Open Table Community Church: Recent Episodes
Chris Heintzelman
Open Table Community Church is a community organized by and around the Word of God, to cooperate in the Mission of God of furthering the Kingdom of God. We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table, by living in fidelity to Christ and one another, and by working together to bring reconciliation to the four relationships broken by sin in the Fall.
Open Table Community Church is a community organized by and around the Word of God, to cooperate in the Mission of God of furthering the Kingdom of God. We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table, by living in fidelity to Christ and one another, and by working together to bring reconciliation to the four relationships broken by sin in the Fall.
Open Table Community Church is a community organized by and around the Word of God, to cooperate in the Mission of God of furthering the Kingdom of God. We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table, by living in fidelity to Christ and one another, and by working together to bring reconciliation to the four relationships broken by sin in the Fall.
Open Table Community Church is a community organized by and around the Word of God, to cooperate in the Mission of God of furthering the Kingdom of God. We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table, by living in fidelity to Christ and one another, and by working together to bring reconciliation to the four relationships broken by sin in the Fall.
Open Table Community Church is a community organized by and around the Word of God, to cooperate in the Mission of God of furthering the Kingdom of God. We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table, by living in fidelity to Christ and one another, and by working together to bring reconciliation to the four relationships broken by sin in the Fall.
We kick off our first series of 2024 with a look at what we need to consider before we dive into what God called us to do in 2024, which is to "GO"! Let's get ready to GO.
As we look to the prolific hymn writer, Fanny Crosby, suffering begins to look differently for the Christian. She lived a life full of joy and thankfulness, though she continually was met with tragedy after tragedy. God used her experiences to write a story of beauty. Jesus will do the same with our ashes when we lay down our victimhood.
Our next installment on our Saints series we examine the life and legacy of Asaph, one of the writers of the Psalms. He was a man who looked for God in spite of the circumstances around him and found the beauty and glory of the Creator. Our perspective changes when we move from what is around us to the character of God.
During our Saints series for 2023, we take a look at those who have journeyed ahead of us to gain wisdom in our walk with Jesus. William Batchelder Bradbury is a picture of how God uses our humility to exceed our plans and surrender to his greater plan.
Our third week exploring what it means to be a citizen in the Kingdom of God, Brett Shelton guides us through Job, giving us tools to navigate suffering. By embracing the reality of our emotions, lamenting to God, and fearfully placing our trust in Him, our faith will deepen.
The second week of our series studying deeper insights to what it means to live in God's Kingdom, Josiah Heintzelman, prophetically reminds us what happens when we look to idols instead of Jesus. The idols of self, politics, and money slowly erect themselves in our hearts when we look to them to "save" this world from its brokenness. Our trust must remain in the true King.
Our guest speaker, April Mangrum, illustrates the principal of kingdom identity through the life of Saul. Too often, we view ourselves and our abilities either below or above our Maker's and end up in pride. Our identity must be found in Christ or we will end up forfeiting the mandate on our lives.
From the beginning, we were designed for work. The Gospel message is not just a ticket out of hell, but a call to redeem the work that He has planned for us ahead of time. Our inherent identity in Christ is born out of our knowledge of Him, transformed from the inside out, and propelled to do good works.
Our identity isn't displayed in outward appearances but the depths of who we are is found in the heart. We know, however, that the heart is deceitful above all things. Graciously, Jesus came so that our hard, lying hearts would be replaced by one that only He could change. Our behaviour is then transformed by what bubbles out of us.
Whatever you put in your head, is what you're going to get out. Transformation starts in our minds and it's important to consider the bulk of what we feast on in our minds. Freedom starts with what we know about Jesus. Our identity revolves around what's in our head.
We begin our identity series discussing the importance of telling our story. When we leave our dreams in God's hands, he weaves a testimony of His glory and power. It is that testimony and the blood of the Lamb that will overcome the enemy. So dream big and watch God create a masterpiece.
We recap our journey through Romans and the work that Christ has DONE on our behalf. The knowledge of the gospel is what does a work in us and changes our hearts. Jesus has completed the work of our righteousness and it is our job to believe.
Learning how to lay down our arguments for the good of another in Christ is where we find ourselves in Romans this week. Jesus' sacrificial love in which he laid down his liberties for us is the model for our evangelism. The people God has placed in our lives will be changed by the Holy Spirit and not by our lists of holiness.
In a world fraught with arguments and cancel culture, our visit in Romans this morning challenges us to mind our own business while trusting the Holy Spirit to continue His work in others. Being in relationship with others will inevitably bump us up against those we don't agree with or with whom we wish would have a behavior transformation, but we must recognize that we too are in need of behavior modification. It's why Jesus came to lay down his life. So our response naturally becomes one of a life laid down for Him and for others.
Today is the heart of the indicative shift in Romans. Paul outlines that it is only when we are truly transformed and embrace the love of Christ that we will then be able to love others. It is Christ's work that enables our transformation.
We enter an idicative imperitive shift this week, which basically means we have established truth and now comes the response. The truth of God's grace that has been conveyed now requires a life change. The difference between the behavioral list Paul presents and what religion would require of us is that outward displayed evidence of true conversion is only accomplished through a complete heart change that only the Holy Spirit can complete.
In the Holy Place, the items used for worship were intended to remind the priest of the past, present, and future of Israel. As we continue our study in Romans following the progression of worship in the tabernacle, Paul points out that our contemplation must remain rooted in the fact that we are not the main character in the story. This is God's.
This week we get to see Paul’s heart of the lost and in so doing run into our own heart check. Paul admits that their refusal to follow Jesus isn’t evidence that they don’t love and serve God. On the contrary, they are zealous for God. They are merely mistaken on how to reach him. This has powerful implications for our divided contemporary world, all leading us to question our own responses to the behavior of a world that seems to have lost its mind. How do we properly respond to the Lost? Paul shows us.
Throughout our series, we have been comparing how Paul outlined Romans to the worship at the tabernacle. This week we enter the tabernacle into the holy place. The shift moves from the individual to the nation. Paul doesn't stop at just the individual's salvation but begins to focus on how God relates to the corporate church. The individual needs the collective to experience the fullness of God.
When we read passages that theologians have argued over, we can oftentimes miss the importance of the message in light of our opinions. The litmus test to gauge our correct response in Romans 8 is checking our joy in knowing we are chosen. We have come to the conclusion that suffering and pain is not from God and yet, when we pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes the will of the Father causing all things to work together for our good--what is actually best and not what is necessarily pretty. Overwhelming victory is ours as chosen heirs through Jesus and nothing can separate us from His love.
This week we leave the world of the theoretical consisting of the philosophical and theological, and we enter the world of the experiential. Paul leads us into what it means to live by the Spirit, using the word “spirit” more than twice as much in this one chapter than he uses in the rest of the book. The key takeaway is that all of the richness of this book is only ours if we have the Holy Spirit. Faith in Jesus is more than a worldview or a theology; it’s an experience Jesus called being “born again” and according to Paul, the Holy Spirit confirms with our spirit that we are children of God. This is an experience that we need. Join us as we dig into what it means to know that you are God’s.
In this message, we find sin to be more stubborn than we had hoped. Paul struggles with his sin and as he does, he learns something important. Sin is a noun. It’s so much more than something we do. It’s a brokenness, a darkness, a wickedness inside the human heart. We didn’t sin by breaking the law, the law showed up to reveal the true condition of our hearts. But if sin is more than a behavior, then living by faith is more than sin management. Paul brings his struggle with sin to a climactic peak that many struggle with and in the end, he surrenders. Join us as we fight right along with Paul through this life tempered by sin.
Free at last. We look at what the Bible means when it says “free”. We are not free to do whatever we want. That’s not true freedom. True freedom is doing what you were made to do. We were made for a purpose and sin interferes with that purpose, but since we are dead to sin, we can pursue our real calling. We dive into the original call of humanity to bear God’s image, to be fruitful and multiply and to rule in God’s place. Being freed from sin allows us to ask how we might fulfill that calling. Dive in to find what your life can look like now that you are free at last.
