Simi Cov Messages: Recent Episodes
Simi Covenant Church
THE SERIES: Politics in general, and the American presidential election in particular, tends to be quite divisive. In this series we are going to consider three "I am NOT" statements by Jesus and have them shape our approach to the turmoil and fear we experience in the wake of the presidential election. We will look at these quotes by Jesus: “I am not alone” (John 8:16) - Identity “I am not of this world” (John 8:23) - Mission * “I am not seeking glory for myself” (John 8:50) - A pattern of humility Our prayer is that even in a time of division around us that we as a church will have even greater unity around our identity, mission, and humble attitudes.
THE CHURCH Simi Covenant Church is located in Simi Valley, CA. Join us online from anywhere: simicovenant.org
Date: December 17, 2023
Title: Angels: Our King Brings Peace
Text: Luke 2:8-15
Message: Pastor Kurt Morrill
Date: December 10, 2023
Title: Zechariah: Our King Comes to Liberate Us from Fear
Text: Luke 1:67-75
Message: Pastor Kurt Morrill
Questions in this episode:
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"Why do this--why answer questions?"
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When we are raptured, do our pets go with us and if not what happens to them?
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How does God determine who will receive a medical miracle to save their life (at this time)? While others do not, even though many are praying just for that person to receive a miracle?
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Is getting a tattoo considered defacing God’s body?
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What do you think of affirming / Side A theology? Is it plausible? (a question about human sexuality)
Do you know that God welcomes your questions?
Our questions (and even our doubts) are a part of healthy faith. Pastor Kurt asked for people to ask questions they have about the Christian faith.
This message series is focused on responding to those questions in what we hope is a thoughtful and helpful way. Some of us have come from a faith background or a family situation where our questions were not welcomed. We might need to be healed of our previous views. Or you might not be the kind of person who has very many questions. This kind of stuff doesn’t bother you. But others of us only feel like we can really understand something if we can take it completely apart and put it back together again. So we have questions.
Whatever your starting point, ponder this with us: How does the fact that God welcomes our questions shape your view of faith?
Jesus calls us to deep discipleship that includes denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily, and following him.
All of the children were in the service on this day and we do rely a bit more on 2 visual illustrations that may not come across clearly in the audio sermon.
Mark 14:32-42
Book of Jonah overview — what we learn is that God can have mercy on ANYONE. That is the power of the gospel: that through Christ Jesus anyone can be saved.
We were so blessed to have Rev. Bryan Murphy with us this Sunday. Bryan is the conference superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church.
Ezekiel 34
- Bad leading
- Judgment
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God will step in
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Bad sheeping
- Judgment
- God will step in
Ezekiel 3 has a striking image - God tells Ezekiel in a vision to eat a scroll. That word from God was supposed to go down deep inside him and become a part of him before he speaks that message to the world. What about us? How can we get God’s word deep in our bones?
Pastor Kurt looks at Jeremiah 2:5-13, where we see the heartbreak of God and the foolishness of seeking to find fulfillment elsewhere. It turns out that we end up becoming what we worship.
He Is My Chosen One // Isaiah 42:1
This week we welcomed Roberto Ghione, lead pastor of our sister church, Nueva Esperanza Covenant Church
We are reading through the books of the prophets using the Immerse Bible reading program (https://immerse.covchurch.org/prophets/).
We begin with the prophet Amos, who spoke out against the injustices he saw around him and which he saw as being inextricably linked to the people’s idolatry. They were willing to trample other people in order to protect their comfort. That is NOT what God wants.
It’s one thing to acknowledge that God might be doing a new thing — it’s another thing to voluntarily embrace it. Rather than retreating to the past, we are are community that is ROOTED in the past but who want to engage our world as it is today with the good news of Jesus Christ. To do that, we are going to need to have a spirit of adventure.
That will require daily reliance on the Holy Spirit!
New things are both exciting and intimidating. We look forward to new things; we fear new things.
In this short 2-sermon series we will think about how God may be doing NEW THINGS in us and through us. We are cautious of seeking to do new things simply for the novelty, but are eager to partner with God's Spirit to work toward the renewal of our lives, our friends' lives, and the life of our community.
The word “justice” has been a bit ruined today because of it being co-opted for political reasons in our national discourse. But God was a God of Justice long before it became cool. And God will be a God of Justice through to the end of history.
