Hays Christian Church

Pastor Dana’s sermon series picks up in Joshua 3-4, in which Israel crosses the Jordan River, lead by God, into the Promised Land. They commemorate the event by placing memorial stones, to never forget to have faith in God through the generations to come. We remember what God has done so that we know what God can do next. Forgetfulness is the enemy of faith.

Pastor Dana’s sermon series picks up in Joshua 2, in which Joshua’s spies infiltrate Jericho and meet the woman Rahab, who protects them from capture so she and her family would be spared from Israel’s attack. Stories of God’s truth and might behind His people have spread far and struck fear in their enemies’ hearts. Faith often means moving forward because we trust that God is already doing something when we can’t see the full picture. When we recognize God’s faithfulness, we are called to respond and move forward with courage.

Pastor Dana’s sermon series picks up in Joshua 1:6-9, God’s call to Joshua to be strong and courageous through God’s presence and obedience to His Word. This obedience, also echoed by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:1-9, is a response to God’s faithfulness and lays the foundation of Israel’s prosperity as they enter the Promised Land. We, too, shall strive to return God’s faithfulness. The Word of God guides us in how, but we are required to pay attention so our actions and habits reflect a life of faith.

Pastor Dana’s new sermon series begins in Joshua 1:1-9, where God reassures Moses’ successor Joshua that He will be with them as Joshua leads Israel to the Promised Land, telling them to be strong and courageous and follow the laws He laid out to them. This promise comes as part of our relationship with God. God is faithful so we can trust Him even in uncertainty and obey His commands when it’s difficult.

Pastor Dana turns to Psalm 139:1-12, which expresses the depths of God’s knowledge of the writer and enduring love for him. We often fear being known in our entirety and try to hide our worst sides, but there is no hiding or running from God, who knows our most minute details. Just as fully that He knows us, He loves us without condition. That love is the reason we can find our way out of darkness and into God’s protecting light.

Pastor Dana turns to Romans 8:1-11, in which Paul writes that because Christ Jesus obeyed the Father and died for our sins, those living in Him are no longer bound by the law of death. We could never hope to earn that grace on our own merit or deeds, but we have hope of eternal life when we welcome the Spirit to dwell in us by salvation in Christ.

Pastor Dana concludes the “Walking in Jesus’ Footsteps” series, turning to Matthew 28:16-20, which sees Jesus, before His ascension, delivering the Great Commission to His disciples. We are given the mission to bring the world, the people we encounter in our lives, to God to follow, learn, and become like Christ. To succeed, we must first live that way ourselves, reflecting Jesus every day, no matter how small the act. When we do, Christ is with us.

Pastor Dana continues with the “Walking in Jesus’ Footsteps” series, showing us Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4:35-41, feeding five thousand in John 6:1-15, driving the money changers from the temple in Mark 11:15-17, and blessing the children in Matthew 19:13-15. These examples tell us that Jesus restores us with peace, abundance, holiness, and welcome. In accepting that relationship, we are asked to participate in the same work.

Pastor Dana continues with the “Walking in Jesus’ Footsteps” series, turning to Matthew 16:5-12, where Jesus warns His disciples about the false teaching of the pharisees and Sadducees. In Luke 11:37-46, 52, Jesus denounces the pharisees and experts of the law for being more concerned with appearing righteous, rather than truly caring for others. We must follow Jesus’ discernment to identify leaders who will keep us on God’s path and those who will misguide us.

Pastor Dana returns with the “Walking in Jesus’ Footsteps” series, diving into Matthew 5:1-2, the precursor to the Sermon on the Mount, and Matthew 9:14-17, which finds Jesus answering a question about fasting through an illustration. Luke 8:4-10 is the Parable of the Sower, which Jesus explains plainly to His disciples. Then in Luke 10:38-42, Jesus visits Mary, whose priority is to be His student, and Martha, whose priority is to be His welcoming host. Jesus taught anywhere so that people could transform their lives with transformed hearts and minds.

Joanne Tramel highlights the Christian impact of Frances Perkins (1880-1965), best known as the first female cabinet member, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor. Perkins held early values of the Christian duty to the poor and naturally pursued labor advocacy. After witnessing the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, she turned to politics to become pivotal in institutions and policies such as the S.S.I., minimum wage, overtime, and child labor laws, public works projects of the Great Depression, and the women’s workforce of WWII.

Jennie Straight speaks on the storms we may encounter that put our faith to the test, and listening to God to get through them. We can endure these storms by laying a strong foundation before they arrive, consistently and carefully reading the Scripture, keeping His Words in our heart, and actively putting them into practice.

We also hear video testimony from Gracia Burnham, a missionary held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf for over a year. Watch the video here: https://vimeo.com/271737911?fl=pl&fe=sh

Pastor Dana continues to look at Jesus’ life in the Gospels. Luke 7:1-10 shows a centurion coming to Jesus to heal his servant, though believing his home was unworthy, his faith was such that only by Jesus’ words the servant was healed. Then, in Mark 2:3-12, a group of friends fight through a crowd to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus by lowering him from the roof of the house and by His words, the man was healed. Jesus did not just come to heal our ailments temporarily, but our deepest brokenness that separates humanity from God.

