As Holy Week begins, our Bishop Steve Breedlove challenges us to meditate on the fact that Jesus is our friend, the beauty and the life that comes from obedience to the Father, and that the hour of darkness is followed by eternal day.
Advent Brookland: Palm Sunday | Luke 22:14-27
Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth | Luke 10:38-42
Sloth most often manifests itself in unnecessary busyness that is distracting us from the thing that matters most: our relationship with Jesus.
Seven Deadly Sins: Envy | Genesis 4:1-16
Envy comes from a feeling of lack, that what we've been given isn't sufficient. How do we combat the pervasiveness of envy in our lives?
Seven Deadly Sins: Lust | 2 Samuel 11:1-6, 26-27; 12:1-7a
God created us with the capacity and the desire for sexual union within marriage, but lust is an over-desire that puts getting our needs met ahead of sacrificial love.
Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath | Jonah 3:6-4:11
Anger is an emotion that's common to every person but can destroy relationships and lives. We look at anger's source, its anatomy and the antidote for anger.
Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony | Genesis 25:27-34
Gluttony isn't simply an overconsumption of food and drink, but rather it's about placing more importance on created things, rather than our Creator.
Ash Wednesday: Pride | Luke 18:9-14
Ash Wednesday offers a chance to reflect on our own sin and need for a savior.
Beloved: Love | Song of Songs 8
If we enthrone human love we will crush our marriage with expectations or be crushed if we don't get married. How can we focus on the only love that will never disappoint us, the unearned gift of Jesus Christ?
Beloved: Sexual Intimacy | Song of Songs 6:11-7:13
True sexual freedom comes from a covenantal relationship in marriage, where you are fully known and fully exposed, and yet fully loved. Yet sexual intimacy is just a shadow compared to the spiritual intimacy we're created to have with God.
Beloved: Expectation and Affirmation | Song of Songs 5:2-6:1
These verses in the Song of Songs challenge us to examine the role of expectations in our relationship with each other, and with God. How can we truly sense God's overwhelming love for and delight with us?
Beloved: Covenant | Song of Songs 3:5-5:1
Continuing in the Song of Songs, we see that true intimacy is only found inside a covenant -- between us and others in friendship or marriage, and ultimately in God's perfect covenant with us.
Beloved: Vulnerability | Song of Songs 1:8-3:5
The only way to have the vulnerability necessary for intimate relationships, but be able withstand the possibility of pain and loss, is by building our relationships on the foundation of the only person who will never forsake us -- Jesus Christ.
Beloved: Longing for Intimacy | Song of Songs 1:1-8
Beginning our sermon series on the Song of Songs, we examine it through two lenses - as wisdom literature that instructs us on love, sex, and marriage, and as a window that we can use to look into the deeper intimacy that is possible with God and his people through Jesus Christ.