College Wesleyan Church Sermons

Steve DeNeff - Exodus 2:1-10; Mark 1:9-13. When Christians talk about  Jesus, we start with Christmas, but when Jesus talks about himself, he  starts with Moses (Lk. 24:27) because, apparently, it is impossible to  understand or appreciate who Jesus is apart from Moses’ life.  Beginning  with Moses, what is the meaning of Jesus’ life? And how does that  change the way...

Ken Schneck - Acts 9:1-9. Paul was absolutely convinced that he was  doing God's work as he tried hard to arrest Christians and stop them  from preaching that Jesus was the Messiah. He thought the notion was not  only preposterous--that the Messiah would get crucified by the  Romans--but no doubt he thought it was blasphemous. He no patted himself  on the back for being su...

Tim Witte - 1 Corinthians 1:18 -30; Judges 7:2-8. Throughout the Bible, God regularly works in very unexpected ways to the point where those in the accounts are often wondering and questioning what God is doing. Yet God gives insight to His people to discern His purposes that are grander than they/we could ever imagine and always in line with His nature.

Steve DeNeff - Luke 2:1, 4-18. In the days of Caesar, there was already  ‘peace on earth,’ yet the angel that appeared to the shepherds was  announcing something new. What are the qualities of the peace of Christ?  And why is it so important today?

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 42:18-43:3a, 5-7; Matthew 1:18-23. The most  important word in Christmas is not ‘for’ but ‘with’ (“God with us!”).  Between them is vast difference. Only by being ‘with’ us does God  deliver us. Only by being ‘with’ others (not just ‘for’ them) can we  participate in their deliverance.

Vickie Conrad - Isaiah 9:1-6 & John 1:1-5.

Eric Crisp - Isaiah 11:6-10; Luke 1:68-79.

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 11:1-5; Luke 1:26-33, 46-55. To understand the  message of Christmas, we must view it through another lens, a place  rooted in the past, in the struggle of waiting, in the loss and  frustration of those who were caught in the political, economic and  social pressures of that day. Against the backdrop of that “night,” the  birth of a child - a new king...

Steve DeNeff - Jeremiah 12:1-5; NT Selections. We keep hoping that  things will get easier, but how do we get better at doing what is  harder? God’s reply to Jeremiah’s complaint brings a fresh Word to  anyone who is tired, frustrated, and ready to quit.

Steve DeNeff - Psalm 23:1-3a; John 4:4-14. A shepherd (leader) is a  person who takes responsibility for what is or isn’t happening inside  them. But how does one do this when they’re already tired in their work?  The last we thing we need is another thing to do, something else to  work on. Here’s a word of encouragement for anyone who is tired of  working on their own spi...

Steve DeNeff - Jeremiah 1:4-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. There’s a long  history in the Bible of God’s Spirit possessing a person’s speech so  that their words “plant and build.” Yet the only advice most of us have  heard, over the past few years, had been to watch what we say. But what  might happen in our relationships, in the places where we work and live,  if we “spoke wit...

Jeff Clark - 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. Scripture repeatedly links prayer  with God’s power and activity in the world. Yet many of us have  internalized a vision of the perfect prayer life that isn’t practical to  the reality of our lives. If Paul is right that we have the mind of  Christ (v. 16) and have access to things discerned only through the  Spirit (v. 14) it could be t...

Eric Crisp - Deuteronomy 5:12-15; Mark 3:1-6. Our desire is to listen to  the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, to be empowered by the Spirit but  sometimes we lose sight of the Spirit in the frantic pace of our days.  Sabbath is an invitation to reorient our lives around a different way of  being in the world. This is not a final day of the week in which we  fall down in exh...

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 30:19 -21; Ephesians 1:3, 7-14. Have we been overthinking the will of God? Have we made it harder and more mysterious than it really is? How does the Holy Spirit change the way we discern God’s will?  How does He use holy impulses and careful deliberation, solitude and community to reveal God’s will for our lives?

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 44:1-5; Acts 4:1-12, 23-24a, 29-31. The Holy  Spirit is forming a community that is peculiar from all others, not only  in kind, but in degree. This community is the source of spiritual power  for its members in the marketplace, providing it’s a Spirit Community.  But how would we know? What could we expect if we belonged to one? And  how could our pr...

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 11:1-4a, 5; Romans 8:5-10. Those who walk in the Spirit find that God’s Spirit is in them, living and breathing. In their resonance with God’s Spirit, they discover the very mind of God.

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 63:7-14; John 14:15-17; 16:8-14. The hidden life  of a prophet begins with walking in the Spirit. The more we grow in that  capacity, the more effective and influential is our witness to the  places where we work and live.

Steve DeNeff - Joel 2:23-24, 28-29. The Holy Spirit is the active  Presence of God with His people in many places. Most of the time, these  people are not ministers and these places are not religious. But  something happens there, in these places with these people, when they  surrender themselves and their work to the Holy Spirit.

Steve DeNeff - Exodus 3:1-4, 7-8a, 10-12; 1 Peter 1:13-16. The present crisis of work is not economic, but spiritual in nature. It’s a reckoning with the meaning of our lives and our labor. The gospel of God is that we have been “called” to a higher purpose, to something more, and our work is the platform where God does His work.

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 40:28-31; 2 Corinthians 1:18-22. Between a promise  and the fulfillment of it is a gap. In that gap we have the freedom and  power to choose a mindset of either “yes” or “no.” And in Christ,  everything is “Yes.”

Ethan Linder - 1 Corinthians 6:9-12; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Often, we  think of love as a decorative, sappy, flowery thing; but Paul calls us  to re-examine this perception–going so far as to say that love is  load-bearing–the focal point of the Christ-shaped character. In this  sermon, we’ll examine what it means for love to give structure to our  life, and why we (like t...

Amanda Drury - Psalm 77. As faithful readers of the text, what does it  look like to focus on the “middle” of stories we find in Scripture? Our  minds are so quick to jump to the end where we see resolution (ie: the  storm is calmed, the battle is won, the dead are raised, etc.) but often  times life seems to pause in the middle—before we can see resolution.  So what does...

Emily Vermilya - Isaiah 41:17-20; 43:18-21; John 7:37-39. Jesus promised his followers that “rivers of living water (that would) flow from within them,” referring to the gift he would impart to them in the Holy Spirit. In remembering our baptism, we remember that just as water channeled into the desert brings the promise of life, so we are God’s channels, called and equipped by the power of the Ho...

Vickie Conrad - Joshua 4:4-9; 1 Peter 2:1-5. Throughout the Bible there are intentional acts of legacy building by God’s people (Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Joshua). God commands us to remember our experiences with Him and pass them on to the next generation. In the New Testament Jesus sought to establish a way for His disciples to remember His sacrifice. “And He took bread, and when he had given thanks...

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 24:4-8; John 6:1-13.