Ken

Every morning I'm re-reading John 6. One of my colleagues at Mountainview (Dan Hettinger) has challenged me to stay with John 6 for 52 consecutive days. So I am. I believe what God wants to teach me about is how to believe. You can read more about that here. This morning I returned to the feeding of the 5,000 -- in particular, I returned to the clean-up that happened afterwards. We often marvel at how incredible it was that Jesus feed so many people (likely well more than 5,000) with 5 small loaves of bread and 2 small fish. Indeed, it was a miracle. But have you thought about what was required to simply distribute the food to so many people? Did the disciples "love logistics" the way UPS loves logistics? Was it self-serve? Did the crowd form a peaceful buffet line? Did anyone try to cut in line? Like…

"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign." It's true, signs are everywhere. On street corners, attached to walls, in windows. Informational signs, warning signs, and signs telling you how fast to drive. Churches have signs. Gas stations, too. Electronic signs, LED signs, and handwritten signs. I'd venture to say that we pay attention to only a small fraction of the signs that we pass every day. Such is the nature of signs. Signs are even mentioned in the Bible, but not the kind you might see on the side of the interstate. As the Israelites were wandering in the desert, no "Exit Here" sign ever appeared next to the Promised Land. Instead, the signs in the Bible were activities of God done through people and nature that pointed to his providence and sovereignty. To be properly understood, they had to be interpreted through the lens of faith. Without the lens of faith,…

Endorsements. In our culture, its very common for companies to pay celebrities to endorse their product. An athlete may get paid millions of dollars for allowing their name to be associated with a pair of shoes. Endorsements range from weight loss to hair gain. If former NFL coach John Madden cured his athlete's foot problem with "fast actin' Tinactin", you can, too. In John 6:27, Jesus tells the crowd that he bore God's "seal of approval." 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” - John 6:27 Don't dismiss this as just another endorsement. Jesus wasn't a celebrity that God was using to promote his product line. In fact, a seal of approval indicates several important truths: The person giving the approval is…

In 26 years of marriage, Tonya and I have lived in San Diego, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Denver – all great cities. We are city people. We like to joke that one criteria for where we live is to be close to professional baseball, though some years the Padres and Rockies tested the definition. Personally, I love being close to music, theater, shopping, and people! As a pastor, I believe that reaching cities with the gospel is the key to truly and significantly impacting our culture. That is why helping start new churches and Mountainview campuses is so important. Cities change countries and only God can change a city. God loves Denver and we believe he wants to use our church to change the spiritual landscape. Over the next 4 weeks we are going to preach straight through the book of Jonah. The story of Jonah is perhaps most famous for one…