Christ Church of Mt Airy Sermons

God destined his people for salvation. Jesus died for us and called each of us from death into life! Therefore, rest in His plan for your transformation and give God all glory. Pray for, strive for, and expect sanctification while living in community and waiting for Jesus’s return.

Prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit which allows the sharing of a message from God. God makes this gift a priority above all other spiritual gifts and warns against quenching or ignoring the Spirit’s leadings. Paul urges believers to "eagerly desire" the gift of prophecy. We are encouraged to ask God to help us hear from Him both to advance His mission and for the sake of the Church.

Paul tells us we should always rejoice, pray and and give thanks to God—but this is only possible if we are “in Jesus”. This union with Jesus is key to our joy in doing the will of God and pleasing Him.

Paul addresses the Thessalonian church, giving guidance for relating to church leaders and to each other. Today, believers are still encouraged to actively walk together by respecting our leaders, encouraging the faint hearted, admonishing the idle, helping the weak, and praying for patience with all, as we prepare for Jesus’s return.

Paul teaches the Day of the Lord is sure and will bring inescapable judgement on sinners. For those of us who have accepted salvation through Jesus, we are not subject to God's wrath but will have eternal life. As we wait, believers should stay spiritually sober and encourage one other, growing in faith, hope, and love.

Paul assures the Thessalonians that when Jesus returns both those “asleep” in Christ and living believers will be with Him. Our grief and unanswered questions about death pale in the light of our hope. Jesus conquered death, it is no longer final! There is nothing in life or death that can break our union with Him forever.

In the account of Jesus cleansing the temple, we see that God cares about how and where we worship. Today, the house of God is no longer a building-- Jesus is God's temple. The ultimate demonstration of Jesus' zeal was the willing sacrifice of His own life to cleanse His people with mercy and grace.

As you walk with outsiders, aspire to live quietly in the busyness of life, mind your own affairs, and work hard with your mind fully present while carrying out your tasks. Give your energy to what God has called you to do, remembering that Jesus is coming back.

Although God teaches us to love in many ways, it is through the love of Jesus and the Gospel that we most clearly see God’s love for us. As we know God more, we will be transformed by the Holy Spirit, our faith will increase, and we will grow in our love for others.

God created us with the gift of sexual identity and appetite, but our sinful desires often lead us away from God’s will for our sexuality. But because He is good, right, and true, God will strengthen our faith and help us make decisions to live as He wants us to live.

Paul urges us to walk as we ought, living our lives with the singular goal to please God more and more. Because everything Jesus did pleased the Father, only by participating in union with Him, through His power, can we pursue holiness, living free, clothed in His righteousness.

As we consider the instability of life, we must set our minds on the truth that God is our dwelling place--our source of protection, provision, and rest. He will show us the futility of relying on our own strength for our security and joy so that we will be satisfied only in Him, our all loving and powerful God.

Even as other forces work to derail your faith in Jesus, God actively works to establish your faith. Today, we review Paul's benediction (blessing) to the church, which highlights God's commitment to increase our faith.

Our faith is the most important thing about our walk with Jesus. Paul reminds the church that our faith is regularly in flux and must be strengthened and encouraged. It is constantly under attack by Satan’s lies. But God’s design to protect our faith is through community with other believers, who can support us, pray with us, and speak Jesus to us when our faith is lacking.

God tells us to expect suffering for our faith in Him, yet we need not be moved by this affliction. Though there will be loss and temptation in our lives, God has provided support through church community and hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

The salvation of souls is the glory and joy of Jesus. The church is the evidence of Jesus’ ability to redeem, and making His disciples is our crown of boasting and our life's work.

An encouragement to read the Bible and ask God to help to you recieve it, just as the Thessalonians did, as God's very heart to you. Reading the Bible will activate you to accomplish God's purposes, peirce your heart, see Jesus in fresh ways, experience His spiritual fruit, and keep you from being moved (lost) when suffering.

God urges believers to meet together to stir one another up to love and to use our gifts to serve others. This both promotes godly living and protects us from wandering from the faith. In turn, parents can stir up their young children through their love and encouragement, and by charging them to find their worth and identity in Jesus. Older children are entrusted with the job to seek the Lord on t...

Continuing in 1 Thessalonians 2, Matt resumed discussing the theme that all relationships should image (be like) God. The applications for our own God centered relationships include (1) being intentionally transparent, (2) willingly sacrificing time and resources, (3) actively striving to be blameless in our dealings with one another, and (4) encouraging and strengthening one another.

May God be part of our every interaction. Paul expands on this appeal explaining that to do so the church must (1) have a bold gospel, (2) make pleasing God the goal, and (3) possess an affectionate love for people. The aim of the church is to lead others to Jesus Christ rather than to merely give practical wisdom.

While we are wait for Jesus to return, we often turn to other things to help us feel better about ourselves. Idols are the things we turn to to cope; things become idols when we look to them to deliver us. But they leave you more hopeless. God graciously warns us to turn from idols to serve Him.

The basis of Paul's encouragement to the Thessalonians is rooted in the foundational truth found in God the Father and in Jesus Christ. God has chosen you, and reordered your life through the explosive power of the Holy Spirit. He puts you to work for His purpose, even In afflictions. And you recognize and have hope in Jesus as your deliverer. Therefore live as God's chosen, eagerly serve, and wai...

In this letter we are shown what it means to receive a new identity in God and the Lord Jesus. Once hopelessly dead in our sins, our lives are turned upside down, completely changed, and sealed to the Father by the Holy Spirit. And because He who calls us is faithful, as we seek to live God centered and saturated lives, we are kept holy and blameless while we anticipate Jesus’s return.

The glory of God is the manifestation of His holiness. The more the church understands the great power of God’s love, the redemptive power of Jesus’s resurrection, and the explosive power of the Holy Spirit within us, the more we will be fueled to grow and go. Then the world will see the glory of God.

As we conclude the end of our two-year journey through Genesis, three themes are highlighted: (1) God at the center of creation, (2) God revealing Himself and His plan, (3) God working through man's sin. Ultimately the good news contained within the chapters of Genesis is to point us forward to the source of our redemptive salvation, Jesus.