GVF // Grace Valley Fellowship: Recent Episodes
Paul D. Anderson
Grace Valley Fellowship meets Sunday mornings at 110 Valley Park Road, Phoenixville, PA. For more info, stop by our website. www.gvf.church
Someone throws the party of a lifetime. Everyone is invited, then only a few show up — and their excuses are completely reasonable. In Luke 14, Jesus is at a dinner table where everyone's working the room, angling for a better seat. So he tells them about a banquet where the guest list gets thrown out, and the host sends his servant to the streets — then out past the city — until the house is full.
The people in the story say, 'Please excuse me, I can't come. They're just busy. A field. A purchase. A wedding. Good things, all of them. This week: what it costs to be reasonably, responsibly occupied — and what it means that the host keeps going further out to find the one who'd never believe there was a seat for them.
If you've been working the room your whole life — this one's for you. If you've been sure you were never on the list — this one's especially for you.
In California, there's a vineyard that pays every worker the same — first hour and last. Jesus told a story like that. It still makes people furious.
In Matthew 20, a landowner hires workers at dawn. Then at noon. On and on, until 5 o'clock, an hour before quitting time. And he pays every one of them the same. The crew that worked twelve hours in the sun is livid. And here's the uncomfortable part: they're not entirely wrong. Something in this story violates every instinct we have about fairness and effort and getting what we 'deserve'.
That's not the flaw of the parable. That's the point of it. If you've been working since dawn and quietly keeping score —this one's for you. If you've been standing around all day wondering why nobody has ever come for you —this one is especially for you.
What do you do with the people who make you feel unsafe?
In Luke 10, a religious expert asks Jesus a simple question — 'Who is my neighbor?' — hoping to draw the line somewhere comfortable. Jesus answers with a story so scandalous that we've spent two thousand years softening it: it's the 'first misnamed parable' (Copan). But, to the original audience, "good" and "Samaritan" didn't belong in the same sentence. The hero of the story is the person you were raised to hate.
In this message, we walk the dangerous road between Jerusalem and Jericho, discovering why your brain is wired to see 'not like me' as a threat, and to sit with the question Jesus refuses to let us dodge: not who counts as my neighbor? But what kind of person am I becoming? Along the way — a conversation with a stranger, on a plane, that turned this whole parable inside out.
You've heard this story. You haven't heard it yet.
You've heard this story so many times you can't hear it anymore. In Luke 15, Jesus tells a story about two sons — one who runs into self-destruction and one who stays home and turns to stone. Most of us know it as "the Prodigal Son." Most of us have heard it wrong.
In this first week of The Parables of Jesus, Pastor Greg unpacks why Jesus told parables designed to break open your view of the world — and why this one has been working on him for ten years.
You'll wrestle with the stories you tell yourself, why you do that, and why both 'finding yourself' and 'being a good person' leave you lost. Whether you've walked away from God, never met him, or have been quietly resentful in the back of the sanctuary — this story ends without an ending on purpose. The question is...what will you do with it?
God does not heal the brokenhearted by erasing their pain or scars, but by binding up our wounds through Christ. He explicitly took up our plight in His mission (Isaiah 61:1), bore our sorrows, and calls us to wait in honest hope at His table until He restores the years the locusts have eaten.
You prayed. Something happened. Then you wondered if that was really God... or coincidence... or just in your head. It's the same question Esther forces us to ask. And refuses to answer.
It's the one book in the Bible that never mentions God. No miracles, no prayers, no voice from heaven — just a hidden queen, a cousin named Mordecai climbing a pagan empire, a genocide plotted with a roll of the dice, and a rescue messy enough that by the end the people of God start to look uncomfortably like the villain they defeated. In this final message of our Esther series, we sit in the discomfort of a victory that doesn't feel clean and a festival named after random chance, and we ask the question running underneath the whole book: How do you learn to see God when, by every appearance, He isn't there?
Part of "(Un)Hiding Your Face," our series in the book of Esther.
Scripture: Esther 8–10. New Story Church | Phoenixville, PA
Download the group discussion guide here.
There's something in all of us that wants to destroy us. And the terrifying part is — it usually looks like a strength.
The Book of Esther introduces us to a man named Haman — one of the most psychologically precise portraits of pride in all of Scripture. He has everything: wealth, power, access, honor. And none of it is enough. Because one man won't bow. What follows is not just a story about an ancient villain. It's a mirror — a portrait of the particular kind of self-destruction that comes from needing to be unlike everyone else, above everyone else, feared by everyone else. Haman chases it all the way to a 75-foot monument he builds for someone else's execution. (You can probably guess how this is going to end.)
This is Week 4 of our series through Esther — a book that never once mentions God, and yet somehow can't stop pointing toward him.
Download the group discussion guide here.
Most of us never find out who we really are. Not until something forces the question.
This week we hit the turning point of Esther. For years she's hidden who she really is, her faith, her people, to survive at the top of a world that runs on power and appearances. Then the crisis comes, and she can't hide anymore. Speak up and she might die. Stay silent and she'll lose something worse.
Most of us know something about that. We all have a version of ourselves we've worked hard to protect. The one with the career. The one everyone likes. The one that finally got invited in. And we rarely ask who we really are underneath it, until something forces the question.
Esther 4 forces it.
Some people just seem to be born lucky. And some people don't. Everything seemed to be falling into place for Esther and Mordecai. She "just happened" to be in the right place at the right time — and became queen. He "just happened" to overhear an assassination plot and saved the king's life.
Lucky. Lucky. Lucky. Until it wasn't.
Old wounds resurface. Old enemies reappear. And with the roll of the dice, God's People suddenly find themselves powerless to stop what's coming. Which raises a question that might sound familiar. And might make you uncomfortable.
If you've forgotten God, will He forget you too?
Download the group discussion guide here.
There's a book in the middle of the Bible where God never shows up. Not once.
No miracles. No prayer. No divine intervention. Just a young woman hiding who she really is — her identity, her faith, her people — in order to survive in a world run by powerful, fragile, drunk men.
And somehow that made it into our Bible.
This week we open the Book of Esther. It's strange, morally complicated, and honestly a little unsettling. Which might be exactly why it's there.
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Most of us are lonelier than we’re willing to admit — and we’re not telling anyone about it.
This sermon is about the most ordinary thing in the world: a table. A meal. It turns out that simple thing might be the answer to something much larger.
Drawing from the story of Jesus eating with the people no one else would eat with (Luke 5), Acts 2, the neuroscience of bonding, and a Van Gogh painting about Belgian coal miners — this sermon makes the case that God has always worked through ordinary tables. From the first meal in Genesis to the final feast in Revelation, the table isn’t incidental to the story. It is the story.
You’ll wrestle with why belonging still feels so dangerous even when you want it. You’ll encounter a Jesus who doesn’t wait until you’re ready to pull up a chair. And you might leave with one idea that changes how you think about every meal you eat for the next 70 days.
Jesus keeps setting the table. The question: what are we going to do?
Most of us think we choose our friends. We don't think much about what our friends are choosing for us.
In this sermon, we wrestle with the hidden ways friendship shapes us, why so many adult friendships feel thin or transactional, and why it's so hard to truly know and be known. Along the way, we explore Proverbs, David & Jonathan, the psychology of imitation, the "false self," and the terrifying vulnerability required for true friendship.
The harder question isn't what kind of friends you have. It's what kind of friend you are.
Warning: This may get personal.
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You're not a bad friend. You're just making Orpah's choice — over and over — without knowing it.
This sermon walks through one of the most quietly devastating scenes in the Bible: three women on a road, a friendship at a crossroads, and two very different choices about what makes life worth living. Ruth 1 turns out to be less about loyalty and more about something harder — the moment you decide whether to protect yourself or choose a person before you know the outcome.
It turns out Ruth's choice isn't just about friendship. It's about the logic underneath everything — and the reason you exist.
And underneath all of it: the question of whether the life you're carefully protecting is actually the life you want.
Download the group discussion guide here.
"Friendship is hard to describe." Friendship is one of the deepest gifts in life -- and one of the places we get hurt the most. In this message, we explore the quiet weight of loneliness, the reality of betrayal, and why even our closest relationships fracture.
Drawing on stories from Job, David, and ultimately Jesus, we wrestle honestly with questions we don't always say out loud:
Why does this hurt so much?
Why is it so hard to move on?
And what does God actually do in moments like this?
You'll encounter a vision of friendship that's deeper than surface-level connection -- to a God who meets you in the exact place others couldn't or didn't. The invitation is to process your pain, and not put it in a casket. To confront shame and discover a love that doesn't break under pressure.
Download the group discussion guide here.
On the worst night of his life, Jesus didn't call everyone. He called three people.
Turns out this isn't coincidental. Sociologists have finally discovered what Jesus lived: your brain can only maintain about 150 genuine connections — and it takes roughly 219 hours of face-to-face time to form a close friendship. But most of us will never get there. Not because we don't want to. Because the structure of our lives makes it almost impossible.
In this message, we follow Jesus through the Gospel of Mark and see that even the Son of God lived inside the same relational limits you do. Drawing from the night Jesus spent in Gethsemane, we wrestle with what it means to be truly known — and why investing deeply in a few people might be the most countercultural thing you can do.
You'll leave with a name on your heart. And some hours to log.
Download the group discussion guide here.
Your body already knows something your mind keeps forgetting.
When we sing together, our breathing synchronizes. Our heart rates align. Our brain waves fall into the same rhythm. Scientists have a name for it. Jesus had a command for it. And the Bible has an explanation for it that goes deeper than either.
This week in our Known series, we're in John 15 — the night before Jesus dies — where he says something that shocked everyone in the room and should still shock us: "You are my friends." We'll wrestle with what that means, why Aristotle thought friendship with God was impossible, and what it actually looks like to experience friendship with Jesus through other people.
Download the group discussion guide here.
Loneliness is killing us. Literally. And we've barely noticed.
We've built a world that is frictionless, individualized, optimized for exactly what we want — and somehow ended up more isolated than ever. Friendship has become the greatest casualty of modern life. And we don't even know it.
In this sermon we sit with Ecclesiastes 4 — an ancient, brutally honest text that turns out to understand our moment better than we do. We'll wrestle with what's actually driving our ambition, why getting everything we want keeps leaving us empty, and what a genuinely different way of life might look like.
It should bother you more than it does.
Week 1 of KNOWN — a series on friendship, loneliness, and what it means to be truly known.
Most Easter sermons end at the empty tomb. This one ends at a charcoal fire.
This Easter, we're sitting with a charcoal fire on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where the Risen Jesus tracks down the man who denied him three times. No explanation demanded. No conditions given. Just breakfast, and one question asked three times in the exact place where everything fell apart.
If you've ever lost yourself and wondered whether there was any coming back — this one's for you.
What if the thing standing between you and really loving Jesus… is everything He can do for you?
This Palm Sunday, we trace one of the most surprising threads in the Gospel of Mark — a pattern where Jesus heals people, raises the dead, and casts out demons… and then tells everyone to keep it secret. What is He up to? And what does it reveal about the difference between following Jesus and actually loving Him?
Along the way, we'll meet a crowd that goes from "Hosanna" to "Crucify Him" in five days, disciples who can't stop arguing about who's greatest, and a question that's harder to answer than it sounds: Do you love Jesus — or just what He can do for you?
What if we've lost something that our soul actually needs?
Fasting is one of the most forgotten practices, and maybe the most understood. Drawing mostly from Isaiah 58, this sermon unpacks the ancient practice of fasting: what it is, why many have largely abandoned it, and why it keeps showing up in the lives of people who actually want to change. This isn't about performance or behavior modification. It's about something deeper -- what's really driving our desires, what's keeping you stuck, and how God meets you in it.
Together, we'll wrestle with questions like:
- Why does fasting feel so hard -- and why might that matter?
- What does it actually do in us, not just for us?
- And what if fasting isn't just about you.....but about others?
Whether you're spiritually curious, stuck, or longing for something more real with God, this message invites you into a practice that has shaped followers of Jesus for centuries -- and still has the power to change lives today.
You've probably wondered why God makes such a big deal about sex. (So have I.)
Song of Songs chapter 8 doesn't give you a list of rules. It reveals something stranger and more beautiful — that marital love, the kind expressed in sex, carries within it the actual power of God. That it's stronger than death, stronger than chaos, stronger than anything that seeks to destroy you.
In fact, it's so powerful that — without a proper container — it could destroy you. Like a radioactive isotope.
In this sermon, we'll explore the awesome power of love, uncover the ancient story behind one of Scripture's most stunning passages, enjoy an Andrew Wyeth painting, consider what happens when sex has no container, and wrestle honestly with desire and its consequences.
Download the group discussion guide here.
He wanted intimacy. She didn’t. They fought.
In Song of Songs 5, a husband and wife have a painfully familiar moment. What begins as a small conflict quickly spirals into something deeper—and raises a question every relationship eventually faces: What story will you tell yourself after the fight?
This ancient love poem doesn’t idealize relationships. It shows us how conflict actually works—how it can slowly build walls between two people… or become the very thing that deepens intimacy and trust.
Download the group discussion guide here.
Why do the very best moments in life still leave you wanting more?
In Song of Songs 3–5, we come to the moment everything in this relationship — this song, this couple — has been building toward: the wedding night. It's beautiful, joyful, intimate, and holy. And yet, even this moment carries an ache that lingers.
In this sermon, we wrestle with why our most beautiful moments don't fully satisfy, what the "thin places" of life are trying to show us, and how marriage and sex function not as ultimate destinations, but as signposts pointing beyond themselves.
If you've ever felt the quiet longing that follows your best days — this message is for you.
Most of us want real intimacy. And most of us are terrified of it.
In Song of Songs 2–3, love calls a woman out from behind the walls — and she hesitates. In this sermon, we'll explore why we hide, why vulnerability feels so risky, and how we are made to be fully known and fully loved. From the poetry of the Song to the story of Jesus calling Mary by name, this message invites you to wrestle with what it means to come out of hiding and receive a love strong enough to heal.
Sometimes it takes coming to the end of yourself to see what God is doing.
In 2 Kings 7, four lepers are trapped outside a besieged city—rejected, starving, and staring down death. But their desperation becomes their clarity: they see an option no one else can see. And when they stumble upon an unexpected abundance, they face a choice that will define them: hoard it or share it.
Over the past four years, our church has experienced a similar kind of grace—from meeting in a mold-infested building during a pandemic to stumbling upon an embarrassment of riches we never could have anticipated. Growth in depth. Growth in reach. A movement of God we didn't conjure and can't take credit for.
But that grace raises a question: What do we do with what we've been given?
In this Vision Sunday message, we explore what faithful stewardship looks like in this season—and why we believe God is calling us to experiment with a third service from Easter to Father's Day.
This is a day of good news. Let's not keep it to ourselves.
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A man tells a woman she looks like a horse. She swoons. This is Scripture.
This sermon starts our journey through the Song of Songs—exploring attraction, romance, consummation, conflict, and unbreakable commitment.
In this first movement (Song of Songs 1:1–2:7), we step into a love song tucked right into the heart of Scripture. It’s playful, sensual, awkward, tender—and radically countercultural. A woman speaks first. A man compares his lover to a warhorse (and yes, that's romantic). Desire is named without shame. Attraction begins with character, not chemistry.
This song refuses both sexual repression and casual, consumeristic sex. Instead, it offers a vision of love that is intoxicating and wise—one built on friendship, safety, and the courage to wait. It asks hard questions about timing, trust, vulnerability, and what it really means to give yourself to another person.
Whether you're single, dating, married, wounded, or just curious, this sermon invites you to wrestle with a deeper story of intimacy—and to see how human love ultimately points beyond itself to the faithful, healing love of Jesus.
Download the group discussion guide here.
How do identities form in contemporary settings? How are identities formed in relation to our sexuality and experience of gender? This message engages historical, social, and linguistic changes that have influenced young people’s understanding of sexuality and gender. Rather than offer simple formulas, Christians need tools for caring, respectful, and effective engagement with youth who are navigating sexual and gender identity in contemporary culture.
Today, we welcome Dr. Mark Yarhouse, clinical psychologist, professor at Wheaton College, and follower of Jesus. Yarhouse has been known for listening deeply to LGBTQ+ people and their families, holding to historic Christian teaching while refusing to reduce anyone to a label, and helping churches and parents find language and practices that are both truthful and kind.
Why did God put an erotic poem in the middle of my Bible?
I grew up in church. Sat through thousands of sermons. And somehow never heard about the Song of Songs—one of the most beautiful, confusing, and ignored books in the Bible.
It's a collection of erotic love poetry. And it's right there in your Bible, sandwiched between the Psalms and the prophets.
So... why?
Is it just ancient relationship advice? A guide to dating and marriage? Or is there something deeper going on—something that points us toward the greatest love story ever told?
In this message, we explore:
- Why churches have historically avoided this book (and why that's a mistake)
- How celibate monks became obsessed with these love poems
- Why ancient rabbis sang the Song of Songs at Passover
- What this book reveals about desire, intimacy, and being truly known
- How it all points to the Cross
This isn't just for people who are dating or married. It's for anyone who's ever longed to be loved, pursued, seen—and wondered if that ache means something.
We live in a world where there are narrative tensions (4 of them) that are at play in what story of sexuality people are telling, or inhabiting. Caught within a mixture of pleasure, shame, longing, and confusion, this sermon explores the pertinent question at the heart of it all: what does our sexuality have to do with God?
Drawing on the insights of many, we look at the different stories shaping our understanding of sex -- and why so many of them leave us restless. Jesus doesn't start with shame or easy answers. He offers a subversive vision of humanity where our bodies matter, our desires aren't dismissed, and our deepest ache finds meaning in the Kingdom of heaven.
This message invites you to wrestle honestly with desire, identity, and faith -- and to consider whether Jesus might be offering a better story than what's been inherited or that's on offer.
What happens when we ask sex to do what only God can do?
In this message, we explore why sex can feel like heaven—and why it can so easily turn into something painful, confusing, or enslaving. Drawing from the Scriptures, church history, and our own lived experiences, we'll wrestle with desire, limitation, marriage, loneliness, shame, and hope.
Sex can’t save us—but it reveals something profound about who we are, what we’re longing for, and where true healing and union are ultimately found.
Download the group discussion guide.
Most of us were told what not to do with sex.
Very few of us were ever told what sex is actually for.
In this message, we'll revisit a question my friend David asked in youth group: "What is sex?" It sounds simple, but the answer is anything but.
