The Neighborhood Church of Palos Verdes Estates

In the second sermon of the Neighborhood Church Summer 2019 Miniseries, Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree explores the metaphor of the body of Christ as described in Paul's letter to the Romans. This passage opens a four chapter section on the ethics of Christian life and our actions as humans.

Is there a scripture passage that has stayed with you throughout your life, popping up over the years with surprising regularity? For visiting minister Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree, that passage is Romans 12: 1-2. In this sermon, the first of three in a summer miniseries, Davida unpacks the lessons from Paul's Letter to the Church at Rome-- his longest letter, and the only one we know for certain...

...and who do you think is gonna win? Do we have the right to argue with God? Does God want us to challenge and interrogate our faith and God's teachings? The Bible tells us-- yes! From Abraham and Moses to Job and Jacob, the Bible is rich with stories of people challenging and arguing with God. Even Jesus challenged God in the Garden of Gethsemane. In this Sermon, Michael Moorhead uses the story...

"If I had my life to live over I'd...." How often have you thought about that? Would you go back to the beginning and start over, or would you go back to one certain point in time and start from there? We've all spent some time thinking about the changes we would make and things we would do and say differently if we could go back in time. In this sermon, Rev. Dr. David D. Young ponders this questi...

Pentecost celebrates the birth of the Christian Church thousands of years ago. How do we celebrate Pentecost and more importantly-- how do we live it? Just like Pentecost was about getting the apostles fired up, we need to invigorate our own lives by letting God's life giving Spirit into our hearts. This sermon is a standalone Sermon from the Neighborhood Church of Palos Verdes. Accompanying scrip...

How do we, as Christians, involve our faith in our everyday lives? We must walk the walk in how we eat, drink, play, serve, parent, interact with others and yes-- drive, every day. In this sermon, Michael Moorhead uses the concept of the freeway, which we are all too familiar with, to explore the Christian concepts of prayer, patience and love and suggest how their application in our lives can lea...

Stress is very real part of most of our lives. We live in fast past times and a seemingly constant string of commitments and events leaves our energies depleted. What do we do when we feel tired or burnt out? In this sermon, Michael Moorhead suggests that the solution is to take on the yoke of Jesus. It may not initially be what we want or think we need, but if we commit fully to trust in God, we...

On a busy Sunday for the Neighborhood Church, Rev. Dr. David D. Young offers these thoughts on rest and renewal-- not just the physical, but the spiritual. What do we do when we feel worn out and run down-- when we're "running on empty?" This sermon is the fourth in the Neighborhood Church's Rules for the Road... of Faith Sermon Series. Accompanying scriptural passages are Ephesians 5: 17-24 and G...

It’s easy to zone out when driving… your mind wanders, autopilot takes over and sometimes you find you’ve gone ten, twenty miles without realizing it. This is also true in our Spiritual lives; we tend to take God for granted during good times and call on him with prayer when the hard times come around. In this Sermon, Rev. Dr. David D. Young encourages us to get out of the slow lane of life and ou...

You can't drive forward without a rearview mirror-- it's true. Although it seems on the surface like we don't need to look back to go forward, think about backing out of your driveway in the morning. Indeed, we do need to look back to safely navigate our way forward. In this sermon, Michael Moorhead suggests that we need to apply the same logic to our Christian Faith-- looking behind us and active...

How many of us as kids at in the front seat of our parents' cars and pretended to drive? Indeed, there is some security and comfort in pretending to drive. There are no speed bumps, no pot holes, no missed turns in a parked car. But-- you can't go anywhere. In this sermon, Rev. Dr. David D. Young asks-- what happens when we start the engine, put it in drive, and get back on the road of life, walki...

Easter is the day of days for the Christian Faith. A day of promise, hope, and… doubt? It feels as though doubt has no place in our relationship with, but when we look deeper, we see that while part of us wants to believe everything we have heard about Jesus, part of us also wonders if any of it can be true at all. In this Sermon, Rev. Dr. David D. Young wraps up the Lenten Sermon Series “Who is J...

