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Genesis to Revelation - 06.12.09
Reconstructing Christmas: Feasting
In the book of Genesis, the story starts with people, God, and food. At the end of the Bible, in Revelation, there are people from every nation, God, and a feast.
When Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to be betrayed, he is sharing a meal with them, and when he resurrects they eat again.
Why is there such a focus on food in the Bible? What does the meal say about the new creation? Why should we feast?
Download "Reconstructing Christmas: Feasting" from Freechurch.caWhat you can't hear:
On the Tuesday after this sermon we gathered together for our Winter 09 Love Feast. It was a real feast, complete with a five course vegan meals, beautiful aesthetics, live music, and great people from our Church and the neighborhood. In the center of it all was a seat of glory for God, to remind us where He belongs in our feasting. It was one of the most serene experiences of my life.
Influences:
Love Feasts!
2 Corinthians 5: 17-20 - 22.11.09
I think you're in my seat...
A lot of people talk about how we can tell people about Jesus, but there is another question that is just as valuable: why? Why should we should bother telling people about Jesus and the gospel of reconciliation? 
Download "I think you're in my seat..." from Freechurch.ca
What you can't hear:
The throne above was there for the whole sermon... just so you know.
Influences:
Surprised by Hope - N.T. Wright
II Corinthians - Frank J. Matera
1 John 4: 7-8 - 01.11.09
Deepest Magic
Every story has a force that propels it, a fuel, an engine. The Christian story claims to be the true story of the universe, the story that holds together all the other stories: what is its engine?
A sermon about a God who is eternally committed to the seemingly absurd and illogical notion that this place and these people are worth saving, and who refuses to be motivated by anything but pure, true, good, break-you-open-pour-you-out love.
Download "Deepest Magic" from Freechurch.ca
Influences:
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
The Drama of Scripture - Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen
Acts 2: 42-47 -
11.10.09"Going" and "Being"
It's simple. So simple. But we forget it every day: church is a family.
Not a building, not a time in the week; a group of people coming together as family. We say its obvious, but we ask people: "What church do you go to?"
"What family do you go to? How was family last night? I am family shopping."
If we think of church as something that we go to, then we show up, smile, consume our spiritual goods, and go on our way. If we think of church as something that we are, then everything will change. There is a world of difference between "going" to something, and "being" something.
Sermon not recorded properly.
Influences:
Derek Webb - She must and shall go free (album)
No Perfect People Allowed - John Burke
George Hunsberger's essay in Evangelical Ecclessiology - John Stackhouse Jr.
John 21 -
20.09.09"What is that to you?"
There is this moment in John's Gospel where Peter betrays Jesus three times next to a charcoal fire. He is broken, ashamed, and lost. Later, the resurrected Jesus sits Peter down next to a charcoal fire and asks him three times if he loves him. Peter is forgiven, empowered, and given the most important mission of all time. His response to this incredible, personal, history-altering moment? He points to someone else and says "What about him?"
We have all been forgiven, equipped, and trusted with a mission that will change the world. Each of us has an individual calling to do things that only we can do, to bring God's Kingdom in ways only we can. How often is our response to point to the person next to us and ask "What about him? What about her? Why does he get that house? Why is she so good at that?"
Jesus' response? "What is that to you? You follow me."
A sermon about always asking "What is that to me?"
The sermon was not recorded at FreeChurch, but a similar one was at Hope Fellowship. Click for the download.
Influences
Name (Nooma) - Rob Bell
A hundred conversations with a hundred people who feel the same thing
Matthew 23: 27-28 -
23.08.09dead people's bones
Jesus points out two ways of existing. In one we are filled with living waters that overflow into life. In the other we are like a tomb filled with dead people's bones.
Not recorded.
Matthew 15: 21-28 -
09.08.09Wrestling
In the ancient world, your name was more than just a title, it spoke to the core of who you were. The name of God's chosen people? Israel.
Israel means "wrestles with God."
A teaching about wrestling with God and man.
Download a clip of "Wrestling" from Freechurch.ca
Influences:
The Orthodox Heretic - Peter Rollins (specifically the parable "The Final Trail")
Kester Brewin's parable "Footprints" (http://www.kesterbrewin.com/2009/09/04/winning-a-parable-competition/)
Derek Webb - Stockholm Syndrome (album)
Being able to be honest with God about things He already knows
Matthew 6: 9-10 -
02.08.09more like Rome
Earth, glory, sin, death, order, chaos, anti-kingdom, redemption, cosmos, escapism, justice, dancing and the reconciliation of all things.
