Made For More – Summer Sermon Series

Made For More

Summer Series 2025

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. – 1 John 5:12

The promise of life is on nearly every page of what we now often call the New Testament.

“…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)

“…tell the people about this new life.” (Acts 5:20)

And it’s not just life after death. To be sure, it is that. But it is not just that.

Early followers of Jesus were convinced that there was more to this life. They believed and were beginning to experience a “freedom” that was more than just circumstantial. They were learning the “secret of contentment.” They were becoming the kind of people who could sing in prison, rejoice in suffering, and count it pure joy when they faced trials of many kinds. Love and joy and peace and patience…characterized their lives regardless of what was happening around them or even to them.

They were being renewed, remade…made for more.

That’s what it means to be “made free.” It means being “made new.”

And it isn’t just ancient history, it is a present possibility….and not just as an offer for the few, but as a gracious invitation to all.

In other words, it’s not just that ‘they’ were made for more…

YOU were made for more.

More than constant exhaustion.

More than relentless worry.

More than perpetual anger…or fear…or discouragement…or loneliness…or despair.

We are desperate for more than that.

Our neighbors are desperate for more than that.

Jesus promises more than that.

The Way to this life is relatively simple…

Be with Jesus

Become like Jesus

Do what Jesus did

Jesus said things like “I am…the bread of life…the light of the world…the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

The more you are around Him the more you begin to believe that He was telling the truth.

And then He starts to rub off on you. You start to think like Him, sound like Him, see the things the way He see them, love people the way he loves them.

And eventually you start acting like him. You do what HE does. OR perhaps better said, He does what HE does in and through you.

The ancient word for this is “discipleship.”

The practices involved are time-tested, but not outdated.

The method has been well mapped, but it is also mysterious.

We are not the first to wonder how to “be with Him” now that He is now no longer “with us.”…at least in the way that He once was.

Those who have come before us have much to tell us about how they came to be in the presence of the risen Christ and what happened in them as a result.

They met Him through the means of regular habits.

They engaged in simple practices.

And they discovered that Jesus is now exalted but He is not absent.

And He is not done yet.

…whoever has the Son has life.

We were made for more.

June 15 

Solitude

“Most of the great ones of the Way all agree: Solitude is the most foundational of all the practices of Jesus.

…Nouwen wrote, ‘Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life.’

And solitude has an unspoken but ever-present companion: silence. …all the masters of the Way agree that the practice of solitude and silence-what the Gospel writers call the erémos or “the quiet place”— is utterly key.

… quiet is where we go to find God. Because it’s there, in the quiet, that the inner roar of our world of noise – the distraction, the chaos, and all the lies- fades away, and what shimmers in its place is the peace and presence of God.

Centuries ago, Saint Isaac the Syrian said, “Speech is the organ of the present world. Silence is the mystery of the world to come.”* In silence, we enter into the mystery of the world to come – and into God himself.

Find the quiet to find God.”

• John Mark Comer, Practicing the Way, 183

June 22

Prayer

“Jesus didn’t go into ‘the quiet place’ because he was an introvert who needed a little me time; he went there to pray. Many people hear prayer and think of one particular type of prayer – asking God for things, which is perfectly legitimate. But I mean prayer in the broader scope of the word, as the medium through which we communicate and commune with God.

There are four basic levels of prayer (or, you could say, dimensions to prayer):

Talking to God

praying premade prayers like the psalms or liturgy, or singing prayers at church, and so on

Talking with God

conversing with God about your life. Lifting up the details of your life before God with gratitude (talking to him about what is good in your life and world), lament (talking to him about what is evil in your life and world), and petition and intercession (calling on God to fulfill his promises to overcome evil with good)

Listening to God

hearing God’s voice through quiet listening, Lectio Divina, the prophetic, and more

Being with God

just looking at God, looking at you, in love (also called “contemplative prayer”)

All four types of prayer are essential to cultivate a loving relationship with God. But many people never move beyond the first two types of prayer, and even fewer discover the joy and possibility of the fourth.

Of course, prayer is not a linear, four-step formula; it’s more like a long and winding road we travel over a lifetime. The key is to just stay on the path. As Ronald Rolheiser put it,

‘There is no bad way to pray and there is no one starting point for prayer. All the great spiritual masters offer only one non-negotiable rule: You have to show up for prayer and you have to show up regularly’.”

– JMC, Practicing the Way 183-185

June 29

Scripture

“Scripture is the primary way we are ‘transformed by the renewing of [our[ mind.’ As we think God’s thoughts after him, we begin to develop the ‘mind of Christ.’

We begin to see the world as he sees it.

Think how he thinks.

Feel what he feels.

As we curate the flow of our consciences to intentionally mirror that of Christ, we increasingly live in the joy and peace and love of Christ.

There are all sorts of ways to read scripture – slowly and prayerfully, all alone (a practice called ‘Lectio Divina’), out loud in large swaths with our community (how most of Scripture was designed to be experienced), in deep study, in a classroom, while sitting under teaching or preaching in church, through memorization and more. All work together to fill, form and free our minds.”

– JMC, Practicing the Way, 186

July 6

Sabbath

“The spiritual journey begins with rest. You see this on the first page of the Bible, where the day begins at sundown, with sleep, and the week begins on Sabbath, with rest.

