St. Luke Columbus

Listen to the full interview between Pastor Tyus Nedd, Alvin White, Pastor Mike Weaver, and Pastor Steve Brown.

Pastor Tyus Nedd, Alvin White, Pastor Mike Weaver, Pastor Steve Brown Lessons: 2 Chronicles 7:14, Romans 12:2 Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel

In response to the upheaval in our country following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement officers, we decided to change our sermon plans and begin to seek what love requires of us in this time. Given the short time-frame for planning, the enormity of the issues, and the schedule constraints for June and July, we decided that we would spend two Sundays beginning to address racial reconciliation. Our hope is to revisit this in the coming months and hopefully bring about lasting change in ourselves, our congregation, and the community.    Our first response to racism is to listen more and talk less. The racism that is displayed by some is overt, easy to identify, and clearly calls for us to speak against. The racism that lies within most of us is much more difficult to identify. It often is found in deep-seated suspicions and opinions of which we may not even be aware. Jesus taught us by his example of the importance of sitting and listening to those who are different from us. While ther

Pentecost Sunday   Focus text, “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’...he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”   Interestingly, just before the disciples reentered the world around them, after spending time behind locked doors, the Lord blesses them with peace and blesses them with His presence in the Holy Spirit.   What if Jesus stood among us today as we move outward, reentering the world around us after this long quarantine period?  What does peace mean now?  What did that peace allow the disciples to do then and what does it allow us to do today that we couldn’t before?  The Holy Spirit will enable them to co-create the emerging new normal, we now know as normal.  What will the Holy Spirit enable us to create today?   Next step: Receive and move ahead.   Lessons: Acts 2:1-21, John 20:19-23   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel

We live in hope today because tomorrow’s worst is taken care of. The resurrection of Jesus was never far from the minds of the apostles. The resurrection of Jesus infused the apostles with justifiable hope for their future, freed them from the dread of death, and empowered them to sacrificially serve others for the sake of the gospel. What have you learned about your fears during this pandemic? It is possible for our sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life to empower us to live lives of great courage in the face of external threats.   Next Step: The Apostle Paul wrote this, “I desire to depart and be with Christ.” (Philippians 1:23) By “depart” Paul meant to die. Try saying this verse out loud and be aware of how this feels.    Lessons: 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 12-26, 54-57   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel  

To live an excellent life, love drives everything we do.  When love is the beginning, middle, and ending of everything, we increase our ability to be influential in the lives of those around us.  What’s possible now is leaving a legacy of faith, hope, and love to generations beyond us.   Take away: excellence begins with how we approach things, our intentions.  Embrace the intention of living each moment, each interaction, and each task with faith, hope, and love.    Lessons: 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13, Mark 12:28-31   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel

It is possible for us to be perfectly united. As crazy as that sounds, it is possible when we are united in our essential beliefs, show liberty in our non-essential beliefs and practices, and live by charity in all our beliefs and practices. The first Christian Church described in Acts 2 experienced this perfect unity for a brief period of time. They resolved their conflicts. Next to the gospel itself, in the letters of the Apostle Paul unity in the body of Christ is of greatest importance. Paul called the earliest Christians to a very high standard of unity. As we move out of the pandemic restrictions, it is possible for us to reset our priorities so that we live in perfect unity within the family of faith.   Next Step: If you have an unresolved conflict with another person within our family of faith, do what is needed to resolve that conflict. Become an encourager of others.    Lessons: Acts 2:42-47, 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, Mark 9:33-35   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channe

The National Day of Prayer when followers of Jesus from across our country will join in prayer for our communities and nation. The churches of Gahanna are putting together a unique online prayer experience for you to join this great prayer movement. You can participate by listening to a 30-minute guided time of prayer. Get outside, go on a walk or a run, listen, and pray along with others in the Gahanna community. 

Paul reminds and encourages the church in Thessalonica, that despite the hardship they face as chosen followers of Christ, God is using their “work produced by faith, labor prompted by love, and endurance inspired by hope” to bless those around them, including in places l Ike Macedonia and Achaia, miles away from the city of Thessalonica.  The presence of the risen Christ by the Holy Spirit in the lives of the Christians then, and in the lives of us who live in 2021, amplifies our impact to those around us.  Lives that go to “11” are now possible.   Take away: Live open hearted to God and others, and reframe work from occupation to ministry.   Lessons: Acts 17:1-9, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, Mark 13:9-11   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel

We can’t give away what we don’t have. In today's lesson, a crippled beggar asked Peter and John for money, something they didn’t have. Peter gave the beggar what he did have--the power to walk in the name of Jesus. In the weeks and months following the resurrection of Jesus, we see his followers love others as Jesus loved us and give to those in need what they had. God has called each of us to do the same to meet the hopes and hurts of people today.   Next step: Identify what God has given you that you can give to help someone, and then do it.   Lessons: Acts 3:1-10   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel

Verses 3-4 of Acts 1 tell us, “After [Jesus’] suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father.”   What’s intriguing to me is Jesus’ “staying” with the disciples in Jerusalem while they waited there for the “promise of the Father.”  As they waited, Jesus waited. Unlike the disciples who could not stay awake and wait with Jesus before he was arrested, Jesus waits with his them.  He doesn’t go ahead and say “I’ll be back! Wait here.” He, like the disciples, is waiting for the promise to be fulfilled.     We are in a period of waiting, wondering what is to come.  The risen Lord meets us in our waiting, moving us deeper in relationship with him.     Next step:  Wait patiently for a good thing is coming   Lessons: Acts 1:1-14, Mark 6:7-13   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube cha