This week Paul gets theological. As we step from the altar to the Laver in the Tabernacle that is the Book of Romans, Paul starts to deal with our sin. Now that we are saved, are we allowed to sin? Not at all. In fact, according to Paul, the key to no longer being driven by sin is to understand that we are dead. The entire system of sin and death said, “if you sin, you die”. We sinned and in baptism, we died with Jesus. The covenant of sin and death is fulfilled so we no longer have to live under that covenant any longer. It’s our job to believe that.
This week we stop to take in just how the nature of our lives have changed in light of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. We are no longer hiding from. God is not angry with us. We don’t need to strive to please a demanding Father. Paul declares boldly that we are at Peace with God. He emphasizes this reality by reminding us to what length God went to love us when we were His enemies and if God would sacrifice His son for us when we were sinners, how much more will he offer us Grace as His children. We are at Peace with God and that changes everything. Above all else, it opens the door to real growth and maturity.
It is here we unpack the idea of Grace and Faith not as theological concepts but as relational realities between God and His People. Rooted in ancient Roman economic concepts, Paul uses this clear metaphor to introduce an idea of love and commitment that informs these powerful Greek words. Don’t miss this week as we learn what it means to live by faith in the one who has shown us grace.
Romans one, two and most of three are Paul’s declaration that we are all sinners. From those who turn from God in chapter one and get released to all manner of sin to those who sit comfortably in their self-righteousness in chapter two, to everyone who might slip through the cracks in chapter three, Paul declared boldly that “all have sinned and fallen short”... That means you. This is essential to the Gospel narrative as Grace can only be Grace when it’s undeserved and this depravity is something we all need to come to grips with. It’s the door to Grace.
We spent this week outlining the Book of Romans and even more than that, learning why this Book is so important. We also learned that the Gospel is not a new idea. God has been telling this story of salvation since the moment humans fell. The layout of Romans is mirrored all over the Bible and it drives us to never settle. We should continue going deeper and deeper in our relationship with God as this is what we were made for.
Today, Esther Heintzelman unpacks what it looks like when we get lost… when we stray from God’s promises. We all know if we fail to learn from the past, we’re doomed to repeat it and because we don’t learn well, history always seems to repeat itself. God’s people seem to fail over and over again and we do it almost exactly like those who came before us did. History repeats itself… But when we look more closely at those old stories of human failure and especially at God’s response, we find that God is always faithful. As many times as we fail, God forgives and redeems. History, His Story, repeats itself and when it comes to his faithfulness, this is good for us. Just as God was faithful to His People back then… History repeats itself and He’s faithful to us today.
This week we look at the Davidic Covenant. As the Rabbis and teachers sat in Babylonian captivity, wondering how they had lost all that God had promised, they found the Prophets explaining how they had failed to keep their end of the Covenant offered through Moses. But that wasn’t all they found. They found hope in the promises that God had made to David. God promised David a special heir to sit on his throne forever. God was not done with Israel yet. The People of God clung tightly to the hope found is this Unconditional Covenant God made to this shepherd turned king. Everything Israel is as a nation hinges on this promise and everything we know about Jesus does as well.
This week we touch briefly on the Noahic Covenant, but dive deeply into God’s promise to Abraham. This ancient conversation between God and a 75 year old, childless man, has shaped more of our world than can be understood. God’s promise to make this man’s name great is still being fulfilled 4,000 years later. God’s promise to make this man with no children into a great nation is evident every day Israel continues on the earth. And God’s promise to bless the entire world through the descendant of this man is at the core of what it means to be a Jesus follower. The Abrahamic Covenant is hard evidence to the faithfulness of God. When God speaks, everything changes.
We launch our study of the Covenants of the Old Testament with the Adamic Covenant. God Promises Adam that if he sins, he will experience a death. As God unlocks what that death is to look like, we find comfort in knowing that life is supposed to be difficult. When our lives are hard… When raising our kids is hard… When our marriages are hard… When our relationships are hard… When our jobs are hard… it’s not a sign that we are doing something wrong. It’s a sign that God was right, as He always is. We experience the promise God made to Adam every day. Everything it means to be human can only really be understood in the context of Genesis chapter three so this is where we must start. But we don’t stop there. Our hope comes from the secret promise hidden in God’s words in this fateful chapter. Things won’t always be this way!
Having established the Holy Spirit’s relational nature (as close to us as the air we breathe), we dive into the function of the Holy Spirit. To do this, we unlock the structure of the Creed and how the three articles help us to outline the list of things that are assumed when we say that we Believe in the Holy Spirit. We find that the church organization, the fellowship of believers, our personal salvation, and so much more are all the work of the Spirit of God. Our job is to welcome this beautiful presence into our lives and our world. Though our job is to remain faithful as we love and serve God, we pray everyday for the Holy Spirit to move mightily in ways that only He can!
We start into the third article of the Apostle’s Creed, and as we begin our study of the Holy Spirit, we start with the relational essence of the Spirit of God. In both Testaments of our Bible’s, the word “spirit” means “breath”. There is nothing more intimate than breath. Entering into us even as it proceeds from the Father and Son. We answer the question, “Why did Jesus have to ascend to the Father?” and we discuss what it means to have the very Breath of God dwelling in us in a relationship more intimate than had previously been imagined. What does it mean to live with a God who desires to be that close to us?
This week as we examine the second part of the second article of the Apostle’s Creed. We look deeply into the function of Jesus. Having established that Jesus is both fully God and fully man, we dive into His role as Savior. The Creed focuses entirely on Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, return and reign. It mentions nothing about his life. We examine why this is as we find where true Grace enters the story and our lives.
We dive into the second article of the Apostles Creed, I believe in Jesus. We start by looking at Jesus' nature, being both fully God and fully man. He is the Son of God and the Son of an all too human woman, Mary. This complexity not only challenges us, but it offers us access to the most incredible being in the universe. We are invited to rely and depend on that Jesus. As we take Him on the terms that we are offered in Scripture, we find ourselves in relationship with the eternally existent, Son of God.
We look at what it means to believe in the God who is not only the maker of heaven and earth, the creator of everything that is, but also the God who reveals Himself in relational terms like Father. And to believe in a God who is not only all powerful and infinite, but also intricately interested and involved in our lives, should and must change us. We simply can't remain the same if we try give ourselves to such a God. Faith demands more.
We start this year with a dive into the Apostle’s Creed. As the anchor that insures us that we have not moved too far from the faith of the original believers in Jesus, the Creed serves as a great source of foundational truth. We start by looking at why the Creeds are so important and how they depend on the powerful Latin word, “Credo”. God is not asking us to mentally acknowledge him that way we do a math problem or historical reality… He wants us to depend and rely upon Him.
We spend the morning looking back at the past year’s messages as we talk about Joshua leading God’s people into the Promised Land. Joshua, confused, emotional, and possibly angry, had just lost his mentor and friend, Moses. Joshua found that life only moves forward and despite the turmoil he found himself in, he could do nothing by staying close to God and continuing to advance the Kingdom of God.
In today’s message we look at Joy. We discuss the difference in our brains between Joy and happiness, and the way that we can feel joy even when we are not happy. We also talked about how lacking our world is in Joy today. The background music of our daily lives today is a hedonistic happiness that lacks both healthy boundaries and any Joy at all. Only by clinging to God and experiencing Him for ourselves, not the idea, but God himself, can we find lasting joy.
In week three of our Advent Series we look at the power of Hope. But hope, like nitroglycerine, is not only powerful, it’s dangerous. There is nothing more detrimental than disappointed hopes and disappointed hopes seems to be what the world is selling today. We are constantly asked to put our hopes in the wrong things. The Psalmist very specifically warns us against that kind of hope and instead tells us to hope only in God, the One who can bear up under our hopes.
