First Pres Colorado Springs Sermons

Faith is the trust by which we hold onto the promises of God. We are saved by faith, by believing in Jesus Christ. Faithfulness is holding onto that trust over time, believing the promises of God when the times are hard and the trust is stretched. Peter was excited to realize Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. Will he hold on when the going gets tough and he realizes that to follow Jesus is to lay...

Goodness is the opposite of badness, I suppose. There is a line, a distinction. Jesus sent his disciples out from village to village to do good. Jesus involved his disciples in meeting people’s needs, from healing to feeding. But there are those who reject the goodness of God. That rejection does not diminish the inherent goodness of the character of God. God is righteous and just, his purposes ar...

Jesus stopped and listened to the woman who had suffered so much for so long. He turned to her, and only her, in the middle of the crowd pressing in with so much angst and hurry. Jesus took the time to hear her story and celebrate her healing with her, one on one. Without a doubt, in the face of Jesus there is kindness. Speaker: John Goodale

What is Jesus asking the disciples when he asks, “Where is your faith?” Is he asking, “What’s the matter with you? Why don’t you have any faith?” I don’t think so. I think (following Tim Keller’s interpretation) it is more that Jesus is reminding them to use their faith in times of distress. They have faith, they are just not using it, like having an umbrella and not getting it out in the rain. Ta...

We don’t actually know the nature of the sinful life the woman led, but it was something public. History assumes she was a prostitute. Nobody sets out to become a prostitute. How troubled she must have been inside, how much unsettled turmoil, regret and shame. We long to see peace in the world outside, but even more we long for peace within. Can you imagine Jesus’ face as he looked on her and decl...

All of the hopes and longings of the people of God for a Messiah were coming true right before their eyes. All of our hopes and longings come home to Him too. Can you imagine a wry smile on Jesus’ face as he told John’s disciples what to report? Here it all is. The Kingdom of God is breaking out. Jesus enjoyed being Jesus. This is a moment when they could see that in the face of Jesus there is joy...

Jesus demonstrates his love when he looks face to face with the widow at Nain and says, “Don’t cry.” Her eyes would have been swollen and muddled with tears as she walked along behind her son’s funeral bier. Jesus sees us when we are hurting. Can you imagine the eyes of Jesus looking into yours? It says Jesus’ heart went out to her. This is just one moment when we could see that in the face of Jes...

You are in the battle. We win the battle on our knees! Pentecost celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church. That outpouring is here today to arm you in spiritual places to see victory against dark spiritual powers. Put on the full armor of God and be strong in the Lord. Pray for spiritual victories. Speaker: Tim McConnell

Prayer is sanctifying. Time spent in the presence of the Holy Spirit reveals our frailties and faults. We pray that the power of the Holy Spirit would be at work in us, lending our hearts toward holiness and away from what is profane. Prayer is also meditation on the Word. We allow the Word of God to shape our understanding of right and wrong, sacred and profane. Pray that the Holy Spirit would so...

Prayer is an expression of an extraordinarily personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. As we are made one with God in the Spirit of prayer, we are also made one with each other. Not in a Buddhist or New Age sense of dissolving our individual souls into the “One Soul,” but in genuine and true relationship, knit together supernaturally. The world sees this unity and it is beyond comprehension...

Our God is able to more than you could ever ask or imagine. Do you believe that? Do you pray as if that were true? It is actually jarring to know that we have an audience with the same God who spun the universe into being. The power of God is unfathomable. Paul prays that the Ephesians would be strengthened by God’s power simply to attain to this knowledge of who God is and the power God has, and...

By grace you have been saved. In a Spirit of Prayer the Holy Spirit captures our hearts and raises us up spiritually into the presence of God. We are captured by awe. We are struck with wonder. We are caught up in grace. It can only happen because of what Jesus did for us. Prayer is not an activity, like taking a run or brushing your teeth. Prayer is an encounter with the Living God who loves you...

Although we know that we have access to a limitless power in prayer, we do not pray as much as we should. Maybe we are ashamed that we don’t know how, don’t have confidence, or are worried that we might make a fool of ourselves. Maybe we are confident that we have all the help we need; we can handle it on our own. For all his wisdom, experience and capacity, Paul demonstrates openly that he lives...

