Daniel and his friends don't just resist evil while living in exile - they also actively participate in every aspect of their culture. The question their story answers for us is how can we engage in redemptive ways and not forfeit our souls. In week 3 of our Daniel series, we learn about the regular disciplines that grounded Daniel in God and talk about how we can do that too.
We live in a culture that often challenges our faith and even encourages us to compromise what we say we care most about. In Daniel 3 we see why resolving to follow Jesus in little things becomes so crucial as we face big moments in our lives. Listen as we talk about how to resist in redemptive ways and find life in Christ alone.
It may be surprising to learn just how relevant the book of Daniel is for us in 2018. In week one we see how Daniel is invited to become immersed in a new culture and give up his identity as part of God's people and we see how he resolves to stay faithful to God. We also look at the ways we're invited to give up our identity in Christ to bled in or fit in and what it looks like to resolve and resist so we can continue to be who God's called us to be.
Some of us think if we’re not making meaning out of every moment then you’re missing out. If we're trying to find meaning under the sun that’s only found above the sun, how will I ever find it? In the final week of our Art of Living series, we walk through the book of Ecclesiastes and talk about what it means to be human and where we find meaning amongst all the meaninglessness.
Our world is full of self-help strategies that claim their the path to the good life but often we find they're a bridge to nowhere. The book of Proverbs is full of insight for living the life God made you for but from the beginning, we learn that it starts first with God. In week 2 of our Art of Living series, we talk about how to make conscious decisions to trust God instead of trusting in yourself.
In week 1 of our Art of Living series we take a look at the oldest book of the Bible and try and understand what God wants to do with and in the suffering, we're bound to face at some point in our lives. Listen as we talk about what most of us think about where suffering comes from, what God wants us to do in our suffering and where hope can be found in the midst of it.
It is breathtaking to think that there were words said hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus that pointed to His life and ministry and the impact it would have on the world. In our final week of the series around the Prophets, we’ll explore why Jesus was such a crucial figure in Old Testament prophecy, what the promise of His arrival meant to God’s people fulfilling their purpose and how we too can find hope in these prophetic promises today!
One of the constant themes of the Old Testament was the inability of God’s people to walk faithfully in relationship with Him. In these times the prophet would serve as one sent by God to challenge His people’s actions and activities. These moments were words of warning about the dangers that exist and a challenge to come back in step with the ways of their God for their good and the good of those who engaged with them. In week 2 of our series we’ll wrestle through the tendency of the human hear...
God had a vision for what His people could be if they would only give themselves to Him and His ways. Often as you read through the prophets you get a beautiful picture of all that could be possible if the Israelites would only live faithfully in this covenant relationship with their God. In week one of our Prophet series, we take a look at one of the most famous passages in Jeremiah and we work to understand what God’s vision for Israel might mean for our lives today!
Some of the biggest questions about the Old Testament surround the violence and death that we see taking place. Many of us wonder what this tells us about God and what we're supposed to take away from these passages. In the final sermon in our series we take a look at Israel's identity and how they "fight" their battles and we try and understand what it means for us today and how we can live "Biblically." (For more on Violence in the Old Testament google Josh Butler Violence and Genocide in the ...
Often people say that God appears to be too judgmental and even harsh in the Old Testament while Jesus is often seen as loving and full of acceptance. In this week's sermon, we try and understand what judgment looks like in the Old Testament and make sense of what God's true intentions are when we encounter passages of judgment in the Old Testament.
One of the biggest questions people ask when they read the Bible is where does evil come from? There are some who blame God and wonder why He would allow evil to exist at all. In week 4 of our series, Sarah Knepper helps us understand the evil we see in the Old Testament and how God responds.
One of the craziest things about reading the Old Testament in 2018 is how different the culture is in relation to love, sex, and marriage. As we read we should have all sorts of questions about what is going on and how God views these things. As always as we work to understand what God is up to in the people in these stories we begin to understand what he may be up to in our lives.
The Old Testament is stocked full of laws and commandments that God's people were meant to follow. The question for most of us is what's up with all these laws and why is God so worried about every single little thing? In week 2 of our series, we look at what the Law really is, what it tells us about God and His people and what it means for our lives today.