Drawing from Genesis 1-2, 1 Timothy, and Colossians, we'll explore four overlooked truths: sex is essential, sex is God's idea, sex is an icon, and sex is a signpost. Along the way, you'll have a chance to wrestle with why sex matters so much, why it wounds us so deeply, and what it's designed to point us toward.
This isn't about new rules. It's about a vision of sexuality that's both ancient and desperately needed today—one that refuses puritanical shame and consumeristic self-indulgence in equal measure.
If you've ever felt torn between following Jesus and your sexuality—this message is for you.
Download our group discussion guide here.
If your faith feels disconnected from real life, your body might be the missing piece.
An early Christian teacher named Valentinus claimed that the physical world didn’t matter and that salvation was escape. That idea didn’t die. It just went underground.
In this message, we'll explore why the church called it heresy, why it still feels believable today, and why Christmas tells a story that refuses to separate God from flesh, bodies, and ordinary life.
318 bishops. 3 months of debate. 1 question that would shape Christianity forever: Is Jesus fully God—or just the greatest being God ever made?
In 325 AD, a charismatic pastor named Arius was making waves across the Roman Empire. He wrote catchy songs, drew massive crowds, and had a simple argument: if Jesus is the Son of God, he must have had a beginning. It was logical. It sounded Biblical. It was wildly popular. And it was heresy.
This message takes you inside the Council of Nicaea—the church fathers who showed up bearing scars from persecution, the biblical case both sides made, the slap heard round the church (courtesy of St. Nicholas), and an ending you won't see coming.
But more than history, we wrestle with a question that still matters more than you might know: What kind of Father is God?
Part of our Christmas series: How Heresies Saved Christmas—where ancient half-truths help us see the real story more clearly.
Download this week's group discussion guide.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Alexander of Alexandria: What Kind of Father Is God?
02:22 “Homousia?!” – Too Brilliant to Understand
05:46 Arius: The Tall, Rock Star Pastor and His Viral Song
08:23 Nothing Clarifies the Truth Like a Half-Truth
09:40 “Father of Mine”: When Dad Walks Away
13:15 Why This Ancient Debate Still Shapes Your Life
18:46 Constantine, Persecution, and the Council of Nicaea
23:08 Round One – “The Father Is Greater Than I”
26:15 Round Two – “Firstborn of All Creation”
28:05 Round Three – “Only Begotten Son” and God Begets God
30:38 St. Nicholas Slaps a Heretic
33:51 The Creed: Eternally Begotten, of One Being
35:59 Arius Dies of Diarrhea & the Song Still Echoes in Istanbul
38:40 Look at the Son to Know the Father
What if the deepest struggle you feel -- the pressure to be enough, do enough, fix yourself -- is a window into what you were truly made for?
Enter one of the most important debates in Christian history: Pelagius vs. Augustine. Their clash over sin, free will, and grace are highlighted in:
- Do we need better habits, or a new heart?
- Does grace make us passive -- or does it actually make us alive?
- Why is surrender so much harder than self-improvement?
If you've ever felt stuck, exhausted, spiritually dry, or weighed down by the pressure to be 'enough', this message will challenge, comfort, and reorient you towards the kind of life only grace can create.
Download this week's group discussion guide here.
What happens when someone tries to cut the Old Testament out of the Bible?
In the second century, a wealthy ship-owner named Marcion did exactly that—literally tearing out every page that didn't fit his vision of a loving God. The early church called him "the firstborn of Satan" and returned his $13 million gift. But his question still haunts us: What does blood and sacrifice have to do with the God of love?
This sermon follows Marcion's story into Leviticus 16—the Day of Atonement—to show how the Old Testament isn't something to escape from, but the key to understanding the cross, the incarnation, and the mystery of Christmas itself.
It's an invitation to wrestle honestly with Scripture's hard parts and discover why the church fathers would rather die than lose the Book of Leviticus.
Download this sermon's discussion guide here.
What if God is placing opportunities right in front of you—and you don’t even see them?
In this vision sermon, we explore 2 Kings 13 and the moment God invites King Jehoash to “strike the ground.” It’s a strange story with a powerful question behind it: What will you do with the opportunities God puts in your hands?
We’ll look at the cultural moment we’re living in, the growing spiritual hunger around us, and the call to wake up, pay attention, and join God in what He’s doing.
Ever feel like following God has made life harder, not easier? Like you traded predictable pain for terrifying freedom? This is a message for anyone who has ever stood at a Sea moment and thought, “Maybe I should just go back.”
In Exodus 13–14, the people of Israel are finally free… and immediately feel trapped. Pharaoh changes his mind. A sea blocks their path. Fear rewrites their memories and freedom suddenly feels overwhelming.
We look at why God sometimes takes “the long way,” how fear convinces us that slavery was easier, and how Jesus (the better mediator/Moses) accomplishes for us the greatest Exodus, from sin, shame, and sorrow.
Download this week's group discussion guide here.
Everyone has a defining moment. What if yours already happened—before you were born?
In Exodus 12, death is coming. God commands His people: slaughter a lamb, paint its blood on your door, then gather your family and eat. This meal becomes THE moment that defines them forever. And it's the moment that helps us understand what Jesus meant when He said, "This is my body, broken for you." The Passover doesn't just explain communion—it IS the gospel. Substitution. Blood covering. A feast that sustains you for the journey.
If God can take traumatized slaves and give them a new story, a new identity, a new beginning... He can do the same for you.
Download this week's sermon discussion guide here.
The first step in knowing God is unlearning everything you think you know.
In Exodus 7–10, God doesn’t just free His people from Egypt—He dismantles Egypt’s entire way of seeing the world. Through the Ten Plagues, He reveals Himself by unmaking their reality and tearing down the false gods they had trusted for meaning, security, and control.
In this message, we'll explore our response to the God who hides in plain sight, kills our "gods," and thrusts our lives into emptiness and chaos... so that he can make us new.
Download our group discussion guide here.
What if Jesus said to you, “You don’t yet look as happy as I mean you to be”?
In a culture drowning in distraction, hurry, and exhaustion, Sabbath is God’s radical invitation to freedom. Drawing from Scripture, neuroscience, and real-life stories, this sermon explores what it means to stop, rest, delight, and worship. You’ll discover how Sabbath is not just a day off, but a life-giving practice that helps us get our souls back, resist the gods of productivity, and step into the joy God intends for us.
What if the very thing your soul is craving isn’t more achievement, more hustle, or more scrolling—but rest?
Speaking to our modern exhaustion, is Sabbath unreachable? Is it wellness for the privileged, legalism, or a Jewish thing? It’s actually about freedom, formation, and healing. What might change if we actually lived into this rhythm?
Whether you’re feeling burned out, spiritually hungry, or just curious about what Jesus has to say about rest, this message will help you step into God’s gift of Sabbath—a cathedral in time, where our souls can recover, delight, and breathe again.
You can't stop working. Something won't let you rest.
The Book of Exodus names that "something" - and shows you what God wants to do to break its power in your life.
This sermon unpacks Israel’s slavery in Egypt and God’s strange way of training them in freedom through manna and Sabbath. You’ll see that Sabbath isn’t self-care. It’s resistance.
We’ll uncover what’s really keeping you from rest—and point you to Jesus, the true bread from heaven, whose finished work on the cross means you don’t have to prove yourself anymore.
Sabbath isn’t just rest. It’s an act of war.
Ever feel like following Jesus is making your life, not better, but worse?
In this message from Exodus 5-6, we dive into one of the most honest and unsettling parts of the Bible—where God's people accept His promise of salvation, and then their suffering immediately gets worse. Moses shows up with God's message of freedom, the Israelites worship and believe... and then Pharaoh makes their slave labor brutally harder. The people who were just praising God now curse Moses. Even Moses starts questioning God.
If you've ever felt like following Jesus made your life more difficult instead of easier, this message is for you. This isn't a "everything happens for a reason" message. It's an honest look at why the path to freedom often leads through deeper struggle first—and why that might actually be evidence that God is working, not absent.
Download this week's group discussion guide.
Most people know God by a title… but did you know He has a personal name?
In Exodus 3–4, Moses meets God in the wilderness and dares to ask: “Who are You?” The answer — “I AM” — is as mysterious as it is life-changing.
This sermon explores the moment God reveals His Name, why it matters more than we realize, and how it changes the way we see ourselves. You’ll discover why knowing God’s Name is about more than pronunciation or theology — it’s about identity, intimacy, and trust.
Whether you feel like a nobody, wrestle with doubt, or are searching for something real, this text invites you into two of life’s most important questions: Who am I? Who is God?
Download this week's group discussion guide here.
Who are you—really?
It’s one of the hardest questions to answer. For Moses, it took eighty years. For many of us, it still hangs unresolved.
In Exodus 2, we follow Moses’ journey from prince to murderer to nobody in the wilderness. Along the way, we see how God uses the long, slow work of identity formation—and how the question “Who am I?” echoes through Scripture until it finds its answer in Jesus.
We all live by a story. Some give life. Others take it.
The book of Exodus isn’t just about an ancient people escaping Egypt. It’s about us. It’s about you.
It’s the story of being enslaved to a system that slowly grinds you down, the story of a God who shows up in the middle of it, and the story of discovering who you were always meant to be. It’s about realizing that the way out of slavery is also the way in—to freedom, identity, faith, and hope.
For thousands of years, people have turned to Exodus to make sense of their own lives. Maybe it’s time you did too.
Download our sermon discussion guide for this week here.
Philippians 4:4–9 explores how Paul’s (the apostle’s) prison-saturated words invite us to rejoice in the Lord’s nearness, release our anxieties through prayer, and rewire our inner life with God’s peace.
With much of the West marked by unrest and distraction, come see how biblical meditation, neuroscience insights, a trip to prison, and an ancient inscription from Phrygia guard our hearts and transform us to be carriers of His peace in an anxious generation.
Money makes big promises: “I’ll make you happy. I’ll keep you safe. I’ll give your life meaning.” But money is a liar.
In Matthew 6, Jesus pulls back the curtain on money’s hidden power. He shows us that our treasures aren’t neutral—they tether themselves to our hearts, shaping what we love, how we live, and even what we see as real.
In this message, we wrestle with Jesus’ uncomfortable (but healing) words: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What is money doing to your heart? Who—or what—is really in control of your life?
Jesus pokes and prods at your bank account and spending habits, not because he wants your money, but because He wants your heart. And He knows that your heart will follow your money.
Your doubts might be the place Jesus wants to meet you.
We’re not the type of church to have a patron saint, but if we did, it might be “Doubting Thomas.” We live in an age of unrelenting doubt. It infects and affects us all. Thomas heard the resurrection story and flatly declared, “I will not believe.” This is the story of how Jesus meets us in our doubts. Whether you’ve been hurt by faith, wrestled with hard questions, or just aren’t sure what you believe anymore, this conversation is for you. Jesus doesn’t shame or belittle doubters—He invites them closer.
In a world plagued by anxiety, depression, loneliness, and a 'connection crisis', what does faith have to offer our cultural moment?
Biblically, transformation is not a linear approach, but a multi-faceted journey that involves our inner and outer life of faith. If you've ever wondered if there's a more holistic approach to what we're facing, this is the sermon for you.
By surfacing mental health and faith myths, we find hope in biblical realism, insights from an award winning book, and real life examples of people who hold the tension of deep anguish and deep trust in Jesus.
Why, God? How do we make sense of this? Where are You?
In the wake of tragedy, the usual answers fall flat.
This message turns to one of the oldest and rawest stories in the Bible—the story of Job. It’s unfiltered grief. At times, it’s hard to hear. And that’s exactly the point.
Job doesn’t offer easy answers. But he does offer us a path through the pain. A way to keep wrestling. A reason to keep hoping.
We may not get the answers we’re looking for. But we meet a God who steps into our grief, who doesn’t stay distant from our pain, and who promises that chaos does not get the final word. He does.
In the final message of our P.R.A.Y. series, we see that yielding is a battle posture, rooted in surrender and grounded in God’s Word.
To fight like Jesus means giving God our feelings, our desires, and — ultimately — our trust. Join us to recover intimacy, identity, and our spiritual resiliency by Jesus teaching us how to pray.
Following our P.R.A.Y. acronym, we zoom in on A; asking. Through simplicity and dependency, we can experience the heart soaring power of prayer. But, what do we do with prayers that go unanswered? The Psalms provide us examples of how, when we process with God, we invite God into the process. We can bring our agony to the Almighty.
In asking, we come to trust that God gives us what we would have asked for if we knew everything He knows.
What is the Lord’s Prayer about? According to a few scholars, it teaches us a way of praying in two distinct parts: (1) Gets us in on God’s World & (2) Gets God in on our world.
But, what does that mean? How does that happen? With words like ‘hallow, kingdom, and will, ’ do these words have any bearing on our life today? Join us as we look at how the earth largest’s camera can help us see the Lord’s Prayer the way Jesus saw it.
Philip Yancey said: “Prayer is the act of seeing reality from God’s point of view”.
It’s noteworthy, Jesus’ disciples never asked him the proper way to heal the sick, order a church, teach the Scripture, or engage the world socially. They did ask him — ‘teach us to pray’.
Many of us have questions and fears about prayer. Join us as we explore why don’t we pray, what prayer isn’t, and what prayer is. Mainly, to start, it begins with seeing and pausing.
The New Testament is where everything comes together - the long-awaited arrival of Jesus, the growth of the church, and the hope of a new creation. In this message, we’ll map out the story of the New Testament, introduce the main books and themes, and show how the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus fulfill everything the Old Testament promised. Whether you’re starting fresh or rediscovering old truths, you’ll see how the New Testament invites you to be part of God’s ongoing story.
The Old Testament is the foundation of the Bible - full of sweeping stories, promises, kings, prophets, poetry, and hope. But how does it all fit together? In this message, we’ll explore the big picture of the Old Testament, tracing the story from creation to covenant to kingdom to exile. You’ll walk away understanding not just the major events and books, but also the heartbeat behind it all: a God who is relentlessly pursuing the people He created and loves.
What if the thing you’ve been chasing… has actually been chasing you?
The journey of Psalm 23 ends not with our searching, God's lavish welcome home. A seat at His table. A feast in the presence of your enemies. A life marked by goodness, mercy, and deep belonging.
This message explores the longing behind every longing—the ache to be home with God. It’s about rest, joy, and a Shepherd who won't stop coming after you until you're safe at home.
💭 Maybe the only thing keeping you from God's goodness… is the speed of your life.
🎧 Tune in—and take your seat at the table.
How do we not lose faith, not lose our way, not lose our souls—when the path leads us through the valley of deep darkness?
Psalm 23 doesn’t offer escape from evil but invites us into a deeper confidence in the presence of the Shepherd. In this message, we wrestle with fear, suffering, and what it means to say, “I will fear no evil,” even when evil feels overwhelming.
In a culture of endless wanting, Psalm 23 opens with a bold confession: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” This message invites us to slow down, breathe deep, and rediscover the soul-rest that comes not from having more—but from knowing the Shepherd.
Have you ever experienced the power of a well-placed question? What if God did for someone else what you longed for Him to do for you? God’s mercy is both scandalous and healing-revealing our deepest motivations.
Jonah ends with a question, not a resolution. The final thread is left in our fingertips. Will God’s mercy melt us before it moves through us?
Something is happening to men—and it's time we talk about it.
Deaths of despair are soaring. Men are falling behind in education, work, relationships, and health. Loneliness, addiction, apathy, and isolation are eating away at an entire generation.
If you care about being the man God designed you to be—if you care about the future of your sons, your brothers, your friends—this conversation matters.
Download the accompanying handout: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ftonyormrmasrkajco3mc/The-Crisis-with-Men-Handout.pdf?rlkey=7nl5zlzhei47s9i419z4hby7f&st=unve61aj&dl=0
Download Pastor Paul's slide deck: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9nc0nxo4kfgxtjzbytdag/The-Crisis-with-Men-Slide-Deck.pdf?rlkey=jsizp498g3j54gml5zw2a1pwg&st=tp8mlqvu&dl=0
🔵 In this talk:
00:00 Introduction – The crisis we are facing
03:22 Deaths of Despair – Too many men are dying from despair
09:03 Education – Men are underperforming at all levels, with declining college enrollment.
11:29 Relationships – Men are increasingly single, lonely, and disconnected.
14:40 Work – Male workforce participation and wages are declining.
17:04 Biology – Testosterone and grip strength are dropping at alarming rates.
19:22 Technology – Addictions to porn, gaming, gambling, and digital escapism disproportionately affect men.
23:41 Biblical Roots – God's Design for Men
27:12 Adam: Passive Masculinity
28:58 Lamech: Toxic Masculinity
33:30 Historical & Sociological Roots of the Crisis
42:15 Progressive Reaction: The denial gender gifferences and pathologizing of masculinity
44:05 Conservative Reaction: Embracing hyper-masculinity and alpha-male culture
45:11 A Proverbs 31 Man
47:35 Jesus is a Man
48:48 Seven Practical Steps We Can Take
Some change looks dramatic on the outside — but still leaves your heart untouched.
In Jonah 2, we hear a desperate prayer from the depths. Jonah sounds like he’s finally changed… until you realize he hasn’t. Not really.
This story is a mirror. It shows how hard it is to truly change — and how easy it is to settle for surface-level surrender. It exposes how slow our hearts can be, even when our words sound right.
But it also shows us something else:
That when we hit the bottom, God is already there.
Deep change doesn’t begin when we try harder.
It begins with a desperate prayer — and a God who refuses to give up on us.
Jonah ran. Jonah slept.
And God hurled a great storm at him — not to destroy him, but to wake him up.
Maybe the chaos in your life isn’t proof God has given up on you.
Maybe it’s proof He hasn’t.
This is the story of a God who refuses to give up on you — even when you give up on Him.
What do you do when you don't want to be seen?
When facing God feels more painful than running from Him?
Jonah didn’t argue. He didn’t plead.
He just ran — trying to escape the gaze of the One who knew him completely.
This story isn’t about a fish.
It’s about protest, shame, and the grace of a God who refuses to turn His face away.
Mary Magdalene thought Jesus was dead.
She couldn’t see what God was doing—until He spoke her name.
The Easter story is more than a historical event or a theological idea.
It’s personal.
Jesus—the risen Word of God—comes looking for us.
Not as a concept, not as a symbol, but as a living Savior who calls us by name.
Because when He speaks your name, everything changes.
The drama of Peter's life over the course Holy Week and the days beyond offer a compelling "Before and After" story. With words of challenge, hope and promise, they offer a fitting study for Palm Sunday, and prepare us for the week to come.
