College Wesleyan Church Sermons

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 5:1-4; John 15:1-8. From the beginning, God has granted every species the capacity to reproduce fruit “after its kind,” the potential to generate something new beyond itself. In these two parables - one of Israel, the other of a new Israel - is an invitation to live the fruitful life.

Daniel Rife - Genesis 1:1~2:2; John 2:13-22. The Temple was the heart of the Jewish people, it was the place where YHWH had promised to live in the midst of his people, it was the place where heaven and earth overlapped. But God did not originally design his temple to have four walls. As we follow the temple motif throughout the biblical narrative, God reveals his invitation to participate in exte...

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 61:1-3; John 11:1-44. Tears are a major part of our story, in the Bible, and they happen for different reasons. But tears are not a sign that something is “wrong.” Tears are a visible sign of an invisible reality, and they allow us to participate in the character of God who weeps. In the sacrament of tears is the fellowship of sufferers.

Steve DeNeff - Exodus 19:1, 2-7, 16-25. Like fire on the mountain is the holiness of God, awesome and unnerving, domestic and wild, good but unsafe, cleansing what it could destroy. Whatever happened to the God of consuming fire? How did he become so tame?

Steve DeNeff - Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 20:19-23. From the beginning of time, God’s Spirit has moved like a wind (or “breath”) across the earth, creating and sustaining life. Sometimes the people God has formed grow weary, then come apart, and when we do we need a second wind (of God’s Spirit) to renew us.

Tracey Steenbergh - 1 Samuel 17. David went from caring for his father's sheep to fighting a giant. How did he do that, and what can we learn from his example?  What might happen if we practice remembering God's faithfulness, trust God has given us enough, and say yes to God in the everyday circumstances of our lives?  Maybe the the more we say yes to God, the easier and more natural it becomes so...

Steve DeNeff - Acts 2:17 -21; Galatians 5:16 -18, 22-25. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on “all flesh,” male and female, young and old, slave and free. But what does it means to live and move daily in the Spirit? How do we cooperate with God’s Spirit during the course of our day? Here’s a few things we can practice - and get better at over time - to “keep in step” with the...

Steve DeNeff - Acts 1:3-12a; Hebrews 4:14-16. We often think of what Jesus has done (death and resurrection) or what Jesus will do (glorious return), but very little of what he is doing now (intercession). In Christ’s ascension we see how much we need and have a priest, and this gives us new boldness for things we are facing today.

Ethan Linder - Titus 2:11 -14, 3:1-8. What does God want from you (or for you)? Over time, it can be easy to reduce God’s claim on our life to the “spiritual” dimension… believing God expects us to live morally and do a couple spiritual disciplines. That’s not a bad vision; but it leaves a lot of our lives untouched. Paul presents something bigger: in Christ, we are invited into a grace-shaped lif...

Dave Drury - Matthew 16:15-19; 1 Peter 2:4-5; Matthew 28:17-20. We live in an era of rapidly eroding trust in the institutions of our society and the church is no exception. Attempts to recover what Jesus left us without the baggage of distrusted church institutions are difficult. There are many things Jesus could have left us that he chose not to; instead: Jesus left us the church. Why? And what...

Steve DeNeff - John 19:41-20:3, 11-18; Romans 5:12, 14b-17. The passion story, in John’s gospel is a re-telling of Creation (Gen. 1-2) thru the lens of Jesus’ resurrection. Since that first Easter, God has been “finishing the work he’s been doing,” (Gen. 2:2), bringing “light” and “life” to all who believe. In this message, I want to re-fire our imagination using creation and resurrection to re-te...

Steve DeNeff - Luke 24:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-24. There is a divine economy that changes the value of everything we cherish and everything we despise. In this economy, there is power in surrender, glory in suffering, freedom in obedience, and life in the shadow of death. Ever since the resurrection, the end is where we start from. Our worst moment is the beginning of our best.