As we think about proactively engaging with the world around us, what kinds of good deeds will the Lord ask of us? They will most certainly stretch us and call on us to love those we have no worldly reason to care for…
Video of sermon: https://youtu.be/hgNKI4GNCeI
If we wait to REACT to the world, we run the risk of taking a combative stance, running away, or being frozen in our tracks (fight, flight, freeze). But that’s not the way of the kingdom of God. We must be PROACTIVE. And God has offered us a bountiful feast of life with Him to enjoy and offer to others.
In a somewhat obscure passage in 2 Kings, we are going to see how 4 marginalized guys get the chance to be the ones to offer unexpectedly good news to their city.
God sometimes uses the most unexpected people to be the ones to do amazing things! We see that this week!
There are things that people do or say in your life that seem to touch a nerve. They drive you crazy. They trigger you – what I mean by that is that they elicit an emotional AND physical response that seems disproportionate to the thing that was said or done.
The Bible addresses this issue! What help in the Bible give us with the words that come out of our mouths?
In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul calls followers of Jesus to be accountable for the pattern of the words that are coming out of our mouths:
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
In this message, Pastor Kurt encourages us to be proactive about our words by “pre-deciding” certain things.
For the chapter of the book mentioned in this sermon, it is “Us In Mind” by Ted Lowe.
How can deciding ahead of time help you to be the person you want to be?
Is this just your own effort, or is God also participating? We know that our “knee-jerk” reactions to our situations around us can easily reflect our sinful nature rather than the life of the Spirit. Our unguarded reactions are sometimes less “knee” (prayer) and more “jerk”!
So, rather than just allowing life continue as it always has in the past, as new or renewed followers of Jesus we are going to seek to proactively cooperate with the Holy Spirit in us, who is directing us to worship the Lord and to live holy lives submitted to our savior and in fellowship with other Christians.
We are going to need to plan to be PROACTIVE instead of REACTIVE or PASSIVE in order to build a life of faith-driven character.
In this series we will look at 5 different topics where our intentionality will play a key role in our success. We are going to seek to be intentional in our words, our actions, and our relationships. And doing it all with a view of wanting to honor and serve God. This isn’t an exhaustive list, of course, but it’s a good starting point! We're glad you're here!
What communicates true love for God? In John 21 we are given a beautiful picture of Christ's loving welcome of Peter and the other disciples who had deserted him. We learn that to love God means that we must receive from him -- to welcome his salvation and his embrace; we are then called to feed God's sheep.
Loneliness is super common -- and yet by definition it is isolating. Whether it’s our friends moving away, the death of a spouse, a difficult illness, struggling financially, or even because of a sin pattern in our lives -- all of these can feel very isolating and lonely. We suffer in loneliness.
What can we do when we feel so lonely that God himself seems distant?
Jesus himself felt isolated. He was lonely at his most difficult moment -- at his crucifixion. What might Jesus' own suffering have to teach us about our approach to loneliness?
When Jesus washed his disciples feet he was not only teaching about a lifestyle of humble service, but about the sacrificial death he would die to on the cross to reconcile us back to God.
All of Jesus’ parables were to a certain degree memorable – but there are a few that bother us. One such parable is Jesus’ parable about a dishonest manager… who ends up being a bad guy who accidentally gets it right.
It might rub you the wrong way that Jesus chooses this “Commendable scoundrel” (as one commentator calls him) to drive home his idea, but at the end of his parable we are presented with a guy who understood the situation and acted in a way that gave results.
Like other aspects of our life of as a disciple (like our time, our sexuality, and our minds), our use of our money and our approach to our money needs to proclaim what we believe about God. The way we use our money should proclaim the kingdom of God.
So the question is — will we recognize that our time is short and seek to make friends for God with our resources? Will our generosity reflect the heart of our generous God?
Some of the toughest decisions we make are when there seems to be a conflict between our principles and caring for people. What help might Jesus have in this area? We look at a moment when Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath day and find -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- that the person who is fully man and fully God would direct us to find a solution that is 100% for our convictions and 100% for compassion.
Jesus brought deep healing to a man – in his body and his soul.
What would it mean for our church to take a step to engage the people around us with holistic ministry that transforms people’s physical lives as well as their souls?
When the man was forgiven and healed, he praised God – and so did the people who saw it happen. If we are seeking to care for people’s needs, their physical AND spiritual needs, our city will be left praising God – those who we help, and everyone who sees it.