This morning we look at a Psalm of Solomon. The son of a songwriter who set out to honor God the way his dad did. Solomon was convinced that “love” was the best way to define the relationship between his dad and his God but as Solomon set out to write a love song to God, he found that he needed to define what love should look like, which includes justice and righteousness and flourishing. We find that this love is way less romantic and way more practical than we are used to, but the greatest lie in in the world is that if you don’t agree with me, you don’t love me.
We kick off this Advent by looking at Psalms 42 where the Psalmist recognizes that he can command his own soul to stop listening to the background music of this world and instead, pick a better song. We set out to, in this series, to call attention to the soundtrack, the Score, of our lives so that we can stop singing along to music that doesn’t fit our calling. Like the Psalmist, we command our soul to sing songs of peace.
We close this year’s Saints Series with a look at Edith Shaeffer. Married to a great thinker and apologist, she found a real faith should transform you and cause you to love real people, right where they live. After years of ministry to children, she found simply godly hospitality to be her greatest tool for not only drawing people, but showing them what faith looked like in the world. She invited thousands into her home and loved them like family and by doing so, changed the world.
This week, Esther Heintzelman walks us through the Prophet Elijah’s darkest moments to find that we are never alone. God’s most profound and world-changing saints are the ones that we never hear about. The ordinary, nameless, faithful followers of God are the foundation of God’s Kingdom. Elijah learned that he was surrounded and would be succeeded by 7,000 ordinary saints like you and me.
As we kick off this year’s Saints Series, we look at Michael Faraday, a saint and scientist who worked in a time when multiple disciplines were theorizing a world without God. Faraday, while surrounded by voices declaring God to be dead, looked deeply into the universe and found his faith more and more deeply drawn to the Maker of heaven and earth. He showed us that when you start with a deep faith in God, you will find Him everywhere but when you start with foolishness (The fool says in his heart there is no God), you will find only more foolishness.
As we wrap up our Setting the Table Differently series, we look at the two things required by the Old Testament tithe… That we GIVE and GO. The Jews not only gave their tithe, but they traveled to the Lord’s Presence to share and fellowship together. GIVE and GO! We look at ways to give to OTCC and ways to connect and form community with our people.
As we set the table differently, we must bring our best tithe. Whether it is money, time, or gifts, your presence matters. Engage with the community of believers around you so that the seed you plant, God will grow and multiply to bring a harvest.
Setting the table differently will always begin with community. It is vital to the perpetuation of a healthy church. This begins with our individual health so that we are able to engage each other, for we are unable to give something out of nothing.
The church today is experiencing a similar trend that the master in the parable Jesus told in Luke 14 experienced. We have prepared a table, and yet our culture has legitimate reasons they cannot join. As a church, we must wrestle with what it means to set the table differently in order that no one is left from the invitation to join us in the presence of the Master.
If you are in the Kingdom of God long enough, you will run the risk of losing or misplacing your faith. The key to finding it will be recognizing it "didn't just get up and walk away." It may require you to move some things that are hindering you from placing your faith in Jesus.
A miracle principle in the Kingdom of God is that of bringing our “not enough”. It involves taking inventory of what we have, no matter how small, leaning on our community, and investing in our family during the process. God takes the little and multiplies it.
In this upside down kingdom, the gate may not seem like one you would want to pass through. Our lowest point or most desperate need is often the way we enter into the recognition of God’s presence and it is what then becomes our testimony to the greatness of our King.
Open Table Community Church is a community organized by and around the Word of God, to cooperate in the Mission of God of furthering the Kingdom of God. We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table, by living in fidelity to Christ and one another, and by working together to bring reconciliation to the four relationships broken by sin in the Fall.
In the Kingdom, we have been given a playbook to follow as we live out our purpose and calling. We look to those who are following Jesus and hold Jesus’ example as our compass on our journey. Not everyone and everything is imitatible, however, we should set for ourselves a goal to be someone who is worthy of imitation as we ourselves follow Christ.
When faced with anxiety, the underlying attack is of our identity. As kingdom people, our worries are not insignificant, however our understanding is that our God is bigger. The challenge then is to be present and bring the worries of the day to our loving Father who knows what we need before we even ask.
Life in the Kingdom included the miraculous. As a Kingdom born out of the resurrection of our Savior, it’s normal to expect God to do amazing things. But should we seek those miracles or The Kingdom of God? Is there a difference? Listen and find out.
In the Kingdom of God, Jesus promises that those “who seek, shall find.” In order to find happiness or blessing, we look to Ruth who models the upside down nature of the beatitudes. Gleaning is the process of gratitude that provides our sustenance when things seem destitute or barren and will lead us to our Savior.
Our focus on this week’s kingdom series is the upside down nature of the reality that Jesus established. Our perspectives and responses change when we understand that our kingdom prioritizes and celebrates that which is contrary to our earthly realm.
We have been focusing on the similarities of kingdoms, but this week we switch gears and look at what sets God’s Kingdom apart: access. Our king Jesus embodies Emmanuel, God with us, and fulfills God’s desire that was proposed at Mount Sinai for the people to have direct access to him. Our everyday lives should reflect the reality that we have direct communication with the heart and mind of Christ. We should EXPECT for him to speak to us.
The kingdom element of the economy often collides with our fear of running out. In John 2, Jesus demonstrates his provision and drives home the importance of our vessels being available and filled with prayer.
We build on the foundation of Kingdom culture in this week’s message and examine how the plan God established becomes a blueprint for our focus. God created us to be stewards and the plan would be that we would not only steward things but also His miracle. The baton was passed to us and we must build a culture that values the transfer and management of the Gospel.
The Kingdom of God has a culture shaped and built on the fact that God has a plan. It is a plan that never fails, no matter the evidence, and the citizens of the kingdom are invited to participate in the plan. The culture then resonates a true monarchy, with the citizens embracing wholly the plan and purpose of their King, shunning their own agenda.
Rights and Privileges are one of the seven elements that make up a kingdom, but not all monarchies are created equal. In the Kingdom of God, this is the primary element that sets it apart. While the rest of the world relates transactionally in which you are needed but not necessarily wanted, Jesus exhibited a lack of need for his disciples but a generous desire for their relationship. This desire is what draws us into transformation.
Every culture is made up of rules and regulations and a Kingdom is no exception. While the tendency is to think of boundaries as a form of containment, our sin is what leads us into bondage and the rules from our king, God, are what set us free by His grace. The tension then becomes accepting grace while still striving to follow the law.
As we continue to explore the necessities of a kingdom, our study brings us to the requirement of subjects. As subjects of the kingdom, we obtain identity and our question, “Who am I?” gets answered by first finding out who the King is. The people of the kingdom then step into a family with a role to play.
Our Kingdom series this week addresses the need for land or territory. The question posed to those in God’s Kingdom rings throughout history and today, “Who is Jesus?”. The borders of the Kingdom of God are defined by any space where faith in Jesus is established. So, who do you say He is?
We launch a new series this week looking at what it means to live in the Kingdom of God. The resurrection changes everything and opens up the door to the Kingdom. If you want to live in the kingdom, you have to have a king. Recognizing the true king is monumental and will be the greatest treasure; worth our whole life.
As we approach Holy Week, our look at Jesus’ Triumphal Entry collides with our worship. It is the defining moment of our allegiance and transpires on a daily basis. Will you lay down your proverbial cloak and take up the palm branches of praise to glorify who Jesus is and not just what he has done?
Our Lenten journey encourages us to examine how God collides with our struggles with sin. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he continually reminds us that it is grace alone that saves us. Your faith in Christ’s saving grace is the empowerment to walk out of the sin cycle.
The lectionary passage this week points to the way Jesus collides with our purpose. Our relationship with Christ shifts our view of others from a mere human perspective to God’s vantage point. He then empowers our message to be one of reconciliation and not just a “get out of jail free” card. We become representatives with our life of the grace offered through Christ.