Steve DeNeff - Mark 16:1-8; 2 Corinthians 4:7-16. In Mark's gospel, Easter is unfinished. Jesus is risen in the negative space. Power is subtle, hope is deferred, certainty is mixed with confusion, and joy is mixed with fear.  Easter is a treasure, but we carry it in jars of clay. Mark's account of Easter is for the weary, the skeptical, the frustrated and the faint of heart.

Steve DeNeff - Matthew 27:57 - 28:1. What is the meaning of Easter? How do we live into that meaning every moment of our lives? Rather than think of Easter as one story, told differently, think of it as four stories told thru the lens of the “night before.” What happens on Easter is best understood thru the lens of what happened on the night before.

Steve DeNeff -  Matthew 21:1-17. From Palm Sunday (“Behold your king comes to you…”) to Good Friday (“Hail, king of the Jews…”) the last week of Jesus life - Holy Week - is the slow and unwelcome rise of a new king whose power increases as his popularity wanes. The story is a parody to kings and their powers. What is the power of a crucified king? How is it different from ours? What are the new “l...

Alex  Mandura -  Psalm 23, John 15:9-14, 21:15-17. Shepherding is not just an activity we pick up when we want. Rather, it is a discipline we grow in, enabling us to ‘love our neighbor’ and care for the people God has placed in the season of life we find ourselves. As we lean into this discipline, we find in our past, stories and evidence of lives transformed, cared for and lifted up to our Lord....

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 41:8-14; Matthew 14:22-33. What is the gospel to the oppressed; to those in despair, about to drown? Lately, it seems we are inundated with bad news - natural disasters, global pandemics, human atrocities that engulf the world - and the gospel seems small in comparison. Yet there is one theme running through the Bible, from beginning to end, that is pure gospel and it’s exact...

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 46:3-7, 12-13; Mark 10:17 -31. The story of the rich young ruler is often used to denounce the accumulation of wealth, which it does, but beyond that it shows us how Jesus announces the gospel with particularity to each person’s need, calling those who toil and strive to “turn and believe” in the gospel of rest.

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 35:3-6, 9b-10; Mark 9:14-27. Jesus said, “repent and believe the gospel” and, as Christians, we like to think that we already believe. But usually we are somewhere between belief and unbelief. So what does it mean to believe? How does it release the gospel and change our predicament?

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 52:7-10, Mark 1:1-5, 14-15. The Kingdom advances at the speed of our announcing it. It’s time for the Church to believe the gospel again. But what is it? And what does it mean to believe it?

Leanne Ketcham - Luke 9:28-43. Luke 9:28-43 tells of two sons. One is deeply suffering and is brought by his father to Jesus for healing. Another has yet to suffer and is brought by His Father to experience glory before His suffering will lead to the healing of all people where they might also join Him in glory.

Chris Bounds - John 14:15-26. Four times in this passage Jesus says that if we love him, we will keep his commands. This sermon with explore (1) why keeping the commands of Christ are essential to loving Christ; (2) why loving Christ is so difficult; and (3) how the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to walk in love of Christ.

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 42:1-4; Matthew 12:1-18. When the prophet said, “justice is driven back and righteousness stands at a distance” (Is. 59:14), he may have been speaking of us. How is the Kingdom’s version of justice different from what is commonly called ‘justice’ today? How do we pursue it in our communities? What do we want for society?

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 44:1-5; Matthew 16:13-19. The kingdom of God comes one gathering at a time, when citizens live together with God and for the world. How does the kingdom of God advance? What is the place of the local church, or the Christ-centered business or team, in that advance? How do we avoid the temptation of an Empire?

Steve DeNeff - Isaiah 61:1-7; Matt. 9:35 -38; 10:1, 5-8. God’s vision for a new society involves a “kingdom of priests,” which is odd because priests build seminaries, and not kingdoms. Yet Isaiah says we “will be called priests of the Lord, (and) named ministers of our God,” (61:6). What do priests do? How are they different from the prophet that everyone wants to be? How do we co-opt our jobs to...