Free Methodist Church Of Santa Barbara

Our text for worship this week is a difficult one to read. Jesus, full of sadness, is imploring the Father to allow the pain of the cross to pass Him by. He is in agony. Meanwhile, the disciples sleep nearby. There are many angles to look at this scripture from. Which one might we choose? While these are familiar words to us, we want to be reminded of what God has for us in this season of Lent. As a spiritual practice this week, I encourage you to sit with this scripture each day until Sunday. Just read it, and contemplate what you see and how you feel. Read it aloud. Take it to your place of prayer. Allow God to speak to you. Write down your thoughts. Jesus is about to face the greatest challenge of His earthly life. As we journey with Him to the cross, may our focus on His word give us new insight and depth of understanding. May we hear His voice speaking to us, calling us closer to Him. One of the greatest joys of my life has been going to worship God on Sundays and greeting my family in Christ. I look f

Our speaker on Sunday is Kate Wallace Nunneley, whom we invited to come preach because she is also our speaker for the Women's Retreat. We are so glad she agreed to stay an extra day! Kate is the Lead Pastor of Wellspring Free Methodist Church in Bakersfield, CA. She is also the co-founder of The Junia Project, a volunteer community which advocates for the inclusion of women in leadership in the church, as well as mutuality in marriage. She and her husband Leif have two dogs and a full life! Kate is a graduate of Azusa Pacific University and holds a Master of Science from the London School of Economics. Currently, she is pursuing a Masters of Divinity from APU. For this Sunday, we will be stepping out of the book of Mark and into the book of Luke, who records an instructive account of Jesus' temptation. A helpful thing to do when we come to the end of something, is to look back to the beginning. We are now at the end of Jesus' ministry. He is coming into the time of His death. We have already begun the j

Synopsis: As Pastor Helen reminded us, we are now studying passages of the passion of Jesus. His suffering and death free us from the penalty of our sin. This portion of Mark gives us the account of how it happened and what Jesus endured. On this communion Sunday, we will be reading the most important passage for understanding the Lord's Supper in the New Testament. Jesus is having a meal with His followers to mark Passover, the most important holiday in Judaism, because it remembers the Exodus, when God delivered His people from slavery into freedom. Jesus takes this beautiful feast and adds a new element: remembering how He has saved all people. Sunday, we will be thinking about what Jesus is saying in this passage as well as the action He takes upon Himself. This is the last Sunday before we begin Lent, the 40 day journey to the cross. It is right and good that we are once again encouraged by the Lord to take in His body and blood. The sacrament brings us into the very presence of our holy God. What a m

The last five weeks Pastor Colleen has walked us through Mark 13 with her thorough and thoughtful studies. This Sunday we enter the Passion Narrative in Mark (chapters 14 and 15) with a beautiful story of an anonymous woman anointing Jesus at Bethany, bookended by Jerusalem authorities' enmity toward and Judas's betrayal of Jesus. The wasteful love shown at Bethany contrasts the hatred at Jerusalem, and simultaneously, the hatred at Jerusalem highlights the love demonstrated at Bethany to the fullest extent. Despite people's hasty criticism of her wasteful act, Jesus accepted and appreciated her unrestrained act of devotion in light of his impending death. In the action of each character--the Jerusalem hierarchy, the unnamed woman, people (disciples), and Judas--we see how each one measured Jesus' worth. Is Jesus worth our extravagant love, our everything? If Jesus is the truest and highest good in our lives, what in our lives should change?

Well, we have now come to the end of Mark 13. What a great five weeks it has been! For a piece of scripture so daunting, I think we have done very well together. Thanks for hanging in there. It is vital that we wrestle with all the passages of the Bible, so we can know what we believe, so God can teach us His truth, so we can be ready to talk about it with others. God's word is alive because the Lord Himself meets us through it. He inspired those who wrote it and He inspires us as we read it. Living God=Living Word. This Sunday, we will see that Jesus ends this teaching to Andrew, James, John, and Peter by telling them to be watchful. He goes back to what happened with the fig tree a few days earlier when they came into Jerusalem, and uses that as a launchpad to talk about His coming again. No one knows when Jesus will be back, even Him! A few weeks ago, we talked about how we always want to know WHEN as people. How do we live with the tension of the unknown? Worship is vital as God's people. In these day

We continue our sojourn through Mark 13, but it is not really a walk in the park. This is a serious trek uphill for us, and each of us brings baggage to the climb which may or may not be helpful for the hike. Some of us have been training for the time the Lord is coming back. We have read apocalyptic literature, tried to figure out Revelation, devoured the Left Behind series, and immersed ourselves in the Old Testament writings of Daniel and Joel. Some of us have tried to pinpoint certain events happening in the world overlaid with scripture, knowing there are similarities and no coincidences. We have looked for signs of when God will come again. Others of us have mostly avoided all those things, preferring to focus in on the person and teachings of Jesus and the exhortations for the church today found in the epistles. However you come to Mark 13, know that the words of Jesus here are for all of us. They are not meant to inspire intense fear nor should we turn away and not look at them. They are given to us

As we continue exploring the themes of Mark 13 this Sunday, we will be thinking about false teachers who come as leaders for God, but who have quite a different agenda than His will. They look and sound so much like people who should be followed, yet they actually only want to promote themselves or exploit others for their advantage. Jesus' words are ones we need to hear, both for our own past experiences but also as we exercise wisdom as the church today. This is a passage we will use for communion, as we draw near to the Lord in remembrance of His death on our behalf. Let us be in prayer this week for all God would say to us through His word as we gather to worship Him. Let us keep the practice of gathering weekly to seek the Lord.

