Category: Sermons

Securely Fastened

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This week we continued in our new series, Simplicity: Finding Contentment in a Busy Life, by talking about how we can stand firm in the storms of life. Rough times come in all different shapes and sizes, but we all face them. And when times are rough, life feels complex and contentment far away. But, if we will do three really simple things, we will have what we need to stand firm. Keep reading to find out what these are.

Securely Fastened

I have a bit of a tempestuous relationship with water.  Let me explain.  I like water.  I like to be in the water.  I like to swim.  When we go to the beach, I could spend hours out floating and waiting to catch a wave with a boogie board.  But sometimes I think the water is out to get me.  And if you knew my story, you could be forgiven for thinking I’m right for at least the first several years of my life.  Two experiences should make my point for me. 

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A Centered Life

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This past Sunday morning, we kicked off a brand new teaching series called Simplicity: Finding Contentment in a Busy Life. The fact is: We all have lives that are busier than we’d like them to be at times. We all have times when we are just discontent with the state of our situations. Trying to navigate out of and around those kinds of seasons can be tough. This series is all about how to avoid them in the first place. Don’t miss a single part of this journey as we talk about how to focus in, slow down, and live the kind of life we’ve always wanted to have.

A Centered Life

Do you ever want more?  That’s kind of a broad question.  More of what?  Well, anything.  If we’re going to stay that broad, then of course you do.  I do too.  Now, not of everything.  But sometimes we want more, right?  Maybe you want more to drink at dinner.  Perhaps you want more dinner.  Kids often want more attention.  If you’re reading or watching a great story, you may want more when it ends; you may want to find out what happens next.  There are all kinds of situations in which we want more. 

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Love Like Jesus

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This week we finally wrapped up our series, Being Useful. In the final analysis, how can we be the most useful to Jesus? The answer is found in getting ourselves on board with His most central mission: To love one another into the kingdom of God. To find out more about this incredibly freeing truth, keep reading.

Love Like Jesus

By the time I reached my senior year of college, I was so deep into my chemistry major there was no turning back from that.  I say that, because by that time I had already agreed to pursue God’s call to ministry and realized that most of what I had spent the previous three years learning was going to gradually leak out of the back of my head from disuse.  Always a fun realization when you still have the four hardest courses of your major yet ahead of you.  Speaking of that, one of those courses was Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry, or DINC for short.  The professor for the class was Dr. John O’Brien. 

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Irreducible Complexity

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With one more week to go in our series, Being Useful, we are starting to get a lot more clarity on what the picture of a life that is useful to Jesus looks like. And what does it look like? Love. This week and next we are going to wrap up this powerful series by talking about the role love plays in the church and in the life of a follower of Jesus. Don’t miss a single part of it.

Irreducible Complexity

Some of the fiercest and most significant debates happen in places where nobody sees them.  These are often inner-disciplinary debates among scholars on a single topic.  And the stakes for these are a lot higher than it would seem.  For instance, a debate among mathematicians about the best way to solve certain kinds of math problems may look from the outside like a bunch of geeks arguing about esoteric philosophies that have nothing to do with the daily lives of normal people.  But, the winning side may very well have their ideas appear in textbooks—do they even use textbooks anymore?—and curricula for elementary students and, all of a sudden, a whole new way of thinking about math will be planted in the culture.  All of a sudden, what was once abstract academic jargon begins to have a profound impact on the lives of regular people who are far removed from the ivy-covered campus buildings of elite universities.  Hello: Have you tried helping your kids with their math homework lately?  Case in point. 

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Return the Favor

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Only two more installments in our series, Being Useful, after this one. In this seventh part, we are reaching a point that the qualities on Peter’s list are both the next natural addition as well as the result of the previous additions. What does it look like when we pursue faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, and endurance on a consistent, intentional basis? We begin to fulfill the duty we owe to God. A duty to God? For what? Keep reading to find out more.

Return the Favor

Just out of curiosity this morning, how many of you have both been called and actually served for jury duty?  Thank you for that.  We don’t often thank jurors, but they contribute a vitally important service to our nation’s judicial system.  As much of a headache as this particular service is seen to be—much more of a burden than a blessing—it has kept our court system its distinction as one of the best and fairest in the world for the accused for almost 250 years.  That’s not a small thing. 

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