Sermons

Biographies are compelling, in part, because they offer us a glimpse into the life of people beyond their public work. They help us understand who the people are/were, not just what they accomplished. This series is something of a biography of Jesus. A lot of people know about what Jesus said and did, but what was Jesus like? These sermons share three stories from the life of Jesus before his public work and teaching began. In looking at Jesus as a baby, kid, and young man, listeners will, perhaps for the first time, meet Jesus.

English psychiatrist and philosopher Eric Fromm said, “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” Most people feel a constant desire for more; most people never feel like they have enough. Despite this, almost nobody recognizes themselves themselves as greedy. These sermons on greed aim to help people understand what greed is, why it is spiritually significant, and how they can overcome it.

It seems, in our current culture, one of the worst things someone can be called is “judgmental.” Sadly, this label often given to anyone who declares a belief in a moral standard; Christians are constantly called judgmental. People are reacting to this in one of two ways: They get louder and angrier – seemingly more judgmental – or they stop talking about right and wrong altogether. The average person intuitively understands that these common, yet extreme approaches are both flawed. People shouldn’t yell at everyone who does something they don’t like; people shouldn’t accept everything that everyone does as good. The Bible offers a complex solution to this tension. This series of sermons aims to teach what the Bible says about judging others.

In a world that offers plenty to worry about, worry plagues almost everyone. This is troubling, especially because worry brings with it a wide variety of physical, emotional, and spiritual dangers. While the average person won’t consider it’s dangerous side affects, most would love to remove worry from their lives, but because of it’s universality, most see no hope in ridding themselves of this negative emotional. This series of sermons teaches listeners Jesus’ tips on living a worry-free life.

The message of Christianity is one of God’s love for humanity. Sometimes though, the Christian faith gets painted as if it is for certain types of people who haven’t done certain types of things. The story of Jonah emphatically declares that no matter who you are or what you’ve done, God cares about you. Through a disobedient follower, a group of idolatrous fisherman, and a pagan city, this series of sermons proclaims that everyone can be engulfed by grace.

The term “God” is often used and rarely considered. Most people discuss the being we call God without ever pondering what makes him that in the first place. This series of sermons describes the three key attributes that are generally ascribed to God – omniscience (all knowing), omnipotence (all powerful), and omnibenevolence (all loving) – and clarifies how all three can be simultaneously true of one divine being. Through this clarification, hearers will begin to understand that who God is, matters to who they are and how they live.

Almost everyone has an opinion about what church is and how it should be done. The goal of this series is to help people understand Jesus’ thoughts and feelings about church by examining his admonishment, as recorded in Revelation 2-3, to seven 1st century churches.

After C.S. Lewis’ wife died he penned the following words which were published in the book A Grief Observed: Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy…and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face… Most who have grieved have felt/thought something similar and wondered where God has gone. This series of sermons is a biblical response to the thoughts, feelings, and questions of our pastor and his wife as they grieved two miscarriages in one year (watch the video below for an explanation in our pastor’s words). All of the sermons point to one truth: In the midst of grief, God can be found.

These days a lot of people are asking the same question, What is love? For many this questions is asked because they don’t want their baby, or anyone else, to hurt them no more…no more. Truthfully, almost everyone, at some point, has played their heart while another played their game and…it gave love a bad name. Yes, sometimes love stinks. But, some choose to ride the love roller coaster anyway. They search everywhere for this crazy thing called love. They have allowed themselves to be prisoners of love. They are addicted to love. But, deep in their soul, they know that they’ve lost that lovin’ feeling…oh that loving feeling. But, lets return the commonly asked question, What is love? Maybe, this crazy little thing called love is not so bad after all. Maybe love seems to bite, only because we have a poor vision of love. Perhaps there is a groovy kind of love, an endless love. What if, instead of thinking we love somebody, but wanting to know for sure, we could be certain? What if, instead of musing, I want to know what love is, we could define it in tangible ways – ways that we could live out. If this were true, perhaps then, we could see the power of love.

Busy, busy, busy. It seems like everyone is busy. At the same time, everyone wants to do more: I wish I had more time to spend with my family. I should read more. This year, I will exercise more. In this series of sermons on laziness (a sequel to The Skinny Glutton) you will learn why busyness is not the opposite of laziness, why you might be a busy sluggard (It probably isn’t that you do too little), and how you can overcome the problem of having too much to do, with too little time to do it.