When our dreams are taken away, the Lord has the words of eternal life that matter most. In coming to terms with the postponement of the 2020 Olympics, Olympic hopeful, Allyson Felix, wrote recently, “This has been a sobering reminder that we are not owed our dreams.” The COVID-19 pandemic has been a sobering reminder that our dreams often do no come true and we experience disappointment and loss in life that can be crushing. John 6 records a turning point in the ministry of Jesus when it appeared that the mission dreams Jesus’ disciples seem to fall apart. When Jesus asked them whether they wanted to leave the mission, Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Certainly when Jesus was executed on the cross, the disciples thought their mission dreams has been crushed. When Jesus rose from the dead, his words of eternal life became real and the basis of our hope for the future. We are not owed our dreams and sometimes our dreams are threatened or taken away. In those time

The Word of Forgiveness - "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34 - Speaker: Robert Flagg The Word of Promise - "Today you shall be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43 - Speaker: Carrie Whatley The Word of Love - "Woman, behold your son! Behold your mother!" John 19:26-27 - Speaker: Mary Lou Owens The Word of Loneliness - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46 - Speaker: Colleen Zielke The Word of Suffering - "I thirst." John 19:28 - Speaker: Emily Reese The Word of Victory - "It is finished." John 19:30 - Speaker: Pastor Steve Brown The Word of Trust - "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit." Luke 23:46 - Speaker: Pastor Mike Weaver Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel

We’re reminded that Jesus took the lowest place to serve those around him.  He’s always moving lower, so that we move higher. His selfless, kind and generous service on behalf of his friends brightens the room and their experience with light.  It is an example that we follow as disciples. We “adorn the darkness” of this world through generous acts of service.     Next Step: Take the lowest place with others.  As the apostle Paul writes in Romans 13:8-10, we are indebted to one another to love one another.   Lessons: Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19, Romans 13:8-10, John 13:1-17, 31b-35   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel

Today, we encounter the paradox that defines our faith: Jesus Christ is glorified king and humiliated servant. We too are full of paradox: like Peter, we fervently desire to follow Christ, but find ourselves afraid, denying God. We wave palms in celebration today as Christ comes into our midst, and we follow with trepidation as his path leads to death on the cross. Amid it all we are invited into this paradoxical promise of life through Christ’s broken body and outpoured love in a meal of bread and wine. We begin this week that stands at the center of the church year, anticipating the completion of God’s astounding work.

When you have Jesus you have life; when you do not have Jesus you do not have life. The New Testament clearly teaches that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in Jesus. Whoever lives and believes in Jesus has real and eternal life, now and forever. Those who do not believe in Jesus stand condemned because of their unbelief. Jesus is the resurrection and the life.   Next Step: Put your trust in Jesus and you will have life.     Lessons: Ezekiel 37:1-14, 1 John 5:9-13, John 11:17-27   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel

“When a life is a work of art, it is always more than simply an expression of ourselves.  Life becomes a work of art when we live it not for ourselves but for others. We live and tell our story, and through it we carry the hope of the world.”   Jesus turning water into the best wine is the work of his reflection of his essence.   “The greatest art of an intersection of contrasts.”   Jesus didn’t have to tell the people a miracle had happened, the quality of the product did it.   God turns water into wine time and time again, the “water” being the quality of our ordinary lives.    Lessons: Jeremiah 1:4-10, 2 Corinthians 4:1-12, John 2:1-11   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel

To experience happiness, craft your life into a work of art within God’s boundaries.   Erwin McManus writes, “Every creative endeavor becomes a realization of both how limited and how unlimited we are...Every medium carries within itself inherent limitations, and every artist comes with limitations. True creativity is not the outflow of a world without boundaries. The creative act is the genius of unleashing untapped potential and unseen beauty within the constraints and boundaries of the medium from which we choose to create” (The Artisan Soul, pp.145-146)   The commandments of God are boundaries for our lives. Jesus taught that he did not come to abolish the commandments of God but to fulfill them. Jesus and the apostles fulfilled and deepened God’s Old Testament laws through their teachings and by embodying the law of love. The laws of God are boundaries within which we most flourish in life and experience authentic happiness in our relationships, accomplishments, and well-being.   Take Away: Memorize the

Paul was a tentmaker.  Peter, James and John were fishermen.  Jesus was a carpenter. Remarkably, Jesus became a common laborer and dedicated his life to a craft.     What’s the best way I can do the most good?   What is your “genius”?  What is your unique talent?  Where might you be considered, if you worked at it, the best in the world?  Craft means strength.   Lessons: 1 Chronicles 28:19-21, Acts 18:1-4, Mark 8:22-26   Watch: stlukecolumbus.com/ondemand   Subscribe to our Youtube channel

We transform invisible ideas into visible reality to unleash God’s love to others. Having been created as artisans in the image of God, Erwin McManus teaches that we transform the invisible into the visible. Everything that exists began as an idea in the imagination of someone’s mind, including our personal creation that began as an idea in the mind of God. An artist brings a piece of art into visible reality from the invisible imagination of the artist’s mind and  we craft our lives into works of art by bringing what we can see only in our imaginations into the visible reality of how we live. BUT, as followers of Jesus, we do not create art or craft our lives into works of art only for our sake. We are primarily motivated by love for others to transform the images in our minds into visible reality so that others will have real and eternal life. It is therefore necessary that we strive to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ and his command to love others as he has loved us.     Next Step: