Year: 2016

Sermon:           “Wrong Turns – Part of the Journey”

Theme:            God works through us along the way so that we may be transformed, instructed, and renewed as we follow God’s leading.

Purpose:          The congregation will understand that we are changed by God’s call to open our hearts and listen.

Scriptures:

Jonah 1:1-17   Jonah called to go to Nineveh, and he chooses to disobey God.

Matthew 3:1-12          John the Baptist preaches repentance and baptism.

Questions:

What does it mean to be obedient to God? Is God looking for people who are perfect at following all of the laws and rules that have been given to us? Or is God looking for people who are wanting to use their own intelligence and creativity to follow God? What difference did it make to God that Jonah chose not to go where God was sending him? Why did God continue to work with Jonah and his obedience rather than simply get a different prophet who would be less stubborn? What does it mean to us that God calls us to repentance and to aligning our hearts with our actions?

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Sermon:           Hungry Hearts and Thirsty Souls

Theme:            Our hunger and thirst for what will have meaning and purpose forces us to move from stagnancy to taking risks.

Purpose:          The congregation will be aware of their hunger for God and open to new direction to reach it.

Scriptures:       1 Peter 2:1-12 Longing for the spiritual milk, the stone that was rejected

John 6:26-35   Jesus the bread of life that satisfies hunger

Questions:

What is not fitting in our lives at this time? What are we hungry and thirsting for? What spiritual needs have been going unfilled? What needs to change so that we may be able to put our health in relationships with God, and the people we love ahead of the meaningless things that dominate our lives? What are the stones we have rejected that we should have made central? What are the ways in which we have allowed our identity and purpose to be lost to less important distractions?

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Sermon:           Running Away from Ourselves

Theme:            We struggle with wanting to be free of those things that close in around us that call us to growth but it is in opening ourselves to God that we begin to wrestle with what needs to change.

Purpose:          The congregation will begin to open themselves to risks and change of growth.

Scriptures:       Mark 8:34-37  What does it profit a person to gain the world and lose his life.   Those who lose will find it.

Genesis 32:22-32        Jacob wrestles with the angel as he anticipates meeting his brother and his past.

Questions:

What are the issues and challenges that you wrestle with at night? What are you going to have to face at some time about yourself? What parts of your life do we need to loose so that we may find our lives? What are the places where we are resistant to change? What keeps us from being willing to risk growing and being transformed by God’s work? What do we need to release in order to be able to really live?

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Sermon:           Tourist or Pilgrim

Theme:            A pilgrimage is about living as children of God, and experiencing the healing and transforming power of God.

Purpose:          The congregation will begin the process of making commitments to be changed.

Scriptures:       Genesis 12:1-4    God calls Abram to go to a distant land.

Luke 10:1-7     Jesus sends out the 70.

Questions:

What is the difference between being a tourist and being a pilgrim? What causes someone to want to become a pilgrim? What changes does one need to anticipate when one is going on a pilgrimage? What are we searching for? What are we wanting to get away from? How do we choose to live by faith like Abram? What control will we have to give up when Jesus sends us out as pilgrims? What will we get in return?

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Sermon:           The Fellowship Of God

Theme:            We are in fellowship with God who is a fellowship of diversity, and love.

Purpose:          The congregation will increase in appreciation for relationships and the complexities that take place in our fellowship with other as well as with God.

Scriptures:        Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 Wisdom sings of its creation

Romans 5:1-5  Since we are justified by faith we grow in Character and hope.

John 16:12-15 The Spirit of Truth will glorify Jesus.

Questions:

What difference does the Trinity make to us as Christians? How do we understand God as being with diversity and fellowship? How does that influence our seeking to be the image of God together? What does it mean for us to have wisdom from God? What role does humility play in understanding and receiving the Trinity? What role does wisdom play in being in fellowship and relationship with God and with others? What difference does the health of our relationship with other people have to do with our relationship with God?

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