This sermon explores Isaiah 35 as a powerful promise of hope for people living in loss and uncertainty, reminding us that God has not abandoned His people and will bring restoration, even when the timing is unknown. Through images of blooming deserts, healed bodies, and a clear road leading home, we are invited to trust that sorrow is not the final word and to hold onto hope together.

1. Can you think of a place in nature that makes you feel close to God or reminds you of his power and majesty?

2. What images from Isaiah 35 stood out for you the most (the desert blooming, healed bodies, the road home, singing with joy)? Why?

3. Isaiah spoke to people who felt lost, displaced, and discouraged. In what ways do those feelings show up in the world today?

4. Where in your life do things feel dry and weary today?

5. What does the image of clear, safe “road home” tell you about God’s character?

This Advent sermon reflects on Isaiah’s vision of God’s coming kingdom—a world marked by peace, justice, wholeness, and the end of violence—and reminds us that this hope cannot be fulfilled by governments, institutions, or human effort alone, but only through Jesus. Listeners are invited to choose God’s side, embrace their calling in God’s redemptive work, and respond to Christ’s open invitation to hope, transformation, and communion.

1. When you hear the description of a world with no violence, wickedness, or fear, what stirs in you most deeply? Why that particular longing?

2. Who are you most frustrated or angry with for not fixing what is broken in the world (government, church, yourself, something else)?

3. Why is it significant that God’s answer to the world’s brokenness is not a system, but a person?

4. How does waiting for Jesus differ from waiting for political change, cultural progress, or personal improvement?

5. As you wait for Jesus, what is one way God may be calling you to live now as a sign of the coming kingdom?

Last week this story from Luke 11 invited us to choose whether we will serve on God's side or Satan's side in the cosmic battle that plagues all creation. This week we are reminded that choosing a side isn't enough; once we've chosen a side, we are expected to do something.

This sermon confronts us with the reality of the cosmic war between God's kingdom and that of Satan. It challenges us to to choose a side, cautioning that not choosing is not an option. It also offers hope in the reminder that God and Satan are not equals, but that God is stronger and cannot be defeated.

In this sermon, there is a quote at the 13:18 mark that reads this way: The Kingdom of God is found in "the restoration of individuals to physical, spiritual, and communal wholeness through Jesus' teachings, healings, and exorcisms."

[Chen, Diane G. (2017). Luke. New Covenant Commentary Series. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books.]

This sermon invites us to set aside the question of how to pray and instead consider who it is to whom we pray.

In this story from Luke 10, Jesus challenges his friend Martha to stop being worried and distracted by all the things she has to do, and to instead be like her sister Mary, who chose to be with Jesus and learn from him. This sermon reminds us that hearing and doing aren't opposites that we must choose between, but are instead complimentary. We are encouraged to remember that our doing must flow out of our hearing.

Jesus' well known story of the "Good Samaritan," challenges us to consider if we are willing to show mercy when it is inconvenient or unpleasant. We are further challenged to open our eyes beyond those we normally look to as examples of compassion and mercy, to learn what it means to love God and love people.

In this sermon we are encouraged to consider seven responsibilities of church membership: prayer, grow, love, worship consistently, serve, give, and participate in decision making.