Church of The Redeemer - Sermons

As we journey through many familiar passages in the Bible, one verse stands alone as the most familiar passage: John 3:16. But just as it is the most familiar passage, it is also the most misunderstood. It is here in a single verse that we find the sum and substance of the gospel.

How can Christians maintain everyday faith when life gets hard? When we grow weary? Rather than being a simplistic band-aid, Isaiah 40 offers a rock-solid hope that when we look to God, we will find renewed strength to keep going.

There can be a danger when reading a well-known passage like Psalm 23. The danger lies in ripping it out of context and applying it to people who don't truly know Jesus as the Good Shepherd. But for the believer, this Psalm offers the lasting hope that God is our shepherd: leading, comforting, inviting, and pursuing us all the days of our lives.

Oftentimes, we go on vacations to rest and feel renewed after busy seasons. But more often than not, we need something more; we need the kind of renewal that only God can give. We need a deeper, spiritual renewal. As God did in Joshua's day, he is calling us this day to spiritual renewal. 

Over the years, we may have grown familiar with certain passages of Scripture. Psalm 23, John 3:16, and others come to mind. But we can't divorce these texts from their original context, nor from how they shape our daily walk with the Lord. This new series examines these familiar truths and how they strengthen our everyday faith. Exodus 34 may not seem like one of those familiar passages, but it s...

As we close our series through the book of Proverbs, we return to where we began: the fear of the Lord. Our culture of expressive individualism looks at humility like a straitjacket, but the Bible describes it as the key to living the wise life leading to glory. We must see 1) what humility is, 2) what keeps us from it, and 3) how we become humble.

Everyone plans. Plans represent our passion and desire (or lack thereof). Maybe we love planning, or maybe it stirs up anxiety in us. Whatever emotion is conjured up, the Bible calls us to plan and to plan well. How do we do this? We must first put our plans in God's sovereign hands and allow his sovereignty to motivate our plans.

Stewardship begins with a foundational assumption: God owns everything. Because of this, we must learn what it means to live as a responsible steward over every area of our lives. Ultimately, Christ’s perfect stewardship empowers us to steward all that he has given us.

From the very beginning, God designed us to work. Working is how we live and rule in God's world, but since the Fall, we, as the workers, act unfaithfully. The Proverbs give us the portrait of a faithful worker who is righteous, diligent, and prudent, but we can't transform our work ethic on our own. We need the work of the Faithful One to transform us so that our faithful work can exalt our faith...

Our world is full of beauty. From paintings to people, we see beauty all around us because our Creator God is beauty. But sin can twist and distort our longings for beautiful things by making us ignore the Creator and create idols for our hearts. But godly wisdom isn't found in rejecting beautiful things; it's what gives us godly vision for godly beauty.

From the beginning, the family is the foundational unit of society and culture. But in a sin-infected world, we need wisdom to not only navigate the challenges of parenting but also to see the privilege of parenting. Pulling from Proverbs 24:3-4 again, we must build our homes, our children, our parenting—our very lives—on the wisdom of God. 

When cracks begin forming in the walls of a house, the problem isn't with the walls; it's with the foundation of the house. In a similar way, we see in Proverbs 24:3-4 that if a house isn't built on wisdom, it will eventually crumble. This is why we must build our homes, our marriages, our very lives on the wisdom of God. 

What are the most essential things for living? Some might put food, water, and shelter at the top of the list, but what about friendship? Friendship is an often-overlooked idea, but it's something the Proverbs speak frequently about as essential for a life of wisdom. But how can we pursue friendship? What does it look like to be a true friend? How can we overcome the guilt of failures and the sham...

With advancements in life-saving technologies, our modern society has done a good job of avoiding death until the last possible second. But this is not how death works. In the Bible, death is personified as a shepherd for the arrogant (Ps. 49:14) and a consumer of flesh (Job 18:13). Death comes for us all. No matter how long we try to avoid it, it will claim our lives. But the good news of Easter...

Our world cries out for justice, but how does God define justice? If the foundation of his throne is justice and righteousness (Psalm 89:14), what does it look like? True justice begins in the pursuit of godly wisdom, so that the saint devoted to godly wisdom understands and lives out godly justice.

Would you consider yourself to be an angry person? We often associate anger with explosive outbursts, but we can often miss its more subtle forms that leak into most areas of our lives. The truth is that we all have a problem with anger. The problem is that our anger is directed at the wrong things, at the wrong times, in the wrong ways. But anger isn't the problem; sin is. This is why the redempt...

Words have a powerful place in our lives. With our words, we can build people up and tear them down. We can give people life, or we can promote death. This is the power of words, which is why the Proverbs have so much to say about our words. Because how we use our words reveals what we believe about God, we must use them wisely.

Everyone wants wisdom. Wisdom helps us navigate which job to take, who to marry (or not marry), and how to parent our children. For centuries, people have turned to sages and gurus for wisdom on how to live and make decisions. But the Bible offers us something different. It tells us of an all-wise God who created and sustains the world with wisdom. He has written it into the fabric of creation and...

All of us are daily swimming in multiple cultures. Culture, broadly defined, is the stories we tell and the way we interpret the world around us. But, because we believe in one story and one reality, Christians must be able to engage the cultures around us with the ultimate aim of inviting people into God's Story. We see an example in the apostle Paul as he witnesses to the resurrected Jesus in Ac...

Most people don't like to talk about money, but as a courageously sacrificial church, we must understand that our money isn't ours but God's. It means we must be willing to lose something in order to gain a greater reward as we follow the example of Jesus and give generously, as our God has been generous with us.

The things we focus on change how we live. No one knew this better than Paul, who offers the Ephesians church a broad understanding of ministry in Ephesians 4:7-16. Ministry isn't an occupation reserved for the spiritual elite; it's a calling placed on every Christian. It has a source, a purpose, and a goal. To be a ministry focused church means we believe that Jesus gives us everything we need to...

One of the greatest tests of our faith is our devotion to prayer. Like 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "pray constantly." As a prayerfully dependent church, we have to be unified on what prayer is, why we pray, how do and what we pray, and to whom do we pray to?

We were made for relationships. From the very beginning, God has made us to be relational people who depend on each other. This comes through clearly in Hebrews 10:19-25 as the author casts a compelling vision for how Christians are to be a relationally connected people who don't just "hang out," but help each other endure to the end.

The word “confessional” might bring several things to mind. Perhaps you went to a confessional booth, or you grew up in a denomination that had "no creed but the Bible." But to be known as a historically confessional church means we believe, confess, and practice the historic faith passed down from the apostles and the church fathers, joining the global church in proclaiming Christ as Lord. Ultima...

Values aren't just catchy corporate catchphrases; values are what keep you on the path to your goals and keep you from drifting. Over the next several weeks, we will be examining our values as a church. The first is that we are Biblically Driven. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of interest in the Bible with people (especially men) engaging in it to find greater meaning and purpose in...