Emmaus Road Church | Fort Collins, Colorado

Sermon Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 God wants to use each and every one of us to accomplish his goodness, and it's going to look different for each one of us. It won’t look and feel the same, there is not one best way of being used by God that is better than the others, but God is faithful to use us for his work if we will join in the process. God wants to help you become the perfect versi...

Sermon Scripture: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22, John 1:43-51 The message for the first day of Epiphany was that the light of God has shined upon all humanity. Today, the message on this first Sunday of Epiphany is that accompanying the light of heaven, comes its power, presence, and potency invading our humanly form; our weaknesses, our strengths, our very being. Heaven not only shined upon us, heaven open...

Sermon Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12 In Epiphany we are reminded that God knows our road — the roads we've travelled so often they become mundane and the roads we have never paid any attention to. Most of us are facing crossroads of many kinds today on this first Sunday of 2025. Jesus may be opening up new ways before you, or he may be causing you to see old worn roads in a new light. Our story is abo...

Sermon Scripture: Luke 1:68-79 This week we hear the story of Jesus' presentation at the temple, where Simeon and Anna recognize Him as the long-awaited Messiah. Their joyful proclamation reminds us that God is faithful to fulfill His promises, even after years of waiting and longing. As we celebrate Christ’s arrival, we are invited to live like Simeon and Anna—devoted, watchful, and ready to decl...

Sermon Scripture: Luke 2:1-20 The truth that we celebrate in Christmas is that the light of the world has come. Jesus Christ, our messiah, our savior is born. This is why candle light is so important at Christmas. These lights proclaim the THE light has come.

Sermon Scripture: Luke 1:68-79 God chose Mary; 15-years old, poor, and unwed. He chose Elizabeth, a senior in the old folks home, used up, overlooked, too old. And you know what? He chooses you! This anthem for a new age that Mary sings about, this different kind of Kingdom that she envisions, that Jesus comes to demonstrate, it only happens when it is lived out in you. In our contemporary context...

Sermon Scripture: Luke 1:68-79 “Because of the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79) These words spoken by the priest Zechariah at the birth of his son John (the Baptist) profess the goodness and faithfulness of God in keeping the promises given...

Sermon Scripture: Psalm 25:1-10 No matter where your heart is today, no matter the unsettled state of our world, the words of Psalm 25’s promises fuel our hope.  Advent is a season of longing in the darkness, recognizing our need, clinging to God’s promises, and stoking our faithful hope that Christmas dawn is already growing on the horizon.

Sermon Scripture: Daniel 7:13-14, Revelation 1:5-7, John 18:33-37 On Christ the King Sunday, we consider anew, which king and kingdom do we serve. We look to Jesus, crucified and risen, unveiled in his power and mercy, who destroys every false image of earthly power.  May we look to Jesus and thus find the courage to look within our own hearts, renewed and empowered to follow the ways of Jesus and...

Sermon Scripture: Hebrews 13:1-8 Here in our final week of study through the book of Hebrews we see the power of love and hospitality in our care for one another. Learning to live in this way is how we connect ourselves to the miraculous power of God’s Kingdom. Through our interactions, each of us become the hands of feet of the Kingdom to others — or perhaps, we find ourselves receiving this divi...

Sermon Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-3. 12:1-3 Stories of hope are so important for us. They are not only wrapped up in our imaginations as inspiration, but they empower our actual living. We look to those who lived lives marked with great faith as an inspiration in our challenges. We remind ourselves of the hope, of the faith, that carried them on. We acknowledge, lament, and confess their shortcomings...

Sermon Scripture: Hebrews 9:11-14, 19-22 The overall aim of the author of the Letter to the Hebrews is to convince Jewish Christians not to turn away from their new faith back to the Judaism they grew up in. He makes a case that Jesus is better in every way—greater than angels, prophets, Moses, priests who came before him. This week, Hebrews makes its final argument of the supremacy of Jesus, the...

