Highrock Church Haverhill: Recent Episodes
Highrock Church - Haverhill
After Gabriel appeared to Mary, she knew she was going to bear the Messiah, but she still had to wait through Jesus' childhood, teen years, and young adulthood to see how it would all play out. Today, we know how it played out - with Jesus dying on a cross and rising again, defeating sin and shame and death. But we are still waiting for the day when Jesus will come again.
This week, we look to Mary's Song as an encouragement in our waiting for the final fulfillment of God's promises. And consider how we can actively participate in helping to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
How do you wait? Do you wait wondering IF God will act? Or do you wait wondering WHEN God will act?
This week, Pastor Brynn joins us from Anchor Bay Church, and walks with us through Simeon's story of waiting with expectation, as we consider how we might stay connected to the promises of God in the midst of our waiting.
As we continue to wait during this season of Advent, it's easy to grow tired of waiting, and begin to despair. To lose all hope. Hope of joy, hope of love, hope that God's promises will be fulfilled.
This week, we follow Zechariah's journey from hope to despair and back again. And consider how we can begin to surrender our despair to the Hope that has already come to dwell among us.
Our lives are full of waiting. Waiting to hear about a job, waiting to get married, waiting for our health to improve, waiting for the world to feel less chaotic, waiting for justice to come.
In this season of Advent, we are reminded that our lives are filled with seasons of waiting. And yet, as we wait, we can find hope in the promise that God has come in human form. The form of a baby - Jesus, our Emmanuel.
In our passage this week, John the Baptist and his disciples are continuing to baptize people in the name of Jesus, when Jesus shows up down the river to begin baptizing as well.
When John's disciples begin to worry about what this means for John and his ministry, John responds to their concerns with a lesson in theology by reaffirming his unity with Jesus, and Jesus' unity with the Father.
Have you ever been so convinced that you were right about something that you couldn't wait to tell someone else why they're wrong? Even if it meant possibly damaging your relationship with a friend or a family member?
This week, we journey into Samaria with Jesus as he encounters a woman at a well, and invites us to consider people over our positions.
It's not hard to look around and think that the church today has lost its roots. From frequent scandals to countless people who have been hurt by the church, it would make sense to picture Jesus coming in to flip tables in the church today.
But Jesus doesn't just want to see the church return to its roots - he wants to flip the tables in each of us too. This week, Pastor Brynn from Anchor Bay Church joins us, and helps us to consider the ways Jesus is inviting us into a life marked by transformation, restoration, forgiveness, and love.
Change isn't easy. Oftentimes, we get stuck in a rut, and something keeps us from resisting change, even if it's a good change.
This week, we consider what might have kept Nicodemus in a rut and made it difficult for him, and for us, to make a change to follow Jesus.
Are there moments in your life when you’ve felt like a failure? Or been overwhelmed with shame or humiliation?
This week, we continue our series through the Gospel of John as Jesus attends a wedding, and steps in to turn a young couple's shame into joy.
Why do people decide to follow Jesus? What do they experience that convinces them to stay?
In this third sermon in our series on the Gospel of John, we look at these first encounters and what made Simon and Nathanael decide to stay with Jesus for rest of their lives.
Are you the type of friend who wants to fix things when someone shares a problem with you? Or do you know friends like that? It's a natural response when we see someone we love in pain. The problem is that we can't fix it - only Jesus can.
This week, we continue our journey through the Gospel of John, and consider what we can learn from the example of John the Baptist as he sees the brokenness of the world and declares, "Not me, Jesus".
Have you ever been afraid of the dark? It's easy to feel overwhelmed, not just by the physical darkness, but by the darkness we see and feel in our own lives, and in the world around us.
This week, we kick off our new sermon series, Come, See, Stay: Following Jesus in the Gospel of John, with a reminder that "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
What's in a name? Well, a lot! Over the past few months, we've spent a good amount of time gathering feedback, brainstorming, narrowing down ideas, and brainstorming again as we've considered what name best represents who we are as a church.
This Sunday, we reveal our new church name and why we chose it, and invite you to join us as we continue on our journey to live out the purpose of the church.
School is back in session, there's a growing chill in the air, and pumpkin spice is everywhere - Fall is on the way!
Now that we've cleared the fields in our lives, we wrap up our Seasons series by looking at how we've prepared for the harvest through planting intentionally, sowing generously, bringing peace, and practicing radical thankfulness to God.
School is back in session, there's a growing chill in the air, and pumpkin spice is everywhere - Fall is on the way!
Generally, we think of Fall as a season of harvest. But before we can get to the harvest, we need to do some work clearing the fields. Join us for Part 1 of the spiritual rhythms of Fall, as we consider what it means to clear the fields in our lives.
Sometime it's hard to notice when we've begun to place our identity in something or someone other than where we want it to be. When you take a look at your life, what do you believe? And where do you find your identity? Is it in your job, your family, your social standing, or your dreams?
These things are not bad things - they are gifts given to us by God. But when we place our identity in them, we become slaves to them. And only Jesus provides the truth that will set us free.
It’s hard to admit when we’re not okay. And it can be a special kind of hard for people of faith. Because isn’t faith like a cheat code to life? Doesn’t it fix you and give you all the answers?
This Sunday, we journey with the writer of Psalm 73, a person of deep faith, as they bring the full weight of their pain and struggle before the Lord, and help us see that we have permission to do the same.
Throughout our series on the book of Acts, we've traveled with Paul on his missionary journeys as he's preached, debated, been beaten and arrested, and performed miracles. And yet, we don't hear how Paul's story ends with the close of Acts.
Because the book of Acts isn't primarily about Paul - it's primarily about the work of the Holy Spirit in spreading the good news of Jesus and the Kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. And THAT story was not finished with Paul's arrival in Rome. In fact, that story isn't yet finished today. Join us as we consider how the Holy Spirit continues to invite each of us into a new future, welcoming all, proclaiming the Kingdom of God, and boldly teaching about Jesus.
How are we as Christians called to engage with the culture around us? More often than not, we see Christians responding to the culture out of fear. Fear of something different, that they don't understand, so they lash out in anger and condemn the culture, or withdraw from culture so they won't be affected by it. Fear that they're losing control, so they try to exert their power in the hopes of forcing the culture to respond how they want it to. Or fear of losing a relationship or rocking the boat because they said something truthful about Jesus, so they say nothing at all and end up looking just like the culture around them.
Join us as we continue Paul's missionary journey into Athens, and explore how his sermon about the "altar to an unknown god" can teach us another way. A way to engage with the culture by building bridges and encouraging curiousity about Jesus.
We’ve all pledged our allegiance to someone or something. Maybe you've pledged your allegiance to Marvel, instead of DC. Or you're pledged to someone in marriage. Maybe you've pledged yourself to one political party over another. To a particular sports team, a certain brand, or a specific cause or mission. But here’s the thing about allegiances: you can have a lot of them, but you can only have one ultimate allegiance. As Jesus put it, you cannot actually serve two masters at the same time.
So who has your allegiance? This week we follow Paul and Silas into Philippi as they free a slave girl from a demon and exploitation, are beaten and imprisoned, survive an earthquake, and save a prison guard's life. Through their example, we find that the heartbeat of the gospel is not what it costs us, not what we lose, but what we gain when we gain Christ. And the freedom we bring to other people in His name.
Just as we experience physical seasons, we also experience spirtual seasons. In this sermon we look at the characteristics and unique opportunities that come with our spiritual summers.