Pastor Dana’s continues to look at Jesus’ life in the Gospels. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:17 & 20 that He came to fulfill the law. The pharisees rebuke Jesus on the Sabbath in Mark 2:20-3:6 for the disciples picking grains from the field to eat and in John 5:1-18 for His healing of a disabled man. But Jesus challenges the rigid rule enforcement that forgets the heart of God in favor of controlling others. The law fulfilled is love that is embodied.

Pastor Dana’s continues to look at Jesus’ life in John and Luke, which sees Jesus welcome people, both respectable and socially condemned. In John 4:7-15, He invites the Samaritan woman at the well to living water. In John 3:1-3, the pharisee Nicodemus comes to Jesus in secret for answers. In John 8:10-11, He saves a woman accused of adultery and offers her forgiveness. In Luke 19:9-10, the tax collector Zacchaeus speaks to Jesus and is renewed. We do not need to be perfect to come before God. Rather, He welcomes us as we are and transforms us.

Pastor Dana’s continues to look at Jesus’ life in Luke 4:14-21 and John 8:12-20, where Jesus declares His identity through His words and actions. He is the Spirit-anointed liberator spoken of in Isaiah and the Light of the world. We can declare our trust in God as the source of true light in multiples ways, going beyond “good enough” to sharing the Good News in healing ways, and hearing the presence of the Holy Spirit remind us to live as liberators, healers, and restorers of peace.

Pastor Dana’s continues to look at Jesus’ life in John 1:43-51 and Matthew 4:18-22. First, Nathaniel is invited by Philip to see Jesus and overcomes skepticism as they are invited to follow Him. We also see Jesus meet fishermen brothers Simon Peter and Andrew, then James and John, and He calls on them to be fishers of men. These examples reveal what it means to be called by Jesus and what it means to follow Him. Some people are called slowly, through relationships, while others have a sudden awakening to the call. Regardless how the call of Jesus comes, it is an invitation to transformation.

Pastor Dana’s continues to look at Jesus’ life in Matthew 3:13-17, where Jesus’ cousin John baptizes Him in the Jordan River, and in Matthew 4:1-11, where Jesus goes into the wilderness to fast for forty days and is tempted by the devil. In baptism, He commits Himself to a life of following God the Father and proves it in the wilderness. Our commitment to faith in God won’t save us from trial, either, but it will help us through them.

Pastor Dana’s new sermon series looks at the life of Jesus and how we can receive guidance for our own lives. In Luke 2:41-52, Jesus is separated from His parents after the Passover festival in Jerusalem, only to be found 3 days later at the temple. There are times that we feel Christ is absent and all we know is anxiety, but if we remember to look in places He has promised to be, we know where to find Him – in the steady, faithful presence of God.

Pastor Dana’s Lenten sermon series wraps up in Micah 6:1-8. God brings a mournful case against His people for their disobedience, but they fail to understand what God wants. No, not more sacrifices or effort in devotion, but to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. God loved us first, so we do not need to earn the gift of being wholly loved.

This Easter, Pastor Dana reads from John 20:11-18, in which Mary Magdalene is distraught to find Jesus’ empty tomb and does not at first recognize Him when he greets her. Only when He calls her by name does she realize that Jesus had risen from death. She then goes to share the news with the disciples, as instructed. The heart of Easter is faith. We must have faith that Christ is nearer than we think in our darkest moments, so we pray eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts and minds to understand, and feet ready to do with the Word for others.

Steve Tramel’s focus this Palm Sunday takes us through Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as described in Zechariah 9:9-10, where he then spends the week denouncing sin and the pharisees, sets the bar which people will be judged by God, and ultimately offers His life for our sins. Yet, there will be another triumphal entry, described in Revelation 7:9-17. At that time, He will come to end the present age, sitting as our judge. Are you living to obey God’s commands to love others and bring them to Him?

Pastor Dana’s Lenten sermon series picks up in Haggai 1:2-6, 2:2-5, and Psalm 145:4-8. The people of Israel return from 20 years of exile to rebuild their lives yet neglect the temple. God uses Haggai to remind them of a promise of restoration. In their rebuilding the temple, they rebuild their identity as a covenant people. We find renewal when we center around faithful living in our community.

Pastor Dana’s Lenten sermon series picks up in Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-3; and 3:2. God’s people have turned away from God’s righteousness and normalized violence and corruption, bringing on an invasion from the Babylonian empire. But we see that God’s intentions are not to stand away from suffering, but to take it upon Himself, beginning the ultimate work of restoration of our brokenness through the resurrection.

Pastor Dana’s Lenten sermon series picks up in Jonah 1:3-4, 3:3-5, and 4:1-2; 11. God calls on Jonah to warn the people of Nineveh to change their ways, but Jonah resists and hopes to see their destruction, which is avoided through their repentance. God declares through the book of Jonah that no human is too deep into sin that He cannot reach them and grant them mercy and compassion. It isn’t up to us to decide who is worthy.

Pastor Dana begins this Lenten sermon series in Hosea 4:1-3 and Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9. God calls Israel into account for their lack of acknowledgment and God laments about us, refusing to abandon us. The lament of Hosea finds fulfillment in the suffering of Christ: divine heartbreak becomes divine sacrifice so that sin does not get the final word.