South Fellowship Church

TRANSFORMED | Transformed Relationships | Philippians 2:5-11 | Week 2

As Pastor Larry said we're going to continue our series on "Transformed," and we're going to look at an issue that's hugely important in my life and your life....and that's relationships.  I'm going to ask you to join me in prayer and then we're going to unpack a variety of Scripture to see what the Lord would show us today on this crucial part of our lives.  So let's bow together in prayer:  Father, we thank you so much for your compassion and mercy, the grace you've poured out on us in Jesus.  Lord, wherever we're at today, whatever situation we've entered this auditorium today---emotionally, or spiritually, or physically, financially, relationally---Lord, I pray that you would come and meet with us in an individual way today.  Lord, we need your grace, we need your guidance, and so as we look in your Word today, from a variety of angles, Lord, I pray that by your Spirit, by your power, you would instruct us, you would guide us, you'd teach us and encourage us.  Lord, we want to be whole people, we know that's your call, so we ask for your help in that process.  We ask for this time now, that you would be glorified and we'd be blessed.  We pray this in the great name of our Savior, Jesus.  Amen...

TRANSFORMED | An Invitation to Transformation | Romans 12 | Week 1

I went to Florida last week.  I used to live in Florida and one of my favorite beaches is called Clearwater Beach. It's consistently rated in the top beaches in the country.  I parked my car and immediately went to the beach, dropped my towel, and got into the water.  It felt so amazing!  I bobbed and floated a bit, and then I saw these two guys on a sandbar.  A sandbar is sand you can stand on out in the water; it's almost like walking on water. It was about 100 yards out there and I've swum that a bazillion times.  I'm a pretty good swimmer so I took off.  I'm working and working to get out to the sandbar.  Normally it takes three or four minutes to get out there, but I don't think I noticed how hard the waves were coming in that day.  The waves were relentless and pounding on me as I was going out.  I didn't notice how hard I was working until I started feeling pretty tired; like my whole body tired, like my arms tired, and I've never really felt that way before.  It's a little bit scary to be out in the ocean and feel that.  It had been about fifteen minutes.  The guys had swum off the sandbar, so I had lost my frame of reference of where I was going.  I was so tired but I thought I'd better check and see how close I was to the sandbar.  I popped my head above the waves and it was still a little ways out; I was discouraged because I wasn't really getting anywhere.  I got nervous because my arms were tired and my heart was really pounding.  I was gasping for air and I was breathing in salt water.  My lungs were burning.  So I had to make a decision, do I continue working and trying to get to the sandbar or do I turn around and head for the shore?  I decided that I was trying so hard to get to the sandbar, but I just wasn't making it, so I decided to go back.  I turned around and the shore was SO FAR AWAY.  My lungs were burning, my heart was pounding, my arms were exhausted.  I started to get a little bit scared because I realized I'm just a few moments away from running out of gas and I don't know what to do.  The thought occurred to me, "It's very possible I'm going to drown, because I don't think I have what it takes to get back to shore."  There's no lifeguard; there's nobody close to me.  I had to fight for every breath.  I kept swimming but I was slowing down rapidly.  Just when I thought I couldn't go any farther,  I decided to check and see if I could touch the bottom. And thank God, I could stand on my tiptoes, so I used my last bit of energy to get out of the water, and I was completely and totally exhausted.  The funny thing is, at the same time I thought I might drown, I thought to myself, “If I don’t die from this, I could use this as a sermon illustration.”  I swear I thought that!  So here it is...
 
Helping people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.
 
