Zootown Church

The Advent season has arrived, and in Week 1, we look at "Hope". Hope is something essential for life; without hope there is no moving forward. But what are we hoping in? Some think a new president will bring hope, some not. Some think a better economy brings hope, but for some, that doesn’t matter. During this season, we look at the passage where it says “We have seen a great light” and that will be our theme. But how does light bring hope? We break this down this week and all through this season.

In this last sermon of the series, we look at a subject that all of us agree on but find it so hard to remember…gratitude. Don’t we all appreciate it when people recognize what we do? If we serve someone, doesn’t a "thank you" feel good? Now imagine being Jesus and all the blessings and mercy he shows humanity even in our sins...yet how many say “Thanks, Jesus.” We look at an interesting passage today where Jesus bucks the Old Testament system of blessings and curses. What’s fascinating is it proves there’s one dividing line to Christ, those who see their need for mercy and those who don’t.

As we continue in the series "The Real Miracle", we look at an intense moment between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus was about mercy; the Pharisees were about justice. The issue here is justice never fixes anything, it doesn’t change the situation, it doesn’t redeem the two parties. We see this example this week with a man with a withered hand who was in the temple. They knew he was in the temple and the Pharisees used him as a prop, which means they didn’t care about him or his healing; they cared about looking pious. Jesus comes along and breaks all their manmade rules because he is about healing, even on their sacred sabbath. 

In week three of “The Real Miracle” we look at a touchy subject -- demonic possession. In our age of scientific reasoning, many have thrown out the spiritual world as nonsense. What they don’t know is they are in the minority! Most cultures believe in the supernatural realm and look to it for guidance and also to be aware of its dangers. Jesus himself talked a lot about Satan and the demonic world, but he wasn’t afraid of it. This week we look at a man who was mute because of a demon, but what was the purpose of God loosening his and our tongues?

In week two of the “The Real Miracles” we look at a woman who was ostracized from the community she loved for 12 years because she had a blood disorder. In those days if you were sick, you were unclean, you couldn’t touch people, and if you did, they had to go wash everything they owned. She lived in a terrible existence of isolation. However, she heard of this Jesus guy who healed people and never turned anyone away, so she boldly goes to see him. She is such a great example to us, that no matter what sickness or sin we have, no matter what people have said to us about us, that is not the heart of God.

One of Jesus’ main parts of his ministry was healing. We have recorded history that these miracles took place and continue to this day. But why did he do it? Obviously because he loves people, but why worry about our bodies if they’re sinful and will be resurrected someday anyhow? The Bible is spiritual, yes, it is history in some sense, but its main point is to direct our souls. If you look at Jesus’ miracles, there was more going on than it seems. If you read it in the spiritual sense, he was healing more than just their legs. This series dives into that as we look at the real reason behind these miracles.

We wrap up our five-week series on the vision of Zootown with the next phases of our building project. There is no real timeline for it other than when the money comes in, but this answers the why are we doing it question. Every generation is worried about the next generation that is being raised. What they miss is we are the ones raising them! There is so much cynicism regarding the youth of America right now, and we don’t want to fall into that. We want to be bridge builders, peacemakers, creators for our children’s future. We also have other plans for office space and functionality of the building, which is all discussed in this final episode.

In the 4th installment of this vision series, we talk about the other purposes of our building project. Namely the community. We live in a post Christian America, so what do we do about it? Do we become judgmental, cynical, angry about it? Do we vote the right person in and get back to law and order? Or do we fulfill the call of being salt and light laid out by Christ? With all these churches closing that means there is a lot of real estate out there and many of these fallen churches are becoming community centers. How about we skip the closing part and just make the Church a community center now?

As we continue our series on our fundraising campaign, we focused the first two weeks on vision. Who are we, what are we doing here, and where are we going. This third week is looking at the hard numbers for what this will cost and why it’s important to design this building the way we did. However, Pastor Scott gives a brief history of Churches being built throughout history and why they have been important and how we are a continuation of their work.

