Sermons

God promised Christians would suffer. But that’s not God’s only promise. There are many more glorious promises God makes to every Christian - one of which is that Christians will surround their King in glory with no more suffering forever. And that promise will be realized because of all their King has done; and because of their union to their King through faith.

All of us are prone to fear the wrong things. When we do, we often cower when we should be courageous. There is a way to live a courageous Christian life. It does not often involve huge exploits or massive sacrifices. More often than not, it means choosing to do what you know is true, when doing so looks scary.

In this fallen world we will experience affliction, and we will desire to be delivered out of it. Our King experienced affliction too — and God delivered him out of it. He sought the Lord and perfectly feared the Lord, and the Lord delivered him. In fact, it is because Jesus sought and feared the Lord that we are able to be delivered. All that is left for us to do now, as we await our future deliv...

God is directing his people to do something new and intimidating: To go in a way they have not passed before—a way that will involve difficulties, trials, and tests. God wants his people to know that when he directs them, he provides for them and ultimately delivers them.

Good News should make you happy. Otherwise it would not be good! And the Good News of salvation - being justified by grace through faith, and not works - should make you particularly joyful. A child may not understand the meaning of a massive inheritance until they reach adulthood and have access to it. In like fashion, a Christian may not grasp the riches that belong to them until they lean in to...

It is easy to be afraid of what will happen in the future- especially when faced with suffering. It is a lot harder to take our eyes off our fears and our suffering and trust our God. Psalm 56 helps us to trust God, and it reminds us that we don’t need to be afraid, for we already know what our future holds.

It is always interesting to see which questions God deems the most important to answer. Many times we come to the Bible with queries we consider of utmost importance. God knows the questions behind our questions and always tells us what we actually need to understand. There are three questions answered in this passage. Each of them fills out the answer to one big concern: How should sinners who ha...

The Lord is more concerned for His glory than your good. That becomes obvious when you unpack this passage. The other thing that becomes obvious is that He loves His people so much! In many ways, this particular paragraph pulls together the entire Bible and explains how it is God is able to save anyone… and remain God!

Today we launch into the second big section of Romans. I. The reason for the Gospel: universal guilt (1:18-3:20) II. The heart of the Gospel: justification by faith (3:21-4.25) As we do, we begin to unpack a paragraph of the Bible that some have viewed as the most important information of all. For this paragraph is answering the question of who can be declared Not Guilty by God.

It is easy to move on from the preached Word without changing how we live. James called that being a “hearer only” of the Word. In an effort to capitalize on what we have seen in Romans so far, let’s consider seven obligations laid on us, now that we have done the work of understanding the text. How should we then live? That is our question!

You will never understand what it means to be saved until you grasp what you must be saved from. The facts of our condition are dire. We are far worse than most of us could imagine. If it were not for God’s Word we would never believe how utterly helpless we were to find our way to God. This only makes His gracious salvation all the more beautiful.

After all his personal evangelizing of his fellow Jews, Paul had a good idea of what their objections would be to trusting in Jesus. First on that list was their belief that things like possessing the Law, being circumcised, and even just being Jewish, would guarantee them entrance into heaven, regardless of how much they sinned. This was a misplaced confidence that any careful reader of the Old T...

While Paul is debunking the silly idea that some people get a free pass to heaven (like the Jewish hypocrite he is arguing against), he also lets drop a fascinating insight into the relationship of God to every human ever created. Ever wonder why you feel bad for doing certain things? Curious why you have these inner conflicts in your mind about whether or not your actions were justified? Look no...

Jesus said that Christians will suffer for their faithfulness to God. That is a promise. But Christians are not left alone in our suffering. We can have complete confidence in the sovereign and powerful God of the Universe to always do what he promises and purposes to do no matter what prideful fools try to stand in his way.

The Apostle Paul is dealing with quite a guy in Romans 2. He is disputing with a Jewish man who thinks he is getting to heaven based on his ethnicity. Who, at the same time, is condemning Gentiles for doing the same sins he does! Paul points out his hypocrisy in verse one, then proceeds to build an argument why that Jewish man has no hope for heaven. The foundation to that argument comes in verses...

There are parts of the Bible where it is really important you immerse yourself into the original issues that provoked the writing. Romans 2 is one of those. Paul has already made it clear that everyone is under the wrath of God because of their sins (Chapter 1). But many Jewish people would read that and think, “everyone except me.” Why was that? And how does that relate to our own ability to thin...

The story of Bartimaeus’s change from blindness to sight is a remarkable picture of every Christian’s conversion. We needed Christ to heal us and He did! That is because Jesus is not afraid of entering this broken world in order to bring salvation to the most unlikely of broken people.

God is full of grace to save the most unlikely of sinners. If you ever doubt that, all you need to do is look at the guilty criminal hung on the cross beside Jesus.

It may surprise you to find out that gratitude to God can affect your obedience to God in other areas of your life. Especially in the sphere of relationships with others. In fact, there might be a direct correlation between your relational sanctification as a Christian and your active thanksgiving to God. The latter can greatly improve the former!