South Fellowship Church

Navigating an Unknown Road | Ecclesiastes 9:1-12

Let's bow together.  Father, thanks for everything you provide for us, day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year.  Lord, as you know, the way we count time we're entering into a new year and new decade, so we pray for your wisdom, your grace, your guidance.  Lord, I thank you for every person who's here today.  Lord, wherever we're at, I pray that you might minister to us in a special way.  Now, Lord, give us ears to hear your word, minds that are attentive, and hearts that are receptive to you and your Spirit.  We ask all of this in the great name of Jesus.  Amen.
Given that it’s a new year and a new decade, there are a number of people and pundits who are trying to predict what the future will bring. It doesn’t matter whether it involves politics, or the stock market, or the Broncos, lots of people are making predictions about what’s going to happen in 2020 and beyond. But it’s always a dangerous business to try and predict the future, because it almost never turns out the way people thought. To illustrate the point, over the past 50 years various individuals and groups have ventured forth with their visions of the future and I’d like to share just a few of them with you...

Advent | Embrace Immanuel | Matthew 1:18-25 | Week 4

Advent | Rejoice In Messiah | Matthew 11:2-11 | Week 3

We're in the third Sunday of Advent.  I've got to tell you, I'm a big Christmas guy.   As you can tell, I've been a pastor for a long time and it seems like whenever we come to the Advent season, I thought I was preaching Advent sermons, but I was really preaching Christmas sermons four times.  Advent is a series of four weeks preparing ourselves for Christmas, yes, but it had a much broader perspective.  It was looking forward to the Coming.  Back in the day when they depended on agriculture, the harvest would have been taken in, but they would wonder if they'd taken in enough harvest to last them until Spring.  So there was a sense of uncertainty, a little bit of tension.  The early church instituted this season of Advent as a time for people to reflect as the days got shorter, and shorter, and shorter.  To reflect that there is a Coming of One who has light that would bring more and more and more.  There is hope that we have.  So, we come to this third week of Advent.  The days are going to get shorter.  It's cold out.  This is Advent.  Welcome to Advent.
As we look at this passage in Matthew, I'm asking God to make it come alive for you.  He's made it come alive for me and I don't want to get in the way of making it alive for you.  Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer and ask God to enlighten us.  Let's pray.  Father, I thank you.  I thank you that you're here.  I thank you that you're here and this is your Word---you've revealed yourself to us in this Word.  You want us to understand it.  You want us to wrestle with it.  Lord, make it come alive to us.  Jesus, thank you so much.  Thank you so much that you entered our world, that you made all of this possible.  Thank you, Spirit, that you are here right now to empower this Word to become real to us.  Lord, may the words that I say not get in the way of your work.  Thank you, God.  I pray this in Jesus's name.  Amen...

Advent | Turn Toward Peace | Matthew 3:1-12 | Week 2

We’re in our second week of journeying through Advent together.  In case you missed last week, Advent is the time in the church calendar where we look forward to the return of Jesus--that time between His resurrection and ascension and His glorious return---before we take a look back at his first coming.  Advent is all about waiting well.  We also talked about how millions of followers of Jesus around the world are studying these exact same passages. Last week, we worked through a text in Matthew 24 that seems like it’s about the end of the world, and we learned that Jesus is calling all of us to be awake and watchful as we wait on Him, to journey with Him and to experience Him in every moment of our lives. 
Today we’re going to start the first of two weeks looking at the life of John the Baptist.  This morning we’re going to look at the beginning of his ministry.  Next week, Pastor Dan is going to lead us through a look at his time in prison---John's time in prison, not Pastor Dan's.   Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Matthew 3.  We’re going to walk together through the first twelve verses... 

