South Fellowship Church

TRANSFORMED | Transformed View of God | Ephesians 3:14-21 | Week 7

The topic I'm looking at is a transformed view of God. That's a big topic to take. My hope is that we'll be able to come up with some kind of a working definition that may kind of stretch us a bit; we've got to be stretched when we're talking about God. I believe very strongly, as I've been working on this sermon, that this view that we have of God influences the way we view life. I think it's pretty important that we have a good view of God, if we're going to be stepping into life and meeting t...

TRANSFORMED | Kingdom Refreshments | Romans 15:23-33 | Week 6

Toward the end of July I was approached by a gentleman in this church that I did not know well, who asked me how my family was doing. I shared with him the excitement that my wife is pregnant with our fourth, and that Jesus definitely doesn’t love me because it is another boy and I wanted a little girl. The man (whom I won’t mention by name because he’d get mad) piped in and very caringly asked, “How is your wife? I remember that you guys have had some issues with pregnancies in the past and how...

TRANSFORMED | Transformed: Body | Romans 12:1 | Week 5

Uuugghhh! For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. (Romans 7:18) For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:16-17) For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captiv...

TRANSFORMED | Transformational Community | Gen. 3:6-19, Matt. 12:46-50 | Week 4

Some of you may know that my wife Heidi and I used to live overseas for most of a decade. The question we're asked the most is "What do you miss about living overseas?" It's really easy to answer that because we miss the community. Whenever you leave someplace you tend to idealize it, so I realize that could be part of it. But we were, as a foreign community, several hundred in a city of several million, so you immediately had this island mentality----we kind of have to take care of one another....

TRANSFORMED | The Mind and the Heart and Fits and Starts | Romans 12:2 | Week 3

We're in a series called "Transformed" and the last few weeks have been journeying together toward biblical wholeness. We’ve talked about how the Scriptures call us to be transformed, and that we are being transformed into the wholeness of Jesus. I love what professor, pastor, and author Robert Mulholland says: "The Christian journey, therefore, is an intentional and continual commitment to a lifelong process of growth toward wholeness in Christ." We put up this slide a couple of weeks ago to sh...

TRANSFORMED | Transformed Relationships | Philippians 2:5-11 | Week 2

As Pastor Larry said we're going to continue our series on "Transformed," and we're going to look at an issue that's hugely important in my life and your life....and that's relationships. I'm going to ask you to join me in prayer and then we're going to unpack a variety of Scripture to see what the Lord would show us today on this crucial part of our lives. So let's bow together in prayer: Father, we thank you so much for your compassion and mercy, the grace you've poured out on us in Jesus. Lor...

TRANSFORMED | An Invitation to Transformation | Romans 12 | Week 1

I went to Florida last week. I used to live in Florida and one of my favorite beaches is called Clearwater Beach. It's consistently rated in the top beaches in the country. I parked my car and immediately went to the beach, dropped my towel, and got into the water. It felt so amazing! I bobbed and floated a bit, and then I saw these two guys on a sandbar. A sandbar is sand you can stand on out in the water; it's almost like walking on water. It was about 100 yards out there and I've swum that a ...

Camping Under the Clouds | Numbers 9:15-23

As a young boy, I remember my dad taking me camping in the Nantahala Forest in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Now if you’re a rugged Colorado adventurer, you might turn your nose up at our itinerary for the weekend, but to me this was adventure. A weekend with my dad in the woods. I’d get to ask him life’s questions, we’d share some holy moments, and he’d share his heart, and maybe I’d share mine. We would make a couple meals over a fire, camp under the night sky, and then in the morning, b...

We Are South | Exodus 35

April 22, 2019, started out like any other Monday, post Easter. We had a fun time as a community, leading up to Easter. We did an Easter Art Show that was amazing. We had over 1400 people coming to our campus over Easter weekend. The Monday started out with me having a lot of energy, a lot of excitement over all that God had done, but our team was a little bit tired. The other thing that was kind of at play for me is that for the few days leading up to Easter, I had some kind of weird things goi...

The Parables of Jesus | An Invitation to Unravel | Matthew 9:14-17 | Week 7

Pastor Yvonne Biel --- Have you ever felt like your life was unraveling? As if all the threads that held your life together at one point were coming undone. I've been there. I woke up at age 27 in my high school bedroom looking at a calendar with absolutely nothing to do. I was thinking back on a time in my life where Jesus seemed to make sense, and I knew who God made me to be. I was living as a missionary in Vienna, Austria, teaching students the Bible and they were coming to me with their que...

