Grace 4 All: Recent Episodes
Pastor Tracy Carpenter
Grace is a light in the darkness for the non-churched, once-churched and badly churched. We offer culturally relevant worship services to engage the heart, soul and mind. If you feel that God has given up on you, or you have given up on God, just give us one hour of your life on Sunday morning. We will help you reconnect and get back on the right path.
Join us as we start our new series, Abundance in Christ, discussing that which is just outside of our total understanding.
Grace OG will be having their Church Warming November 7, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. If you are available, please join us at this event as we unveil our new sanctuary.
It is all about the action!
How you build your foundation and what material you use is crucial, especially in today's world!
Join Pastor Tracy on the Follow-up to Love Every Neighbor. Learn and apply what you need to weather the storm.
Who is your neighbor? This episode challenges us to get uncomfortable - to think outside of our conventional wisdom.
Join us as we continue in our Series "Leaving a Legacy."
All throughout this sermon series, "Leaving a Legacy," we are honoring our Lee’s Summit Campus on their 30th Anniversary.
Staying power. It is something to which we all aspire, but what does that MEAN exactly? You might say, " Time,” and I would agree. Perhaps you would say, “Length of service,” and I would agree again. And yet, I would also submit that it means continuously and consistently making disciples for Christ, both in easy times, and in times like those we are experiencing today. We dare to put one foot in front of the other - consistently pointed toward God. Our actions are congruent with God.
This weekend, we are going to talk about our lives, how we live them, how God guides and molds us, and we end with one ordinary woman who was given the water that lasts for all time.
Do you want the living water?
What does it really mean to be "The Body of Christ?" Join us this week as we explore our unique talents, and our place in the "big picture."
If I say the words living, breathing, growing, changing, what do you think of? Think about it for a few moments.
Maybe you thought of a child, maybe you thought of that big old dog of mine (to be fair- he is NOT still growing, thank goodness).
When I asked the question, I bet you did not think of a book as living, breathing, growing, and changing, right? After all, a book is an inanimate object. At most, maybe you could SAY it had been living, breathing, growing, and changing when it was a tree - but once that tree is cut down, mashed into pulp, and turned into paper, it is no longer “alive.” For every single book you would be right.
But not the Bible. The Bible is the living breathing word of God. When you open the cover, our world, our history, our relationship with God comes to life at your fingertips. It is as real as when it was written, and it evolves and grows to fit our current day circumstances. What an awesome resource to have in our relationship with God!
This week in our sermon series “One Faith,” we will be covering “The Good News.”
Need some good news? Well of course we ALL do! But have we lost our focus on what the GOOD News is?
Consider this quote from N.T. Wright’s book “The Good News:”
"Jesus of Nazareth was a real man, living and dying at a turbulent moment in real space-time history. His message, and the message about him that the early Christians called good news, WAS NOT ABOUT HOW TO ESCAPE THAT WORLD. It was about how the one true God was changing it, radically and forever.”
What is the Good News? A lot of things:
-It is Jesus as a REAL person, living amongst us.
-It is God in relationship with us.
-It is about God changing our world.
Join us this week for The Good News.
Cutting
Bleeding
Hurting
Mending
Replenishing
Connecting
Accepting
Affirming
Calming
Whole
One Faith - We Believe
Join us this week as we begin a new sermon series exploring what makes us whole.
This week, our message is “Plant, Plant, and Plant Again,” as we close out this sermon series.
I have never been a very big marigold fan. I cannot tell you why - I really have nothing against the bright yellow and orange flowers. They just have never been my “thing.” And yes, I know they are good for lots of different things.
This year, I attended the plant sale at the middle school, and three marigolds caught my eye. They were taller than most marigold starts I had ever seen, and I thought - let’s give this a try.
So I planted them. I had no idea what they would “become.” Maybe you are all about marigolds. If you are, you know that what I planted was Tagetes erecta, (African Marigolds). They are now an astounding three feet tall!
And now I LOVE marigolds. I am making sure I have the seeds for next year, and will plant even more! My plan is to have not just three, but marigolds all the way down my porch.
I did not know what the plants would become, but I assure you GOD DID. We plant God’s seeds, and watch them grow.
