Messages on Luke (Page 4)
From Ordinary to Significant
Team Pastor Amy Becker continues to look at how upside life is in the kingdom and how God takes what we consider to be an ordinary life and makes it into something very world changing and significant.
Something Worth Giving Everything For
Introduction As we approach the end of July, we approach the end of another ministry year. And this has been a great year. It seems very evident to me that God has been leading us as a church, and God has been blessing our efforts over the last year. It’s not that he owes us because we are something special, but because our desire has been to find where he is working and join him there and to glorify His…
Summer School: Greed and Wealth
Introduction We are in the middle of a series of messages we are doing over the summer called “Summer School: Life Lessons from Proverbs.” Proverbs is this very interesting book in the Old Testament that many people treat like a fortune cookie. When we want advice we crack it open and read one of the “fortunes” to tell us what we should do. The problem is that this isn’t how Proverbs are meant to be read. They aren’t concerned as…
Dialogue: Authentic Prayer
Introduction We are in the middle of a series we are calling “Dialogue: Recovering the Lost Art of Communicating with God.” And that is just our fancy way of saying we want to spend a few weeks talking about prayer. We began the series talking about why prayer is necessary. If we aren’t careful, we can get caught in the trap of thinking praying doesn’t matter, that it doesn’t do anything or change anything, so why bother? But what we…
Dialogue: The Necessity of Prayer
Sermon Podcast Audio Your browser does not support the audio element. Prayer Defined We are kicking off a brand new series of messages we are calling “Dialogue: Recovering the Lost Art of Communicating with God.” Over the next several weeks we want to take a look at how we communicate with God. I think we all bring certain thoughts and ideas about prayer with us, things we have been taught or have heard through the years, passages of the Bible…
Unexpected Encounter
Sermon Podcast Audio Introduction Today I have the privilege of teaching from one of my favorite stories about Jesus. And that’s a pretty BIG statement given all the stories about Jesus in the Bible. I mean, whether you’re a Christian or not, the stories of Jesus in the Bible are rather incredible; they tend to draw you in and make you want to know more about this man and his miracles. He taught with such wisdom. Many of the things he said are cliches everyone…
Unexpected Life
Sermon Podcast Audio Your browser does not support the audio element. Surprises Do you like surprises? Okay, how many of you are normal and don’t like surprises? I don’t. My family and the staff here at church will tell you that I can be a little bit of a control freak and surprises are one of those things I have no control over and therefore I don’t care for them too much. And for me, it doesn’t matter if it…
A Picture Perfect Christmas: The Message of the Angels
Sermon Podcast Audio Your browser does not support the audio element. The Picture It’s Christmastime, so each Sunday we are talking about the birth of Jesus. We are currently in a series called “A Picture Perfect Christmas.” Each week we are taking a look at the scene that occurred a couple of thousand years ago and asking what the significance is of this part of the nativity. We began by looking at the shepherds. We saw how the announcement to…
A Picture Perfect Christmas: The Shepherd’s Crook
Sermon Podcast Audio Your browser does not support the audio element. Christmas Can I tell you what I’m really excited about? Christmas! I can finally light up the outside of my house. We put up the tree and decorations on Friday. My first Christmas celebration begins this coming weekend already—and I get to celebrate it all month long. I’ll celebrate Christmas this year with: The youth here at church The Drake Intervarsity college kids with Amy Everyone who attends the…
The Right Kind of Rich
Introduction It is Thanksgiving week and I hope that your plans are all made and that you’ve already begun to think about what you are thankful for this year. We can easily forget that most countries around the world don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. I think it is probably one of the best holidays we have, not just because of the food, although I am a BIG fan of that. I was talking to my daughter Hannah, who is currently serving as…
Threads: Jesus Changes Everything
Every so often, something or someone comes along that radically transforms the way we think or the way we do things. An event happens, a product is invented, an event transpires, a person is born, and life as we know it is changed forever. For years and years, if you wanted to talk to someone on the phone, you did it standing next to a device that was on a shelf or hanging on the wall. And if you wanted…
Tis the Season for Peace
Do you ever feel guilty at Christmastime? You look around. You see all the smiling faces. You smell the delicious aromas of peppermint, gingerbread, and cinnamon. You hear the carols and other music telling you, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” And you are reminded of all the emotions that you are “supposed” to have, the “right” way to experience Christmas, but for you, your experience is different. You can fake those emotions publicly, but on the inside,…