Often, in order to join a new group of people, you have to do some things to fit in. It’s like you’re play-doh, and you have to bend, mold, change to act like, look like, talk like everyone else. The group doesn’t change for you - you change for the group. And the church is no different. Our rules may be unwritten or hidden, but they're there just the same.
This week, we look back at the example of the early church in Acts 15, and consider how we as a church might work to tear down the walls and remove the barriers that keep us from welcoming others, so that we might be able to usher in a new kind of hospitality - a hospitality that is led by the Holy Spirit.
In our divided world today, our tendency is to view anyone and anything different from us as wrong or bad. But differences aren't the problem - differences are a good thing. The problem comes when we refuse to be in relationship with anyone who doesn't look like us, think like us, or act like us.
Through the same Holy Spirit who united the Jews and the Gentiles, we too can be united in a new community that truly reflects the Kingdom of God.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" can be a fun question to think about, but it can also be an overwhelming one.
But the Holy Spirit invites us into a journey to discover the things that make us feel alive, that give us joy, to discover our calling, so that we can serve God and those around us out of our giftings and our passions.
Why is it so hard to talk to people about Jesus? Well, “Christian” is a pretty loaded term. It conjures up an association, and, unfortunately, in many cases, it’s not always positive. Mention you're a Christian and instantly everything someone thinks about Christians is catapulted into the conversation and applied to you. It's easier (and less awkward) to keep our faith to ourselves.
But the gospel is good news for all people, news worth sharing with humility, gentleness, and respect. The encounter between Philip and an Ethopian eunich in Acts 8 gives us hope that sharing the good news is not only possible, but critical.
There are all kinds of influences that shape our lives. Our hobbies, our cultural circumstances, our jobs, the people that we meet. Our stories matter.
And yet, nothing shapes a Christian's life more than Christ. Through the power of the Spirit, He takes our unique story and gives us a radically new story to share.
Sometimes our lives feel directionless. Missionless. Meaningless. It can be hard to see where our lives are headed.
But Jesus gives us a new vision and a new power. A new vision that gives direction to our lives, and a new power – the Holy Spirit – who enables us to live it out.
Just as we experience physical seasons, we also experience spirtual seasons. In this sermon we look at the characteristics and unique opportunities that come with our spiritual springs.
Lately, it seems like all of us are on edge. The past few years have brought a lot of stress - stress from lost jobs, from lost loved ones, and lost stability. We're disoriented, confused, discouraged, and overwhelmed.
Which must have been what it felt like to be a follower of Jesus after he was crucified. And how Mary must have felt when she visited the tomb only to find it empty. Until Jesus called her by name. And in the resurrected Christ, we too are offered complete peace.
The average American produces 5 pounds of trash per day, and about 1,800 pounds per year. That's 3 times more than the average person outside of the US produces. And it's why our 2,000+ landfills are beginning to reach their capacity. And we as Christians have often mistaken stewardship for ownership - using and abusing creation however we want.
But what if we were more intentional about reducing our waste? And used our call as stewards to partner with God to free creation from its bondage of decay?
Money feels…private. It feels like mine. And what I do with my money is my business. I can spend it how I want, when I want, where I want, on what I want. It’s mine.
But what if our money is not ours. What if it’s God’s? What if God has given it to us, not to spend on ourselves, but to steward? To use…in God’s name?
The average American spends 7 hours and 4 minutes on a screen every single day. And that number only increases with every new "must have" piece of technology or social media app.
This week we take a look at our media consumption, and consider how we can make healthier choices with our time and energy.
If a stranger saw your possessions, how would they describe you as the owner? Would their assessment be accurate?
This week we take a look at our possessions and consider what our stuff and how much we care about all our stuff says about the things we truly treasure.
How might your closet reflect your heart? Is it cluttered? Filled with fast fashion fixes in an attempt to keep up with current trends? Or maybe with influences you've passively taken in over time?
This week we look at clothing and explore how our preoccupation with our appearance distracts us from embodying the Kingdom and reflecting the image of Christ.
When it comes to food, across many parts of America we have grown accustomed to having unlimited choices available to us whenever we want them. We don’t like denying ourselves anything. If we have an appetite, we are told to satisfy that appetite. Yet that unlimited choices doesn't always leave us healthier or happier.
In this sermon we explore the spiritual practice of fasting as one way to worship God and examine our excess consumption. What is a fast? Why would we choose to fast? How can we fast wisely and with proper motives?
So what exactly does it mean that the time of the Lord's favor has come? Well, it's the final line in Jesus' mission statement, and the final sermon in our "Yes, &... The Whole Gospel of Jesus" sermon series.
Join us as we consider how Jesus might be inviting us to follow Jesus' example and participate in the liberation and renewal that comes from the time of the Lord's favor.
As Christians, it's easy to believe that Jesus came to save us, the people we love, and the vulnerable among us. But what about the people we don't like? Or even the people we hate? (We know, we know... you don't hate anyone. Not really...)
This week, we take a look at the story of Zaccheaus as a reminder that Jesus came to seek and save ALL of those who are lost.
As Christians, we oftentimes have a specific idea of the "right" way to be Christian. But usually our idea of the "right" way has more to do with our own benefit, rather than living out the heart of God.
This week, join us as we consider Jesus' example of how a life truly lived for God can benefit us, yes, AND it can benefit those around us.
Has an idea ever changed your life? Motivated you to make a change? Re-oriented the way you viewed yourself and the world around you?
This week, we take a look at how Jesus restores sight to the blind, and helps us see the truth more clearly.
All too often, we separate things into opposite sides, teams, or poles - even the Gospel. So we're making our way through Luke 4:16-21 to consider the WHOLE Gospel of Jesus.
This week, we consider what it means for the captive to be set free.
All too often, we separate things into opposite sides, teams, or poles - even the Gospel. So we're making our way through Luke 4:16-21 to consider the WHOLE Gospel of Jesus.
This week, join us as we consider how Jesus heals AND restores.
All too often, we separate things into opposite sides, teams, or poles - even the Gospel. So we're making our way through Luke 4:16-21 to consider the WHOLE Gospel of Jesus.
This week, join us as we reflect on Jesus' invitation to participate with him in bringing about the Kingdom of God.
Sometimes knowing the end of the story helps us appreciate the beginning even more.
Join us for our first Highrock Haverhill Christmas Eve Service as we consider Jesus' birth in light of his ultimate sacrifice.
It's not always easy to deal with change.
This week, we talk about the one person who will always go all the way for us and will never change - Jesus.
We so easily trust and put our hope in things that can't ever satisfy us... we hope we'll feel refreshed after watching Netflix, or hope we'll feel fulfilled by a plate of cookies. And yet, the refreshment and fulfillment they offer are imperfect.
This week, we continue our sermon series in Hebrews by exploring how Jesus is our Great Hope - an anchor for our souls that cannot fail.
During the time of the Israelites, if you wanted to be right with God, you had to go to a priest, and the priest would then go to God on your behalf. Because not just anyone had access to God.
Thankfully, Jesus changed all of that. Join us as we explore how Jesus is a greater high priest than any others that came before.
Rest is something many of us long for, but struggle to find.
Join us as we continue our sermon series in the book of Hebrews as we explore how Jesus provides a greater rest than any other.
Believing that God is with us can give us the courage to do things that otherwise would be impossible.
This week we explore our final value - a value we've chosen uniquely for Highrock Haverhill - Courage.
