Speaker: Jason Cusick

We like to imagine that our income is what brings us security – but what if the truth is just the opposite? What if our reliance on our resources is exactly what brings us the most stress, panic, and worry? This week, we’ll explore God’s economy and how trusting him fully can bring us the hope, peace, and engagement we’ve always wanted.

This year will be full of opportunities to respond to other people’s poor decisions, unkind words, and unwise actions. But what if we didn’t wait for the moment of those events to see what our response would be? What if we prepared for our inevitable stresses by practicing Jesus’ upside-down way of living? This week, we’ll explore what it means to really put Christlike characters into action and prepare to share God’s love at every opportunity.

Many of us enter 2024 with a healthy bit of trepidation: What will our lives be like? How will the 2024 election season shape our culture? What big decisions and challenges will we face this year? Thankfully, Jesus has a message of hope and peace in times of challenge – but that message comes from thinking and acting in ways that are far out of the ordinary. Instead of opinionated and strong, Jesus tells us to be tender and meek. Instead of fighting to be right, Jesus tells us to be pure and peacemakers. We’ll begin this year by taking an important look at Jesus’ upside down teachings and how they can help us transform our 2024 for the better.

This year, our church has focused on understanding ‘The Mission of God’, a concept that goes beyond personal salvation. It’s about following Jesus and working together as a community to help people live better lives through His teachings. We’re encouraged to think about how, as a church, we can join in this mission, aiming to create a world that flourishes under God’s love and guidance.

Christmas Eve services at church can feel like just another thing to get done during this hectic holiday season.  And with the possibility of an even more hectic year looming, is there any hope of a little rest?  This Christmas Eve at Journey, we’ll explore how Jesus’ arrival made way for his new Kingdom where he will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father” and, most importantly for us this year, “Prince of Peace.”  Let’s discover together how to experience the peace that only a true connection with God’s love can bring.

The story of the Three Wise Men visiting the baby Jesus may be familiar to us, but those Magi were anything but familiar to Jesus’ parents – they were almost from a different world! What does this say about the type of people Jesus wants to bring into his Kingdom? What role do we play, then, in the beautiful diversity of Jesus’ family? This week we’ll explore a classic Advent story from a refreshingly new and challenging angle and discover how God is calling people from every walk of life to be part of his Kingdom.

Many of us have heard the story of the angel Gabriel visiting the virgin Mary to tell her that she would have a son, Jesus. But we often overlook a pivotal promise from that interaction: that Jesus’ birth would usher in his Kingdom, and that Kingdom would have no end! But if that Kingdom started 2000 years ago on that first Christmas, where is it now? How can we experience Jesus’ leadership and rule in our lives? This week we’ll see how the classic Christmas stories take on new meaning as we see them as a reflection of Jesus’ character and mission.

What does a real Christian look like? You can’t a Christian by their ethnicity, income level, what they wear, or who they vote for. The best way to identify a real follower of Jesus how they relate to other people. This week in our Simple Faith series, we measure ourselves against what the letter to Galatians calls “the fruit of the Spirit.” We’ll exchange our old “spiritual success measurements” for a simple faith of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentles, and self-control.

What keeps us from living a simple faith in Jesus?  It’s often a natural but unhealthy focus on ourselves. Sometimes we are scared that we are measuring up to expectations set by us, others, or what we think God’s expects from us. Other times, we are tempted to sit in judgment of others rather than moving toward the very people God is wanting us to befriend.  This week, we’ll see how Paul’s letter to the Galatians challenges us to move from fear to faith.

What is the Christian Faith really about? Put simply… Jesus. We tend to make it complicated. We find Jesus and then we start adding things on – cultural traditions, politics, personal preferences – and by the time we are done, we might be following a different Jesus! This complicated faith is not only spiritually exhausting, but it makes it harder to get along with other people. In this first message of our Simple Faith series, we look at the basic message of the Christian Faith, what’s called the Gospel and start the process of removing the religious “add-ons” that we’ve collected along the way.

Jesus is one of the most influential leaders in history! The secret to his lasting influence was something he called “abiding.” It involves remaining in an intimate spiritual connection with God. In our last message of this series, we’ll explore one of Jesus’ stories that shows what it takes to find and nurture this abiding relationship with God and how we can invite others to experience it too!

Accomplishing good things requires effort. It’s easy to get discouraged when we face obstacles, challenges, and roadblocks. Rather than negatively reacting to our circumstances, we can be a positive influence by finding resilience with God! This week, we’ll see how Jesus pursued God’s good plan for his life by expecting challenges and wisely bringing people along with him in his goals.

What you do matters, but who you are matters more. It’s easy to get keep our eyes on the best results, largest profits, and the most followers and miss the foundation of true influence and leadership – character. Instead of focusing on the right kind of outcomes, we should be attentive to being the right kind of people! This week, we begin our series by seeing how Jesus viewed God’s good gift of power and how we can follow his lead by practicing humble influence!

Many of us know that engagement with God and the church are life-giving. Growing together in our relationship with Jesus can be fun, exciting, and transformational. But what about those aspects of the Christian life that are a little less glamorous, like the challenge to sacrifice and rely on God for strength? What would it take to overcome the hurdle of personal comfort and enter into real, vulnerable dependence on God? In this week’s message we’ll explore how each of us can embrace the value of sacrifice for a vibrant connection with Jesus.

Almost everyone would agree that having great friendships and strong relationships would make a positive difference in our lives.  And yet, many of us also recognize that connecting with other people isn’t always easy.  Relationships involve being stretched outside of our comfort zone, trying to understand different perspectives, and may even come with some tension.  But what would it take to overcome our hesitations and really connect with people around us?  How do we get unstuck and move toward more vibrant friendships?  Let’s explore those questions and more together in this week’s message.

What can we do when we see suffering and injustice in the world?  In ancient times, God chose special messengers called “prophets” to call people to live with compassion and fairness.  This week, we’ll explore the genre of biblical prophecy and see how it guides us to remember what God has said, repent from sin, and ready ourselves for God’s good future with Jesus!

Great poetry awakens the imagination and appeals to our emotions. Simple artistic writing and imagery can surprise us with life changing wisdom. God is the creator of all things beautiful and speaks to us through Psalms, Proverbs, and other “wisdom books.” This week, we’ll learn how to read these genres of the Bible and how can help us express ourselves to God and wisely follow Jesus.

What keeps the world from spiraling out of control? Laws! From the laws of nature to the laws we create, the purpose of law is to help us live well in God’s good world. As we begin our series looking at different genres of the Bible, we start where the Bible starts. God gave a specific set of laws to the Jewish people to help them live in a unique way. We’ll see how the laws God gave them encouraged freedom, not legalism, and reflected God’s concern for all areas of life! And we’ll also see how, through Jesus, we can honor the principles of those laws by loving God and loving others!

Whenever we go the doctor, they check our vitals to see if we’re healthy. What are the vital signs of a healthy spiritual life?  This weekend, we’ll look at four teachings of Jesus that can help us check our spiritual vitals so we can have a healthy and growing faith!

Constructing or reconstructing our faith is not a solo project. We must connect with and rely on each other for input and encouragement. This week we’ll look at a biblical example of how people on the journey of faith can form a solid team that keeps them stay motivated, disciplined, and focused on the goal of building a strong faith.