Christ Church

Christians should be the most joyful people on the planet — always! But we’re not always. This sermon explores why, from the book of Habakkuk. The prophet shows us how our joy can be as steady and sure as the promises of God in Christ, and we can (as Paul says) “rejoice always!”

A couple thousand years ago, a heavenly warrior stepped into a field full of shepherds to announce good news of cosmic proportions—news of great joy! The birth of Jesus, who is Christ the Lord, is the real answer that we, who are bone-weary, are waiting for. Pastor Barnabas Piper helps us cut through the tinsel and sparkle of Christmas to find the real Christ, who alone can give rest and joy to pe...

Simeon shows us that those who wait for the Lord never wait in vain; active, hopeful waiting positions us to see Christ, and when the Spirit opens our eyes to behold Him as the Christ, the Savior, and the Light, we discover that He is the satisfaction of all our deepest longings.

Mary’s song shows that God delights to lift the lowly and confront the self-exalted, and that his mercy is received only with empty hands. She praises God because he has looked on her nothingness, filled the hungry, and scattered the proud—revealing the very shape of the gospel. Our problem is that we choke on this good news, grasping for our own glory instead of receiving it from God. Yet in the...

Psalm 142 shows us how to pray when life feels like a cave—dark, lonely, and overwhelming. David models biblical lament: turning to God honestly in prayer, naming the real pain we carry, and deliberately choosing to trust God’s character and promises even when our emotions say otherwise. Lament is God’s gift for weary people; it moves us from despair toward confidence that the Lord will deal bount...

The Sermon on the Mount opens with a paradox: the truly “blessed” are not the powerful, the wealthy, or the self-sufficient, but the poor in spirit, the grieving, the meek, and the hungry. In the Beatitudes, Jesus unveils the values of His upside-down kingdom—a kingdom for those who bring nothing and yet inherit everything. The poor in spirit are those who know they contribute nothing to God but r...

This sermon traces the Exodus plagues as a cosmic “dragon-slaying” narrative: Pharaoh is portrayed as a chaos-dragon like the mythic Leviathan, humiliated when Aaron’s staff-dragon swallows his magicians’ staffs and finally vanquished when he is swallowed by the sea. The pattern prefigures Christ’s greater victory—Jesus, the true Dragon Slayer, humiliates the devil through his ministry, disarms hi...

The plagues were not random punishments but deliberate judgments revealing Yahweh’s supremacy over Egypt’s gods and over all spiritual powers. The plagues expose false order and false mercy by unraveling Egypt’s Ma’at and showing that only Yahweh brings true order, light, and life. Through the chaos He sends, God displays His grace—holding creation together by His word; His mercy—sparing His peopl...

In Exodus 7:1–7, we meet the God who hardens hearts—not as a cruel puppeteer or powerless bystander but as the sovereign Lord who strengthens the will already set against Him, so that His name might be known in all the earth. Pharaoh’s resistance becomes the stage for God’s revelation: that He alone is Yahweh, the covenant-keeper who liberates His people and humbles the proud. Every act of judgmen...

In Exodus 5, Israel learns that everyone serves someone—and that the wrong master only multiplies burdens. Pharaoh’s command to “get back to your burdens” exposes the cruelty of false masters who demand more and give nothing. But Jesus, the greater Master, stands before the weary and says, “Come to me… and I will give you rest.” This sermon traces the contrast between Pharaoh’s yoke and Christ’s,...

In one of the strangest and most debated stories in Scripture, God meets Moses on the road to Egypt—not to bless him, but to kill him. In Exodus 4:18–26, we see both the terrifying wrath and the steadfast love of God collide in one moment of blood and mercy. Moses, the chosen deliverer, had neglected the covenant sign; and yet through the blood of his son, the wrath of God was turned away. This st...

The whole Bible points to Jesus, and in this story of Moses receiving three signs from Yahweh, we get to witness not merely parallels to Jesus' story but rather the establishment of a pattern which Jesus would fulfill perfectly. Moses is chosen to be the shepherd-messenger, and one thousand years later, Jesus would be the Good Shepherd. Moses brought a message of being freed from slavery to Egypt,...