…because chronically exhausted, sleep-deprived, overbusy people are not loving, peaceful, and full of joy.

Rest is essential to apprenticeship under Jesus.

Tiredness is an unavoidable feature of life this side of eternity, but so many of us operate at a dangerous level of tired, so much that we can’t sense God’s presence or hear his voice.

Sabbath is an entire day of your week— one-seventh of your life set aside to not only stop and rest but also delight in and worship the God who made you to be with himself. It’s a day to cultivate joy in a world of sadness. As Nan Fink said in her memoir Stranger in the Midst,

‘Shabbat is like nothing else. Time as we know it does not exist during these twenty-four hours, and the worries of the week soon fall away. A feeling of joy appears.

The smallest object, a leaf or a spoon, shimmers in a soft light, and the heart opens. Shabbat is a meditation of unbelievable beauty.’

In ugly times, we need the Sabbath to keep our hearts alive to the beauty of God and life with him in his world.”

– JMC, Practicing the Way, 182

July 13

Jonathan Storment will be preaching in all three gatherings. Jonathan serves as the preaching minister at Pleasant Valley Church of Christ in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Community and Witness

“John Ortberg has observed, ‘We generally sin alone, but we heal together.’ Or as they say in AA: ‘I get drunk, we stay sober.’

The church is where we are re-parented into the family of God; it’s scary because it regularly goes wrong (examples abound).

Our deepest wounds come from relationships, and yet, so does our deepest healing.

But we simply are not meant to follow Jesus alone. The radical individualism of Western culture is not only a mental health crisis and growing social catastrophe; it’s a death blow to any kind of serious formation into Christlike love. Because it’s in relationships that we are formed and forged.

From coming together on Sunday for worship to eating a meal around a table to practicing confession to entering into spiritual direction, therapy, or mentorship community is how we travel the Way, together.

Do you have your traveling companions?

Jesus’ final words to his apprentices were, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

…our role isn’t to ‘convert’ anyone, but it is to preach to tell others the good news of Jesus, through the practice of witness.

To do this, we must become a people of hospitality in a culture of hostility. We must embody and extend the love, welcome, warmth, and generosity of the inner life of God. We must open our homes, our tables, and our lives to ‘the last, the least, and the

lost.’

[We] may not be able to solve the great systemic injustices of our time, but [we] can cook some of the best pizza you’ve ever had and invite [others] to [our] table.

Who knows what else could come of that?”

– JMC, Practicing the Way, 186-187and 189-190

July 20

Fasting

“Fasting is one of the most essential and powerful of all the practices of Jesus and, arguably, the single most neglected in the modern Western church.

In fasting, you are literally praying with your body, offering all that you are to God in worship. As you yield your body to God, you are breaking the power of the flesh to control you and opening up to the power of the Spirit in its place.

You are learning to be joyful, even when you don’t get what you want.

You are practicing suffering and, through it, increasing your capacity for joy in all circumstances.

And you are amplifying your prayers increasing your capacity to both hear and be heard by God.

Fasting is hard, especially at first. Though it grows much easier with regular practice. But the “hangry” feelings that come up when we forgo meals often expose the arenas of our soul most in need of grace and, again, open us to God in surprising ways.

We begin to feed on what Jesus called the ‘food to eat that you know nothing about.’

Fasting truly is a lost discipline whose time has come.”

– JMC, Practicing the Way, 185

July 27

Generosity

“As we slow down and arrange our lives around their center in Jesus, this new simplicity of life will, in turn, enable generosity, the giving of our extra resources to God and those in need. Once you are living under your means rather than chronically overextended, it opens up all sorts of new possibilities.

This is one of the most joyful of all the practices.

At the heart of the Trinitarian community we call God is an outflow of generous, self-giving, forgiving love. In the gospel itself, ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,” and the Son,’ in turn, gave the Spirit. When we give- our money, our resources, our time and love – we get to participate in that divine outflow of love.

It comes as no surprise that sociologists are just now discovering the truth of what Jesus said two millennia ago: “’t is happier to give than to receive’.”

– JMC, Practicing the Way, 187

August 3

Service

“Jesus explained his life this way: ‘The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many…’

Can you imagine what the world would be like if people were to actually live this way?

Think of the raging epidemic of injustice in modern society-the racism, bigotry, and political polarization, or the growing chasm of inequality between the rich and poor, the haves and have-nots. Sociologists tell us our society is more divided than it’s been since the Civil War.

How do we possibly heal these wounds?

We serve.

This could be quietly befriending the poor in your city or volunteering for a local nonprofit, but it could also be parenting your two-year-old or caring for your aging parents.

Every day is full of opportunities to follow Jesus’ example, and give your life in service.

And here’s a key truth: Not only does the practice of service have the potential to mend our fractured world; it has the power to mend us. This is one of the most surprising things about the discipline. You think you’re there to help others, but you quickly realize you’re the one being helped. You’re being set free of your ego, your entitlement, your self-obsession. When you serve in the Way of Jesus, the lines blur between servant and served, giver and recipient. Both give, and both receive. Dignity is restored in one; freedom won in the other.

In one of the final stories of Jesus life, Jesus takes on the garb of a servant and insists on washing his apprentices’ feet. This is Jesus intentionally taking the lower social position, the master trading places with the servant. Then Jesus quietly says this: ‘I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you… Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them’.”

– JMC, Practicing the Way, 189