ReNew Ames Messages

Yeah, this one's a tough one. Jesus gets all apocalyptic up in this place. In this passage, the disciples and Jesus have just come from Samaria. In Samaria, they would have been surrounded by people who were different from them in every way imaginable. So when they finally get to Jerusalem, they're feeling good. They're now on home turf. They see the temple and they're awestruck. A bit about the t...

Let's begin by talking about Paul, Silas, and Timothy. Paul planted churches and then sent people like Silas and Timothy to check up on those churches. Way too many for Paul to keep track of all by himself. Then they would then report back to Paul and Paul would sometimes write them letters back to help them. So in a way, Paul was a kind of spiritual physician giving these churches regular checkup...

The Psalm talks about a way - a path - to lead a happy or blessed life. Let's start by talking a little bit about a path - the movement toward living a blessed life. We'll sum it up like this: living life with the divine is a constant oscillation between emptying yourself and allowing yourself to be filled again. Emptying yourself - when you hear the definitions of the word "sinner" and the word "...

Speaker: Marlin Vis Scripture: Luke 18:9-14 http://bible.com/events/49509609

The parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge. I'll start here by comparing Jesus' parables to the stories we read to kids at bedtime. Yes, they're a lot alike. Let's have some fun with it. This parable really does make for a good children's book. Of course, we have all kinds of adult sized questions after hearing this story. No, we may not have any answers for these questions - but I always think...

I'll focus on the phrase "foreigners and exiles" or, "strangers and aliens" to begin. We have all probably been places that left us all feeling what it feels like to be a stranger in a strange land. In the context in which Peter is writing to these early Jesus people, they felt like strangers in a strange land because of their connection with Jesus - they would have avoided cultic rituals and woul...

We'll start off by talking a bit about the Spirit - cuz that's where Paul starts. We are the church because of the presence of the Spirit. Then Paul talks about how we are the body of Christ - that's the image he uses. The miracle of the human body is a complex wonder that shows us how every part is valuable, no matter how small or unnoticeable it might seem to us, especially if we feel that way a...

Speaker: Bev Modlin Scripture: The Book of Jonah

Jesus isn't holding anything back - he's letting the crowd know what it's going to cost to actually follow him. I appreciate that about Jesus - let's get all the cards on the table! We're going to spend a lot of time asking some questions, and these questions aren't necessarily going to be easy to answer. That's okay. Here are the questions that will help us get at the heart of the "cost of discip...

(Apologies for the late upload, this sermon was previously posted the week of the 24th but didn't process correctly the first time) The calling of Abraham next to the calling of Matthew. I've done this before - this time we come at it from a very different angle. Change for us human beings is difficult. It's less of a point I'm making, and more of a way for us to feel something as we enter into th...

This is one of my favorite - if not my favorite story about Jesus. It's not a healing - it's not miraculous - it's Jesus' first sermon. In it, he pretty much frames what his whole life has been and will be all about. I'm going to help us visualize the story by describing in detail what things might have looked like. Let's talk through the movements - the scroll, the attendant, the pointer, the Mos...

We've got the end of the story of Noah and the Ark. This will be a broad, sweeping retelling of the story starting in Genesis 6. This is a conventional divine judgment story. God looks at the state of humanity and has some regrets - decides it's time to wipe the whole thing out - system reboot - clean slate. God decides to do what nearly all Near Eastern deities do - start over. But then, in Israe...

Speaker: Sara Nielson Scripture: John 4:10-15 http://bible.com/events/49472871

Speaker: Suzanne Vogel Scripture: Romans 1:18-32; 2:1-4 http://bible.com/events/49469584

This is the story of the Valley of the Dry Bones. To put it mildly - Israel probably felt like those dry bones - disconnected and isolated - alone and probably a bit dead inside during this time. Captivity, forced separation from loved ones, oppression, isolation in a new land. We know what those dry bones feel like. Then God asks a curious question: "Can these bones live?" Uh, they're dead, God....

The expert in the law wants to know how to experience life to the fullest. No, he's not talking about heaven when he asks about eternal life. He's asking about how to experience life deeply - now - in the present. Jesus turns the question around on him (we'll have a little fun with this here). He responds, "love God, love your neighbor." Jesus says, "good - do this and live!" Then the expert asks...

Speaker: Brian Gelder Scripture: Jonah 3:10; 4:1-4 https://www.bible.com/events/49460035

A little different kind of sermon for Sunday. I'm gonna talk a little bit about what Jesus said about the heart - the idea is that it's the controlling center of people. You can tell a lot about where a person's heart is by the things they do - especially when they're tested. So we'll walk through the story of Naaman and leprosy and see if we might discern some things about each character. We'll s...

Jacob wrestles with "God." So, did this one back in 2020 - now from a totally different angle. You could say I really "wrestled" with this one this week. A little background: Jacob's a deceiver - his life is a mess. He's on the run because his brother Esau wants to kill him 20 years after he stole the blessing. He finds himself alone on the banks of a stream - it's dark. He can't hide behind his w...

In order to understand the story, we're reading 4:1-12 - I'll need to talk about why Peter and John are in prison in the first place. Essentially, they came across a guy who was lame from birth. The guy asks for money; instead, since they knew that Jesus lived his life with love and compassion and healing and justice, they decided to go deeper. They don't offer him charity - they offer him healing...

It's Pentecost Sunday - the day we celebrate the arrival of the Spirit. Like we talked about last week, Christian means "follower of Christ." We can also understand it as meaning "little Christ." We're all little Jesuses. This happens with the indwelling of the Spirit. The Spirit is nothing more than Jesus moving from the outside to the inside. It's Jesus moving in. So here we'll walk a bit throug...

Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Matthew 3:13-17 http://bible.com/events/49443990

Yeah...I don't know about this one. As we start by retelling this story, we're going to focus on the line, "If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Why are we dealing with this idea just five weeks after Easter? Easter is like the most obvious proof that Jesus was and is the Messiah - and yet, the church assigns this story just five weeks after Easter. Already? We're questioning who Jesus is alr...

Jesus is the gate. Once you walk into a relationship with Jesus the gate, there's a transition that takes place. You go from one place to another - you walk across the threshold. This is like the story of when Saul turned into Paul. In Paul's words, "If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!" Walking into a relationship with Jesus the gate - there's new li...

These first 4 verses are a jumbled mess. It's really one run-on sentence with a bunch of dependent clauses at the beginning and doesn't get to the main subject and verb until what we have as verse three. In other words, John is really excited to write about what he's writing about. So instead of going verse by verse, we'll talk about the main things he's trying to convey. 1) This Jesus thing reall...