When it comes to overcoming our vices, it never works to just, "stop doing that!" We have to make a genuine change and move towards something else, a different way to behave and to relate to the things in our lives. Our migration series looks at these journeys and how we move out of our vices by moving into the virtues that overcome them.

Brian returns from his sabbatical to talk about how we move from places of fear towards courage. In the first of this two-parter, Brian talks about how courage is not the opposite of fear, but rather, the response we can have to fear. As Brian illustrates, continually choosing the courageous response begins to change us to be people of virtue who are not overwhelmed by our fears.

There is a type of courage that can deceive you, let you down, and get you into trouble and there is a kind of courage that comes from a key relationship that every person needs. When we talk about courage it's important to be able to distinguish these two types of courage and to know how to consistently choose the second. Brian looks at a fairly famous story in a new way and shows us how we can know true courage and how we can put ourselves in a place to choose it.

There is a particular ideology that has propagated around the world promising happiness to those that buy in. There's only one problem; instead of giving happiness, consumerism ropes people into a trap of anxiety and constant disappointment. In this message Gene offers some perspective on what we should really treasure and speaks about the replete serenity that comes from aligning ourselves and our values with the Kingdom of Heaven.

Inspired by our visit from Paty Gonzalez, Brian changed the beginning of his message to show what it means to be a strong one in the world. Often, we don't intend to work against justice, but as Brian talks about Justice, he shows that our migration originates in our apathy and grows as we learn to take a stand and take action towards seeing justice in the world. Brian concludes by showing that this action is crucial, but not as overwhelming as it might seem.

The Migration series is all about how we can move from the vices that enslave us to the virtues that liberate us, but Gene takes this message to give a warning that the opposite can also happen; it's possible for virtues to gradually become vices. Though Gene shares that there are many examples of virtues becoming vices, he picks two that are common and that often work in concert with one another: when humility becomes self-denigration and when self-love becomes self-centeredness. Gene goes to show how humility and self love are both positive virtues in the Scriptures, but when they start to go into their extremes they become detrimental to ourselves and to those around us.

Self-Reliance seems like a virtue in our modern era, but when it comes to wisdom, self-reliance can actually be a vice: we rely on wisdom we don't have and we end up in places we never wanted to be. However, Brian shares in his message that Wisdom is not something only accessible to the elite, but something that is available to all of us if we are willing to ask for it. Brian goes on to show what this asking really looks like and how we become people who receive wisdom instead of trying to make our own ways work.

Awe is defined as an intense feeling of reverence, admiration, or worship experienced when the emotions of fear and amazement are triggered. Sadly, we can often attempt to insulate ourselves from such emotions when, in reality, we would be much better off engaging with them. There are, of course, healthy ways and unhealthy ways to pursue such a life, but Gene lays out a strategy for avoiding the laziness that creates dispassion and, instead, following God into places of fear and amazement by living our life for Him. We were made to be amazed.

There's a lot of drama going on these days and the pressure we experience is often to pick a side and become even more dramatic ourselves. However, the goal in scripture is not to win a drama war, but to strive to be at peace with others. Gene lays out in this sermon a vision for what it means to be peacemakers and how God meets us there.

We live in a time where there's a lot of noise. One of the reasons for all this noise is the echo chambers we live in: people endlessly repeating what others have said. Yet, in his message, Aaron talks about the voice we all have: one that is God-given and unique to each one of us. Not only that, but even if we've been an echo, there's the chance to find our voice in the quiet, forge our voice in the midst of crisis, and fuel our voice with obedience. We have a voice, and the world needs to hear it.

There's an attitude floating around these days that values busy-ness and rapidly fills our open moments will all kinds of potential distractions: noise. In the face of this, we're finding more and more that we need times of stillness in the midst of all this noise. In Brian's message he talks about more than just silencing the noise; he talks about experiencing the beautiful quiet of connection with God. Using examples from scripture and from his own life, Brian demonstrates how we can find God's voice in places we didn't expect and that, when we choose to do this, we find the quietness and connection we so desperately need.

In the previous message of the migration series, Brian talked about how prayer is a movement away from the noise that surrounds us and into a place of quiet so that we can connect with God. In this message, Brian continues to talk about prayer by outlining the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray. Brian points out the key elements of this prayer and how they anchor us and keep us focused upon our connection with God instead of turning prayer into some kind of self-centered ritual or a game to get ahead. The kindness of Jesus in teaching us to pray reveals to us how close, how concerned and how great God's desire is to meet with us in the place of prayer.