Are you longing to experience the transformative power of God's kingdom in your life and world? In this sermon, Pastor Nick dives into the parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven, uncovering the subversive hope and challenge of these simple stories. Discover how the kingdom grows in slow, hidden, but powerful ways, and be inspired to participate in its transformative work through small acts of faithfulness, welcome, and compassion.
The imagery of the gate separating the rich man and Lazarus in life, which becomes an impassable chasm after death is truly fascinating. This literary parallel highlights the story's central theme - though the two men were in close proximity, separated only by a permeable gate, their drastically different experiences reflect their allegiance to different masters.
Join us as we explore the stark contrast between Simon's judgmental self-righteousness and the woman's humble, extravagant devotion. Be challenged to examine your own heart for traces of a Simon-like attitude and be inspired to embrace the way of the woman - a way marked by gratitude, generosity, and love in response to the depths of forgiveness we have received in Christ.
As we trace Peter's journey from failure to forgiveness to recommissioning, we discover the heart of the Jesus Creed and the hope of New Creation - no matter how far we have fallen, Jesus' love is always there to welcome us back and empower us to love as he loves. This gospel message challenges us to let the creed reshape every part of our lives, to live as New Creation people in a world that desperately needs the hope we have in Christ.
Join us as we gather around the table with Jesus and his disciples. Through the lens of the Jesus Creed, Pastor Nick will lead us in a profound exploration of God's scandalous grace and the radical welcome we find in Christ. As we confront the surprising makeup of Jesus' table fellowship, we'll discover how his love remixes our notions of worthiness and transforms our understanding of belonging.
Join us for this Palm Sunday message as we venture beyond the triumphal entry to explore the way of the cross. Through a fresh look at Philippians 2:4-11 and the Jesus Creed, we'll discover how Christ's example radically redefines love and challenges us to walk in the way of humility, self-giving, and sacrificial service. Come ready to be inspired and empowered to live out the transforming love of the gospel in your daily life and relationships.
In this eye-opening message, Pastor Nick invites us to reconsider our understanding of conversion through the lens of Peter's story and the Jesus Creed. He challenges the common notion that conversion is a one-time event, proposing instead that it is a lifelong process of being reoriented around the self-giving love of Jesus.
In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we see a father whose love knows no bounds, welcoming home both his rebellious younger son and his resentful older son with open arms. This extravagant, unconditional love is the very heart of God, and the model for our mission as the church. Join us as we explore what it means to embody the Father's prodigal heart and become a community defined by radical grace.
What if prayer was less about getting from God and more about partnering with His Kingdom purposes?
Join us as we discover how this famous prayer balances love for God and neighbor equally, acting as an anchor for life's struggles and joys. Be challenged to realign your habits, perspectives, and even our church culture around Jesus himself embedded within the Lord's Prayer.
Jesus' creed of sacred love for God and others stands as the core ethic of authentic faith. This call to pour ourselves out compels us to break barriers and bind wounds.
We must become conduits of boundary-breaking love and compassion; as ambassadors reconciling all people to God through and in Christ.
What matters most in Jesus’ teachings?
Hear his radical answer to a question on the greatest commandment: love God fully and love neighbors selflessly. In this first sermon on the Jesus Creed, we see how Jesus expanded on the Jewish Shema to make sacred love the definitive creed and cornerstone of spiritual life. Join us as we seek to realign ourselves
Is the book of Jonah really just about some rebellious prophet getting swallowed by a big fish? Or could this captivating little story contain surprising gospel connections?
See unexpected links between Jonah’s descent into the deep and Jesus’ ultimate despair, death and exaltation for humanity. Grasp the ironic role reversals and radical compassion that refuse to let one lost sheep remain in the dark.
When God's mercy spills beyond borders we impose, grace invariably disturbs - as Jonah's resentment reveals. Still the Spirit patiently reasons, confronting prejudice embedded in God's people against unlikely recipients. Where our hearts contradict lavish compassion, take responsibility to align beliefs with practice. Celebrate redemption however packaged.
Join us this Sunday as we explore Jonah's calloused heart toward God's enemies—and how the Ninevites end up responding better to truth than even the reluctant prophet!
We'll discover why judgment and love make surprising teammates working toward redemption. And we'll discuss as a church family how to defeat religious hypocrisy with humility, allowing God's lavish grace to reach people we prefer to avoid.
Join us as we dive into Jonah's poetic prayer for deliverance in chapter 2. Though extolling beautiful theology, his later actions expose religious hypocrisy. Still the Lord refuses to abandon stubborn Jonah, lavishing relentless grace on this rebellious prophet, exemplifying how God tirelessly woos back his defiant children. What if authentic repentance is not an event, but a perpetual lifestyle beckoning us to greater surrender through encounter with radical love?
Last Sunday the spotlight revealed a prophet running from God's call. This week traces Jonah's descent into spiritual apathy. See how his defiant disobedience leads to religious hypocrisy & shocking role reversals with unbelievers. Absorb unnerving warnings about how stubbornness breeds numbness over time; yet witness grace pursuing this runaway prophet even to the very depths of the sea. Could tendencies lurking in Jonah actually reside within us as well?