Jesus is both the most compelling AND the most divisive person in history. He was a person who not only drew crowds in his day, but who has continued to inspire and intrigue people for 2000 years. As for being divisive, we can admit that sometimes it is his followers who have been a turn-off for people to Christianity. However, Jesus himself is a divisive figure and there are few passages as divisive as John 6:48-69 where Jesus tells people that they need to eat his body and drink his blood (yikes!).
It is understandable that some people became disillusioned with Jesus at that point.
But Jesus’ disciples had come to believe that Christ was so compelling that they were able to hang in there with him, even in the face of some VERY difficult teaching.
What kinds of relationships can you build that will be able to bear the weight of truth?
And if Jesus’ followers can drive people away from faith, can the opposite be true? What are some ways God might ask you to be an encourager for someone in their faith?
What did Jesus want his disciples to learn when he calmed the storm? What does this event teach us about who Jesus is? About God’s character?
If you think that judgmental people are a problem in the world, you can rest assured that Jesus agrees with you. He has many interactions that revolve around this issue. Just think about his teaching that prayer shouldn’t be self-aggrandizing, but a humble interaction with God. When there is a woman caught in adultery, he says his famous words, “let the one without sin cast the first stone.”
He takes particular aim at people who hypocritically criticize others while it’s glaringly obvious that they have issues of their own. He gets at this by asking a question that paints a funny picture:, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
In Matthew 7:1-6, Jesus wants to help you to grow in intimacy with other believers — to get past the masks we wear in public, to risk rejection to finally allow ourselves to be vulnerable at a level that matches the depth of God's grace.
God wants to offer you security. To give you a feeling of rest and confidence. God wants to help you come to a place – not where you forget somehow that life is always a bit unpredictable, but that you know deep in your bones that in the unpredictable journey ahead that you have a God who will care for you. Who will walk with you.
In telling us not to worry, Jesus is not giving us an impossible mission: he is inviting us to new freedom in our life. Will you embrace that freedom?
God doesn’t want you to be oppressed by worry. Anxiety steals life from us. Sometimes we can hear Jesus’ words, “Why do you worry?” as if choosing the alternative is easy. It’s not. But God’s not asking you to do the impossible — he is offering us FREEDOM from the anxieties that so easily consume us. As we grow in God, we will begin to have more freedom:
- Freedom to notice God’s provision around us
- Freedom to laugh at ourselves
- Freedom to seek the kingdom of God
- Freedom to do (only) what God has called us to do today
Jesus asks some tough— but revealing— questions in Matthew 6:25-34.
Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” Although many people are familiar with this famous saying of Jesus, few would choose this challenging verse as their favorite. But perhaps it should be our favorite!
Matt 5:43-48
Series: Questions Jesus Asked
Date: Jan 15, 2023
Title: Interrupt Me
Text: Genesis 3
Message: Pastor Kurt Morrill
ABOUT THE SERIES: Questions can be relational; they can redirect and reframe; they can help us get to the heart of the matter. Questions are immensely important. Jesus asked a lot of questions – 307 total questions are noted in the gospels, to be exact. His questions do many things. They...
● cut immediately to the main issue at hand (“What do you want me to do for you?)
● trouble their hearers (“Does this offend you?”)
● uncover the hearts of the people around him (“And why do you worry about clothes?”)
● or demand a step of committed faith (“Who do you say I am?”)
In this series we have chosen only 12 of those 307 questions to introduce us to this master question-asker. We will see what these questions reveal about Jesus, about the people around him, and about what it means to be a Jesus follower today. You don't need to be here for the whole series to follow along with these messages.
Whenever you join in you are welcome, but we want to encourage you to stick around and grow along with us.
Simi Covenant Church is located in Simi Valley, CA. Join us online from anywhere: simicovenant.org
Christmas is the celebration of God’s greatest gift to the world — Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas!
This is the short sermon given during our Christmas Eve service 2022.
In the end we raised approximately. $1,400 for clean water projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Is there a situation in your life right now where you are trying to control the situation – control other people, circumstance, or maybe even trying to control God?
That’s not your goal, of course. But the alternative – that we let God lead us where he wants to – makes us feel out of control, so we grab the wheel again and try to steer things.
In the third and final temptation Jesus faces, we see that he is given the choice between trying to control his future or trusting in God. We not only get to see Christ’s example in this situation, but when we fail we can rest in the assurance that Christ, our king, has triumphed for us.
Jesus’ second temptation in Luke 4 is he is offered the kingdoms of the world for the mere price of worshipping the devil.
The reason it’s a temptation is It’s about the way he would take possession of the nations.