This is the final message of Ecclesiastes—the Teacher’s last word after a lifetime of searching. In these final chapters, the Teacher pleads with all of us—especially those who are young—to learn from him: If you want to live a life of real joy and lasting significance, you have to stop trying to take it for yourself.
True joy and significance cannot be achieved or seized.
They can only be received as gifts from the God who made you.
Obedience and surrender aren’t barriers to joy—they are the way to Joy.
God’s commands aren’t given to steal your life, but to lead you to Life.
If you’re still breathing, this is advice worth hearing.
In the second to last chapter of Ecclesiastes, we get uncertainty, predictability, inevitability, and mystery. Is that enough rhyming for ya?
What do you do when you don’t know? In chapter 11, the Preacher offers us three things we don’t know and three things we can know. This chapter picks up the pace, calls us to a decision, and frames the end. Join us!
Fasting has been practiced by followers of Jesus for thousands of years—but it’s often misunderstood. Some see it as deeply spiritual, others as outdated or even unhealthy.
So why does the Bible talk about it so much? And should you do it—or not?
In this message, we explore what fasting is (and isn’t), what it’s for, and how it can become a way of reconnecting with your hunger for God.
If you knew your time was short, how would you live? Ecclesiastes 9 reminds us that death is certain, and almost nothing else is. But instead of despair, the Teacher urges us to live fully, love deeply, work with passion, and trust God with what we cannot control. This isn’t about reckless indulgence. It’s about learning to receive each day as it's meant to be: a gift from God.
Have you ever asked, or been asked, why do good things happen to bad people? Or, similarly, why do bad things happen to good people? The Teacher is going to survey the moments that show a gap between what we ‘know’ and what we ‘observe’.
The Teacher gets more philosophical in this chapter. And, with the help from a few other Philosophers, we’ll learn how to live wisely when life/God doesn’t make sense.
What can a columnist, a theologian, a philosopher, and the writer of Ecclesiastes show us about search for the good life? In short, wisdom can help us with a lot of things. At the same time….
Join us to “be alienated from what we think we know in order to genuinely grow.” (B.Brock)
We spend most of our lives avoiding this one truth: death - but the Teacher in Ecclesiastes 7 tells us it's the key to wisdom, purpose, and a better life.
Down through the ages, Christians have practiced memento mori-"Remember you must die"-not to live in fear, but to live with clarity and meaning. What if what we've been avoiding is exactly what we need to face?
We’re often told that more money means more happiness, security, and freedom—but the Teacher in Ecclesiastes 5 says otherwise. He warns that wealth can distort our vision, create anxiety, and leave us emptier than before. So, if more money isn’t the answer, what is? Join us as we explore the Teacher’s wisdom on contentment, worship, and finding true fulfillment in God.
We search for meaning in all the usual places—success, wisdom, pleasure, hard work—but the Teacher in Ecclesiastes finds that none of it fully satisfies. Then, in Ecclesiastes 5, he offers a different kind of answer: Stop talking. Start listening.
Could it be that the key to a meaningful life isn’t found in more striving, but in learning to listen—really listen—to God? Instead of trying to control life or fill the silence with words, the Teacher invites us to slow down, be still, and receive. Join us as we explore how listening to God in worship can change not just how we approach faith, but how we experience life itself.
Where am I going in life? This tends to captivate the modern mind. Qohelet, the author of Ecclesiastes, says that is our very source of pain. Workism is making us miserable, oppression is widespread, and people are lonely. Even wisdom fails in securing fame. In this chapter (4), we’re offered a new question to ask. For our hearts to be indexed away from me, and to focus on we.
Why do we feel the pull of eternity while living in a world bound by time? In Ecclesiastes 3, the Teacher uncovers the profound tension between our longing for something lasting and the fleeting nature of life’s seasons. How can we find peace in this tension? And what does it mean to live meaningfully when the future feels so uncertain? Explore the wisdom of the Teacher and discover how God invites us to embrace life as a gift, woven with eternal purpose
What if all your efforts to create happiness and meaning are actually driving them further away? In Ecclesiastes 2, the Teacher of Ecclesiastes hits rock bottom, confronting the stark truth: every attempt to create lasting meaning or happiness is fleeting, ultimately undone by the certainty of death. But it’s here, in this moment of despair, that he uncovers something extraordinary. He realizes he doesn’t have to strive to make his life meaningful—because meaning isn’t something we achieve; it’s something God gives. When the Teacher finally lets go of the need to control and define his life, his hands are open to receive life for what it truly is: a gift from God.
If you had the wealth, skill, power, charisma, and know-how to get everything you wanted in life, what would it actually get you? This week, the Teacher from Ecclesiastes shares the story of his infamous “pleasure experiment.” He pursued it all—wealth, career success, fine food and drink, the arts, and even sexual indulgence—looking for something that would give his life meaning and fill the void. But none of it did. None of it could. Now, he doesn’t want you to make the same mistakes he made. If you feel the pull of a longing that nothing in this world can seem to satisfy, maybe this story is for you.
What do you do when life stops making sense? It’s not a question of if—it’s when. And when you find yourself in that place, God has just the guide you need. We don’t know his name; he’s simply “the Teacher.” In Greek, they call him Ecclesiastes.
In this message, we uncover the raw, unfiltered wisdom of this ancient book and its bold declaration that “everything is meaningless.” But here’s the paradox: the Teacher isn’t offering despair—he’s pointing the way to discovering real meaning.
Curious, profound, and sometimes shockingly honest, this journey will challenge your perspective, tear down the illusions we cling to, and open your eyes to what truly matters. Come ready to wrestle with life’s hardest questions and uncover the hope waiting on the other side.
We all tell ourselves stories—some true, some comforting lies. But what happens when those lies are exposed? In this message, we journey into the Gospel of John to discover how Jesus, the Light of the World, reveals the truth about our hearts. With the help of a Greek tragedy, a lobotomist, and an 18th-century theologian, we explore Jesus's invitation to face the uncomfortable reality of self-deception and step into the freedom that only He can bring.
What if the universe has been trying to show you something all along - but you just can't see it? What if it’s been whispering a name? In the message, we follow the Apostle John as he leads us past an ancient festival of light, through timeless wisdom and prophecy, and back all the way to the beginning... of everything. There he invites us to hear the Word that speaks life, to see the Light that lets us see reality, and to wrestle with what this might mean for us today.
How do we get in on the life transformation that is promised in the Scriptures? What does this look like in my life? In this message, we dive deep into Romans 12 and explore how God’s grace renews our minds, reshapes our habits, and pulls us into life-changing relationships.
How do we share Jesus in a post-everything world? In a hostile culture, and with many of us having an emotional hang up to words like ‘evangelism’, witness, etc., tune in to discover how Jesus’ authority sends us in simplicity to offer a compelling (missional) alternative.
Sometimes what we really want & need can only be found on the other side of crisis & hardship. This is so easy to say and so hard to embrace. In this message, Luke will lead us through a series of crises, forcing us to slow down and watch how Jesus not only meets us in these moments but also uses them to bring about a new, deeper wholeness. It's a reality that we'd all like to avoid. But we can't. It's not if, it's when. Crisis is coming for all of us, and Jesus wants to meet us there.
We began last week our two-week focus on life with Christ: what does it mean to "abide in Him"? This week, we consider this question: "What does ballroom dancing teach us about life with Jesus?" If you want to learn more about how to experience the dance of life with Jesus, come join us this week!
How do we live out a life with Jesus that survives and thrives in the jungle of everyday life? And how do we do that - not just in the high points of inspiration and revelation - but in the everyday places of frustration and temptation? This week, we'll begin a two-week pause in our study of the Gospel of Luke to think about how living with Jesus is rooted in the reality of Jesus living in us.
Viktor Frankl, the neurologist and holocaust survivor, once said: “Between stimulus and response there is space. In that space is the power to choose our response. In our response, lies both our growth and freedom.” In Luke 8:22-25 we see this space occur in the life of the disciples. We’re confronted with two questions. One is a diagnostic one, the other a directive. Tune to learn how to ‘hear’, trust, and choose our response.
According to the Scriptures, the most important thing you can do with your life is love God. Period. That's it. If you only get in on one thing in this life, get in on that. But what if we don't love God that much? Love is not the kind of thing that you can just manufacture on your own. So, what do we do? In chapter 7 of his gospel, Luke unfolds this intimate, shocking, slightly scandalous story about a woman bursting into a refined dinner party. It's a story that helps us see what's going on in our own hearts so that we can get in on what's most important.
Today, we are excited to welcome a missionary leader from India who serves on the Lead Team of Concentric, an alliance of ministries across the globe who do disciple making movements according to the Jesus lifestyle.
Since ancient times, Christians have seen God's work of salvation as a mosaic. In isolation, our lives might look small, random, even broken. It's hard to make sense of things. But Jesus picks up broken people and broken lives and sets them into a work of God that is bigger and more beautiful than we can possibly imagine. In this message, Luke helps us see the bigger picture as Jesus encounters an outsider, a grieving widow, and a man on death row.
Today, we welcome Duffy Robbins: renowned conference speaker, Grove City College professor, and friend of New Story.
You've probably heard the quote: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." We cannot be certain Gandhi said that, but you've almost certainly felt that before. According to Luke chapter 5, Jesus came for the broken, for those who are unhealthy, and for the sinners. And that's good news. But turn the page to chapter 6 and we immediately feel the tension. Jesus calls these sinners-made-disciples to live out a radically different, whole, healing, forgiving, pure way of life. A way of life that frankly feels impossible if you've ever tried to live it. This week, we'll explore what sinners (like us) are supposed to do with this.
This is not a sermon. Not really. It's just a story... or, better, an invitation. You are invited to imagine what it must have been like to encounter the famous, rule-breaking, leper-healing Jesus of Nazareth. Some were furious with him. Others worshipped Him. No one could quite figure Him out. What about you?
Some wounds you cannot see. Luke, the physician turned Gospel writer, seems to think that all of us are sick. Maybe not physically. But all of us have something deeply broken in us. In Luke 5, he presents two stories of physical healing that expose our need for a yet deeper healing, and that is where Jesus wants to meet us. Jesus wants to meet us in the place of our deep woundedness. That's where we experience His healing power.
The invitation of Jesus is (& has always been): "Follow Me." But what exactly does it mean to follow Jesus? In this message, we'll attempt to piece together the broader Jewish context of 1st Century rabbis and disciples in order to makes sense of what it means for Rabbi Jesus to invite you and me to follow Him.
Does it ever feel like there's just too much going on in your life to ever find some peace & quiet? I would venture say to say that you're not the only one! Psalm 131 gives us beautiful imagery to begin to understand what it means to find peace with God.
In Luke 4, Jesus goes to his hometown. These are the people who should know Him the best. These are the people who grew up with Jesus. But, when He announces who He is and why God has sent Him, it doesn't go so well. That's putting it mildly. (They try to throw Him off a cliff.) Luke leaves us wondering: Why is it that those who are far from God seem to joyfully receive Jesus while those who grew up with Jesus seem to struggle to see Him for who He really is? And how might this same danger lurk among those of us who grow up with Jesus today?
To be tempted is to be human. Since Adam & Eve, temptation has been part of the human story. In Luke 4, Jesus, "the son of Adam," is getting ready to step into the mission to which God has sent Him. But first, God leads Him into the wilderness. There He must confront a series of subtle temptations, temptations that are truly tempting because they sound like truth, temptations that we all must face.
Julian was raised Christian. He grew up going to church, was baptized, went to a Christian school and then, in his early 20s, he walked away from the faith. This is how the Roman Emperor Julian became known as Julian the Apostate. This is also how Julian has become a kind of patron saint to the millions who grew up in church, knew Christianity from the inside-out, and have walked away from the faith. Julian's story has become an important case study for those of us who live in a post-Christian world. In this message, we'll listen to Julian's story, probe the unexpected success of the early Church, and hear God's missionary plans for Abraham as we try to begin to figure out: what does it look like to reach our world for Jesus when our world is full of Julians?
Francis of Assisi was a simple man who changed the world by living like Jesus. That's it. He sought to literally do what Jesus did: embrace lepers, serve the poor, love his enemies, own nothing, and trust God for everything. To this day, Francis's joy-filled life stands as a convicting and inspiring reminder that the life and teaching of Jesus is not impossible to follow. Rather, it is the way of pax et bonum (peace & all good)!
If you are looking for a spiritual guide, you will be hard pressed to find one better than Bernard of Clairvaux. He is famous for his historical and political exploits. (After all, he was involved in untangling a Church schism and starting the Knights Templar!) But his theological and devotional works are worth savoring. He was a student of the love of God and of the human soul, making him a faithful guide to those seeking to know God and know themselves more deeply.
In the 4th century, after the Roman Empire was officially declared "Christian," thousands of men and women fled to the deserts of Egypt. They were literally following Jesus's example of going into the wilderness to face their demons. This week, we'll explore the story of one such "Desert Father" named Evagrius. In the wilderness, Evagrius faced his own demons and learned to help others face theirs. He then went on to give us a taxonomy of temptation that we know as the seven deadly sins.
When God chooses young David to be his anointed King, he describes him as 'a man after my own heart'. But as the story plays out, David is also shown to be Israel's greatest sinner (on more than one occasion). How does this work? How can one be a sinner after God's own heart and what does that mean for your life? This will be the question we ask on Sunday as we read of beginning of David's story, looking at the birth of the prophet that would ultimately anoint him (Samuel).
What does it mean to know God? What does that look like? How does it play out in my everyday life? The Bible contains some wonderful summaries in answer to these questions and the passage before us describes its answer to these questions using the language of "walking'. To know God is to walk daily with him, talking with him (prayer), hearing from him (scripture), and having your life transformed by him. This sermon will zero in on the specifics of the transformation that God is working in those who walk with him.
From the Garden of Eden to the final pages of scripture in the new heaven and new earth, we read God’s extraordinary autobiography. The author and the finisher of our faith has designed humanity to be the living and breathing embodiment of his image, right at the heart of his creation. Now, because of Jesus’ entrance into, and redemption of, our part in the grand story of God, we together have a unique opportunity to reveal a mystery that was hidden for ages but is now able to be displayed in the Church. What a calling! Let’s explore this beautiful and glorious gift together.
In Scriptures, we are commanded, urged, and warned to remember/do not forget... more than 100 times. The Psalms repeatedly teach us to "remember" in our prayers. One gets the sense that how we remember is critical. According to the Prophets and Apostles, remembering appears to be a spiritual practice that is essential to knowing God and ourselves more truly and more deeply. In Psalm 103, David leads us in how to coach your soul in this spiritual practice of remembering.
Thousands have gathered for the worship concert. Asaph, one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, steps ups to the mic: "My name is Asaph... and this song… is about how I almost lost my faith.” That's how Psalm 73 begins. For thousands of years, believers have been using this psalm as a guide to praying our doubts.
Profound wholeness demands profound honesty. The Psalms invite us to be brutally honest with God and with ourselves, drawing things out of us that we rather not think about.. much less pray. This week, we'll explore a horrifying, but helpful, psalm that invites us to trust God with "our most precious hatreds."
How do I pray when I feel like I have ruined my relationship with God? Psalm 130 is the prayer of someone headed to a worship service. On the way, he realizes that his relationship with God is completely broken, and it's all all his fault. This Psalm shows you how to pray when you find yourself there: in depths of your own brokenness, stuck inside yourself, wrapped in pain, trapped, lost.
This Sunday, professor, speaker, and author, Dr. Duffy Robbins, will introduce us to a Biblical way to lament what is wrong in our world and in us. Using Psalm 13 as a guide, Duffy will show us how to pray our laments and even write our own psalm of lament.
It's through hearing about what God has done in your life that others can begin to know the goodness of God. In Psalm 40, we find David standing at the Temple. He’s come to offer a thank offering to God, but, when he listens to God, he discovers that what God desires more than a sacrifice is for David to tell others what He has done for him. Then, many will see and fear and trust in the Lord.
Am I safe? Who am I? Who are you? Who am I to you? These are the questions that give our lives shape and meaning. This is where we begin to figure out what it means to be human. And yet, these are questions that you cannot answer on our own. Modern Psychology and ancient Hebrew wisdom agree: if you are ever going to answer these questions, you need Someone to know you. You need to feel seen. You need to experience Someone else experiencing you. In Psalm 139, King David invites us to experience the God who knows everything about you, who is always with you, who made you.
In Psalm 84, we stumble into a prayer that reads more like a juicy love letter than what we usually think of as prayer. These are the words of someone who has been wrecked by the love of God. He is sick with love. At times, he almost sounds insane. His voice cracks. He can hardly breathe. And, by praying this prayer, we learn to open up our hearts to more & more of His love.
In Psalm 8, David helps us get oriented to reality. If all you've ever known is the observable universe, this might be a bit hard to imagine. The universe David takes us into is much more vast. But he doesn't take us there to get lost. Rather that is the only place we can truly find ourselves. David guides us into this incomprehensibly vast "kingdom of God" so that we can find our place in the midst of it all.
If you think that life is a problem that you can solve, you're in trouble. In Psalm 2, we're faced with the reality that if it's up to us to fix ourselves or save our world, we are hopeless. But we're not hopeless. It's not all up to us. The hope of God's people is that the God's King would do what we cannot do. In this Psalm, we explore how surrendering control of our lives is not a barrier to the life we want, but it is the way into life with God.
The editors of the Psalms knew how hard it is to pray. They felt it too. So, when we open up the Book of Psalms, we find that they don’t force us to jump right into prayer as though that’s an easy leap to make. Instead, they give us two Psalms to help us enter into prayer: Psalm 1 & 2. These two Psalms do not shy away from the difficulties we will face. It won't be easy. But it will be blessed. We might not be where we want to be. But God will meet us there too. This week, Psalm 1 gives us the secret to a prayer life that can flourish no matter what: prayer begins with listening.
If you ask Christians down through the ages: "How do I move forward in my walk with God?" They will say (over & over & over again): "The Psalms. You need to pray the Psalms." And this feels like a reasonable answer... until you start praying those Psalms about hating people or about the coronation of a king or the one about smashing the teeth of mine enemies. Yeah. Awkward. In this message, we're going to try to figure out what's going on in the Psalms... and why everyone down through the ages seems to think that if we want to move forward on our journey with God, then we really need to learn how to pray these prayers.
Today, we celebrate the greatest day in history, Resurrection Sunday!
