South Fellowship Church

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.  I

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, whi

 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

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 Gal

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

{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 abou

 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 pho

The topic I'm looking at is a transformed view of God.  That's a big topic to take.  My hope is that we'll be able to come up with some kind of a working definition that may kind of stretch us a bit; we've got to be stretched when we're talking about God.  I believe very strongly, as I've been working on this sermon, that this view that we have of God influences the way we view life.  I think it's pretty important that we have a good view of God, if we're going to be stepping into life and meeting the challenges we'll face day by day.   We're going to be looking at Ephesians 3:14-20.  For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high an

Toward the end of July I was approached by a gentleman in this church that I did not know well, who asked me how my family was doing. I shared with him the excitement that my wife is pregnant with our fourth, and that Jesus definitely doesn’t love me because it is another boy and I wanted a little girl. The man (whom I won’t mention by name because he’d get mad) piped in and very caringly asked, “How is your wife? I remember that you guys have had some issues with pregnancies in the past and how is this one going?” Immediately my heart was warmed, this man had remembered something from over two years ago about our family's journey. I was glad to share with him that this pregnancy is going well so far in every regard, except that it was just so hot in July, and we don’t have AC in our home so that makes my wife uncomfortable. The man nodded and we went about our days. The next day, the same man called and arranged a meeting with me at the coffee shop. I walked in and he handed me a gift card with a considerab

Uuugghhh! For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  (Romans 7:18)  For I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  (Romans 7:16-17)  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  (Romans 7:22-23) Here we are in a series of transformation and I've got the wonderful topic of the body.  How many of us feel the same type of angst that the Apostle Paul felt in those verses?  Just like Larry gave us this wholeness wheel {Spirit--Mind--Body--Emotion--Relationships--Vocation--Resources} at the beginning [of the series], if I were to take a look at that and talk to God about how am I doing with my body in this journey of transformation, I feel some

Some of you may know that my wife Heidi and I used to live overseas for most of a decade.  The question we're asked the most is "What do you miss about living overseas?"  It's really easy to answer that because we miss the community.  Whenever you leave someplace you tend to idealize it, so I realize that could be part of it.  But we were, as a foreign community, several hundred in a city of several million, so you immediately had this island mentality----we kind of have to take care of one another.  We had a shared purpose.  We were involved with different works, but almost all of us were there to encourage the local population in the name of Jesus; to help them in practical ways and do other works.  There was a sense of being known and needed.  As one of the docs in the community, I would often get phone calls....What do I do with these symptoms?  Where should I go? Do I need to leave?   Probably what I like the most more is that the communities were overlapping.  If I go to work, I don't see the same peopl

We're in a series called "Transformed" and the last few weeks have been journeying together toward biblical wholeness.   We’ve talked about how the Scriptures call us to be transformed, and that we are being transformed into the wholeness of Jesus.  I love what professor, pastor, and author Robert Mulholland says:  "The Christian journey, therefore, is an intentional and continual commitment to a lifelong process of growth toward wholeness in Christ."  We put up this slide a couple of weeks ago to show you that our lives are very complex, there's multiple parts to our lives.  Even though we're complex and have a lot of different parts, the good news is that the Gospel has the power to impact far more than just our relationship with God or our standing with God.  The Gospel should impact all of our lives.  So in this series, we’re looking at different parts of our lives that should be transformed by the power of the Gospel.  Last week, Dr. Wenig shared with us about transformed relationships as an area God wan

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 tha

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 o

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

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

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

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.  Ro

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...