Sermon Series Archive Once Upon A Time
The Generous Landowner
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How do you respond when you feel like you’ve been treated unfairly? In the final installment of our summer series on parables, Josh takes a look at a vice that many of us struggle to overcome: jealousy. During this teaching, Josh shares insights from a parable Jesus tells about a landowner whose generosity brings out the worst in some of his employees.
The Unforgiving Servant
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In this week’s edition of our “Once Upon A Time” series, we have a two part sermon. This week, guest speaker George Stull begins the discussion of the ungrateful servant. In the parable, a servant is released of any debts that he has. However, he then condemns a fellow servant who owes him very little in comparison. The master reminds us that if have been given mercy, we should, in turn, give mercy as well. George likens this to breathing. Only when we release the air in our lungs, can we be ready to receive more air. We are left with one final thought: Forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember.
Pass The Mustard
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Who knew that the Kingdom was like your favorite hot dog condiment? Pastor Josh Scott shows us how the simplest, smallest of seeds can still have a huge impact in the fifth week of our “Once Upon A Time” series at MCC. The Kingdom requires trusting that God can take a kingdom that may seem insignificant, or even inactive, and create something that will encompass the whole world.
The Pharisee And The Tax Collector
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We’re on week 4 of “Once Upon A Time” at MCC, and this week is a great one! Pastor Josh Scott uses the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Two people who prayed, but one who had a heart that honored God. We find that its not the action, but the heart that truly connects us to God and His Kingdom. We should desire to be tax collectors; sinful, broken people, but in total awareness of a need for a savior.
The Prodigal Father
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For our Father’s Day edition of “Once Upon A Time,” Pastor Josh Scott uses the parable of the Prodigal son to explore the characteristics of the God the Father. Although the story is traditionally about the sons, Jesus is really telling us a story of the Father. He is a Father who gives His children the freedom to choose their directions, who never gives up on His kids, and who would go through any humiliation to try and bring His children home. We can be thankful that God is a prodigal Father; who is recklessly extravagant with His love for us, and spends everything He has to bring us home.
Sower, Seeds & Soil
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This week, we continue our “Once Upon A Time” series with the parable of the soils. Our Media & Communications Pastor, John Lovell, shares how the soil of our hearts is never naturally fertile. We have places that may not be receptive to the seed of God’s word. But hard soil can be broken, shallow soil can be deepened, and thorny soil can be weeded. Thankfully, even the worst soil has the potential to be fertile ground.
The New Thing God Is Up To
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A parable is just a story with a meaning that its listeners would connect with. But there was an additional application for them as well. In the first week of our new series “Once Upon A Time,” Pastor Josh Scott discusses the parable of the wineskins. In the story, the old wineskins are inflexible, but the wine needs somewhere else to go. Are we flexible to the new thing that God wants to do? Can we handle everything that could happen in our lives? Are we ready to live the abundant life that God wants to live through us, both individually, and as the church?