Studies show that 4 year-olds ask as many as 200-300 questions a day. But as we grow up, the number of questions we ask starts to decline.
Join us as we look at the importance of maintaining our curiosity as we seek to build deeper relationships with those around us and with God.
Jesus came to live as a human WITH us, and interacted with, ministered to, and embodied the same status as those who are so often overlooked or discarded.
Join us as we seek to follow Jesus' blueprint of bearing the burdens of others through our fourth Highrock value: Solidarity.
Christians aren't always known for being humble.
Join us as Pastor Matt shares about what it could look like if Christians were more willing to re-think what we think we already know and embody our third Highrock value: Humiltiy.
Pastor Brent from Highrock North Shore joins us to introduce the first Highrock value in our Rooted series: Hospitality.
Join us as we begin our new sermon series, Rooted, about our Highrock values.
Pastor Matt kicks us off this week with a reminder that being rooted in Christ is what gives us the flexibilty to courageously live out our values.
Join us as we close out our journey through Ezra/Nehemiah with a final assessment of the work they set out to do...
and what they did (and didn't) accomplish.
Ponder this irony: We think about ourselves all the time - and yet we rarely see ourselves clearly.
In Nehemiah 8, the most important part of the story is not what we're doing, but what God's doing.
A scarcity mindset tells us there isn't enough of what we want to go around. And typically, our society operates out of this mindset.
Join us this week, as we look to Nehemiah's generosity to help us understand that God's economy is one not of scarcity, but of abundance.
Pie is delicious. But making an apple pie is hard work. Especially because of the work needed to peel all the apples.
This week, join us as we walk through Nehemiah chapters 3 and 4, and learn from the example of the Israelites as they joined in with one heart, one mind, and one purpose to pick up their peelers and do the hard work of rebuilding the temple walls.
The Bible tells us that God has been preparing things for us to do. Are we ready?
The story of Nehemiah teaches us the importance of feeling deeply, praying honestly, and making a plan so that when the moment arrives, we can say yes to God's call.
Life is full of situations with multiple complexities. Questions came to the surface this year with race relations, gender identity, voting, mask mandates, vaccines, just to name a few.
We all have things that we value. When we put our faith in God and grow in knowledge and love, through the Spirit’s work in Scripture within our hearts, what God loves we begin to love, God’s values become our values.
The irony behind these messy moments is that sometimes part of the reason they are so messy is that multiple values end up competing with each other. Multiple good values, multiple God values.
In this sermon, we look at a situation with competing values and carefully analyze the choice that Ezra made.
When the Israelites retuned from exile to rebuild Jerusalem the "peoples of the land" offered to help. Worried about maintaining their religious purity, Isrealite leaders vehemently rejected this offer.
This raises important questions. How do God's people partner with those outside the faith? And what are the consequences, intended and unintended, of those choices.
Sub-question: Have you ever wondered where the Samaritans came from?
This past year has presented us with unprecedented challenges - we’ve collectively faced something that we’ve never faced before. Yes, it’s been COVID, but along with COVID came a dozen other unprecedented circumstances and challenges. We've stepped off the map of what we know how to do. We looked at the things that got us this far and realize, "This just isn’t going to cut it."
If Jesus can walk out of a tomb, there are ways forward through the mountains that we never thought possible.
God is still moving, still stirring our hearts, still shaking us awake. Not always in ways we can see. Not always in ways we agree with. Not in ways we’re comfortable with. Not always on our timeline. But God is still moving.
Ask someone what they think of Christians, and the answers aren't always very positive. Too often, Christians stand out for reasons that seem to have very little to do with following Jesus.
In what ways are Christians supposed to be distinct? What is different about a Christian community? This week, we conclude our series on James with a look at what makes the church a distinctive community.
God's way or our way? We make these choices every day, and we make them with our best interests in mind. But what if we're wrong about what's best for us?
In this sermon, we look at what James has to say about the way to life.
Few aspects of Jesus' life convict as much as his approach to wealth.
James says that faith in Jesus Christ should eliminate our tendency towards favoritism.If we follow Jesus, we cannot treat some people better than we treat others. In Christ, we set aside culturally derived status or rank. We choose to be servants of all.
Psychologists have a term for this splitting we all experience in our minds. It’s called cognitive dissonance. Cognitive Dissonance. It’s what happens when we disagree with ourselves. When two competing beliefs or values take up residence in our minds at the same time.
And this concept is all over the Bible. The Psalmists and the Prophets talk about having a divided heart - literally, heart and heart, between our God and other gods, between God’s values and the competing values of the culture and community.
And in our passage today, James coins a new term, never seen in Greek literature before he wrote: Dipsuchos. It literally means, two-souled. Double-minded. Split-Brain.
All the while, God's deep desire is to transform split, disintegrated, self-protective hearts into whole, beating, unified, living ones.
We start our series on the letter of James the way James does - with the encouragement that while the trials we face can be awful, God often uses these trials to produce endurance and maturity. Endurance, we find, means waiting on God - chosing to trust that God knows what we don't, sees what we can't, and is doing what we won't.
The amazing transformation a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly pales in comparison to the change Jesus invites us into. Join us for a celebration of the reality of resurrection. Sam tells his story of hope in the face of almost certain death.
Even Jesus needed help. He couldn't carry his cross on his own, and neither can we. In this sermon, Pastor Beckly encourages us to set aside the illusion of our self-reliance and ask for the help we need.
This is part of our relational dance. Not only do we need help, we can help others. Shared burdens become gifts when we bear the yoke of Christ.
Jesus was forced to carry his own cross. Earlier, Jesus explained to his disciples that if they were going to follow him, they would have to carry crosses of their own.
A Roman cross weighed around 300 pounds. They aren't easy things to carry. Nor is it easy to carry the thing upon which you are called to die.
But if we are going to really follow Jesus, we need to follow close enough that our clothes are covered with the dust from his sandles.
Judas Iscariot - the worst human being to ever live, am I right?
At least, that's how he's gone down in history: vilified, demonized, evil incarnate. So far gone that his struggles can't possibly be our struggles, right?
All the same, Judas was a real human being - and we would be wise to think more honestly about his story and how he reached the point of turning Jesus into the authorities. This kind of turn doesn't happen all at once...it happens slowly, as disagreement turns into resentment, resentemnt into contempt, and contempt into betrayal. This Sunday, Pastor Brynn helps us see that there is a little - or maybe a lot - of Judas inside each of our hearts.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, while his friends fell asleep nearby, Jesus wrestled with his Father: "Is there any other way?" Jesus felt the conflict of wanting to do the Father's will and at the same time NOT wanting to die in a horrible, excruciating way.
In this sermon, Pastor Matt vulnerably addresses grace shown to us in that garden and how it informs the choices we make to trust God. The God who stepped towards the cross on our behalf, still steps towards us now.
If loving those closest to us seems like it would be the easy part, why is it often so difficult to do? This week, we explore what it means to truly love our closest neighbors as ourselves through the insightful friendship of Jonathan and David.
How do we love the Lord with all of our strength? What IS strength? Turns out, it's our "muchness".
How do we love the Lord with all of our strength? What IS strength? Turns out, it's our "muchness."
In this sermon on Psalm 88, Pastor Angie gives us language to talk about mental health and shows us the ways that God meets us in all of our human emotions.
What is a soul? How do we love with it?
