Sermons

Every day we face tremendous amounts of pressure. There are a lot of sources—work, school, marriage, kids, health, appearance, money, house, time, and even the thought of death. Too often the pressure causes us to live lives that are less than beautiful. Plus, the pressure can lead to constant worry, stress, and anxiety. This series of sermons explains what the Bible says about living gracefully under pressure.

The notion that Jesus rose from the dead should give us pause. If he died and came back to life, there must be incredible implications. When we consider Jesus’ resurrection we should respond like those who first saw it—they were afraid yet filled with joy.

How we answer certain questions will determine the direction of our lives. Who am I? What is my purpose? What happens when I die? But perhaps most life affecting is how you answer a single question about Jesus: Who is this?

The Gospels contain lots of stories about people meeting Jesus. The recounting of these experiences show that something about Jesus’ elicited a strong reaction. People didn’t always respond to Jesus positively, but they almost always responded passionately. This series of sermons examines stories of people who had encounters with Jesus and how it changed them.

Lust is a desire for something forbidden that dishonors God and disregards object. Like several of the seven deadly sins, it can seem harmless. This series of sermons is about why it is so dangerous and how we can stop doing it.

Bread, milk, and meat are basic elements of the human diet. The authors of Scripture use these foods to describe the importance of ingesting God’s Word. Without the Bible a spiritual life will shrivel into an unhealthy skeleton of what it could be. But when it is read, its spiritual nourishment energizes, strengthens, and grows the reader. Many think they should read the Bible more; this series of sermons, on the Bible as spiritual food, offers people reasons they should want to.

Before the lights, tinsel, trees, and wreathes, Christmas was the celebration of Jesus’ birth. At the heart of it all is a birth story with familiar details – a genealogy, a virgin, a carpenter, an angel, a name, a prophecy, and a baby. And these details all point to one thing: Jesus is Messiah. This series of sermons explains how the details of Jesus’ birth point to him being Messiah and why him being Messiah matters.

Jesus’ longest recorded sermon, and most influential, is traditionally called The Sermon the Mount. The sermon is full of famous proclamations, phrases that are often memorized or hung on walls. But why are these words important 2,000 years later? This series of sermons is about The Sermon on the Mount and why it still matters.

A Christian’s citizenship is in Heaven. Their primary allegiance is not to a president or king, but to Christ who is the King of Kings. At the same time Christians live, work, play, and raise families in human civilizations. Often culture is in opposition to Christianity’s core beliefs and values, forcing Christians to make difficult choices about how to interact with the societies in which they live. How do we live in the world and still bring honor to our true home? This series is about living as a sojourner.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1 This famous verse, written by one of Christianity’s greatest leaders, is often ignored or misunderstood. This series of sermons explores the topic of sacrifice in the New Testament and explains why and how we should take Paul’s urging seriously.