Discover the Book of Jonah as you've never encountered it before - subversive satire concealing commentary on religious prejudice. Through outrageous plot twists involving a rebellious prophet swallowed by a giant fish, the story upends pious hypocrisy and spotlights the boundless scandal of grace. Laugh and squirm as God exposes our stubborn disobedience, then relentless pursues even the most defiant with compassion. This odd little book will challenge many of our notions.
When you think "new creation," do images of God demolishing earth come to mind? Many assume that. But Scripture reveals a far richer vision of healed wonder! We explore Isaiah's glimpse into God's plans to restore the broken universe through Christ, shaped by the concept of "Jubilee" - liberation, renewal, justice. Jesus announced these promises were unfolding through his ministry. Could a radical global makeover really await?
Let's reimagine this world’s hope-filled destiny in Christ.
This Christmas, will we join the cosmic mission of hope? Just as the Father sent the Son to dwell among us in love, now Jesus sends us filled with His Spirit to spread compassion. Join us this Sunday as we catch vision to bless our communities through small, ordinary acts of service and kindness that whisper of Emmanuel. Be part of His advent that continues today!
As angelic host herald Christmas tidings of comfort and joy over outcast shepherds, an infant’s cry crescendos the age-old Promise. From Zechariah’s tongue-tied wonder to Mary’s praise, barren wombs swell with joy obliterating shame. The babe leaping in Elizabeth’s aged belly foreshadows Joy himself vaulting earthward to us.
We behold Him unveiled in weakness wearing the smile of a child. This stumbling Advent of radiance and redemption is good news....of great joy for all people.
This Christmas, will we make room for the unexpected ways the marginalized infant King wants to welcome the foreigner, bind up the oppressed, and reconcile long-broken relationships?
Sent for the Waiting: Discover biblical hope while learning to embrace seasons of tension and longing for God's deliverance.
Despite aims of radical welcome, subtle biases leave some feeling like outsiders in many faith communities. Jesus himself embraced villainized groups - the sick, sinful, and even the mentally ill. What if the church followed his model?
Join us in envisioning Spirit-led communities where marginalized voices help transform assumptions and are drawn in from the margins through radical love.
How you think about thankfulness could be limiting its potential. Learn to redefine gratitude based on Scripture, and maybe even a bit of the science?
Shame says ‘I am bad.’ Guilt says ‘What I did was bad.’
Guilt focuses on behavior, shame on identity. Like all emotions, guilt and shame reveal something important. But they can easily spiral into destructive cycles that pull us away from God’s truth.
The good news of Jesus is that grace sets us free from shame’s power. It transforms guilt into conviction that leads to hope and redemption.
When it comes to sadness, humans often pressure one another to "get over it" quickly and focus on joy. But the Bible shows God meeting and comforting the grieving - Jesus wept at Lazarus' tomb, David openly in mourning, and God hears the cries of those who lament.
This sermon explores how we can faithfully engage grief through communal support and hope in God's redemption, learning to grieve with hope over offering religious cliches.
What if we became a community devoted to interpreting and living out Scripture with Jesus' shepherding heart? Join us as we envision engaging the Bible with humility, literacy, and compassion that builds up our most vulnerable.
You'll come away stirred to embrace the Bible in grace-filled ways that shine light into broken places.
Fear keeping you up at night? Join us this Sunday as we explore how to transform anxiety from foe to friend. You'll discover the incredible Bible story of how God meets Moses' fears with an unexpected response: "I am with you." From this profound promise emerges a radical motif traced through Scripture. Leave with hope that in Jesus, you have power to transform anxiety from the inside out.
Come explore the Bible’s approach to anxiety. Even Jesus expressed anguish in Gethsemane, yet modeled working through it with faith. Learn how reframing anxiety as a signal, not a sin, allows us to engage it constructively. Be encouraged that God meets us in our distress, ready to replace panic with peace.
Does faith prevent adversity?
Job's story confronts this harmful misconception. When trauma strikes, authentic faith grapples and questions rather than suppresses. It expresses anguish openly before God.
Discover how Job models a gritty, messy faith that clings to threads of hope amidst despair. Find deeper perspective on suffering as our Divine Comforter enters fully into human anguish in the broken body of Christ.
In this sermon on mental health, Pastor Nick dives into the apostle Paul's framework for inner healing and wholeness. Discover how identifying with Christ, renewing the mind, cultivating the fruit of the Spirit, Christlike community, and embracing weakness provide pathways of grace and hope.
"Jesus pioneered a radical, holistic approach to mental health struggles. His message and ministry addressed emotional issues with humility and compassion, uncovering root struggles while prescribing spiritual practices to heal hearts and minds. Jesus came to restore shalom - an enduring wholeness. The church today is called to extend the gentle, compassionate care modeled by Christ, understanding mental health burdens with patience and validation instead of judgment."
