Hays Christian Church

This Pentecost, Pastor Cana opens to Acts 2:1-21, which describes the Holy Spirit descending upon the crowd to grant gifts for them to go out into the world and multiply God's church. The Holy Spirit's work in the early church was to bring about miracles of understanding, so we rejoice.

Pastor Cana takes us through Acts 1:1-12, where the apostles witness Jesus' ascension to heaven 40 days after the resurrection. They wonder what is next, but Jesus reminds them, as well as us, that our role is to return, wait, and witness.

Pastor Cana opens to Romans 8:31-39, where Paul covers the theme of no separation from Christ's love. Nothing, which ever has been or ever could be, can separate us from Christ's love. We are called to recenter on the powerful, matchless love of Christ.

Matthew 25:31-46 reminds us to treat the disadvantaged in society as we would treat Jesus. Joanne Tramel, keeping tradition to highlight historic Christians, points to the example set by Paul Farmer (1959-2022). Farmer was a medical anthropologist and physician who worked and advocated for impoverished patients, largely in Haiti and the U.S.

1 Peter 2:1-7 speaks on Christian identity to the young church and dealing with the feeling of instability. Jesus is the foundational stone for the House of God. We seek refuge in the foundation of Jesus, to be built on Him.

1 Peter 1:13-21 speaks on what holy fear is and Pastor Cana expresses that because of God's holiness, grace, and justice, believers should have holy fear of God. When we repackage our idea of fear of God, it transforms into something better.

Psalm 26 focuses on the topic of vindication and Pastor Cana points out ways we feel the need for proof of our innocence. God is the only one who can vindicate us when we are wrongly blamed or shamed. Therefore, we are encouraged to pray boldly for vindication to the only true judge, our God.

Pastor Cana's Lenten sermon series concludes in John 11:17-27, in which Jesus arrives in Bethany following the death of Lazarus and meets with Martha to give her comfort and hope. Those who live and believe in Jesus will never die. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.

Pastor Cana's Lenten sermon series picks up in John 15:1-9, in which Jesus illustrates in a clearly explained metaphor how the vine grower (the Father) tends the true vine (Jesus), nurturing the fruit-bearing branches (abiding in Christ) and pruning the dead branches (that which prevents abiding). Jesus, the true vine, gives us reason to praise and bears fruit in us. We only need to remain with the Vine.

Pastor Cana's Lenten sermon series picks up in John 14:1-7, in which Jesus addresses His disciples at the Last Supper with crucial final parts of His teaching. Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life guides and provides for us. We as believers already know the Way, the Truth, and the Life though knowing Jesus.

Pastor Cana's Lenten sermon series picks up in John 10:11-18, in which Jesus provides the metaphor of a good shepherd caring for and protecting his sheep to relay His purpose and God's heart. The Good Shepherd is selfless, powerful, conscious, and determined. Jesus as the Good Shepherd helps us see the ways Jesus protects us in love.

Pastor Cana's Lenten sermon series picks up in John 10:1-10, which follows Jesus healing a blind man on the Sabbath. The man testifies of the miracle and refuses to incriminate his Savior to the religious leaders. In our text, Jesus declares that He is the door (or gate) that invites us into a flourishing life. He is the only door that matters.

Pastor Cana's Lenten sermon series picks up in John 8:12-20, where Jesus proves to the religious leaders of the temple that He is the light of the world, using their own legal arguments. When we feel that we are walking without support, Jesus, the light of the world, is a trustworthy guide for us.

Pastor Cana begins the Lenten sermon series in John 6:35-40, where a crowd who had witnessed Jesus feed 5,000 approach Him again, but Jesus tells them that they should not focus on physical bread, but true bread from heaven. He tells them that He is the bread of life and promises eternal sustenance. In this we learn that Jesus is sufficient, essential, and accessible for us in life and life eternal.

In 1 Samuel 1:9-18, Hannah prays in the temple, begging to be blessed with a son, and promises to give him to God's service. The priest Eli, after mistakenly scolding her, gives her a blessing. Following in 1 Samuel 2:9-10, when she keeps her promise and places her son, Samuel, with the priest, she prays again in praise. Pastor Cana expresses that with God, our misunderstood prayers of desperation can me turned into praise.

Pastor Cana opens to Judges 6:11-17, where God calls Gideon to save the Israelites from oppression under the Midianites. God does not need you to be brave, important, impressive, or strong. God only needs you to say yes to His calling. Come see God's calling in your life and the lives of others, regardless of qualification.

Pastor Cana introduces Psalm 81, which sees the author reflecting honestly on the challenges of sin, submitting to God, consequences, and God's readiness to welcome us. Though our sin always brings consequences, submission allows us to be ready to receive God's welcome.

Romans 6:1-11 lays out for the new Christians why continuing in sin is not the way to prove God's power. Pastor Cana Moore elaborates that Jesus' death offers us freedom from sin and raises us into new life. With this promise of new life, we are tasked with abandoning our old ways for the better freedom in Christ.