Today's Message:
An Easter Story about Doubt. John 20:24-31
We’re not the type of church to have a patron saint, but, if we were, ours would have to be "Doubting Thomas." We live in an age of unrelenting doubt. It infects and affects us all. This Easter, we will look at the story of Thomas, the disciple who heard the resurrection story and then declared: "I will not believe." This is a story that confronts us with some deeply personal questions: Where do my doubts come from? What do I do with my doubts? How do my doubts fit into my journey with God?
Sometimes you can get it all right, and still get it all wrong. One of the occupational hazards of discipleship is doing the right things for the wrong reasons. In this second Lenten meditation from the Gospel of Luke, guest speaker, Duffy Robbins helps us to consider how easy it is to completely miss the point of the discipleship relationship with Jesus.
What does it mean to be Jesus' disciple? Is it about church membership? Sunday attendance? Being in a small group? Wearing Christian shirts and bracelets? In a special two-week Lenten study from the Gospel of Luke, guest preacher, Duffy Robbins will help us "define the relationship".
Consuming red meat is not just a dietary choice. It is (and has always been) fraught with moral, political, economic, social, environmental, religious, and health implications. It's almost like eating the flesh of another creature has some unseen, but significant, effect on our world. In this message, we'll explore the spiritual significance of eating meat. According to the Scriptures, how might a medium rare filet help us experientially know God?
When God's People experience the Presence of God, they start pouring oil on things. From oil covered pillars to beards dripping with oil to a woman pouring precious oil over the feet of Jesus, oil is everywhere in the Scriptures. Why? What did oil mean to them? And how might oil help us experientially know - maybe even smell - the Presence of God? That's what we'll explore in this message.
When we ask Jesus: "Who am I?" He says: “You’re salt.” That's who you are. It's not the answer that most of us would expect. Nor is likely to be the first way most of us would self-identify. But, if we were to take this seriously, what might it mean? What does "salt" say about how Jesus sees you? And how might “salt” help us experientially know who God is, who we are, & how to make sense of this thing we call life?
If we ever hope to experientially know God the way that the saints of old knew Him, then we are going to need some help. We need a guide. This week, we are going to look to the Apostle John to give us some advice on how to experience the life-giving invitation of Jesus... through water. If it sounds a bit crazy that's because this is a wholly (& holy) different way of viewing things. But maybe with John's help (and some practice), we might begin to taste and see what he's tasting and seeing.
According to the Scriptures, you can’t just know about God. You have to experientially know God. You have to “taste & see” for yourself. In this series, we’re exploring what it might look like for us to taste & see God in the stuff of life. And this is bread week, the week in which we ask: How can we experientially know God through our daily bread?
For millions of Americans, God no longer feels real. Collectively, we seem to be losing the capacity to know & experience God in a way that was common in the Scriptures and in the Church down through the ages. In this series, we're going to explore what it might look like for us to "taste & see" God in a way that is deeply personal, strangely sensual, overwhelmingly Biblical, and beyond dispute. Following a major theme through Scripture, we're going to talk about how to experience God through... food. Through bread, water, salt, oil, and a perfectly cooked steak. Today, we’re going to lay some groundwork. Let's call this a theological history of food... or, better, a culinary history of the family of God. Bon appetit!
Forgiveness is a community affair. Our extending it or withholding it, doesn't just impact us; it impacts everyone around us. Jesus gives us a pattern to follow that helps us experience the freedom that comes from a life of extending grace toward those that hurt us.
Both biologically and Biblically, we have reason to believe that humans need to suffer. Not horrifically, but some. Stress, hardship, trials. These are necessary for your growth and development. If you want to fully become who you are created to be, you have to suffer, and you shouldn't do this alone. You need to suffer with other people. In this message, we'll explore how suffering with others is celebrated(?!) by the Biblical authors as a sure way to become more like Jesus and find the life that is truly life.
3 years. When someone shows up at our church, that's how long we expect them to stay before a new job, a new house, or some life transition moves them away. 219 hours. According to a 2019 study from the University of Kansas, that's about how long it takes to develop a close friendship. Our vision to be a church where life transformation is normal seems to keep bumping into these two numbers. Deep life transformation requires deep relationships, and deep relationships requires time... which is the one thing we never seem to have. So what does this mean for us?
Neuroscientists, Moses, and the Apostle Paul agree: Other people are the problem... and the solution. Both. If you let other people see you for who you really are, they might hurt you. (They probably will.) But it's also true that other people are the solution. The only way to undo what has been done to you is with the help of other people. They must see you for who you really are. Hmm. What do you do with that? And what does Jesus have to do with that? That's what we'll explore in this message.
“New Year’s Resolutions,” you say? Hmmm, don’t they always seem to run out of gas before we hit February? No real changes. How about a different approach? This Sunday we’re going to let Jesus work us over a bit, just like he did Peter in Luke 5:1-11. Peter’s life was busy, calibrated…and predictable. Jesus had something else in mind for Peter and his future. Jesus’ words and actions in this interchange/encounter with Peter set a whole new course and dimension of life for him. It all started with a question, “Can I get into your boat?” He has that same question for us as well as we stand at the dawn of a new year. Read the passage to discover what else Jesus said and did so that Peter and we can see what a New and transformative Year and Life should look like.
If you are looking for a guide to help you find God in a world where he seems oddly absent, you can hardly do better than Matthew. This tax collector-turned-disciple helps us see how God shows up in a world of mass killings, refugees, & crazy leaders; a world like ours. He helps us see how God is still at work in our lives today.
In Genesis 22, God politely asks Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, and Abraham does it. This is a story that has been called absurd, abusive, and immoral... and yet, it remains a story that we cannot shake off or just ignore. There's a reason for this: We need it. We cannot come to peace with God, ourselves, or the journey of faith without this story. This is the story of a God who provides what we cannot provide and sees what we cannot see. The question is: Can we follow a God that we cannot understand?
In the spring of 2018, Leah's life looked perfect. She had written books, trained 1000s of leaders, and was married to a "celebrity" among Christians of SE Asia. But then, that August, his secret sin was discovered, and Leah's world crumbled. Since that time Leah has been on a journey of discovery and grief; brokenness and healing; pain and beauty. This Sunday, we are going to pause to listen to the story that God is writing in Leah's life in the hopes that we might begin to better hear His Story that He's working out in our lives as well.
Download this exercise (https://tinyurl.com/sermonexercisedec3) to help you reflect on YOUR story after hearing Leah's.
In Genesis 20 and 21, we come to what should be the climax of Abraham’s story. The long-awaited promise of a son is going to be fulfilled! And yet, at the very moment when Sarah & Abraham receive the miracle they’ve waited for their whole lives, they both become gripped with fear. A terrible fear. The kind of fear that makes you selfish, defensive, and sinful. The kind of fear that threatens to ruin everything and undo the very thing that God has promised to do… In this place of fear, the question emerges: Can my fear undo the very promises of God?
In Genesis 19, the story of how God judges Sodom and saves Lot... and we aren't sure which is more shocking. The only thing more shocking than God's judgement is His mercy. At least, the destruction of Sodom was just and justified. But, why would God save Lot? He does not appear to be a particularly upstanding person. His moral judgement is suspect. His offer to let his daughters be raped… is unthinkably evil. And we're not even sure that he wants to be saved. In the end, the angels have to drag him out of Sodom… and then, along the way, he’s trying to negotiate so he can keep a little bit of his Sodom lifestyle. What kind of God saves a man like Lot?
Please note: This sermon contains adult themes that are not suitable for children and might be triggering to victims of sexual violence.
At first glance, Genesis 18 appears to be a random story about three men who unexpectedly show up at Abraham's tent for a late lunch so that they can tell Sarah something. But then, about half way into the chapter, we pick up that these aren't just men... and this isn't just a meal. This is a picture of what it means to be a "friend of God." If we want to know what “friendship with God” looks like, this might be a good place to start.
In Genesis 17, God stops everything. The storyline comes to a screeching halt. God wants to have a DTR (define the relationship) talk with Abraham. This chapter is a foundational text. It gives us language for what it means to have a personal relationship with God. As such, it will not only shape & define Abraham's relationship with God, it will give shape and definition to your relationship with God.
What do you do when you are gripped by fear and powerless to change things? When we pick up the story in Genesis 16, Abram and Sarai are beyond desperate. They have been waiting more than a decade for God to fulfill His promise, so Sarai decides that God needs her help. She tells Abram to sleep with her servant, Hagar, and what follows is a tragedy: wounded people wounding people. This too is part of the journey of faith. But, thankfully, there is a God who knows you by name, seeks you out, and finds you when you are running away. He is "the God who sees me."
How do you know that you can trust God when you cannot comprehend what He is doing? In Genesis 15, we find Abram, the father of faith, afraid and full of doubt. He's trying to make sense of God's promises, but they still do not make sense. Here, in this place of darkness and doubt, God says to Abram, "Look up at the night sky and count the stars." And Abram believed God. In this message, we'll explore how this profoundly simple story shows us what it means to have full faith in God even if we cannot fully understand Him.
Today, we are excited to welcome a missionary leader from India who serves on the Lead Team of Concentric, an alliance of ministries across the globe who do disciple making movements according to the Jesus lifestyle.
Life is full of decisions. Every choice I make, sometimes unconsciously and often without examination, evidences the set of priorities that have taken root in my heart. What are God’s priorities and how can I tap into them? This week we will be led into the Scriptures and into the lives of two Indian friends who are Christians living God’s mission in their own country as we rediscover God’s loving heart for people far from Him, why that matters, and what is being done to bring people who are separated from God His offer of reconciliation.
Our desires can blind us. The promises of wealth, success, and pleasure can stop us from seeing the promises of God. In Genesis chapters 13-14, Lot and Abram show us two very different ways of "seeing." Lot looks at what he thinks is paradise and moves his family straight into hell. Abram surrenders his desires to God and sees the promise of life with God. In this message, we'll explore why some things can only be seen on the other side of surrender.
The story of Abraham & Sarah is not just some Middle Bronze Age story about a nomadic patriarchal, tribal couple. This is the story of the father of faith, of the journey of faith, of the family of God. And, if you have heard the promise of God, are on the journey of faith, consider yourself a child of God… this isn’t just Abraham's story. It’s yours. This is our family history. In this message, we'll meet Abraham & begin to see how his heroic faith (& heroically bad sin) shapes our present and guides our future.
If we are not careful, we can become so busy that Jesus Himself could literally show up at your house, plop down on your couch, and you would totally miss Him. It would be just another busy, stressful, anxious, frustrating day. That's the story of Martha in Luke 10, and that's the story that many of us are living. In this message, we will introduce the practice of the Presence of God, exploring how believers down through the ages have cultivated a life-changing awareness of God's presence in their daily lives.
- Pray As You Go App. https://pray-as-you-go.org/
- One Minute Pause App. https://www.pauseapp.com/
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us: "Do not worry." He says it four times in a row. If you've ever struggled with anxiety, this might sound tone deaf or harsh. But Jesus doesn't leave it there. He gives us a resource for addressing our anxiety: the Book of Creation. He seems to think that if we could learn to read creation the way one reads a book, our anxieties would (with time and practice and growth) fade away. In this final message on the Book of Creation, we'll explore how God uses creation - birds and flowers - to speak to our anxiety and cultivate in us a vision of life that grows within us a deep peace with God, ourselves, and all things.
WARNING: In this message, anxiety and panic attacks will be mentioned. For some, this can be a trigger. This sermon is not intended to be medical advice. If you suffer from severe or chronic anxiety, you should seek help from a mental health professional. If you need help finding help, email care@newstorychurch.life.
The modern world has blinded us to the goodness of creation, and it's destroying us. In this message, we'll explore how our experience of the goodness of God in all things - what we call gratitude - profoundly shapes us, literally reshaping our brains and spiritually reshaping our souls.
What would it look like to see the universe through the eyes of an ancient believer? In Psalm 104, the Psalmist sits in awe of God's work in creation and has a vision of the life that bursts forth in gratitude & peace, fear & worship. While we may never see the universe the way an ancient Israelite sees it, is it possible to catch a glimpse of that vision of life? Can we learn to see God at work in all things the way he did?
The early church fathers spoke of "the book of creation." Just as a book contains the words of the author, creation itself is a book written by God. Reality is pregnant with meaning. It is a personal expression of a personal God. Everything has meaning. Everything points us to Him. Using Psalm 19 as our guide, we will explore how to read the book of creation so that this ancient vision of life gets into us and, through us, brings wonder, gratitude, and peace to our modern world.
We’ll be looking at Chapters 1 & 2 in John’s Gospel to discover, or perhaps re-discover, how absolutely AWESOME Jesus is. He is both Infinite & all-powerful (see John 1:1-5) AND Intimate, accessible and personal (1:29-51). The main point we’ll try to get is, “It is only to the degree that we are CAPTURED BY and LOVE (and LIKE!) JESUS, that we truly COME ALIVE and become TRANSFORMED and IMPACTFUL people.”
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Have you ever had someone provoking you? Is someone deliberately trying to upset you? Most of us can handle this for a time or two, but what if this goes on for months or years? What if we start to feel forgotten by God? Hannah was such a woman who lived in an extraordinary situation with extreme hostility and provocation. How did she handle this? What did she do? From 1 Samuel 1:1-20, you will learn how to handle difficult situations and see a tremendous promise from God.
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The church of Laodicea is full of highly capable people who are confident that they can succeed in life without help from anyone... even Jesus. Their success has blinded them to their true spiritual condition. Their lives have drifted away from Jesus - He's not even invited to their church services anymore - and no one seems to have noticed. In this letter, Jesus forces them (& us) to face the reality that we cannot see ourselves clearly without help.
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"Never judge a book by its cover" is a modern-day saying, but over 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul said essentially the same thing. The small, run-down, persecuted ancient church of Philadelphia was filled with Nike Christians (really!) who were faithful pillars in their community. Despite external appearances, this tiny and faithful church had the keys to God's kingdom, while other larger churches with more earthly status were judged as faithless, compromised and even dead!
Summary: Be Nike Christians like the Church in Philadelphia. Just do it! Win the prize for your faith under trials.
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In ancient Sardis, history has a way of repeating itself. They seem stuck in a cycle of getting comfortable... too comfortable. Eventually, they get so distracted and so busy that they forget to guard against their enemies and their city falls. In Revelation 3, it sounds like history is about to repeat itself again. Except this time, it's not the city of Sardis that's about to fall. It's the church.
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If the church at Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7) was full of fundamentalists who loved God's Word but hated people, this church would be just the opposite. They were super loving, affirming, and active in the community. Really, really nice people. But they also tolerated some things that seemed to directly contradict the Word of God... and Jesus wants to talk to them (& us) about this.
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If you had to choose: "Renounce Jesus or die." Would you die for Jesus? In that moment, many of us would choose to die.... or, at least, we hope we would. But what if the test you face is less about dying for Jesus and more about living a life of dying to your own desires… for the sake of Jesus? In His letter to Pergamum, Jesus warns them (and us) against thinking that if Satan isn't trying to kill us, then we're safe. If he cannot destroy you, he’ll try to make you self-destruct. If he cannot defeat you, he’ll seduce you.
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In His letter to the church at Smyrna, Jesus writes: “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.” He writes this as the Roman government is getting ready to hunt them down & kill some of them. It’s a bit jarring. In this message, we'll explore how Jesus gave these early Christians courage, peace, and even joy in the face of unthinkable suffering... and how He wants to do this for us too.
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At the end of the first century, the churches faced immense cultural pressure to conform to the world's values and ways. Some churches held firm to the teachings and way of Jesus... and were hated, rejected, & persecuted. Other churches compromised with the world... and lost their reason for existing. So, Jesus wrote them (& us) letters to help us overcome the world without becoming like the world. This week, we'll look at His letter to the church of Ephesus, a church that held tightly to the truths that Jesus taught but somehow lost their love for people.
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What happens when a modern, iPhone-using, Starbucks-drinking, Netflix-watching, well-educated American picks up the Bible & finds that the Apostle Paul believes this world is controlled by the Devil? Do you laugh, do you hide in fear, or do you start to pray? That's the question we'll consider as we close out this study of Paul's letter to the ancient Ephesians.
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Wouldn't it be amazing if God were not mad at me? Wouldn't it be life-changing if his acceptance for me was not contingent on my making the grade; my living up to a behavioral standard empowered by my sincerity, my perseverance, my full-hearted fervency, and my sold-out determination? How would it change my life if God told me that he loves me as much as he loves Jesus? What if grace was real? Let's see this morning.
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Why doesn't the Apostle Paul openly denounce the institution of slavery? Only when we've grappled with this question of justice can we begin to appreciate why Paul seems to think that spiritual slavery is an even more pressing issue.
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The parent-child relationship is central to life. It forms you from birth. And, if you happen to have kids, you form them in ways that you cannot imagine. (Maybe you dare not imagine.) In this message, we talk about how Jesus redeems these most basic, most human of relationships that we might experience "the life that is truly life."
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In marriage, women & men behave, think, feel, are… different. We shouldn't overstate this, or attempt to overly define roles based on these differences. But differences there are. How we relate to one another in these differences can be a matter of great pleasure or horrific pain. In our message today, we'll explore how Jesus's changes marriage and redeems it... so that you can more fully reflect God's love to God and to one another.
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As part of our New Story Missions focus, we welcome Mike Harder to share with us.
Could there be more to life than chasing personal achievement or rising to the top of your career? Could there be more than simply accumulating personal power, money or accolades? Could God give you a mission worth your life? In the book of Acts, Luke says yes. God not only calls us to a life with greater purpose and meaning; He gives us the special gift of His Spirit to help us in this new mission. This message shares how God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things when they give their lives to His purpose.
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"If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live," MLK. Before he is executed, the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy to give him (and us) some perspective on the mission that we find ourselves caught up in. It is hard and costly. To be part of it means that you will suffer. It might cost you your life. And... it's worth it. It's so very worth it.
For the Apostle John, the vast, epic story of Easter cannot be separated from that which is most personal. Every resurrection story he tells is (almost awkwardly) intimate. We find Jesus meeting Mary in her shame, Thomas in his doubts, and Peter in his denial. When we probe John and ask, "Why? Why do you want us to see Easter in such deeply personal terms?" Rather than answer directly, John tells us a story about Jesus meeting two dear sisters and their dead brother in the house of suffering.
In Ephesians 5, the Apostle Paul tells us that God's will for your life is this: "Don't get drunk." But that's only half the story. Understanding why Paul might be so concerned about our behavior... and why he would compare getting drunk with being filled with the Spirit, that's what makes this passage beautiful. Paul isn't just giving you some new rules to follow. He's giving you a new vision for your new life with God.