We continue our Lent series and examine the way Jesus collides with our day to day life and how that causes collisions with the world around us. Paul addresses the Corinthians and reminds us to not follow temptation but to stand firm.
Our second week into our Lent series exposes us to the collision Jesus makes in the way we look at imitation. Paul lays out for us in Philippians an invitation to follow together on this narrow cusp of humility.
As we embark on our journey through Lent, we consider how Jesus collides with our sin. He calls us to repentance which is more than “sin management”, it is a change that goes deeper to alter our thinking. Righteousness was completed with Jesus, whereas behavior change relies on us and misses the grace of the cross.
We conclude our study of the 10 commandments looking at the admonishment to refrain from idolatry. While we examine the underlying love conveyed in the commandment, we are compelled to share with our children the God of our stories; the good, the bad, and ugly parts of our lives where the loving, grace-filled God shows up.
There are certain morals that all societies can agree on that are found right in the middle of the ten commandments. As we examine more closely these principles in our series, The 10 Commandments Remix, our study brings us to wrestle with the idea that God emphasizes autonomy while also valuing dying to oneself and serving others.
Our second week in our series takes us on a journey deeper into the commandments in exploring the underlying virtues. As we focus on the command to honor father and mother, we garner that God is pushing us towards humility. It reminds us that in order to prosper, God has given us those who have gone before to teach and lead us.
We launched a new series, The 10 Commandments Remix, by examining how we continue to break “the rules” still today and how they fit into current society. While at first glance this list of do’s and dont’s seems to point us along a path to keep us from infractions against God and others, it in fact creates boundaries for ourselves in which we can flourish.
Open Table Community Church is a community organized by and around the Word of God, to cooperate in the Mission of God of furthering the Kingdom of God. We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table, by living in fidelity to Christ and one another, and by working together to bring reconciliation to the four relationships broken by sin in the Fall.
As we continue our identity series this week titled, The Real Open Table, we are convicted with the mandate from Romans to love others. In our authenticity, we also allow the space for others to be authentic while trusting the Holy Spirit to illicit the change He desires to see in us and others.
This week’s message comes from Reg Hamilton who serves up some food for thought on our work, tensions, and the identity and purpose that God has given us. In finding our individual calling in life, there is specific work that accompanies that as we work towards discipleship.
We begin the new year with a series on identity titled, The REAL Open Table. Who we are is wrapped up in our willingness to be authentic with ourselves and those around us, but also allowing God to be authentic with us by challenging our preconceived theologies. Seeking the real God will shatter the box we have placed Him in and deepen our relationship with our Creator.
In our final sermon of 2021, we spend some time recapping our year. The overriding theme to remember is gratitude in tough times. While Paul was imprisoned in a first-century prison, he was still expressing his gratitude towards God.
The anticipation of Advent is the promise that love wil no longer be accompanied by suffering. Int his week's passage, we look closer at Love. It is vulnerable, but it also changes things. As people of love, we will experience pain but the promise of Jesus makes it worth it.
Joy is the virtue for this third week of Advent. It is the emotion that is always relational and therefore can be felt even in the midst of turmoil when one feels completely loved and connected. Isaiah puts into words the feeling of joy that emanates in our soul when we recognize God’s face is available to us.
The second week of Advent leads us to the virtue of Hope. Even the most devoted of Christ-followers are not immune to the suffering of hopelessness. In the song of Zechariah, we are given a picture of our eternal hope that fuels our survival.
We begin the Advent season looking at the virtue of Peace. David’s art in Psalm 25 paints one of stress and turmoil that we all identify with living in a broken world. The peace we find within the midst of chaos is a sovereign God.
Our final week of our series Saints in the Storm we meet Kara Tippetts whose story is filled with grace and love in the midst of pain and death. Her story challenges us to embrace, and even search for God’s presence in our joy, tragedy, pain, mundane, ordinary, and common. Then to invite others to pursue the Maker alongside us.
In our third week of looking to the saints who have paved the way for us, we meet Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer points the way for us to speak out for those who are being excluded; to be aware of those who have no voice and be thier voice in positions of influence.
Our second saint in our series Saints in the Storm was Daudi Okelo from 20th century Uganda. He focused on teaching faith to children at the ripe age of 14 instead of turning his attention to politics or disputes. We can follow his example by directing our focus to teaching our own children identity and self, as well as introducing them to the love of Christ.
We conclude our study of Ruth and the importance community plays in our salvation story with the final scene drawing out a “to be continued….” The act of our redemption was completed solely by Jesus, yet our love story moves forward in how we live out “the good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph 2:10).
Our study of Ruth continues to shape for us the varied paths to the redeemer. In our passage this week, Naomi’s guidance for Ruth serves for us an example in the importance of timing and recognizing the individuality of a person’s experience as we introduce them to Jesus.
As we continue the story of Ruth, we examine the allegory that is committing to community. Just as Ruth experienced blessing afforded by the way in which Israel functioned as a people, so too should those around us experience a space in which they are so deeply provided for and thus set the stage to meet their redeemer.
In the first week of our new series, Saved By Community, we begin diving into the book of Ruth to look for how we all step into the roles of the narrative. We begin to parallel this story with that of salvation and how we found our relationship with God.
This week we reverse engineered the inner cogs of unity as we wrap up our series, That They Would Be One. The final product of unity is a reality that we accept by faith or deny. We do not create unity, we simply walk out our calling in alignment with what is.
We have been exploring the mystery of unity and spent our time this week searching Jesus’ final teaching with his disciples. While the doctrine of unity remains foggy, our vision becomes clearer when we embrace and ‘shema’ the commandment to love.
As we continue our study on unity, we seek to understand the ‘why?’. As the early church pursued the leading of the Holy Spirit, evidence was at the forefront. The Holy Spirit in our lives will produce fruit that will cultivate unity and become the evidence to the world of our glorious Father.
We begin a new series titled, That They Would Be One, seeking a Biblical perspective on unity. Our text presents the idea that the church body as a collective is the temple of the Holy Spirit and so stresses the significance of a unified body.
As we transition into our upcoming series, we take one final look at Acts 15 to point us towards the goal of church unity. When the cultural climate is to cancel differing opinions and division is almost celebrated, the Jerusalem Council provides a model of embracing diversity in opinion, giftings, and audience.
We are again challenged by our study of Acts and the question of grace being all we need. Just as the early church did, we continue to wrestle with this idea that behavior is an indicator of “salvation”.
In this week’s sermon, Brett gives testimonial on his family’s journey as it was guided by the Holy Spirit. We examine the questions, are we in the right posture for the Holy Spirit to speak to us, and are we listening in the way we should?
Week 11 in our study of Acts challenged us to answer the question, “what do you do when the voice of God tells you to do something the word of God tells you not to?”. Peter demonstrated a posture of remaining teachable and in so found the Gospel’s ability to cleanse is greater than he imagined.
Our journey through Acts comes to a major turning point in history as Saul is confronted with Jesus and his life's trajectory is altered. If not for a small group of unnamed Christians, this story would not have happened. Everyone's part in God's Story, regardless of how seemingly small, is extremely important in the eyes of God.
In week 9 of Acts, Like a Christian, we discuss the new covenant mentioned by Jeremiah and made whole by Jesus, and how the disciples spread that message. We talk about the tension between the old way of thinking and the new message of Jesus' salvation.
In this week's installment of "Acts like a Christian", we learn that sometimes to move forward, we have to look back. In Luke’s account of the death of Stephen and the persecution of the early church, he presents the idea of happiness being birthed from pain.
Our continued study of Acts this week, had us examine structures, order, and boundaries. While organization is imperative and useful, Luke showed us that at the heart of our “organization” should be the goal of healthy relationships.
We return to our series digging through Acts and were challenged with the story of Ananias and Sapphira. When we present only part of ourselves, we miss out on the presence of holiness and authenticity in our lives.
