Sermon Audio Podcast

Luke 17.11-19 features an encounter between Jesus and 10 lepers. While our first reaction might be the remoteness of the past, I hope this narrative provides an appreciation for our need before God, how we’re made right, and the appropriate response of praise and thanksgiving. Ultimately this text will force us to think about gratitude.

It’s easy to be discouraged when we examine current events. When we feel powerless in these times, we should remember the great promise of Luke 17.20-37. Jesus will return in power to execute perfect justice. Here is a passage that ought to alert a non-believer while comforting followers of the Lord Jesus. We will celebrate what He did for us by taking the Lord’s Supper.

How a person prays shows us the condition of their heart. Luke 18.9-14 tells of two men offering two different prayers. One receives acceptance from the Lord Jesus while the other proves offensive. The difference is an understanding for the need of God’s mercy. May we have a humble awareness of our need for God’s grace.

In Luke 18.15-17, Jesus tells His followers that they need a child-like attitude to enter the Kingdom of God. We will see what He means by this. Also, this passage gives the church a strong mandate to minister to children.

Questions reveal much about who asks them. Two questions asked in today’s passage (Luke 18:18-30), one by a rich young ruler and one by Jesus’ disciples, reveal not only what matters to them, but also to us - Eternity.

This week’s passage might be framed around the idea of seeing clearly. Jesus once again predicts His suffering and death but the disciples struggle to believe it. Amazingly, a blind beggar provides an example of spiritual sight, coming to Jesus by faith. When we realize who Jesus is, we follow Him and glorify God.

Can I really be forgiven? Are people really changed by the Lord Jesus? As we read Luke 19.1-10, one of the most beloved scenes in all of Scripture, we will see how Jesus changed Zacchaeus’ life. This selfish and crooked businessman became generous and just. Marvelously, our Lord extends the same grace and forgiveness to all those who receive Him.

In what Luke records as Jesus’ last teaching before He enters Jerusalem, we have a particularly poignant parable about the responsibility of the Christian life. This passage teaches us how to be faithful disciples of Jesus.

The book of Proverbs serves as an invitation to wise living. What is wisdom according to God? How does a person become wise? What does it look like to make godly choices? The collection of Proverbs helps us navigate this life in a God-honoring way.

It’s been firmly established that wisdom is something we all want. The question is, how do we get it? This Sunday, we’ll explore how Solomon says we gain wisdom by fearing the Lord.

One of the most obvious distinctions in life is that between males and females. That said, we live in a time when these fundamental categories are being destabilized in the name of freedom and, consequently, causing much pain. Over the next three weeks, we will re-examine God’s design for men and women. We will see that living within God’s order is actually the place of freedom and love.

We experience the most freedom when we embrace God’s good design and live within His framework. This week we will see God’s plan for males and females in marriage. Accompanying the sermon will be a testimony of God’s restorative grace and healing power.

Having studied males and females within God’s design and within the family, we will take one more week to look at His plan for us within the church family. Again, in a time of cultural confusion, may we, the men and women of our church, cheerfully embrace our roles to God’s glory and for the hope of others.

This week we begin a new series on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Our temptation is to dampen His influence and rely on our own efforts. I pray that we increasingly become a church dependent on God’s leading and His sanctifying work in the body.

Before Jesus’s return to the Father, he promised that his followers would receive power to do greater things than he did through the Holy Spirit (John 14:25; Acts 1:8). However, many Christians live defeated lives. How can we live Holy Spirit-empowered lives and experience the power Jesus promised?

What better way to understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit than to examine what Jesus says about Him. In John 14-16, Jesus describes what the Spirit will do in the life of the disciple. I hope we better understand God’s Spirit as our Helper, Advocate, Counselor, and Comforter. May we be a Holy Spirit dependent congregation.

Gifts of the Spirt

The Spirit of God is not done with us when we are saved. In fact, that is where His ongoing work begins in our life to make us more like Jesus. What does the ongoing work look like? How do we participate in this work? God is at work in our lives both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Sunday we will finish our five-week series on “The Work of the Holy Spirit” exploring this process of sanc...

I think we all have questions for God. Why is there so much violence in the world? Why do Christian believers experience pain? Why does it seem so many people are trying to create division? This week we will begin a series on the 7th century BC prophet Habakkuk whose prophecy begins with similar questions. Ultimately he resolves to wait on a sovereign, holy, and good God.

If you had to choose a key verse from the Bible to explain what God desires in His people, where would your mind go? I think a strong case can be made for Habakkuk 2.4 “the righteous shall live by faith”. We should recognize that to be human is to have faith in something, but the object of that faith is what counts. We will explore what living by faith means for Christ-followers.

How interesting that after raising tough questions and receiving unexpected answers, Habakkuk decides to pray. The last chapter of this short prophecy teaches us to call on God as we remember His promises. The Lord’s people do well to reflect on the reconciliation of all things through God’s anointed, the Lord Jesus.

A person’s title both tells us who they are and how we should respond to them. This Sunday we’ll look at one of the titles given to Jesus at his birth: lord. We’ll look at Luke 2:1-20 to discover what it means that Jesus is lord and how we should respond.

What does it mean to say Jesus is the Christ? On this third Sunday of Advent we will explore Jesus as King. Matthew 2 reveals how the Magi from the east set an example of service for God’s people.

Having studied Jesus as Savior, Lord, and King, we will spend Christmas Eve exploring His deity. Christmas celebrates a gracious God who sent His only begotten Son into our fallen world to give light and life to all who trust in Him. As we read John 1.1-18, may the faithful glorify God for the gift of salvation.

As we enter the last Lord’s Day of 2023, it provides an opportunity for us to pray for our future as a church family. How can we best honor God in the New Year? May the Lord be our strength as we strive to form families, equip the saints, and multiply churches to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1.12-14).