November 2, 2025
Practicing The Way | Move Nearer When You Hurt
A number of the Christian practices that Jesus gave us (like solitude, Sabbath, prayer and Scripture reading) turn down the noise of the world so we can turn up the volume of His voice. Other voices surface as well! Buried emotions and wounding memories can also rise to the surface. This is one of God’s ways of telling us it's time to enter those harder bits of our lives with him and learn how to name them, express them and regulate them as followers of Jesus.
Songs for this week: Spotify
Questions:
Matthew 26:36-39
- How were emotions treated/valued in the family in which you grew up? Tell a story if that helps illustrate your experience.
- What are the most common feelings you experience? How does it feel to bring those openly before God?
- Contrast the processing of emotions as experienced by Jesus and Peter from the passage. What pieces of each of their approaches resonated with you?
- If you have had the time to try the Practice of Noticing, Naming, Feeling and Offering your feelings to God, describe what that was like.
- Where did you experience God’s nearness in the practice?
This Week's Practice:
Noticing & Naming Emotions
Last Week's Practice: Sabbath
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Recent Sermons
Exodus 3:1-14 - The rescue begins. God looks for a person to lead the way—not someone perfect, but someone willing. In Exodus, God calls Moses through a burning bush and rekindles a relationship that had been years in the making.
Exodus 1:6-14 - This Sunday, we begin Roots, a new teaching series from the book of Exodus—discovering how the story of rescue in Exodus shapes our understanding of Jesus.
Exodus 36:1-7 - God calls Israel to give their wealth to build the Tabernacle, raising a timeless question: will we live open-handed, trusting God with what we hold?
Luke 12:13-21 - Jesus warns us about the hidden danger of greed. Discover three heart attitudes toward money—I deserve it, it’s all for me, and I’m better off with more—and why they matter.
Acts 20:32-38 - For three weeks, we explore what Jesus says about money. This week, Paul’s final message highlights contentment, hard work, and caring for the weak.
Luke 2:22-40 - This week we reflect on the quiet faithfulness of Joseph and Mary as they bring Jesus to the temple. In this moment of ordinary obedience, God meets them with extraordinary hope through Simeon and Anna.
