Carlton Landing Community Church Sermons

Jesus was a master storyteller. In the parable of the tenants, Jesus weaves historical threads together to address three audiences: the world, the Pharisees, and you and I. To each group, Jesus shows the total sovereignty of God over history, the patience of the Father, and the opportunity to join in the work of God.

As is the case in so many Psalms, this one begins in trouble. There are four requests to God in this Psalm, and by the end, he's answered them all. Through the process, we learn to come to God and trust in his goodness, no matter what we're facing.   Preacher: Kerwin Dees

Jesus's encounters in the gospels are opportunities for us to encounter Jesus as well. In the encounter with the rich young man in Matthew 19, Jesus holds up a mirror to his need, his money, and his salvation. In doing so then, he holds the mirror up for us now. We know how the young man responded. How will we respond to Jesus?

When Jesus talks about confronting sin in others, it's based on the core teaching of the Gospel. We know what to do with sin. In Christ, we can be forgiven of our sins and restored into relationship with God. Now we can do the same thing with others. All Christians have been called to be peacemakers, modeling the grace and forgiveness of God to others. In Matt. 18:15-17, Jesus calls us all to grow...

Psalm 73 models nearly everything the Psalms teach us about emotions. The psalmist begins with duty and ends with delight. He begins envious of the ungodly and ends exclaiming, "Whom have I in Heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you." How did this change take place? When he went into the sanctuary, God gave him a new perspective, a new beginning, and a new direction. Thr...

Everywhere you look in the Bible, you'll find lament. Life is difficult, painful, and filled with struggles and God wants us to come to him in your pain. The Psalms teach us the pathway from lament to trust. Even when nothing changes in our circumstances, we change, God draws near to us, and we learn to trust him more. 

Can we just skip the angry Psalms? So many of the psalms capture feelings of anger, rage, and bristling against injustice. Then and now, anger is a part of our lives, and the Psalms show us how to recognize, evaluate, and act on our feelings. God meets us in our anger and changes us. In Psalm 52, David models good anger with a great response.

Fear is everywhere in our world, but the good news is it is also everywhere in the Bible. The most common command in God's Word is "Do no fear." In this psalm, we see a pattern for getting to the root of our fears and moving our loves to things that never fail.

Joseph is the last of the great patriarchs in Genesis. The long arc of sin and family dysfunction comes to a close when Joseph reverses the course of the story and forgives his brothers. As his story shows, it takes great faith to forgive. Christians have been commanded to forgive one another, but how can we do what often seems like an impossible task?

Psalm 19 reminds us that God is speaking to us all the time. In the world around us, the word before us, and the witness within us, God is communicating to us. Are we listening? Are we listening completely? Preacher: Sam Hitchcock

It would be hard to find someone with more relationship problems than Jacob. From his brother Esau, to his parents, to his own family, strife followed him wherever he went until his life-changing encounter with God. After wrestling with God, he was blessed, renamed, and changed forever. In the same way, when we encounter God, the fruit pops up in our relationships.

We often find ourselves waiting for God. We may know his promises, character, and track record, but waiting for God is still difficult. Abraham found himself in a similar situation, but instead of waiting he sought his own solution. In this message, Dr. Jarrett Ford reminds us of the importance of waiting for the Lord and the wonderful promises he has given us.

Abraham is the father of the faithful, a paragon of what it looks like to believe God and follow his plan. But after ten years without a son, Abraham looks for a sign. In Genesis 15, God meets Abraham's doubts, not just with facts, vision, or assurance, but with a covenant. In Abraham's time of doubt, God gave himself in an eternal covenant that would be fulfilled thousands of years later through...

Abraham is known as the father of the faithful - even the friend of God. In Genesis 12, we are introduced to a man who looms over all of history. But what made him special? God called out to Abraham when he was far from God and in a desperate place, and when he heard from the Lord, Abraham believed God. This simple act of taking God at his word is the life of faith, then and today.

Nimrod was the greatest man in the generations after the flood. Having settled in the flood plain of Shinar, he decided to build a city named Babel with a tower reaching up to the heavens. This endeavor reveals the rival way of living, self-reliance versus reliance on God. The city fails and the people scatter, but the way of Nimrod endures through the ages. In this story, we encounter a choice be...

By the time of Noah, the problem of sin had spun out of control. The world was full of evil, violence, and corruption. God sent a flood to judge the earth and cleanse it of evil, but he also had mercy. Noah and his family trusted God, and he provided safety and a covering for them. Even now, God's grace comes through similar acts of faith. Guest preacher: Terry Feix

Cain and Abel is a story about brotherly strife, but it's deeper than that. The root of Cain's sin takes place not between him and his brother but between him and God. In these opening chapters of Genesis, we learn about the nature of sin, the tenderness of God, and the wonder of grace as God takes our fig leaves and gives us a covering.

The opening chapters of Genesis portray the human condition before and after sin entered the world. When Adam and Eve sinned, their eyes were opened, and they were ashamed. They sewed fig leaves together to hide their nakedness and we do the same thing today. But in the first picture of the gospel, God clothed them, covered their nakedness, and offers to do the same for anyone who comes to him.

God often gives a glimpse of the end before the beginning. That's what Jesus did when he took his disciples up on the mountain. As he was transfigured before them, he showed them his glory in a way they would only see again in eternity. In the same way, we often need a glimpse of what God has in store to power us through the journey.

The time had come. Jesus turned to his disciples and asked them a very important question, who do you say that I am? Speaking for the group, Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." That was true then, and it is true now. We're all faced with the same question; who do you say that he is?

Surrounded by a hungry crowd, Jesus took a few loaves of bread and some fish and fed thousands of people. All four gospel writers include this miracle in their accounts. What is it they want us to see? There's more than a meal going on here. Jesus, moved with compassion, supplies the needs of his people through a royal feast. And he's still doing the same thing today.

When Jesus invites Peter out onto the water, he quickly finds himself in over his head. But what do we take from this story? It is not a story about Peter, but one about Jesus. Matthew shows us what Jesus was doing during the storm then and what he is doing during the storms we face now. We're often in the place of Peter, and in those moments, we can be sure that Jesus is with us, praying for us,...

Jesus came onto the scene announcing that the Kingdom of God had come. His disciples must have wondered, where is it? In these kingdom parables, Jesus reframes our expectations about how the kingdom works and who can be a part of it. The kingdom is like mustard and leaven, like hidden treasure and a valuable pearl. These apparently innocuous parables hold profound meaning for us today.

To explain the nature of the kingdom, Jesus begins to speak in parables - earthly stories with a heavenly meaning. The first and paradigmatic parable of the sower and the soils. Like so many other parables, this story is a mirror for us to examine our ears and our hearts and evaluate the way we respond to God's Word. 

On Easter, we celebrate the fact that Jesus has been raised from the dead, and because of that, everything has changed. When Paul found out that some of the Corinthians were doubting the resurrection, he reminded them of the essential tenets of the faith; Christ has been raised, sin has been defeated, and eternal life has begun.