When we do this, the result is SPECTACULAR.
Want to plant again?
This week we continue our sermon series “Cultivating a Life With God” by talking about EVERYONE’s favorite subject….
WEEDS
If you garden at all, you LOVE WEEDS don’t you?
We (meaningly husband) put in a beautiful planter this year in front of our house. I love to mess with flowers, and he indulges me. Before we had that planter, I NEVER noticed the Maple (helicopter) seeds. This year, boy did I ever notice - because they were choking out my flowers!
I have to say, we mulch really THICK so weeds are not much of a problem. However, the maple seeds root right in the mulch, and with all of the rain this year, they really prospered. I was driving out of my garage, and I looked over at my planter and thought - how nice, look at how GREEN everything is! When I came home that evening and did a closer inspection, I found that I had a billion (not much exaggeration) maple trees growing all around my flowers.
Once I could SEE what was really going on, I sat and pulled out each and every maple tree, and put them on our dirt pile.
THAT is exactly what we will be talking about this weekend - Jesus recognized that sometimes weeds happen. AND sometimes they are hard to recognize.
Join us as we discuss “Weeds” this weekend.
In His Love,
Pastor Tracy
Two weeks ago, I shared with you the story of my father growing up on his farm in the 1940s. If you missed it, I relayed this from my father:
“When I was a young man on the farm in the 40’s, wheat harvest was a two-stage project. My Father cut the crop in late summer with a horse drawn binder, which bound the stalks loaded with grain into bundles about 40 pounds each. My mother and I stacked these into shocks, the wheat bundles standing upright, grain husks toward the top with six or eight bundles to a shock and one on the top horizontally as a cap for weather protection, awaiting the thresher.”
Now, my grandparents had my father a little later in life. They had one stillborn daughter before my father, and did not anticipate being able to have my dad. Therefore, Grandma Catherine was 36 when my father was born. Nothing wrong with that! I had Mike when I was 36 too (must run in the family).
That being said, when she was grabbing those 40 pound grain bundles, she was probably about 46 years old. I never got to meet my grandma, but the stories of her being a hard worker have certainly been passed down to my generation. She was tough - I hear she even shot a snake off the side of the farm house with a shotgun!
This got Jim and I talking. He figures tough women run in my family, and it is time for me to start mowing the lawn.
I am waiting for a riding lawnmower.
We are all called to work hard in our lives and to work for the glory of God. This, I remind Jim, is what I am doing.
Plus, time for that teenager of ours to mow the lawn.
I think he is waiting for a riding lawnmower too.
Learn how to take an active part in your faith life this weekend - as we discuss “Working the Fields.”
This weekend, as we continue our sermon series “Cultivating a Life With God,” we are going to cover one of my all time favorite topics - mustard seeds.
If you have any time on your hand at all between now and then, I want you to Google mustard seeds, and do a little “pre-service” reading. I think that you will find it fascinating.
As a teaser (still go out there and read), you will find:
-The mustard seed is NOT the smallest seed there is.
-There are conflicting accounts of what kind of plant to which Jesus was referring. That is, what did the mustard seed really grow into?
-There are conflicting accounts of how big a mustard tree (plant, or shrub) actually grows.
-Quite a number of people spend quite a bit of time arguing about all of these things.
And NONE OF IT REALLY MATTERS.
“Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
Hear all about it here.
Pastor Tracy
Happy 4th of July weekend!
Join us this week as we begin a new sermon series "Cultivating a Life with God."
This week, we conclude our Sermon Series “Forgotten God.” I hope you have enjoyed this sermon series, and have come away with the sense that the Holy Spirit is very real, and working in each of our lives.
It is all about relationship, relationship, relationship. Always.
I think sometimes we stand around waiting for God to “show up” in our lives, without realizing that we have an active part to play as well. God ALWAYS shows up.
The question is, do we?
Healthy relationships are bi-directional. There is give and take to both sides. WE ARE CALLED TO ACTION, now more than ever.
As we end this series, consider the following:
-How is your relationship with The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit evident in your life?
-What is God calling you to do?
-Are you lukewarm for God?
-What fans your flame?