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TRANSFORMED | An Invitation to Transformation | Romans 12 | Week 1
Speaker: Pastor Larry Boatright
South Fellowship Church
Based in Littleton, CO 

Camping Under the Clouds | Numbers 9:15-23

As a young boy, I remember my dad taking me camping in the Nantahala Forest in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Now if you’re a rugged Colorado adventurer, you might turn your nose up at our itinerary for the weekend, but to me this was adventure.  A weekend with my dad in the woods.  I’d get to ask him life’s questions, we’d share some holy moments, and he’d share his heart, and maybe I’d share mine. We would make a couple meals over a fire, camp under the night sky, and then in the morning, brave the class 2 rapids of the Nantahala River, in our own personal rafts called "duckies."  As it turns out however, we were not the only ones spending the night in the Nantahala Forest that weekend.  Word had made its way around the camp that it was very likely that an out-of-town guest had also decided to make camp in those woods that night.  Eric Rudolph, top ten on the FBI’s Most Wanted, the Olympic Park Bomber, who, as time would tell, would last for the next five years hiding out in the Kudzu-laden forests of the Nantahala, had made camp somewhere near ours.  Now I was twelve years old. This was no measurable threat.  I owned a Swiss army knife and knew how to whittle. I was not fine.  I was afraid. I didn’t deserve this!  I wondered why God and my dad had brought me to the woods to meet my demise.  I slept with both eyes open and I needed the sun to come up a little sooner than was planned for the next day.  I wanted to get the heck out of that camp, get in that raft, paddle as fast as I could, and get to where we were going.  And looking back, I think I missed out on some holy moments with my dad. 
I wonder what life would’ve been like as a young Levite boy, traveling with the Israelites in the desert on the way to the Promised Land.  They were camping out.  If you have a Bible today you can turn with me to the book of Numbers 9:15.  And as we jump into this journey with the Israelites today I was reminded of a quote from one of my favorite pastors, Mark Dever, of Capitol Hill Baptist in Washington, DC. --- "The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed." In another book he wrote:  "The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed."    Whether that saying is original to him or not, I don't know, but I know that he's echoing the words of Paul in Romans 15:4 -- For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope...  
 
Helping people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.
 
 
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Camping Under the Clouds | Numbers 9:15-23
Speaker: Pastor Josh Suddath
South Fellowship Church
Based in Littleton, CO 

We Are South | Exodus 35

April 22, 2019, started out like any other Monday, post Easter.  We had a fun time as a community, leading up to Easter.  We did an Easter Art Show that was amazing.  We had over 1400 people coming to our campus over Easter weekend.  The Monday started out with me having a lot of energy, a lot of excitement over all that God had done, but our team was a little bit tired.  The other thing that was kind of at play for me is that for the few days leading up to Easter, I had some kind of weird things going on with my heart.  My heart rate was fluctuating some and elevated at times when it shouldn't be.  I had a little bit of tightness in my chest, but I tried not to make too much of it, like it would just "go away," right?  I went through Monday and did my thing, but when evening came I wasn't feeling too well.  The tightness was pretty solid in my chest and my pulse rate was fluctuating, so I did what most men do, I hoped it would go away.  I tried to go to sleep, but it didn't feel right and like something was off.  So I did what you should NEVER, EVER do late at night when you think something is wrong with you.....I went on WEBMD!!  And of course, all signs were pointing to a heart attack.  I began to be very anxious, and was afraid to go to sleep, thinking I might not wake up again.  My wife had taken her sleeping meds, and I knew she couldn’t drive me, so I chewed on what to do.  And so finally, I texted my mother-in-law Connie, who lives with us, and said, “I think I’m having a heart attack and I need you to drive me to the emergency room.” She took me, and the moment I told the hospital staff, “I’m having chest pains,” they whisked me back to a room and a whole host of people surrounded me, hooking me up to wires and all sorts of things. And within about 30 seconds, the doctor was in there.  I just want to give you some free advice: no matter what your ailment, you can skip the long wait in the ER if you simply tell them you are having chest pains! Finally, after about $10,000 worth of tests, the nurse came in.  I gulped and waited for the bad news, assuming it was open heart surgery time.  She said, “You’re most definitely not having a heart attack.”  She could have told me she just got back from vacationing on the moon and I would have believed her just as much, because WebMD told me I was having a heart attack.  The doctor came in and told me the bad news...I was having a panic attack.  That was kind of embarrassing.  I didn't believe it.  The doctor said all my symptoms were due to stress. I’m not one to really have anxiety or to feel stress, so I didn’t recognize the symptoms in my body...