In Genesis 2:7, we read that God breathed into a human and that human being became a living soul. Jesus said our souls are the most precious thing we have - that if we traded our souls for the world, we'd be on the losing end of the deal.
Our souls are invaluable. It's the part of us that makes and creates. If we're echoing God, our creating will make more space for more creating.
Typically, churches can teach us that there are only a few standardized ways to experience and serve God: singing, preaching, teaching, tithing, and child rearing. However, God is not confined to these categories - and neither are we. In God's image, we are far more creative than we might think.
What unique echo of God's heart can you contribute to the world?
When Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment, he responded, "The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)
But why? Why is this the greatest commandment of all time? In this sermon, Pastor Brynn explains how this commandment is so critical, especially as we wrestle with the loss of autonomy we've experienced during COVID.
This week, Pastor Yumiko from Highrock Brookline concludes our sermon series The Light Shines: Stories of Chirstmas.
This week, Pastor John from Highrock Brookline continues our sermon series The Light Shines: Stories of Chirstmas, focusing in on the Shepherds.
This week, Pastor Brynn continues our sermon series The Light Shines: Stories of Chirstmas, focusing in on Joseph.
This week, Pastor Matt opens our new sermon series The Light Shines: Stories of Chirstmas, focusing in on Mary.
This week we learn from a new preacher in our Pass the Mic series, Pastor Dani Kilgore. Pastor Dani serves as the Outreach and Missions Pastor at Marin Covenant Church in California, a sister church in our denomination.
This week, Lainie Battaglie concluded our sermon series Let Justice Roll: the Book of Amos.
Highrock North Shore, Highrock Brookline, and Highrock Haverhill sermon from November 8th.
Highrock North Shore, Highrock Brookline, and Highrock Haverhill sermon from November 1st.
This week, Pastor Yumiko from Highrock Brookline continued our new sermon series Let Justice Roll: the book of Amos.
This week, Pastor Matt continued our new sermon series Let Justice Roll: the book of Amos.
This week, Pastor John from Highrock Brookline continued our new sermon series Let Justice Roll: the book of Amos
This week, we are hearing from a Covenant leader, Pastor Gustavo Torres. Pastor Gus serves as Associate Pastor and Praise Leader at Iglesia del Pacto Evangelico Peniel, a Spanish-speaking congregation in Chicago.
This sermon asks us to step up and stand out boldly - to keep on doing good, even when it's hard.
How will we spend the time we have? Our moments matter. On even our seemingly tedious days move, the impact of our actions ripple beyond what our eyes can see.
Even if we have spent some of our time pursuing empty things, with Jesus, we have a new start — today! The good new of the gospel is that we are loved, and in that love, we can change the lives of those around us even as the seconds tick off the clock.
Parrots mimic. They hear something and repeat it. Parroting happens among humans, too. We mimic each other’s gestures and speech and attitudes, and usually we don’t even notice it’s happening.
The Christians the apostle Peter was writing to had been the recipients of some pretty awful behavior by the world around them. They’d been mocked, insulted, marginalized, persecuted, and exiled. Instead of parroting those attitudes, Peter reminded them of they way God treated them. He invites them to flip the script on the rest of the world.
Don’t parrot bad behavior with bad behavior. Choose the contrary. Choose something else. Because that something else could change everything for them, and everything for you.
See the full live-streamed service on Highrock Arlington's YouTube channel.
Join us on YouTube every Sunday at 10am, or watch later!
See the full live-streamed service on Highrock Arlington's YouTube channel.
Join us on YouTube every Sunday at 10am, or watch later!
We've made it easy to remember how to connect with Highrock live:
- Daily Devotional: highrock.org/dailydevo
- Sunday Services: highrock.org/highrockathome
Being busy is actually pretty easy when we're on quarantine. It seems like even in times like this, there's the potential for busyness to do a lot of damage to our relationships, our health, and our spiritual lives. It's a habit that we need to unlearn. In the spirit of Lent, we're going to look at the scriptures to see how we can turn away from this habit and trade it for practices that lead to life and freedom.
See the full live-streamed service on Highrock Arlington's YouTube channel.
Join us on YouTube every Sunday at 10am, or watch later!
We've made it easy to remember how to connect with Highrock live:
- Daily Devotional: highrock.org/dailydevo
- Sunday Services: highrock.org/highrockathome
Jesus invites us to begin our prayers with the words: “Our Father”. Pause for a moment, consider what that means. Jesus, with these words, invites you to approach God as your father. Believing, trusting that the Mighty King of Creation in heaven, who is the source of all life and new life is also your father.
On what basis do human beings get to call God “Our Father”?
And what difference does it make?
Some Protestant traditions, like our own, observe Lent - but our Catholic and Eastern Orthodox friends have been observing Lent for far longer. This morning, we host guests from these two streams of the Christian faith to see what Lent means to each of them.
We thoroughly enjoyed learning from Richard Chase and Paul Patane!
What even is Lent? If Lent commemorates Jesus’ 40 day fast and temptation before beginning his public ministry, what’s worth commemorating about that?
Each temptation makes Jesus about what Jesus does, not about who Jesus is. The questions make Jesus doubt his baptism - doubt the validity of God’s statement over him. We’re well acquainted with the voice that tempts - that accuses - the voice that says we are valuable because of what we DO instead of who we ARE.
And suddenly, these forty days become relevant to us.
Psalm 51 gives us the image of person facing failure. Confronted by brokenness, we can give up, lose hope, and walk away from connection.
But if we don't give up, if we face our failures - all of our brokenness - and walk towards connection with God and with others, we can find that healing is possible.
This is what it looks like for a human to be whole.
Family can hurt. And if our family trees are marked by significant, complex trauma, we tend to perpetuate that trauma.
Trauma literally changes our brains. From the moment we enter the world, we’re forming beliefs about ourselves and the people around us. When we’re hungry, we cry...if someone feeds us, we learn that we’re worth attention and care. If, over and over, our needs are not met, we learn that we are not worth attention and care.
Whether our biological families are okay or awful...there is nothing like resting in the assurance that you are part of God’s family. Healthy, stable, consistent environments can reverse and repair the damage inflicted by unhealthy environments.The cycle can be broken. Healing is possible for anyone and everyone in the context of safe relationships.
Humans instintively congregate in groups, but there is a dark side. The worst atrocities in human history are the result of one group of people turning, with greed and anger and fear, towards another group of people and seeking their destruction.
Unfortunately, the God's people have often contributed to this pattern of human suffering, or kept silent as crimes and abuses were perpetuated. Great harm was done.
Christ has brought something that we find impossible to create on our own. Christ has brought peace. Jesus has created a new "us."
Should Christians care about the environment?
In the beginning, God created a world in which God, humans, creatures, and the physical earth existed in an interconnected web of relational harmony. Things have changed - relatioships have been severed. Now the earth groans with the struggle of providing life to the creatures on the planet.
Before this fall, God instructed humanity to govern, reign over, tend, and watch over creation. Unfortunately, these words have been misinterpreted to justify the abuse and exploitation of the earth. In this sermon, we explore how God's people are called to care for creation.
The Holidays are great for many reasons...but then the holidays end...and normal returns. And normal is just so...normal.
Is this it? Is this the meaningful significance that God wanted to redeem by coming to earth?
Maybe there's more to normal than we think. In this sermon, we discover that Jesus lived a life that looked like ours. Life was normal. And normal was enough.
Always winter. Never Christmas. That's how CS Lewis describes Narnia when the Pevensie siblings enter through the back of their wardrobe.