This week, we will be talking about “Comfort in the Spirit” in our “Forgotten God” series. In preparation for this week’s message am sending along the following quote from Francis Chan’s book:
“Have you ever thought about the significance of having “another” Counselor who is “just like” Christ? Right now, imagine what it would be like to have Christ standing beside you in the flesh, functioning as your personal Counselor. Imagine the peace that would come from knowing you would always receive perfect truth and flawless direction from Him. That sounds amazing, and none of us could deny the benefit of having Jesus here physically, guiding and enabling us every step of the way. Yet why do we assume that this would be any better than the literal presence of the Holy Spirit? Those of us who believe in Jesus would never deny the truth that we have the Spirit of the living God, the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, living inside of us. I’m just not convinced we’ve internalized this truth and enjoyed His blessings as He intends. It seems like this is mostly head knowledge to us, and that we have not owned it. It has not really made much of a difference in our lives, to the degree that if we woke up tomorrow and discovered that it is not true the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, most likely our lives wouldn’t look much different.”
— Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan
https://a.co/eZ9Jyex
Most of us would gladly take a physical Christ in our presence for one day rather than a vague Holy Spirit in our lives EVERY DAY. That is the disconnect. The Holy Spirit is JUST AS REAL AND JUST AS COMFORTING IN OUR LIVES AS CHRIST.
So this week we will be exploring what is REAL in our lives, the comfort we can derive from this, and how the Holy Spirit impacts HOW we live our lives.
Pop culture.
And reality.
How authentic do YOU want to be in your walk with the Holy Spirit?
Have you ever thought you were headed in one direction - only to realize that plans have changed? Well sure, this past YEAR should have taught us THAT, if nothing else.
This week, as we continue our sermon series “Forgotten God", we are going to discuss two men whose paths were RADICALLY changed by the Holy Spirit.
Cornelius - a Roman centurion - who believed in God, but who is about to have his world rocked by an angel.
Peter - the Apostle - follower of Christ, who is going to be asked to do the unthinkable.
In terms of Biblical watershed moments - this week’s story ranks high up there.
Two men, led by the Holy Spirit to change the WORLD.
What if they had not listened?
Where is the Holy Spirit leading YOU? Are you listening? Join us this week for “Revival.”
Every weekend is special, but this weekend is SPECIAL SPECIAL. We are continuing in our Sermon Series “Forgotten God” with the message “Healings.”
What an appropriate message as we are coming out of COVID, out of a year of mourning. We all need God’s healing as we grieve our own unique experience of this past year.
In that vein, this Memorial Day weekend, we honor the lives of our brave service men and women, as well as all those gone before us. This year, will also be celebrating the lives of all those we lost during COVID, because this year we did not get to have “normal” funerals for so many.
“Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”
Psalms 147:1-5 NIV
This week we conclude our sermon series “A Double Blessing,” with the message “A Generosity of Hope." It is only appropriate to discuss blessing others before we leave the series.
This week not only will be talking about being generous with others, but also talking about the fact that we can only GIVE what we HAVE. This is why any flight attendant will tell you to put on your oxygen mask first BEFORE helping others.
We have been talking these past weeks about Compressed Grief - grief that piles up on top of itself, until there seems to be almost no room left.
Now we are going to discuss two more words:
Capability and Capacity.
Capability is our ability to do something. Capability comes from the tools that we have in our box. As Christians, our tools include the Bible, the Words of our Savior. These are constants - always present. So we ALWAYS have the capability to do something - like loving one’s neighbor, and giving to others,
Do we have the capacity?
One could argue that capacity is our ability to do something as well. Granted.
But capacity is also how much something can hold (a cup has 8 oz capacity). It can be how much we can hold.
If we have hatred...
If we gossip…
If we are sad…
When hold those on to these things (which are all arguably compressed grief in many forms), they take up space in our cup. We can only give what we have. It is a vicious cycle too - being full of negatives makes us lack the capacity for positives.
Thus, we always have the capability to do the right thing (we always have the tools), but we do not always have the capacity (the mental space) to do the right thing (we ARE human).
God’s word gives us the capability. CHRIST GIVES US THE CAPACITY.