This sermon contrasts the despair of praying to an unknown god with the hope of knowing Yahweh by name. When Moses asks, “What is his name?” God reveals himself as “I Am Who I Am." He is existence itself — absolute personality, freedom, and eternality. Yet this revelation alone could remain distant and even terrifying. The good news is that Yahweh also names himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, a...

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not primarily about how we are freed from sin and forgiven. It’s primarily about how God made a way to dwell with us forever. The good news doesn’t end at the cross; nor does it end at the empty tomb. The story reaches its full conclusion at the burning edge of the first New Creation dawn, when heaven and earth fully unite and we are right in the midst of God’s eterna...

In Exodus 2:23–25, we see Israel move from slavery to groaning to prayer—and God responds with salvation. This shows us that God will not deliver us from what we still love, but when we come to hate our sin and groan under its weight, he delights to hear our cries and act on his covenant promises. Human hopes will always disappoint, but when our groans turn to true prayer in Jesus’ name, God hears...

In Exodus 2, Moses emerges as a deliverer, a man of faith, and a man of failure. Yet in each of these, he ultimately points us beyond himself to Christ. Moses tries to rescue Israel but cannot free them from Egypt or from sin. Only Christ delivers fully—from our enemies and from ourselves. Moses chose to identify with God’s people by faith, looking to a greater reward. We strengthen our faith the...

The Israelites have found themselves in Egypt, enslaved, crushed, and oppressed on all sides. But they weren’t sent there because of their disobedience to God; in fact, they were in Egypt because of obedience and faith. So why were they afflicted with so much suffering? And where is God in all of it? Exodus 1–2 helps us to see glimmers of hope in the thick darkness of human suffering. The curtain...

“Boasting” is pointing to something as the source of our identity and the grounds of our confidence. Galatians 6 teaches us that we can boast in vain (empty) things, or we can boast in the cross of Christ! If our identity and confidence comes from the cross, then Christ will transform our conduct toward one another, to make his churches beautiful communities of love and service.

Though Christians still experience sinful desires, the Holy Spirit has been given to wage war within us, restrain the flesh, and produce the fruit of godliness. We cannot defeat sin by our own effort, but the Spirit enables us to live the life we were remade to want. Rather than following the desires of the flesh, we are called to walk by the Spirit, keeping in step with him daily. He leads us thr...

True Christian freedom is not autonomy to indulge the flesh but liberation from sin to walk in love, as a new creation in Christ. Paul urges believers to purge all hindrances to that freedom—by obeying the truth of the gospel, searching diligently for sin, and embracing the offense of the cross. Our calling mirrors the Exodus: freed not by works, but by grace, we now submit our desires to God and...

Standing firm in true Christian freedom means rejecting every form of self-justification—whether through prideful entitlement or despairing unworthiness—and instead receiving the full benefits of Christ by faith. Paul warns that to rely on any part of the law obligates one to keep the whole law, cutting oneself off from grace. Justification cannot be earned; it must be received as a gift. Those who...

Galatians 4 shows that both legalism and idolatry are forms of spiritual slavery that reject the freedom found in Christ. Paul uses the image of a child-heir under a guardian to illustrate that, before faith, people are enslaved to “elementary principles”—whether the Jewish law or pagan gods. But when Christ came, he redeemed us, adopted us, and sent his Spirit into our hearts so that we cry “Abba...

God’s promise to Abraham was a gift of grace, not something earned through effort. When the law came centuries later, it didn’t cancel or replace that promise—it revealed just how much we need it. The law exposed our sin and humbled us, like a stern tutor preparing us for the arrival of Christ. But now that Christ has come, we are no longer under the law—we are adopted as God’s children through fa...

Justification with God comes not by law-keeping or moral performance but by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Paul shows that all who rely on works are under a curse because no one perfectly keeps God's law. But God gave Abraham righteousness through faith before the law or circumcision, and that same blessing—peace with God and his abiding presence—is extended to Jew and Gentile alike. Christ redeems...

In Galatians 3:1–6, Paul confronts the Galatians for drifting from the gospel of grace, reminding them that they received the Spirit not by works but by “hearing with faith.” This sermon emphasizes that the Christian life—both its beginning and its continuation—is entirely dependent on God’s grace, received through faith. Good works are not the cause of salvation, but the result of it. Christians...