While each of our stories is unique and should be treated as such…the truth is that so many of us know this “always winter, never Christmas” feeling all too well.
Charles Wesley saw the winter around him in 18th century England. He saw the orphans without families. The brokenness of the system. The exploitation. The lack of protection. The harsh conditions. Wesley heard the cries of those around him… and he was utterly heartbroken by England’s callous indifference to their suffering.
And so he penned the words to Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. This is still our cry today.
It's fascinating how creation responds to the cold of winter. Creation releases into the cold - resting, pausing, waiting, changing. No animal comes into spring exactly the same as they were at the start of winter, they all change.
We don’t always have the space, or the time, to consider our responses to winter. We can have so much that we are juggling, so much on our plates and in our hearts, that we enter new seasons unaware of how weary we are.
But the great Christmas hymns remind us that the weary world has a reason to rejoice. The weary world can be changed! We can emerge from the winter different than we entered it.
The average child laughs 300 times a day. But the average adult? We only laugh 20 times a day. At some point, before we realize it, we stop expressing joy the way we did as children.
At core of God’s being, at the core of who God is, is joy. Not happiness...joy. Our lives are complicated and difficult, but we can still have joy. Joy not rooted in circumstances. Or good fortune. Or health or wealth or a long life ahead.
Joy rooted in the Gospel, in the promise that Christ has come.
This season, hear the innvitiation of the Chrismas carol, Joy to the World: "Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy!"
Christmas in the 21st century can be about getting - getting presents, getting relationships, getting experiences. It can also be about keeping and holding on to those things as long as we can.
But for thousands of years, Christmas wasn't about getting and keeping. It was about waiting and hoping. O Come O Come Emmanuel, the oldest of all Christmas songs, teaches our hearts that there is someone worth waiting for this Christmas.
Winter. Cold, dark, lonely. Lots of things can throw us into a spiritual winter. When we lose a job, or we get sick, or we go through a tough transition. Winter comes and steals our hope…and all we see is cold and dark, a never-ending snow storm.
Psalm 88 powerfully describes a spiritual winter. These verses are raw and honest, and seemingly end without hope. What is this Psalm doing in our bible?
These verses are a great gift. Winter is hard and long, but it isn't pointless.
When we live from an anchor of deep gratitude - we are braver. We choose kindness over judgement. We see wonder in the world.
But when we don’t choose thankfulness, the wonder disappears from view. We don’t feel brave - we feel weighed down, like we're dragging bricks in a backpack uphill. We feel frustrated by the world. Judgmental. Selfish and stingy with our time, our resources, ourselves.
But when we choose gratitude, we are invited into a fuller life.
John chapter 12 gives us four such invitations. Four people who have close encounters with Jesus that leave them with a choice to make about gratitude.
Have you ever been afraid that your secret would come out? Maybe you cheated on a test, or a project at work. Maybe you have a secret side to your life, or a secret addiction, one that you’ve been able to keep hidden from your friends and family. Maybe there are things that you’ve done that you haven’t ever told to another human being... because if they only knew, you’d be rejected.
Our hidden lives are weighty. We carry them, but pray for something to take the burden of our guilt. Still, we're terrified that we’ll be discovered.
Just like the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8. What will Jesus say to her, and to her accusers, when her secret is out?
In John 9, Jesus met a man who was born blind - and Jesus healed him. Friends, family, and those in charge demanded to know: Are you the same man? How has this happened?
The man didn't have formal education. He hadn't completed a seminar on how to communicate effectively. He didn't know how to give a memorarlbe TED talk. But he had met Jesus. He was healed. So that's what he shared.
The best testimony is one based on a real encounter with God's amazing grace: "This I know: I was blind, but now I see." We don't need formal training to tell people that story.
Maybe you’ve felt an invitation to step into something new. A new nob, a new relationship. Or, you've felt drawn away from an unhealthy habit or a joy-stealing indulgence. You've felt this pull, but you’re not sure you can take that step.
Because you've gotten used to your life as it is. It’s like that old, threadbare pair of jeans that you've had forever. They fit just right, they're comfortable. So you put them back, lovingly, in the drawer where they belong.
Why change? Why step forward if some of the most comfortable parts of your life will die in the process?
Often, something has to die in order for something new to live. Just ask a mother octopus.
A man, lying crippled for thirty-eight years. Perhaps he feels like God or the world has been cruel to him. Perhaps he feels bitter or angry. Does he yearn for love and acceptance?
Does he have any hope at all? Perhaps, this man’s body is not the only thing that is crippled. Perhaps, this man’s soul is crippled as well.
Then, Jesus is standing next to him asking, "Would you like to get well?"
We may not have a physical disability...but all of us, in some way, like this man, are metaphorically lying in the dirt, unable to move. We may not have a physical disability...but we are emotionally or spiritually crippled.
Jesus is standing next to us, "Would you like to get well?"
Consider the possibility that every time God reveals himself to us - every time Jesus said, “THIS is who I am”…it was an act of vulnerability. In the gospel of John, Jesus chooses to share his deepest secret with a wounded, abandoned Samaritan woman who he shouldn't be talking to in the first place.
In Jesus, God meets us and matches us in our vulnerabilty. He says, "I know what it feels like to be rejected and abaondoned." In the love that vulnerabilty makes possible, this wounded man who was also God offers us a safe relationship where you no longer have to hide.
God knows you. God takes great delight in you. Just ask the Samaritan woman.
When we're afraud we’ll do almost anything to feel safe again. We throw money at it. We turn to experts and friends. We analyze and diagnose exactly what is happening. Because if we understand, then we have control.
One man who had insulated his life with understanding and control was Nicodemus. Based on his training, education, and intelligence...he had answers for everything. Well, almost everything.
In this sermon, we wrestle with our need to know...and our need to trust God with the things beyond our grasp.
When Mary hears the wine is running out at the wedding they're attending, she goes to her son to solve the problem.
Jesus didn’t solve the problem by walking down the street to buy some more wine. Jesus made things better. He solved the problem and he miracled the best wine. It was something unexpected, abundant, and extravagant.
Our lives are full of moments. Painful, awkward, sacred, celebratory moments. It can be so hard to wait for God to move. Hard to sit in the uncomfortable, unexpected, and unknown. But even in those places, we are invited to open our eyes to see God at work.
It’s possible that sometimes, God is looking straight at you, and you’re clueless, all because you’re limiting ourselves to what YOU think God is supposed to look like.
When John, John’s students, and people like Nathanael limit God to their own understanding, they’re blind and deaf to who God really is...so consumed by what Messiah is supposed to look like, there’s difficulty recognizing Messiah...even when Jesus was right in front of them.
If we look at our own version of God for too long, we'll go blind to the true face of Christ when Christ is staring at us.
God wouldn't matter very much to us if God was beyond reach. Whatever strength God has wouldn’t make a difference if we couldn't get close enough to feel his presence.
Enter Jesus. The first verses of the gospel of John reveal that Jesus is God, the creator and sustainer of all things. AND Jesus is with us, close enough to touch, and hold on to.
Women are well acquainted with the barriers in our society. The wage gap, challenges to advancement, having their attire scrutinized, wanting to lead but being told they are being bossy or intimidating or worse. There are many obstacles to seeing their gifts realized and affirmed.
One of them seems to be this passage in the Bible: (1 Timothy 2: 12) “I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let women listen quietly.” How are we to interpret this awkward passage? What is God's design for men and women in the church?
