Fellowship Dallas Weekly Sermons

A promise is a powerful thing. A promise enables us to reach out into an uncertain future and lay hold of something certain. 1 Thes. 4:13-18 provides us with some promises we can hold onto as we live out our lives between Good Friday and Easter.

If Timothy observed your life, what would he report? Where would he make note of the good news of your faith and love? Where might he note areas of your life where you struggle to live in accordance with God’s Word and will? The Christian life is an opportunity to make an impact for the Kingdom of God. But if that life is lived contrary God’s will, it will be rendered ineffective for his Kingdom....

We are in a series on the book of 1 Thessalonians, a letter written by the Apostle Paul to encourage and instruct a young church how to live faithfully and lovingly in light of Christ’s return. The message of the letter is not intended to create fear that we’re going to be busted for not doing what we should be doing when he returns, nor is it a warning that, should Jesus find us misbehaving when...

There is no assignment that is more difficult than loving broken people. Particularly when you number yourself among them. But that's the only kind of people there are. So, think about those you have been assigned to love. Ask God to purify your heart so that your actions stem from proper motives. Then ask God to show you how to balance love and truth.

Today we begin a new series of messages from the book of 1 Thessalonians called "Last Things First." Every one of the five chapters in this letter written by the apostle Paul ends with a statement about Jesus' second coming. But it wasn't written to give details about the end times. It was written to encourage and instruct a young church about how to live in light of His coming.

I would imagine that, in many of your homes this weekend, you'll be holding that most wonderful of Easter traditions: an Easter egg hunt. The mad dash for sugary fulfillment and pastel glory, and maybe even a little cash. Every child knows that each of those plastic eggs are full of something good. But what would happen if they cracked open one of those eggs and found it to be…empty? What would th...

Ambition is a word that often carries with it a negative connotation, but I would suggest that ambition, by itself, is not wrong. We are made in the image of an ambitious God; a God who, for six days, made something out of nothing, declaring it all good because it declared his glory. A God who created of man and woman-united them in marriage-and gave them the mission of filling the whole earth. A...

If you don't keep the eyes of your heart on the approval of your Heavenly Father you will twist every relationship into some kind of stroking machine so that you will be made much of. If you don't make much of Jesus, you are condemned to endless attempts to be made much of. One of the unintended consequences of living in this selfie kingdom is that we sometimes trade the approval of God for the ap...

Last week we answered the question of why Jesus needed to be baptized. We said it identified Jesus as the Messiah and identified Jesus with the sinners he came to save. This week, we need to answer the question of why Jesus was tempted. It's clear from the beginning of chapter 4 that the Holy Spirit is leading Jesus in and through the wilderness. This encounter with the devil is not accidental, it...

The anointing of Jesus by the Holy Spirit was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy that identified and commissioned Him in His role as the Messiah. A title can be a name that clearly communicates purpose. We know what a teacher, doctor, salesman, or president are called to do. For the Messiah, it’s as if the Old Testament prophecies were a job description for the Savior of the world. It is a ro...

When God's people were exiles in Babylon they formed a resistance movement under the guidance of the prophet Jeremiah. What is interesting is how they resisted the Babylonians. They were told, "Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughte...

Even though Jesus had come to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to secure our perfect eternity with him, and even though he knew this world was temporary, he was not indifferent to the condition of his people here and now. In fact, it was just the opposite. Jesus was so concerned about the welfare of his people, he established leaders who are responsible for the care, protection, and guidance of his...

Today I want to take up one of the most frequently asked questions in life. "Why does God allow suffering?" No matter who you are or where you came from we are all required to attend the same school. It's called the University of Adversity. There are no electives. All the courses are required courses. In 1 Pe. 4:12-19, Peter offers some timeless truth about tough times. His first word of advice to...

We are chosen, we are united around the cause of Christ, we are representatives of the kingdom of heaven, we live in a land no longer our own, we have been born for a purpose and, as we began to discuss last week, we too have gifts, spiritual gifts, given to us by God’s grace, that we are to use to serve others and glorify God.

There is only one kind of Christian; the messed up-falling down-failing constantly-full of pride- desperately-insecure but clinging tenaciously to God’s amazing grace kind. The Bible presents us with a steady parade of characters who are a mess. Look at the disciples. How is Jesus going to save the world with these guys? We have nothing to offer, He has everything we need. The source of our streng...

Why does it seem like there is so little urgency in our churches today? One possible explanation is that the more comfortable our circumstances the less urgent our actions.

Happy New Year! The beginning of the year is traditionally the beginning of a new season. We come out of the holiday season, with it’s fun and joy and the excesses of making merry, and we enter into…the resolution season. Every January so many of us make determined decisions to live our lives in a different way in the new year. Some of us resolve to lose a little weight. Others want to exercise mo...

Millennials in particular are not content to sit in a pew and listen to sermons. They want to be part of the solution to the problem. They are interested in service and social justice but they don’t see the church very interested in those things. We cherry pick verses from the Bible that support our opinions but don’t change our behavior.

There is the moral conflict of an unmarried teenage girl getting pregnant. There is the religious conflict as pagan astronomers find the baby through the forbidden practice of stellar divination. There is the cultural conflict as physically unclean shepherds who couldn’t testify in a trial and spiritually unclean Gentiles are the first to acknowledge the newborn king. There is the political confli...

Joy is at the core of who we are as followers of Christ. In fact, “joy” “joyful” and “rejoice” are used hundreds of times in the Bible. But something became very clear to me this week. There is a lot of confusion around what joy is. The advertisers tell us that we are in the “season of joy”, and that giving and receiving their products will result in joy. Many of the authors I read in preparation...

There’s no mistaking it – Christmas is upon us. Christmas trees, cards, carols, cookies, presents. These are sign posts that point us to eternal realities. These symbols won’t make it past January 1, but we desperately need the things they represent all year round. There are some gifts that only Jesus can give, enduring gifts like hope, joy and peace. While you’re shopping for Christmas presents,...

Today we are going to push pause on our 1 Peter series and turn our attention to Christmas. Last week we talked about game changers and game-changing moments. Well, Christmas is a game changer. God looked out over the darkness of a sinful planet and, in His mercy and grace, sent us a Savior, the light of the world. Jesus came to earth bearing presents, not gold, incense and myrrh but far more valu...

Some events are so monumental that they change the course of history. The invention of the printing press. The airplane. The atom bomb. The computer. All these are what we sometimes call “game changers.” We experience game changing moments when something so big and so impactful literally changes the course of our lives. A game changer could be a person who walks into your life and changes your per...

I’m no dancer but when I see it done well I am in awe of the grace, the discipline, the strength of a man and a woman flowing across the floor in a way that seems effortless. But unfortunately, marriage is often more like a wrestling match than a dance. Marriage is never effortless. It takes a lot of practice…and a lot of patience because we get our toes stepped on in the process of learning how t...