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
Humans have a problem that we can’t save ourselves from—not through secular programs or religious systems. The good news of Jesus is that on the cross, Jesus dealt with it all. In him we are alive, forgiven, and free!
Colossians 2:8-12 - Paul warns the Colossian church not to trade the freedom found in Christ for religion or spiritual experiences. Jesus is more than enough.
Colossians 2:1-7-The way forward for the first Christians wasn't always easy. False teachers brought confusion and deception, prompting Paul to point believers back to the truth. Just as the best way to spot a counterfeit is to know the genuine article, the best way to recognize false teaching is to know Jesus.
Colossians 1:24-29-Suffering is one of life's hardest realities. We might expect that following Jesus would mean less pain, but Jesus himself suffered and made it clear that his followers would too. The good news is that our suffering is never lost on God and is never in vain.
Colossians 1:21-23 - Paul contrasts two powerful words—alienated and reconciled—to tell our story. Discover how Jesus did the work of reconciliation and why that is the heart of the Gospel.
Colossians 1:15-20 -Colossians centers on Jesus—the Creator of all things, the Sustainer of life, and the Redeemer who restores creation through love.