The Parables of Jesus | An Invitation to Unravel | Matthew 9:14-17 | Week 7

Pastor Yvonne Biel  ---  Have you ever felt like your life was unraveling?  As if all the threads that held your life together at one point were coming undone.  I've been there.  I woke up at age 27 in my high school bedroom looking at a calendar with absolutely nothing to do.  I was thinking back on a time in my life where Jesus seemed to make sense, and I knew who God made me to be.  I was living as a missionary in Vienna, Austria, teaching students the Bible and they were coming to me with their questions about Him.  Each day I was praying the gospel over me.  I was so confident and I knew who I was and I knew who God created me to be.  But, I was back in Michigan longing for some answers.  I found myself listening to an album called "The Undoing."  It felt like all these ways that I interacted with God were coming undone.  I picked up a book called "Thrashing About with God" because that what it felt like.  I didn't understand, necessarily, how to interact with Him, and I felt like He was calling me into a new season, to just learn how to BE with Him.  But I didn't know how to do that.  I just really hoped, and I wished, and I wanted to go back to a season where things made sense, where I knew how to interact with Him.  But I found myself in this place of unraveling.  
Maybe you've found yourself there.  Maybe it was a season where you left your structure, your home, and your community environment and went off to college.  Then you start asking all these questions about faith, and about who you are, and what you're suppose to do with the rest of your life.  That can be a place of unraveling.  Maybe it was in the middle of your life where there's a death of a loved one, and you don't know how to act, or be, or function without them.  Maybe it's a loss of a job; you were so confident in that place and now it's gone.  Maybe it happens even later in your life and you've finished your season of work and you entered into a new season called retirement, and you think, "God, I don't know what to do now and it's not what I used to do..." 

The Parables of Jesus | A Sharp Rebuke to a Foolish Interruption | Luke 12:13-21 | Week 6

Before we look at this text, please join me in prayer.  Our Father, we gather together today to worship you in the name of Jesus.  I thank you for every person who's here today.  Thank you so much for South Fellowship.  Lord, wherever we're at today---emotionally or spiritually or physically---I pray that you would come and meet with us in a very, very personal way.  That you would show us, experientially, your overwhelming, never ending, reckless love that you have for each of us.  Lord, we thank you for your Word, and now as we look at this text out of Luke's gospel, Lord, I pray that your Spirit might enlighten our minds, touch our hearts, encourage us, so that each and every one of us might go a little bit deeper today in our walk with Jesus.  It's in His great and glorious name that we pray.  We ask all this in His name.  Amen.
A long time ago, before there were Republicans and Democrats, before there was the Constitution or the Bill of Rights or even the Declaration of Independence, there was ROME.  Rome was originally a Republic but it eventually unraveled due to a long series of civil wars.  Near the end of the Republic a young man by the name of Octavian rose to prominence.  The great Roman statesman and orator Cicero said, "Octavian is a talented young man who should be praised, honored and eliminated."  But in the years after Cicero said that Octavian eliminated all of his enemies, including Cicero, transformed Rome into an Empire and took on the title Caesar Augustus... 
 
Helping people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.
 
 
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The Parables of Jesus | A Sharp Rebuke to a Foolish Interruption | Luke 12:13-21 | Week 6
Speaker: Dr. Scott Wenig
South Fellowship Church
Based in Littleton, CO 

The Parables of Jesus | What Are You Living For? | Mark 7:15 | Week 5

It is an honor to be part of this series of The Parables of Jesus.  Today, the parable/story that we are going to explore is found in Mark chapter 7. It’s one of those deeply memorable stories with a powerful meaning behind it and I know that after hearing it, you will quickly go out and tell your friends, family and neighbors. 
Gathering a crowd, he told this story.  Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.  (Mark 7:15)  Actually, this probably isn’t exactly the kind of parable we think about when it comes to Jesus’ storytelling, but it is an extremely important one.  Standing on its own it really doesn’t make sense. Because, really, the only way to understand this is to look at the story unfolding around Jesus at this time because this is a story within a story... 

