Emmaus Road Church | Fort Collins, Colorado

Sermon Scripture: John 2:17-22 (NRSV) The concept of love has captured the imagination of artists and communicators for generations. From love found and lost, find my one true love, to the love of family and friendship; love is everywhere in our movies, books, and art. Underneath all the messages about love, there is one common denominator - we all want love! We know that love matters. But love is...

Sermon Scripture: John 18:33-40; John 19:13-16a (NRSV) Broken signposts are the things in the world that point us in a direction or give us a hint of how things should be and how things should work, but ultimately are difficult to fully grasp or don't work as they should.  This week, we will explore the theme of justice.

Sermon Scripture: Exodus 20:8-11 (NRSV)   When God commands rest, he liberates the Hebrew people from the pressure of endless production. God releases them from basing value on productivity. He demonstrates that the well-being of creation does not depend on endless work. Instead, God calls them to rhythms of rest so that they can focus on relationship with God and others. God invites them into a r...

Sermon Scripture: Mark 11:15-19 (NRSV)    Whenever you talk about rage or the call for Christians to be peacemakers, there is one episode in the life of Jesus that inevitably comes up - Jesus tossing tables in the temple. This story is told in all four gospels, so it clearly is significant.    So, Jesus did get angry. But, as the witness of the Gospels shows us, Jesus got angry about matters of in...

Sermon Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-16 (NRSV)   Learning from the Apostle Paul’s exchange with the church in Emphasis, we are given an instructions manual-like description of the basic requirements of Christian living and how to do so. We are to follow the example of Jesus, act peacefully, and to actively maintain and establish good relationships with others.   Sounds simple enough right? Join us as w...

Sermon Scripture: 4:31-32   God the Creator is drawing together a community of any who will place their faith in Christ as the world's true King. This new community is unified through the work of the Spirit and is to embody a new type of humanity.   While this community is unified in principle through Christ and the Spirit, the community must work to be unified in practice by putting off the old h...

Sermon Scripture: John 6   Please join us as Pastor Rick Edwards leads us on a discovery of John 6, The Feeding of the Five Thousand

Sermon Scripture: Matthew 23:1-15   If we are to resist the rage that is so common in our culture, we must recognize how gently and patiently God deals with us. Following right after that, though, we are called to extend that same gentleness and patience to others. Key to the Christian witness in the world today is to resist rage and not add to the collective sense of angst and anger.   Jesus deal...

Sermon Scripture: John 1:43-51   Consider for a moment the story of Philip and Nathanael in John 1. Philip had become a follower of Jesus believed that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. This meant a change in Philip’s worldview, political convictions, and social interactions.   Philip goes to Nathanael and says, "I've found the Messiah!" But Nathanael cynically responds, "Nothing good can come o...

Sermon Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10   The truest form of strength is displayed through things like humility, vulnerability, forgiveness, generosity, selflessness. For when we take on the qualities, it creates space in our hearts and lives for God to be at work in us and through us.   In a culture that is focused on strength, may we come to know that true strength comes from the "weakness" of h...

Sermon Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 We are invited to live generous lives in response to the generosity that has been shown to us by God. Generosity can come in all kinds of forms. It can come in how we give our money. It can come in how we give our time. You are invited into a process of discernment on one step you can make toward greater generosity. As we become more generous, our lives refle...

Sermon Scripture: 2 Corinthians 6:2-13 Mature, authentic Christianity is to see that life is not a bit of this, then a bit of that; it is often both at the very same time. Can we, as Christians, learn to grieve and celebrate at the same time. Can we learn to share in the pain of the world while also sharing in its joy? Can we learn to share in the tears and laughter of God? If we can learn these t...

Sermon Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10   At the time of death, Paul understands that the veil between heaven and earth is removed and we experience the full presence of God as we await the joining of heaven and earth and the redemption of our bodies. In this way, death is not a friend that releases us from the burden of physicality, death is an enemy that has been defeated through resurrection!  ...

