2011 SUNDAY WORSHIP THEMES - click on sermon title link (as available) to hear audio
Click here to see themes and hear audios from prior years.
Sunday, February 27, 2011:
Sermon: "The Body of Christ" (Howard)
Sunday, March 13, 2011: First Sunday of Lent
Scripture: Genesis 2:4-9
Sermon: "Being Who We Are!"
Sunday, March 20, 2011: Second Sunday of Lent
Scripture: Genesis 2:18-25
Sermon: "Made For Each Other"
Sunday, March 27: Third Sunday of Lent
Scripture: Genesis 3:1-10
Sermon: “Knowing More Than We Think We Do”
The story of the fall depicts the real seed of our undoing. We seem to want to control and know in such a way that we want to become like God. We rebel against our place in creation as created. Such rebellion and acting upon it creates a brokenness that leaves us vulnerable and alone. Only God can restore the brokenness.
Sunday, April 3: Fourth Sunday of Lent
Scripture: Genesis 3:11-24
Sermon: “Living In a Fallen World”
As a result of man’s decision to rebel against God and God’s way we now live in a world characterized by sin, brokenness, and suffering. It is humankind’s decisions that produce such expressions of life not God’s. We must come to grips with the shadow side of who we are before there will ever be any hope for our redemption.
Sunday, April 10: Fifth Sunday of Lent
Scripture: Luke 2:1-20
Sermon: “God Never Gives Up”
The birth of the Christ into the world restores humankind and all of creation to the possibility of wholeness. God’s love will rule the day and the Kingdom of God will not be overcome. Christ becomes the expression of such loving in the everyday of our lives.
Sunday, April 17: Palm Sunday
Scripture: John 12:20-30
Sermon: “What Shall We Say?”
Jesus has had a triumphal entry into our lives too. At some point we have heard about him. Some of us have accepted him into our lives as Lord and savior. But what does that mean? The very people that praised him on this day crucified him a few days later. Are we so fickle in our relationship with him?
Sunday, April 24: Easter Sunday
Scripture: John 20:1-18
Sermon: “Who Is It You Are Looking For?”
Why are we here today. Who are we looking for? Each person must answer for themselves who this Christ is to them and the place of this risen Lord in their lives. Either he is the Lord of our lives or he is not. Mary and the disciples were never the same after the experience of the empty tomb. Neither should we? Such a reality should change us forever!
Sunday, May 1, 2011: Confirmands helping with communion
Scripture: John 20:19-31
Sermon: “What Difference Does It Make?”
Following the resurrection of Jesus we dare to ask what difference does it make? As the disciples gathered in the upper room after the resurrection story in John Jesus appears to them and dares to help them find and experience the reality of the answer to that question for them. The answer for us lies in how real Jesus becomes through the work of the Holy Spirit in our own relationship with him just as it did for them.
Sunday, May 8, 2011: Mother’s Day
Scripture: Acts 2:14, 36-41
Sermon: “What Shall We Do?”
In light of the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit into the life of the world what shall we do in response to what God has done, is doing, and will do? Claiming the reality of God’s promises in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit will be the most important response we make in our lives. Have we received the gift of the Holy Spirit and all that it means?
Sunday, May 15, 2011: Senior Sunday
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Scripture: Acts 2:42-47
Sermon: “What It Means To Be Led”
As the early church responds to the work of God’s Holy Spirit they take on a new direction and movement to their lives. Certain actions now define who they are and what they do. So it shall be with us. Led by the Holy Spirit of God directs our living in specific ways identified by specific actions.
Sunday, May 29, 2011:
Scripture: Acts 17:22-31
Sermon: “Living, Moving, and Having Our Being!” (audio not available)
Life in the Spirit defines all of who we are and all of how we live. The Holy Spirit shape us, molds us, and forms us. Anything other than such shaping and forming is less than God has created for us. Too many people have decided for less. Repentance turns us towards a life vested completely in God and the Holy Spirit.
