Grace Point Sermons

In John 10, Jesus told the timeless story of The Shepherd & The Thief, which still divides the world to this day. For those who say "no" to His invitation, He wants them to know exactly what they're rejecting. But for those who say "yes," He wants us to live in the full joy He lived, died & rose again to give us.

God is both sovereign & good, which means we can always trust that He has a purpose in our pain. However, the only way for us to embrace that purpose (instead of wasting our suffering) is if we commit: (1) To obey before we understand; (2) Proclaim what we can't explain; (3) Cling to what we know; & (4) Worship the Son of Man.

True disciples finish well, but only if we embrace the truth of Jesus that sets us free from our slavery to the lies we believe & the lies we tell.

When we can't see beyond "right now," we're tempted to take control. In those moments, we've got to remember that the Light of the World came to give life to the world. This will only comfort us, though, when we lay down our fears and follow Jesus by faith into the presence of the Father.

The Light of the World exposes the darkness in all of us, but He never exposes us without covering us in His grace. Because both are true, His gospel leads us from fear to freedom as we're reminded over and over that our God knows us (all the way to the bottom) & He loves us still.

Only Jesus can satisfy the thirsty soul, and when He does...we will never thirst again! No shortcut or substitute can ever be enough, but Jesus is all we need forever. The only question is: "Do we trust Him?"

Jesus didn't come to make us more comfortable in our sin. He came to wage war on our idols and He never loses. That means we all have one of two options: (1) We can fight against Him & be defeated with our idols; or (2) We can fight with Him against our idols and share in His victory.

God's mission for us isn't to tell the world how bad they are, but to tell them how much better Jesus is than whatever may be competing for their love. To do that effectively, we must learn to recognize counterfeit wisdom and we must be willing to speak the truth in love.

We're all worshipers...the only question is who/what we're worshiping? As our Creator & Redeemer, only the one, true God is worthy of our worship. The more we see Him as He is, the more we'll celebrate His greatness & surrender to His grace.

Faith is a process, but so is unbelief. Ultimately, the way to tell the difference between true disciples and false disciples isn't in our words or actions in a moment...but over time. As Jesus shows us, true disciples finish well by: (1) Leading with a "yes;" (2) Being drawn by grace; & (3) Always coming back to Jesus.

False Belief is sadly more common in our culture (and even in our churches) than True Belief. Thankfully, though, True Belief is God's work in us applying Jesus' work for us forever, and this is a work that He's still doing in everyone He's drawing to Jesus. The invitation for us all is to come & believe in Jesus, and our eternal hope is in the God who draws us & the Savior who will never let us g...

We're never more than a moment away from our lives descending into total chaos. Thankfully, when that happens, God has given us a Map of Faith to help us identify: (1) Where we are; (2) Where we want to go; & (3) What our next step should be as we follow Jesus in faith (even when we don't understand) because we know He always has a purpose in our pain.

Since Jesus is all we need, we need to seek all of Jesus! We can't allow ourselves to settle for His gifts, His power, or His victory...because if we're not seeking all of Jesus, then we're not seeking Jesus at all.

After defending His claim to be the Son of God, Jesus shifts from defense to offense, exposing the fundamental struggle of every human heart: living for the wrong glory. For those who get stuck living as servants, though, Jesus invites us to share His glory and live in freedom as sons of God. Once we start to get this, it changes everything from how we read the Bible to where we look for hope.

When "the way things have always been done" are challenged with the truth of God's Word, our knee-jerk reaction is to try and silence the truth so that we can hold onto our traditions. Thankfully, Jesus loves us enough to tell us hard truth. As He does, He invites us to surrender to Him so that we can enjoy eternal life that starts right here, right now.

When we separate mercy & truth, we're left with nothing but superstitions that lead to misplaced hope. However, Jesus reminds us that real hope comes from true mercy, which only Jesus can give. To help us really get it, Jesus confronts the superstitions of Mysticism & Moralism, inviting us to instead embrace the supernatural power of His love.

When we use people for what they give us instead of honoring them for who they are, we kill the relationship. What John wants to help us see is that this is just as true in our relationship with Jesus as in every other relationship. Thankfully though, Jesus loves people who don't love Him & He shows that love by speaking hard truth, showing deep compassion & strengthening weak faith.

Do you tend to focus on what you do for Jesus or what He's done for you? How you answer that question will determine whether you spend your life working for rest or working from it. Thankfully, Jesus invites all who are weary and burdened to come to Him: not to give Him anything, but to receive what He offers by His grace. When we say "yes" to that invitation, we can rest in the truth that "it is...

When we're following Jesus on His mission, we should always expect multiplication. But as our King establishes His Kingdom and reaps His harvest, it will challenge our own faith as we're called to work together for something bigger than us and to love others as Christ loves us. As challenging as these are, however, they are the sure path to joy as we do the will of the Father and rejoice with Jesu...

If Jesus has saved you, then He's recruited you to take His gospel to a world in desperate need of grace. However, every time we try to do that, we're going to meet the same resistance Jesus did. Thankfully, in His conversation with the woman at the well, He shows us how to overcome obstacles so that we can follow Him on His mission in a way that glorifies the Father & makes His love undeniable.

The gospel tells us that we're saved by grace through faith. But passive faith isn't Biblical faith, it's just another form of unbelief, dressed up in religious clothes. Active faith, however, always shows up in our lives in the form of humility, joy & obedience. This kind of active faith is the only faith that leads to eternal life.

Jesus came to show us the fullness of God's love, which is the very definition of grace. That grace, however, can only be received by faith, as we let go of substitutes and trust that only Jesus can save, satisfy & sanctify us.

The difference between blind faith and Biblical faith is where it comes from. If our faith doesn't come from God, then it can't lead us to God. Thankfully, Jesus came to invite us into God's Kingdom, but we can only accept His invitation when we recognize our need for His Spirit, His word & His cross.

More often than we'd like to admit, we confuse "what's normal" with "what's right" and justify sin based on how common it is in our culture (whether that culture is religious or irreligious). Thankfully, Jesus is willing to disrupt our lives so that He can wake us up and lead us to repentance.

When you hit your limits, who do you trust? As John tells the story of Jesus' first sign (turning water into wine), he reminds us that Jesus doesn't have the limits we do, and so we can & should always trust Him because He's always enough for us.