Just a Man with a Can | 1 Corinthians 3:5-9

[Ryan begins with thanking Aaron Bjorklund for singing his original song, "Multiply Me," and his wife Kelly for her support over the last seven years.]
The last two months, for me, have been a rollercoaster, to say the least.  We had the chance to go to Disneyland on our vacation two weeks ago, and I can tell you that Disneyland has nothing on two months of processing a move across the country.  That's been a way better rollercoaster than anything we rode there.  It's been an interesting journey, to be quite honest with you.  In many ways I didn't see the emotional journey coming that I've been on, and that we've been on together as a family.  I've experienced sort of mini panic attacks, and immense sadness, and a little bit of anger, and immense doubt in the midst of it all.  I knew that this day was coming.  I woke up this morning and it was sort of that Brian Regan thing of like, "Oh, it's due today!"  This day that I've been getting ready for for so many days just sort of snuck up on me.  It's hard for me to believe this is my last Sunday standing in the pulpit here as Lead Pastor of South Fellowship Church...  
 
Helping people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.
 
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Just a Man with a Can | 1 Corinthians 3:5-9
Speaker: Pastor Ryan Paulson
South Fellowship Church
Based in Littleton, CO 

The Parables of Jesus | A Pattern of Pursuit | Luke 15:1-32 | Week 4

Good morning! My name is Billy Berglund, and for the last four years, I've had the privilege of being on staff here at South Fellowship, working part-time with the students as I pursued my Masters from Denver Seminary. It's just been a real privilege to my wife Hannah and I. We've had an eventful summer so far. Our son Cooper joined us on May 31st. He was born six weeks early, so he kind of surprised us. He spent some time in the NICU, but he's growing and is getting a little chunky now, which is awesome. We feel real blessed to have Cooper with us...

The Parables of Jesus | The Parable of the Talents | Matthew 25:14-30 | Week 3

We’ve been in a series the last couple of weeks where we are studying the Parables of Jesus. I have to admit,  parables can be difficult. They aren’t explicit in the way a simple story is.  Jesus at one time said, "I spoke in parables so that you would get this and others wouldn't get it."  They can be a little bit tricky to interpret. Parables are stories with a meaning, often to jar a listener into learning something new about the economy of the kingdom of God.  They were a bit jarring to the original listeners ---remember, they heard them first---because they challenged conventional wisdom at the time.  Most of them have a twist or an 'aha' moment of some kind that turned that thinking on its head. So to understand parables, we have to understand the culture and dominant thinking they were birthed into, and try to find the principle within it and bring it forward into our day and age. Because they can be a bit difficult, I’ve pored over the parables and tried to find the easiest one, and that’s what I’m going to talk about today. No, I'm kidding.  Today, I’m going to walk through a parable that’s considered a complex parable.  There are four characters that we see, but they're treated as three.  And there is a surprise twist at the end. 
We are going to walk through the Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25, so go ahead and turn there in your bibles or navigate in your bible app. The parable of the talents is part of a series of three parables that have themes of waiting for the arrival of someone special---a master or whoever it might be---and also a picture of what the appropriate behavior of the characters while they wait looks like, and all three finish with a strong depiction of judgment. And I’ll be honest and say these parables are fascinating and amazing to read until we get to the very last part.  I remember when I knew I was going to do this parable and I reread it and......oh, I really like it....oh, this is interesting....uh oh!  The very end is this harsh judgment part. It would be a lot easier to teach without that, but I think there is an important lesson in the judgment that we don’t want to gloss over. So what I want to today is to walk verse-by-verse through this parable, point out some things we can learn from it along the way, and then end with some practical things we can do to apply this to our own lives as we seek to live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus. Sound good?... 
Helping people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.
 
 
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The Parables of Jesus | The Parable of the Talents | Matthew 25:14-30 | Week 3
Speaker: Pastor Larry Boatright
South Fellowship Church
Based in Littleton, CO