Explore with us this week as we seek both to be filled, and to give.
In His Love,
Pastor Tracy
We continue in our Sermon Series “A Double Blessing,” by talking about “God With Us, For Us, and In Our Hearts.” This is the theme that runs throughout Mark Batterson’s book.
If you regularly listen to this Podcast, you know I end with:
“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
The Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”
These words are a powerful blessing. WORDS HAVE POWER.
God is With Us, For Us, and In Our Hearts. Those are powerful words too.
Here is what Mark Batterson says in his book about this blessing:
“What is the blessing of God? It’s God-God with us, God for us, God in us. To reduce it to anything less dishonors God and devalues the blessing. God with us is a joy unspeakable and the peace that surpasses understanding. God for us is His favor, the X factor between the best we can do and the best God can do. And God in us is power, resurrection power.”
That gives us a LOT to talk about....
This week we continue in our Sermon Series, “A Double Blessing.” The book, should you choose to get it, is by Mark Batterson.
Saturday and Sunday, will be “Prisoners of Hope.” Sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it is not. We did a sermon series some time ago called “Unexpected,” from a book of the same name by Christine Caine. Here is what she said about becoming a prisoner of hope:
When we become prisoners of hope, we declare with defiance that there is…
· No need that God cannot meet.
· No mountain God cannot move.
· No prayer God cannot answer.
· No sickness God cannot heal.
· No heart God cannot mend.
· No door God cannot open.
When we become prisoners of hope, we aren’t dismayed when dreams…
· Take longer than we think they should.
· Cost more than we think they should.
· Are harder to realize than we think they should be.
When we become prisoners of hope, we shift our perspective. We…
· Look at what we have left, not what we have lost
· Believe the best, not assume the worst
· Keep moving forward, not shrink backward
Let’s choose to be a prisoner of hope.
Can you think of a more appropriate time for this than NOW?
We begin a new sermon series this weekend, “A Double Blessing.” If you would like to study along with us during this series, you might pick up the book Double Blessing by Mark Batterson. It is an outstanding book that explains what it means to be blessed, but moreover how your blessings are meant to bless others.
As we begin the series, we will be looking at the concept of “A Double Portion,” and what this means. We will be talking about blessings on top of blessings. Yet, even while writing this, I have to acknowledge that this last year has been hard, so very very hard. I acutely feel it too, and know God never promised sunshine without rain. Jesus says in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble.” But He also says, “But take heart! I have overcome the world!” The blessing is still there, no matter what.
So what do we DO WITH OUR BLESSING? Batterson says in his book, “God doesn’t bless us to raise our standard of living. God blesses us to raise our standard of giving. In the words of Winston Churchill, ‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.’”
Our talents are handed off to others, who eventually do more than we ever could.
Our compassion is handed off to others, who eventually do more than we ever could.
Our skill at listening is handed off to others, who eventually do more than we ever could.
This list could go on and on, we hand off to others, who eventually do more than we ever could.
I think you get the idea. What we hand off to others becomes our legacy, and not only does that bring God into the world, it MULTIPLIES GOD IN THE WORLD.
It is both a blessing and a responsibility.
Fickle. That is the word that I think of every Palm Sunday.
We are a fickle people.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem. People spread their cloaks on the road before Him. Tree branches were cut down and placed in His path. Blessings were shouted for the “Son of David.” The whole city was stirred. Make no mistake, this was an uproar. “Who is this?” the people asked. “This is Jesus, the Prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21: 8-11)
It is a glorious scene. Jesus is recognized here on Earth. When you read the words, you can almost feel the mass of humanity celebrating in the streets. You can hear the roar of the crowd.
A few days later, it would still be a mass of humanity, it would still be a roaring of the crowd. It would be the same people, with the same electricity, but for a different reason. Bowing to political pressure, the same crowd would turn Jesus over to die.
The magnitude of this never ceases to amaze me.
Fickle.
And all too human. We can be superficial. We can turn the other way when things do not seem to be going as we predicted. We do this in our relationships, we do this in our churches, we do this in our jobs, we do this in our life.
And the fact that Jesus still willingly died for us, fully understanding our humanity, and all that entails, is nothing short of miraculous to me. THAT IS GRACE, a million-fold.
