South Fellowship Church

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 

The Parables of Jesus | The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector | Luke 18:9-14 | Week 2

We started a series last week called "The Parables of Jesus."  This series is all about the parables of Jesus.  Over the course of the summer, we're going to be studying together these stories that Jesus told.  That's what a parable is.  A parable's a story.  It's two words put together---"para" which means alongside of and "bollo" which means to throw.  It's stories for normal everyday people----they weren't told by the philosophical leaders or taught in the Socratic seminar.  Stories they threw alongside of reality.  The whole goal of a parable was to make people go, "Huh, I never thought of it like that."  I never thought that the kingdom of heaven was sort of like a field where there's both wheat planted in it and weeds.  Hmm, I never saw it like that.  The parables are intended to create some spiritual awakening in our souls.  
The parable that we're going to look at today is found in Luke 18:9-14.  This parable is all about Jesus saying, "I know, I get it."  The way that you look at the world and the way that you see who's on top, the power structures, and what it looks like to get ahead, and what it looks like when you accumulate wealth, and how to be a good and right person.  I get it.  I get it.  There's a way that the world looks, but everything is not as it seems...

The Parables of Jesus | Parables of the Weeds and Seeds | Matthew 13:24-33 | Week 1

A week ago today, my family and I were leaving to go to a week at Mount Hermon.  I taught there last week, and the family went and had an awesome time.  Kelly and I are both Type A people.  Our flight left at 8:45 and we left the house at 6:00 am because we like to be on time.  If you followed the news last Sunday, you might have heard there was a little bit of an accident on Peña Boulevard.  If you know DIA, you know that Peña's really the only way to get into that airport.  We left our house at 6:00 and about 6:30 we're at that stretch of Peña that juts north and then heads east to the final stretch that takes you into the airport.  When we turned east, we hit gridlock traffic like I've never seen on that street before!  It just came to an absolute screeching halt!  Kelly and I looked at each other and said, "This isn't good," and started Googling what's going on.  Turns out there was a huge accident up front.  From 6:30 to 7:00, we just sat there and didn't move at all.  We saw (on Apple Maps) there was a shortcut you could take and get off the road and sort of circumvent the issue a little bit.  We did that and ended up in another line of cars.  You may have heard that there were some people who took a short cut into an open field and they got absolutely stuck; that wasn't us, but we could see them from where we were.  As we were waiting, I was saying, "Okay, if we get there 7:45 (an hour before our flight leaves) we'll be just fine."  It hit 7:45 and we were still stuck.  Then I said, "If we get to the airport by 8:00, I think we're going to be okay."  We started to move a little bit more, but we didn't pull into the airport until 8:10.  I went and parked in short-term parking, which, by the way, if you do that for a whole week, costs you $175, I found out.  We ran into the airport, got through security, begging and pleading with people to let us through.  I was in such a hurry I put all my kids luggage on the conveyor belt to go through security, and I left mine there.  We got down to the train and I'm standing there empty handed.  Kelly says to me, "Where's your bag?"  I went, "Oh, I blew it!"  I ran back and said, "It's going to be easier to find a flight for one than it is five.  You guys get on the flight.  You go!"  I ran back to security and asked if they had a bag and they asked, "Does it have a car seat on it?"  "Yeah, I'm that idiot."  I run up to the gate.....it's three minutes after the flight was suppose to have taken off.  As I'm running up, they ask, "Are you Mr. Paulson?"  "Yes, thank you, Jesus!"  They said, "Reid was really worried you weren't going to make this flight!"  
As we were waiting in line, we saw people who decided that waiting in line wasn't going to be for them; they were going to miss their flight as most of us waiting in line.  So they tried to turn around and get out of the line.  This guy had a Jeep so I guess he thought he would be okay, but, if you remember, it rained pretty hard the Saturday before, and that field was absolutely mud.  I didn't get him in the picture, but he was standing with his arms crossed looking at what was formerly his car.  I thought to myself, "Yeah, waiting's hard."  Especially when you're waiting and you don't have any sort of time frame for when that next thing is coming.  Waiting's really difficult.  I think our tendency, as human beings, is to try to look for any short cut that we can, in order to get around the waiting.  How many of you have tried to circumvent the line at an amusement park?  We wait for food to come at a restaurant.  Or maybe it's waiting for that next season of life.  In high school, just waiting to get done so we can get to college.  In college, waiting to get done so we can find that job.....or at least our parents are waiting for us to find that job.  Or maybe it's single and I'm waiting to get married.  Or maybe it's that next season, that next job, that next opportunity.  Waiting can be really hard...  
 
Helping people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.
 
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The Parables of Jesus | Parables of the Weeds and Seeds | Matthew 13:24-33 | Week 1
Speaker: Pastor Ryan Paulson
South Fellowship Church
Based in Littleton, CO 

The Gift of Scarcity | Nirup Alphonse

Brave in the New World | It's Complicated | Matthew 19:1-12 | Week 8

We are finishing up a series we're calling "Brave in the New World."  Over the last two months, we've been tackling difficult issues, socially, and trying to figure out what it looks like to live as a follower of Jesus in this new world.  How many of you would agree that the world is changing quite rapidly?  Actually that's not just a feeling; a sociologist studied our cultural moment.  They're saying that things are changing at a more rapid pace than they have ever changed before.  That's not just a visceral reaction, that's a reality, according to sociologists. 
Last week we talked about the Scriptures and science.  We talked about this perceived dichotomy, chasm, between what the Scriptures say and what science says.  We actually said that you don't need to choose between Scripture and science.  You can actually be someone who loves the Bible and loves telescopes and microscopes and that's an okay and a good thing.  In fact, that's the way it's designed...  
 
Helping people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.
 
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Brave in the New World | It's Complicated | Matthew 19:1-12 | Week 8
Speaker: Pastor Ryan Paulson
South Fellowship Church
Based in Littleton, CO 

Brave in the New World | A Tale of Two Books | Matthew 2:1-11 | Week 7

I've had a number of people come up to me and say, "We're so sad that you're leaving, Ryan, but are you going to finish this series?"  Yes, I am.  Today, we're going to jump into the subject of science and the Scriptures; then, next week, yes, on Father's Day, I'm going to be teaching on the issue of sexuality and Brave in the New World and how that all ties together.  You're welcome.  I promised on Mother's Day, when I taught a message on Evil and Suffering, that I would be equally offensive on Father's Day.  Praise be to God, it's all worked out!  
I want to start with a question:  Who would win if the Colorado Rockies played the Denver Broncos?  The question you should ask is what are they playing?  Before I put money on either team, I want to know what we're playing.  While they're all athletes and they're all talented in their own right, they have different specialties, don't they?  They have different bents.  They have different things that they practice day after day, night after night.  They have different things that they're professionals at.  I think a lot of times we ask the question:  Are you a person of faith or are you a person of science?  Who wins---the Rockies or the Broncos?  I think we build this false dichotomy that you have to decide whether or not you're a Bible person---which means then that you have to ignore all good science---or whether you're a science person---in our mind that means we have to ignore the Bible.  What I'd like to do today is propose to you that maybe there's a third way.  Maybe Richard Dawkins, in his book The God Delusion, was wrong, when he argued that you cannot be an intellectual scientific thinker and hold on to religious beliefs.  He's wrong.   I think the Scriptures actually invite us into that tension.  Would you open with me to Matthew 2:1-2; we're going to start our time there this morning...  
 
Helping people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.
 
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Brave in the New World | A Tale of Two Books | Matthew 2:1-11 | Week 7
Speaker: Pastor Ryan Paulson
South Fellowship Church
Based in Littleton, CO