The Parables of Jesus | A Sharp Rebuke to a Foolish Interruption | Luke 12:13-21 | Week 6

Before we look at this text, please join me in prayer. Our Father, we gather together today to worship you in the name of Jesus. I thank you for every person who's here today. Thank you so much for South Fellowship. Lord, wherever we're at today---emotionally or spiritually or physically---I pray that you would come and meet with us in a very, very personal way. That you would show us, experientially, your overwhelming, never ending, reckless love that you have for each of us. Lord, we thank you...

The Parables of Jesus | What Are You Living For? | Mark 7:15 | Week 5

It is an honor to be part of this series of The Parables of Jesus. Today, the parable/story that we are going to explore is found in Mark chapter 7. It’s one of those deeply memorable stories with a powerful meaning behind it and I know that after hearing it, you will quickly go out and tell your friends, family and neighbors. Gathering a crowd, he told this story. Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. (Mark 7:1...

Just a Man with a Can | 1 Corinthians 3:5-9

[Ryan begins with thanking Aaron Bjorklund for singing his original song, "Multiply Me," and his wife Kelly for her support over the last seven years.] The last two months, for me, have been a rollercoaster, to say the least. We had the chance to go to Disneyland on our vacation two weeks ago, and I can tell you that Disneyland has nothing on two months of processing a move across the country. That's been a way better rollercoaster than anything we rode there. It's been an interesting journey, t...

The Parables of Jesus | A Pattern of Pursuit | Luke 15:1-32 | Week 4

Good morning! My name is Billy Berglund, and for the last four years, I've had the privilege of being on staff here at South Fellowship, working part-time with the students as I pursued my Masters from Denver Seminary. It's just been a real privilege to my wife Hannah and I. We've had an eventful summer so far. Our son Cooper joined us on May 31st. He was born six weeks early, so he kind of surprised us. He spent some time in the NICU, but he's growing and is getting a little chunky now, which i...

The Parables of Jesus | The Parable of the Talents | Matthew 25:14-30 | Week 3

We’ve been in a series the last couple of weeks where we are studying the Parables of Jesus. I have to admit, parables can be difficult. They aren’t explicit in the way a simple story is. Jesus at one time said, "I spoke in parables so that you would get this and others wouldn't get it." They can be a little bit tricky to interpret. Parables are stories with a meaning, often to jar a listener into learning something new about the economy of the kingdom of God. They were a bit jarring to the orig...

The Parables of Jesus | The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector | Luke 18:9-14 | Week 2

We started a series last week called "The Parables of Jesus." This series is all about the parables of Jesus. Over the course of the summer, we're going to be studying together these stories that Jesus told. That's what a parable is. A parable's a story. It's two words put together---"para" which means alongside of and "bollo" which means to throw. It's stories for normal everyday people----they weren't told by the philosophical leaders or taught in the Socratic seminar. Stories they threw along...

The Parables of Jesus | Parables of the Weeds and Seeds | Matthew 13:24-33 | Week 1

A week ago today, my family and I were leaving to go to a week at Mount Hermon. I taught there last week, and the family went and had an awesome time. Kelly and I are both Type A people. Our flight left at 8:45 and we left the house at 6:00 am because we like to be on time. If you followed the news last Sunday, you might have heard there was a little bit of an accident on Peña Boulevard. If you know DIA, you know that Peña's really the only way to get into that airport. We left our house at 6:00...

The Gift of Scarcity | Nirup Alphonse

Brave in the New World | It's Complicated | Matthew 19:1-12 | Week 8

We are finishing up a series we're calling "Brave in the New World." Over the last two months, we've been tackling difficult issues, socially, and trying to figure out what it looks like to live as a follower of Jesus in this new world. How many of you would agree that the world is changing quite rapidly? Actually that's not just a feeling; a sociologist studied our cultural moment. They're saying that things are changing at a more rapid pace than they have ever changed before. That's not just a...

Brave in the New World | A Tale of Two Books | Matthew 2:1-11 | Week 7

I've had a number of people come up to me and say, "We're so sad that you're leaving, Ryan, but are you going to finish this series?" Yes, I am. Today, we're going to jump into the subject of science and the Scriptures; then, next week, yes, on Father's Day, I'm going to be teaching on the issue of sexuality and Brave in the New World and how that all ties together. You're welcome. I promised on Mother's Day, when I taught a message on Evil and Suffering, that I would be equally offensive on Fat...