We flip through the snapshots that Luke gives us in Chapter 4 of what it looked like as the church shifts in their understanding of where the presence of God dwells. The temple pales in importance as the Holy Spirit establishes his presence in His people and His power is displayed in their unity.
As we move through our study of Acts, chapter 3 presents us with a picture of what it looks like to see ourselves in the story of God. Even though we cannot see the whole picture, we can trust that God does. As we step into the narrative, we begin to see opportunities to live God's purpose and not just tell of His majesty.
In this week’s message, Reg shared his testimony and continued our series in Acts 2 teaching on true community and the relationships of the disciples. We get a glimpse of the power of actions versus words, and how we should love God and genuinely love each other.
In the second installment of our series, we cross-examine the birth of the early church and their response to the presence of the Holy Spirit. As they moved out to tell of the wonders of God, the Holy Spirit spoke the language of the people which moved them to repentance.
In the first installment of this series, we look at our everyday lives through the book of Acts, after examining Kingdom life in our previous series. We focused a bit on the ascension of Jesus, and how important the timing surrounding it was for not just the disciples, but for getting His message out to the world.
Our final examination of what it means to live in resurrected life takes us to the restoration of our vocation. The cultural mandate that God gave in the garden was to be fruitful and multiply, yet with the appearance of sin we now struggle and strive to achieve that goal. In Jesus' parable in Luke 12, he identifies the root cause as sinful motivation or "yeast". The only way to neutralize this yeast is generosity. The more we handle the things given to us with an open hand, we are able to steward that which is God's and maintain correct motives.
This week we moved One Space Out in the Game of Life series to examine what it means to live in resurrected life with others. Jesus outlines for us in the parable of the Good Samaritan the posture of restoration with others is not only right living and right thinking, but is birthed out of the right feeling towards our fellow man. Only when we allow God to refine our hearts are we moved with compassion towards the broken.
Continuing our look at what it means to live a resurrected life, we wrestle with the reconciliation of the death we experienced with self, aka SHAME. Looking to the Parable of the Talents, Jesus illustrates that purpose is the way out of shame and what brings us into a fulfilled life.
In this second week of our series titled the Game of Life we are presented with God's intention of restoration with him. When Jesus taught the famous parable of the Prodigal Son, he was illustrating the picture of God's plan for resurrected life through the Messiah.
We began a new series entitled "The Game of Life" in which we will be focusing on the resurrected life we can begin living here on earth. When death entered the scene in the Garden of Eden, it impacted four major relationships. When Jesus conquered death on the cross, he made a way not only for our eternal life but our abundant life here on Earth.
In this special Easter service, we talk about how not only followers of Christ were forgiven and made clean with His death and Resurrection, but how the power of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice can even make pagan rituals wholesome and pure. We celebrate Jesus leaving his tomb empty and washing away our sin on the final day of Holy Week. You don’t want to miss it!
Open Table Community Church is a community organized by and around the Word of God, to cooperate in the Mission of God of furthering the Kingdom of God. We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table, by living in fidelity to Christ and one another, and by working together to bring reconciliation to the four relationships broken by sin in the Fall.
We continued our Lent series of looking at Instagram-worthy moments from Jesus' life. This week marked a shift and fulfilled prophesy of the scattered remnant returning to Jerusalem with the arrival of the heir of David. The time had arrived for Jesus' purpose, suffering for glory. #goals
This Sunday we examine arguably the most famous of Instagram-worthy moments from Jesus' ministry. When Nicodemus approaches Jesus, he comes face to face with the revelation of God the Father. From the moment of creation, God has revealed himself, his nature, and his heart towards his people. The authentic nature of Jesus, was and IS the authentic nature of God. #twins
For the third Sunday of Lent, we looked into the connections between two stories from Jesus's life at the beginning of the Gospel of John. We dive into not only Jesus flipping tables in the temple, but also Jesus turning water into wine and how both stories connect to the resurrection and to all of us who were created in his image. #dontholdback
In this second Sunday of Lent, we look at another Instagram-worthy moment from Jesus' ministry, #nofilter. When Peter, James, and John witness Jesus' transfiguration on the mountain top, Peter recognizes the fulfillment of the past and is quick to acknowledge this shiny Jesus as the Messiah. However, if we want to experience #nofilter Jesus, we must also experience the suffering Jesus.
We launched Lent and our new series titled, "@JESUS", where we will be focusing on the Instagram-worthy highlights of Jesus' ministry. In Week 1 we dive into the launching point of Jesus' ministry and find ourselves represented in his baptism and journey through the wilderness. We are challenged during this Lenten journey to see the kingdom of heaven that is all around, #thereismore, and tell our wilderness stories, #testimony.
Love is beyond a feeling or simply an action, but is a foundation for life. It was woven into the fabric of our being from creation when God intentionally formed us as interdependent people. To love and be loved, we must create space for others and ourselves to be authentic; to be flawed and yet worthy of love with no strings attached.
With the world in disarray and the words "conspiracy theory" being whispered (or shouted) all around you, how do we live out our lives in the face of an uncertain future? We looked at three biblical kings, Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah, to find insight on ignoring the temptation to guess the future and walk in faithfulness to what God has called us to-----to lead revival.
We wrap up our Table series by looking at the Table God instructed Moses to build for the Tabernacle and how this Table would be the centerpiece for this new space where the Kingdom of Heaven would meet earth. We then looked at how the communion table that is the centerpiece for our worship space says about Open Table Community Church.
We experience a story of grace and redemption. We study David fulfilling a long standing promise to his childhood bestfriend as he invites Jonathan's son to his Table. The parallels between this story and our story is astonishing. OTCC is shaped by this story as we refused to be defined by our brokenness but rather by the Table we enjoy.
We examine a parable that Jesus told about a man who was done playing games. The man was throwing a banquet and rather than engage the social manipulations that value some people over others, he filled his table full of ragamuffins. At OTCC, we resonate with this story. Listen to find out why.
We sit in this frozen moment between 2020 and 2021 with Hell in our Rear View Mirrors and many challenges ahead. We study what Moses did in a similar moment with the Exodus behind and the wilderness ahead. Moses chose to use that frozen moment to sing with joy at the triumph of our God. We have the same choice today. God has brought us through 2020 and we can either focus on what we've lost and how it used to be like the Israelites did, or we can sing and dance with Moses as we know that God will be with us in every new challenge.
We were Created 2 Create Christmas. So how do we do that? Looking at the context of the first Christmas finds us thinking small. God ignored to grand things, the powerful things, the "important" things to change the world in a hidden barn. We Create Christmas by focusing on small things like family and friends. This is how the world is changed.
We wrap up Advent by looking at Psalms 89. The songwriter rejoices in the never ending love of God even when current circumstances don't line up with what God has said. When it comes down to either believing God's Word or believing my current struggles, God's word wins every time. Like the author of Psalm 89, we can rejoice in the Love of God no matter what our lives look like. Jesus' life, death and resurrection proves without a doubt that we are loved an because Jesus loved us enough to show up, we can show up for others.
We light the Love Candle as we examine the artwork of the Psalmist who wrote Psalms 126. The Songwriter wrote his song to encourage the weary travelers on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When life is difficult we can't always find Joy but with encouragement, we can fix our eyes on a Joy to come. Some days we dance with Joy and some days we sing about a day when we will dance with Joy.
We light the Peace Candle as we examine the artwork of the Psalmist who wrote Psalms 85. The songwriter presents an all too common tension of humanity that is only relieved when God speaks peace from Heaven. Only God's peace, Shalom, is more like "wholeness" than "quiet". God speaks wholeness to His people and Jesus comes to show us what that looks like. Our best bet at achieving this wholeness is in community.