Why you do what you do matters. The life promised by Jesus isn't just a matter of obeying some rules. It's becoming a whole new person. It's the start of new desires and... repulsions. This week, the Apostle Paul guides us through five practical (& pressing) issues in order to help us see how the love of God transforms our motivations and our lives.
If discipleship is following Jesus, that means we must know who He is (His identity) and what He came to accomplish (his mission). We will examine Mark 8:27-9:13 – the account where a few of His disciples catch a glimpse of His glory and tease out a few implications for us.
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How can I truly believe in Jesus... and still live like I don't really believe in Him? How can I know that He calls me a saint... and still feel like such a sinner? If you've ever asked these questions, you're in good company. This message is for you. Before the Apostle Paul instructs us on how to live as a saint (a beloved child of God), he pauses to make sure that we appreciate the magnitude of change needed. This isn't a matter of changing some bad habits or learning a few new things. Jesus is doing something much more radical: You are becoming a new human.
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What unites us in Christ doesn’t destroy your individuality or personhood. Each one of us is uniquely gifted by Christ. In this message, we'll discuss how knowing and embracing our different spiritual gifts is essential to becoming who we are called to be.
When we ask the Apostle Paul to help us find a life worth living, he starts by pointing us towards all the people we find annoying. You know. "Those people." The ones who seem to ruin everything, make your life difficult, and hold you back. The Apostle seems to think that "those people" are not a barrier to the life you are called to live, but they are the surest way to the life that is truly life.
Do you ever feel forgotten, like God may have left you behind? Today we will examine two gifts that God has for each one of us to help us during any difficult season of life.
Guest speaker: Carl Green. Executive Vice President, Global Training Network. www.gtn.org
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Throughout the Scriptures, we find this uncanny link between eating together and God drawing people into relationship. In this message, we'll pull on this thread, looking at food through the lense of Scripture, history, culture, and neuroscience. In each of these, we get the idea that God is somehow using our tables & our menus to call us into relationship, heal what is broken, and form us into a new people.
At some point, God is going to drop an opportunity at your feet. It will be an opportunity to take on new levels of responsibility, to really make a difference in someone else's life. But it will be costly. It will require you to commit. And, it might impact your lifestyle. It might take away your freedom. It might hurt you financially. What are you going to do? What story are you going to live?
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Ruth doesn't fit our mold for greatness. She's an impoverished, powerless, voiceless, immigrant widow. But, somehow this woman finds her way into the very heart of God's story. Her little story becomes part of God's epic story. Her name will forever be spoken with names like Moses and David... and Jesus. How? How do normal people Ruth (like you & me) get in on this vast, epic, beautiful story of God?
Parental Guidance Suggested. This passage does include some adult themes. If your kids are listening in, you might want to skip the part where Ruth starts "uncovering feet."
How do I find my place in the story of God? In the Book of Ruth, an impoverished, hurting, broken old widow named Naomi shows us an unlikely way to get in on God's Story: by bitterly complaining. If you've ever felt like God has disappointed you or like God is against you, Naomi might help you find your way into God's Story too.
Your life is a story. With every day, every decision, every relationship, with every thing you do, you are writing the next line. Which is to say: Your life has a plot. It has meaning. It is headed somewhere. The question is not: Is your life a story? (Of course, it is.) The question is: What story are you living? In Colossians 2, the Apostle Paul gives us a vivid picture of how Jesus takes your old story, the script that this world has handed to you. He renders it powerless and invites you to begin a new story with Him.
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Here we examine the only Biblical passage that exposes us to the life of Jesus between the end of his birth events and the beginning of his public ministry as see what it has to say to us in as we begin 2023.
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God is with us. Here. Right now. But how do you experience a God that you cannot see? In this message, we'll explore how God's love breaks through the boundaries of space and time, shame and guilt, anxiety and fear so that we might live in His transforming presence.
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How do you face an unknown future? When you consider the upcoming week, year, or season of life how do you feel? Fear, anxiety, and the need to control outcomes: this is how we usually respond to the unknown. The Apostle Paul invites us to consider a new possibility: hope. This week, we'll explore how a 2,000 year old event - the arrival of "God with Us" - might reshape how you think and feel and press into your future.
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In this series, we'll explore how the Advent (literally "Arrival") of God into our world redeems and transforms time itself. Jesus is "God with Us" in our past, present, and future. It's mind-bending, heart-twisting stuff. In this unconventional sermon, we explore everything from Swiss theologians and the neuroscience of memory formation to Robert De Niro and what it means to "forget" in pursuit of the deceivingly simple question: How does the arrival of "God with Us" transform your past?
Resources:
Here is a guide to the Five "Hs" in section 6 of "My Spiritual Growth Plan" https://www.gvf.church/s/Spiritual-Fo...
How Sharing Your Past Can Set You Free From Your Past is a helpful interview with Child and Family Therapist, Kelly Raudenbush. https://youtu.be/Ce_Opf1nKn4
The reflection song is Cluttered Soul by Joel Ansett. https://youtu.be/1nmMUqTuQZQ
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You know the feeling. It's like you can't keep your head above water. As soon as you make it through one crisis, the next wave crashes over you. This is increasingly "normal" in our world. Chronic stress, anxiety, fear, outrage, and hypervigilance: these words increasingly describe us. We all know that this is an awful way to live. We know that this is not the way of Jesus. But what are we supposed to do? Our problems feel like unconquerable giants. In Ephesians 3, the Apostle Paul prays that, in the same way the Israelites of old were empowered by God to take possession of the Promised Land, we might be empowered by God to take possession of the life that God has promised us.
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We live in a divided world. It really feels like the social fabric of our nation is tearing apart. While social critics ponder political polarization, we just try to make it through Thanksgiving without our family members tearing each other apart over politics. But none of this is new. In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul shows us a way forward. The social divisions keeping us apart are destroyed by Christ. Unity is possible. Jesus makes a new people and a new way of peace in this new creation community we call the church.
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How is God forming you? How is your life being shaped & reworked by the grace of God? This week, the Apostle Paul gives us a picture to better understand the way in which God works His grace into our lives. God is like a craftsman, a poet, a sculptor, a potter. And we are God's workmanship.
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Only when you know the depth of a valley can you fully appreciate the height of a mountain. This week, as we continue our Ephesians series and focus on Ephesians 2:1-10, we will see apostle Paul remind first century Christians, and Christians of all times, of the depths of the dark valley out of which God saved, us by his grace, and the heights of the glorious spiritual position to which he has brought us.
In response, we will celebrate that grace in worship and communion.
Read ahead in Ephesians 2:1–10.
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"People lose their WAY when they lose their WHY!" (Michael Hyatt). God, through the apostle Paul, has no problem telling 1st Century (and 21st Century) Christians how to live. But before he does that, apostle Paul continues to lay his foundation for Christians of why God is different than they think, and Christians are different than they feel. Once their eyes are wide open to the truth about God and themselves, living differently makes all the sense in the world.
Read ahead from Ephesians 1:15–23, bring your Bible and join us this Sunday as we explore the hope, the riches and the power of God offered IN CHRIST.
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The Apostle Paul and psychotherapists seem to agree on at least one thing: how you think shapes your whole life. Your patterns of automatic and habitual thoughts shape your life more than you can imagine. In Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul invites us to let God reshape our minds by receiving seven good words from Him the way soil receives seeds from a farmer.
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Does my life have meaning? Is history headed somewhere or are things just careening off a cliff of chaos? Where is God at work in this world? In Ephesians 1:3-6, the Apostle Paul offers us three words from God that will challenge, confound, and comfort. He scatters words from God the way a farmer scatters seeds, praying that they might take root in our lives. This Sunday, he tosses out the first three seeds of faith: You're blessed. You're chosen. You're predestined for adoption.
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Is the Bible sexist? Does it treat women as second class? This Sunday, author and pastor, Dr. Sam Andreades, explores questions about the Bible and gender through the story of Hannah in the Book of 1 Samuel. Dr. Andreades is the author of a book entitled, "enGendered," & has very much done his homework on how to thoughtfully love people, listen to God's Word, and speak into this messy, deeply personal topic of gender.
Guest speaker, Sam Andreades.
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If you could sit in on your own funeral and listen as people talk about you, what do you think would be said? What will be spoken over you as you lie there lifeless, unable to respond or change how others think of you? In Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul invites us to sit in & listen to as God reads His eulogy over all who are "in Christ."
What scales do you use to measure your life? Is your life good... or bad? How do you even know? In this message we'll explore the many broken ways in which we seek to make our lives weighty, substantial, worthwhile... Then, we'll see how the Apostle Paul cuts through all of this with a word. One word. This word might just be the key to unlocking Ephesians... and our own brokenness.
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If you only read Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, you might think that their lives were charmed. They probably were but not in the way you're thinking. Acts 19 gives us the earthy, honest, beautiful, and magical (in the worst possible way) story behind this letter and this church. That’s what today is. It’s the story of the men and women, Jews and Gentiles, sinners and saints, who were called together by God to become the Church of Ephesus. This is their story.
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Something is rotten in the state of the American church. Our kids are walking away from the faith. Our families are imploding. Our leaders are failing. Our lives become just as anxious and busy and addicted and joyless and restless as those who do not know Jesus. In this message, we explore what we can do - indeed must do - if we hope to break the norms of today and become a church where life transformation is normal.
The Apostle Paul says: "You are God's Temple." Of course, the only problem with this is that you & I have precisely zero experience with temples. How can we possibly be God’s Temple, if we have no idea what a temple is or does? In this message, we're going to try to fix this problem. We're going to explore what God's Temple is and was so that we can begin to become who we are called to be in this place called Church.
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Committed, self-giving relationships are the stuff of life. They are the soil in which we are designed to flourish & bear much fruit. But, they can also be the worst. They can feel like death. In this message, we're going to explore how God uses committed, self-giving relationships in this place called church to grow you and fulfill His mission. 1 John 4 & Romans 12.
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Psalm 92 is a song "for the Sabbath." God's People have been singing it for 1000s of years. It's a song that invites us to step out of slavery, out of chronic busyness, and out of this world of anxiety and into a place called Sabbath. This week, we are going to listen carefully to this song and explore what it might look like for this place called church to become a Sabbath House: a place of deep play, rest, delight, and renewal in the midst of a chronically anxious and busy world.
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We're in a series called, A Place Called Church. For the next month, we'll be seeding our minds with Biblical stories so that they might take root in us and give us God's vision for what this place called "church" could be. This week, we'll ask the question that many have been asking: Why go to church at all? Why do we gather? Is it really necessary to have a place called church?
If we want to capture a vision of who we could be, we need to make sure we're clear on who we were created to be. This week, we are kicking off a series called, A Place Called Church. For the next month, we'll be seeding our minds with Biblical stories and images so that they might take root in us and give us God's vision for what this place called "church" could be. This week, we'll start at the beginning. Literally. In this message, we'll explore the foundational narrative for understanding who I am, why I’m here, why there is something rather than nothing. In Hebrew, it's simply named for the first line of the book, "In the beginning." We know it as Genesis.
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The Apostle Paul encourages believers in Christ to "present their bodies as a living sacrifice"...which sounds almost poetic. But have you ever tried to sacrifice something living? Living things squirm. Dodge. Move. Avoid pain like their life depends on it...because it does! So how do we do it? ...well, tune in to part 2 of our 3 part series, "In It, Not Of It" to find out.
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Being "in" the world but not "of" it is a tricky thing. The Amish live what they call a "plain life", devoid of electricity, cars and even zippers on their clothes, in an effort to not become "of" culture. On the other hand, we see some Christians today who dress, act, talk and live in a way that is practically indistinguishable from the culture around them, in hopes of lowering barriers to building Godly relationships. So what's the right response? Join us as we open God's word, and discover how Jesus lived out his answer to this tough question.
In Luke 10, Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It is well known but not well understood. Today, we might culturally translate it as the Parable of the Good Abortion Doctor or the Parable of the Good Capital Rioter, depending on your political tribe. This parable is outrageous, offensive, unsafe... and, perhaps, a message our world needs to hear more than ever.
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Listening, really listening is essential to getting in on the Kingdom of God and experiencing the life of Jesus. It is about more than mastering the meaning of words. It takes practice and patience. It likely takes unlearning what you think you know as much as it takes learning what you do not yet know. Through the parables, Jesus invites us to (re)learn how to listen. In this message, we explore the ancient Christian practice of lectio divina (sacred reading) as a way of relearning how to hear the voice of Jesus in the Word of God.
Who are you? What is ultimate reality like? Is our universe basically governed by impersonal laws or is it ultimately relational and personal? In Luke 15, Jesus tells us a story that challenges how we see and experience... everything. It's a story that explains why we feel so lost. But, it's also a story that - if you let it - might just worm its way into your heart and mind and pull you into a deep, rich, fullness of life with God the Father. May it wreck you the way it has been wrecking people for 2,000 years.
OK, I get it. I’m supposed to be on this journey of personal transformation so that my life looks progressively more like Jesus. But my transformation-journey can, all-too-often, seem excruciatingly slow and, sometimes, end up in a ditch. Maybe, yours too? Our faith waivers, gets weary, and can even forget to show up. This Sunday we’ll be exploring a fascinating WORD that Jesus used with his disciples to describe how He can intervene in their and our bumpy faith-journeys in such a way as to transform our struggling and failings into strengths and eternal fruit. That word is “SIFTING.” A process that can be painful, and yet so very promising.
In Luke 13, Jesus invites us to walk with Him as we wrestle with one of life's most perplexing questions: How do we make sense of senseless evil? Where do we find God in this world of injustice & suffering? But, if you're looking for a simple answer, you'll need a different Messiah. Jesus doesn't want to make this simple. He wants to tell us a story.
In Luke 16, Jesus tosses out this story about a crooked manager who is commended for his shrewdness in flushing a bunch of his master's money when it can secure him something better. It's an uncomfortable story. Talking about money usually is. It will lead us to explore the dark power that money has over us, the things we believe about God & money, and the possibility that you might want to buy a margarita machine.
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On this baptism Sunday, we look at parable that reveals the beauty of the Good News of Jesus: God loves sinners. If you are a sinner, this is good news indeed.
Jesus told many stories, but there’s one story in particular that He seems to want us to hear first. In Matthew, Mark, & Luke, this story stands as a kind of entryway to the stories of Jesus. You must go through it if you hope to get inside. It's a story about a farmer sowing seeds, about Isaiah speaking to deaf people, and about how hearing has more to do with your heart than your ears.
The parables are those simple, confusing, humorous, cutting, encouraging, almost always unexpected and often irreverent little stories Jesus told. They are especially suited to worm their way into our hearts & minds. This week we are beginning a series on the parables of Jesus by asking that most basic question: Why? Why does Jesus speak in parables? Why does Jesus seem to think that parables, in particular, have the power to transform us from the inside out?
Samuel heard it but didn’t recognize it. Gideon heard it but doubted it. Isaiah heard it and was fearful. John The Baptist heard it, and was affirmed. Saul heard it and it knocked him to the ground. What about you? Have you ever heard the voice of God?
History matters. World history. Your personal history. The way you think about the past matters. In this final vision of Daniel, we get one last peek behind the veil of human history. There we see unseen forces at work in our past, the inevitable collapse of humanity apart from God, and the hope of resurrection. It's a vision that suggests if you only knew what was really happening, you'd be horrified... and yet not without hope.
If Jesus is alive and with us, then why is it so hard to see Him in your life? This Easter, we are invited to go on a journey that may feel familiar. It's an ancient story about people, who - like us - struggle to see Jesus even when He's walking right beside us. Luke 24:13-35
In Daniel 9, God allows us to peek behind the curtain of human history in this mysterious vision of 70 "sevens." We get a glimpse of the aim and end history. In it, two things become astoundingly clear: One, the end is certain. God wins. If you are a child of God, you will prevail. And, two, the road to the end will likely be more brutal than you can even imagine. Both are true. If we can cling to faith while facing this brutal reality, then three is almost nothing we cannot overcome.
If the Book of Daniel is an apocalypse (or unveiling) of human history, then Daniel 9 is an apocalypse of Daniel’s heart. It is the unveiling of what is really going on in Daniel’s soul. It allows us to peek behind the curtain to see what’s really going on. And it is stunning. In this text, we discover five things that shape Daniel's relationship with God and could transform your relationship with Him too.
At one level, Daniel 8 is just about some historic events. It's just the story of some king who persecutes the People of God. That’s it. But, as the story unfolds, something changes. We’re no longer just talking about some man. We're talking about the spiritual forces behind the man, spiritual forces that are still at work in our world today. This is an uncomfortable text that forces us to ask some uncomfortable questions about how we see the world.
In Daniel 7, we encounter something different. It’s a bit like Dorothy opening the door to Oz. Suddenly everything is in technicolor & bizarre. "We’re not in Kansas anymore." Daniel invites us to peak behind the curtain of human knowledge & see what can only be seen with eyes of faith. We are invited to hear the story of the end, the story of our world, the story our lives… as told by God.
Some people believe that extraordinary men and women of God do extraordinary things in times of crises. That's not true. In times of crisis Godly men and women continue to persist in the extraordinary things they have been practicing all along. It’s only in times of dire crisis when those things become like weapons in the battle, with which they are highly skilled.
You are going to die. Everything you create/do/build/write will one day end up on the dust pile of history. This world in its present form is passing away. It's an uncomfortable and unfortunate fact. In the modern world, whole industries are devoted to distracting us from this fact. But the fact remains. In a world inebriated with things that won't last, Daniel chapter 5 is a slap in the face. In this story, Daniel urges us to sober up and consider our lives in light of the end of all things.
Apart from God, we will forget what it means to be human. Society will go insane. Our lives will become increasingly animalistic. We will dehumanize ourselves and one another. The philosophers of old saw this coming, we see this happening in our world, and, in Daniel 4, we see this dramatically play out in the life of Nebuchadnezzar. Yet, even in when we are at our worst, God's love pursues us still.
The pressure to bow to the spirit of the age is not new. The tools of manipulation, control, and intimidation might be new, but the story is an ancient one. In Daniel chapter 3, we hear the story of three exiles who are forced to choose between bowing or being burned alive. It's a story that forces us to ask: How do you stand when the whole world is bowing to pressure? And, perhaps more importantly, where is God when my life is burning down?
