The Upper Room Fellowship

The Upper Room Fellowship
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The Upper Room Fellowship of Columbiana Ohio's sermon audio // www.urfellowship.com

  1. FEB 15

    Emotionally Healthy Spirituality #6 :: Who Is My Neighbor? // Josh Osborn

    Sermon Summary:What does it actually mean to love our neighbor? This week we explored one of the most familiar stories Jesus ever told and discovered it might be more challenging than we have let ourselves believe.The story begins with a lawyer testing Jesus, asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. He gets the answer right, loving God and loving neighbor, but wants to narrow the field. Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan, and in doing so, flips the question entirely. The real question is not "Who is my neighbor?" but "To whom will I be a neighbor?"The priest and the Levite both had reasons to keep walking. We do too. We are busy, distracted, insulated by climate-controlled homes and cars and screens that show us pain from a safe distance while requiring nothing of us. But the Samaritan stopped. He saw a human being in need and co-suffered with him, which is the literal meaning of compassion.Pete Scazzero reminds us that many of us can recite the commandments and practice spiritual disciplines without ever connecting them to how we actually treat people. John Mark Comer puts it plainly: the single most important question on the spiritual journey is whether we are becoming more loving. The spiritual practices we have explored throughout this series are the trellis. Love is the fruit.We closed with five practical ways to grow in love: Believe that every person has intrinsic value. Behold the image of God in others. Be Listening with our full attention. Be a true peacemaker who leans into healthy conflict rather than avoiding it. And be curious, not judgmental.Love is what came down and changed the world. May we be known for that kind of love.URF WEBSITE: ➤ http://www.urfellowship.comSOCIALS: ➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urfellowship/➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urfellowship

    32 min

  2. FEB 8

    Emotionally Healthy Spirituality #5:: The Rope In The Blizzard // Beth S.

    SERMON SUMMARYWe live in a blizzard. Our schedules overflow, we wear busyness as a badge, and we're expected to work like we don't have families while raising families like we don't have jobs. In the whiteout conditions of modern life, many of us have lost our way spiritually, wandering in circles just feet from home.God offers us a rope to lead us back: two ancient disciplines called the daily office and Sabbath. These aren't just additions to our already packed schedules. They represent a complete resettling of our lives toward God, a new way of being in the world.The daily office invites us to stop throughout our day, not to get something from God, but simply to be with Him. Through centering, silence, and Scripture, we learn what the early church knew: nothing should interfere with the work of being present to God. As Elijah discovered, God reveals Himself in the sound of sheer silence.Sabbath, the longest and most specific of the Ten Commandments, calls us to a 24-hour period every seven days where we stop, rest, delight, and contemplate. This isn't legalism. The Sabbath was made for us, not us for the Sabbath. We need to find our own rhythm, whether that's Sunday, Monday, or Friday.Thomas Merton warned that activism and overwork are forms of violence we do to ourselves, killing the root of inner wisdom that makes our work fruitful. When we're busier than God requires, we cannot love others through the love of Christ.The invitation remains: What would you need to change to build God-honoring rhythms into your life?URF WEBSITE: ➤ http://www.urfellowship.comSOCIALS: ➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urfellowship/➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urfellowship

    33 min

  3. JAN 25

    Emotionally Healthy Spirituality #4 :: The Death Before Life // Chris Holm

    Sermon Summary:We all hit walls in life: moments when our faith stops working the way we thought it would, when the foundation we've built on starts to crack. These aren't minor inconveniences. They're the trials that test everything we believe about God and ourselves.James 1:2-4 invites us to consider it pure joy when we face trials, because this testing produces the mature, complete faith we're after. The wall destroys our transactional relationship with God (the vending machine theology where we input good behavior and expect predictable outputs). What emerges is trust in God's character rather than control over our circumstances.Two paradigm shifts help us navigate the wall. First, we need to see pain as diagnostic rather than punitive. Like Dr. Paul Brand discovered with leprosy patients, pain alerts us to what needs attention: unforgiveness, shame, false identities, or misplaced hopes. Second, we need to embrace the death and resurrection pattern woven throughout creation. Seeds must die to produce fruit. Old skin must shed for new growth. Sometimes our need for control, our victim identities, or our plans must die so God can bring something better to life.The pathway through the wall is surrender. We either transform our pain or transmit it to others. Transformation requires releasing our right to revenge, receiving grace for our shame, or trusting God with what we've lost. Abraham, Jacob, Peter, and Paul all went through this process and emerged with new identities and fruitful lives.On the other side of the wall, we find God's love poured into our hearts at a depth we couldn't access before. We come out marked, like Jacob's limp or Jesus's scars, but those marks become evidence of God's redemptive power in our lives.URF WEBSITE: ➤ http://www.urfellowship.comSOCIALS: ➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urfellowship/➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urfellowship

    34 min

  4. JAN 18

    Emotionally Healthy Spirituality #3 :: Breaking Cycles // Chris Holm

    Sermon Summary:We explored how our past profoundly shapes our present in this third week of our Emotionally Healthy Spirituality series. The core idea: to move into a healthy, mature future with God, we must take an honest look at our past.Science confirms what Scripture has always shown us. Research in epigenetics reveals that trauma and experiences can leave chemical markers on our DNA that get passed down through generations. The Bible shows us this same reality through Abraham's family line. From Genesis 12 through Joseph's story, we see a repeating pattern of deception, favoritism, and self-protection passed from father to son across four generations.Exodus 34:6-7 introduces the generational judgment principle, but here's the beautiful truth: while sin's consequences may extend three or four generations, God's steadfast love extends to thousands. The scale isn't even close. His mercy outweighs every pattern, every wound, every inherited tendency.The path forward requires five steps: see your past honestly (tools like genograms can help), own both the good and bad, bring others into the journey, allow God to redeem what's broken, and work to change by the Spirit's power. Joseph's story shows us how this transformation happens. He faced his past honestly, acknowledged the evil done to him, but invited God to redeem it for good. He became the one who broke the generational cycle.We can be that person in our family line. By God's grace, the patterns that have run for generations can end with us. We stand in the gap for those who came before and those who will come after.URF WEBSITE: ➤ http://www.urfellowship.comSOCIALS: ➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urfellowship/➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urfellowship