We gather for a Fifth Sunday Family Service. We kick of Advent by looking at an ancient piece of art that identifies Hope in a special way. Until Jesus returns, our greatest hope for advancing the Kingdom of God and making our better, is our children. They are our Hope, and even more, they can teach us how to hope. Children hope so easily and Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who act like children. Go create Hope.
We wrap up our 2020 saints series titled Surrounded with a discussion about Billy Graham. Though we barely scratched the surface of this great man's life, we focus in on Billy's tenacious grip on the Gospel. With the temptation to throw himself into countless incredibly worthy causes, Billy remained focused on the Pearl of Great Price. We also stand in a time when there are so many great fights to fight that it's important for us to remember that the Gospel has to central in both our church and our lives.
We continue our 2020 saints series titled Surrounded with a discussion about Jonathan. Most famous for his friendship to David, an in depth look introduces us to a guy who lived fully and threw himself into his life with passion. Above all we find a man who never needed a spotlight or recognition for the good he did. For Jonathan, simply being a good son, a good man, and a good friend was all the notoriety he needed. In a day of "likes", "shares", and "viral" recognition, Jonathan reminds us that it's the unseen goodness that changes the world.
We continue this year's saints series with Monica of Hippo. She's a humbling example of faithfulness over a long period of time as well as a demonstration of how much impact an utterly normal person can have on history by being faithful.
We open this year's saints series with Juan de Zumarraga, the first bishop of Mexico. As we look at Zumarraga's life, we realize how much God can do with a completely unqualified and under resourced person who has a heart to do good and love people, even in the backwoods of nowhere. Like the early apostles who were ordinary misfits in the boonies of the Roman empire, Zumarraga gives us hope that we can make a real difference in the world by doing what good we can do, right were we live.
As we wrap up our Apocalypse Series we look at a Cosmic Apocalypse and the emotional impact that collapse had on the people involved. The Messiah, the very Son of God, came to earth and rather than being welcomed as the creator and sustainer of the universe, He was abused and crucified. This had a profound and painful impact on those who dared to hope that this Jesus was the long awaited King. Anyone who has every tasted real disappointment understands. But this was not the end. The Resurrection changes everything. Now we face every challenge, every struggle, every disappointment, every apocalypse knowing THIS IS NOT THE END!
Apocalypses do happen on a grand scale. They sometimes affect the entire planet. As we face global struggles in 2020, what better place to look for help then the story of Noah as Noah also face a global pandemic. Esther helps us to enter the story of these very real humans who were so much like us. In the end, we find the hope to show up and continue doing what we know God has called us to do, no matter what our new normal looks like.
We look at a the collapse of First Temple Israel as a dire warning of the way nations can undergo Apocalypse. Despite its glorious beginnings, God judges Israel because they had abandoned justice. As we head into an election, we realize both the importance of our nation obeying God's commands and the greater importance of focusing our allegiance on the Kingdom of God which is never at risk of an Apocalypse.
We start this new series by looking at personal apocalypse. Sometime everything falls apart. David had a charmed life. He was an anointed, giant-killing rock star who had the praise of the people. Everything he touched turned to gold until a single thrown spear turned him into a homeless refugee. In a moment David's life was changed forever. He wrote Psalms 59 in the wake of his apocalypse and it holds the secret to surviving a personal apocalypse.
We look at Worship as a Community Builder. We join David as he brings the Ark into Jerusalem effectively creating the city that has since that day been arguably the most influential city on Earth. But it was David's true intentions that motivated our study as David was creating a center for Jewish Worship because corporate Worship is what makes us a people.
We learn that not only are we wired for worship, and not only do we worship out of a deep gratitude for the grace of God, but we choose worship as a pragmatic way to fix our perspective and cope with life.
Jesus deconstructs an extravagant display of worship and we find that worship is deeply connected to love and grace and faith and shame. Like our emotions, worship is an outpouring of what's deep inside us.
Week 1 of our new series titled Designed For Worship. We look at what worship is and why we should take it seriously.
We close the MasterClass series by looking at three types of Inward Prayer; Lament, Thanksgiving and the Highest Form of Prayer. We listen in on Jesus as He prays each of these prayers and as we do, we pick up Master tips that can deepen our own prayer lives.
We look at Jesus' longest and fullest prayer which constitutes His confession. We learn from his example how to process our lives with God through inward prayer as we look at what God expects of us, how well we've done at accomplishing that and then what comes next.
We look at Jesus' outward prayers as He prays for himself, others, and even enemies. We learn from the Master How to ask, seek and knock because we don't dare dare our deepest needs and desires anywhere but to God.
We launch into a new Series on Prayer seeking to learn from the Master, Jesus. We stand with His original disciples asking, "Lord, teach us to pray". As we look at Jesus' outline for prayer, we begin a journey that has the potential to grow us into a praying people.
Guest Speaker Kalie George shows us how we can be a part of rebuilding our world in a real and specific way. This is a world changing message.
We finish the wall with Nehemiah. We get to listen in on his final advice as he hands his remodel project over to the homeowners. He warns them not to undo the work and to keep working after he's gone because the work is bigger than them.
Brett takes us through Nehemiah's reaction to distraction and continual attempts to do him harm. He stayed on the right path by recognizing that he was doing a great work. Listen in as Brett walks us through how Nehemiah worked this out.
We join Nehemiah as he faces his first internal conflict. What do you do when everything in the city is going great but some people are at risk of missing out because of things that happened in the past? Nehemiah has so much to say to our world today.
Nehemiah and his people hit resistance in chapter four. The enemies of God's people threaten to stop the work of rebuilding the wall. Nehemiah teaches us how to handle an attack from the enemy and as we work through the chapter we find many parallels to our own times.
We join Nehemiah as he repairs the wall and rehangs the gates. He decides what to block out and what to let in. We must learn to do the same.
We ride through the wreckage of Jerusalem with Nehemiah and learn about how to own the brokenness of our own world, keeping the Grace and Resources of God before us at all times.
We study Nehemiah's conversation with Artaxerses and how it reflects the strange relationship between Church and State. What does it look like to be a Jew in the middle of the Babylonian empire. What does it look like to be a Christian in the middle of America? The answer is in who really sits on the throne.
We dive into Nehemiah as he is broken over the news of how bad of shape his nation is in. Nehemiah allows his heart to be broken and then he prays. He extols the Lord, confesses, repents and asks God to bless his action. We should follow Nehemiah's example as we address the many issues in our world.
As we look through the night time discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus we find that the Spiritual life is harder to pin down than we might like, but what is important is that we recognize when it's there. Above all else, we find that Jesus came to Save us. That's why He came, and that changes everything.
As we look at the Temptation story, we see that Jesus finds Himself in the ancient story of Israel's wandering only where Israel failed God, Jesus didn't. The temptations story is so much more than just Jesus being tempted. It's a story of how he is righteous where we are not. Ultimately Jesus faces the same temptation that Satan has been using since the beginning. Did God Really Say...
As we wrap up our series we look at the broken relationship between humans and the created order. As we try to find a way out of the meaningless scratching for survival that ends in death, we find that Jesus's redemption means living with real purpose.
As we work through the third Broken Relationship from Genesis three, we find the relationship to the other is broken. Adam moves from a place of oneness to blame and separation. We still allow such division but Redemption calls us to do better.
As we examine the church's role in redeeming the broken relationships from Genesis 3, we find that the broken relationship between the person and himself/herself, is often overlooked. Authenticity begins by believing that we are God's Masterpiece and are perfectly suited for the work He has for us.
As we examine the Church's role in helping to bring redemption to the broken relationship between God and people we find the essence of the New Covenant and what that means to us.
As we look at how to manage our money in our daily lives, we find God's intense focus on caring for the poor. Though we can't track down every detail on how we should manage our money in the Bible we can determine that we must steward our resources with generosity. As God is generous with us, we much be generous with others.
What is the Tithe? Good Question. It's actually not what you think. We walk through how a Non-Jewish, Christian should give to the church.
