New Song Presbyterian

The third Psalm plants us firmly in a time and place of confusion, fear, and danger. But it's also a model of how to talk with God at the start of a day that feels scary, pleading for God to be with us and make right the things that are wrong all around us. It's timely and meaningful for us to consider this week as we see and feel confusion, fear, and danger all around us.

Sometimes prayer can seem really complicated, but the simple heart of prayer is communion with God.

When we feel alone and ashamed, prayer can feel like the last thing we know how to do. Psalm 22 gives us words to cry out to God during those times. More than that, it gives us a direct line to Jesus, who prayed these very words on the cross. As we enter into the season of Lent, listen in as we ask God to teach us to pray when we feel alone and ashamed.

To teach us to pray, God has given us the gift of the Psalms. But we need to know how to use them. This week, we will use Psalm 2 as a case study for helping us to use the Psalms well, as we ask God to teach us to pray. Listen in and join us!

I've yet to meet a Christian who feels entirely comfortable with their prayer life. The most common thing I hear: I know it's important but I'm not praying as much as I'd like to. But I also believe there is a deep, God-given reason that we are all still drawn to wrestle about prayer. So, we're starting a new sermon series at New Song. We'll use a wide selection of the Psalms, starting with the first one, as we ask God to "Teach us To Pray." Listen in and join us!

Jesus' first followers had the same question we often do: why didn't Jesus just stay on earth to help us? If he left, where did he go, what's he doing now, and what does that mean for us? Listen in as we consider two profoundly important implications of Jesus' return to heaven.

It’s not hard to describe what kind of church we wouldn’t want to be part of; but can we picture the kind of church that we actually want to be? We've spent four weeks talking about what we do as a church. Now, we will put it all together and envision the church we want to be - joining all that God is doing to make things new in us and around us. Listen in and join us!

Mercy is the work of making life better for others when things are hard; sharing mercy will stretch us, cost us… and grow us, into the kind of people, the kind of church, we were always mean to be. Mercy will bring us face to face with Jesus and His great mercy for us. Listen in as we dig into the beauty of the mercy of God, for us and through us.

Jesus liked to use images we could understand, so He often talked about His Kingdom as a big meal. That's why our church is committed to hospitality, to creating spaces where people can belong, especially by sharing meals together. This Sunday, we'll dive into why and how we practice hospitality as a church family. Hope you can listen in and learn!

Community is a buzzword in our culture today, but consumerism is a much better description of what we actually experience in our day and age. In this sermon, we unpack the difference between consuming and communing, and we seek to follow God’s lead deeper into community.

What makes you go to church? What makes you not go to church? This month, we're embarking on a short sermon series on who we are and what we do as a church. We will use the memorable and encouraging picture of the early church in Acts 2 to highlight our four strategies as a church: Encountering God, Community, Hospitality, and Mercy. This week, we'll dive into a conversation about encountering God in our Sunday morning worship gatherings. Hope you can listen in.

What is the worth of Worship?

It’s here; we’ve lit the candle; we’ve sung our favorite carols; we’ve heard the story; now listen in as we spend a few minutes together reflecting, considering how the wonder of Christmas might change us. We’re going to read a few verses from about a month after the birth of Jesus, when a mysterious man named Simeon meets the baby and realizes the world is forever changed.

For Israel, the Jubilee was everything. It was offered as a once every fifty years celebration that promised liberty, feasting, forgiveness of debts, and restoration for the downtrodden. Every longing in our hearts for the perfect community would point us to Jubilee. Unfortunately, there's no evidence that Israel ever actually did it. Listen in as we explore how the Jubilee reflects the longings of our hearts and directs us to the Good News of Christmas.

I came to Isaiah 35, and I read these words: "Say to those who have an anxious heart, 'Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God.'" And I thought, that's something I need. Maybe you do too. Listen in as we explore how God takes us from an anxious heart to full of joy.

There's turmoil in our time, in our world, in our hearts. There's a lot of ideas to calm things down, but none of them seem to help as much as we would hope. What, or who, could possibly put an end to the turmoil and bring real peace? That's a question for Advent, and a question we hope you'll listen in to explore.

