps your outlook would change, and your desire for others to know the same freedom would move you to share that love with those around you…

w/ Vern Collins

“You Asked For It: How Do I Read Scripture?” (August 28, 2016)

from Hebrews 4:12-16

It is one of the most enduring works in all of history…and yet can be one of the most frustrating.

It is held as being central to the Christian faith…and yet can be one some of the most frustrating words with which to engage.

If you’ve ever become frustrated or fed up or confused and simply put the Bible down and walked away…you’re invited to take a new perspective.  What if your expectation of God’s Word shifted?  Instead of asking what God has for you in His Word, what if you began approaching it asking how your life might fit in to it?

w/ Vern Collins

“You Asked For It: Why Be a Part of the Church?” (August 14, 2016)

from 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

In a time in history (in our Western Culture in particular) when we are much choosier with the things we give our time and energy to we are finding that the church is not near the top of everyone’s list the way it once was…and if we are honest, who could blame anyone for choosing not to be a part of the church.

The argument could be made that the church spends too much time trying to police the world around it than it does carrying out Christ’s mission of loving the world around it, serving the world around it, and inviting the world around it into a life changing encounter with Him.

But what if the church were the Body of Christ that Paul talks about in his letter to the Corinthians?  What if the church embraced its identity as the hands and feet of Christ in this world, and what if each member saw the incredible value of both their investment in the church and the investment the church might make in their lives?

As we open our “Questions” series, we consider that being a part of the church might just tell you something about who you are, how you should be cared for, and what you could do in this world…

w/ David Hockett and Vern Collins

“More to the Story: Ruth” (July 17, 2016)

from Ruth 4:13-22

Almost as an intermission between the story of Israel’s judges and the beginning of the time of her kings is the brief account of a woman named Ruth.

While this may not only seem like a strange placement for such a story, but also a curious addition to what we hold as Scripture, it is one of the most beautiful pictures of faithfulness we have in all of the Bible.

Not only does Ruth paint for us a picture of what undying faithfulness looks like, but challenges in the attention and compassion we give to those around us.

In the midst of your every day coming and going, triumphs and even struggles, are you paying attention to the lives of the hurting around you…and are you willing to enter in to them?

w/ Vern Collins

“New Life: Things Have Changed” (April 10, 2016)

from Luke 24:36-53

Paul promises in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians that if anyone is in Christ then they are a new creation…he goes on to say that the old has gone and the new has come (from 2nd Corinthians 5).

That is quite a promise for those desperate for change.  It is a promise that is full of hope that things don’t have to continue to be as they are…that the struggles we currently have we might just be able to lay down, right?  Well, yes…sort of.

What if the change that is promised does not have anything to do with your circumstances, but you within them…or your perspective about them?

We tend to get frustrated when we don’t see the change we long for as followers of Christ, but perhaps we are looking for change in the wrong place.

What if the reality were you were just  few adjustments away from experiencing the change you long for in Jesus…change that sets you loose on this world as one who can shape it for God’s Kingdom?

Things change when things have changed.

w/ Vern Collins

“New Life: What Just Happened?”

from Luke 24:13-35

It is not uncommon for significant change in life to be met with confusion, self-doubt, unrest about how it affects both the present and the future.

Encountering Jesus can be no different.  If you’ve given your life to following Jesus and welcoming Him as Savior, then what happens once the novelty wears off?  What happens when the music stops, when the weekend is over, when life creeps or crashes back in?  Doubt.  Fear.  Uneasiness.  Confusion.

When these feelings start to creep in, guilt is not often far behind.

Take heart…for it is right in the midst of their confusion and fear and doubt that Jesus met the Emmaus road travelers and journeyed with them through it.

w/ Vern Collins

“Rhythms: God’s Symphony” Easter Sunday (March 27, 2016)

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

“Revelation: For All People” (December 27, 2015)

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

“Revelation: Worship” (Christmas Eve 2015 6:00pm service)

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

“Expectations: Unlikely Servants” (December 13, 2015)

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