The familiar "King of the Road" song doesn't tell us much about Jesus Christ... or does it? Rev. Dr. David D. Young looks deeper at the text and suggests that maybe the song can teach us more than we think about being followers of Christ on his road of light. This sermon is the sixth in the Neighborhood Church's Lenten "Who is Jesus, Really?" Sermon Series, which examines the different representat...

Health seems to be “in” these days. From diets and superfoods to workouts and fitness regimes, it seems like we’re constantly pursuing physical health. The Bible is full of stories of Jesus performing physical healing and so often, we get hung up on physical miracles. But when we look deeper, we realize that Jesus’ miracles are about more than just the physical body.

Learning can take a while. Indeed, we begin learning as children, first from parents, later from sibling, grandchildren, friends and teachers. When it comes to teachers, there is none better than Jesus. But what exactly is it that makes him such a good teacher? Rev. Dr. David D. Young shares some thoughts not only about what makes Jesus such a great teacher, but what his teachings mean for us as C...

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words— well, what about words? As children, we learn that actions speak louder than words, but as adults, we know that words are quite powerful. And Jesus’ words? They’re in a category all their own. In this sermon, Rev. Dr. David D. Young explains the link between words and Jesus’ role as a prophet and justice and love in our world today. This is the thir...

"Here comes the judge! Here comes the judge!" Judges are important— from the Supreme Court all the way to the lower courts, hardly a day goes by without hearing about a ruling in the news. And often, we think of Christ as a judge, determining who gets into heaven and who goes to hell. In this sermon, Rev. Dr. David D. Young suggests a gentler approach to judgment, in which Christ's sometimes blind...

"Who is Jesus-- really?" For most of us, the answer to this probably starts with "The son of God..." and then trails off after that. Indeed, though we know our faith and belief in Jesus, we struggle to articulate his identity in a profound or meaningful way. In this Sermon, Rev. Dr. David D. Young examines the role of Jesus as the Farmer, meeting us in the valleys and ravines of our lives. This se...

How do we orient ourselves to the Other? When presented with the Other— whether it be a racial, ethnic or political Other, we can choose to respond with fear, or with love. Through an Emily Dickinson poem and real world interactions with two women, UCC General Minister and President Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer suggests that love is the answer, and that it has always been the answer to all that God h...

“Who, by worrying, can add an hour to their life?” Anxiety, insecurity. They are a part of life— we spend much of our energy seeking security through financial stability, families, homes, and yet with all these things, we know security isn’t guaranteed. Indeed, to be human is to be insecure. In this sermon, the last in The Neighborhood Church’s Winter 2019 Sermon Series, Rev. Dr. David D. Young dr...

This sermon from Michael Moorhead compares the well known Dr. Seuss story “Yertle the Turtle” a passage from Luke to share insights on wealth, greed, and the impact our possessions have on us. Parables, like children’s stories, are simple passages that allow the listener to connect based on their own experiences. Though simple, both include a deeper meaning meant to provoke consideration and thoug...

How do we balance the new and the old? In a world focused on newness, we often find ourselves reaching for the newest, the shiniest, the unknown. And when it comes to religion, we are often mired in tradition, holding on to the known, the "way things have been." Drawing on Scripture and the Story of Aladdin, Rev. Dr. David D. Young suggests a way to integrate the two to allow us to live, move and...

Too often we get stuck in our own ways of seeing things, so much so that we can not see any other potential way of doing things. In this sermon, Rev. Dr. David D. Young uses the children's story of "The Zax" by Dr. Seuss alongside the book of Amos to challenge us to consider new paths. Indeed, being receptive to new things opens us up to risk. But what if risk opens us up to the potential of somet...

Bad days— we’ve all had them. Days when it seems like everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Troubles, indeed, are a part of life. In the face of trouble, we must decide— to hope, or not to hope? In this Sermon, Rev. Dr. David D. Young draws on the letters of Paul to the Romans and a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen to suggest a response to life’s troubles— the art of landing on your fee...

When was the last time you heard a fairy tale— and really listened to it? Beyond being stories for children, fairy tales allow us to realize that life is not only a treasure, but an eccentric privilege. In this Sermon, Rev. Dr. David D. Young weaves the words of Paul the Apostle through the short story of The Star Coins by the Brothers Grimm. Together, these passages teach us about giving and open...