When we read the Old Testament, it can get confusing because it feels like we are reading about life on another planet. It can be difficult, to be honest about how we really feel when we are reading it, but in order to understand it, we need to be honest. The Old Testament invites us to wrestle with its stories and meaning because that’s what Jesus did. It’s only when we wrestle with the Old Testament and are honest about our questions and feelings that we see the God we know in Jesus.
Through his resurrection, Jesus has given us victory over everything that threatens our identity, relationship, and future. The problem is most of us are not experiencing that kind of victory in our life. We either don’t know Jesus, we don’t believe he holds this kind of power or we have not given him authority in our lives in a way that we can share in His victory. This Easter we talk about how His victory can be ours right here and right now.
Much of what we face in our world is upsetting. There’s fear of the future or our past. There are threats to our way of life and our health. There’s concern when we lack control. There’s even the turmoil of our own hearts and minds. We are often desperate for peace but we have nowhere to go. Jesus is the prince of peace and his ability to provide us with peace extends into every aspect of our lives.
Shame is a strange motivator. It can cause us to run, hide or project falsehoods out of a desire to protect ourselves from letting the truth come out. We carry around shame in ways that form us and define our relationships. Jesus sets us free from shame by lavishing grace on us. The question is how do we allow grace to cover our shame and is it possible to live in a new way because of Jesus.
There’s a point for most of us where we don’t want to give in to sin any longer but we don’t know how to stop. We work on strategies and plans that may give us the power to overcome our struggle with our sin but it can be so hard to beat it. What if you could find freedom? What if Jesus could really set you free from something that you can’t beat on your own. What if that could happen not someday but today?
In the book of Revelation God gives His people a preview of what the final act of His story looks like. Too often we make the final act of His story about us and miss the whole point of how we are to live today. In week 6 of the Story of God, we try to understand the point of the final act of the Story of God and let that form us into people of the preview.
In week 5 of our Story of God series, we take a look at God's imagined future for the temple and we discover that we, the church, are the Temple. We then explore what would it look like if you let God’s imagined future shape the imagined future for your life.
In week 4 of the Story of God we start talking about redemption - and when you talk about redemption you're talking about Jesus! Jesus takes all that God has been doing in creation, the temple and Israel and opens up the opportunity for all people to engage with God whenever and wherever they are.
As the story of God continues we find that God’s desire is always about the relationship with humanity and as things continue throughout the Old Testament God builds a relationship with an entire people group - the Israelites. In week 3 we look at why God wants that relationship, what role the temple plays in that and humanities propensity to run the opposite direction of God.
If you look around the world you there's plenty that takes place that we know "isn't how it's supposed to be." The idea that there's something better that was meant to be, points us to a story bigger than ourselves and a standard that we all long for. In the second part of the Story of God, we take a close look at the impact that sin has had on our lives, creation and the connection we have with God.
The creation story is about God building his temple, the place where heaven and earth connect. God creates humans to take the raw potential of creation and use it in ways that bring glory to God in order to expand God’s temple presence and potential throughout all creation. The creation/temple account tells us what project we were created for and what project we should be apart of right now!
There are so many places throughout the Bible that God’s Word is described as something extraordinarily meaningful that can have a tremendous impact on our everyday life. The key is knowing what to do with the Bible so you can allow it to do it’s work on you too! In week 3 we talk about what it looks like to consume the Bible in 2018.
Some of the biggest problems we have with the Bible is our misunderstanding of what it really is. In week 2 of our "Year of the Bible" series, we’ll work to understand where the Bible came from, what it means to be both a human and divine book and why all this matters for us as we read it today.
We have a problem with the Bible. More and more followers of Jesus don’t read it, don’t know how to read it, don’t even like it, and frankly, take issue with it. So why do we follow the Bible? Because we follow Jesus. He is our authority, but he has mediated his authority through the Bible. And on its pages, we discover the map to the life that Jesus has on offer.
We have spent the whole year looking at the life and teachings of Jesus. Our encounters with Jesus have created movement and energy in our hearts. Now, what do we do with it? Jesus leaves us with the simple, yet all-encompassing invitation to "follow me." What life will we choose, our life or his?
On Christmas Eve we took one final look at the Christmas story to understand what it means for God to be with us. King Herod is informed by the Magi a new king has been born. What’s so interesting about Herod’s appearance is that the first invitation to leave behind wicked ways is extended to the most wicked man the Jewish people would have known. In week 4 we see how God is with us - even in our sin - and offers us new life through Jesus.
