Sermon Summary

John 20: 1-18

In the early church, the pastor would announce, “He is risen!” or “Christ is risen!” and all the people would respond, “He is risen indeed!” This tradition voices the astonishment and awe that the early followers felt when the darkness and grief of Saturday was flooded with the light of the unthinkable Sunday.

When death was conquered by life.

When the hopelessness was broken.

When the unthinkable happened as he said it would.

What is it like to lose everything you ever thought you wanted or needed, only to have it gloriously and unexpectedly lavished back on you? Well, that is what Easter is all about.

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Sermon Summary

Psalm 130
This is a tough sermon to summarize because it comes from a real place of pain and confession for Pastor Denise, she calls the congregation to consider; “what do we do when we hurt so badly we can’t even breathe anymore”

Psalm 130 comes from a place of deep grief, it is told in three parts, the prayer the hope and the promise.

We see that in this Psalm the weight of grief and sin is relieved by hope and fulfilled by promise, this is good news we can cry out from the depths!
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Sermon Summary

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Pastor Denise began this morning’s sermon with a Pop Quiz. Don’t fret though, it was a simple True or False quiz, and it didn’t count for a grade. She was seeking to get to the core of what Christianity is about, noting that though it sure can seem at times to be about no more than politics, philosophy, spirituality or a set of rules, none of those elements contain in themselves what Christianity is really about.

Reading from 1 Corinthians 15:35-58,  Pastor Denise engages with this powerful passage to show that new life, victory over death through bodily resurrection is an essential and necessary part of God’s plan.

Death was not originally part of God’s plan, so he gifts us through his son victory over death in a real and powerful way. Pastor Denise shows us that Paul had 4 things to say about resurrected bodies, they don’t decay, they are raised in glory, raised in power and raised as a spiritual body.

Pastor Denise tells us this morning that these resurrected bodies are animated anew by God’s Spirit, renewed into the service and fulfillment of God’s plan of redemption.

A message of bodily resurrection is a message of hope in the face of the biggest problems we can face as the church or individually, it’s the promise that not even death will have the last word. Instead God’s redemptive love has the last word.

Finally we are left to ponder what we might do about it, do we stow away this good news or live it?

Enjoy the message this morning as we celebrate a God who loves and gives life to us his Resurrection people.
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Sermon Summary

Acts 2:6-11

How is that each one of us can hear them in his own language? And why?

Those questions frame Pastor Denise’s sermon this morning

Engaging a text often associated with Pentecost Pastor Denise explores the truth that lives can only be changed with his help and we can witness effectively only by his power. That power encounters us in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit! [Read more…]