The devil’s lie is to insinuate to Jesus that he doesn’t have to suffer and die to be king — it’s an easier, quicker way.
Which of us hasn’t been lured by the prospect of having what we most desire right now?
In making it through this temptation, Jesus shows that the path to greatness is not through climbing up the ladder, but climbing down to service — and we must follow him.
We don’t worship power. We worship Christ. And Christ is walking the way of service.
The path of servant leadership allows us toRest from needing to win, Rest from fear, Rest from having things go our way in our time.
www.simicovenant.org
Christmas is an annual reminder to meditate on the amazing miracle that the God of the universe became a human being. One place where we see Christ’s humanity is in his temptations. Ok, it’s not a very traditional Christmas text, but there’s great stuff in there for us to meditate on the incarnation.
In his first temptation, Christ shows that his mission is to serve and not to be served. And this is where our rest comes in—Christ wants to serve you (it’s not the other way around). How will you live as someone ready to receive from God?
Luke 4:1-4
ADVENT SERIES: “I NEED A LITTLE RESPITE (RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE)” Is there a way to find respite in the midst of the busiest and most expectation-laden season of the year? Yes there is! Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
During the 4 Sundays of Advent we will take a moment to practice resting and receiving the respite that Christ promises. These messages are meant to be accessible to those who are just joining us and enriching to those who are following the whole series. Simi Covenant Church is located in Simi Valley, CA. Join us online from anywhere: simicovenant.org
Is there a way to find respite in the midst of the busiest and most expectation-laden season of the year?
Yes there is!
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
During the 4 Sundays of Advent we will take a moment to practice resting and receiving the respite that Christ promises. These messages are meant to be accessible to those who are just joining us and enriching to those who are following the whole series.
Simi Covenant Church is located in Simi Valley, CA. Join us online from anywhere: simicovenant.org
Do you wonder if it is possible to love one’s enemies? Pastor Chamron Phal does not wonder — he has done it. This week Pastor Chamron tells us about how Christ’s love compels him to return to Cambodia to tell his former torturers about God’s forgiveness.
The book about Pastor Chamron's experiences can be found on Amazon : https://www.amazon.com/Escaping-Tigers-Claws-Susan-Burke/dp/1645262650
We can bring our questions to God.
Last week we asked the congregation to write down questions they or their friends have about faith in Jesus. And they responded!
Pastor Kurt wasn't able to answer all of your questions during the Sunday message, so he answered a few more here outside of our normal worship service.
HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS ADDRESSED IN THIS MESSAGE:
00:00 - Welcome to this bonus Q&A time
00:32 - How should church members deal with fellow Christians who fall away from their faith?
06:31 - What scriptures do you look to when walking the line between showing love to people living in sinful patterns of behavior vs. trying not to affirm said behavior as a representative of Christ?
08:18 - Is Jesus ok with all this killing in the OT?
09:54 - When looking for resources to better understand scripture and cultural context around it, how do we ensure that the sources are trustworthy and reliable? (especially in the internet age where anyone can make a legit looking website)'
12:09 - How is the theory of evolution and its long timeline reconciled with the Creation of the world and humankind? Archaeology has evidence of “early man” but humans weren’t “primitive” in the Bible. Please explain.
21:23 - Are we chosen or do we choose salvation?
21:59 - How do you balance sharing the love of God and correcting people’s many flaws? (non-biblical choices)
We can bring our questions to God.
(Time stamps for questions listed in episode notes)
Last week we asked the congregation to write down questions they or their friends have about faith in Jesus. And they responded! In this message Pastor Kurt responds to 10 of those questions.
You may have had the experience in church where you were made to feel (or perhaps even told explicitly) that you shouldn’t ask questions. Yes, questions can make people uncomfortable. But God is not uncomfortable with our questions.
One of the things that we hope is communicated by this message is that we can bring our questions to God. We can even ask pointed questions in faith. We can have thoroughly troubling questions and still move forward in faith.
HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS ADDRESSED IN THIS MESSAGE:
00:00 - Welcome to our Q&A time
04:22 - Prayer
5:10 - Is it ok to learn about different religions & parallel themes? (compare/contrast)
9:05 - Will my cats go to heaven? Is there a place in heaven for innocent/sweet animal souls?
11:33 - After witnessing God’s glory during the reign of King David, why were the Israelites so quickly drawn back to worshiping Baal and other idols?
15:26 - Is God really an ‘angry God’ or is God blocked from communicating with us when our habits aren’t in alignment with him?
