Cross United Church

Those who want to be faithful to Jesus are always tempted to grab the sword to defend him. In other words, we try to do the Lord's work in the world's way. So in light of that temptation, I want to talk about some ways we're tempted to grab the sword, what happens when we do, and then consider what it means to put the sword away.

Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

We should pray for a united church that reflects God, so that the world will believe and know the gospel.

By following the example of Jesus and overhearing his prayer to his Father we can learn to pray well for the people of God in our own generation. We find here six ways to pray for the people of God.

Jesus wants us to actively and intentionally listen to him, and in this text we find three ways to do just that.

How Do We Live in Authentic Community?

Three ways to refresh your communion with God.

According to the dictionary on my laptop, a rhythm is “a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.” God infused our world with rhythms and patterns that make sense of our world. He put strong, regular, repeated patterns of movement that clue us into the nature of things. The rhythm of the sea. The rhythm of the seasons. The rhythm of a song. He put rhythms into his work of creation, and he also put rhythms into the work of redemption. There are strong, regular, repeated patterns of movement or sound in the song of the good news of Jesus Christ. God's regular pattern of doing things.

Tune into the Spirit through three movements of listening that Jesus gives to us.

Would you rather have a time machine to be with Jesus in person, or your current Christian experience?

He wants to prepare them for their purpose

Returning to NORMAL? As we have stumbled through the last 14 months, we have heard and said time and again the desire to get “back to normal” or to adjust to “the new normal.” We want to feel a sense of regularity, that things are dependable, or somewhat predictable. That’s what “normal” means

God cares about friendship, and God designed friendship. In fact, God is so committed to friendship that he actively wants us to be his friend. This is actually where the heart of friendship starts. When we’re brought into friendship with God, we can begin to form deep and healthy friendships with other people. Friendship where we don’t use people or let them use us, but where we are genuinely there for one another, caring for one another, refusing to give up on one another, enjoying being together, and being honest, vulnerable and real about the real us. All of this starts with friendship with Jesus. Jesus wants us to be his friends. Not just his followers. Not just his servants or slaves. But his friends. And in this paradigm of friendship with Jesus we will find seven keys for our friendship with him that will shape us into become real, true friends with another another.

Many have discovered to their great financial benefit that people are looking to grow and become better, newer, more improved versions of who they are. The personal growth industry is a $40 Billion per year industry and is expected to do nothing but grow for the foreseeable future. This movement taps into something that God put into the world and into us: God made the world full of things that grow. He made us, people, with a built-in tendency to grow. Even before sin corrupted our world and our hearts, this was true. And now, after the brokenness of our world due to humanity’s rebellion against God, we not only need to grow, but we need to change because we grow in all sorts of twisted and corrupted ways apart from the grace of God. But as much as the self-help movement has tapped into something that God put into the world, it has also twisted that truth into something that moves people away from rather than toward true personal growth. God wants us to grow. He designed us to grow. And in this message we are going to learn about Seven Christian Keys

Many have discovered to their great financial benefit that people are looking to grow and become better, newer, more improved versions of who they are. The personal growth industry is a $40 Billion per year industry and is expected to do nothing but grow for the foreseeable future. This movement taps into something that God put into the world and into us: God made the world full of things that grow. He made us, people, with a built-in tendency to grow. Even before sin corrupted our world and our hearts, this was true. And now, after the brokenness of our world due to humanity’s rebellion against God, we not only need to grow, but we need to change because we grow in all sorts of twisted and corrupted ways apart from the grace of God. But as much as the self-help movement has tapped into something that God put into the world, it has also twisted that truth into something that moves people away from rather than toward true personal growth. God wants us to grow. He designed us to grow. And in this message we are going to learn about Seven Christian Keys

We're called as Christians to love Jesus, but how do we do that without being weird?

Marketers for goods and services like insurance for cars and extra warranties for microwaves or lawn mowers have long known that people don’t pay a lot of money to protect their stuff. They pay a lot of money to protect their minds from worrying about their stuff. People are willing to pay and pay quite well for “peace of mind.” We inhabit a crazy, chaotic, busy, noisy world. Our ears, eyes, hearts, and minds are constantly bombarded by incomplete projects, chaotic and noisy family life, exhaustion from Zoom calls, bad music, traffic, vaccination and infection rates, anger that someone didn’t hold up their end of things, and shame and guilt for not holding up our end of things. In contrast, we long for complete project, quiet at home, good jazz, mountain air, sea breezes, and for a sense of inner well-being. We long for peace. But we often find that peace eludes us. Thankfully, Jesus offers peace.

