Wesley Foundation at MSU

John the Baptist is famous for saying, “Jesus must increase, and I must decrease.” The Message gives a fresh take on these words: “This is the assigned moment for Jesus to move to the center, while I slip off to the sidelines.” [John 3.30] This week at Worship, we’re studying John 3.22-36 and taking a look at what it means for me to decrease and for Jesus to increase in my life. What if surrender,...

Luke 3-4, When college feels so much like a wilderness, how can we survive it and even thrive in it like Jesus did when he spent time in his own wilderness? The quick answer is found in what happened to Jesus right before his wilderness--and it can happen for us, too. Abiding in Jesus' identity leads to abounding in Jesus' faithfulness. 

2 Corinthians 9 - so you've been abiding , but what does it mean to abound ? What exactly is it that's abounding? And who's doing it?

Two verses [John 15.5 & 2 Cor 9.8] and two words can make all the difference in the way 2023 plays out. Two simple words – in the right order. So which is it? Is it abound & abide? Or abide & abound?

Christmas Worship '22

Is it all hevel? Or is there more to the story?

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11. Hevel is our current reality, but it doesn't have to be our destiny. What if it's true that we're made for beauty and eternity instead of meaninglessness? 

A study of Ecclesiastes-Where can we find joy in a world filled with uncertainty? 

John 20:19-22 "When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.   Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Fa...

From the very start of his ministry, Jesus is clear about his focus. Jesus is obsessed with, focused on, oriented around the huge idea of the Kingdom of God. When we follow Jesus, his focus becomes our focus...his obsession becomes our obsession...his priority becomes our priority. But what is the Kingdom? How does someone like me get in? And what do I do when I'm part of the Kingdom of God?

Mark 3:13-15 With Jesus. Jesus radically wants to be with you. His love for you knows no boundaries and his desire for a relationship with you has no limits. Jesus comes to be with you so you can be with him. 

Has God ever called you to something that you've never done before?  It can be intimidating because the unknown is scary.   It can feel overwhelming because you may doubt yourself and your abilities.  Let's take a lesson from Joshua and his calling while also looking for wisdom on what to do when we're on a road we've never been on before by looking at what God tells the Israel...

Isaiah 59:8 paints us well by saying, "They don't know where to find peace."  Though this was written about a different people group, Isaiah's words speak to the landscape of our culture today.  Within so much hate and division alongside worry and fear, we are people in need of peace.  We long for more wholeness and peace because we were made from wholeness and peace.

Made for more: relationships.  One area of life where we often experience less than we're made for is our relationships.  All kinds of relationships, from family and friends to romance and roommates.  Created in God's image, we have the capacity for the same two adjectives that describe God's relationships -- holy and love -- to describe our relationships.  When it comes to rel...

Made For More: Meaning, Connection and Wholeness.  We long for more because we're made for more.  the Bible describes us human creatures as being made in the image of God.  That explains a w hole lot about us.  It explains our Creator's original design for us, and it explains our longings, like why we ache for a purpose, why we crave connection with others, and why we hunger fo...

Two big ideas from Luke 9.51-62: 1/ Jesus was stubbornly determined to do his mission for our good.  2/ Jesus calls us to follow him with the same kind of resolute determination.  His path led him to the cross and beyond. Ours does, too.

Do you ever feel scattered kind of like tumbleweed? The nature of a tumbleweed is that it gets blown all over the place and it's not rooted in anything.  In Colossians 2, Paul gives us five ways to put down roots in the love of God reminding us that what we are rooted in matters. 

What does extravagant love look like? How does knowing that we are extravagantly loved call us to love extravagantly?  

What makes a bold goal bold is not that it’s your daring attempt to be your best version of yourself. We’ve tried that before, right? What makes a bold goal so bold is that it’s God’s audacious vision for your life. Tonight’s Bold Goals: Build something that’ll last (Luke 6.47-48). Live with power and purpose (Acts 1.8).

We’re coming up on our two-year Coronaversary. We’ve been limping along, locked-down, living our least life now, struggling through grief and sickness, and dealing with quarantine and isolation. But even in the middle of it all, we can partner with God and pursue his Bold Goals for us. Over the next two weeks, we’ll take a look at four Bold Goals to make the most of the life we’re living. Tonight’...

Come to know and see Jesus for who he is in our waiting and the consolation of a hope well placed

“Waiting on God” while placing hope in Him instead of in what we are waiting for.

Pause. Rejoice. Ask. Yield. Our teaching series on How To Pray wraps up with a look at what it means to yield or surrender to God in prayer. One way to put it is "He must increase, and I must decrease."

At Worship,  we're in the middle of a teaching series on prayer based on the Lord's Prayer and the acronym P.R.A.Y. -- Pause. Rejoice. Ask. Yield.  This week, we're talking about asking.  "Prayer means many things to many people, but at its simplest and most obvious, it means asking God for help." (Pete Greig, How To Pray) Sometimes we're asking for hel...

I’ve come to the conclusion that most people’s biggest problem with prayer is God.  They envisage him scowling, always disapproving, needing to be placated or persuaded in prayer." But Jesus says something completely different. The God to whom we pray is extravagantly kind, the father of the prodigal who comes running toward us with arms flung wide, whenever we approach him, wherever we’ve be...