Advent asks us to do one of the things we least like to do: wait. But waiting isn't so bad if we know something wonderful is coming. This week, we'll look at the first of four life-changing realities that we wait for during Advent - justice. Listen in as we wait and long for justice together.

Does the God of the universe really care what you want? Is that something he even thinks about? If he ever asked you, “What do you want me to do for you,” how would you respond? Do you even know? Join us Sunday as we look at how Jesus meets the deepest desires of those whom he has called to follow him.

Where is God in the midst of the darkness; the darkness of our lives, those we care about, and the world as we experience it today? What do we do when it hard to pray, hard to believe, and no easy answers are available to us? Join us Sunday as we look at one of the most honest, gut wrenching hymns in all of the Bible.

They've seen Him alive. They know Christianity is true. But where is He? Jesus shows up in their midst, and His grace changes everything. Listen in to find out how His grace will change us.

The tomb was empty, but that didn't answer all their questions. Still, they were grieved, afraid, and struggling to believe. But something changed them, and it can change us too. A wounded world can trust a God with scars. Listen in as we look back at another Sunday morning that changed everything.

He's either a failed revolutionary or a victorious king, a pitiable lunatic or a loving Savior, the embarrassment of Israel or the Savior of the World. His last words, "It is finished," either signal his resignation to failure, or the possibility of a new life and a new world for us. There's no middle ground. Listen in as we consider the holy final moments of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

As the soldiers mock Jesus' unique kind of kingship and the crowds pledge themselves to an earthly king, the question rings in our ears. Who is your king? Who gives you a vision of the good life? Who protects you from what you fear most? Listen in as we consider Jesus and what He offers as King. 

There's a lot going on when Jesus comes face to face with Pontius Pilate. We're struck by the bloodthirsty cries of the crowds, the waffling of the all too human Pilate, and the quiet strength of Jesus. Jesus is caught between rule-worshippers and people-pleasers, but He’s the one really in charge here, and He’s the one we really want to follow.

It can't get much worse than this. In just a few short hours, Jesus is betrayed by one of his own, tried under the sham of justice, and denied by one from his inner circle. As we watch Judas, the religious and political officers, and then Peter all fail, we can see ourselves. But we can also see Jesus shining through this tragedy with grace, justice, and beauty. Listen in as we rejoice in Him together.

What is eternal life? Some say it's a fantasy that religions have made up to cope with the hard things in this life. Others envision forever floating on a cloud reunited with loved ones. This sermon will dig into some of the differing views and unpack the eternal life that Jesus Himself offers to us.

Prayer is one of those complicated topics to talk about as we seek to grow in our Christian faith. You might not always pray as much or as faithfully as you long to. You might feel guilty about the state of your prayer life. But there's good news to be found in how Jesus prays for us, and we invite you to hear that good news as you listen into this sermon.

So many of us go through life cheery on the outside but sad on the inside. There's plenty in life to make us sad, but is there another way to respond? Christianity has deep answers to this question. Listen in as we explore them.

The world offers us a lot: wealth, status, prestige, happiness. And in this ancient story, one of the world's great kings offers Abraham a lot. But he says no because he has something better. Join us this Sunday morning at 10 as we explore what it is and how we get it.

The church has had a complicated relationship with the surrounding world. Throughout history, the church has responded by retreating into a fortress, engaging in culture war, or becoming indistinguishable from the surrounding world. Listen in as we explore what Jesus had to say about the relationship between the church and the world.

It's easy to tell if our plants are growing or not. But what about our lives? Are we seeing the kind of growth that Jesus tells us we should be? Listen in as we take a look at where we need to grow and how we can seek that growth.

Jesus's friends are scared. They have some hard questions for Jesus. Many of us do too. Jesus isn't afraid of our hard questions. Listen in as we explore what Jesus offered His friends in response and what He has for us.

"Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." That sounds simple enough, until we pause to consider the depths to which Jesus went to love us. It makes me wonder, "have I ever really loved anyone that way?" Listen in as we dig into this beautiful call for our lives.

The stage is set for Jesus to bring his life to an astonishing conclusion. And as Jesus prepares to dine with his friends in this upper room, He rises, removes his garments, takes a towel, and begins to wash the feet of those gathered. This is love. This is humility. This is grace. Listen in to find out what the grace of Jesus means for you.

