Asbury Church

For our last service of 2023, we celebrated a service of Lessons and Carols. What a great way to end the year!

What if Christmas happened and you totally missed it? In Matthew’s Christmas account—Herod and the Magi—only the Magi leave Jerusalem and go to Bethlehem to see Jesus. Everyone else stays behind. Why? What are the reasons why we would miss out on the most important thing that’s ever happened?

What if the Lord sat down across the table from you and said, “This is what I have for you to do. At times, it’s going to be difficult; at times, it will seem unfair; at times it is going to cost you. But I need this done, and you’re the only one who can do it. What do you say?” How would you answer? In the Scripture, the angel Gabriel tells Mary God’s plan for the Incarnation, and her role in it,...

Why do we assume that God’s desire is to make our lives smooth? What if God’s desire is not that our lives would be smooth, but that we would be strong? Take Mary and Joseph’s situation before the birth of Jesus: Mary finds out she will be pregnant through a miracle, not through human means; Mary tells Joseph; Joseph has to decide what to do; he decides to quietly end the engagement; And only THEN...

It’s one of the most terrifying things Jesus ever said: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” [Matthew 7:7-8.] In other words, you’ll get what you’re looking for. This principle applies to gratitude. If you see your life and everythin...

We wrap up our series on the parables of Jesus by looking at the explosive Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. It’s explosive because of what Jesus shows us about human nature: It’s the GENEROSITY of God that can provoke us to anger, an anger that can lead us right into the fires of hell. Let’s turn around before it's too late.

Would you rather be bound by chains or set free? Would you rather harbor pain by others or grant mercy?   Jesus takes time in the “Unforgiving Servant” parable in Matthew 18: 21-35 to address this tension. Are chains possibly binding us because of our un-forgiveness for others? What will we do with the mercy and forgiveness of God? What is at stake? True freedom is only found in Christ. Who might...

What is God waiting for? Why doesn't the Lord just remove all evil from the world once and for all? Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 13 that answers that question, and the answer he gives is really encouraging and hopeful: the reason God permits evil for a time is because if he were to remove it now, it would end up damaging the good. This means that God is working for the good in all things, and...

Why does the gospel have different results in peoples’ lives? Why do some people show so much spiritual fruit, and others refuse to believe? We kick off our Parables series by looking at the parable about parables—the Parable of the Sower—and seeing how Jesus answers the question: Why doesn’t everyone accept the Good News?

What’s next for Asbury? How are we going to reach the next generation? Asbury is an older congregation, and that’s a blessing. Our older members are a great resource, and it is with regard to our older members that Asbury’s future lies. The next step for Asbury is to constantly encourage and challenge and remind our older members of a foundational truth: Every breath is proof that God’s not done w...

Have you been praying for a breakthrough in someone’s life or situation? What are you doing to help them experience the deliverance of Christ? Will you be as persistent as the “Canaanite” woman? Don’t lose hope! The Lord is not done working!

We think faith is about us, but it’s not about us at all. “I have X amount of faith.” Faith isn’t about the *subject* of faith, but about the *object* of the faith—faith is about the trustworthiness of the person in whom we are putting our trust. This is why Jesus says that even the smallest amount of faith can move mountains, and why the disciples were unable to heal the afflicted boy who was bro...

In the Gospels, Jesus has a reason behind everything he does. For example, the miracles of Jesus are living parables—they are meant to teach us about the Kingdom of God. Take the strange episode of the demons and the pigs in Matthew 8:28-34. It’s a fascinating story in its own right, but what does it teach us? Well, it turns out there is a cost to the Kingdom. Are we willing to pay it?

Want to make yourself vulnerable to life’s storms? Live your life chasing the approval of others. Preacher: Andrew Forrest Series: Storm-Proof

It’s not if, but when. Jesus says it’s not if but when: storms will come in life. There are no exceptions. So, what should I do? How can I storm-proof my life? This is what the Sermon on the Mount is about. In our series Storm-Proof, we’ll be looking at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7), and seeing what Jesus has to say about preparing for life’s inevitable storms. Step 1 is to realiz...

Jesus told us not to worry. Which means: 1. Worry is something over which we have agency and control—it’s not inevitable; 2. We shouldn’t do it! We continue our series on preparing for life’s storms by looking closely at what Jesus has to tell us about worry, and how to live a worry-free life.

This Sunday we wrapped up our series The Testing, about the 3 temptations the devil puts before Jesus in the desert. Here’s the question: “How can we know if we’re already fallen into the devil’s trap?” The devil’s goal is to ruin our lives; the third temptation he puts before Jesus is subtly dangerous. In fact, it’s so subtle that we may have already fallen into his trap without knowing it. Here...

This Sunday we’re continuing our sermon series “The Testing” as we look at the second temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. This is the time the devil quotes scripture at Jesus…accurately. I know there must be some trick going on here—he is the devil, after all, and probably shouldn’t be trusted—but what is the trick? What’s the devil up to? What if you could see the devil’s plan to ruin your lif...

What if you had a copy of the devil’s plan to ruin your life? What if you could see—in detail, and with specifics—how the enemy was planning to lead you into destruction, to bring you to a place of daily misery, to take away every possibility of happiness? If you had a copy of the devil’s plan to ruin your life, what would you do with it? This is the question we’re asking in week 1 of our new serm...

 have two questions: 1. Why was Jesus baptized? and, related to it 2. Why should I care? This is week #2 of a preview of the Gospel of Matthew, which we start next week, and we’re looking at the baptism of Jesus by in the Jordan River by John the Baptist; we’ll read through the entirety of Matthew chapter 3. We should care about the baptism of Jesus because it tells us how God wants Christians to...

As I’m beginning Year 2 at Asbury, I want to share my plan for taking over the world.* *The plan actually belongs to Jesus, but I’m going to copy it. The last words that Jesus gave his followers were to: “make disciples.” Not converts, not attendees, not believers, but “disciples,” i.e., apprentices or learners or students. Our job is to learn to live like Jesus, and to train other people to live...

I’m tired of losing, of playing defense, and acting like a victim. I’m tired of the trend lines all going in the wrong direction. And I’m tired of all the anger and finger-pointing. So, what do we do? The same 3 words give us the way forward, whether it’s a Fourth of July barbecue or a big national issue. It’s the way of Jesus. And it works. Let’s go.

This week is different than a normal sermon—we sing a bunch of songs and I talk about why they are important. Hope you enjoy!

Every breath is proof: God’s not done with us yet. The only reason the Lord has given us today is because he has something for us today. God has more for us, and God has more for everyone we see. And Pentecost means that God is ready and eager to do more—all we need to be is hungry for it.

There is a seeming contradiction at the heart of Psalm 23: In verse 3, the psalmist says that the Lord leads him by the right paths; In verse 4, the psalmist says that he’s walking through the valley of the shadow of death. If God is a good guide, then why is the psalmist in the death valley? Shouldn’t a good guide lead you away from death’s dark valley?