He's wealthy and successful, but he can't sleep. He has the world's best security... but he's filled with anxiety. In Daniel chapter 2, we get an intimate look into the mind of one of the most powerful people in the history of the world. Through a dream, God reveals to Nebuchadnezzar (and to us) why we're so anxious, the aim of history, and how to get a good night's sleep.
We are in the midst of a cultural war, and our kids are at the frontlines. This week, we're pausing the Daniel series to host a panel discussion designed to help you practically wrestle with the question: How do we raise kids in Babylon? DISCLAIMER: While we can attest to the character of the panel participants, their views do not necessarily reflect the official position of GVF. They were intentionally selected because they reflect the spectrum of parenting decisions. You should prayerfully discern what is the right decision for you and your family.
If you live, dress, eat, talk, shop, work, and consume media just like everyone else, at what point do you become just like everyone else? In Daniel chapter 1, we watch as Daniel and his friends are sent off to the University of Babylon. There the Babylonians attempt to erase their identity as children of God and give them a new Babylonian identity. They reprogram them in the language, values, and gods of Babylon. But, when it comes to eating the king's food, Daniel refuses to participate. This week, we explore how Daniel's courageous act is model of godly wisdom for how we might make critical decisions about where to draw the line in our day and our Babylon.
The Book of Daniel is the story of a few 6th century Hebrew exiles, who are assimilated into the city and culture of Babylon, serve in the Babylonian government, and live among the Babylonians. And yet, they manage to keep their identity as the People of God. They live in the world but are not of the world. In this message, we begin to unravel how Daniel's life and visions help us make sense of what is happening in our lives and our world.
With Omicron & freezing rain changing up our plans this weekend, I thought it might me a good time to reflect on a phrase that has come up again and again in this past year: "redeem the time" (Eph 5:16).
Brainless, heartless, slow jellyfish thrive in our oceans by simply going with the flow. All of their needs are provided for by the Oceanic Conveyor Belt. Similarly, in Luke chapter 12, Jesus reminds his disciples that their heavenly father will provide all they need if they put their trust in, and get their identity from God alone. What about you? Where do you get your security and find your identity?
Matthew chapter 1 is a go-to text for people who want to prove that the Bible is full of errors. If you take this text literally, you can quickly see that there is literally something wrong with it. But is this a problem with what Matthew wrote or with the way we are reading it?
This is one of the great stories about how people are transformed by a personal encounter with God. It's night. Jacob is all alone. He has come to a crossroads. God wrestles with him all night, but Jacob refuses to surrender. So, in order to bless Jacob, God breaks Jacob. He walks away limping... and blessed. If you listen carefully, perhaps you will find yourself in this story.
This week we come to a love story. In fact, this one might just qualify as the world's first rom-com. It's a crassly humorous story about all the hurtful, messed up, stupid, and ridiculous things people do when they feel unloved. It's the story of how God will form these unloved people into His Beloved People. It's our story.
Your life has just come crashing down. You’re completely alone in the world. Your relationships are all ruined. You're running from your past. You're not quite sure who you are any more. But, what happens next is about to change everything. This is Jacob's story, but maybe this is your story too. Or, maybe it will be. Either way, Jacob's ladder is a story worth hearing.
At first, it reads like a comedy. Jacob pretends to be someone he is not in order to receive a blessing he doesn't deserve. Then, it turns into a tragedy when we realize that this isn't just a story about Jacob. It's about us too. This text forces us to wrestle with the ways we seek to be blessed, the ways we have (or have not) experienced God’s blessing, and the ways we do (or do not) bless others. It speaks to that deep human longing to be blessed and the deeply flawed ways we seek this blessing.
Jacob's story doesn’t comfortably fit into a modern American sermon or a modern American life. And maybe that’s the point. In this passage, we meet Jacob, the man named "Struggle," who invites us to struggle with him and with his God. Genesis 25:19-34
As it turns out, the transformation of sour lemons into sweet lemonade can be a long and harrowing process. The Apostle Paul discovered this while in a dire situation in a Roman prison; he squeezed his circumstances into a letter of encouragement and hope to those he loved. The result was something beautiful. Paul's undying belief in God's providence would not only encourage the Philippians, but all Christ followers for the next couple of millennia to follow.
When life gives you lemons...make lemonade!" The apostle Paul took this well known modern-day maxim to a whole new level when he wrote a letter of encouragement and joy to the people of Philippi from a dark, damp Roman prison. Are there any areas of your life that could use this kind of perspective? Join us as we investigate Philippians 1 to find out exactly how he did it, and how you can too!
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In a world of 7.9 billion people, nearly 2 billion have never heard of Jesus in a way to which they could respond in saving faith; what does God want? In a world where the vast majority of people are deeply desired by God yet desperately distant from God; what does God want? In my community, my family and my inner life; what does God want? In this message we explore 1 John 2:1-3 and see God’s heart, God‘s actions, and God’s invitation to partner with him to change the world.
Get Jack Nelson's book, Reachable for free HERE. Ebook, PDF or order the book available. https://www.worldlinkonline.org/resou...
Has technology become too precious in your home? In this timely message, we discuss the glowing blue elephant in our homes: technology, and ask a very simple yet critical question: "does it consume more of your time, money and thoughts than God does?" If so, don't despair or start pouring water over your devices. We'll see that what we really need is perspective, wisdom and discernment, not fear or judgement.
We are living in the midst of a digital revolution. Technology is rapidly changing the way we think and behave and relate to one another. In this message, we introduce six questions that we need to ask of every technology we use. The questions revolve around how technologies affect: Attention, Limits, Engagement, Relationships, Time, and Space, which just happen to spell the word, ALERTS.
In exploring a story Jesus told about a father and his two sons, we'll discover some truths about what we want in our relationship with God, and what we really need.
In our post-Christian world, doubt is an unavoidable part of the journey of faith. If we hope to become a church where life transformation is normal, then we have to get really, really comfortable admitting, discussing, processing, and working through our doubts. In this message, we'll look at the deconstruction and reconstruction of faith in an ancient worship leader named Asaph.
We want to become a church where life transformation is normal. When we ask Jesus how this is supposed to work in our post-Christian world, He gives us a different kind of answer. The kind of answer we might not suspect. In this message, we look at two simple, but profound, images Jesus has given us to navigate the complex realities of our modern, post-Christian world. Then, we talk about how we envision living this out at GVF over the next 3-5 years.
Over the past few years, it has become increasingly obvious that something's wrong here. Our world has changed. The old assumptions about how to be your true self, find meaning, and live a good life are no longer reliable. The old way of doing church isn't working. We need a new vision. In this message, we begin a conversation about what it might look like to become a church where life transformation is normal.
Without love and grace, division in the body of Christ is inevitable. Today we hear about many non-Biblical issues tearing the church apart, and we know that a house divided cannot stand. Yet there is hope! Scripture offers several guideposts which can help us get back on track if we're willing to be obedient.
How do we move from learning about Sabbath to walking in the freedom, rest, and delight promised in Sabbath? In this message, we look at what it means to follow Jesus in His invitation, "Come to Me. You who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." Click here to download a Sabbath worksheet for planning your Sabbath.
In a world of division, loneliness, and social isolation, Sabbath is a place where you show radical grace, generosity, kindness, and love to others, especially those who are not like you. Not because they deserve it. Not because you agree with them. But simply because that’s how God loved you.
On Sabbath, we are invited to join God in mocking & killing the "gods" of this world. It may sound violent. It is. But God insists that the gods of consumerism & insatiable desire, the gods of achievement & creating your own value, the gods of numbing, distraction, & restlessness… they must die. Only when we realize that they have no power over us can we be truly free.
When God wants to lead us into the deep, rich, fullness of life with Him, He gives us nine ways to orient our hearts and one weekly practice: Sabbath. In this message, we explore why God singles out Sabbath as the one thing that we must do if we want to become a people who love God and love others.
Resting should be the easiest thing in the world, but it's not. In this sermon excerpt, we look at five major reasons why it's so hard to rest so that we can recognize these barriers in our own lives.
Jesus invites us to rest. It sounds like the easiest thing in the world... until you actually try to do it. In this message, we explore the possibility that the chronic busyness that passes for normal in our world might be a symptom of a much deeper sickness, a form of spiritual slavery.
We all experience the groanings of this world. We all long for something more in the midst of our struggles. Could it be that our groanings actually point us to the truth of God's glory?
Sometimes the most important truths in life can't be perceived by the five senses. Moses knew this when he stared out at an impassable Red Sea, with the lives of 500,000 of God's chosen people on the line. His faith helped him see what wasn't there: a way out. Where do you need this type of faith in the unseen? Exodus 14.
A beautiful scene emerges in the midst of chaos and loss as one man has a disruptive encounter with Jesus. Scripture text: Mark 5:1-20
Jesus doesn’t want to give us more to do or make our lives harder. He is inviting us to lay our burdens down, to experience freedom, and to step into a new (& better) way of life.
Jesus promises give us a "new heart." He does not just want to fix us up on the outside. He wants to write a message in our hearts, changing us from the inside out. But, in Jeremiah 17, we learn that before He can write His message, He has to address the messages that are already on our hearts.
Becoming a follower of Jesus doesn't just change how you think. It changes who you are. According to the Apostle Paul, the old you, the one that ran from God & lived for yourself, is dead. The things that used to control you, they no longer lay claim to you. You are a new person with a new life.
The earliest followers of Jesus describe baptism as a proof that God loves them, a motivation to radically change their lives, and a source of hope in the face of suffering. How does symbolically submerging someone under water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do that?
For those in search of a bit of help, here's a short guided prayer exercise to practice this week.
We live in a world that is increasingly fragile. How do we become the kind of people who are resilient, the kind of people who do not collapse under pressure?
For those in search of a bit of help, here's a short guided prayer exercise to practice this week.
What does it mean to confess our sins and to forgive the sins of others? How are they tied together? We explore the answers to these questions as we examine Jesus's words in Matthew 6:12.
For those in search of a bit of help, here's a short guided prayer exercise to practice this week.
We pray "Thy will be done." And then we proceed to tell God everything we want Him to do. If God is going to do what He wants, why should we tell Him what we want? In this message, we'll explore the age old question: Why pray? Do our prayers really make any difference?
For those in search of a bit of help, here's a short guided prayer exercise to practice this week.
In this message, we explore one of the great paradoxes from Jesus's teaching: If you seek limitless freedom, you will become enslaved to your own choices. But, if you seek God's will over your own, you will find true freedom.
For those in search of a bit of help, here's a short guided prayer exercise to practice this week.
“Your kingdom come.” It’s only three words. Simple. Deceivingly simple. But do you know what you are praying for when you pray these words?
For those in search of a bit of help, here's a short guided prayer exercise to practice this week.
When we pray, Jesus teaches us to pray that God would align our lives with Him. Prayer itself becomes an opportunity to make course corrections in the way we are thinking, feeling, and living. This week, we'll explore how "hallowing God's name" can change the whole course of your life.
For those in search of a bit of help, here's a short guided prayer exercise to practice this week.
The starting point of prayer is not confession or worship or requests or theological understanding. The starting point is relationship. In this message, we explore what it looks for us to come to God as "Our Father."
In the first century, everyone prayed. Being religious was good for business and good for your social standing, so one might be tempted to pray to impress or get ahead in life. In our day, things are different. Our great temptation is not to pray for the wrong reasons. Our great temptation is to not pray.
The news that would forever change the world must first change your world. In John chapter 20, we see how the Easter message is not only a global announcement that Jesus rose from the dead, it is a personal invitation. He is a good shepherd who knows us by name and calls to each of us.
What we've learned about one of Israel's judges may not be entirely accurate. We think of Samson as the super strong man who women adored, but in reality, he was one messed up and broken man. God still used him and God can still use us, even if we're broken and messy.
The story of Jephthah is a cautionary tale. It describes a world in which everything seems broken. Families are broken, leaders are openly immoral, parents are willing to sacrifice their own children to the gods of success, the nation is divided, and the People of God have forgotten who God is. Yet, perhaps, in this broken story we can find the thread of grace that we need to begin healing our own broken lives.
This is the second half of Gideon's story. It's a story that invites us to ponder what's really going on in our hearts as we ponder what's really going on in Gideon’s heart.
Gideon is the “Doubting Thomas” of the Old Testament. He’s the patron saint of people who are haunted by doubts, who know what God’s Word says but struggle to believe it. In this message, we dig into the roots of Gideon's doubt and our own.
In this message, we look at a story that challenges what we might think we know about gender roles. It’s a story of heroic women, of men who don’t seem to know what it means to be a man, and of a God who refused to be limited by our limitations.
Judges chapter 3 is a bloody, graphic, darkly humorous story about a left-handed man named, Ehud. It's a story about how sin makes you stupid. It's a story that applies as much today as it did in the early Iron Age.
The Book of Judges, we see an entire generation walk away from the faith. In this brief talk, Pastor Paul addresses parents racked with guilt, adult children still recovering from their "religious" parents, and the pressing need for this present generation to pass on their love for God to the next generation.
This message is for those of us who’ve been caught in a self-destructive cycle. It's for those of us who feel stuck in sinful patterns. Judges chapter 2 has the potential to be life changing.
Can the People of God survive in a culture that everywhere undermines faith in God & excludes God from the conversation? A major snowstorm forced us to pause the Judges series, so we thought we'd take this opportunity to pull out an old message, circa 2017, that explores this central theme of Judges but from a more positive example: the life of Joseph. While the message may be dated, the struggle has never been more pressing.
If we read Judges the way we read might read any history of early Iron Age tribes, this study will be quite a great waste of time. One or two of you might happen to be enthralled with ancient Near Eastern tribal warfare, but the rest of us will be wondering: Why are we talking about this in church? But.. what would it look like to read it the way the Apostle Paul read these stories as examples & warnings for us?
The Book of Judges is an ancient collection of stories that sound oddly contemporary. It's about a nation that is divided, leaders who are heroically flawed, and an entire generation who walks away from faith. It's also a story about grace, about a God who refuses to give up. Join us as we discover God's message for us in this ancient text.
The Christian life is counterintuitive. We naturally want to fix ourselves and our world through our own strength, ingenuity, and passion. But, inevitably, this fails. In this two-part series, we talk through what it looks like to position our lives to depend upon God's strength to change us and our world in 2021.
The Christian life is counterintuitive. We naturally want to fix ourselves and our world through our own strength, ingenuity, and passion. But, inevitably, this fails. In this two-part series, we talk through what it looks like to position our lives to depend upon God's strength to change us and our world in 2021.
Mark tells a different Christmas story. He makes no mention of a manger, angels, or shepherds. Rather, Mark invites us to reimagine Christmas, to seriously consider how the coming of this humble King marks the decisive moment in human history and in your life.
We’ve all experienced others misreading our motives. If you’re emotionally mature, you’ve most likely caught yourself misreading others. But, what about your own motives? How good are you at reading your own heart? In John 8, Jesus challenges us to see the truth about why we do what we do and what we most love in life.
We live in a world that says only you can define who you are and what’s good for you. But in Jeremiah 18, God invites us to join Jeremiah on a field trip to a potter's house and reimagine our place in His world.
Immediately after Jesus selected his disciples, he began teaching them about the kingdom of heaven by way of the Beatitudes. This teaching was confronting, upside-down and counter-culture, but was one small step in what would be a three year journey towards reimagining the kingdom of heaven and how to get there.
The Scriptures invite us to see our suffering and hardship in a way that does not comfortably fit with modern American attempts to avoid anything hard. In this message, we'll explore James' (outrageous) suggestion that we should "consider it pure joy whenever we face trials."
In Biblical times, the great danger was that you’d worship Baal or Asherah or Diana of Ephesus. Today, the great threat to your faith is that you’ll worship... nothing. Something cataclysmic is happening in the soul of the Western world: We are losing our ability to even imagine the reality to which the Biblical authors give witness. In this series, we'll explore Jesus’s invitation to reimagine life. What would it be like to have the "mind of Christ," to see the world through His eyes?
“There was a time when farmers on the Great Plains, at the first sign of blizzard, would run a rope from the back door to the barn” (Parker Palmer). The storm was so blinding, so deafening that you could lose your way and freeze to death in your own backyard. The rope gave you something to cling to when you couldn't see the way. That's what this message is.
For good and for bad, our past experiences shape our present reality and future possibility. In this interview with Child & Family Therapist, Kelly Raudenbush, we discuss how sharing your past with an empathetic listener can powerfully transform you.
For good and for bad, our past experiences shape our present reality and future possibility. In this message, we'll explore how a relationship with Jesus challenges and transforms how we think about our past. This message is part one of two. In the second part, we look at a more clinical and practical application of this teaching in an interview with Child & Family Therapist, Kelly Raudenbush.
We are constantly being formed by our environment. And yet, the vast majority of the time we are completely unaware of the forces shaping us. In this message, we are going to explore how ancient spiritual practices can help us recognize what our suburban world is doing to our souls so that so that we can begin to experience a better way of doing life in the Kingdom of God.
Humans have the uncanny ability to perform any number of activities - even complex tasks - without thinking. One study estimates that more than 40% of our daily activities are things we do “automatically.” In this message, we'll explore how we can leverage this fascinating bit of human nature to make us more into the kind of people we are created to be.
When you invite God into your life, you are inviting Him to give you a new story, a new identity, and a new reason for living. You are inviting Him to redraw your mental map. In this message, we’ll explore this aspect of you that we call “mind.” We’ll examine why you are the way you are and think the way you think, so that you and I can begin to discover what it means for us to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
You are becoming someone. Everything you do, think, feel, own, believe, and experience is forming you, making you more of who you were created to be or less, more like Jesus or less. For the next six weeks, we’ll be exploring the basic (but not so simple) question: Who are you becoming? Find more resources & the companion Spiritual Growth Plan at www.gvf.church/whoamibecoming.
As a rule, good is welcome and bad is avoided. But our God used death to bring life and a prostitute to illustrate grace. He is the original rule breaker and that is good!
Celebration is commanded by God. In the Old Testament, God demanded that His People shape their lives around massive, sensual, expensive, crowded feasts. This Sunday, we are going to finish our series on delight by exploring how God uses the spiritual discipline of celebration to deepen our capacity for delight in Him, others, and life.
We are created to be with God and to delight in Him. In the Scriptures, this is portrayed as a great feast. In this message, we'll discuss how we can make sure the good things in life don't keep us from the great feast.
According to the Scriptures, our ability to experience the wonder & beauty of life is directly related to how we see other people. In this message, we explore what it looks like to see what God sees in people through the story of the Good Samaritan.
