Messages by Wayne Cook
What God Called Clean
It’s the 5th Sunday of Easter. Our scriptures are:Revelation 21:1-6Psalm 148John 13:31-35Acts 11:1-18 Peter sees a vision of animals that his faith considers “unclean” and he is forbidden to have anything contact with these animals. Yet, a voice commands him to “kill and eat.” But Peter, being the good religious follower that he is, says that “nothing unclean will touch my lips.” And the voice replies, “What God has called clean, you must not call profane.” Now, we can enjoy…
Get Up!
It’s Mother’s Day. We celebrate not only the mother’s in our congregation, but the mothering figures that we have all known and experienced through the years. The African proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child” is true. It takes all of us working together be the change that our world needs. Our scriptures on this 4th Sunday of Easter are:Revelation 7:9-17Psalm 23John 10:22-30Acts 9:36-43 Join us as Pastor Wayne talks about community and how our community connections are…
Who Are You Lord?
Welcome to the third Sunday of Easter. We continue our series “We Are Witnesses” which looks at what it means to be a witness to the love of Christ in our calling to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Our scriptures today are:Revelation 5:11-14Psalm 30John 21:1-19Acts 9:1-20 The focus scripture this week is Acts 9:1-20. It tells the story of Saul of Tarsus and his moment on the road to Damascus and helps us to…
Easter 2022
It was early in the morning on that first Easter Sunday. The sun had just come up and the women who followed Jesus were coming to the tomb to finish preparing his body for burial, a task that they had no time to complete on the day of his crucifixion. It had only been a few days, but it seemed like an eternity. As they approached the tomb, they realized that something was wrong. The stone was rolled away. As…
The Proclamation of the Passion: A Service of Contemplative Worship for Good Friday 2022
Good Friday. What is so good about it? It is the day that we recall Jesus “crucified, dead and buried,” as we remember from the Apostle’s Creed. Some say that the term Good Friday is a corruption of the Old English “God’s Friday.” This service, The Proclamation of the Passion: A Service of Contemplative Worship for Good Friday,” has roots going back to at least the Ninth Century, and even much earlier. The Passion and Resurrection have been celebrated as the holiest of…
Palm-Passion Sunday 2022
The Sunday before Easter is traditionally referred to as “Palm Sunday.” We celebrate the triumphant entry into Jerusalem with palm branches and shouts of “hosanna!” In recent years, it has become more common to also remember the Passion of Jesus. By doing so, we walk with Jesus through all of Holy Week and end at the tomb. This gives us a real picture of the heights and depths of what occurred in that week. Our worship service is a hybrid…
Character And Calling: Faith
We continue our Lenten series, “Character and Calling.” Our focus is on faith as we look at the scripture for this morning, Philippians 3:4b-14. In this passage, Paul begins by listing his resume. As a pious Jew of the day, he has it made. However, he calls it all rubbish when compared with what Christ has accomplished in his life. His message is that you can have it all, but if you don’t have Christ, you have nothing. Today concludes…
Reconciliation
Welcome to the 4th Sunday in Lent. We continue our series Character and Calling with a focus on reconciliation. The primary texts are 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and Luke 15:1-3, 11-32, a parable that is better known as The Prodigal Son. There were some minor technical issues that caused the audio to drop out for about 5 seconds toward the end.
Holy-Ness
Welcome to the third Sunday in Lent. Our scriptures today are:Isaiah 55:1-9Psalm 631 Corinthians 10:1-13Luke 13:1-9 Our focus is on holy living. That’s why I chose this title that will make all of the English teachers in the congregation cringe. Because when we focus on the Holy, when we put our trust, our focus, and our faith in God, then we begin to reflect the image of God that lives within us.
Character & Calling: Discipline
Welcome to the second Sunday in Lent. We continue this series on Character and Calling with a focus this week on Discipline. Lent provides a good opportunity for us to emphasize and practice the spiritual disciplines that serve to draw us closer to God and closer to each other. Our text is Philippians 3:17-4:1.
