2023 November

Gratitude Overflows into Peace

Gratitude Overflows into Peace

This sermon is based on Philippians 4:4-7. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Gratitude makes all the difference. It increases our happiness, provides a deep sense of contentment, and fills us with all sorts of positive emotions. And that is why everyone tells us to work hard to cultivate an attitude of gratitude and promises that we won’t regret doing so. But gratitude produces much more than great emotions. Cicero knew the secret: “Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all others.” And what a parent! Gratitude produces all sorts of significant spiritual fruit. This Thanksgiving season, join us as we explore the fruit produced by an overflow of gratitude. Trust me: you will thank me that you came. In fact, you’ll be more grateful for everything!

A Bonhoeffer Thanksgiving 2023

A Bonhoeffer Thanksgiving 2023

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for and to rejoice in all of God’s good gifts to us. And for me, whenever I think of God’s gifts, I pause to give thanks for all of my teachers, both those who stood physically in front of me and for all those who wrote great books that shaped me in ways I can’t begin to enumerate. And so today, I thought it would be good for us to read a section from one of my book-writing teachers. The following two paragraphs are from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic book, Life Together: A Discussion of Christian Fellowship. Since Thanksgiving is upon us, and since the main theses of these paragraphs is thanksgiving, I invite you to feast on what Bonhoeffer says here. He writes: “Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship and because God has bound us together in one

Gratitude Overflows into Worship

Gratitude Overflows into Worship

This sermon is based on Psalm 100. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Gratitude makes all the difference. It increases our happiness, provides a deep sense of contentment, and fills us with all sorts of positive emotions. And that is why everyone tells us to work hard to cultivate an attitude of gratitude and promises that we won’t regret doing so. But gratitude produces much more than great emotions. Cicero knew the secret: “Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all others.” And what a parent! Gratitude produces all sorts of significant spiritual fruit. This Thanksgiving season, join us as we explore the fruit produced by an overflow of gratitude. Trust me: you will thank me that you came. In fact, you’ll be more grateful for everything!

The Twisted Parable

The Twisted Parable

You are probably wondering what a parable is. That’s easy. “Parables are imaginary gardens with real toads in them” (M. Moore). In other words, parables are harmless little stories until they grab hold of you and rip your head off. To say it much more nicely, a parable is more than a narrative with some homespun wisdom. Instead, it is a weapon of mass disruption designed to make the hearers think or, maybe more accurately, make them rethink everything they believe. In short, parables intend to distract an audience so that when the audience isn’t looking, it can hit them with the truth in a way they didn’t see coming! See, parables are not simple stories. They are stories with teeth. But to do that, parables employ the “unexpected twist”—a twist in the story that no one saw coming, a twist in the story that was shocking, a twist in

Gratitude Overflows into Generosity

Gratitude Overflows into Generosity

This sermon is based on 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Gratitude makes all the difference. It increases our happiness, provides a deep sense of contentment, and fills us with all sorts of positive emotions. And that is why everyone tells us to work hard to cultivate an attitude of gratitude and promises that we won’t regret doing so. But gratitude produces much more than great emotions. Cicero knew the secret: “Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all others.” And what a parent! Gratitude produces all sorts of significant spiritual fruit. This Thanksgiving season, join us as we explore the fruit produced by an overflow of gratitude. Trust me: you will thank me that you came. In fact, you’ll be more grateful for everything!

A Flood of a Story

A Flood of a Story

By now, you know the scoop. We often use scripts at the youth group (aka, the Edge). They are discussion starters, not finishers. They are created to make people think, not to give them answers. And they are meant to help people see some of the stories in the Bible with new eyes or maybe even to feel the story for the first time. This script, I believe, does all those things. But you need to know a few things before you read it. First, you’re going to have to sing. Now, the songs should be familiar (except, perhaps, in one case), but unfortunately the words have all been changed. Sorry. The four songs are (in the order they appear in the script), “Sing to the Power of the Lord Comes Down,” (if you don’t know it, do me a favor and just pretend like you do), “God Bless America;”

Gratitude Overflows into Humility

Gratitude Overflows into Humility

This sermon introduces our new series and is based on Romans 1:18-25. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Gratitude makes all the difference. It increases our happiness, provides a deep sense of contentment, and fills us with all sorts of positive emotions. And that is why everyone tells us to work hard to cultivate an attitude of gratitude and promises that we won’t regret doing so. But gratitude produces much more than great emotions. Cicero knew the secret: “Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all others.” And what a parent! Gratitude produces all sorts of significant spiritual fruit. This Thanksgiving season, join us as we explore the fruit produced by an overflow of gratitude. Trust me: you will thank me that you came. In fact, you’ll be more grateful for everything!

Voting in the Garden

Voting in the Garden

Feel free to skip this paragraph (it’s the same one from before; same old, same old for you, but for a first-time-blog-reader, it is probably helpful; plus, I get paid by the word). Every once in a while, to kick off a discussion at our youth group (aka, the Edge), we have a script. They are not necessarily designed to give answers. Instead, they are meant to make people think or to think differently about things. We want people to look at things differently, to see things in a different light and to feel the story (and not just “think the story”—or worse, “I already know the story”). Yes, it is also entertaining (at least, I hope it is entertaining); and yes, it is a conversation starter and not the end of a conversation. So, here’s the deal: I’m happy to share these scripts, but you will have to provide