Teaching
We gather around the scriptures to learn the unfolding story of God.
Forsaken Kings – Psalm 22
At one point or another, we’ve all felt forsaken– the experience of loneliness, isolation, and distance from God. In Psalm 22, that forsaken feeling becomes a question and prayer, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Praise and Lament – Psalm 142
The story of David isn't one that celebrates only mountain tops; it's one that shows the struggles of life and God's faithfulness in the midst. Psalm 142, articulates these ups and downs and ultimately what it looks like to worship God through it all.
A Collaborative Community – Colossians 4:7-18
In this random list of names, more important than any individual name on the list, we catch a glimpse of the good life. Paul concludes his letter to the Colossian people by recounting the work and ways in which God has worked with him and his closest companions. This simple list of names reveals that we are called to be a collaborative community; collaborating with God and one another.
On Prayer – Colossians 4:2-7
Paul believed that prayer was central to living our new kingdom lives in the world; as citizens of this new Kingdom, it is essential that we understand what prayer is, why we pray, and how we pray.
Subversive Love – Colossians 3:17-4:1
Passages like Colossians 3:18-4:1 are known as “household codes” they provide instructions to Christian people on domestic matters. They define what a home life should look like, but many of these instructions seem outdated. At best these instructions seem antiquated; at worst outright misogynistic, domineering, and biased toward the wealthy. However, placed within Paul’s context these instructions suggest a way of being at home that disrupts, upends, and challenges the social hierarchies of his days.
The Forgiving Community– Colossians 3:11-16
Everyone regardless of age, stage, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic background, etc. has experienced some sort of disappointment, disillusionment, or hurt from people in the church. In order to be the community Paul imagines, the Church of Christ, we must practice forgiveness.
Life Together – Colossians 3:11-15
Often times what lies between who we are and who we want to be in Christ is the impulse to hide from life in the community; from life together. In Colossians 3, Paul describes a vision for life together in which we take on the likeness of Christ through our participation in a community of strangers, committed to one another, and under the guidance of the Prince of Peace.
Putting on New Clothes – Colossians 3:5-10
We regularly experience moments in our lives where our expectations for our own maturity and growth do not match reality. In Colossians 3:5-10, Paul challenges our disappointment with a vision for growth that is about learning to grow into the clothes we’ve already been given.
Two Kingdoms – Colossians 3:1-4
To “seek those things that are above” sounds like an impractical set of instructions. In reality, to live out the realities of Christ’s Kingdom involves the inconvenience of proximity and involvement in the messiness of people’s lives.
Only Jesus – Colossians 2:16-23
Paul writes to address Colossian believers’ temptation to conform to Hellenistic Jewish practices; a temptation Paul believes to be detrimental to their faith. This is to say, that for the Colossian Church, and for ourselves, the greatest temptation is not toward apostasy or abandoning the faith; it is not toward outright immoral or unethical behavior; our greatest temptation is to believe the subtle lie that Christ is insufficient.
Captivity and Victory – Colossians 2:8-15
Many of us experience a soul-level weariness that feels like war, and the voice we choose to believe will either lead us into captivity or into victory.
On Spiritual Maturity – Colossians 1:24-2:7
After building this foundation of who Christ is and reminding the Colasse church yet again that Jesus is the Messiah in Chapter 1; Paul gets to the purpose of his whole letter– spiritual maturity.
The Story of Redemption – Colossians 1:13-23
The story of Redemption is written across human history and culminates in the resurrection of Jesus that first Easter; this is the story Paul tells in a short piece of poetry written to the Colossian church.
Three Warnings – Matthew 7:13-27
Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus consistently challenges the status quo, inviting His apprentices to live out his Kingdom. The final section of Jesus’ sermon offers three warnings that iterate a similar idea– put Jesus’ teachings into practice.
Prayer and The Golden Rule – Matthew 7:7-12
In Matthew 7:7-12, Jesus invites his apprentices to ask anything of God. Christ’s disciples can foster a life of prayer that goes to God with everything and then extends that goodness to all through the golden rule.
Judge Not – Matthew 7:1-6
In general, many of us are hypercritical, unaccepting of differences, and quick to pass judgment. In Matthew 7:1-6, Jesus confronts that hypercritical posture, not with undisciplined acceptance, but by first taking a hard look at our own life.
Do not be Anxious – Matthew 6:25–32
At surface value, Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:25-24, “do not be anxious” can seem dismissive. Upon further investigation, within the context of his life, Jesus is offering us a framework of faith to not just cope with the anxieties of life but to truly become a non-anxious presence.
Lay Up Treasures – Matthew 6:19-24
Monetary dissatisfaction and the desire for more possessions are not new phenomena. in Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus gently confronts his disciples’ desire for more beckoning them to redirect their desires’ toward those things of eternal value.
When You Fast – Matthew 6:16-18
To be human is to experience a complex web of appetites and desires. Many of those desires are healthy and natural; while others are more nefarious, corrosive, and wrong, and in many ways, those desires can master us. For millennia, fasting, going without food and drink for a period of time, has been a core practice of the Church. This is in part because it brings our body and spirit into alignment and clarifies our desires.
When You Pray – Matthew 6:5-15
Jesus envisions a life energized by prayer for his disciples, so much so that it is difficult to imagine a life of apprenticeship to Jesus absent of a healthy prayer life. But if we are honest, most of us would acknowledge that prayer is a weak point in our apprenticeship to Jesus. In Matthew 6:5-15, Jesus comments on two misunderstandings of prayer and then will give one of the most profound teachings on life with God in the Lord’s Prayer.