Brave in the New World | Lament in the New World | Psalm 13 | Week 6

Brave in the New World | Tolerance in a Culture of Contempt | John 8:1-11 | Week 4

Helping people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus. Connect with us ⬇️ About Us: https://southfellowship.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/southfellowship Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southfellowship Twitter: https://twitter.com/southfellowship Give Online ⬇️ https://pushpay.com/g/southfellowship Brave in the New World | Tolerance in a Culture of Contempt | John 8:1-11 | Week 4 Speaker: Pastor Ryan Paulson South Fellowship Church Based in Littleton, CO...

Brave in the New World | Evil and Suffering | John 9:1-3 | Week 3

Fear stopped me in my steps this week. I know we shouldn't fear, but what do we do when we do? I wrote my message on Monday. Tuesday, I was in a meeting with Aaron and we were planning a future worship service, and our phones started to blow up, like yours probably did too. Got the news that there was an active shooter situation at STEM. Gathered our staff together to start to pray. Tried our best to contact people we knew that had kids involved to tell them we're praying, we love them, is there...

Brave in the New World | Donkeys and Elephants, Oh My! | Mark 12:13-17 | Week 2

I'm really glad that you're here today. We are on week two of a series that we're calling "Brave in the New World." A number of months ago we did a church survey, and one of the questions we asked on that survey was "What are some of the things you'd like to see more teaching on?" Turns out, you guys like hard subjects and we made a series out of a lot of those answers, so over the next few weeks, we're wrestling with a number of difficult subjects. We're calling the series "Brave in the New Wor...

Brave in the New World | Acts 4:1-22 | Week 1

We are starting a new series today that I am so excited for. It's called "Brave in the New World," and we, over the next few weeks, are going to be tackling some of the most difficult issues and topics that we face, sort of culturally and societally, in our world today. Our goal this morning is to set a little bit of ground work and to give us a path forward that we're going to ask Jesus to lead us in over the next few weeks. Like you, I watched in horror on April 15th, not as my tax return came...

Easter Sunday | Green-Thumbed God | John 19 & 20

Welcome to our celebration of the resurrection. My name's Ryan. We get to celebrate the reason for hope today. That's why we gather. A few weeks ago, my friend, who's also a pastor in the area, Nirup, sent me a text message. It said: What's your morning look like MC? {Because people call me MC. Just kidding, they don't. I don't know why he said that?} Have you ever read a text message, got the words right, but the intent wrong? I wrote back to my buddy Nirup and said this: I get up at 5:45 and g...

Jonah | Swallowing The Story | Jonah 4:6-11 | Week 6

We're jumping into Jonah 4, if you have your Bible, you can flip there, swipe there, click there, however you want to get there this morning. It's the final message in the series of Jonah as we continue to journey towards the cross and the resurrection. We've been utilizing this book of Jonah to lead us to Easter. We've been saying, throughout this series, that part of our goal has been to rescue Jonah from Veggie Tales and the flannel board. We often view this as a kids' story. If you've been c...

Jonah | God in Mind | Jonah 4:1-4 | Week 5

This is our fifth Sunday in a series that we're doing on the book of Jonah, that's guiding us through the Lenten season. Jonah's a short little book in the minor prophets; he's minor, not because he's unimportant, but because he's short. The book is short. It's significant but it's only four chapters, and it packs a punch. Let me share with you a little nugget from the Paulson household. Most weekends, my kids will ask to all spend the night in a room together and to do a sleepover. Most of the ...

Jonah | House Rules | Jonah 3:1-10 | Week 4

We're going to be camping out in Jonah 3 today. Let me just give you a bird's-eye view of where we've been. The book of Jonah is a story of a portion of the life of Jonah, and you sort of need one step and one phase to build on the other. Hop online to fill yourself in on the blanks I'll leave out today. Jonah is a prophet of God who prophesied in roughly the eighth century BC. He was a contemporary of Amos and Hosea. They were both prophesying at the same time. Amos and Hosea had a hard word fo...

Jonah | Belly of a Fish | Jonah 2:1-10 | Week 3

We've been in a series in the last few weeks going through the book of Jonah. Jonah is the fifth of the minor prophets. He prophesied in the latter half of the eighth century BC, so a long time. Jonah is unique because it's mostly a narrative; he's not making big proclamations and all these sorts of things, it's telling us an interesting story. Hosea and Amos were also prophets at the same time, and in all three of those books there's this running theme of God showing God's mercy to other nation...