Elmwood Church - Sermons

When we read Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, we see a church whose attitudes and actions are sometimes indistinguishable from the Roman culture around them. The church in Corinth is messy and divided, but it belongs to God. The letter of 1 Corinthians shows us a beautiful picture of how the gospel can bring transformation and renewal to every area of life. 

What we behold — what our heart loves and finds beautiful and compelling — will determine how we behave. The goal of this Advent series is to help us behold Jesus. Each week we’re going to look at an aspect of Jesus’ identity, and together these vignettes give us a fuller picture of the One who is worthy of our beholding.  In today's message, we explore how Jesus is the one who fulfills all o...

What we behold — what our heart loves and finds beautiful and compelling — will determine how we behave. The goal of this Advent series is to help us behold Jesus. Each week we’re going to look at an aspect of Jesus’ identity, and together these vignettes give us a fuller picture of the One who is worthy of our beholding.  In today's message, we explore how Jesus is the one who makes all thin...

What we behold — what our heart loves and finds beautiful and compelling — will determine how we behave. The goal of this Advent series is to help us behold Jesus. Each week we’re going to look at an aspect of Jesus’ identity, and together these vignettes give us a fuller picture of the One who is worthy of our beholding.  In today's message, we explore how Jesus is the bringer of the new cov...

What we behold — what our heart loves and finds beautiful and compelling — will determine how we behave. The goal of this Advent series is to help us behold Jesus. Each week we’re going to look at an aspect of Jesus’ identity, and together these vignettes give us a fuller picture of the One who is worthy of our beholding.  In today's message, we explore how Jesus is the Servant of the Lord.

What we behold — what our heart loves and finds beautiful and compelling — will determine how we behave. The goal of this Advent series is to help us behold Jesus. Each week we’re going to look at an aspect of Jesus’ identity, and together these vignettes give us a fuller picture of the One who is worthy of our beholding.  In today's message, we explore how Jesus is the source of salvation.

The idea behind this series is simple: what we behold will determine how we behave . Each week this Advent, we’re going to look at an aspect of Jesus’ identity, and together these vignettes will give us a fuller picture of the One who is worthy of our beholding. Matthew is convinced that the birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of what the prophet Isaiah spoke 700 years earlier. In what way does his...

In his letters to the church in Corinth, Paul sets a pattern for planned generosity: 1) make a clear plan, 2) act with wisdom, and 3) be ready and eager to give.

By washing his disciples' feet, Jesus 1) demonstrated the magnitude of his love for us, and 2) left us a pattern of how to love one another. 

If there is a God and he is good, why doesn't he do something about the evil and injustice in our world? Why does he let it go on? Why does he seem distant? Why doesn’t he intervene? To help us try and make sense of a world filled with evil and injustice, there are three places we need to look — upward, inward, and to the cross.

The church is a messy place. Sometimes the church is a downright ugly place. Why would I want anything to do with the church when it’s the source of so much hurt and disillusionment? In this message, we explore three things we must do when we see or experience church hurt. We must 1) grieve deeply, but never be surprised, 2) look to Jesus, and 3) fight to be the church as Jesus envisioned it. 

In Romans 6:1-14, Paul gives us two reasons we cannot continue living in the pattern of our old way of life. 1) Our lives have been joined to Christ, and 2) We are no longer slaves to sin. 

Why doesn't God answer our prayers? This question is deeply personal for each one of us. To explore the question of unanswered prayer, we look at two things we know for certain to be true — His wisdom is higher than our own, and his heart is for our good.  

Isn’t the cross an act of cosmic child abuse? Behind this question is a bigger question about the character of God. We may imagine God the Father as angry, and wrathful at the drop of a hat. We may imagine him gaining some twisted form of pleasure from torturing his innocent Son. At the heart of this question is the deeper question, What kind of God he? Is the cross an act of cosmic child abuse? 

When we read Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, we see a church whose attitudes and actions are sometimes indistinguishable from the Roman culture around them. The church in Corinth is messy and divided, but it belongs to God. The letter of 1 Corinthians shows us a beautiful picture of how the gospel can bring transformation and renewal to every area of life. 

When we read Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, we see a church whose attitudes and actions are sometimes indistinguishable from the Roman culture around them. The church in Corinth is messy and divided, but it belongs to God. The letter of 1 Corinthians shows us a beautiful picture of how the gospel can bring transformation and renewal to every area of life.