So we celebrate Palm Sunday this upcoming Sunday, remembering that those who celebrated Jesus would turn him over to die in just a few days time. We remember that those “people” are us.
And we pledge to do better for the Savior that fully accepts us as we are.
This week in our sermon series, “Jesus of Nazareth,” the message is “The Disciples are Called.” We will be in Mark and Matthew.
Let’s look at who Jesus calls:
Four fishermen - Jesus does not call some nobility to go out and save the world, but four ordinary fishermen. They probably looked a little rough (best guess), and smelled like fish (better guess). Jesus walks by Simon and Andrew first, and James and John second, with a very non-descriptive request. “Come follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” What a clever way to “hook” these four. (See what I did there?) We do not get to see the entire dialogue, but it appears that there is not much convincing to do. They leave their people and begin the journey with Jesus.
What if that was YOU?
Sinners - Jesus does not call the righteous, but calls sinners. He finds Matthew at the tax collectors booth. With a simple, “Follow me,” he is instantly having dinner at Matthew’s house, surrounded by “many” tax collectors and sinners. Again, we do not get to see the entire dialogue, but it appears that there is not much convincing to do. Jesus tells the Pharisees that he is not here to call the righteous, but here to call the sinners. They leave their people and begin the journey with Jesus.
What if that was YOU?
In reality…..Jesus called everyday, average people. People that needed help, people that needed healing. Everyday, average people that were going to do the extraordinary.
What if that was YOU?
GUESS WHAT? IT IS YOU.
I love stories. I REALLY LOVE STORIES.
This week, as we continue our sermon series Jesus of Nazareth, our message is “The Parables of Jesus,” which means that I get to discuss two of my favorite things:
Faith AND stories. How awesome is that?
Jesus told FANTASTIC stories: stories that invited His audience into His faith space, stories that encouraged people to reach outside of themselves, stories that dared His listeners to imagine the world in an entirely different way. They were groundbreaking, awesomely simple, and at the same time incredibly complex. They were stories that, in retrospect, walked Jesus up to the very cross on which He died, and ushered in a new world with His resurrection.
I don’t know about you, but I am ALWAYS up for stories like that. And so this week, we focus on The Good Samaritan, The Prodigal Son, and The Rich Man and Lazarus. Yes, you have heard them before - but what if this week they unlock something entirely new for you? The stories are that as well - the key to life’s greater meaning.
And as I typically do - I am going to tie this week’s message to a current world story. I can’t tell you what - that would spoil the surprise. But I will give you a teaser. It involves a very Big Fish.
Many years ago, a person asked me this question,
“Why did Jesus have to die? Wasn’t it enough that He was the Son of God?” He went on to say that death and resurrection seemed “over the top.”
Now, I LOVE that I belong to a church that welcomes questions. It is one of the many reasons that I chose Grace in the first place. I have to admit, however, that the man’s question was not something I had considered, and for a moment, it did have me stumped.
I have thought back over the question several times over the years, and I always come to the same conclusions in my mind:
-We serve an awesome God that knows us better than we know ourselves.
-It could be no other way.
This week, as we continue our Sermon Series “Jesus of Nazareth,” we will be focusing on “The Temptations of Jesus.” After Jesus is Baptized by John, He was “…led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”
After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Can you imagine?
This takes me back to the question - is it over the top? Yet I have the same two conclusions:
-We serve an awesome God that knows us better than ourselves.
-It could be no other way.
We will go into greater detail regarding the three specific temptations, but suffice to say Jesus suffers and is tempted to better identify with us. The temptations not only addressed His specific mission, but they hit at the heart of what matters most to us -
every.single.day.we.walk.on.this.earth.
Just as Jesus identified with mankind, mankind needs to identify with Jesus.
Relationship.
Join us this weekend as we deeper our relationship with the Risen Lord.
In His Love,
Pastor Tracy
Join us this week as we begin our new sermon series "Jesus of Nazareth." Throughout Lent, and culminating with Easter, we will be exploring our real world relationship with our Risen Lord and Savior.
