Calvary: the Hill Sermons

Paul commands us to stand firm in Jesus, and he gives us six how-tos in order to do that. These how-tos make up the "full armor of God" that we receive from Him. If we take up these weapons, then nothing the enemy throws at us will ultimately succeed.

Believe it or not, we have a whole army of spiritual enemies that are seeking to derail our faith in Christ. The most important part of preparing for this spiritual warfare is understanding where we get our strength. It's not in our own strength that we stand. It is, in Paul's words, "in the Lord and in the power of his might." The only way we can successfully withstand the enemy's tactics is by d...

In our final installment of our Redeemed Vocation series, we look at slaves and masters. After wading through the fact that Paul assumes the reality of slavery, we find on the other side a countercultural and wonderful perspective on authority. The reality is that God is the ultimate authority, and every authority structure here on earth needs to remember that, including our employment structures.

God, in his grace and power, has offered us the opportunity to be in His redeemed family. This informs our involvement in any and every family we are involved with from now on. Pastor Richard and his wife Debbie walk us through their story of being a redeemed family, despite all their brokenness.

Paul is swept away with the profound and deeply mysterious reality that marriage itself has always been the picture of God's love for us, made perfect in how much Jesus loves his bride, the church.

Jesus has redeemed a community of disciples to live life in a new way. How does that affect our most important relationships, like in marriage? Paul splits the cultural extremes for marriage and calls for a completely new, Christ-centered, and Spirit-filled life of mutual submission and love between husbands and wives.

As we hit Day 1 of a new season at Calvary: The Hill, it's important to remember who is really in charge here. And not only remembering who's in charge, but what is he like? Can we trust him to guide us into the unknown? David's famous Psalm assures us that yes, he can, and he will.

A Jesus community by nature exists for those who are not yet its members. As the church, we are called to be a community of ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, bearing witness in both word and works.

The way Christians grow is when the people of God use the word of God in prayerful dependance on the Spirit of God for the growth of the whole body. Discipleship is that process in action.

The first thing membership means, and what Jesus has purchased through his gospel, is connection to an already-created community of love. It's the particular community of believers that Jesus has for you in this present season.

Even if we are exiles in Babylon, God is in control, life is possible and we are called to seek the welfare of our city. Whatever transition we have faced, these three things are true. We are called to lean in to whatever season we find ourselves because God is at work.

Openness to God doing a new thing doesn't come naturally. We have to learn to perceive what God is doing and trust the new work. This often requires us to surrender what God did and listen to what he wants to do now.

Throughout the scripture God's words and God's leaders have only one message to those in transition. God is with you. When all around us is in flux, God's presence is a constant that we can rely on.

We, like Paul, have been called to join God in his work of making all things new in Jesus Christ. God has given us his Spirit, and unique gifts to cultivate human flourishing in our own context, as a foretaste of what he will do completely and finally when Jesus returns.

Christians should be a people of thanks because God has done so much for us in Jesus Christ. He has invited us to know the living God, to grow by his word, and to enjoy a perfect inheritance as his children.

C.R.E.A.M. = "Christ Rules Everything Around Me". Enough said?

The Holy Spirit is present today to guide the church. What churches does he guide? Churches that prioritize Jesus. What does he guide them to do? Proclaim and embody the gospel of Jesus. What does success look like? It looks like trust, faithfulness, and joy in the midst.

The Holy Spirit has plans for each of us as individual Christians in our day-to-day lives. In participation with Him, he partners us with people we see and people we can't see. But the reality is that it is we who are partnering with Him in His mission to glorify Jesus.

God loves all people, and therefore he gives his Holy Spirit to anyone who claims the name of Jesus. It doesn't matter your background, your history, your race, your sins, your strengths, your family, or ANYTHING. What matters is that you know your need for Jesus, God's Indiscriminate gift of love for you.

In order to respond to the needs of the church today, we need to be full of the Holy Spirit and Scripture, and it turns out that the Spirit is the one who wrote Scripture.

The Holy Spirit is not a force, he is a person. He is a person of God, he has a personality, and he wants to be personal to you. He wants to empower you for his purpose to glorify Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is present amongst all who call upon Jesus. And he has a purpose: the spreading of the gospel of Jesus. This happens through prayer, persecution, and bold proclamation of the good news.

A few weeks after Jesus ascended to Heaven, the promised Holy Spirit arrived at the church in Jerusalem. In one fell swoop, he undid the curse of the Tower of Babel, and enabled the people of God to reach the world at large with the clear articulation of the gospel. He is doing the same thing today, and he is available to all who call on Jesus for salvation. He wants to empower us for his purpose,...

Jesus, after resurrecting in power, and before ascending in power, promised to send the Holy Spirit to empower us in his name and for his mission. The Holy Spirit is now available to all who call on Jesus for salvation!

The author of Ecclesiastes maintains that everything done "under the sun" is meaningless. So where does that leave us? To find our meaning elsewhere. Perhaps in God's kingdom, which is not of this world. In Christ's kingdom we get to participate in what God himself is doing, and in that there is deep meaning, and much better than the kingdoms we build for ourselves.