Asbury Church

Psalm 23 begins with a startling claim, whereby the psalmist says, "Because the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” How can that possibly be true?

The way to have a life filled with peace is to habitually turn your thoughts and attention on God every morning. It’s what Jesus did, and it always works—so why do so few Christians make this a habit?

Either you learn to control your emotions, or you will be controlled by your emotions. But what about when you can’t avoid emotion? What about when you are around emotional people? What about when the situation in which you find yourself provokes a strong emotional reaction in you? We wrap up our 3rd and final week of our Emotions series by looking at how Jesus handled his emotions. He was neither...

It’s called spatial disorientation, a condition whereby pilots lose their bearings relative to the horizon—which way is up or down, etc.? Pilots think they can feel which direction is correct, but they can be deceived. And when that happens, fatalities can result. It was spatial disorientation, e.g., that was the cause of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant. Feelings are not a reliable gu...

We’re going to start our series on Emotions by looking at what I consider to be the nastiest verse in the Scripture. It’s one that at first seems scandalous, but one that I’ve come to understand as necessary for me if I’m going to learn to live like Jesus. Either you control your emotions, or your emotions control you….

The problem with Easter is that our hearts have grown numb at the news of the empty tomb—we think we already know what Easter is about. Today, then, I want look at an episode from the life of Jesus that Peter remembered after the Resurrection. It’s a story of death and life, and one that was burned into Peter’s memory; it’s a story that will help us understand what the Resurrection means, and to f...

As we wrap up our Revelation series, here’s why it matters now more than ever, and also why I love this book so much.

Revelation is very clear about how history ends: Jesus returns, rights all the wrongs, and renews all things. But John is given two conflicting and contradictory images about the direction history go BEFORE Jesus returns: 1. On the one hand, John sees an amazing harvest as the rebellious world TURNS BACK TO GOD! 2. On the other hand, John is shown a terrible scene of judgment as the rebellious wor...

n Revelation 13, John sees a series of monsters—“beasts”—that conquer and kill God’s people. And he gives us an important insight: in Revelation 13:11 he tells us that one of the beasts “looks like a lamb, but sounds like the dragon.” In other words, evil often masquerades as good, so you have to pay attention to really know it for what it is. Preacher: Andrew Forrest Date: Sunday, February 26 [11...

Why doesn’t God just bring the end now? If God has a good end planned for history, what is he waiting for? If judgment alone won’t bring the rebellious world to repentance, what will? The answer to both those questions is the secret that John’s Revelation reveals. It is the church’s suffering witness that will lead the nations to repentance! Martyrdom. This is the way. Preacher: Andrew Forrest Scr...

What if the judgment of God were actually something *good*? When most folks think of the Book of Revelation, they think of fiery judgments, the horsemen of the apocalypse, the stars dropping from the sky, etc. All of that kind of thing is there in John’s vision. Definitely. And yet I think we ought to see the judgment in Revelation as a good thing, as a kindness from God! Judgment is good news, be...

John sees an army, but it’s the strangest army you’ve ever heard of. And just exactly the kind of army our world needs.

Everyone wants to win, but lots of folks aren’t playing by the right rules. What if you climbed the ladder, only to find out that it was leaning against the wrong building the whole time? In Revelation 5, we’re told that Jesus has “conquered,” that is, he won. But how? I think comparing Jesus to James Bond will get us to the right answer.

I have a “plan" to defeat the pornographers and the fentanyl dealers, to empty out the family law courts and the prisons, to fill up the churches and the seminaries. (I’m serious.) It all starts with the way Jesus describes himself to John before the vision of the Revelation begins. This aspect of Jesus’s identity is fundamental to our faith and at the same time often forgotten about (or at least...

As we begin a new sermon series on Revelation, I want to begin at the end of John’s vision, namely with what he sees after evil has been defeated: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” [Revelation 21:1] It’s the mention of the “sea” that really got me, and once I understood that, the rest of the book opened up...

It turns out Kevin Garnett was right: anything *is* possible. After all, no one had ever walked on water before Jesus called to Peter from the waves. After winning the NBA Championship in 2011 Kevin Garnett bellowed, “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!” That may not be true when it comes to ordinary people playing in the NBA, but it is definitely true when it comes to the kind of life Christ has for his people...

Everyone wants to focus on Mary and Joseph and the manger and the stable. Which is understandable! But this year it’s the message of the angel that really caught my attention. What if we weren’t afraid?

There is a way that shuts down the future, and a way that opens it up. Which way will you go? Joseph made his choice for quiet mercy, and that choice made all the difference. Preacher: Andrew Forrest Date: Sunday, December 18 [9 AM service] Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25

Only the wise and the few make an effort to remember. Everyone at some point has an experience of God, an experience of the holy, but most people either don’t have the vocabulary to appropriately categorize it, or they just let the memory of that experience fade. Not Mary: “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” [Luke 2:19 ]. Mary does what only the wise and the few m...

It’s not possible to be grateful and unhappy at the same time. It’s not possible to be ungrateful and happy at the same time. This is good news because: 1. You—and everyone you’ve ever seen—wants to be happy; 2. And being grateful for God’s blessings is entirely in your control.

“They’re more scared of you than you are of them.” That’s what my mom used to say to us when we complained about snakes around our house. I still don’t agree with her about snakes, but when it comes to other people, she was right on: They are more scared of you than you are of them. Knowing that this is true, what does it mean? It means in any and every situation, the right thing to do is to go fi...

What if, years from now, we looked around and realized we’d ended up in a place we’d never intended to go? If we’re not careful, drift happens even when we have the best of intentions. As Asbury begins a new season in the 60 year history of our church, let’s talk about what it will take to be sure drift won’t happen among us. Scripture: Genesis 39:23; Genesis 41:14; Genesis 41:38-45; Genesis 41:50...

What do you do when you are 100% certain the Lord is with you, but you find yourself in difficult circumstances? Joseph—betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused of attempted rape, imprisoned—finds himself in about as bad a situation as is possible. And yet the narrator makes a point of telling us: “The Lord was with Joseph.” So, what do you do when you are certain the Lord is w...

One of the best ways to ruin your family and your future is to be controlled by your appetites. Esau sells his future possibility for a present appetite, with the result being—as the narrator sums up in Genesis 25:34: “thus Esau despised his birthright." This is what always happens when you allow your appetites to have control over you. Here’s the truth: control your appetites, or your appetites w...