We begin our honest approach to what the Bible says about money with the realization that when God talks about our money, He's talking about our heart. He's far less concerned with our checking account than He is with how we steward our very lives.
As we examine Isaiah's poetry about the Messiah, we find a world of Peace. We find natural born enemies no longer in conflict. We find the world we not only desire to live in, but the world we are called to help create.
Isaiah stood in the wreckage of a dream and dared to hope for something better. His courage draws us into the deep hope that believes that Jesus didn't only break into history as a baby, but intends to break back in to make all things right.
Anthony of Egypt taught us how to leave the polarizing debates that destroy our culture. As we look at his life and his culture we're drawn to the way Jesus refused to be dragged into binary debates at the expense of real people.
When we look past who Peter became and we consider where he began, we're left with the question, Why would Jesus call a nobody? Why would Jesus start a world-wide movement with a fisherman. The reason not only reveals the heart of Jesus, but it offers each of us the encouragement of knowing that God can use us too because We are All Peter.
Rosa Parks teaches us the power of being a Good Samaritan. The social and relational capital she had from doing good, even when she was marginalized and abused, was leveraged to literally change the world. Our response to the amazing grace of God is to go and do likewise.
We study Brennan Manning to learn about grace. Brennan played both brothers in the prodigal son story as do we all. He inspires us to cling to grace and turn to Jesus.
We discuss why we worship together. We learn about how worship shapes us. We don't worship because we are worshippers, we become worshippers by worshipping. As Eugene Peterson said, "Worship is an act that produces feelings for God, not a feeling that motivates the act of worship."
Pardon the recording as we still struggle with our equipment. We talk this week about the Torah and how we must learn that to God, there is no difference between our Church life and our "Real" life. To God everything we do can be an act of worship. Whether singing in church or mowing our lawn, both can and should be worship.
Forgive the recording. My microphone was apparently rubbing against my shirt. As we look at our original design from Genesis 2, we learn that we were never designed to be the most important thing in our lives. When we get worship right, we can enjoy ALL of God's bounty, but when we get our worship wrong, everything falls apart. God desires our worship not because He needs it, but rather because He knows that we will by nature worship and He doesn't want us to worship something that in the end will hurt us.
For our 5th Sunday Family Service we had some fun as the Children stayed in the service with us. We Discussed our new slogan, "Serving Jesus and People, Together". The beginning of the sermon was accidentally cut, but the way we chose our slogan is still available.
Please forgive the poor recording. Pastor Chris forgot to turn on his microphone so we were forced to record him through the house mics. This sermon is a look at why location is so important in locating the presence of God.
Joseph the Dreamer never chased his dreams. Rather he became a person worthy of his dreams. Even more, he learned to make his dreams about something bigger than himself. We need to do the same.
After failing so completely with Bathsheba and Uriah, David is confronted with his sinfulness. He pours out his confession in his art and gives us an outline for Repentance. As we walk through Psalms 51, we uncover some subtle myths about forgiveness, repentance and confession.
David's life comes crumbling down. He makes a simple decision to stay home instead of leading his troops into battle and one bad decision spirals to the next. The end result is darker than he could have ever imagined. We kick off the fourth epic of David's life with the story of his fall.
What if you don't fear? The thoughts you entertain, you empower for what you think on, you speak and what you speak will become your reality. If you think negative thoughts about your spouse you will speak negatively to you spouse and before long, your relationship with your spouse will be as negative as you feared. The Scriptures show us a better way. Choose gratitude. Thank God for the work He is doing in your life. Replace the enemy's script with a better narrative and then speak it. This is Worship.
David's focus shifts as he learns that God is going to give him an heir who will sit on the throne of God's Kingdom forever. David finds himself a part of a very big story and his art reveals how he began to envision that narrative. We learn to broaden our vision as well.
We follow David's story as he brings the Ark into his new capital and participates in the first Corporate Worship Service in Jerusalem. We watch David approach corporate worship from the perspective of giving to both God and People.
David as he takes the throne set the standard of behavior for himself amazingly high. Tonight we study how aiming for perfection drives us to Grace.
Comparing Psalms 18 to David's narrative in 1st and 2nd Samuel reveals how much more David sees in his story than any historian could tell. David finally reaches and the top and all he can say is "God did it".
Amy uses David's lament Psalms and a simple metaphor of Lobster Growth to unlock the power of getting vulnerable in challenging times so that we can grow stronger inward, outward, and upward.
We discuss how David had no theology of "heaven" in his art, yet he cried out for salvation often. We can do the same as we struggle with the legalism that modern secular life puts on us. As we cry out for Salvation God meets us with His Grace.
We can't change the painful things that happen to us but David shows us how we can take that pain to God in Lament and frame it around the central truth that Jesus Loves us and Gave Himself for us.
We look at David's Imprecatory Psalms to figure out how to handle anger. David openly curses people in his art to God. Are we allowed to do this? The Psalms help show us how to be fully human.
As David's charmed life falls apart, he gets honest about it in his art. By doing so, he joins an ancient discipline in the People of God called Lament. We learn that this is essential to live an honest life in a broken world.
By looking at two of David's back to back stories, that of David the Minstrel and David the Giant Killer, we see two sides of David that make up the whole and undivided person. By studying the Soldier and the Songwriter, we hope to also find a way to be whole and undivided in our relationship to God and His people.
David looks into the vastness of space and sees the glory of God and the place of man. He teaches us that our value can only be found in God.
We examine David's beginnings and imagine the young shepherd turning his time outdoors into great art about his God. He pens Psalms 19 exposing what God might have seen when God looked at David's heart.
Jesus'call final moments with His disciples reveals just how badly they had missed the point, but His grace even covers that.
John tells us a story from a dinner party that teaches us about the power of true belief.
In our first Family Service of 2019, we talked with both the adults and the kids about Jesus' Transfiguration. We learned about Jesus true identity and about learning not to set up camp on the mountaintop. Finally we discussed having our own transfiguration.
As Luke tells us about the first people who Jesus spends his time on, we learn who Jesus was interested and why. We are then confronted with the reason He is interested in us.
While dealing with hard news in a surprisingly un-Messianic way, Jesus tells a story that reveals how Grace can sometimes look like pain but that even in pain we are firmly in His care.
Russ closes our Vision series by teaching us how to walk out a value-driven Kingdom culture. Drawing from the Book of Acts, we learn to invite others to pursue Jesus with us.
Esther walks us through what a Culture of Authenticity will look like and what it will demand of us. If we want to create a space where people can be their true selves, we must learn to become our true self.
Jennifer teaches us that we have a significance in the God story. We are the way God blesses the world and with His power, we are the perfect fit for what the world needs. The key is to stay plugged in to that power source.
As we examine the Culture of Open Table Community Church we first find ourselves in the greater culture of the Biblical Narrative. Understanding where we fit into this bigger picture helps us shape where we are headed as a church and what we want our image to be in the place God is planting us.
Knowing Why we do What we do and How we hope to doi, we finally discuss WHAT we plan to do. Where is OTCC heading? What kind of Church to we hope to be? How do we balance our desire to grow with our commitment to stay small enough to have real community?
In week two of our Vision Series, we discuss HOW we intend to accomplish our WHY. We break down the second half of our vision statement, "We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table and by living in fidelity to Christ and to one another."
As we prepare for our move to Wellsville, we discuss our Vision. In week one we ask, What's our Why? Please note that we look at pictures of the building, the plans for the remodel and design inspiration photos. Though this part of the sermon was fairly dependent on the images, we discuss how our "Why" is driving our rehab decisions.
Paul tells the Philippians how much he loves them and then explains why. It becomes a beautiful picture of how to keep love alive and make it grow.
Paul tells the Philippians to Rejoice and then lays out a path by which we learn that Joy comes from less not more. In a season when we push for more, Paul tells us that less is better.