Sunday, June 5, 2011: Read the Bible Kick-Off
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Sermon: “Let the Word of God Speak!”
We will kick off the Bible reading on this Sunday. The theme will be to allow God’s Word to speak to us and direct us in who we are and how we live our lives. I will focus on what it means to hear a word that is God breathed and the power of such hearing!
Sunday, June 12, 2011: Confirmation Sunday!
Scripture: Acts 2:1-21
Sermon: “Spirit Led!” (audio not available)
Our eight confirmands will be confirmed on this Sunday. They will be committing themselves on this day to live a life led by the Holy Spirit of God. I will be talking about what such a life feels like and looks like.
Sunday, June 19, 2011: Father’s Day!
Scripture: 1 John 4:7-19
Sermon: "The Perfect Love Of A Father" (Matt)
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11
Sermon: “How Will We Measure Up!?”
Jesus is led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. It is a biblical truth that faith is always formed in the wilderness of our life’s journey. We will be looking at the tools Jesus used in such wilderness wandering that made all the difference in his own measuring up to being faithful to the one who called him.
Sunday, July 3, 2011: Communion Sunday
Scripture: Luke 4:14-21
Sermon: “Freedom Is Never Free!” (audio not available)
Everybody wants to be free but very few are willing to pay the price that any true freedom demands. Wanting freedom for freedom’s sake is not only selfish, it is irresponsible and it is a cheap kind of freedom. Freedom by its very nature is always costly because there will always be those who will want to possess it in a selfish way and deny its access to others. The freedom we enjoy every day in this land of the free and home of the brave has come and continues to come at the sacrifice of so many. Part of the joy and thanksgiving that comes in accepting such freedom at such a cost is the way in which we live it and the responsibility of doing our part to make sure that others have it! If we are not willing to do our part in sharing it with others than it has become a corrupt and vile freedom. Freedom can never be possessed by any of us. The true nature of freedom is that it is meant to be given away and shared. That is part of what Jesus sought to say as he stood up in his hometown synagogue and read from Isaiah these powerful words of liberation and freedom. Jesus was willing to pay the price freedom required of him. Are we? I certainly hope so because true freedom is never free! Thank God for those who understood that and who have given their lives for it!!!
Sunday, July 10, 2011:
Scripture: Psalm 46:1-3, 10, 11
Sermon: “_______ Is My Strength And Refuge” (Trey Oakely)
Sunday, July 17, 2011:
Scripture: Luke 8:22-25
Sermon: "Who Is This?"
Jesus calms the storm and his actions bewilder the disciples into asking the question, “Who Is This!?” There are many times in our lives when God shows up and we are somewhat dumbstruck and asking the same question. The answer to that question should be obvious related to our experience of God in Christ. God’s presence as it finds expression in our lives seems so foreign to us as it did to them that night. God’s faithful work when expressed seems even stranger still. When will we learn that God is who God says God is. The disciples just couldn’t quite comprehend who it was that was sharing the boat with them that evening. We, too, struggle to understand who it is that shares life with us in the midst of whatever life experience we are living. Our answer to the question the disciples posed that evening is one that should be obvious. However, due to our obsessive need to know and to understand so oftentimes we just fail to realize who it is that is present in the moments we live. You think by now we would get it! Our doubt and unwillingness to trust what we cannot fully understand or know just seems to get the best of us most the time. Who is this? It is a question we seem to still be asking. Madison Kelly will also be joining us in worship this Sunday as a witness to what God has been doing in her life recently. Please pray for Madison as she prepares.
Sunday, July 24, 2011:
Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21
Sermon: "A Hopeful Prayer!"
