Calvary Evangelical Free Church

For those of us who have had our hearts transformed by the grace of Christ, God’s Spirit must and will break our resistance to his commands. Well, we’re about halfway through our series in First John. How’s everybody doing? You doing okay? As I said at the beginning, First John is near the top of the list of the most personally challenging books of the Bible. Spiritual challenge is fou...

Our love for fellow believers, or the lack of the same, has eternal consequences. Good morning. Forty-five years ago, on May 17th, those of you that are Norwegian know the significance of that date, I preached my first sermon at Calvary. Calvary was a lot smaller then. We met in southeast Rochester we had about 150 people who attended on a regular basis. And I was actually a pastor at the time, a...

Those who are a new creations in Christ, who are born again by the grace of God, will live in repentance and righteousness. Those who only claim to be Christians, but are not actually transformed by God’s grace, will be exposed by their sin. Well, I’ve talked to a lot of you who have become part of Calvary in the last few years. And sometimes I’ll ask, what made you decide that Calvary...

To understand ourselves better, our future better, and our God better, we must abide in the Lord. Why abide? Because Jesus is coming back!   Well, good morning church, and good to be with you today. I was having a chat. He doesn’t know I’m about to say this. I was having a chat with my friend Philip recently, and we were talking about this truth. Parents of young children, I liste...

Since God has anointed us with his Holy Spirit, we must remain obedient to the instruction of the Holy Spirit, as he leads us with the unchanging gospel, so that we’re not deceived by error.   Earlier this year, a leader in a progressive, theologically liberal so-called church denomination was speaking at an event for their group. And she made headlines because in her speech, she paused and s...

John shows how to deal with false teachers by broadening our common conception of the antichrist, reassuring believers of the supernatural reality of their faith, and building a framework for discernment of false teachers.   So I’m going to read from 1 John chapter two, verses 18 to 25, which is what we’ll be discussing today together. I say discussion. It’s a sermon. Don&#8...

The difference between remaining firm in Christ or being swept away by sin is determined by what you love, so you cannot love the world. Well, we’re getting to the point in our series in First John, when you will start to see some of the preaching team up here on Sunday mornings. And I am excited for you to hear the sermons that these guys have been preparing. We got together yesterday for o...

As followers of Jesus, we have a new identity in Christ. If you trust Jesus, this is who you are. There will not be a sing-along this week. I was asked if we could do the whole album this week. That would be something, wouldn’t it? I think the elders would want a word with me if we did the whole album. No, we will not be singing this morning in the sermon. But strangely, we will be looking t...

Deep, dedicated, Christ-like love for brothers and sisters in Christ is the most visible characteristic of saving faith. You cannot carry around hate and anger and have any confidence you actually know Christ. All right. How many of my fellow 90s kids have been on YouTube in the last couple of weeks to listen to In the Light, huh? I know you’re out there, I know. By the way, for those of you...

The goal is not to sin. But if we do sin, we can trust in Jesus and all he has accomplished for us on the cross, provided that we walk with him. Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed our study of chapter one of First John. It’s a passage of scripture that I find myself returning to over and over again as a pastor, particularly in counseling situations. It’s one of the most helpful diagnost...

Because God is entirely light, with no darkness of sin in his character, we must identify, repent, and rid ourselves of all sin.   In his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer wrote, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. So, if Tozer came over to your house this afternoon for lunch and he wanted to get to know you very early in that conv...

If you put your trust in Christ, you will be united in fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and with all of God’s people for eternity. Well, that was some Easter, wasn’t it? Wow. What a joyous and God glorifying time all together. Just as one big church family together. People keep coming up to me and thanking me for putting in so much extra work to make it happen. Fu...

Mary’s first encounter with Jesus is a beautiful picture of the restored relationship we have with God when we put our hope in the resurrected Christ. How could she have the honor to be the first to see the Lord? A woman like her. She was a Jewish woman from means, but not of stature. From a prosperous and quite religious fishing town of Magdala. You would have thought that she would be regarded h...

Couldn’t God have accomplished all his goals, including forgiving us as sinners, without the pain and trauma of the cross? Tonight we gather as a church in spiritual unity with believers all over the world to celebrate the central tenet of our faith. If you look at a fire, you’ll see blue, orange, yellow flames rising to the sky. What you’re seeing is the fire that has cooled. It emana...

Through the blood of Christ, God has finally provided a permanent answer for our greatest need.   We are a church located in Rochester, Minnesota.  Our Mission is to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus who live out passion for Christ and compassion for people. Learn more at www.calvaryefree.church   Well, I have the honor of introducing this morning my good friend Brian Farone. Bria...

When we understand what Jesus truly suffered, we have a more accurate understanding of both the ugliness of our sin and the cost of God’s grace to save us from it. Well, in just two weeks, we’ll be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday morning together. There are two things that I cannot stress to you enough about this. The first is that Easter is a fantastic time to invite...

To inherit eternal life with Jesus forever, we need to set aside and sacrifice anything in our lives that would prevent us from following him whole-heartedly. I’m not sure if I’ve ever explained the graphic for our sermon series in the Gospel of Luke. You can see it’s shaped like a flip book with different colors corresponding to different parts of the book. Yellow is for the bir...

Children should come to Jesus because everyone must come to Jesus like children.   Well, our passage this morning is unique because of how much we already are on Jesus side on this one. We’re on his side of the argument, and that doesn’t happen very much in the Bible. Usually, when I read something that Jesus says, I find it to be deeply challenging because of how far away I am fr...

While everything in us says “Justify yourself before God with your goodness,” true justification comes when we recognize our need for God’s mercy.

Jesus wants us to pray and never give up when we’re in need of God’s justice, knowing that the God who chose us and loves us will never ignore us.   Well, I know I don’t look it, and this may be hard to believe, but there was a time in my life about 15 years ago when I was really into running marathons. I know, I know, I know, you’re thinking, where’d that guy go? He’s...

Jesus teaches us the mystery of his second coming so that we will keep our lives focused on pursuing his mission. Well, as you can hear from our reading today, we are going to spend our time in the Word this morning in the area of eschatology, which is the theology of last things. And even as I say the word eschatology this morning, there’s probably a few different reactions happening in the...

The purpose of God’s compassion to us is to turn us into worshipers filled with joy and thanksgiving for Christ. We have a surprising story from Jesus ministry to consider this morning. It’s a story of Jesus miraculous healing, which is not surprising at all. We’ve seen plenty of that throughout the Gospel of Luke. What’s surprising about this story is that it wasn’t given...

A disciple serves the Lord with the humble heart of a servant doing his duty, not with an expectation of exaltation. Today, we’re going to conclude a short section of Jesus teaching, where he teaches some pretty deep lessons to his closest disciples. They’ve been challenging, but in in my opinion, this today is the most difficult yet. First he told us to rebuke each other and to endles...

The presence of faith in Christ in your mind and heart, no matter how small, if it is genuine, will accomplish great things.   Time in the Bible this morning is exciting to me because of the little bit of theology that we’re going to look at. It’s a corrective to one of the more damaging theological trends of our time. It’s a small passage, but it packs a big punch. You know...

You serve a vital role in the development of the faith of the people God has brought into your life.   Well church, we are off and running on what will be surely another exciting year with the Lord. Of course, I have no idea what exactly he has in store for us barring his return, but I do know that he is God. He is sovereign over everything, including the calendar. That he has a mission, and...