We are the most distracted people in the history of the world. Distractions not only increase our anxiety and get in the way of real relationships, they diminish our capacity for delight. In this message, we talk about moving from distracted to aware, from absent to full present, and from anxiety to delight.
If we'd all like more delight in our lives, why is it so rare? In this message, we explore how our perspective, our priorities, and other people all shape (& mishape) our capacity for delight. Matthew 26:6-13
From page one of the Scriptures, we find that delight is more than a nice feeling. It's the stuff of life. It feeds our love and fuels our passion. It covers over a multitude of sins and heals our wounds. It gives us a reason to get out of bed in the morning and a reason to push through hardship. In this message, we talk about why we all need more of it and where to start seeking it out.
Jesus modeled discipleship when he chose just 12 followers and invested intentionally, deeply and sacrificially in them. The apostle Paul discipled Timothy into a mature leader in the church. Discipleship is the most effective means to spread the gospel, change lives and help others reach maturity. Sound important? It's more than that. It's essential.
A strong sense of community has been an essential part of the Christian church since its inception in Acts Ch.2. But how do we maintain community in the midst of a global pandemic? The answer involves food, prayer and your couch.
Jesus said he was the truth...but what is truth? This question has plagued humans for thousands of years. One thing is clear: the essential church needs it, and it brings freedom.
Humility. Jesus modeled it, the Pharisees missed it and the Essential Church must have it.
How we respond in moments of stress, weariness, and frustration can be revealing. In today's message, we'll look at how to prepare our hearts before these moments take us by surprise.
Sometimes it takes seeing the darkness of our own hearts before we can appreciate the brilliance of God's grace.
When the 12 spies reported what they saw in the land of Canaan, 10 saw impossible obstacles and killer giants, while two spies saw a land flowing with milk and honey that was theirs for the taking. How is this possible? Simply put: The faith these two spies had in God was bigger than the giants who opposed them. What about yours?
When life is difficult or doesn't make sense, there is an (understandable) need to hear from God. We want God to give us hope and direction. But just below the surface of this good desire lies a subtle temptation to put words in God’s mouth.
When our lives get put on hold, one of the first great temptations is discontentment. In this message, we'll talk about how to shut off the voices that stir up discontentment & root out it out of our hearts. Through Christ, we can find a peace that is greater than circumstances and a joy that is bigger than our hardships.
Sometimes we end up in a place where life is unsustainable, where all of our plans die, where life is just on hold. It's a place where God whispers: "Your plans might be ruined, but Mine are not."
In the Scriptures, the desert - like a pandemic - is a place of desperation and transformation. It's the place you meet God or the place you lose your faith. One way or the other, it will change you. How is this pandemic transforming you?
In John 6, Jesus reveals to the crowds that He alone can satisfy their deepest desires… yet they refuse. As the crowds go back to chasing after the very things that they know will never truly satisfy them, Jesus turns to His followers (to us) and asks: "What about you? Are you ready to give up your life so I can give you My life?"
Jesus sent his closest friends into a fierce storm late at night and allowed them to strain, fight against the waves and experience fear for hours on end. Why? He wanted to show them more than just “another miracle” - he wanted them to understand his love, his power and his plan in a way they could not do from the safety of the shore. And it worked.
What do you hunger for? What demands your attention & drives the direction of your life? In John chapter 6, Jesus gives this a name. He calls it: Bread.
In times of fear and anxiety we can lose sight of God. It can be hard to hear His voice over all the other voices. In John 5, Jesus is going to force us to consider what voices we are listening to these days. If God Himself were to speak to you, would you recognize His voice?
When we find ourselves crying out "Why God?", Jesus reminds us who He is. It's not necessarily the answer we expect, but it might just be the answer we need.
How we respond to undeserved kindness can be just as telling as how we respond to unexpected trouble in life.
Meeting Jesus can get very real, very quickly. He will interrupt your "normal", defy cultural expectations, look beneath your facade, and tell you the truth in order to bring about repentance...all so he can have a relationship with you.
What do you do when you realize what you want in life isn’t what God has for you? How can we find joy in life when our dreams seem to be falling apart? In this passage, John the Baptist models what it looks like to find joy in the midst of loss.
In John chapter 3, Jesus tells a religious leader (& us) that coming from a religious background or growing up in church isn’t enough to get into God’s Kingdom. You must be born again. This message unpacks what this means for us today.
The fear of rejection can misshape our lives and ruin our souls. In John chapter 2, Jesus reveals that He has come that we may enjoy God’s unconditional acceptance like a glass of really good wine.
When we ask Jesus: “Who are you?” He replies: “Who are you?” If you don’t know who you are, you cannot know who God is. If you don’t know who God is, you cannot know who you are.
There are two ways to reject God’s grace: being irreligious and being religious. Jesus won’t let us get away with either.
Have you ever had the “this must be what heaven’s like” sensation? One of those moments where the line between heaven & earth seems to almost completely disappear?
According to John, life – Real life. The life God designed you to live. – doesn’t start with your parents. It starts with a choice. How you respond is everything.
This story is about the beginning of all things. It’s about your beginning. And the question John wants to know is this: Have you begun to live? Really live. Not: Is your heart beating or are you breathing? But have you started to live the life that God has for you?
God created the universe from nothing, brought Lazarus back from a stinky death and can breathe new life into areas of your life where there is currently nothing. All you have to do is have faith.
When everything in our world seems to suck us into anxiety & stress, how do we form new habits of the heart & mind that will make us into a people of confidence & peace?
When we’re overwhelmed and our world feels like it’s coming apart at the seams, how do we find calm in the chaos?
How do we talk to others about Jesus in a world that seems less than excited about having this conversation?
Paul calls the church to dress themselves fittingly so they can carry out their vocation as God’s redeemed humanity.
Behavior modification is not enough. If we want to step into God’s script for our lives, then we have to dig deeper. We have to kill the root desires and beliefs that lead us to behave in unhealthy ways.
The immediate. The urgent. Busyness. Distractions. If we aren’t careful, our lives can be derailed by little things. In Colossians 3, the Apostle Paul challenges us look past the immediate and see what’s ultimate.
Your life is a story, but is it the story you want to be living? Who gave you that script? In Colossians 2, the Apostle Paul challenges us to throw out the old script and step into the story that Jesus has for us.
Humans have the extraordinary ability to believe their own lies. In this passage, the Apostle Paul talks to us about exposing self-deceit and getting to the truth.
The Apostle Paul seems to think that what we need more than anything else is to be captivated by the beauty of Jesus.
To long for more than this life can give is human. But what do you do with this longing?
The Christian life is not a moral program. It is a living vital relationship with God that is kept dynamic through abiding in His Word and His love.
Foreign behavior causes pauses. 1 Peter 5 reminds Christians that they are "not from here", and as such should view things like leadership; success, temptations and pride differently.
1 Peter 3 advises us to "repay evil with blessing"...what the?? This is truly a foreign concept. Find out what it means for Christ followers today.
In 1 Peter 2:4, Jesus is described as a “living stone”, but everyone knows rock aren’t alive...right?
No matter where you're from geographically, you'll be on earth for approximately 80 years, then an eternity awaits. Live like you're leavin.
In the closing verses to his gospel, Mark calls attention to a few often overlooked but important aspects of Jesus resurrection.
Jesus redefines our ideas of kingship by embodying a the divine King who embraces suffering, crucifixion, and death.
Jesus loves us so much, he calls us to leave behind anything prevents us from going “all-in” with him, the true source of all life!
Jesus identifies as the Jewish Messiah, but then overturns and redefines the expectations of the Messiah and his followers.
Courage is when a stupid idea meets up with strong convictions and results in something amazing.
Esther showed true courage when she approached the king in the face of near certain death to save her people. This came from a mindset, which produced action in the face of fear.
When three courageous teenagers named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego risked being burned alive and refused to bow before a golden idol, they powerfully acknowledged God's ability to save them whilst not assuming knowledge of His will.
Jesus leads his disciples into a storm so that he might enable them to see who and what he truly is.
In Jesus, we are exposed to God’s furious love for us which is expressed in anger and grief because it is genuine love.
Jesus demonstrates his God-like authority when a paralyzed man is brought to him for healing.
Mark gives us a glimpse into God’s redemptive movement toward broken humanity and how we, as followers of Jesus, embody his love in action.
When Jesus appears preaching the arrival of the kingdom of God, he immediately sparks wonder and amazement as he speaks and acts in miraculous and unexpected ways.
The Easter story is not simply a story of faith. It’s also a story of doubt. Then and now, Jesus shows up in both stories.
Two people come before God. One is approved. The other is rejected. Which one are you? (Hint: It might not be the one you think.)
Suffering, evil, the manure of life does not nullify God’s goodness. In fact, Jesus suggests that sometimes God’s grace might just look like a big pile of manure.
Is freewill just an illusion? Do you really make choices or are your choices predetermined by your biology and your environment? Recent discoveries in neuroscience challenge some of our most basic (& cherished) ideas of human morality and autonomy.
What does my physical body have to do with my spiritual relationship with Jesus? In this message, we explore embodiment. You have a body, and you are a body.
You are made in the image of God. What does this ancient phrase tell us about why we exist & how to live well?
Is there reason to hold to human uniqueness or are we just complex apes who hit the evolutionary jackpot?
John H. Walton (Ph.D. Hebrew Union College) is Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School where he has taught for almost twenty years. Dr. Walton has published nearly 30 books, among them commentaries, reference works, text books, scholarly monographs, and popular academic works. He was the Old Testament general editor for the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (NIV, NKJV, NRSV), and is perhaps most widely known for the “Lost World” books (including The Lost World of Genesis One, The Lost World of Adam and Eve, and The Lost World of the Flood). His areas of expertise include the importance of the ancient Near East for interpreting the Old Testament as well as the dialogue between science and faith.
Humans are unique in the animal kingdom in that we have the ability to be something other than what were created to be. We can be less than human, inhumane. In this ancient song, David reflects on what it means to be fully human.
This is a passage in which the Apostle Paul is almost too honest about his struggle with sin. He forces us to question how someone who loves God and wants to do good could keep doing things that they hate?
Sin hides in our hearts. It wants to hijack our desires and take over our lives. But, thankfully, God gave us a secret weapon for exposing the evil within.
If we’re saved by grace, then why be good? Why not live like life is one perpetual frat party?
Being captured by the beauty of God’s grace is the beginning of Christian life transformation. We are changed by grace and it is beautiful.
If we become too comfortable with life as it is, we will stop seeking life as it could be. If we become too comfortable with our lives, we will stop seeking the life of Christ.
This new year, make a resolution focused on Jesus; not your waistline, social media or Netflix. You'll be amazed by the results!
Sometimes it takes a crisis for you to put things in perspective, for you to sort out your own heart, to realize what really matters.
What do you want for Christmas? It’s a question you’ll hear dozens of times this season, but have you stopped to consider it? If you could set aside all your fears and insecurities and ask God for anything, what would it be?
Sabbath. It's not just about a day. It's about the rhythm of life and the rhythm of creation.
Love and holiness are inseparable. If you aren’t holy, you aren’t really loving. If you aren’t loving, you aren’t really holy.
When the earliest Christians talk about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, they say: “You are a priest.” But what does that even mean? What does it look like for us to step into our God-given calling to be priests?
If you are a sinner, this text is for you. Leviticus 4-5 will give us step-by-step instructions on how let go of guilt, wash away filth, release shame & regret. It’s a path to healing what’s broken, righting what’s wrong, and knowing “God forgives me.”
In Leviticus 3, God invites broken, hurting people to a place where they can begin to experience wholeness & peace. He invites us to learn who we are and whose we as we spend time with Him.
The hardest part of following Jesus has to be this whole giving up control thing. But it might just be the best part too. Leviticus shows us how the way of surrender is the way to life.
According to Jesus, the book of Leviticus invites us into a life that beats to the “unforced rhythms of grace.” In this message, we begin to explore how this 3,000 year old book points us to a deep, rich, full life.
If God just wanted us to have the “right” answers, He would have given us an instruction manual or encyclopedia… but He didn’t. He gave us a collection of songs & stories & poems & letters. He gave us a Bible that evades easy answers & forces us to slow down, to participate in it, to meet God in the text. In this message, we explore how Jesus invites us to read the Scriptures in a way that is participatory & personal. He invites us to sit at His feet.
Does God still speak today? Where do gifts like speaking in tongues & prophecy fit into the Christian life? Should we be listening for God or should we just assume that everything God is going to say to us is in the Bible?
Love is more than a feeling. It is what Jesus does. It is who God is. It is the very stuff of reality. It is the measure of God’s work in our lives.
If you want to know God, you must experience Him. But how do we experience God? How do we know God the way you know what it feels like to dip you toe in cold water or to be embraced by your aunt who wears too much perfume?
Neuroscience and the Apostle Paul agree. Knowing God is about more than believing a set of facts. It must be a fully embodied experience. If we want to know God, we need to experience Him. We need to serve Him. We need to meet Him in community.
Where do we begin this journey of growing our awareness of the ways & workings of the Spirit of God? In these three verses, the Apostle Paul lays out three ways that people seek God’s transforming presence, but only one of these end in a (super) ordinary spiritual life.
The only thing great enough to overcome the fear, anger, resentment, and vengeance within the human heart is a forgiveness that is not humanly possible. It's a 77-fold forgiveness. You need God’s forgiveness.
For a companion discussion guide & more resources, visit: gvf.church/asyouareforgiven
Dr. Ev Worthington knows forgiveness. He's studied it, doing clinical research on the topic for over 40 years. And he's lived it, forgiving the man who murdered his mother. Come hear his powerful story & clinically proven steps to help you start your journey to wholeness & freedom.
SPEAKER BIO: Everett Worthington, Ph.D., is Commonwealth Professor Emeritus working from the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. He continues to be active in research and speaking around the world. He is a licensed Clinical Psychologist in Virginia. He has published over 37 books and over 400 articles and scholarly chapters, mostly on forgiveness, humility, positive psychology, marriage, family topics, and religion and spirituality.
Because sex is so great, it has the potential to be truly wretched. It can draw people together, create new life, and allow us to reflect the image of God in a way that few other things can. Or, it can tear us apart, hurt us at the deepest levels, and dehumanize us in a way that almost nothing else can. In this message, we look at this paradox of sex.
In the Scriptures, we find a perspective on sex that is vastly different than you see in the media. A perspective that won’t let us get away with some puritanical repression of sex nor will it let us get away with the self-indulgent, consumeristic, individualistic, animalistic view of sex embraced in the Western world today. It's a perspective worth trying out. A perspective that I desperately wish someone had shared with me when I was 16. A perspective we would do well to try out. That’s what I want to talk about.
Ancient Rome decreed that Caesar Augustus was Savior of the world, but, in Luke 2, Heaven declares that Jesus Christ is Savior. At Christmas, Luke calls us to ponder which message we will believe.
When we do not see God in our lives is it because He’s not there? Or has he been right there the whole time & we just haven’t seen Him?
This text isn’t about sex. It’s worse. It’s about how our lives - even our "private lives," even what we do in our homes, even the things that "don't hurt anyone" – affect & infect the whole church family. It's about how my sins affect you and your sins affect me. This text will force us to ask: Why should you care about my sins (even the so-called private ones, even the ones in which “nobody gets hurt”)? And why should I care about your sins?
The 16th Century Reformer John Calvin is reported to have said: “Martin Luther is a giant of a man with giant flaws.” Luther communicates the Gospel more clearly & powerfully than anyone had in a 1,000 years… And he cusses & drinks too much & calls people terrible names & just does things that will make you wince. How did this medieval monk stand against Popes & Emperors to start the Reformation & the Protestant Church?
Is it right or is it wrong? Today, the Western world has almost no way to answer this question. (And the answer people give today might change tomorrow.) This message looks at how Christians in the West have attempted to answer these types of questions in the past... and how we might approach the pressing moral questions of our day.
How do we bridge the gap from faith to doubt? How do I reconcile what I know about God with what I know about the world?
How can we find what we truly long for in life? In 1 Corinthians 1:17-2:5, the Apostle Paul shows us that we can only find what we are really looking for when give up earning or achieving and look to the Cross.
In 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, the Apostle Paul describe the Cross as the logic underneath every decision you make as a Christian, under life itself. The Cross gives shape to our lives. It is the answer to our greatest questions. It is the way to wholeness, happiness, justice, a flourishing human life.
Genesis 42-45 is about the enormous cost of forgiveness & just how extraordinarily difficult it is to find true reconciliation within a broken family. It is a story of hope.
How can I stand under constant temptation? How can I cling to God's call on my life when my life is full of setbacks and hardships?
Genesis 38 is one the most horrific, debased… and beautiful stories in the whole of the Scriptures. It’s the story of Judah is transformed by the grace of God.
Jesus does not save us from all pain & suffering. He saves us through all pain & suffering. Luke 24:13-35
In Genesis 4, we get our first glimpse of life "east of Eden." This well-know story of brother killing brother shows us what we become when we attempt to live apart from God and reveals the fundamental temptations that separate us one another. http://www.gvf.church/sermons/
The Christian faith offers plausible explanations for the central puzzles of our existence, such as our capacity for idea-making, our experience of beauty and suffering, and our inability to create a just social order. When compared with materialism or other sets of beliefs, Christianity provides a more comprehensive framework for understanding human life as we actually live it.
What if there’s another way to look the Creation story? If we look at Genesis 1 from different angles, is it possible that science & faith could actually line up? Is it possible to be a modern, educated, scientifically-minded suburbanite AND believe that this is the very Word of God?
Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is a leading astrophysicist. She has degrees from MIT and Harvard. She discovered a comet, which is now named after her.
And she believes in God.
In an age where science and faith are often viewed as opposites, Dr. Wiseman offers a unique perspective.
In the Passover, God invited His People into a beginning. This God ordained moment tells who we are, who God is, and how to live.
Hosea is the intensely personal (& just plain intense) story of a prophet who was told to take an adulterous wife so that God’s People could see what their unfaithfulness to God was like. In Hosea 1-2, we meet the family and get a glimpse of what home life in this tumultuous home.
Special guest, Rev. Nathan Coleman, from Bethel Baptist Church (Phoenixville) speaks on the steps it takes to unite our community!
Sometimes good things can get in the way of the most important things. Sometimes we can be busy with good things & miss the best things. (Luke 10:38-42)
In our relationship with God, there’s a razor’s edge of love & fear. You won’t love a God that you only fear. You won’t worship a God that you only love. But the Scriptures introduce us to a God who is both lovely and fearful, gracious and holy, savior and judge.
