from John 21:1-14
What does the resurrection of Jesus mean to you? There is no denying that it is the the pivotal event on which the faith of Christians for generations continues to be built…it is the hope on which the church stands, and we mark it each year when we celebrate the resurrection at Easter.
But too often, we think of the resurrection as just that-an event. Something that happened. Something that can be marked at a point in time and is completed. When we view the resurrection as simply an event, however, it becomes difficult to live in the hope that is made possible through it.
What if the resurrection is so much more than an event? What if the resurrection is an eternal reality with significant implications in your every day life?
What if Jesus, truly does meet us in the routine with new revelation of Who He is?
w/ Vern Collins
from John 11:1-44
To be sure, the raising of Lazarus from the dead is one of Jesus’ most spectacular displays of power over the course of His ministry. But for those who are familiar with the story, is it possible that we allow the miracle to overshadow the proclamation made by Jesus when He states, “I Am the resurrection and the life?”
Certainly there are tombs we need to be called out of, but in making this statement, what is Jesus speaking in to our present…what is Jesus speaking into all of our “IF ONLY” statements?
w/ Vern Collins
from John 20:1-18
We have a great tendency to hope for things that will not last. Sure, like the end of the week, they may bring relief or rest for a brief period of time, but ultimately they are as fleeting as Fridays.
What if, instead of hoping for temporary newness, and the wrong kind of resurrection…you dare to believe that Jesus brings lasting hope and a new life that will not spoil or fade?
Imagine the possibility.
Jesus is RISEN!
w/ Vern Collins
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 Galatians 5:1, 13-25
This week begins an 8 week series looking at the Fruit of the Spirit Paul points to in his letter to the church in Galatia.
Living in the freedom that Christ offers is meant to look like something…the question is, are you living free or are you bound by things that have taken control in your life. To live freely means that God is able to bring things from you that are produced by the Life that is in you…imagine how different things could be!
w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 28:16-20
In our final week of our “Church” series, we are challenged with the work that the church was tasked with: making disciples.
What if making disciples weren’t the terrifying thing we believe it to be? What if making disciples wasn’t about forcing something on people? What if making disciples was not about what you do, but about who you become? What if making disciples was simply rooted in relationship?
It can be. And God can do amazing things in and through you simply by a willingness to say, “yes.”
w/ Vern Collins
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
from Luke 3:7-18
There is something about Advent that begs the question, “why?”
“Why would God send His Son to this earth?” More specifically, perhaps, “what is it in my life that I am incapable of taking care of on my own?”
In our Advent passage this morning we find John the Baptist in the wilderness, in light of the Christ Who has arrived and is about to begin His ministry, calling people to repent…to turn from what they thought gave them worth, and turn to a new understanding of who they are and what life is meant to look like.
And in this we catch a glimpse that the Gospel might just be about more than the individual…that maybe it is about those around us too.
w/ Vern Collins
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
from Romans 1:1-17
What drives you? That question is best answered with the question, “what day is it?” Simply put-what drives us is often determined by the season in life, the predicament, or the circumstance in which we find ourselves. It is determined by the life we seek for ourselves or the goals we have in front of us.
What if all of those things were filtered through a central driving force? What if your life were driven by the Gospel of Christ? What if it informed and determined everything else that drives you?
Week 2 in our series on Paul considers a life “set apart for the Gospel of Christ.”
w/ Vern Collins
from John 15:1-11
A mark of maturity is independence. Whether it is making decisions on your own, setting your own curfew, paying rent, buying a car, owning a home, attaining a job, trying something new, or starting a career, the ability to think, act, care for oneself shows independence…which translates to this world as a sign of maturity.
The problem comes when that thinking or that value system begins to affect our understanding of life with Jesus. No matter how much we accomplish, we are all fragile people living fragile lives.
What if, your maturity in Christ weren’t about exercising your independence, but becoming more deeply dependent on Jesus? In John 15, Jesus calls that, “remaining,” or, “abiding,” in Him.
What would it look like for you to embrace your fragility, rather than try and cover it up with all that you are chasing or accomplishing?
w/ Vern Collins
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
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
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 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 Luke 4:1-13
How do you handle interruptions to your plans? What do you do when it seems that things are starting to run off the rails? How do you handle those obstacles?
What about the obstacles and interruptions in your relationship with Jesus? How do you handle giving in to temptation?
The moment you decide to make a new beginning in Christ is the moment the enemy will begin working against you. May you find strength and comfort and hope for the rest of the journey in knowing that Christ allowed himself to be tempted on your behalf…so that you would find grace and strength when you face those things that get in the way.
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 5:1-11
What if the confidence you find in your new beginning has nothing to do with what you have accomplished and secured for yourself, but everything to do with the One Who has secured it for you?
In week 4 of our “New Beginnings” series, we look at the invitation, not to membership, but to mission; not to program, but to passion; not to safety, but to sending.
w/ David Hockett
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
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