Sermon Scripture: Hebrews 6:9-12 Hebrews is trying to stir up the faltering 1st century Jewish Christians who were ready to give up the game for lost. It’s like they were in a match that was tied-up at the end of the period and they saw no way of pulling out the win. Many of them were packing it up and just going home. Leaving the covenant of Jesus behind in favor of the well worn and familiar cov...

Sermon Scripture: Hebrews 5:1-10 Theologian Fulton Sheen said that every priest is essentially a Jacob's ladder—that is to say, someone who connects heaven and earth. Thomas Aquinas asserts simply that the priest is a mediator, a bridge, between human beings and God.  This week we consider Jesus as the ultimate and final high priest.

Sermon Scripture: Hebrews 3:1-6 For us, the story of Jesus and all that he taught and demonstrated is familiar and well covered ground. But, for the 1st century Jews, this upstart Jesus and his radical reformation of the Mosaic law was brand new, and depending on how seriously you took him, he was either who he said he was; the Messiah of God, a harmless distracting, or a dangerous heretic.

Sermon Scripture: Hebrews 1:1-4 Hebrews was written from one devout Jewish follower of Christ to others struggling in their faith. A struggle that many of us are accustomed to today. Throughout this series we will dwell on the incomparable glory of the person and work of Jesus Christ; showing his supremacy over angels and prophets, priests, and the old covenant and its temple and its sacrifices —...

Sermon Scripture: James 5 The book of James suggests that followers of Christ thrive through faithful devotion to God’s mercy and grace and a lived life of faith and works, reliance on wisdom to reorient the fickle motivations of our hearts, and to trust God with the providing, protecting, and ordering of our lives. But, we recognize that there is a gap between our common experience and the promis...

Sermon Scripture: James 4 James chapter 4 feels like a set of three disconnected warnings to the early followers of the way of Jesus, but if we take a step back, we can see a common thread running through each. In verses 1-10 James warns against envy and material greed, in verses 11-12 he warns against judging others, and in verses 13-17 he concludes by warning against boastful self-reliance. Each...

Sermon Scripture: James 3 James argues that any pretense of being a follower of Christ that doesn't result in a serious working-over of our speech habits is falling short. How we use language — what we say and how we say it — is a central and vital part of what it means to be truly human. The real work of taming the tongue is not just about habit stacking or self control, it is heart work. Jes...

Sermon Scripture: James 2 In James chapter two we are reminded; that God doesn’t play favorites with who he welcomes into his family, therefore we shouldn’t either, we will be tempted to take our salvation into our own hands in an effort to buy it or manipulate it, when it remains a work of God all along, and that there are no shortcuts to our salvation. It is a matter of belief and action — not o...

Sermon Scripture: James 1:17-27 This week we begin to study the book of James. James does not read like one of Paul's letters where he addresses specific problems in one local church, rather this book is a summary of James's sage wisdom for any and every follower of Christ. James's goal isn't to teach new theological information, all we need is found in the teaching of Christ, rath...

Sermon Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-18 We all live at the mercy of certain forces out of our control, some of which leave us frustrated, damaged, or even completely defeated. Christians need to know that: (1) we are part of this struggle and must be able to recognize the forces against us; (2) we are called to stand firm against these forces; and (3) God has equipped us with the ability and tools to...

Sermon Scripture: Ephesians 4:25-5:2 This week, as we continue studying the book of Ephesians, we see what appears to be a list of dos and don’ts to guide and shape our behavior, but really what scripture is reminding us is that the whole range of human emotion and experience is God given, but it is so important to use our strengths wisely and well so that they do not become weakness or sin.

Sermon Scripture: Ephesians 2 We are all following a map, but is it the right one? Then, if we discover we are headed in the wrong direction we need help in changing course.  By allowing God to reconstruct our journey, we might finally discover what we have been missing all along — a new way of living and being human that satisfies all that is unsettled in us. This new journey in Christ is what Go...

Sermon Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-14 As we begin a new four week series walking through the major themes of the book of Ephesians, we see God as the master architect of a beautiful plan bringing life to all humanity and all creation.  God has a plan, this plan comes with promises, and engaging in them inspires our praise.