What is Christianity really about?
Download 'more like Rome' from Freedomize.com
Influences
Books:
Surprised by Hope - N.T. Wright (or any of his other work, specifically 'Simply Christian')
The Drama of Scripture - Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen
Other:
Mockingbird - Derek Webb (Album)
Matthew 4 -
14.06.09the Rabbi and the Talmidim
Jesus calls a bunch of fishermen to leave everything and follow him, and they just do it. No questions, no doubts. They just go. Why?
Not recorded.
Influences:
The Rabbi and the Talmidim - Ray Vanderlaan (http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=2753)
The Book of Judges - 16-19.05.09
Jacked up stories in Judges
Note: None of these sermons were recorded. They were preached at both the Elmira Youth Retreat (May 09) and Joy Winter Retreat (Feb 2010)
The Bible is a messy book. You might not know it from ‘Veggie Tales’ and flannel-graph boards, but there is some seriously twisted stuff in our Holy Book! What do we do with it? So often we ignore the stuff in the Bible that makes us uncomfortable, but what if we dealt with it head on? What if we intentionally spent time in the most violent, depraved, jacked-up sections of the Bible? Maybe we will all close the book and never speak of it again… or maybe something beautiful and redemptive will happen in the very place we least expect it!
The Bible is God’s Word to us, right? And that means the whole thing, doesn’t it?
1) we just call them by different names
God promised to always love, defend, and provide for His people; but what happens when they turn their back on Him? What happens when they grow cold to the one true God and chase around all the others? What happens when we grow cold to the one true God and start chasing around all the others?
2) we’re all left handed
We do a lot to cover up our weakness, don’t we? We dress cool, listen to cool music, wear cool sunglasses, slick back our hair and roll up cigarette carts in our sleeves (no one else?). We all want to be friends with the most popular people; we want to grow up to be famous, to be winners! But the God of the Bible seems to prefer those that are the weaklings, the losers, those on the underside of power… God runs with the underdogs.
3) you don’t get to be Batman
The book of Judges is filled with interesting characters who save the day… so it’s a book of heroes… isn’t it? But what happens when heroes let us down? What happens when we can’t save the day? Who is the real hero of the story?
4) a new deliverer
We get it, we need rescuing: but who will deliver us?
Psalm 137 -
10.05.09jumping into the pool and running around the blockTragedy strikes, the walls fall down, Babylon comes, and we find ourselves at the rivers side; sitting, mourning, and wondering 'where is God?' We ask the question 'how can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?' Sometimes suffering takes us into exile, and we wonder what to do with our pain. Maybe the Psalms have something to say about our pain? Maybe God wants us to voice it? 
Download 'jumping into the pool and running around the block' from Freedomize.com
Recommendations/Influences
Books:
Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak For Us Today - Bernard Anderson
The Drama of Scripture - Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen
Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven, But Nobody Wants To Die - David Crowder and Mike HoganAnswering God - Eugene Peterson
Other:
Introductions to the Psalms (Heritage Seminary Course) - Dr. David Barker
I Can Feel Your Pain; Sleeper 1972; Where Have You Been?; I Can Feel A Hot One - Manchester Orchestra
Matthew (Nooma) - Rob Bell
Amos 1-3 - 03.05.09you only have I known
Subversive, edgy, out-spoken, poetic. At a time when Israel was comfortable with the 'status-quo' it was the prophets who stood up, gave voice to the way things were, and pointed to the way they should be.
'Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and man. God is raging in the prophet's words.'
Who are the prophets today? What do they say to us? What is raging in our words?
Download 'you only have i known' from Freedomize.com
What you can't hear:
Near the end of the sermon, after Joy spoke of her sister's piece, a video played showing its display and construction. The other thing you can't hear (much) is the technical errors!
Recommendations/Influences
Books:
The Prophets - Abraham Heschel
Wall and Peace - BanksyThe Drama of Scripture - Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen
Jesus Wants to Save Christians - Rob Bell and Don GoldenAn Introduction to the Old Testament - Tremper Longman III
Other:
She Must and Shall Go Free; Mockingbird (Albums) - Derek Webb
Of Plastic Circumstance - Rose Broadbent (http://ofplasticcircumstance.com/)The Old Prince (Album) - Shad K.
