Framing Your Pain - Peacemaking E3
May 19, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 4:1–12, Mark 14:32–42
One of the hardest parts of our lives to make peace with is the pain and suffering that follows us. All of us experience hardship, and for some, it’s the defining attribute of our lives. Whether from death, loss, infertility, chronic illness, sudden diagnoses, relational hurt and betrayal, or simply from apathy and the monotony of life, all of us have painful experiences. Making peace with our pain doesn’t mean we ignore its reality. It actually means the opposite. Unlike Abel in https://biblia.com/bible/we/gen%204 don’t allow our pain to stir up bitterness in our hearts. Instead, framing our pain is a way for us to vocalize our pain to God. We name the emotions connected to our pain, and we voice these emotions back to God. But we also declare God’s faithfulness back to ourselves. Like Jesus in the Garden before His crucifixion, we use our pain as a reminder that God is still faithful and in control. And even in our lowest, God is still near.
Forging New Patterns - Peacemaking E2
May 12, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 25, Genesis 32
Once we’ve made peace with our past, we must learn to forge new patterns. To do this requires us to take ownership for the ways we contribute to the pain of the people around us. All of us have ways of coping with pain in our own lives, and some of these coping mechanisms can be good. If we’re lucky, we learn from our parents what it means to own up to our mistakes, forgive others, and resolve conflict well. But all of us also carry negative coping mechanisms into our relationships as well. Some call these negative coping mechanisms attachment styles. We learn how to get what we want from people and how to avoid pain that comes with relationships. Put another way, all of us tend to cope by becoming either peace-fakers or peace-breakers. We fake peace by ignoring conflict, pain, and hard conversations with others. We break peace by blowing up on those around us, storming off, and giving into anger and resentment. And like all negative coping mechanisms, these patterns are often fueled by lies we believe about ourselves, others, and God. By making peace with our patterns, we’re intentionally confronting our flesh. We’re calling out the selfish parts of who we are and refusing to let it rule over our relationships. Like the Psalmist in https://biblia.com/bible/we/ps%20139’re inviting God to search us and know us to get rid of the offensive and sinful parts of us (https://biblia.com/bible/csb/ps%20139.23-24).
Forgiving Your Past - Formed by Peacemaking E1
May 5, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 12:10–20, Genesis 26:1–11, Exodus 34:6–7, Matthew 18:21–22, Matthew 6:14–15
All of us are shaped by our past. Where we come from, who we come from, and the way we were raised all shape who we are today in profound ways. Most of us have a basic awareness of our family of origin, but few of us have done the hard work of learning about our past to better understand who we are today. As a result, all of us unknowingly transmit the same narratives, patterns, pains, and expectations as our family before us. To make peace with our past is to return to an ancient tradition from the scriptures. Throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, God tells His people to remember where they’ve come from, what God has saved them from, and the promises He has made (https://biblia.com/bible/csb/deut.%206.12, https://biblia.com/bible/csb/isa.%2046.9, https://biblia.com/bible/csb/ps.%20143.5). Making peace with our past means we must forgive our past. We must take intentional time to see where we come from. We learn about our family of origin to better understand where our behaviors and patterns come from, both good and bad. But most importantly, we look back in order to recognize God’s providence and care for us in our lives. By recognizing both positives and negatives in our past, we’re able to see how God has used our family of origin to shape who we are.
How to Make Friends E1 - Proximity
January 7, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 2:18–22, Proverbs 27:5–17
As connected, informed, and globalized as we are through social media and the internet, we’re also becoming more and more lonely. Fewer and fewer people admit to having close friends, and as life becomes more automated and individualized, it’s easier to go through our days without any meaningful interactions with other people. But this is far from the life that God designed for us. From the opening pages of Genesis to the end of the human story in Revelation, we see that God has always intended us to live in close proximity to one another — Adam walked with God and was still lonely before Eve; Abraham is called out to create a new close knit family; Jesus does ministry while in deep relationship with his disciples; Paul takes close friends like Barnabas and Timothy with him on his ministry journeys; and the early church grows because of their radical inclusion of their neighbors. To recapture these lost relationships and live the way God intended, we start with a simple step: moving towards people in proximity the way God moves towards us.