Advent | Wake Up to Hope | Matthew 24:36-44 | Week 1

Hello, everyone.  My name is Larry Boatright, and I’m one of the pastors here. So glad to see you all!  Wow. That’s a festive passage of scripture, isn’t it! [Matthew 24:36-44] Sure puts me in the Christmas spirit.  I’ll concede that it’s a strange, ominous passage.  Who’s with me?  You might be wondering, “Uh, it’s December. We sang Christmas carols today. It’s Christmas time.  Why are we starting an Advent series with a passage that looks like the end of the world?" I’m so glad you’re wondering that too!
Now, maybe you grew up in a tradition that followed the church calendar.  I didn’t, but someone introduced me to it a number of years ago, and it had a massive impact on my formation.  The church calendar has been around for centuries, and the practice of following a specific text during a specific season has its roots deep in Old Testament history.  In fact, some scholars believe that Jesus, when He got up in the synagogue and read from the scroll of Isaiah, was reading the prescribed text of the day, which just so “happened” to be about Him!

Expedition | A Season For Praise | Psalm 103 | Week 3

 Today we're going to walk our way through Psalm 103. Before we look into this psalm and see what the Lord would teach us through it, I'm going to ask you to join your hearts together with me in prayer.  Father, a couple of moments ago, we sang about how good you are and you are so, so good to all of us.  So, Lord, today, I just ask that you would reveal that side of your character to us in the teaching.  Lord, as we continue to engage you and try to come to know you, I just pray you would pour out your mercy and your grace and your compassion on each of us.  Father, we probably all walked in here today with different things we're processing through, different issues we're struggling with, maybe even sins we're tempted to commit, so, Lord, wherever we're at, I just pray that you embrace us and love us and show us how much you care for us.  Now as we look into this psalm, Lord, we ask for your Spirit's guidance, we ask that you might enlighten our minds, we ask that you might touch our hearts, we ask that you would show us who you are and what that means for us.  We pray all this in the great and powerful name of Jesus.  Amen.
Beginning this week, we’re entering into what our society labels ‘the most wonderful time of the year’.  And for many of us, this is a great time because we get to see family and friends, and eat some great food, and read some great books, and go the movies, and sing Christmas carols, and sleep in more than normal.  But for others here, it may not be so wonderful.  The reason why it’s not so much fun is because there’s pain from family dysfunction, or there’s the increasing cost of buying all those gifts, or we have to stand in the security line at DIA with thousands of our closest friends to board a plane which might be delayed at some point due to bad weather. And while the holiday season is really good for lots of us and not so good for others of us, it’s almost always the BUSIEST time of the year for ALL of us.  Regardless of who we are or how old we are, at one point or another we’re probably going to be shopping for presents at the mall or shopping on Amazon.  At some point, we're going to be standing in line at King Soopers, or standing in line at Starbucks, or standing in line at Starbucks at King Soopers.  We're going to be attending Christmas concerts and school concerts.  We're going to be completing the semester.  We're going to be wrapping up a big project at work before the end of the year, We're going to be coming to church; we going to be sitting in traffic.  And that’s just in the first week of December...

Expedition | World's Best Boss | Psalm 2 | Week 2

Hi! I just want to tell you about myself before I get started.   I grew up in a tiny town in South Dakota, moved to Minnesota to go to Crown College, and then moved here just over three years ago to attend Denver Seminary and pursue my Masters of Divinity.  In just under a month I will finally graduate! I started working here at South just four days after moving to Colorado and I’ve had the privilege of working with our middle and high school students here for the past three years, leading worship for them. I absolutely love our students and getting to be a part of their lives. Some other important things you should know about me is that I love pizza, ultimate Frisbee, and spending time with friends. 
Another thing about me that a lot of people don’t know, is that I’m a pretty big nerd. Growing up, my family watched a lot of sci-fi movies and shows, and one of my favorites was Star Wars! Throughout this epic series, we see the story of a famous rebellion. The Rebel Alliance stood bravely against the evil Galactic Empire. They never backed down, despite the overwhelming odds stacked against them. They worked in secret for decades to overthrow the Emperor and restore democracy to the galaxy, which (spoiler alert) they finally did. The Rebels took down the Empire! Good won once again! 

