Sermon Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:1–13, 1 Samuel 17This morning, as we close out our centennial season, our children and teenagers are leading us in worship, reading scripture, and preaching; a living reminder of the ancient promise that God's spirit would be poured out on sons and daughters, and that the young would speak and see and dream.Through the story of David's anointing, we are reminded that God consistently looks past the surface, past what is impressive or expected, and sees something deeper in the people he calls. And through the story of David and Goliath, we are asked a question that every generation of this church must answer for itself: when God calls, will we have the courage to step forward? Who we dream to be is shaped not by our size or our strength, but by our willingness to listen, to trust, and to go.

Sermon Scripture: 1 Samuel 7:12As our congregation reaches a hundred years, in the midst of our celebrations, we also want to remember all that God has done. The prophet Samuel once set up a memorial stone between two towns and named it Ebenezer, the stone of help, so that anyone who passed by would remember who had protected and sustained them through all the celebrations and trials they had experienced thus far.This morning, on our Centennial Homecoming Sunday, we are setting up our own memorial stone, with help from a few guests who have journeyed on this road alongside us. Together we proclaim: “Thus far God has helped us,” and “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Sermon Scripture: Romans 12:1-2When congregations begin to grow, there is a natural pull toward activity that is not always sustainable. We start looking for programs to launch, ministries to add, and we begin thinking about what all the other successful churches are doing that we should imitate.  Yet we have  discovered that activity alone can not sustain deep community or lasting spiritual formation. So in 2014 we began asking, who are we, and how do we want to organize our shared life of fatih together.We’re a thoughtful, intergenerational church following Jesus through sacred rhythms, deep community, and wholehearted faith, while courageously participating in God’s Kingdom which is making all things new.

Sermon Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20, Acts 2:42-47, Hebrews 13:8Our city (our church) would be unrecognizable by those who first founded this congregation, yet our testimony and our story would feel familiar. We are a remnant of the legacy that they planted and tended a hundred years ago.And what were they planting and tending? A simple commission and a strong desire to serve the Kingdom and the church of Christ in simple faithfulness. Let us remind ourselves who we’ve been and who we are.

Sermon Scripture: Acts 2:38-47On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit did not come to give one hundred and twenty people a private religious experience. The Spirit came to make a people. A new kind of community. A new kind of family that had never existed in the world before. The scripture says three thousand were added to them that day, and Luke tells us in one short, dense sentence what that new community looked like: they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.To enact these is to Live Pentecost.

Sermon Scripture: Luke 24:44-53Today is the feast of the Ascension of the Lord on the Christian calendar, and it is one of the least observed and most underappreciated feasts the church has. Most of us grew up in traditions that moved quickly from Easter to Pentecost, treating the forty days between them as a kind of waiting room. The ascension, if it was mentioned at all, felt like a strange footnote, the moment Jesus left, another loss to grieve. But Jesus has been anticipating the ascension not as a retreat from failing in his work, but as the crowning moment in which it is fully realized. So this morning we are not observing a goodbye. We are standing at a coronation, and learning what it means to live in the world that the coronation has made.

Sermon Scripture: John 14:15-21Most of us have assumptions about the Holy Spirit that we might not always say out loud, but they shape how we move through our lives of faith.; we believe the Spirit is real, we believe the Spirit moves, and we have seen it in others, in moments of unexpected grace, in people who seem to carry a kind of courage we are not sure we possess. But we also think this Spirit is for everyone else out there. That this gift is either too big, too mystical, too nebulous, or too powerful for a normal person like me.But Jesus did not say it like that, he said: “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater [things], because I am going to be with the Father.” (John 14:12)

Sermon Scripture: John 14:1-14In the moments of disorientation we inevitably experience in life we can confuse the many emotions and sensations we encounter as a lack of faith. Even worse, the fear, shame, and guilt we feel might be taken out negatively on those we love the most.Today, Jesus meets us in this moment of disorientation and says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me, you will be satisfied, and you will do even greater works than I have done. I will show you the way to the home the Father is preparing.”

Guest Speaker Paige Parry will be bringing our message this week.Sermon Scripture: John 10:1-10Walk into a forest and look closely at the ground, and you will find a story that runs parallel to our own. A seedling survives not by its own strength, but by the community it finds itself in: mature trees that shelter it from drying winds, fallen logs that nourish it from below, and gaps in the canopy that draw it toward the light above. Successful seedlings are lit from above, sheltered beside, and nourished below. This is not an accident of biology; it is a pattern God has woven through all of creation.The communion of saints works the same way. We grow toward the fullness of Christ through the legacy of those who came before us, the presence of those beside us, and the pull of the risen Christ who calls us forward into good and satisfying pastures. In the Kingdom of God, no one grows alone.

Sermon Scripture: Luke 24:13-35In a gift economy, wealth means having enough to share, currency is measured in relationships, and the unit of success is “we” rather than “I.” This is because all flourishing is mutual. We could be talking about a shrub full of juicy berries, a handmade gift from a loved one, or the gifts of love, compassion, peace, mercy, healing, and life given to us by a God whose very defining characteristic is generosity. The Kingdom of God runs on a gift economy, not a transactional economy like the one in which we live, and in the Kingdom of God, all flourishing is mutual.