19:43 - What is ‘saving faith’? What exactly are you having faith in?
23:35 - What does Jesus mean by ‘the Kingdom of Heaven’? Is it something here and now? Is it a state of being?
26:10 - There are lots of “rules” from the Old Testament that are no longer enforced (e.g. women on their periods are not allowed to be around or touch people, etc.). How does this impact the Church’s stance on homosexuality and premarital sex?
34:10. How do you get through a season of ‘blah’ with your faith?
37:03 Kurt, what do you want most for the future of the church?
If you like questions, this is a great week to be here. Questions can help us to go deeper. In fact, in the gospels we have recorded hundreds of questions that Jesus himself asked (stick around because in January we will have a series, “Questions Jesus Asked”).
Simi Covenant Church is located in Simi Valley, CA. Join us online from anywhere: simicovenant.org
For more on the Evangelical Covenant Denomination, see covchurch.org
The main thrust of the books of 1-2 kings is to show the reason for the exile of God’s people – why were they kicked out of the land that God had given them. That reason was because it seemed that God’s people seem bent on worshiping everything BUT God.
Kings was written to Jewish people to not only understand this, but to learn from it. We can learn from it as well. What should we take away from it?
Our call is the same as the people of Israel: Every Christian should be committed to worship God only no matter what.
In the end when we see our own unfaithfulness exposed, what we do is cling to Christ.
You might have weird neighbors, but have you ever had a neighbor just walk in your house into your backyard? Pat Stark has!
Sometimes when we think about "loving our neighbors", often the last people we think of are OUR ACTUAL PHYSICAL NEIGHBORS.
But God acted neighborly to us even when we didn't deserve it (not a bad paraphrase of Rom 5:8). He initiated with us. He sacrificed for us.Your faith in Christ should affect the efforts you make to know the other humans living around you. No — this isn't super comfortable for some of us, but the potential blessing for everyone involved is incalculable.
Here’s a link to a handy map/diagram to remember our neighbors
The temple that is dedicated in 1 Kings 8 was understood to be the place where heaven and earth overlapped. The temple is a theme not only throughout scripture, but used by biblical writers to explain what God is doing in the church — we are now in Christ being built to be a temple of the living God…. a place where God’s name dwells. What are the implications for us today?
For video of the sermon, see https://youtu.be/P_6jmzbR02s
The terrible reality is that people hurt us and take from us. When that happens, whether it was big or small, the natural reaction we have is to seek to deal with our feelings by wanting to get even. We may even think that’s the only way to deal with our feelings. But does God offer us any other options? Our reading in 2 Samuel and the beginning of 1 Kings offer some satisfying hope.
King David is widely considered the greatest leader in Israel’s history. He was known as a man who displayed great magnanimity, patience, loyalty, and humility. He was known as a man after God’s own heart.
However, we know as well that he had many faults: he committed adultery with Bathsheba, betrayed one of his key soldiers (Uriah) and arranged for him to be killed. He was not immune from bravado and at the end of his life called for vengeance on people who had slighted him.
The question can be raised, “What does it mean that a man like David was considered a man after God’s own heart?” In this message we will see that it is actually good news for us that a person with many faults can still be considered a “person after God’s own heart.”
Throughout history people have looked for leaders to bring them safety, prosperity, and honor. But in the story that we look at today we see that God warns his people from rejecting him and demanding a human king. Because in doing so they will get insecurity, will have their goods taken from them, and will be subjugated to the whims of a tyrant.
What will God do in the face of this?
Immersed in 1 Samuel. The book of 1 Samuel marks the transition from the period of the Judges to the monarchy in the nation of Israel.
Simi Covenant Church has online small groups that meet on zoom. You are welcome to join us from wherever you may be.
For more on Immerse, see https://immerse.covchurch.org/kingdoms/
For more on “What is Immerse?”, see https://www.simicovenant.org/messages/immerse-kingdoms
If you want to explore more about the book of Joshua, here are some helpful resources:
Undeceptions: But What About Canaan? Undeceptions is a podcast that Pastor Kurt highly recommends. It deals with important topics thoughtfully, candidly, and skillfully.
BEMA Podcast: The Hardest Story in the Bible (For Me)
The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest. Pastor Kurt says that is you REALLY want to understand this stuff and to do so in an approachable way, this is the book you should read.
An introduction to the whole Immerse: Kingdoms series, where we will be reading together the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 2 Kings.