There may be no more famous conversion than Paul’s. He gets it all! Humbled, directed, washed, eyes opened, life changed, corrected and turned, no wonder Paul said “whoever is in Christ is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). If we have experienced conversion, a second turning, a repentance that leads to faith, a rebirth and spiritual regeneration, then we are totally transformed. Death looks different n...

Mary turned to see the man she thought was the gardener, but when Jesus pronounced her name, she “turned again” and saw that it was Him! What is this second turning? What happens in her heart and mind to open her eyes to Jesus right there before her face? We often think of Christianity as an offer to take up a set of beliefs, a philosophy of life, or a pattern of habits that lead to healthy living...

Zacchaeus wanted to see the parade, like on Palm Sunday. He wanted to see Jesus. What happened was much more than an entertaining experience. By meeting and receiving Jesus Christ, Zacchaeus’ entire life was transformed. “So, you are talking about lifestyle change; an alteration of one’s moral center and system of ethics.” Yes, but much more. This is an internal change that produces external effec...

I once was blind, but now I see. Conversion opens the eyes. You see the entire world differently. When you know the Creator, you see the beauty of the creation with new eyes. The sky is bluer, the grass is greener, the air is sweeter. But seeing is also a metaphor for how we understand everything in our lives. C. S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not on...

The Samaritan Woman at the well is one of the most powerful stories of conversion in the Bible. Jesus demonstrates that He knows her entire past and love her fully. We fear that when we are fully known, we will not be fully loved. “If only you knew…” Jesus knows, and He knows what it will cost, but He offers forgiveness, redemption and new life. The conversion of the woman at the well is a progres...

The story of Naaman the Leper is a story of conversion. When you come to Christ, you feel that your old life has been washed away (in baptism) and you have been made entirely new. It is not unlike the picture of Naaman dipping in the water seven times and coming up fresh and new. (cf. Isaiah 1:16; Acts 8:26-38 and the Ethiopian Eunuch.) There is a true change to a life made new in Christ. We, like...

Moses recognized the presence of the Lord and hid his face in repentance (verse 6). This is a true acknowledgement of his own sin. But God draws Moses near, promises to walk with him through all his life, and then God directed Moses to move out in His purposes by faith. Conversion leads to new life. A self-interested life is directionless, and often runs out of steam. God gives us a new purpose an...

“Turn me and I will be turned” is the old KJV of verse 18. What is conversion? It is a total change in life comprised of repentance and faith. It cannot be an external change of habits or intentions. It is an internal rebirth. Jeremiah knew what would really make a change was when the law was written inside the human heart. The old heart of stone is removed and a new heart of flesh is installed (c...

So, then, never, never, never give up. When our current scenario goes shaky, when wars and rumors of wars rise up, when it looks like the church will die with us and turn to dust in our hands, remember, we are receiving a Kingdom that is already guaranteed, has been inaugurated by Christ, and by the power of God will not fail to come into its full manifestation. The Kingdom of God is coming. Do no...

Just as God revealed His mission to Abraham as a mission for a people, that God was planning to bless all nations through the chosen nation, now we see that the mission of God plays out through the deployment of a church. The ekklesia is the body called and sent by God to be the arms and feet of Jesus, to be the witness to the character of Jesus Christ, to be the instrument of God’s mission to red...

The mission of God culminates in the sending of His Son Jesus Christ. All that has been promised and foreshadowed is now fully revealed in Him, and for the rest of history, the implications of what has been revealed in Jesus will be ours to explore. He is our Savior. He is our Lord, leading us now, by the Holy Spirit, on the mission of redemption. If Jesus was subject to difficulties and suffering...

All our striving is incomplete. We have not yet received the fullness of God’s promises, but by faith we carry along on God’s mission and the hope of the consummation keeps us moving forward. There were so many moments when it seemed like the mission was over; when it seemed like the people of God would not survive. God showed up in each one to sustain His people and continue His mission. Would we...