"The gospel of Jesus Christ brings radical good news regarding our emotions and inner lives. When we embrace God's kingdom values, our limited perspectives and unhealthy practices are powerfully confronted and redeemed. As we meditate on the life and teachings of Jesus, we gain wisdom and freedom to relate to ourselves and others in transformative ways."
"Grace gives you the freedom to love yourself."
Ecclesiastes calls us to a nuanced dance - neither naive idealism nor total cynicism. Engaging the world honestly, yet hopefully. Acknowledging brokenness and uncertainty, yet celebrating whispering hints of beauty, truth and purpose.
This is very much the vision of kingdom people, because these whispering hints, these seemingly “small” gifts of God, are all part of realizing the newness of life found in Jesus, in spite of life’s smoke.
How do we reconcile the teachings of the Critic with the framework presented by the Author? Join us as we take a closer look at the framework of the Author (Ecclesiastes 12:9-14), and how the reframed words of the Teacher show up in the teachings of Jesus- about life in the Kingdom of God.
“Thankfully, we have talked about what is central to the Critic’s worldview, an understanding that all of life is hevel. However, that’s only half his take. While everything is hevel, the Teacher exhorts the reader to see the “gift of God”, or to recognize every experience in life as God’s gift.
So which is it Mr. Critic? Hevel or Gift?
Much to my surprise, it was both.”
In this 2nd lecture of the series, pastor Nick encourages us to consider closely the words of the Teacher/Critic, framing them properly within the author's intentions. Considering the 3 "great equalizers" of time, death and chance, the Teacher solidifies a compelling case for seeing everything as hevel. "Hevel, Hevel", says the Teacher, "everything is so utterly hevel".
Only by looking at what the Critic calls the "gift of God", does the Teacher begin to reveal how to live meaningfully in a world full of hevel.
#hevel
#ohcrc
“Smoke of smokes!”, says The Critic, “everything, is smoke”.
Did you know the Bible make some space for a critic to share insights on everything to wisdom itself?
Do you want to be well? What comes to mind when you think of Jesus asking this question? What does it reveal about God’s nature as love itself? What does it reveal about humans?
How does Jesus see love and forgiveness? What does he connect them to?
Jesus doesn’t call Christians to tolerate their enemies or people they can’t stand. He calls them to “Agape” love them, and let that love speak for itself. This question Jesus asks here obliges the reader to do a double take, questioning who we choose to love, and why.
We are nurtured in a culture that encourages answer-giving over question-asking. And that culture runs deep in church, too.
You know one thing pros and beginners have in common? Practice. Practice, Practice, Practice. Faith works the same way.
Are Christians known for the way they celebrate? Are we centers of distribution for the joy and presence of God?
Some of us confuse self-denial with self-negligence and consider it a virtue. Is that truly the way of Christ? How do we practice good stewardship of the precious life, gifts, and body we have been given?
Godly submission is rooted in God's good and loving intentions for each one of us. Submission is not something God forces down our throats, because forcing submission is oppression. Submission is the way we allow God's Kingdom Agenda to shape our choices, relationships, and vocations, always working in conjunction with our personal freedom.
The call to fellowship is so much more than just developing friendships or connections that fulfill us. It is more than a mere call to teach or mentor. It is a call to keep up with our end of the covenant; actively committing and connecting in partnership with Jesus and one another. A new covenant made in the life and love of Jesus.
The cross has changed everything, it still is and should be. Everything a Christian does should be cruciform.
What’s the point of trying to transform systems when the hearts that create them are left unchecked?
How we read the Bible matters. The letter of Paul to Philemon gives us an excellent opportunity to practice how we read.
While meditation is commonly described as an “emptying” of the mind, biblical authors express an active experience where we fill our minds with things from above.
Identity politics do not distinguish God’s people in the Bible, nor does it define the meaning of justice. There is a reason the biblical authors connected justice to righteousness, finding its completed meaning in the kingdom of God.
Lament joins in the groaning of the world as it suffers, the groaning of creation as it awaits the revealing of God’s children, and the unutterable groanings of God’s Spirit within us.
The resurrection is proof that change is possible, that humans are capable of becoming sources of life and blessing to the world around them.
Any student of history can see the multiple comparisons that can be drawn between the tree of the crucified Christ and the lynching tree of innocent black bodies from the 18th century and beyond. What can we learn about our faith and about Christ from people who lived the atrocity we can only contemplate on a day like Good Friday?
The motif of the God and people on mountain near a tree continues even in the Palm Sunday story!
Taking a closer look at the biblical motif of humans on mountains near trees with surprisingly similar life-altering choices to make. This motif runs like a thread through the biblical story.
What makes our take so enticing that we would rather choose the “school of hard knocks” than to listen; to do things our way than to yield?
Eternal life as immortality is the wrong idea. There’s way more to it. It is divine life, the life of eternity, God’s life- offered voluntarily to humans for their consumption, wholeness, and flourishing.
What’s the alternative? And why is it so personal?
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