Many view God as angry, looking to punish people for their wickedness. This way of thinking can leave us terrified of messing up and hidden in our own shame. Read uncarefully, we could walk away from passages like Romans 1 with the impression that God is in fact out to get us.
But, praise God, that’s not true. God is not out to get us. If you hear nothing else this morning, hear this - God is not angry at you. God does not need to be convinced to love you. God has and always will love you. God goes to great lengths to show you love.
So, how might we think about the wrath of God?
We all have social gatherings we either host or attend. It might not be aparent on the surface, but at each gathering, we all walk through the door with relational agendas. Someimes we want to meet and greet, sometimes we want to hide in the back, sometimes we want to fit in.
In Luke 14, Jesus awkardly upends conventions in order to bring awaresss of our tendencies...and encouage us to notice and care for those outside of our immeidate ciricles.
Few will object to Jesus being a great spiritual guide, but to suggest that Jesus is the only bridge between God and humans, that gets folks upset. Why would God limit salvation to the relative few who’ve had the chance to hear about Jesus?
In our pluralistic age it’s much more popular to suggest that all religions are essentially just different paths up the same mountain. Perhaps God has revealed himself in different ways in different cultures and what you believe doesn’t matter as much as the sincerity with which you believe it.
So which is it? Are there many paths to God…or is Jesus the only way?
The Bible can be difficult to understand. In this sermon, we discuss the keys to reading the Bible with wise, faithful discernment. With these tools, we can embrace the life-giving, often unexpected truths of scripture in ways that draw us closer to Christ.
Friends are incredibly useful. Which is great...but sometimes, we forget the simple joy of being in life giving relationships. Instead, we can reduce friendships down to their usefulness, their utility. We can collect friendships like they’re commodities.
Maybe you’ve found yourself playing the role of the useful friend. The friend who gives so that others can keep going. The friend who holds it all together for everyone else. You’re included, you fear, because you’re useful. Because you pick up the tab at dinner…or because you’re good at listening or telling jokes. Which makes you wonder, if you didn’t have those things - wealth, attractiveness, status, power, skill…would would anyone choose to be your friend?
In our final sermon on Philippians, we explore a different way to think about friendship.
Have you ever looked at someone and decided that it’s safer to avoid them all together?
We are more comfortable interacting with people who are like us. We tend to organize around sameness. When we feel difference, we tend to cut off communication. Eventually, we can start to demonize the others. They’re not just different, they’re wrong. They’re not just wrong, they’re dangerous. They’re not just dangerous, they’re evil. So we tell them to go back where they came from.
What if there was something, or someone, that could bring us together again?
We live in angry times - our frustration can boil over on the highway, in the supermarket, or at an amusement park. Often, when we see someone lash out in anger, we want to answer with even more anger. If we've been hurt, or left out, or overlooked...we are tempted to pick up our swords and defend ourselves and the people we identify with.
Paul urged a young church plant in the ancient city of Philippi to resist the temptation to respond to violence with more violence. While Roman culture celebrated strength and the power of the sword, Paul encouraged a different posture...one made possible by the grace of the cross.
As Christians, we’re supposed to do things a certain way - we’re supposed to look and act a certain way - speak a certain way - be a certain way - because we are good and godly people now, and this is how good and godly people behave.
So many of us in the Christian world believe the same thing the Philippians were in danger of believing...we believe the illusion that if we just do it right enough, God will be happy.
So we keep chasing, and changing, and running, and working, and buying, and analyzing, and overthinking.
But when God sees us learning and growing and coming up short, God isn’t looking at us as not enough. God’s heart swells with pride and love.
God thinks we’re extraordinary and beautiful, not because of what we’ve done, but because of what God is doing in us.
Have you ever found yourself in a position where you felt acutely alone in making a decision?
Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by everything being thrown at you that it was impossible to see the community around you. Have you felt so much pressure to do it exactly right, that you felt paralyzed?
Has it ever felt impossible to tap into your support system, to see the way out, to jump from the platform and fly on the trapeze or let go into the safety of the net?
Even in those moments, we have hope!
Life can feel lonely. I can feel like we’re in the batter’s box alone. That success depends entirely on us. It can feel like God is watching us, taking notes, evaluating our performance. Judging how well we're doing.
In Philippians 2:12, Paul tells us "work out (our) salvation in fear and trembling". At first glance, this phrase is terrifying. It suggests that our lives are one big, giant tryout...with heaven hanging in the balance. Is this what Paul means? If not, how should we understand this verse? Join us as we explore the meaning of this difficult text.
The scariest thing about our inward bent towards our own self-interests is that, without even realizing it, we can start to project our selfishness onto God. We can imagine that God must “takes” something from us - our charity, chastity, devotion, and our Sunday mornings - in order to bless us.
In Christ, we see a different posture. If you want a picture of God...here it is: Jesus on a cross. The fullness of God on display. Unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, the glory of God. On the cross we see who God really is: God is entirely other-oriented. Entirely selfless. God is a giver.
Schools of fish are a wonderful image of unity. I think we all would agree that unity is important. If you take the Christian worldview, we could even say that we are designed for it...unity with God, Creation, and one another.
Sounds nice, right? But then reality hits.
Even though swimming in harmony may be best for us, we are continually tempted by our own interests. We want things our way...wanting our own preferences and comfort to prevail. And if our view doesn’t win out, the easiest thing to do is often to swim away with another school.
The challenge is not just saying yes to the Christian way of life...the challenge is continuing to uphold unity when things get hard.
Paul encouraged the Philippians to be citizens of heaven, not merely citizens of Rome. We are also called to have dual-citizenship. We are invited to mirror Jesus most fully in the love that we show each other.
It means looking at each person as a child of God - regardless of age, gender, orientation, ethnicity, socio-economic status, or any other label.
It means engaging with the world with eyes that see a creation worthy of love.
It means sacrificing for each other with our time, finances, and space so that our love for each other is evident to the world around us.
It means bringing heaven here.
We see our lives from from our own perspective, but we rarely see things with perfect clarity. We’re wrapped up in the story, trapped in our own head, the image is blurry, distorted. We see ourselves too big...or too small. We stress over what others see when they look at us. And the whole while, we make choices with blurry eyesight.
How many times have you looked at the circumstance of your life, and by any reasonable standard, things are unfair. Paul encourages us to adopt a different perspective.
Paul lives his life from the perspecive “to live is Christ”. Of all the things we could build our lives on…the only one that results in real life is Christ. We were created to be in relationship with God - and in Christ we’re in relationship with God. In Christ, we thrive. The way we were created to thrive.
What would it take for you to call someone your partner? What makes someone more than a friend or a colleague?
Partnership isn’t just sharing something in common, like a love of baseball or Harry Potter books. We're not partners with anyone because we both like Avengers movies, or graduated from the same college or even share a last name.
Partnership is not born in shared identity. Partnership is born in shared activity.
God is inviting us into partnership. God is inviting us to engage in the renovation of this world. The question is: Is this something we want?
At Highrock, we are committed to connecting to God personally, connecting to God’s people, and connecting to God’s purposes. Everything we do as a church family is related to one of these three connectings. Here in Haverhill, we’ve consolidated these connecting into three words: trust, together, and try.
Now, of course, no church is perfect. Highrock isn’t perfect. Far from it. We don’t have this figured out. We are still learning and growing. To do that, we rely on each other.