WORSHIP: an example of eternity (Sabbath E4)
March 5, 2023 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 2:1–3, Isaiah 58
For the modern mind, the Sabbath is typically associated with a day off work to attend church, get things done around the house, and binge on the latest TV show. While this may offer the https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1994/april-4/good-for-nothing-sabbath.html, it is far from a holy day set apart for the Lord. The Bible presents a different view of the Sabbath, which involves focusing our minds, hearts, and bodies on the adoration of God. It includes thinking of God throughout the day, turning our attention from worldly things to God, and loving and serving others. Without worship, the Sabbath can become a day of self-centeredness rather than a day to honor God. Rather than simply resting, worship transforms the Sabbath from a day off work to a day centered on God’s character and nature.
DELIGHT: Dayenu at Dinner (Sabbath E3)
February 26, 2023 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 1:31, Genesis 2:1–3, Mark 2:23–28, Mark 3:1–6
A key element of Sabbath is the practice of delight. When we take the time to stop and to rest, we find ourselves more aware of the goodness and beauty in the world around us. This recognition and enjoyment of creation is called delight, and it’s something that God himself does. Scripture is full of God delighting in his creation, including us. God delights when we delight. But most of us are too unaccustomed to delight. Simply put, we don’t know how to play. We know how to indulge, how to escape, and how to numb, but few of us have cultivated the Godly qualities of playfulness and joy in our lives. God institutes Sabbath not as a day of restriction and rigidity, but as a day of delight so we become people defined by our joy. When we use Sabbath to practice delighting in God, in others, in creation, and in ourselves, we allow the Spirit to form us into people of delight.
STOP: the cadence of creation [ Sabbath E1]
Trey Van Camp • Genesis 2:1–3, Exodus 16:21–30
In our culture of restlessness, busyness, and hurry, setting aside an entire day to stop all work and productivity sounds anything but restful. Yet deep inside all of us is a yearning for true rest, which is why God offers rest as a gift in the form of the weekly Sabbath. In https://biblia.com/bible/csb/gen%202 God himself takes a day to rest from his work, weaving a rhythm of rest into the fabric of creation. When we live by this rhythm, working during the week and resting for a full day, we’re slowly transformed into people of true rest who are able to genuinely love others. But living outside of this rhythm wreaks havoc on our souls and relationships with others. To realign ourselves with this ancient rhythm, the first step is simply to stop. For 24 hours we commit to ceasing our work and turning our trust from our own hands to God’s provision.
For Others Around the World - Vision Series E10
October 2, 2022 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 12:1–3, Revelation 7:9
Throughout the storyline of the Bible, we see that God’s desire is to bless all of humanity. It starts with Adam and Eve, but rather than spread God’s blessing and goodness to the world, they spread sin and death. But God doesn’t leave humanity hopeless and helpless. Instead, he chooses the people group of Israel to provide blessing and healing to the rest of the world. As a nation of people set apart by God, Israel was given the unique opportunity of allowing God to bless the whole world through them. Today, we have the same opportunity. But rather than waiting for the nations to come to us, Jesus’ last command while on earth was to go to the nations ourselves. As we allow ourselves to be formed by Jesus, we must remember that we do this for the sake of others and not just for our own self-improvement. We also must remember that God’s intention is to restore all of humanity from all nations. By intentionally praying for the nations, giving sacrificially, and by actually going to the nations, we can continue God’s work of providing blessing and salvation to the rest of the world.
For Others at the Workplace - Vision Series E9
September 25, 2022 • Trey Van Camp • Genesis 12:1–3, Revelation 7:9
Our workplace is one of the most strategic places where we can effectively share the gospel. We spend roughly 1/3rd of our life there, we regularly interact with the same people there, and we contribute to the well-being of society by what we do there. However, most of us also have negative feelings and experiences associated with work. We wake up, toil, grind, and come home exhausted only to do it again the next day. Or we work tirelessly to get more power, approval, security, and comfort. At its best, work is a necessary evil. At its worst, work is a false god that never gives us what it promises. But the way of Jesus provides us an alternative: to see our work as the means by which God uses us to restore beauty, goodness, and well-being to the world around us. By seeing our work through this lens of restoration, we can start detaching ourselves from these lies about work and begin utilizing our workplaces to invite other into the way of Jesus. Rather than living to work and working to live, followers of Jesus can love to work and work to love.