Pastor Cana takes us to Deuteronomy 28:1-6, which sees Moses, having taught the Israelites God's law, address them with a blessing and promise of what their obedience to God would lead to. God' blessings for obedience expect and accommodate human frailty. We receive God's blessing without perfect obedience because of God's intentional provision.

Pastor Cana shares Psalm 116, where the Psalmist suffers from an illness and calls of God for help and when they are saved from their suffering, they find themselves at peace and reflects on God's truths. Even when we are suffering, God is our current salvation. In our suffering, we have comfort in confidently knowing that God is saving us.

In Numbers 22:7-14, and 23:4-8, Balaam is hired by King Balak to curse Israel but acts as God guides him to instead bless them. Balaam, not understanding God, followed Him over economic and personal safety. Pastor Cana implores us to also trust God's prompting to follow Him, even when we don't understand.

For the Epiphany, Pastor Cana speaks from Psalm 72, which serves as a statement of hope and aspiration for a new king and their nation. Jesus, the impossible King made known, is our example of how to bring God's righteousness into the world. We are encouraged to bring about this impossible reign of God's righteousness in the world with His power.

Meeting on Zoom, Pastor Cana delivers a homily starting from Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13, in which events have been going poorly, but the psalmist expresses confidence of a better world. Now is a time we know God has dwelled in the land through Jesus Christ and the reconciliation of all things is yet to come. We are encouraged to revel in the joy and assurance of the Psalm, of the promise of what is and what is to be, to let it foster peace in our lives.

The conclusion of Pastor Cana's 2024 Advent series comes to us from Luke 2:8-15, where shepherds are visited by hosts of angels delivering the Good News of the Christ's birth so that they could become the first to welcome Him. Through Christ's coming, we are invited into the open spaces of a wider world of love, community, joy, and love.

The third of Pastor Cana's 2024 Advent series, comes to us from Luke 2:1-5, where Mary travels with Joseph to his ancestral city of Bethlehem for government registration, just in time for Jesus' birth on a not-so-silent night. God draws close to us amidst the noisy, busy journey of our human lives. Can you feel His presence?

The second of Pastor Cana's 2024 Advent series, comes to us from Luke 1:39-45, where Mary in her early pregnancy with Jesus visits her cousin Elizabeth, whose own unborn child leaps for joy. God creates a welcoming home for Mary and for all of us. Do you feel God's welcome? Let us also create a welcoming home for others.

The first of Pastor Cana's 2024 Advent series, presented by Jennie Straight, comes to us from Luke 1:5-23, where the angel Gabriel appears to Zachariah in the sanctuary of God to tell him that his wife Elizabeth will bear a son, despite her advanced age. God offers us sanctuary in His presence, where we can focus on Him and be attended to by Him. Take time to notice your place of sanctuary and seek to focus on God.

Pastor Cana reads into Luke 17:11-19, where He meets ten lepers that He sends to the priests, but they are healed along the way. However, only the Samaritan returns to praise God's glory and thanked Jesus. For us, Christ restores us from our uncleanliness, separation, and exile, so our response should emulate the Samaritan's: praise amidst our gratitude.

In 1 Samuel 15:10-11 and 24-28, Saul, the king that God anointed to lead the Israelites, loses the Spirit of God for ignoring God's commands. Saul was the perfect king by every nation's standard, doing what kings should do, but as Pastor Cana explains, God's favor isn't measured by expectations, declarations, or previous presence, but by obedience to God's Spirit. We are free from being “good Christians”! Instead, attentiveness to God's Spirit will guide us to live our faith.

The final fruit of the Spirit that Pastor Cana presents is the fruit of self-control, as described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, where his athletic metaphors apply to spiritual discipline. Prioritizing the Good News of God over ourselves teaches us self-control for our Christian witness.

We look at Revelation 7:9-17 with Pastor Cana to find that the author describes the saints that gather in God's throne room outside of time to worship Him. God draws, unites, and shepherds all the saints together, so we rejoice by remembering the saints of past, present, and future.

John 1:1-14 gives us a poem/song reflecting on Jesus' significance of His coming. Pastor Cana shows us in the scripture that Jesus, not the Bible, is the Word of God. With this information, we can look at all scripture texts through the interpretive lens of the Word of God.

When we look into Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 with Pastor Cana, we are left with the wisdom that God's good gifts, the simple things, help us be freed to enjoy our lives without worrying about their impact and weight. We can give our lives less weight and make them instead more meaningful.

The author of Revelations 5 shares a vision for the Seven Churches of Asia. As Pastor Cana explains, for Revelation, God's conquering and victory are about sacrifice, not slaughter. We are urged to worship a sacrificed Lamb as sacrificed people.