A warm story for a cold day to bring inner healing to your heart. Join us as we conclude our sermon series "Moving Mountains."
his week, as we continue our sermon series “Moving Mountains,” our message is “Daily Prayers.” It is a great follow-up to last week’s “These are the Days of Elijah.”
How or what do you pray? Prayer cannot be over valued. It is the BACKBONE of our relationship with God. Without it - the relationship becomes very one-sided, with God pursuing us, but us never taking time for God.
So again, how or what do you pray? If you would like to pray, but do not know how or what, a GREAT way is to recite the Lord’s Prayer each and every day. Meditate on each phrase; take your time! Pause after each line.
Our
Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And Forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us;
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
And the power,
And the glory,
Forever.
Amen
That prayer is a beautiful starting point. So, if you do not know how or what to do, do that!
Let’s add on to it. When do you pray? A good idea would be to bookend your day in prayer. That is, morning and evening. Tired at night? Yes, I get it - and I go to bed early! Try this simple prayer from The Book of Common Prayer: “May the Lord grant me and those I love a peaceful night and perfect end.”
Those are answers to the “how,” “what, and “when” questions of prayer. Join us this weekend to hear the rest of the story - “who” and “why.”
Remember that we are in person this week. Saturday at 5:00 and Sunday at 10:00. COVID protocols apply (masks and social distancing). If you are unable or reticent to join us, join our Lee’s Summit Campus online at 9:15 and 10:30. We will also be putting a recording of the Oak Grove 10:00 a.m. service on FaceBook Sunday afternoon. Our phone message remains in place as well. There are plenty of places to reach us!
Please stay well, and remember - pray.
What is your focus? Join us as we walk through the Old Testament to see how TODAY are the days of Elijah.
We try to measure most things.
Should we?
Sometimes, the most important things are immeasurable.
This week, we are beginning a sermon series, “Moving Mountains.” It is an appropriate way to begin 2021, especially in light of events in Washington D.C. yesterday.
The world is such a complicated place, and lately it is hard to tell up from down. One thing is certain however, WE HAVE MOUNTAINS TO MOVE - huge mountains that stand in our way and separate us from one another, and from God. They are not physical mountains, but as unsurmountable as they seem, they might as well be.
The question is - how does one move a mountain?
2020 and now 2021 has seen us all trying to move mountains by throwing our weight into them. It is an interesting conundrum that the more weight we throw, the less the mountains move.
This week, we will have several passages from Matthew, including Matthew 17:20. To put this in context, Jesus has just been transfigured on the mountain (interesting parallel), in the presence of Peter, James, and John. When they come down from the mountain, a crowd is waiting for them.
A man comes to kneel before Jesus, and asks Jesus to have mercy on his son - he is afflicted with seizures. He brought the boy to the disciples, but they were unable to heal him. Imagine for a moment what that looked like. Jesus asks that the boy be brought to Him, ad He heals him. Afterward, in a private moment, the disciples ask Jesus why they failed.
His answer may be seen as critical, but to me, it is just matter of fact.
They lack faith. Specifically, faith the size of a mustard seed. Ever see a mustard seed? It’s pretty tiny.
We have anger larger than our physical bodies, and it changes nothing. If you could only have faith the size of a seed that would fit on your index finger, it changes everything.
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
Just a little faith - just a little faith.
And one huge mountain - gone.
Pastor Tracy
This message is a reprise of a message I did a couple of years ago for Christmas.
It is about Satsumas - Christmas oranges. I explain in the episode how this is relevant for the new year.
God bless, and have a happy and healthy 2021.
Listen to the folk tale of the poinsettia - and learn how important a star is in our lives - this season, and always.
Join us this week as we talk about the true light of the world, Jesus Christ, through the story of The Little Match Girl, by Hans Christian Andersen.
In our second message of the sermon series "Christmas Traditions," we explore the meaning of Carols - both from a historical perspective, and how they enrich our lives today.
In the complexity of this holiday season, Carols can give us a stronghold. Join us today as we take a new look at the songs that help us when the world is not as we would expect.
This week we begin our new Sermon Series "Traditions," with the message "Angels."
Our traditions this year look drastically different, but God still paves the way for us. Join us this week as we discuss how we can transcend our own human traditions to rely on God in a very tough time. It is a message of hope - and of relationship, with God.
