Crossroads at Boone United Methodist Church
Messages and Media
from Matthew 5:1-3
As we continue our series through the season of Lent, we are invited to consider one of Jesus’ keys to the kingdom we have been talking about in recent weeks…
Humility.
What if, instead of the way we tend to think of humility, as what we stand to lose by choosing the humble path, we dare to consider that humility is instead about what we might gain?
w/ Vern Collins
from Psalm 42 and Ephesians 3:16-19
What if you longed for God, simply for Who God is, rather than longing for the things God can do for you?
In our second week in Lent, you’re invited to consider how life might begin to look different if you live from your true self, from your true nature as one created to be deeply connected to God.
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 4:1-11
As we begin our journey through the season of Lent, we invite you to consider Lent perhaps differently than you ever have before.
What if, instead of surrendering some habit you are trying to break, or feeling guilty about the things you can’t surrender or simply don’t want to surrender, you saw Lent as a time to rest? A time to rest in the ground of God’s goodness, and allow God to speak to you about who you truly are as one loved deeply by Him.
w/ David Hockett
from Matthew 21:1-11
Pride affects not only our relationships with others, but our relationship with God. It divides and pits us against the One Who came to meet us at that very point of our weakness…at the point of our need to be at the center…that our lives and our love might become rightly ordered.
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 12:13-21
Is enough enough?
It seems like a simple enough question…perhaps even a bit ridiculous, but when you consider what you really need for this life…is enough enough?
On top of that, when you consider what you have been so freely given in the sacrifice of Jesus so that you might have life…what more do you need?
When does abundance become greed? When does blessing become excess? In Jesus’ parable in Luke’s Gospel, he challenges our tendency to want to “store away” for a future…a future that God has already secured.
w/ Vern Collins
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
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 1 John 3:16-18
Ad campaigns that promise more with the purchase of a product only to leave us wanting more, political campaigns that promise something new is coming only to see things remain the same.
In a world full of empty promises talk has become cheap.
Has the Good News of the Gospel of Christ and the hope of new life found in Him suffered the same fate? Has the claim lost its power? Has the promise been diluted to simply another option for a different kind of life?
You have something to say about it. The church has something to say about it. A life lived poured out on behalf of the world around it points to something worth living for and invites the world to encounter Jesus…the hope of something new.
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 4:1-4 and 2 Timothy 3:10-17
You know the saying, “You are what you eat.” The idea being, what you eat affects your health and your life in general.
In Jesus’ temptation to turn stones to bread, He responds by saying that it is not bread alone that we need to survive…rather it is God’s Word that truly sustains us and gives us life…the question is, are we consuming God’s Word the way Jesus suggests?
Imagine what might change in your life if God’s voice began to overpower the voices that tend to vie for your attention…
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 6:5-15
While prayer is one of the highest and holiest works to which we can strive, it is at the same time so simple a child can do it.
And yet it can be one of the most frustrating aspects of our journey with Christ. We know it is something we should do, we know it is vital to our growth, our connection with God and with this world…but why is it so frustrating? Why does it seem so difficult?
Jesus invites us, right where we are, into a deeper connection with the Lord…His concern is less with how we pray and more about what God is able to do in our hearts when we do.
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 6:16-18
In God’s economy things tend to work backwards. Things seem counterintuitive to the way the world works…which is probably exactly why we need to consider it!
In week 2 of our series we consider how emptying yourself might just be the thing that allows you to be filled.
w/ Jeff McClain
from Genesis 2:1-4
Many of us operate at a pace the leaves us feeling like we are barely keeping our head above water. There are demands on our time, demands for our attention, demands for our affection, worries about today and plenty for tomorrow.
Our culture promises products that simplify and make life easier, and yet even those tend to become our focus and end up feeling like they are stealing life from us.
As we begin our new “Rhythms” series, we start with what is most important…STOPPING. RESTING. SABBATH.
w/ Vern Collins