In this powerful passage we discover Paul praying for the new church start in Ephesus. As Paul begins the prayer he is quick to identify the source of all that follows, who is God. Paul begins by sharing his confident and abiding belief in a God of abundance. Paul also seeks to define that the work of God is an inward work that seeks an outward expression in and through the lives of those God calls. God’s love becomes the heart, soul, and guiding essence of such expression. Such an expression of God’s love always is motivated, inspired, and implemented by God. We struggle so with such a reality. We tend to continue to get in the way of what God seeks, orders, and hopes for us and for our world. So Paul, knowing our temptation to make it all about us, powerfully prays that with God’s help we may be filled to the measure of God’s fullness. Paul reminds us that it is God’s power that lies within us. The secret is how to allow such power to flow in and through and out of us into the world in the only the way God can love. What a wonderful expression of Paul’s love for this church. You sense his hope for them as well as his faith in them. Such a prayer needs to be prayed for any church. Such hope is always at the center of our praying as we seek to fulfill all that God and God’s love longs to do in and through our witness to a hurting and broken world. Isn’t that our hope for Craig and Meg on this day. As they leave us, led by God to minister in a different place, we send them forth with a hopeful prayer that God’s love will go with them as they seek to continue the journey of living up to the fullness of God’s love as it seeks expression in and through their lives and ministry!
Sunday, August 14, 2011:
Scripture: Luke 15:24-31
Sermon: "A Matter Of The Heart"
Sunday, August 21, 2011: Mission Sunday
Scripture: Mark 6:30-44
Sermon: "Limited Resources, Unlimited Possibilities"
Sunday, August 28, 2011:
Scripture: Mark 1:35-39
Sermon: "Practicing The Presence Of God"
Sunday, September 4, 2011: Communion Sunday
Scripture: Romans 5:1-11
Sermon: "Hope Is Where The Heart Is (Matt)"
Sunday, September 11, 2011: Let's Roll!
Scripture: Matthew 26:36-46
Sermon: "Hope Is Where The Heart Is (Matt)"
Sunday, September 18, 2011: The Dare to Live Fully Kickoff and Challenge
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Sermon: "The Dare To Live Fully"
Sunday, September 25, 2011: Bazaar Weekend - 10:50 Combined Service Under the Tent
Scripture: Luke 17:11-19
Sermon: "Now Is The Time And This Is The Place" (no audio available)
Sunday, October 2, 2011: World Communion Sunday
Scripture: Philippians 4:10-13
Sermon: "Enough Is Enough!"
Sunday, October 9, 2011:
Scripture: Luke 24:13-33
Sermon: "Don't You See?"
Sunday, October 16, 2011:
Scripture: Philippians 3:10-14
Sermon: "How Is Your Grip?"
Sunday, October 23, 2011:
Scripture: Matthew 5:8
Sermon: "Hearts That Are Pure, Eyes That Can See!"
Sunday, October 30, 2011:
Scripture:
Sermon: (no audio available)
Sunday, November 6, 2011: All Saints Sunday
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-2
Sermon: "Faithful Living In Uncertain Times: A Promise Worth Seeking"
Sunday, November 13, 2011:
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:3-7
Sermon: "Faithful Living In Uncertain Times: A Gift Worth Receiving"
Sunday, November 20, 2011:
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:8-12
Sermon: "Faithful Living In Uncertain Times: A Life Worth Sharing"
Sunday, November 27, 2011:
Scripture (8:30am): Hebrews 2:14-15
Sermon (8:30am): The Cost Of Christmas (Matt)
Scripture (10:50am): Matthew 6:31-34
Sermon (10:50am): Preparing For The Christ (Trey Oakley)
Sunday, December 4, 2011:
Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-5
Sermon: "Desperately Hoping!"
Sunday, December 11, 2011: Christmas Cantata
Scripture: “Completed Joy Is Shared Joy (Matt)”
Sermon: John 15:9-11
Sunday, December 18, 2011:
Scripture: “The Priceless Gift of Peace”
Sermon: John 14:25-27
Saturday, December 24, Christmas Eve:
Scripture: Luke 2:1-20
Sermon: “Looking For Love In All The Right Places!”
Sunday, December 25, Christmas Day:
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25
Sermon: “God With Us”
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