Today we talk about how hope may just be everything this holiday season.
Happy Thanksgiving!
In this stand alone message, we talk about where our strength comes from, especially in the hardest of times.
May you be blessed today as we join together in one voice, one family, singing praises to our God.
Amen.
This week, we finish our sermon series, "United and Divided" with "Pray for Those."
We are called to love and we are called to pray, and we are called to be IN RELATIONSHIP with one another, no matter how difficult that may be.
Join us as we conclude this sermon series with a sense of peace and hope for our world today.
This week in our “Us vs Them” series, we are Loving our Enemies.
Easier said than done, right? Yeah, I get it.
But why should we do it?
Sin is anything that turns us away from God, anything that forms a chasm between us and our Savior. I would think hate and resentment would be PRIME EMOTIONS FOR CREATING A PRETTY BIG CHASM. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice to bridge this chasm, but it is up to us to not re-create it.
We are called to love as God loves. Remember that is a love filled with unending grace. And boy, do we ever need a lot of grace. Hate and resentment in our hearts does not allow room in our hearts for God (and God’s blessings), and it leaves us little opportunity for healing.
If you think that sounds pretty heavy, I would have to agree. We are meant to be in joyful relationship with God. To do this, we have some pretty big bags to set down. Forgiveness=freedom and joy.
So how do we do this if it is easier said and done? Well, I guess you will need to tune in this week, when we discuss the nuts and bolts.
We continue our sermon series “United and Divided” this week with “Us vs. Them.”
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse appear in the New Testament as a metaphor describing end times. John and Julie Gottman, (remember the folks that said 70% of what we argue about is unresolvable?), use this metaphor to describe things in our relationships that cause complete breakdown.
The Gottmans say that the four ways that we communicate that DESTROY our relationships are:
Criticism - attacking others at the core of their character
Contempt - disrespect, looking down our nose at others
Defensiveness - how we respond to criticism - we play the innocent victim
Withdrawal - just like it sounds - we get fed up and we shut down
John Gottman can predict divorce - by only meeting with a couple for 1/2 hour - with 90% accuracy, based on whether or not the above are present in a relationship. This is absolutely incredible.
However, he says the BIGGEST INDICATOR OF A FAILED RELATIONSHIP COMES DOWN TO CONTEMPT. When we lose respect for one another, we assuredly are in a failed relationship.
This week in “Us vs. Them,” we are going to discuss these four horsemen, specifically contempt, and its place in our world today.
Some people are just hard to love, and God calls us to love them anyway. Listen to 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7:
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Are we missing the mark?
Us vs. Them
This week, we begin a new sermon series “United and Divided.” Pretty timely considering, well….
2020
I have been preaching for the last two years that 70% (actually 69.999%, but let’s round up) of what we argue about are PERPETUAL PROBLEMS. That is to say, problems that are unresolvable.
You might have believed me then, but wow, believe me now?
This comes from the research of John and Julie Gottman, where they studied people in relationships, and divided their problems into three categories:
Solvable Problems - Problems that have a solution. When my husband and I “argue” about whether so and so was in a movie, I pick up my phone and Google it. Then he knows I am right, (just joking), and problem solved.
Perpetual Problems - Problems which have no well defined solution. These problems center around differences in the way we see the world, our values, even our personalities.
Gridlocked Perpetual Problems - Problems which are perpetual, but have been handled in such a way as to make a situation very “uncomfortable.”
Which one do you think most of us are in today?
Jesus broke it down for us into two commands - Love God; Love Neighbor. Can you love someone if you do not agree with them? With that 70% rule in place, we certainly better hope so. We all think that Abe Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” and he did, but the real quote originates from Jesus, Matthew 12:25: Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
Let’s all stand together. Join us for this four week sermon series.
This week, we complete our sermon series “The Passages of Life,” with the message “Never too Old/Young.” This is a great conclusion to a series that has been so timely with COVID.