Paul begs the Philippian church to stay in unity. This takes us back to Jesus' final prayer in John as He prays for the same thing. We examine the power and absolute necessity of this biblical command for Peace in the church.
We dive into Paul's deep and emotional relationship with the Philippians. In his darkest hour, this church reaches out to him and he responds with a great look at real HOPE.
Abigail, against all evidence, believes that God has a future for the renegade, David. She gambles everything on that belief.
Henry Parsons Crowell lived a life devoted to impacting the kingdom. Business is what he did best, so that is exactly what he gave to the Lord. From founding Quaker Oats to saving Moody Bible Institute, Crowell absolutely had an impact.
Lyman Beecher was an incredible preacher in his own right but his greatest contribution was in the children he raised. What if the best thing we ever do is to support someone else to greatness.
A look a the structure of the Book of Matthew leads us to believe that He told the Story of Jesus in a very deliberate way. From this we find that we are supposed to preach the final sermon.
After giving no real answers to the disciples two questions about the Last Days, Jesus shifts the conversation to the Nature of our Waiting. After giving three examples of how to wait wrongly, Jesus tells us about those who wait right.
We work to keep Matthew 18 in context. Jesus ties Kids, lost sheep, offending brothers and God forgiveness together in a beautiful short sermon.
In the context of Lost Sheep, Jesus tells us how to deal with a Brother who offends us. We learn that the heart of confrontation has to be reconciliation or the Kingdom loses power.
Jesus teaches about sheep challenges our values and our perception of God. This parable doesn't turn out the way we expect.
Jesus, in response to a question about who is the greatest in the Kingdom, flips the script and tells us that we must see ourselves in the people we look down on.
We use Jesus' parable of the Dragnet to talk about how to filter the junk out of lives in a world that bombards us with too much stuff. Jesus wraps up this discourse with a beautiful declaration of how he brings the Good News in the midst of a the Jewish Context.
Jesus uses the Parables of the Pearl and Treasure to show us the Value of the Kingdom and the Urgency of Acting Now.
Jesus shows us that He measures things by the weight of potential. He puts dreams in our hearts and wants us to believe them even when we don't see results yet.
Jesus surprises us by telling us that the way to deal with nonbelievers in the Church is not to identify and remove them but to let them grow together with the believers. His heart is to do no harm.
Jesus tells us that the seed that God plants in us is all about producing fruit that blesses the world. He warns against withering under the pain that comes from the Word and from clinging too tightly to the blessings that come from the Word.
As Jesus starts into the parabolic discourse, His disciples ask why He teaches the way he does and Jesus reveals some deep truths about the spiritual life.
As Jesus wraps up the Missional Discourse, He challenges our ultimate allegiances and offers the ultimate reward for following Him into Missional Living. We find that Mission is about every part of our life.
Jesus doesn't simply command His disciples to never fear but rather asks them to shift their fear from things are powerless but generally provoke much fear to One who is worthy of Fear but shows nothing but Love.
We have an opportunity to grasp the value of a Life with Jesus by looking at how much it cost.
Jesus sends out His disciples for the first time and gives them a Map, a Message, a Method, the Muscle, and a Mob.
Jesus wraps up the Sermon on the Mount in a surprising way to capture all of us in our need for the Gospel.
Jesus warns us about taking our desire anywhere but God, encourages us to bring them to our Father and then instructs us on what to do next.
We find out how to live in the tension created by Jesus telling us not to judge then telling us how to deal with our own plank and our neighbors speck.
Digging into the Lord's Prayer finds that Jesus told us to bookend our prayers with worship. This allows us to get our eyes off of ourselves which creates a space for the Gospel to change our hearts.
Jesus gives the Beatitudes and thereby outlines a new kind of Kingdom that plays by different rules.
Isaiah sees the suffering Savior like no one else and reveals that it's all about Jesus
Jeremiah prophesies of a time when God will do a new thing. Jesus pulls that prophecy off the shelf, dusts it off and says, "This is That".
God's covenant with Abraham reveals to us God's methods of using small things to make big changes and our tendency to trust Functional Saviors rather than His plan.
From the Noah story we learn what it means to serve a God who is in covenant with the entire world.
As Boaz goes through all of the official and legal activities to redeem Ruth, we look at how much the forms matter and what that says about the Sacraments.
Naomi tells Ruth how to approach and draw closer to Boaz who had already initiated contact with Ruth. We discuss how the church can use liturgy to help people approach their redeemer.
Advent week two teaches us to find peace in all of the precursors to God's eventual fullness.
Advent week two teaches us to find peace in all of the precursors to God's eventual fullness.
Advent is about waiting. More specifically, it is about waiting for the day when God sets the world right. In week one of Advent we face the brokenness of the world and Hope for God to come and redeem.
Advent is about waiting. More specifically, it is about waiting for the day when God sets the world right. In week one of Advent we face the brokenness of the world and Hope for God to come and redeem.
John Woolman was an early abolitionist whose tender conscience lead him to change himself and then share that change with others. His refusal to compromise in his own life mixed with his refusal to judge others made him a rare force for good.
John Woolman was an early abolitionist whose tender conscience lead him to change himself and then share that change with others. His refusal to compromise in his own life mixed with his refusal to judge others made him a rare force for good.
Open Table Community Church is a community organized by and around the Word of God, to cooperate in the Mission of God of furthering the Kingdom of God. We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table, by living in fidelity to Christ and one another, and by working together to bring reconciliation to the four relationships broken by sin in the Fall.
Open Table Community Church is a community organized by and around the Word of God, to cooperate in the Mission of God of furthering the Kingdom of God. We accomplish this by gathering in worship together around a common teaching and a common table, by living in fidelity to Christ and one another, and by working together to bring reconciliation to the four relationships broken by sin in the Fall.
Luke walks us through the council at Jerusalem to determine how the gentile church is to relate to Torah in light of Salvation by Grace.
As Paul finishes his first missionary journey, Luke walks us through a scene where Paul plays the Liberal, a scene where Paul plays the conservative, and a scene where he admits that being a Believer brings tension and tribulation.
Luke tells about Paul's first missionary journey and we get to hear our first sermon from Paul. Most uniquely, we get to see Paul curse one person and turn his back on another group of people. It begs the question what offense is bad enough that in the midst of such an accepting book, the doors might be closed on you?
Luke masterfully tells a tale of one king declaring war on another. It's an anceint Jewish underdog tale. Jesus against Herod.
Luke tells of how the real influence of the church shifts from Jerusalem to Antioch. Many changes make the move obvious and the Apostles don't fight for power.
Luke tells us how Peter's heart is changed as he leads the first Gentile ever to faith in Christ.
Luke tells us of Paul's conversion and the power of the church to bring people into the kingdom. We learn how to turn an enemy into a friend.
Philip witnesses to an Ethiopian and shows the cooperation between the Holy Spirit and the Believer.
As the gospel follows Philip into Samaria, Peter and John have to confront their racism and validate this new move in the expansion of the faith. The learn that the Holy Spirit is not to be controlled.
Luke tells a story about great pain leading to great joy spawning a discussion about the nature of evil.
Luke tells us how the early church weathered its first internal conflict. Complaints result in growth and expansion.
Luke shows us the heart of the early church as it works to interpret what God desired of the People of God.
Uncovering the historic imagery behind Acts 2. How this event was a revival of Past days for the original church.
Acts 1 introduces some of the fundamental tensions that exist in the Book of Acts as well as in the Christian life.
Jesus chooses not to engage in the BIG power struggles of the day. Paul has a chance to "make it big" if he'll just water down the gospel.
Jesus tries to take our eyes off of the destination so we can focus on our Journey with Him.
We learn from Peter and the Great Awakening the power of confession and submission to revolutionize a society.
We learn on the Road to Emmaus that our faith is experiential. The Table has the power to open our eyes.
When Jesus Chose a metaphor for his entry into Jerusalem, the people caught it but responded with metaphors of their own to demonstrate their preconceived expectations.