Sermon Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:13-18 Behind all of life, complete with the ups and downs, is the resurrection hope of Jesus. New creation has broken in. Death has been overcome. Therefore, we do not lose heart. With belief of the faithfullness of God (Psalm 116) in the background and the resurrection of Jesus in the forefront of his mind, the testimony of Paul the Apostle is that our eyes shoul...

Sermon Scripture: Romans 8:12-17   As children of God, we are brought back into our vocation as sons and daughters of God, this time with the Spirit of God to lead, guide, and empower us! We are invitedto live as God's image-bearers in the world who carry out the rule of God.   What does the rule of God look like?    Look at the true Son of God, Jesus. Through his ministry, Jesus shows what it loo...

Sermon Scripture: Ezekiel 37: 1-147 (NLT)   Ezekiel Passage (Ez. 37:1-14, NLT): Israel (and humanity) has a heart problem that leads to violence, power-broking, and ignoring the vulnerable. The valley of dry bones is picture of their spiritual state. They are skeletons in need of the breath of God to revive them. Main point: The power of God extends into the realm of death to bring about new creat...

Sermon Scripture: John 15:9-17 (NRSV) Sometimes evil is tangible, like destructive actions. Often times, however, evil sneaks into our lives in more subtle ways. One of those subtle ways is when we want the end to justify the means.  In the kingdom of God, the means are the end! Every time Jesus is offered the short or the easy way or offered an end through incongruent means, he rejects it as evil...

Sermon Scripture: John 15:9-17 (NRSV) “When we try to solve a problem or improve a design, we typically think something needs to be added to the existing model. It’s much harder for us to think about subtracting something to solve a problem. This human psychology snafu can be found everywhere — extra meetings to figure out why work schedules are too cramped, the red tape of bureaucracy; leaning on...

Sermon Scripture: John 15:1-8 (NRSV)   The vine and the branches. If you are like most, you tend see this metaphor through a personal lens. Read in this way, John 15:1-8 leads to the questions like, "Am I connected to God?" or "What am I doing to connect with God?"   These are a good and necessary question to reflect on that can lead us to spiritual growth. However, it is not without risk. Seeing...

Sermon Scripture: John 10:11-18 (NRSV)   A bad shepherd protects themselves and their reputation, even at the expense of the sheep. A good shepherd works to protect the sheep. Including, when sheep are facing danger, to go to meet the danger head on, and take upon themselves the fate that would otherwise befall the sheep.   This should hopefully sound familiar for this is precisely what Jesus, the...

Sermon Scripture: Luke 24:36-43 (NRSV) Jesus says, "Look at my hands and feet and see that it's me. Touch and see." He eats in front of the disciples and even mentions that he isn’t a ghost. There is a clear attempt to make sure the reader of the gospel knows that Jesus appeared to the disciples in a physical body. The resurrected Christ is the same person as the historical Jesus. The One who conq...

Sermon Scripture: John 20:19-29 (NRSV) Celebrating Easter and new life of springtime, after a “long, cold, lonely winter,” (weather-related and otherwise) is only natural, right, and proper. And yet, the realities of life have a way of displacing our new-found joy. How do people of the Resurrection respond when feelings of fear, confusion, anxiety, or grief continue to hover over us?   Life in the...

Sermon Scripture: John 20:1-18 (NRSV)   The good news of Easter is that God's new creation has begun. Jesus resurrection was the beginning of God's project to bring the life of heaven to earth! What God did for Jesus on the first Easter, God intends to do for us and all of creation! Jesus doesn't just offer us a new code of ethics or new religious possibility, Jesus offers us participation in new...

Sermon Scripture: Lamentations 5:1-22 (NIV) Walter Bruggemann says this: "One loss that results from the absence of lament is the loss of genuine covenant interaction, since the second party to the covenant (the petitioner) has become voiceless or has a voice that is permitted to speak only praise and doxology." Lamentations is an example of the suffering victim being given the agency and dignity...

Sermon Scripture: Lamentations 4:2-9 (NLT) Suffering, disaster, injustice are all common to the human experience, but these things disproportionately affect vulnerable communities. This lament is an invitation to recognize this reality. To admit out loud when we are less affected by an event because of our wealth, access to health care, or color of our skin. Then, to see and know the invitation th...