As we pass through this life - our one constant is (or should be) our RELATIONSHIP with God. I imagine God as always tapping on our shoulder, relentlessly pursuing us - and we should be thankful for this. We make so many excuses for why God’s calling in our lives will not work. This week, we will be looking at two examples of this - the Prophet Jeremiah - who when called by the Lord said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young,” and Sarah - who when promised a child by God laughed and said she was too old.
All things are possible with God. What excuses do you have in your life for not being in faithful relationship with God?
I noticed the other day that my favorite coffee cup now has two chips at the top. I do not know when they got there, but I do know they were not here at the beginning of this year.
To me, that seems very appropriate for 2020. By now, don’t we all have a couple of chips around our edges?
This week’s sermon is “God Always Makes a Way,” and it is an excellent followup to last week’s message “Through the Red Sea.” Now, maybe “The Way” is not exactly as we would envision it - I think we can all identify with that. And because it is not exactly how we would envision it, I hear a tagline behind that title.
God Always Makes a Way - But Will You Take It?
When you read and study your Bible, how do you see it? Do you see it as a history lesson, or a set of stories? Today we discuss the Bible as a living, breathing book - one whose messages cross reference not only each other, but also apply to us today.
Join us as we walk through the Red Sea with Moses, and experience the message for our current day circumstances.
Part Two of our sermon series "The Passages of Life."
This week, we begin a new sermon series, “The Passages of Life,” and start with “Through the Narrow Gate.”
A word about passages for you this week - you may not have heard this, with the vast amount of news being thrown at us every day, but journalist and author Gail Sheehy died last month at the age of 83. The vast breadth of Sheehy’s works is notable, but she is probably best recalled for her book "Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life,” published in the 1970s. The book was the result of 100s of interviews with adults, combined with theories of human development by psychologists such as Erik Erikson. The book was named “one of the most 10 influential books of our time” by the Library of Congress, and Sheehy received the Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association.
I guess it is safe to say she knew her stuff.
What Sheehy found in interviewing so many adults, is that there are predictable stages that we all go through in our lifetime. This can be comforting because we tend to like order to things, and we always like to know we are not alone - that other human beings experience similar things.
Except that we are NEVER alone, are we?
Join us this week as we begin exploring our passages with our two constants - self and God.
We all have walls in our lives. The walls are all unique, but we can conquer them through God's help. Join us this week as we discuss Paul's walls, and how they were conquered by both the right people being with him at the right time, and by Christ.
Saul/Paul was an unlikely person to be turned into a spokesperson for Christ. His radical transformation proves that with God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. His life, and his letters, give us a template to live by even today.
Join us for thirty minutes as we relax, and calmly talk about the challenges we all face.
What does yeast have to do with our faith? Yeast is a living organism, and it makes things GROW. We have to be mindful and be on guard of false yeast - false teachings that make our taint our faith. Join us this week as we practice what we preach and discuss that it is our faith in Christ, and this faith alone, that sets us free.
Take 20 minutes away from the stresses of the current day to renew your mind and your faith.
Do you walk by faith, or do you walk by sight? It is a big question - especially right now with everything going on. None of us has lived in a pandemic before.
The people of Israel sent spies to explore the land of Canaan before they as a people would enter it. They missed the signs and signals that God was already there before them, and everything was just as He had promised. Instead, they focused on the negative information given by ten of the spies.
They focused on the negative. Sound familiar?
Join us today as we discuss what it means to trust in God, and to not let our own fears and cognitive distortions destroy us.
Are you looking for signs from God? What exactly are you looking for?
We have had the ultimate sign from God in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. Explore how this one sign - this Sign of Jonah is the only sign that we need. Also see how nothing - not even the Coronavirus can destroy the Temple - which is forever in Christ Jesus.
This week, learn about a Biblical relationship triangle - between Saul, God, and David. See how we all exist in relationship triangles every day, and how to make these healthy. With God as a point in our triangle, we can more easily navigate both our daily stressors, as well as enhance our connection to others.
Get away from the Coronavirus news for a half hour, as Pastor Tracy combines both her counseling and pastoral backgrounds in this unique look at the way things CAN be.
This is the second sermon of our sermon series, "Ichthys - The Jesus Fish." Join us as we talk about those things that we hold on to, and the miracle that happens when we let go.
a href="https://audionautix.com/">Creative Commons Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com