ReNew Ames Messages

What is prayer? Do we have an adequate definition? If we're honest, prayer is kinda hard to define. Jesus never gives us a definition, but he does give us a prayer. The one we find in Luke is the shorter version of The Lord's Prayer. Some of us know this prayer so well that we can say it without thinking about it. Like brushing our teeth, or putting on a seat belt. But some things are meant to be...

The story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz is one of faithfulness, love, and welcome. What may not always be highlighted when studying this passage is just how above and beyond every character takes their love and loyalty for one another. Naomi, during her time in a foreign land, loving her daughters-in-law, and then looking out for Ruth once the two of them travel back to Bethlehem. Ruth, with her unmovi...

We're gonna stick with the identity question - who are you? Verse 10 will be our focus - For we are God's workmanship (handiwork), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. There's this idea that we are the creators of our own lives. Nowhere do we see this more than in social media - no wonder humanity eventually came up with this idea. We carefully craf...

We're going to talk about the foundation of our identity - who we are. The foundation of our identity is in what God has done for us - we've been rescued. Rescued from the worst things we have done - our past does not define who we are. We've been qualified. We've been made worthy to become citizens of the kingdom of God. Sometimes we don't feel worthy to be in someone's presence because of what w...

Seeds, Weeds, and Little Birdies, baby! I'll start with a TikTok about parenting - Jim Gaffigan is the best, man! Parenting really is hard. And here's the reason: we want to be in control. If we could force our teenagers to make the right decisions we would do it. Because we love the ideal of control. And it's not just a parent thing - it's a human thing. But God's ideal for us isn't control. Jesu...

Sin is a condition we all find ourselves in. We just make a mess of things. It's who we are. But if we only talk about it as a condition, we only get it half right AND we let ourselves off the hook. If we read the stories in the Bible, we come to find out that it's also about the choices we make. We have a choice in the matter. The classic example is David and Bathsheba. That's an ugly story. It i...

How did they conduct business 4000 years ago? They made covenants. Here's how the covenant ritual worked: they cut animals in half, made an aisle, stated the terms of the deal, and both parties would walk through the dead animals saying, "Maybe I become like these animals if I fail to keep my end of the deal." So then comes Genesis 15. God promises Abram descendants and a home. Abram asks how does...

Let's talk about the James Webb Space Telescope. Scientists talk about what they're experiencing when they first see new images and discoveries. They wax poetic - they're astonished, amazed. They talk about it almost as if it's a mystical experience or an intense spiritual experience. We get that. Sometimes creation can do that to us. That's what's happening to King David when he wrote this Psalm....

Jesus tells a story about a king who puts his servants in charge of some cash money. While the king is gone, they're supposed to use it as if he were still present. Two do, one doesn't; bad things happen to the one who doesn't. 1 - God wants us. God wants to be in our lives. 2 - We don't want God. When we look around at the world it doesn't take us very long to figure out that we human beings don'...

If we knew what people were going through, would we act with more kindness? Would we walk through life with more awareness of others' pain, and joy, and everything in between? In order to really love like Jesus, we have to carry that kind of empathy. Speaker: Marlin Vis Scripture: Luke 18:35-19:10

This is Matthew's version of the "It is not right to throw the children's bread to the dogs" story. This one is a little difficult to summarize so I'll be brief. Two major points: 1) Can God be bigger than our theology? Is God more loving than we even know? Are there people in our lives that we despise but now we need to show love and mercy? 2) This woman wouldn't take no for an answer - she wrest...

The take-away is listening to the Holy Spirit - being watchful and prepared for the encounters in which God places us in order to care about the one person right in front of us. In the first 8 and a half chapters of Acts, we see God calling the apostles to preach to the masses - and thousands of people coming to believe in the Gospel of Christ. Preaching to the masses is very important! But the se...

So, full disclosure. Remember when Covid happened? Remember that first Facebook live I fumbled through trying to have a conversation about this story cuz I didn't know what to do? Yeah, this is the sermon I was supposed to preach. Now I get to do it live. We'll walk again through the story and I'll have - you guessed it - 3 things to say. 1) Here we are again - Jesus trampling on boundaries to giv...

The Church is a place for sinners who long to be saints, not a place for saints who have long forgotten they are sinners. The Church is a place for celebration and joy, not a place for gloom and doom and somber faces. The Church of Jesus Christ is a place where old ways are constantly giving ground to new ways—where God is understood to be dynamic and fluid, never himself changing, yet ever changi...

Let us love one another. God is love. There's always something about these words that seems foundational to me. Like, there's something about these words that seems to form what ought to be underneath everything we say and do in this place - like DNA level stuff. It gets me thinking about how ReNew started. Just a few people meeting together trying to figure out who God wanted us to be. We eventua...

We're going to zero in on the first line of Hebrews 11 - faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Everyone has faith. We have a lot of faith in the things that we have created - technologies. It's a lot harder to have faith in things like the promises of God. We find the promises of God in our liturgy of baptism - it takes faith to believe those things. Somet...

James gives a lot of practical teaching up to this point in his writing. Now he changes directions - adds something new. Now he starts talking about the root of it all - he starts talking about the heart, what's inside. Bitter envy, selfish ambition, etc. He calls is false wisdom. We all have it. So what do we do about it? Again, practical teaching. Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, draw...

More practical theology - practical faith from James. The tongue is a fire. Today we have two things to talk about fire, and one about water. 1) Our words can be like fire that scorches the lives of others. We see this all the time. From the people who lead our nation to the people inside our own homes. 2) Words of gossip can spread like wildfire. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a s...

Far more than it shows a model for marriage, or for an individual relationship between two partners, Genesis 2 shows God's design for us to be together. Whether it is just a few people or an entire community, we are made to be in regular connection and to share life's ups and downs with those around us. None of us can do it alone. And we don't have to. Speaker: Tony Vis Scripture: Genesis 2:4-25 h...

James makes it clear at the beginning of his letter that there's a power available to Jesus people. It's a power that has the ability to form a new kind of community that is different from the rest of the world. And that power comes from Jesus. He makes it clear that faith in Jesus changes everything about the way we live our lives. In some ways, we need James right now. Badly. He doesn't let us m...

What are we doing here? Why do we come on Sunday mornings when there are all sorts of other things we could be doing to be productive in life? Why do we play this church game at all? One of the biggest reasons is that we come to pay attention to the divine. That's one of the meanings of the word "religion." It comes from the Latin root "lig" which, in part, means "to pay attention." So worship is...

Peter gets a vision that disrupts his reality. Then he gets an invitation to go to Cornelius's house. He suddenly gets the meaning of the vision. God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. He understands that God wants to include the whole world - not just Jews. Divine disruption - it challenges current ways of seeing the world and understanding God and how to follow God. Go...

Peter gets a vision that disrupts his reality. Then he gets an invitation to go to Cornelius's house. He suddenly gets the meaning of the vision. God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. He understands that God wants to include the whole world - not just Jews. Divine disruption - it challenges current ways of seeing the world and understanding God and how to follow God. Go...

Many of the smaller stories we find in the Bible are just little microcosms of the big themes of change and transformation. The LORD brings Jeremiah to the potter's house and uses the imagery of the potter and the clay. God wants to transform Israel - but it all depends on repentance - it all depends on their willingness to change. Now, when we hear a call to turn toward God - to repent - we hear...

This story is about keeping priorities straight, and keeping a right perspective on life. The rich man, in all of his privilege and wealth, loses sight of what is important in the midst of his excess stuff. Are we paying attention? Are we keeping our eyes on the needs of those around us, and seeing people as Jesus does? Or are we sitting in the middle of our excess of everything and just focusing...