    31 min

  5. JAN 12

    Emotionally Healthy Spirituality #2 :: Know Yourself, Know God // Chris Holm

    SERMON SUMMARYWe explored the journey to authentic spirituality by looking at David's confrontation with Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. Biblical authenticity means discovering who God created us to be, surrendering to the Holy Spirit's transforming work in that hidden 90% beneath the surface.David faced three major obstacles before he ever reached Goliath. First, accusations from family. His brother Eliab attacked his character and tried to shame him publicly. Second, expectations from authority. King Saul told David he was too young and inexperienced to fight. Third, armor that doesn't fit. Saul offered David his own armor, but David knew himself well enough to reject what worked for someone else.The key to David's confidence was his firsthand experience with God. While watching sheep in the fields, the Holy Spirit had been training him, teaching him to recognize God's voice above every other voice. He had killed lions and bears in private before facing the giant in public.We examined differentiation: the ability to maintain a clear sense of worth and identity in Christ, apart from the opinions or approval of others. This allows us to remain connected to people without being controlled by their reactions or expectations.Our world desperately needs authentic Christians who know themselves deeply and know God intimately enough to step into who they were created to be. This week, we're challenged to get alone with God and ask two questions: "Lord, what lies am I still believing about myself?" and "Lord, who did You create me to be?"URF WEBSITE: ➤ http://www.urfellowship.comSOCIALS: ➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urfellowship/➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urfellowship

    28 min

  6. JAN 5

    Emotionally Healthy Spirituality #1 :: Dust And Breath // Chris Holm

    Sermon Summary We begin the year asking ourselves a crucial question: one year from now, how do we want to be different? This new series, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, explores why spiritual maturity and emotional health cannot be separated.Many of us experience a gap between the abundant life Jesus promises in John 10:10 and our actual reality. We might be exhausted, anxious, or struggling in relationships despite our spiritual disciplines. The problem isn't God's promise. The issue is we've been pursuing spiritual growth while ignoring 90% of who we are.Like an iceberg, only 10% of our lives is visible (behaviors, attendance, service). The other 90% remains hidden (how we process emotions, childhood coping mechanisms, unspoken fears, unnamed shame). Traditional discipleship often leaves this 90% untouched. We can read our Bibles daily and still explode at our kids. We can serve in ministry and still have marriages dying from emotional distance.God created us as integrated beings with bodies, minds, wills, emotions, and spirits. All of these reflect His image. When we suppress our emotional lives in the name of spirituality, we don't become more like God. We become less human.Jesus promises rivers of living water flowing from the center of who we are (John 7:38). But when our hearts remain hard, anxious, wounded, or shut down because we've never addressed emotional health as a discipleship issue, that river gets blocked.The invitation is simple but scary: "God, you can have my emotional life." What would happen if we let Jesus into the rooms we've kept locked?URF WEBSITE: ➤ http://www.urfellowship.comSOCIALS: ➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urfellowship/➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urfellowship

    31 min

  7. 12/24/2025

    Christmas Eve // Chris Holm

    Greetings from the Upper Room Fellowship, a church in Columbiana, Ohio, where we seek to Know God, Share Life, and Serve Others together. At the Upper Room Fellowship, we believe in a relational God who created us and will go to whatever lengths possible to connect with us so we can experience his perfect love. We believe that His love is open to all and has the power to transform lives and communities.URF WEBSITE: ➤ http://www.urfellowship.comSOCIALS: ➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urfellowship/➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urfellowship

    17 min

  8. 12/21/2025

    Advent 2025 :: Love // Chris Holm

    We often romanticize Christmas with cozy sweaters, twinkling lights, and sentimental nostalgia. But the reality of that first Christmas was scandalous. God looked at broken humanity and became one of us, born to an unwed teenage mother in a forgotten town, arriving in a stable because there was no room anywhere else. This is love at its purest.In 1 John 4:7-12, 19, we discover what real love looks like. John repeatedly calls us "beloved" because that's our starting point. God's love makes us beloved, and from that place, we're called to love one another. Not tolerate. Not coexist. Actually love.Love comes from God, and because God is infinite, love is an inexhaustible resource. When we love others, it reveals two things: we're born of God and we actually know Him personally. If our faith doesn't produce growing love for people, we've missed the point entirely.God's love is defined by three actions: Love initiates (God came after us when we were hiding), Love does (God didn't just think warm thoughts but sent His Son), and Love sacrifices (Jesus became the atoning sacrifice for our sins).Because of the cross, God isn't disappointed in you. You stand before Him clothed in Christ's righteousness, not your own. You're not just tolerated but delighted in. Holy. Blameless. Beloved.The question is simple: will you receive that love? Stop performing. Stop pretending. Stop running. Jesus came so you could be free to live and love like He does.URF WEBSITE: ➤ http://www.urfellowship.comSOCIALS: ➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urfellowship/➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urfellowship

    27 min
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The Upper Room Fellowship of Columbiana Ohio's sermon audio // www.urfellowship.com

Information

  • Creator
    The Upper Room Fellowship
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    450
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Upper Room Fellowship

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