Sermons

When Paul tells husbands to be like Jesus toward their wives, he says husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy (Eph 5:25-26). That is truly significant. We spend a lot of time talking about what we are saved FROM. We are saved from sin; we are saved from our past; we are saved from our guilt and shame.

But it is equally important to talk about what we are saved FOR. As Paul says “he has rescued us out of the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” God wanted a people—a people who would conform to His image, who would showcase His likeness—so he saved us FROM our self-focused unrighteousness, and he saved us FOR a new life in Christ Jesus.

He died to make men holy.

My God pursues the saved. He pursues the lost. He even pursues the betrayer. He’s not the God who is always angry with you. He’s not the God who abandons you. He’s not the God who only loves you when you please him. He’s a lover who will fight for every single person made in His image, who will fight for his bride, and who will run after every lost soul—even you. Lesson 5 in our “Good and Beautiful God” series.

We take a look at Mark chapters 3 and 4. Who makes up Jesus’ family? What is a parable? How does God break open our world?

What do you do when you don’t feel like you have enough? Just picture the game musical chairs, and describe what happens when the music stops. But how would we be different—how relaxed would we feel, how open would we be, if we didn’t operate from a condition of scarcity, but rather, from great abundance? It would look like the kingdom of God. Lesson 4 in the “Good and Beautiful God” Series.

We look at the controversy stories in Mark 2:1-3:6 to discover a God who, in Christ, radically forgives, and a Christ who, following the Spirit, reframes how we read the law and how we see our God.

The Holy Spirit not only lives in you–He is at work in you. This is the great teaching of Romans 8:1-11, that, empowered by the Spirit, the righteous requirements of the law may be fulfilled in us as we walk according to the Spirit. Part 2 in “This Present Strength” series.

Our God is faithful, when we are faithless. He is trustworthy, when all else fails. And God is coming back to rescue his people. He said he would. And He will do it. Part 3 in our “Good and Beautiful God” Series.

The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit means presence. The Holy Spirit means power. And the Holy Spirit is a producer. In this series, we explore what it means to have access to this present strength. In this first lesson, we see that being plunged in God’s Spirit or receiving God’s Spirit means to be in the presence of God and for God’s presence to always be with us.

We sing it. We read it. But do we believe it? When we claim God is “good,” what do we mean by it? In this lesson, I explore goodness as where justice and mercy meet. Justice is coming (which is good news for the oppressed), but God through Christ has willingly bore the penalty of the oppressor, and wants every one at His table. Ultimate justice and unfathomable mercy meet in our God. Part 2 of our “Good and Beautiful God” series.