We each have different life experiences, and different personalities, different perspectives. Church, at its best, incorporates different voices. So this morning, as we look at Luke 5, three different preachers will articulate our three core values. This is how we Highrock.
I've read that, "Expectations are premeditated resentments." Expectations can be deadly to our relationships with other people...and our relationship with God.
On Easter morning, God had something unexpected for Mary Magdalene. God wanted to be with her in a new and radical way. So it is with us. God's desire is to be with us in a new and radical way. What we expect is not the same as what God intends. God intends to do more than we expect.
In this sermon, we explore the new and radical way that God intends to be with us.
To make friends as children requires very little on our part. When we were young, and even into our college age years, friendships are often formed simply by who we spend the most time with - which means it changes from year to year, place to place. But, as adults, we can get stuck: same place, same job, less time, more stress.
Making friends as an adult feels like incredibly hard work. Almost impossible. Almost.
As he showed with Mary and Martha in John 11, Jesus commits to building adult friendships. Like Mary and Martha, we, too, are valued and loved. God designed us to experience connection and belonging. And God wanted us to know this truth in such a demonstrative way that He would not leave us alone in our isolation and disconnection. Instead, Jesus chose to be the ultimate friend.
Instead of remaining at a distance, God entered our messy reality so that we could experience grace and belonging in unique and palpable ways.
Talking about other people has a name: Triangulation.
At its most basic level, triangulation is venting frustration about someone to an unrelated third party with the hope that they will take your side. Triangulation is speaking about someone rather than speaking to them.
Through Jesus, God speaks to us directly. The glorious news of the Gospel is that we worship a God who sees us. Who knows us. Who loves us. Who comes to us, directly, concretely, and plainly in the person of Jesus.
And Jesus spared no expense to both confront and remove whatever stood between us and God. And there it is. There’s the Gospel.
Words of dishonor abound in our world. Words that devalue and reduce someone’s worth. When we dishonor someone, we treat them like they are beneath us. We’re quick to call out the negatives and highlight areas of improvement.
What would it look like to instead call out what is good and beautiful in people? What difference would it make if we used our words to confer honor?
Scriptures shows us that words of dishonor can break our relationships, while words of honor can build us up and confer life.
The Hebrew prophet Jonah didn't accept the full extent of God's grace. He believed that some people were worthy of God’s love and some people were not.
Like Jonah, we don't understand the depth of the love and grace of God. We tend to judge others and ask for grace for ourselves and in the process, miss God's heart. God calls on those who have received mercy to show mery.
The first step to extending grace is to experience grace.
Everywhere we look, we see injustice. It’s the worst of humanity played out in global, local and personal arenas. Things like sexual abuse, racism, bullying, gender discrimination, and dozens of other “issues” leave a lot of us angry with the world, exhausted from the constant flow of bad news, and afraid for our children. For some of us, injustice has been very personal, and if people could see into our souls, they’d be surprised how much pain we carry.
It’s not surprising that people wonder where God is, in world filled with so much injustice; and as Christ-followers, we take that a step further, wondering where Jesus wants US to be, and what He wants us to do.
The first priority of the social justice stream is not to change the world, but for us to be changed - by Jesus - from the inside out. The way we think about ourselves and others then stars leaking out into the things we do.
Which of these things do you think bring you closer to God: Taking out the trash? Giving to Charity? Meditating? Scheduling Meetings? Hugging? Prayer?
We tend to think that certain activities are clean, pure, and spiritual, while other activities are places in which we can’t find God.
But, God loves creation.
The Incarnational Stream celebrates the truth that God loved Creation so much that the incarnation of God, Jesus, came to earth to be with us. God is real among us. This has real implications for our real everyday lives and wants to be experienced in real ways.
The Incarnational Stream wants us to celebrate this life, and see everything we do as grounds for worship, gifted to us by a God who wants us to enjoy that which is very good.
There are so many circumstances and situations in life that can be completely upending. We can’t see or feel God moving. It’s lonely and painful. There may be big things happening in your life - unexpected and unsettling situations that cloud your ability to see God at work.
The charismatic stream invites us to open our eyes to see the work of the Holy Spirit. To see that God is moving. The work of the Holy Spirit is very real! We are wired to yearn for God, to long for the immediacy of God’s presence among us, with us.
Through the charismatic stream, we are invited to step out of a temptation to domesticate God, to become satisfied with religious talk, or to be stagnant. We are invited to grow, to be open to being challenged, to see the work of the Holy Spirit as an invitation to be living witnesses, testifying about God’s love to those around us.
Have you ever felt like you were missing something in life? Have you ever felt that you were created to experience more out of life? This week, we explore the stream of Christian practice that invites us to experience the divine love of God in profoundy personal ways.
You can know a lot about God, without really experiecing a relationship with God. There is a difference between knowing inforamtion about God, and tasting, seeing, and knowing God's goodness first hand.
The contemplative practices invite us away from the noise and distraction our normal rhythms. It invites us to experience more of God - to sit in awe of the mystery, power, beauty, and love of God.
Evangelical is a complicated term in 2019 America. "Evangelical" feels like a beaten and battered word, so chewed up that it’s hard to know what it means anymore.
The word evangelical comes from the greek word meaning “gospel” or “good news.” To be an evangelical is to emphasize the core message of the gospel: That God, as a free gift, brought people back into relationship with him through Christ. That in Christ, our sins are no longer counted against us.
Explore with us the strengths and the pitfalls of evangelical spirituality.
“The Bible” is actually a library, containing many books which contain several genres, that tells one unified story. There are genres like narrative, law, poetry, letters, and everything in between. You name the genre, and it’s likely that it’s in in Scripture somewhere.
This diversity makes Scripture more beautiful. Imagine if we had only poetry, or law, or narrative. Praise the Lord that we have a well-rounded collection of books!
The second half of the book of Daniel, chapters 7 through 12, are just plain weird. How are we supposed to engage these passages of apocalyptic prophetic poetry?
We’d be unfaithful readers to form an inflexible theology and community around complex passages, but we’d also be unfaithful to act like these passages don’t exist. So we proceed humbly. We're carefully cautious and respectfully reserved as we seek to understand and apply the Bible to our lives.
With that said, there are three essential tools for reading Scripture well: Genre, Context, and yes, Courage.
We all want to do something great. Maybe we even want to do something great for God. To write a book or start an International non-profit or make a bunch of money so that you can donate a hospital wing. We often measure achievement in quantitative terms we can quickly measure - dollars spent, numbers impacted, people employed, likes and views and downloads acrued.
The invitation here, and the invitation throughout Daniel is to dare to do the small, steady things. To grind out a faithful life made up of daily acts of humble dependence on God.
The spiritual practices we keep consistently will keep us, and connect us to God.
It’s hard to ask for help. It’s hard to accept help when it’s offered. We don’t like admitting any limitations. We like meeting the challenge head on and proving that we can do it. We want to be self-sufficient.
As long as we believe we're self-sufficient...we don’t need anyone else. We won’t ask for, or accept, or receive God’s help.
Nebuchadnezzzas was humbled by God so that he could see himself clearl. If we choose humility, we can do the same. Humility is a posture that admits our needs and asks for the grace God offers. If we have the courage to stay humble, our lives will radiate love and give God the glory.
There are so many unknowns in life. We like to think we have control, but really, we have almost none. There are a million "what if’s" for every decision we make. Most of the time we’re paralyzed by all of the “what ifs”.
