Advent 1 (12/1): Not Dead Yet

Nothing is dead until God says so. On the first Sunday of Advent we look at the hope of a Returning Christ who will arrive and is our righteousness. The Branch of David looks dead, but it is not.

Advent 2 (12/8): Refined by Love

God sent a messenger to prepare the way for his arrival, because our tendency is to think the day of the Lord will be easy for us and hard for others. But God is coming to refine with fire and bleach. However, God’s justice is not punitive, but purifying.

Advent 3 (12/15): Rejoice in Renewal

On the third Sunday of Advent, we focus on the life-giving joy that comes from God alive in our midst. Zephaniah prophesies to the Judahites to rejoice in the present because of what God had done in the past and what he promised to do in the future.

Advent 4 (12/22): People of Peace

The Fourth Sunday of Advent reveals our final theme of the season: peace. In this week’s sermon, Adam explores how Jesus is the “One of Peace” whom Micah prophesied would come. What does it mean to follow Jesus if not to be a person of peace?

Jesus is the King. We do not put him on the throne, God did. In such a time as this, we are ever more lacking the reminder that the one who is in the King of all things is Jesus. On this Christ the King Sunday, we look at Daniel 7:13-14 I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus challenges the way that we ask questions surrounding how we love our neighbors. Do we do so by identifying our neighbors or looking inward?

Calendars influence our lives in deep and dramatic ways. In the Old Testament, God gave the Israelites a calendar to revolve their lives around him. It is no wonder the Church has developed a calendar to help us revolve our lives around Christ.

On the first Sunday of November, we reflect on those who have passed from our lives this past year, with eyes towards hope in the face of mortality.

The primary metaphor for a disciple in the book of Acts is that of a “witness.” Over this four week series we look at what it means to be a witness and how we can be witnesses for Jesus.

Week One: Bearing Witness

The first lesson is what it means to be a witness and why this metaphor is helpful and empowering. When the world questions our faith, it is not we who are on trial, it is God. Take comfort, and bear witness.

Week Two: Learning to See

There are so many moments in a day. Jesus says that he and the Father are working in every moment. He commissioned Paul to bear witness to what he had seen and will see, and to open the eyes of those whom he encountered so they could see God. How do we learn to see God at work at any time?

Week Three: God’s Coworkers

In Corinthians, Paul says that we are God’s coworkers. What an amazing privilege. Anywhere we see the Fruit of the Spirit being displayed, or we are being invited to grow in our ability to display those fruits, we can see that as a place where God is inviting us to partner with him!

Week 4: Tell Your Story

When Paul stands up before the Jewish leaders in Acts 22, he asks them to “listen to his defense” of his faith, before telling his story of how God has worked in his life. From this, we learn that we, too, have an amazing defense of our faith: the story which God has told and is telling through our lives.

James is the New Testament letter of Wisdom. Full of advice about how to live as people of God, we will sit at James’ feet to be challenged to live up to our potential in Jesus, that we may have a faith that is alive, and not dead.

Week 1: Quick Ears, Slow Tongues, Long Fuses

In the first week of this series, we looked at James 1: 19-21, in which James invites his community to embrace humility by having quick ears, slow tongues, and long fuses. “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

Week 2: The Modelled Life

In talking about how to live, James asserts that “faith, if it does not have works, is dead.” There should be evidences of our faith that are visible to those around us. Is that true for you?

Week 3: The Big M

Our mouths are full of deadly poison, and set on fire by hell itself. The way that we handle our speech is not only about us, it affects the whole community.

Week 4: The Wisdom of Peace

What does wisdom look like? What does it mean to be wise? James answers these questions in our text today.

Week 5: The Center of the Made Alive Life

James describes prayer as the thing around which a life of faith revolves and is saturated with.

This Sermon Series Looks at John 6, a series of teachings where Jesus uses bread as a metaphor for himself, God’s love, and discipleship.

Week 1: Abundant God

In the feeding of the 5,000 Jesus reveals something important about God, himself, and the Kingdom: abundance is the expectation. Jesus fights our fears of scarcity by showing abundance. What do we do with that?
Scripture: John 6:1-15

Week 2: Soul Food

Jesus warns against working for things that perish and do not give life, instead, to do the work of God. Jesus tells us that the work of God is to believe in Jesus. What is the food that feeds our soul? Our Faith in Jesus.
Scripture: John 6:24-35

Week 3: Hopeful Expectancy

The crowds have known Jesus for a long time. They cannot wrap their head around the idea that Jesus is something more than they’ve seen or known. In this lection, Jesus challenges us to hopefully expect that God will transform the ordinary to extraordinary, and reveal himself.
Scripture: John 6:35, 41-51

Week 4: Gastro Theology

In the most visceral readings in John 6, Jesus tells the crowds to gnaw on his flesh. Only Jesus will give life to the world. Jesus invites us to know his sacrifice, to savor this truth, and to abide in him.
John 6:51-58

Week 5: Sometimes the Hardest Thing and the Right Thing are the Same

The crowd is challenged by Jesus’ teaching. “This is difficult, who can accept it?” they ask. In our last reading from John 6, we are invited to ask the question, “Is Jesus worth it?” All disciples find the truth in Peter’s words: “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Alone, we are powerless, with Jesus, we can find eternal life.
John 6:56-69

Jesus invited his disciples to rest a while. Do we have habits of rest and solitude? What might we gain from such?

Justin Burge, Executive Director of Campus Collective Christian Ministries, uses the story of David defeating Goliath to inspire us to think about the stories people are telling us about ourselves, how those affect us, and how to sift through them to find the story God is telling us.

Scripture: 1 Samuel 17
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