Expedition | Blessed is the One... | Psalm 1 | Week 1

Glad to see you all here today.  We're going to do a short series on some Psalms, the next three weeks.  This is going to build a pathway toward our time as we prepare ourselves for Advent.  This morning, we're going to be looking at the very first of the Psalms, Psalm 1.  Before we look at the Word of God, I'm going to invite us to bow briefly in prayer.  Father, thanks so much for the privilege we have to worship you and to gather together.  Lord, today, we just want to surrender our lives to you.  Lord, you are a gracious and kind and compassionate God who loves us and is calling us into a deeper walk with you.  I pray now, as we look into your word, that you would use this time and this text to encourage and teach us.  We pray all of this in the name of Jesus.  Amen.
As many of you may know, the largest city in the U.S. is New York which has about 8 ½ million people.  But what you may not know is that there are approximately 10 million cats and 12 million dogs who also live there.  When your pet dies in New York City, you can’t just go out and bury it in the backyard since most of the city is concrete, so the city authorities passed an ordinance that they’ll come by, pick up your deceased pet, and dispose of it for $75.   Well, a few years back, a lady came up with an enterprising idea to make some money.  She advertised that she would dispose of your pet for only $35 dollars.  What she’d do is buy a $2 suitcase at the local Salvation Army thrift store.  She'd then go and pick up the dead animal and put it in the suitcase and then hop on the subway.  Now, if you’ve ever been on the subway in New York City you know it’s really, really crowded.....and theft is a huge problem.  So the lady would set down the suitcase, intentionally look away, and wait for someone to steal it, and then she’d cry out….‘Wait…stop…thief!’  The authorities finally caught on to her scheme, but what do you charge her with?  And what about the thieves? How did they react when they finally opened the stolen suitcase only to discover that it contained something they hadn’t planned on?...
 
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Expedition | Blessed is the One... | Psalm 1 | Week 1
Speaker: Dr. Scott Wenig
South Fellowship Church
Based in Littleton, CO 

TRANSFORMED | Transformed: Families | Matthew 5:3-12 | Week 9

{Guest Mark (Lisa) Scandrette from San Francisco.} Lisa and I work with an organization we co-founded twenty years ago called ReImagine. It's inspired by Jesus's message of the kingdom. Basically, we're very passionate about helping people integrate the teachings of Christ into everyday life. Our work started in San Francisco, but over the last few years it's taken a global turn. I spend time each year in the U.K., Australia, Bangladesh, and East Africa; I'll be headed to Scandinavia tomorrow. When I got here this weekend, I realized there's a lot in common with South Fellowship's language and some of my passions; I wrote a book called Practicing the Way of Jesus. Maybe this is what's brewing right now, this longing among God's people to say we want to not just believe in Jesus, but also walk in his way. Some of what I'm going to be sharing this morning comes from a couple of books I wrote that are available here today. Yesterday we got to spend time with moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, and kids talking about family thriving and exploring that topic. We had an amazing time sharing hearts and doing activities and looking at God's vision on how we can be transformed in our family life. What I'm going to be sharing this morning is a little taste of the depth we explored yesterday...

TRANSFORMED | Transformed Vocation | Ephesians 2:8-10 | Week 8

 I want you all to know that in a few weeks it's my birthday.  I wanted to give you time to get presents.  And it's the big one --- 42nd!  A couple years ago, I turned 40, and as most of us do when we hit a milestone, we spend time reflecting.  I started looking at what I had accomplished, how God had used me.  A question that most of us ask at certain milestones of our lives --- Am I where I thought I'd be at this point in my life?   I wanted my forties to be an awesome decade, so I decided to attend a TED conference---TedX: Mile High.  I grabbed some friends and I was excited. The theme was "Wonder."  My hope was to be inspired and to reflect and to dream about the next decade or two about my life and dream about the next season.  
Wouldn't we like to experience "Wonder" on a regular basis?  I liked that the program had speaker profiles.  Then I started looking at the speaker list:  
Tamika Mallory - one of four organizers of the Woman’s March on DC and civil rights activist 
Dick Durrance - famous photographer/journalist - pics of Vietnam - National Geographic 
James Orsulak - owns an asteroid mining company and title is Space Entrepreneur
Doug Vakoch - Runs an organization “dedicated to transmitting intentional signals to nearby stars and fostering the sustainability of human civilization on multi-generational timescales, a project that could take centuries or millennia to succeed.”   What are you working on?? I had to ask myself, "Where were those things on the list of possible vocations when I was in high school?"  I never saw space entrepreneur or interstellar correspondent on the list or I would have been the first to sign up!