These three men in Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn’t live bound by what ifs: what if we fail, what if we suffer, what if we die. They lived by, “Even if.”
Their courage was grounded, not in the faith that God would save them from suffering, pain, and death, but in their conviction that even if they died, God was still God.
We can have that same kind of courage today.
Daniel was a strong, healthy, good-looking young man. The best and finest that Israel had to offer. When Daniel was a teenager, Judah was conquered by the Babylonian empire, the most dominant, powerful on earth at the time.
One way to destroy a people is outright genocide. Another way is cultural assimilation. This is what the Babylonians are after with Daniel. Whatever and whoever Daniel was before, they were determined to reshape his identity. But Daniel knew who he was.
Maybe you’ve forgotten who you are. Over time, your identity got wrapped up in your job, or your family, or your status. You keep trying to and trying, you keep pouring energy and time and money into being the person you think you're supposed to be, or the person the world tells you to be.
Remember who you are. Remember that God was so committed to you, so determined to save you, that he humbled himself so fully that he died a criminal’s death on a cross.
That’s what you’re worth to God.
God used surprising methods to invite people into the story that He was telling. While the star demonstrates the love of God proclaimed for ALL the world to see, it also represents the ways that God worked to invite people into the work He was doing.
Throughout the Christmas story and throughout Jesus’ life, we see that it’s the people who were watching and waiting, regardless of their background, who accept the invitation of God.
If we want to see God at work, we have to create space to watch and wait for him. Because if there’s isn’t space to watch for God, we won’t see the ways that he is working and we will miss the invitation to join.
Jesus didn’t chisel away at our flaws and imperfections. He chose to embrace them, to carry them, to heal them.
He entered our places of woundedness, our areas of vulnerability, our fears, our shame, our secret struggles - all the ones we try to fortify, all the ones we try to hide.
And the promise is that when we allow Jesus to meet us in those areas where we are convinced we are too bruised to be healed, too bruised to be loved, too bruised to be good for anything, that’s when the true healing starts.
Because it’s in those places of weakness that God can display most powerfully God’s strength.
The promise of the gospel is nothing less than what the legend of the tinsel turns into a bedtime story: a dramatic, beautiful, complete transformation of every part of us. From what we see on the surface to what happens in the depth of our souls: our identities; our motivations; our purposes. An entirely new, better brilliant life is possible.
Our inboxes are overflowing these days with spam enticing us to spend too much money meeting needs we don’t really have.
No wonder we feel so cut off from Christ during Christmas!
As we’ve become monetarily richer, we’ve become spiritually poorer in many ways, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to let our relative wealth keep us from worshiping Jesus on his birthday.
We’re living in arguably the most rapidly changing cultural moment in history. One author puts forward these words to describe this current cultural moment: fluidity, diversity, complexity, and uncertainty. Bluntly speaking, are all woefully underprepared for the accelerated and disorienting pace of change taking place around us.
To stay engaged in the conversation...to stay relevant, the church must change.
The task of the church - our task - is to take the hope and truth and joy of the gospel and communicate it in a way that people hear. We have to find ways to translate and communicate and embody God’s story into this cultural moment. We have to find a way to make the gospel relevant.
To do this, we look to Christ himself. He didn’t expect us to come into his house and learn his ways…he came onto our turf, into our world, entered our marketplaces, stood in our classrooms, and found a way to have a meaningful conversation. God came to us, because we couldn’t and wouldn’t go to God. He became a human being so that we human beings would understand what he was trying to say.
Evangelism is the Christian, churchy word for sharing your faith with someone. It's telling someone about the good news of the gospel —- usually in the hopes that they repent, believe, and decide to commit their lives to Christ. Easy enough, right? It’s felt, to me, harder than it sounds.
If standing on a sidewalk screaming about God’s anger was evangelism — if going door to door with someone I didn’t know trying to get people I didn’t know to make a lifelong commitment to someone they didn’t know was evangelism — I wasn’t sure I wanted any part of it. It felt... fake. It felt like the exact opposite of authenticity I was so hungry for.
We ARE evangelists for the things we value. For the things we enjoy.
Yet, the whole world is evangelizing, which is why it’s all the more interesting that some of the most faithful, Biblically knowledgeable, church-going people I know are shockingly silent when it comes to talking about Jesus. There are a whole bunch of reasons for our silence. We could spend the next half hour making a list.
Still, I’m convinced, that even in our polarized political climate, most of us find it easier to reveal who we voted for than to tell someone about the savior who gives us life.
I think our biggest problem with evangelism is that we just don’t do it.
Community is a word that’s used in a lot of different contexts. We talk about our school communities, the neighborhoods we live in as communities, our business communities ... For each of those places, there are different rules and expectations for what community will look like. To help focus our conversation this morning, let’s start with Highrock’s definition of community:
God is other-oriented community: Father, Son, and Spirit. Though sin has isolated us, every individual is invited to be reconciled to God and God's family on earth, which is the Church. We cannot fully experience or reflect God to the world unless we are in committed community with others who belong to God. God saves us through Christian community.
Whew … that’s rich … and dense, right? Rather than talk through this line by line, I’d like us to look at a story from scripture that gives us a beautiful snapshot of what defines community. What kind of community does Jesus model for us? Who are we invited to choose to be?
When he offers to save us, it’s not because we deserve it, it not because it’s fair, or because it’s one of our inalienable rights. It’s not because we’ve done all the right things and been a good person.
When Jesus offers his life to save us, it’s pure, unadulterated grace. The unmerited, unearned, undeserved love and favor of God.
The truth revealed to us in scripture is not “when we proved our worth, Christ die for us.” It’s not, “when we stayed sober, Christ died for us” It’s not, “when we stopped being so angry, or so jealous, or so arrogant, that Christ died for us.” No, the apostle Paul, who knew God’s grace as well as anyone, said, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, while we were running away from God, living for ourselves, doing our thing….Christ died for us.”
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It’s appalling. It’s not fair.
Too many sermons tend to villainize the Pharisees in passages like this, assuming things like ill-motive or trickery. “Why are they asking Jesus this question?” “They must be trying to trap Jesus.”
But here in Luke 17, I don’t think there’s evidence to assume they’re antagonistic. I think their question is an honest one. It’s one that I don’t blame them for asking. They’re asking because their expectations about ministry - God active and moving among them - do not match their reality.
Just when Israel was primed and ready for this upheaval to happen, a compelling, intriguing rabbi named Jesus walks onto the scene, and proclaims that he is the Messiah - he is the one that will free God’s people from oppression.
Okay then. If this person IS the Messiah, there’s one natural question to ask. It’s a question we read in verse 20. “When will the Kingdom of God come?”
When will we be free? Where is God’s love moving among us?
On the surface, it’s honest. It’s human. Like all of us do pretty much all the time, the Pharisees are trying to find God in their past, present, and future.
But beneath the surface, the question assumes God moves in a certain way: to build a big, flashy institutional political power to conquer Rome and free God’s people. And for us as a baby church plant, we’re longing to partner with the active, moving God in Haverhill.
But if we’re not careful, we’ll fall into the same assumptions about ministry that we see in Luke 17.
As a baby church plant, perhaps we, too, are in danger of seeing “church” as a big, flashy, institution; a soon-to-come organization that will free God’s people in Haverhill; something to wait for in the future but isn’t here now.
It’s the kind of thinking that can find its way into our plans, strategies, and rhetoric without our even knowing it.