Peter struggled with his identity. But as he came to know Jesus more deeply and more transformatively, he found an identity to stand in - an identity rooted in those profound truths Peter shares with us in 1 Peter 2.

If you had to state your system of values in one sentence, one phrase even, what would it be? The world tells you to go for it - whatever it is! Climb up. Climb over. And Jesus goes down. The cross of Jesus confronts the world’s values directly and invites us to seek transformation of our values. Listen to find out more.

Lord Acton has taught us that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This passage of Christian Scripture seems to prove his thesis, as we see the corruption of power in the religious council and in Judas. But at a deeper level, it points us towards the redemption of power, for the good of the world. Listen in to find out how.

Get a life. What do people mean when they tell us that? To have more fun, more adventure, more freedom? Peter tells us that in Jesus, we have everything we need for life. And then he explains how we grow and experience that life. Listen in to find out how.

This is the last conversation Jesus has with the religious leaders in Jerusalem before they turn on Him for good. What does He want them to know? The ABC's of the Christian life. It might be what you need to hear today, too.

In this well known parable, Jesus shows us what kind of neighbors we are to become. At a deeper level, He reminds us of the kind of neighbor He is to us, and He invites us to live in light of that

In our quest for the good life, we often end up tired, confused, and disappointed. Pressure and fear win out over freedom and security. Jesus knows that we want to find the good life, and He wants us to find that life as we know Him as the Good Shepherd.

Spiritual blindness keeps us from truly seeing ourselves and truly seeing grace. In John 9, a man’s eyes are opened - not just to the beauty of the world he had never seen before- but to the beauty of Jesus, who Himself is Amazing Grace.

For many today, especially in the West, the dream is to live a constraint free life. So, there might be room for Jesus - as long as He stays in His place. But, Jesus isn’t asking room for a room in the house; He’s inviting us to something altogether new. If that makes you nervous, listen to find out how this might be Good News for us.

Living in the dark is dangerous. Being without light leaves us disoriented. Having to navigate in darkness is scary. There’s a deeper reality here: just as we are not meant to live in physical darkness, there is a spiritual darkness in the world that is even more dangerous, disorienting, and scary. Jesus faced this darkness, rising to speak. His declaration pierced the ears and hearts of the crowd: I AM the light of the world. What does this mean, and what impact might it have on our lives?

Job might be the most relatable character in all of the Scriptures. He's not afraid to call out and ask where God is in the midst of the hard times. What answer will he get?

Have you ever thought about what it takes to really change? For all the ways we want to change, Jesus gives us fuel, and it’s right here for us in this story. With Jesus’ beautiful forgiveness filling her heart, the woman caught in adultery goes to live a new life, and so can we.

Do you ever think much about Holy Saturday? Even if you’ve never thought about the significance of Holy Saturday before, I bet you know what it feels like. Holy Saturday is the day when it doesn’t seem like things will ever get better. Holy Saturday is the day Jesus laid in the tomb, and nothing happened. Holy Saturday was the day when it seemed that everything we fear had come true. Easter is God’s no to our fears, God’s yes to our cries. The wait is long, Holy Saturday hurts and feels like it will never end, but Jesus’ love lasts longer than Holy Saturday, and his power proves stronger than the pain of Holy Saturday.

Jesus intrigues us, like he intrigued the crowds 2000 years ago, but so many things get in the way of truly understanding Him: our expectations, our values, our fears. In this sermon, we'll dive into why we misunderstand Jesus, but we won't miss the Good News that Jesus understands us perfectly and breaks through so we can understand Him!

We all face a problem that feels too big: too big to handle ourselves, and maybe even too big for Jesus. We need the sixth of chapter of John because it shows us Jesus answering two problems that seemed too big for anyone.

We want Jesus to make things better. But what if he disrupts our normal way of doing life in the process? In these two healing miracles that John records, Jesus shows how deeply He cares for those who are suffering, but He also shows that He will disrupt our status quo on the way to making us well.

It’s a tale as old as time; whenever we turn away from God, we start digging - into work, into Tinder, into Netflix; we never stop looking for life. Jesus knows we're all thirsty, and he approaches the woman at the well to offers a true thirst quencher, something that your soul needs as badly as your body needs water.