12.24.22 Christmas Eve Matthew 1.18-25 Hebrews 1.1-4 God With Us Series: Baby Talk Baby Talk! After trying all these years to get through to us, the God of Israel attempts a remarkable experiment in communication. God comes to us as the Son, a baby in a manger. Here in the Flesh is The Word made flesh, dwelling among us, a sign, a visible embodiment of God’s great love for us…
12.11.22 Advent 3 Luke 1.39-57 God With us Series Part 3: God With Us Brings Joy To understand Elizabeth’s joy you have to understand her pain (from her childlessness)
12.4.22 Advent 2 1 John 4.7-21 God With Us Series Part 2: God With Us Brings Love Love is a word that is thrown around today and used in so many contexts…and it is experienced on so many different levels. What would the story of Mary and Joe look like as a love story…a love story that showed us something about God’s love
11.27.22 Advent 1 Psalm 139.1-18, Lamentations 3.21-26 God With Us Series Part 1: God With Us Brings Hope The Scriptures portray a long journey of hope. This morning we’ll encourage a rekindling of hope and think about hope based on God’s word, and hope based on God’s character, and hope based on God’s faithfulness
11.20.22 Colossians 1.11-20 On Defeating the Powers We live in a world in the grip of unseen powerful forces…”the powers.” Those powers jerk us around, pull our strings, get our goats, and try to make us slaves. But thanks be to God JESUS CHRIST IS LORD! He has on the cross DEFEATED THE POWERS. Christians are those who know that the powers have been defeated…
11.13.22 What God Has Done Over the Past 20 years in Papua, New Guinea” (We welcome Bud & Bonnie Morton)
10.30.22 Luke 18.1-8 Who Is Your Widow? The parable is primarily about worship. In worship our pride gets judged and even conquered. We are forced by church to stop looking at ourselves and to turn our eyes upon Jesus.
Reading: Galatians 5:13-15
Christ has set us free. Not only from keeping score and from what Nadia Bolz Webber calls “using Jesus to cosign on my own hang-ups” from seeing the world as “us” and “them”. Christ has set us free so we may see that there is only us…there are no velvet ropes for people to get passed…and so on our call to serve is also a call to love…EVERYONE.
Blessings and Curses
Reading: Luke 6.39-49
Jesus is painting a picture of last things here and makes it pretty darn clear that he can be revealed both in what he blesses AND what he curses. We are called as Jesus-followers to imitate Christ…to embrace those whom he embraced and to condemn those who he condemns. As we read in Ecclesiastes, there IS a time for everything. The Christian way of life is not all about affirmation and sweetness and light. There IS a time for judgement. BUT…we have to be very careful about where our standard for judgment lies.
The Best Laid Plans
Reading: Genesis 45.3-11,15
The best laid plans…especially ones intending to do harm, God has something to do with too. While most of us think of our best laid plans as being either choice or chance, that line of thinking leaves no room for God…and God’s plans…for our welfare and not for harm.
