Shepherd Of The Desert Podcast

We live in a world that thrives on instant gratification and promises meant to be kept "by tomorrow morning." But the promises of God give us a hope that lasts into eternity! How do we live in light of this hope, even a world that seems to function in a totally opposite way? Come explore Lamentations 3 with us. 

A portable kind of Christianity sees God's fingerprints in everything...even difficult times and circumstances.  It's hard to appreciate the part God plays in even the stickiest of human situations...but he's there...not as a powerless spectator, but a powerful participant, ally, friend, and Savior.  This week we immerse ourselves into the story of Old Testament Job.  If ever there was someone who struggled with God's role in the. midst of suffering, Job was that man.  Our Heavenly Father is never absent this Fathers' Day weekend. 

Have you ever been an “outsider?” Or maybe you are an “insider?” This week in VBS we learned with our kids how to trust Jesus no matter what. Trusting in Jesus is what makes us part of the family of God! A family where all of us are brought in from other places, but we find our true home in Jesus. Insiders, outsiders, and everyone in between are bound together in the kingdom, the family of God.

When it comes to human suffering, followers of Jesus do not get a “free pass.” Christians experience the full range of human hardships and agonies, including physical suffering. So what is unique about a Christian approach to dealing with one’s suffering?

Particularly particular people often get labeled as just plain difficult.  Which makes sense if you are not particularly particular.  It's one of the reasons Christianity is having such a tough go in America these days.  No one really wants a particularly particular religion.  It's just too hard, exacting, demanding.  This weekend in worship our Shepherd family settles in to some of the exacting details of our Christian faith as we celebrate "Trinity Sunday."  Ours is a God, particularly known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It can be a bit exhausting for human hearts trying to comprehend this eternal God.  We'll give it a go this weekend and make sense of how important it is to be a particularly particular people.

Human sin has wreaked havoc on the world, resulting in brokenness and sad divisions. We all sense a need for greater unity, yet not all unity is good unity. If people unite around an evil cause, the result is always tragic. So how do we experience true unity as God intends it? This Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, Pastors Alan will examine two Biblical stories -- the story of the Tower of Babel and the story of Pentecost -- in the interest of exploring the source of true unity. HINT:  It doesn’t come from human ingenuity.

Christians are called to be "in the world but not of it." Jesus gave his disciples this mission before he went back to heaven. Our world might be broken and dark, but God loved it so much that he sent Jesus, and now Jesus sends us to love it, too. Join us Sunday to explore what it means to hate the world so much we want to change it, but love it enough to find it worth changing!

Shepherd is a holy communion!  And each week we gather in worship, Holy Communion anchors us to Christ and to each other.  This weekend Pastors Jake and Scott take us into the holy communion of disciples at Christ's last supper.  Together we'll see how our Lord cemented his church to himself in a single night of self-sacrifice and love.

Jesus: I am the vine and you are the branches...this is a counter-cultural message and concept; perhaps one of THE most counter-cultural sayings of Jesus in our cultural landscape/moment in America.Compare to the idea of being "self-made," pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, success, achievement, self-worth being located/found in status/success...illustrations abound here, and also create space for the Law to be showcased in a big way.

Everyone needs a good shepherd.  Four Sundays of Easter bring us to the one known warmly as "Good Shepherd Sunday."  We peer into Jesus' words in John 10 and take up the heart-wrenching story that gave rise to them in John 9.  If you've been wandering or felt a little lost lately, this Sunday is custom made for you.

Easter is happy.  What do we do when our spiritual life isn't so much fun?  Sometimes all the talk about God's forgiveness through Jesus rings hollow when we consider how many missteps we experience in everyday living.  In this week's message, Pastors Alan and Scott help us deal with the life we see in the mirror each morning with the faith that brought Jesus from the grave.  Refreshment awaits at Shepherd this weekend

Our world seeks to drive us apart - convincing us of our independence and superiority. We don't need help, we don't need each other, and we can figure it all out on our own! Yet God's Word teaches us the truth: this world is a world in the dark. Jesus is the light, and the light shows us two facts: we are in need of a savior, and we receive forgiveness and life through Jesus! This truth binds us together in a world that pushes us away from each other. Rise and Shine in a world of darkness, through the light of Jesus!

Come and celebrate Easter morning with us! To say “rise and shine” means that someone woke up first and now wants the rest of the household to do the same. Jesus rose first. Because of His victory over death and the grave, His Easter morning becomes our Easter morning. Rise and shine, Church! As we navigate the lengthening Spring days of Easter, Shepherd takes stock of the ways we rise from the ashes of Lent and rise from the grave of Good Friday.

The greatest "storm before the calm" is the week leading up to Easter. What begins as an exciting parade at the kickoff of a festival shortly spins into a violent mob. Jesus goes from hero to victim and even public enemy in just a few days, eventually standing before the Roman ruler beaten and abused. Some crowds celebrating Jesus' arrival, others gathered to demand his death. We feel the pull of the crowds, too - sometimes toward good things and sometimes toward bad. Instead of always shifting, should we be stable in something more sure? Storms move us this way and that - but there is calm when we know what to cling to.

In the middle of the storm, we serve others.Do you want to be great? Make yourself a servant of others. Do you want to be first? Make yourself last. These words of Jesus in Mark's Gospel are stormy words indeed.  They are counter cultural, challenging, and altogether backwards according to conventional and worldly wisdom. Yet Jesus calls us to this way of life nonetheless. As we experience the storm before the calm, we live lives of service, sacrifice, and selflessness. Because ultimately, we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, the Son of Man, who came not to be served but to serve...and to give his life as a ransom and payment for you and me.

Lent is a time to get smaller as the sense of our sin grows larger.  This weekend in worship we listen in to a particularly wicked moment when God's people turned their eyes upward and said of heaven, "You have given us nothing."  If the outcome of Easter means we see how God gives everything for us, then this weekend is good preparation.  Come here how the grumbling of God's people then mirrors the grumbling many of us still do today.  And, yet, God's love endures with us forever.  Now, that's something!

What is the meaning of life?  How you answer that question is shaped by your worldview -- how you see the world, how you explain human existence.  St. Paul's message to the 1st century Corinthians is just as relevant for our 21st century world that is "upside-down," mired in confusion over worldview.  It's a message not always readily embraced.  It's a message that sounds downright foolish to some.  But it is the one true message that can set the world right-side up.  Join us March 7 for the next installment of our weekend Lenten sermon series:  "The Storm Before the Calm."

In the midst of the storm, we find our way by following Jesus.At Caesarea Philippi, Peter confessed that Jesus was the true Messiah. But Peter struggled to understand the storm that was coming. Uneasy and filled with doubt, he even reprimanded Jesus for talking about crucifixion, death, and resurrection! However hard we try, we can't avoid the reality of Jesus' passion narrative. A storm is brewing, whether we believe it or not. This weekend, we listen to the words of Jesus as an invitation not only to turn away from the tempting voice of Satan, but to take up our cross and follow Him. In the middle of the storm, Jesus is our captain. He leads the way as we follow him in his life, death, and resurrection.

Just us for the launch of our Storm Before The Calm Lenten Sermon Series.

Transfiguration is upon us as we pass from Epiphany to Lent.  The mountain of glory Jesus ascends will become the mountain of humiliation as he comes down.