by admin | Jan 21, 2020 | Relationship Goals, Sermon Audio and Notes
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 or rude.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
“When people feel dismissed,” Pastor Yami says, half way through the sermon, “they disconnect.” What destroys love more than disconnection? There is a lot at stake then, we learn, when we are rude to someone. When we are rude, we are actually judging someone, telling them that they are below us, unworthy of our time, attention, or care. Our rudeness communicates the opposite of love and often we may not even know we are doing it.
Our next steps for this week:
- How do you value people?
- What one thing do you need to start doing to honor people this week?
Listen, ask for more time, be quiet?
The reality of life is there is no life apart from relationships. Your relationships might be with stuff, not people, but your life is relating itself to STUFF. So our heart and our goal in this series is to just be at a place where we ask the hard questions, we get into the space of trying to understand what is love really like. Now when you get into scripture, scripture has a lot of stuff to say about love. So we are are looking at some few amazing things that God has said in his word in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 of what love is.
Catch up on earlier Relationship Goals sermons: Week 1 , Week 2
by admin | Jan 7, 2020 | Relationship Goals, Sermon Audio and Notes
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
As we begin our first series of 2020, Relationship Goals, Pastor Yami introduces us to the core truth of 1 Corinthians 13: love is everything. ANYTHING, no matter how seemingly good, how seemingly holy, how seemingly sacrificial, done without love is empty. But the good news is: Love is where we begin with God. The apostle Paul may sound like he is being harsh, calling our words simply noise; our powers, understanding, faith and knowledge, nothing; our sacrifices and surrenders, nothing more. But he doesn’t mean they are truly nothing, only nothing when they exist outside of God’s intent for them, motivated, fueled, and given by love.
Our next step questions for this week:
- What are the things you are doing that are just noise?
- How are you defining what love is?
by admin | Oct 11, 2019 | Highs and Lows, Sermon Audio and Notes
In Joshua 5, the topic of H&L week 6, God gives the nation of Israel an important directive for their fresh start… and we spend the whole sermon talking about everyone’s favorite awkward topic: circumcision. As the entire generation of Israelites who God brought out of Egypt had passed away, it was time for God to re-assert his connection with his people. He commands the men of Israel to undergo circumcision before entering the promised land. Why? The ritual was a mark of his everlasting covenant with them.
Through Pastor Yami’s sermon, God uses this Joshua account to teach us about the role of rituals in our lives, about the necessity for waiting, and about how he is able to roll back disgrace and reproach and heal us from our pasts. We can all use a fresh start sometimes, whether in our relationship with God in or work we have been called to do. God’s grace was enough for Israel and it is more than enough for us today.
In the Highs and Lows series, we are going through the book of Joshua. Together, we examine the ever varying seasons of our lives by using the Bible’s story of the Israelites entering the land of God’s promise as a mirror. Reflected in this story we will find moments of celebration, of crisis, of faith, of doubt, of winning, and of losing. Sometimes we will find highs and lows both in the very same moment. A new generation of Israel wrestles with themselves and their leader, Joshua, to trust God and go where he leads them. We, too, wrestle with our own faith (or lack thereof.) No life is devoid of highs; no life is devoid of lows. And no life is devoid of God if we choose to open up our eyes and seek him, no matter where we are on our journey. Welcome to Highs and Lows.
Catch up: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5
by admin | Sep 18, 2019 | Highs and Lows, Sermon Audio and Notes
We may all love to go places and do things, but do we pay attention to the preparation needed for the going and the doing to go well?
Last week, Joshua received his commission from God. This week, he commands his people to make preparation to fulfill that commission. Sometimes, when we hear God telling us to do something, we think it means we must act right away. And we can think we are supposed to go forward blindly–“just trust”–and he will work it out. But in our hurry, we can neglect steps that God intended us to take. To make a plan is not to demonstrate lack of trust; to carefully prepare is not to give into fear of the future. Let’s learn from Joshua how to say a resounding “YES!” to God’s call and then enact it with wisdom and a trusting and faithful heart.
In the Highs and Lows series, we are going through the book of Joshua. Together, we examine the ever varying seasons of our lives by using the Bible’s story of the Israelites entering the land of God’s promise as a mirror. Reflected in this story we will find moments of celebration, of crisis, of faith, of doubt, of winning, and of losing. Sometimes we will find highs and lows both in the very same moment. A new generation of Israel wrestles with themselves and their leader, Joshua, to trust God and go where he leads them. We, too, wrestle with our own faith (or lack thereof.) No life is devoid of highs; no life is devoid of lows. And no life is devoid of God if we choose to open up our eyes and seek him, no matter where we are on our journey. Welcome to Highs and Lows.
Catch up: Week 1, Week 2
by admin | Sep 11, 2019 | Highs and Lows, Sermon Audio and Notes
In week 2 of Highs and Lows, we return to Joshua and the Israelites in their transition. We meet them again as God repeatedly speaks a strong command over Joshua: Be Strong and Courageous. If you’ve been in the church long enough, you have heard this verse quoted again and again. Often, it is a platitude or a comfort in a tough time. But in this sermon, Pastor Yami points out that this is actually a command the Lord gives to Joshua. Why does he say that? How is Joshua supposed to follow through? How are we supposed to be strong and courageous in the scary transitions of our lives? Check it out.
In the Highs and Lows series, we are going through the book of Joshua. Together, we examine the ever varying seasons of our lives by using the Bible’s story of the Israelites entering the land of God’s promise as a mirror. Reflected in this story we will find moments of celebration, of crisis, of faith, of doubt, of winning, and of losing. Sometimes we will find highs and lows both in the very same moment. A new generation of Israel wrestles with themselves and their leader, Joshua, to trust God and go where he leads them. We, too, wrestle with our own faith (or lack thereof.) No life is devoid of highs; no life is devoid of lows. And no life is devoid of God if we choose to open up our eyes and seek him, no matter where we are on our journey. Welcome to Highs and Lows.
Catch up: Week 1
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