The author of Revelations 2:1-11 writes to the churches of Ephesus and Smyrna. As Pastor Cana explains, Revelation's specific context and message to specific people can offer us similar comfort t and hope. Let us appreciate the struggles the ancient and modern churches share in common.

For this sermon, Pastor Cana takes to Proverbs 27:5-6, which advises the distinction between the harsh truths from our loved ones and the sweet lies our enemies tell us. Because God calls us to be righteous, we should be friends who receive and offer truth, even when it is painful.

The next Fruit of the Spirit in Pastor Cana's sermon series is reflected in Proverbs 15:1, 4, and 16:24, which speaks of the consequences of righteousness and wickedness. Preparing for the fruit of gentleness in our hearts means mindfully considering our lives.

Isaiah 55:8-13 is a rebuttal to the idea of overwork and offers a balance to value rest when needed. Pastor Cana presents us with the idea that the purposes of God are God's to bring about. We are encouraged to rest and rejoice in God's ability to accomplish His purpose.

Matthew 26:47-53 describes Jesus Christ's arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and His response. Pastor Cana makes the case that Christ is firstly a peacemaker, living in a non-violent way and mindset, and it should shape our language and actions. We are encouraged to resist the violent language and conquering outlook of the world and choose to follow Christ the Peacemaker.

Matthew 7:13-14 describes the narrow gate and hard road to eternal life. Pastor Cana explains that the gate to God is narrow not to test us, but because living like Jesus is a challenging road. Our place is on the way because we have chosen it, living with compassion in a hardened world.

Returning to the Fruit of the Spirit, Pastor Cana opens to Genesis 15:6-18, where God makes a promise to Abram/Abraham that his descendants will suffer, but ultimately be rewarded. The fruit of faithfulness in Abraham is only possible because of God's faithfulness. In us, God's faithfulness will form our faithfulness during the long life of faith.

Pastor Cana opens to Psalm 84, which comes from the family of Korah, who well understand of the house and place of God. They knew that to be in the presence of God was better than being anywhere else. Our joy comes from the fact that God's presence provides us a best place to be.

In tradition to highlight Christians of history, Joanne Tramel speaks of abolitionist Harriet Tubman (born in slavery as Araminta Ross in 1822). A traumatic brain injury sustained in her youth brought her visions from God. After escaping slavery, she was encouraged by God to help others find freedom through the Underground Railroad, then during the Civil War in the Union army. In every accomplishment, she gave God the credit, which we can apply to our own lives.

For Transfiguration Sunday, Pastor Cana opens to 2 Peter 1:12-19, which lays out the important final thoughts from the wise apostle Peter to those in need of guidance. Christ's confirmed glory in His transfiguration is a light for us in a dark place that we can rely on as a centering point of our lives.

Pastor Cana concludes the summer sermon series on prayer with Jeremiah 32:16-25, in which the prophet Jeremiah prays after he and his people abandoned God and faced the consequences of their choice. Yet, God provided a promise. We, like Jeremiah, can pray in hope that even when we don't keep faithful to God, we can rejoice that God's faithfulness is greater than human abandonment.

The next prayer of Pastor Cana's focus comes from 2 Chronicles 20:5-12, where Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, while struggling to defend the nation against Moab, turns to God for rescue as their only hope. When we do not know what to do, Jehoshaphat's prayer teaches us to look to God and trust Him when we are in impossible situations.

Picking up in the Fruit of the Spirit series, Pastor Cana opens to Romans 12:9-21, where the author pushes the Christians of Rome to be servants to one another, to serve in their giftedness and not seek to be someone else, and reminding them that God's will can be revealed in their work together for God's kingdom. God gives us community in which the Spirit can grow the fruit of goodness.

For the fourth prayer in the sermon series, Pastor Cana goes to 1 Kings 8:22-30, where King Solomon prays publicly on behalf of Israel. Praying to God in a formal way as a community can draw us to a single focus and give us a chance to declare what we believe together.

For the third prayer in the sermon series, Pastor Cana goes to Exodus 3:11-14 and 4:10-15, which gives us the example of Moses speaking to God with honesty as he is given the task of leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Because God knows our hearts and minds, He hears our casual prayers just as well as any other prayer. We know that praying honestly can mean praying in our own voice and in genuine reflection of our hearts.

A break from sermon series, Pastor Cana brings us to Acts 9:36-42, where Tabitha (Dorcas in Greek), is resurrected by God's will that her community may learn from her life and imitate her as she imitates Christ. God can give our work and lives impact, even in small and quiet action. We are encouraged to live our one life for God's impact.

The next prayer in the summer sermon series, Pastor Cana brings us to Joshua 7:6-13, where Joshua, Moses' successor, leads the Israelites against their enemies, but the broken covenant results in their defeat. Joshua prays in anguish. God responds when we speak to Him honestly, even after defeat and we can take inspiration that God is with us whether we win or lose.