We continue to study the themes of Mark 13 this week. In this dialogue spoken outside the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus is giving His followers instruction for what is to come in the future. The theme of the verses I will preach Sunday are about the opposition they personally will experience as people of the faith. They have no idea what will transpire in their lives. We wonder if, as Jesus is talking to them, they are alarmed or curious as to what His teaching is all about. Mark does not give us any clue as to what the disciples are thinking or feeling. He simply reports the Lord's words. As we read them, we will consider how they came true in various ways to many believers through the years. We will talk about the nature of persecution overall and how Jesus' words have been essential for generations of believers. While these words are not entirely uplifting and happy, Jesus is giving the disciples something to hold on to for when He leaves.

Mark 13:1-8 The scripture we study this week begins with Jesus and His disciples leaving the temple. As they do, they begin a conversation in which Jesus imparts knowledge about what is to come and what the disciples are to watch for as time unfolds. All of chapter 13 is Jesus telling them what will happen while also encouraging them in what they should do. This may be a challenging piece of scripture for us in some ways. We may scratch our heads in some places and be utterly dismayed in others. What we always want to focus in on is our Lord, whose presence is forever with us and whose words are given to encourage and help. May we give great thanks to the Savior of our world, who continues to walk with us and show us the way forward.

In this sermon, we delve back into the gospel of Mark. Remember before Advent, we were in the thick of Jesus being questioned about many issues by leaders who seemed to be trying to discredit Him, while hoping He would stumble over His theology. In the last verses of Mark 12, we will be looking at only what Jesus thinks. On this day, He has truths to convey to the people and to the disciples. A truth about the Messiah. A truth about hypocrisy. A truth about giving. We will be looking at His thoughts, while also considering His context and ours. Our Lord always has much to say to us. Let us listen well each day and when we are in His house. It is a new year! May we be resolved to worship the Lord with all we are: our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. I pray He finds us faithful as we live in these days.

Have you ever considered what it was that made the wise men leave their homes to go and seek the newborn king? They were looking to the eastern sky and saw a star come up. This became a sign to them that a king had entered the world. Clearly, the Holy Spirit was at work...God was showing these men of learning and means that this was an opportunity for them to come and see His Son. Yet, what was it that compelled them to actually go? This was a big decision to leave their homes and work, so they must have been convinced it was going to bring meaning to them. They just had to see what this star was about. This Sunday, we are going to be contemplating this story and taking communion. It seems fitting for us to come and worship Jesus the King, remembering the life He gives us. Let's start the New Year off with a commitment to honor God before anything else. My prayers are for all of us to know the Lord more in 2019.

Over the last four weeks, we have been waiting in expectation for the birth of Christ. This Sunday falls during the twelve days of the Christmas season in the church calendar, and we have the opportunity to consider not just Christ's first coming but also his return. This child, born for us, changes everything as Immanuel, God with us. In his life, Christ revealed to us the kingdom of God and invited us to participate in that kingdom. Now, we live with a foretaste of what it will be like to live in the fullness of God's kingdom, and we wait with eager anticipation for Christ's return in glory and the fulfillment of his kingdom. We look forward to exploring the hope of Christ's return together.

Belief sometimes gets a bad rap. We have all experienced how easy it can be to believe in something yet not give it much worth. James 2:19 reminds us even the demons believe in God. We allow the word "believe" to sound surface level. We might say "It is not enough to just believe . . . " John chapter 1 brings fresh life and depth to the act and reward of "believing." On this Sunday before Christmas we will celebrate the Christ who came to break through all that would keep us in darkness and doubt. Just as He surprised the shepherds in the fields He enters our world and calls us to believe. Like them may we be willing to leave our comfort, search for and worship the God who came in the form of a baby to dwell among us.

Luke 2:1-20, Isaiah 9:1-7 As we continue our portrait of the Incarnate God, who we understand to be Jesus Christ, we come to His birth. This Advent, we have talked about Him at the beginning and we have also looked at how what came before played in various ways in His story, most notably last week through Joseph’s experience. This Sunday, we read the familiar words from Luke 2 as well as words from Isaiah 9. While the lectionary often pairs these two scriptures together for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, they are not a natural duo. Yet, side by side, they show a picture of the kind of God who rescues His people. In looking at them in tandem, we see the words of Isaiah were meant for an earthly king in his time. These words have come to represent Jesus birth today, so we want to talk about them. Mostly, we want to know the Lord whose plans coalesce in amazing ways throughout all of history. I pray this has been a meaningful journey through Advent as we await the arrival of the Lord anew in our l

Matthew 1:18-23, Isaiah 7:13-14

Genesis 1:1, 1:26-27, John 1:1-5

Mark 12:28-34

Missions Sunday/Thanksgiving Sunday

Missions Sunday/Thanksgiving Sunday

Mark 12:18-27