In week two, Pastor Scott touches on two of the things you’re never supposed to talk about: religion and politics. Our nation is divided and unfortunately that division has entered the Church and caused much harm. Yet we are called to be of the Kingdom, the New Jerusalem, which is a totally different way of looking at the World. We believe if you have to put a label such as Progressive or Conservative in front of Christianity, you’ve already missed it. But what do we do? Check out this sermon to be rocked, encouraged, and refocused on what we are called to do.

We kick off the new series “The Burbs” by talking about who we are as a Church. Right now, we are in the middle of a building expansion project but why are we doing it? We see the new building as a byproduct of the new reformation we are going through in the Church. However, every reformation has a little bit of old and a little bit of new. We can get this building done and still be the same, but we want this place to be a guidepost, a map, a light to Missoula to find their way to Christ.

Author Brian Zahnd gives a special sermon about his book "Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God"...a book that means a lot to Zootown Church. He proclaimed the extremely good news: God is like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus. There has never been a time when God wasn't like Jesus.

“Pastor Scott wraps up his series on the fire passages by bringing it all together in one place: Judgement. Nobody likes it, for sure not feeling it, even though we do like giving it out. Judgment is a scary word to most; it feels like you’re sitting in front of a judge to be condemned. One of the issues though is we take our human perspective of judgment and put that on God, but the Bible has a different view of the final judgment. It doesn’t make it less serious, it just means the purpose of God’s judgments are different. We can’t cover it all but Scott gives it his best shot in this final episode of Fire Season.”

This week we look at two terms that don’t normally go together but have the same spiritual connotations: salt and fire. The Gospel of Mark gives an encounter where Jesus is really serious, almost scary, but Jesus always has a purpose in mind. He says “Everyone will be salted with fire, but salt is good.” Salt has many helpful qualities, but one specific with fire in that it purifies things. But how does it do it? By just being salt and doing what it does. Jesus has a purpose for our lives in the world, to bring out the flavor and purity. But are we known for that?

As we continue to look at the purpose of fire in the Scriptures this week, we piggyback off the previous week of "Purified". In order for something to be purified, it first has to be exposed for what it is. All of our lives have two different natures: a sin nature but also a love nature that is totally secure in God. The sin nature is exposed by the love of God, but for the true nature, the God nature is to be revealed. Being exposed is not a pleasant experience, just like a doctor exposing a wound can be painful. Yet it is necessary for the wound to be healed. The Fire of God’s love is necessary in our lives not to hurt us, but to heal us.

No matter what currencies are doing in the world, silver and gold have been the constants throughout time. Yet they both must be tested for their purity before they can be truly valued. In order to see the real from the fake, it is tested on a rock called the touchstone. This leaves a streak to compare it to the real gold. The gold and silver are also heated up in fire so that the dross can rise to the surface and be wiped away in order for it to be purified and shined. This week we look at these concepts to see what the scriptures mean by “God’s purifying fire.”

We say we have 6 seasons in Montana: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Road Construction, and Fire Season. The smoke is no fun to deal with but it’s vital to the forest's growth. Fire touches everything it comes across, it changes everything it touches, and it consumes the dead but uses the good.

Pastor Scott wraps up the series with giving concrete ways for continued spiritual growth. Just like our muscles must be worked out, pushed, broken down, our spiritual muscles are the same. Just like physical workouts, there is a lot of advice on how to work out our spirits, however there are time-tested ways given to us by the ancient Christians that have proved fruitful for thousands of years.

Everyone falls, everyone stumbles, everyone gets into a pit. Sometimes it’s a pit others have dug, but often it’s a pit we have dug. Our choice is to stay in the pit and keep digging deeper, or turn and look to the Lord to pull us out.

There is a misconception in our culture that getting older automatically makes you wiser. Or, take that one step further, that age has to do with maturity. The New Testament talks a lot about becoming mature Christians but, unfortunately, we have made maturity simply morality. However, maturity is more of a spiritual place of being rather than what you do or don’t do. The main thing mature Christians do is see the spiritual side of things, the real things, and not get distracted by the ways of the world only dealing in the flesh.