When the the Holy Wind

As Christians today, we can fall into two dangers. It’s been said that Satan doesn’t care whether we fall into the ditch on the right hand of conservatism or the left hand of liberalism as long as we wander off the narrow pathway of following Jesus. On the right hand, we can ignore the work of the Spirit, we can acknowledge him theoretically but without any real personal life experience with him. On the left hand, we can obsess about the work of the Spirit and wrongly elevate him above the Father and Son in our understanding or functional pursuit of the Christian life. The solution is to staying on the path is listening to the biblical testimony. That's what we are going to do in this week's teaching as we meet (or get reacquainted with) the Paraklete, the Holy Spirit.

We have a vague sense that we should do God’s will and that we should pray, and we understand these are connected. But we don’t understand at all the mechanics of it. We often have a superficial meme-level, superstitious understanding.

While Peter was concerned with bravery, and Thomas was concerned with practicality, Philip thinks it’s a problem of sufficient calculation, of resourcing. If they only had a bit more, Philip says, then that would be “enough.”

Thomas was a lot like us. He wanted proof and practical answers to problems. Jesus meets him at his point of doubt, and it changes everything for Thomas.

In this mini-series, "Best Supporting Actors?" we are looking at the lives of three of Jesus's friends and followers, Peter, Thomas, and Philip.

What the world needs now...just in time for Valentine's!

This week we sample a survey of the Bible's teaching about the glory of God.

Can true believers lose their salvation? Find out in this message from our study in The Book of Life.

Often, we get in our own way instead receiving what Christ offers to us.

In a moment of a crisis of leadership, what is the way of Christ-like leadership?

God wants to move you from the place of darkness and death into the land of living hope. Scripture says that we are enslaved all our lives by the fear of death (Hebrews 2:15), but God wants to see us free. This is the inheritance God gives us in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Advent presents us with the gift of remembering and rediscovering hope in a world of darkness and death. Our study is called “Light and Life to All He Brings: Find Hope for Christmas.” We have looked finding Thrilling Hope in a Weary World (Romans 5:1-5) and Invisible Hope in a Visual World (Romans 8:24-25). Now we are going to turn to the letter of a long-time friend and follower of Jesus to discover Radiant Hope in a Dark World (1 Peter 3:13-17).

In a world flooded with images, we need something we can't see. We need invisible hope in a visual world.

After nearly forty weeks in the wilderness of the global pandemic, after the unrest of racial injustice and protests, after a contested election divided the nation, a consistent theme resonates from our hearts. More than frustration, more than anger, more than even fear, I hear people voice their weariness. “I am tired.” I am tired of my kids missing the normal life of birthday parties and ballgames. I am tired of my kids worried about whether their skin color will end up sentencing them to death. I am tired of partisan politicians hypocritically saying one thing but then the opposite when it serves their political self-interest. I am tired of masking my face and distancing myself. I am tired of thousands of people dying from a virus we can’t see and can’t seem to control. I am tired of wondering whether and whence my next paycheck. I am tired. We just passed Thanksgiving, and the holidays press in with tidings of more work, stress, financial concern. We are tired. We are weary. Our world is weary.

In the weeks approaching the Advent season

We learn in this message four principles of the Old Testament and four practices for reading the Old Testament.

As John has invited us to “wake up and see the glory” in the triumphal entry narrative (12:12-19), he points us now toward four ways to see the glory of Christ.

John tells us the story of the the counter-intuitive glory of the King of the cosmos, the entire universe, Jesus Christ, God the Son, incarnate. Jesus enters Jerusalem as the King and Savior God had promised centuries before, but, despite appearance, his seemingly royal entry into the city did not ultimately exalt him as King. His royal arrival foreshadowed his true glory, which God would reveal on the cross and vindicate in the resurrection.

Do you believe that Jesus deserves all that you have, or do you believe he owes you something?

How should Christians engage politics in light of what we believe about politics?

How should Christians think about politics in this tense political moment?

How should Christians think about politics in this tense political moment?

How should faithful Christians think about politics? Find out in this three week mini-series.

What happens when Jesus shows up to a funeral?

What Jesus does reveals who Jesus is.

Why Should I Care About the Trinity? (John 10:30)

How do we respond when the world is falling apart? With faith, hope, and love.

Why Do Some Believe and Others Don't? (John 10:19-30)

Four ways Jesus shepherds us into life like God intended.

Jesus offers us the freedom and flourishing of fullness of life in the presence, promises, and purposes of God.

Jesus wants us to learn to discern the difference between an imposter and a Pastor, between a stranger and a Shepherd, between the world and the Word.

John 9 a story of amazing grace that John tells so that we can know who Jesus is and what Jesus offers to us. Here we see the amazing grace of Jesus in saving sinners by giving them sight.

How Jesus Meets Us in Seasons of Suffering (John 9:1-3)