God’s approval is NOT a competitive sport. No matter how spotty your performance, whether you’ve followed all the rules or not, God’s pleasure, His righteousness, His promise of justification is not dependent upon your performance. It’s dependence upon Christ Alone.
What you think about is what you love. What you love is what you do. And what you do over & over again is who you are becoming. Make a habit of renewing your mind and become the person that God is calling you to be.
Why does the Apostle Paul instruct slaves to honor their masters? Does the Bible really condone slavery? In this message, we look at 1st century slavery in light of the Gospel and our American experience.
Everyone (if they're honest) has struggled with insecurity and fear. The Apostle Paul's encouragement to Timothy shows us how the Gospel empowers us to overcome feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt and unleash our gifts for the sake of God's Kingdom.
You'd never try to build a house without plans. You'd never tell your boss that you didn't have any goals for your work. Doing hard things well takes practice, training, and goals. So why do we think following Jesus is any different?
Creation reveals God’s goodness. We meet Him in the breeze blowing, in the water we drink, in holding hands, in playing with our kids, in building things, in sleeping… When we lose this. If we do not believe that God is good or do not see Him in our daily lives, it’s rather easy to “abandon the faith.” 1 Timothy 4:1-5
In 1 Timothy 2, the Apostle Paul lays out guidelines for how men & women should behave in church. In this message, we look at how to study these text & what they might mean for men & women today.
How can my baptism give me courage in the face of persecution, strength in temptation, & confidence in death? In this message, we tour the major Bible texts on baptism, talk about how to make pickled turnips, & try to see what the Apostles saw in this ancient Christian practice.
When we want to give, the Apostle Paul reminds us of God’s grace. His superabundant grace. He reminds of the beauty & power & greatness of the Gospel. He reminds us that Jesus came for sinners, like us. And then – in response to what Jesus has done for us – he urges us to get back into the fight, to fight the good fight.
How we respond to God-given opportunities determines what God does in & through us. Safe & predictable faith gets safe & predictable results. In this message from 2 Kings 13, Paul talks about three God-given opportunities that God has placed in our hands.
Life's messy. There's nothing clean and neat about real life, especially where people are involved. But in the midst of the craziness, there is a God who can satisfy our souls.
There is a recipe for an unhappy, regret-filled life... and if you are not proactive, you’ll naturally find all the ingredients.In the last decades of his life, King David shows us how to perfectly ruin our lives. It's a story we need to hear... if we hope to never experience it for ourselves. #AbsalomMySon #Unhappy 2 Samuel 11-19
We don't have to trick God into showing us mercy. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes you've made, or if you feel like a disappointment or a failure, or if you’re struggling just to believe God's even there. Right now he’s waiting and longing to show us mercy. We just have to turn around.
It's easier to ignore evil than to stand against it. It's easier to get angry than to act. It's easier to hate than to love. It's easier to go with the flow than to swim against the current. But God doesn't ask us to take the easy path.
Is lust really that bad? Why does Jesus seem to be so against it? How does looking at porn really effect us? Matthew 5:27-30
Sexual abuse is tragically all too common. When we allow lust to hide under the guise of love, the results are devastating. Here's a story that we probably don't want to hear but need to hear. 2 Samuel 13
One survivor's heart behind the pain and disappointment of struggling through sexual abuse. This song serves as a hopeful reminder that despite the tragedies we face in life, it doesn't change the love our Heavenly Father has for us, His precious children.
What do you do when you've really messed up? King David is our man. He is a great sinner and a great man of God. In 2 Samuel 13, he show us how sinners (like us) become men & women after God’s own heart
It's a cautionary tale. It’s the story about how the best, most spiritual, most godly person you ever met completely self-destructed. And if you aren’t careful, that could be you. David & Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11)
The Easter story isn't just a influential story. It's not just a true story. It is also unavoidably (almost awkwardly) personal. In John 20, we see & hear & experience this story told in the most personal of terms, from the perspective of a fisherman & a woman with a very dark past.
What do you expect from God? Happiness, success, health? Those times when God doesn't live up to our expectations reveal what we truly believe about Him.
Persecution. Visions. Giving up everything to follow Jesus. The things we see in the Book of Acts are still being lived out around the globe. This is a missions report from a visit with GVF missionaries, David & Leah Darwin.
Every consumer choice we make has a whole web of life-shaping, habit forming consequences… that most of us have never even considered. What does it mean to be "Christian" consumers? How do we make consumer choices that glorify God, that make this world more like His Kingdom? 1 Corinthians 8-10
Does my calendar reflect God’s work? Do I regularly schedule time for the most important things? Am I too busy with good things to have time for the best things? What God-ordained moments might I miss if I don’t grab them now?
Money is a gift from God. But it's greatest value isn't found in how we use it for ourselves, but in how we can use it to bless others.
In the book of Exodus, we get a picture of God's plan to change us and, through us, to change the world. It seems to have a lot to do with everyday things: working, eating, house cleaning, shopping, parenting, tv watching... normal stuff. How do we reflect God in the everyday stuff of life?
If you are looking for a guide to help you find God in a godless world, you can hardly do better than Matthew. This tax collector-turned-disciple helps us see how God shows up in the midst of a world of mass killings & refugees & crazy leaders. He helps us see how God is still at work in our lives today. (Matthew chapter 2)
Jesus isn't Superman, Santa Claus, or our fairy godmother. We want a God who'll save us from our circumstances, but Jesus saves us from ourselves.
It’s not your circumstances that define your life. It’s your story. At the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, we hear find a long boring genealogy... that would go on to change billions of lives & all of human history. Matthew wants us to see how this story makes sense of our personal (sometimes dark) past & history itself. Matthew 1:1-17
The kingdom of God isn’t some abstract theological idea or fairy land someone invented so that we’d love our enemies and be kind to one another and be good people. It’s real, it’s coming, and it’s for the good of the world.
What do you do when you realize that you have power, privilege, & influence that others do not have? King David sets an example of how to use our power as citizens of God's Kingdom. 2 Samuel 6
It’s that place in your life where no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to win. It’s that place where you are the weakest. It’s a place of shame. It’s the place where – if you are not careful – the enemy will destroy you from the inside out. What do we do when we have strongholds of sin in our lives? 2 Samuel 5
Epic warriors face off in the field of flints, every other person gets disemboweled, [insert cheesy one-liners], political intrigue, assassins, a gratuitous sex scene, & truly epic cursing… 2 Samuel 2 & 3 is not for the faint of heart, but for those with eyes to see it is a beautiful picture of the coming of the Kingdom of God.
The world doesn't need a church that either shrugs off sin or celebrates when people "get what they deserve." The world needs us to love it enough to weep for it, pray for it, and, like Jesus, be willing to die for it.
All of us know what it feels like to be burned by someone else. What do you do when the pain won't go away? How do you move past the hurt and find freedom in your life?
How you view God's rules will affect how you rule God. Sermon excerpt from "Lies, Guns, & Antichrist: A Study of Desperation"
Let's stop thinking like Republicans or Democrats or Libertarians... and start thinking like Christians. // Sermon Excerpt from "Lies, Guns, & Antichrist: A Study of Desperation"
When David, a man after God's own heart, gets desperate, he lies, grabs a sword, & acts insane. When you get desperate, what will you do? Will you trust God or take matters into your own hands? 1 Samuel 21-22
When Jonathan realizes that David is King, he swears an oath of allegiance & takes off his robe. When Saul realizes that David is King, he tries to kill him & ends up prophesying naked. This gives us a picture of how we respond to the fact that Jesus is King (Messiah). When we are exposed before God, do we submit our lives or do we fight against Him?
It’s really, really easy for people (you & me) to think that we are good at reading other people’s motives - when, in fact, we’re really not. // Excerpt from David & Goliath Sermon
David & Goliath is the classic story of the underdog who conquers the giant. Children love it. Motivational speakers use it. Preachers preach it. But what's this story really about? Is it about how I can defeat my giants or is it about something else? In this talk, Paul unpacks how this is not just a self-help story about me & my greatness but that it points us to Jesus & His greatness. 1 Samuel 17
This is the introduction to the life of King David from 1 Samuel. Saul was the king that everyone wanted, but David was the king that they needed. "The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
In the Bible, food & meeting God seem to go hand in hand. Why does God put such an emphasis on when & how & what to eat? What does eating have to do with God's mission to save the world?
A Protestant pastor, Paul Anderson, & a Catholic Scholar, Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, (Assoc Prof of Undergraduate Theology at Seton Hall) chat about how they agree, disagree, & relate to one another from their very different traditions.
God does not want our begrudging service. He wants our hearts. And when He gets our hearts, we will want to serve. Deuteronomy 9 & 10
We need God's Word the way that the ancient Israelites needed manna. We need to eat it. Every. Day. Exodus 15 &16
Why is it that some Christians never seem to change, never seem to grow in their faith? While others seem to never stop growing in love & faith? In this message, we look at how we can experience God's transforming presence day after day, week after week, year after year. 2 Corinthians 3:7-18
How highly you value God will determine how highly you value his love for you. If God means little to you, then his love will mean little to you. In fact, his love will make you uncomfortable.
What do you do when God gives you more than you can handle? When life throws at you more than you can take? When you know that you are in over your head and there seems to be no way out?
Unlike our world that exalts strength over weakness, God uses weakness to overcome the power of evil in the world, as best seen in the example of Jesus Christ, through whom God overcame the power of sin and death. In a world that strives for power, are we weak enough for God to use us powerfully?
God has designed us to stop working, stop worrying, and sleep for nearly a third of our lives. Why? Does the Bible have anything to say about our hours (& years) of unconsciousness? Psalm 127
Until Jesus comes back, there will always be doubts. There always be things that we cannot make sense of. If we hope to not fall away, we must not simply fill our heads with the Truth. We must fill our hearts with His Beauty & Goodness & Love & Hope. We must not simply read books that answer our questions. We must worship.
Who you listen to will determine the path and final destination of your life. Are you listening to the right voices?
It doesn't matter how society sees us. All that matters is that to God, we are his prized possession, his Church. And as his Church, we've got a role to play in redeeming this world.
It’s not enough to know the “right” answer. You have to know how to apply it. You have to know – in the moment – how do I live the truth? This sermon addresses some of our most pressing questions: Should I attend gay weddings? How do we treat homosexuals within the church? How do we talk to LGBT people with both grace and truth? How do we talk to our kids about homosexuality?
We are a long, long ways from loving homosexually oriented people the way that we should be within our own church. Here are three steps we must take to make some things right. Sermon excerpt
What does the Bible say? Can same-sex sex be glorifying to God & good for those involved? Or, is it a sin that needs to be struggled with & resisted & repented of & forgiven by the blood of Christ (just like any other sin)?
How can a loving God send good people to hell? It's a question that most of us have had at one time. But how do you answer it? Can God be truly loving, but also a judge?
Is it right or is it wrong? Today, the Western world has almost no way to answer this question. (And the answer people give today might change tomorrow.) This message looks at how Christians in the West have attempted to answer these types of questions in the past... and how we might approach the pressing moral questions of our day.
Guest speaker, Peter Armstrong, shares from Scripture & his own life about the power of Christ
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation... Philippians 4:12
Don’t let the world steal your joy. Don’t let their insults & violence turn you to revenge. Don’t let all the broken pieces of life stop you from seeing the great wholeness that we have in Christ. Life is a gift & you can trust the One who gave it. Philippians 4:4-9
Battle lines are drawn. There's a fight brewing. What you do next could be the difference between marriage or divorce, between making an ally or making an enemy. In Philippians 4:1-3, the Apostle wants to give us a few simple principles to help us learn to fight like a Christian.
What do you do with all that junk from your past that you can't forget? How do we "forget" what's behind & press on? Philippians 3.12-16
If Christianity is not about following some list of dos & don'ts, then what's it all about? In Philippians 3.7-11, the Apostle gives us an intensely personal answer. He found something better than morals or religion or achievements or anything this world could offer.
We want to be a church that burns with passion for God's Global Mission. This is a quick overview of how we hope to get there.
Visions of Jesus. A witch doctor turned evangelist. Preaching to people who have never heard of Jesus. Fierce persecution. Hear from GVF missionaries.
If the Gospel wasn't true, if Jesus wasn't Lord, would you have lost anything other than a few Sunday mornings?
The weight of the Gospel inevitably breaks down our selfishness, our pride, and our assumptions about life, and rebuilds us in the image of Jesus.
Humility is THE defining characteristic of Jesus. And it should be the defining characteristic of anyone who claims to follow Him. Philippians 2.5-11
Your mindset can make or break your relationships & your life. In Philippians 2.1-4, the Apostle Paul shows us what it looks like to have the mindset of Jesus.
Where you come from says a lot about you. Five gentlemen from five very different places describe life among their "native people."
All of us have moments and seasons in life that we don't understand and wish were different. Are those losses in the game of life or is there another way to keep score?
If we know where life is headed, shouldn’t this give us a whole different perspective? The Apostle Paul tells us how to live right now in light of eternity. Philippians 1:9-11
The Apostle Paul begins his letter to the Philippians with a reminder that God is going to finish what He has started. In this sermon, we hear the story of how God has worked in the lives of a business woman, a demon possessed girl, & a proud soldier.
Begin with prayer. Listen. Eat. Serve. & Share your story. We want to be a blessing to our neighbors.
Why do we feel uncomfortable with God's grace & mercy? A message from GVF Missionary Mark Raudenbush
If you could know God personally, if you could be in a deep, self-giving, soul-forming relationship with Him, would you want to?
If God exists in an unimaginable & indescribable “spiritual” dimension above & beyond us, how could we ever know this God? John 1.14
The Apostle John seems to think that our universe can be explained by a "Word." He writes: "In the beginning was the Word." But how do we make sense of this in light of everything we've learned from Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein and Brian Greene?
For the Apostle John, the Christmas story should take us back to the essential nature of reality: The Word that exists under & in & before all things. It is beyond any place that philosophy or physics can take us. It is an unimaginable & indescribable mystery. John 1.1-5
Coming down from the mountain top experience, Elijah wrestles with depression & trying to understand God when things don't make sense. 1 Kings 19
1 Kings 18. "How long will you go on limping through life? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if something or someone else is more important, follow them." - Elijah
Before God will use us for great things, He often take us to a place of isolation & hardship & meaninglessness & helplessness. In that place, we learn to trust God day-by-day, step-by-step, moment-by-moment. 1 Kings 17
Elijah brings a haunting message to God's People: God is shutting off the valve. No more rain. No more blessing. 1 Kings 16 & 17
The pre-requisite for a healthy relationship with God isn't being perfect, but rather admitting that we're not.
Through Christ we have unrestricted access to God the Father. So why don't we take more advantage of it?
What does your money say about your heart? "For where your treasure is there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-24
In life there are moments when the next words out of your mouth, the next decision you make, the next thing you do will change your life for good or for bad. We can’t control when these moments come. But we can prepare for them. (Genesis 25)
Facebook, Instagram, Buzzfeed, Netflix, Hulu, T.V., movies, sports, work... how do we cut through the noise and hear what's most important?
We are like trees... and our desires are like roots reaching for something to grasp, something to give us life. (Ephesians 2, Galatians 5, & Jeremiah 17)
On October 5th, we'll have a congregational meeting about a few big things: our constitution, our affiliation with the EFCA, & our name. Here's a special announcement that we made on Sunday to help bring everyone up to speed. If you consider GVF your home, we'd love for you to join the conversation at one of our focus groups or contact one of the Elders.
What does it look like when God wakes up the church? Edwards had a front row seat to the greatest revival in the history of America.
The 16th Century Reformer John Calvin is reported to have said: “Martin Luther is a giant of a man with giant flaws.” Luther communicates the Gospel more clearly & powerfully than anyone had in a 1,000 years… And he cusses & drinks too much & calls people terrible names & just does things that will make you wince. How did this medieval monk stand against Popes & Emperors to start the Reformation & the Protestant Church?
If the extent of your spiritual life is Sunday mornings, you're missing out. Until we know and are known by other people, we'll never experience the full benefit of the body of Christ that God intends.
When the whole church seemed willing to give up the divinity of Christ for political convenience & comfort, this one little man from north Africa courageously stood for the truth.
The bad news? Sin is much worse than you think. The good news? God's grace is greater than you can imagine.
Do you love Jesus? Or do you just love the stuff that Jesus can do for you? We find out at the Cross. // The Gospel of Mark
When we ask the earliest Christians to introduce us to Jesus, they insist that we first meet John the Baptist. Matthew 4
From 167 BC to the birth of Jesus, life in ancient Palestine was a mix of revolutionary zeal, foreign oppression, and hope. Matthew 2
God is still in the business of changing lives. This is the story of how He has taken two broken lives and made something beautiful.
Paul introduces a helpful tool for talking about Jesus with your friends. For more info on the "How Good Are You?" tract, go to www.ProclaimCourse.com
The quickest and surest way to derail your dance is to think that the success or happiness of your marriage depends on your spouse.
In 5 weeks’ time, the Apostle & his team showed up in a town that had no Christian presence whatsoever & successfully planted a church that would influence the entire region, topple immoral economic systems, reshape the culture, change the public standards of morality, and bring 100s and 1000s into the Kingdom. This is the church of Thessalonica.
As we look back at how God has worked at GVF the past 2 years, we are called to making the most out of the God-given opportunities that are before us.
The Bible says that in the church we experience the fullness of Christ. What does that mean? Why would I need the church to know Jesus?
We all need at least one person who will hold us accountable to live our lives in light of the Gospel.
Ecclesiastes 8.1 - 9.10. Solomon gives us some advice on how to enjoy the life that God has given us.
Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:12. What do you do when what you know to be true no longer feels true?
Solomon challenges us to re-think what we should expect to get out of our work... or hate our lives.
Solomon is going to take on a cherished American idea, “the pursuit of happiness.” He is going to systematically destroy any hope of finding happiness by pursuing happiness in this life.
Solomon challenges us to face the reality that we cannot make ourselves significant or eternal... only God can do that.
The Cross of Christ offers real answers to our real problems, but are they the answers that we want?
Neuroscientists, psychologists, & Jesus all agree that we have heart problems, problems with our desires. But, Jesus promises a solution. He'll give us a new heart.
The only reason someone might want to fast is that they are desperate for God to work. Are we that desperate?
We might have an opportunity better to serve the Phoenixville area by moving to the Middle School and a storefront on Bridge Street.