Grace Point Sermons

When we confuse being messengers for being mediators, we can't help but be tempted to add to the gospel. Every time we do that, though, we obscure the glory of God that shines through the sacrificial love of Jesus.

When everyone is tempted to do what is right in our own eyes, we need a King: (1) Who is mighty to save; (2) Who comes to us; & (3) Who can't be stopped. This King, of course, is Jesus...and the question is: "How will we respond to the King we need when He's not the King we wanted?"

True worship is committed to giving full vent to our joy in Jesus. As we do, John reminds us that this kind of worship always has: (1) A Cause; (2) A Cost; (3) Critics; & (4) Competition. What all that means is that true worship can only happen when it comes as a response to true love, which is most fully revealed in Christ.

We are loved by a hated Lord. That will always mean that those who hate Jesus will hate us. When that happens, the question is: will we really believe that the gospel can't be stopped & follow Jesus even when it's not popular?

We tend to define love by what we want, but real love is committed to what we need. Since Jesus leads us in real love, He expects us to follow Him in real faith through death to glory.

Jesus (our Good Shepherd) came to lead us to the Father, but we can only follow Him on His terms, not our own. How we respond to His word & work shows us whether we are True Sheep...or simply Wolves in Sheep's clothing.

We may worry about different things...but we all worry. And every time we do, it threatens to steal our joy in Jesus. Thankfully, Paul shows us how to fight against anxiety by taking hold of God's promises that: 1. When we pray, we get the peace of God; & 2. When we obey, we get the God of peace.

Jesus came as our Redeemer & Representative, guaranteeing our eternal victory over all sin & suffering. But until He comes again, we must endure--and the only way to do that is together as we: (1) Walk by faith; (2) Hold onto hope; & (3) Commit to love.

We're all tempted to replace God's promise with God's law. The problem, though, is that the Law isn't powerful enough to change our hearts. So while the Law is good, the Gospel is even better because it reminds us that Jesus came to set us free through His perfect obedience, effective sacrifice & transforming grace.

When humanity rebelled against God, we were put out of His presence and heaven was locked from the inside. But in His love, our holy God has come to us to when we could not get to Him, and Jesus now invites us to follow Him into God's presence where we can find true & lasting joy.

We try our best to earn God's favor. When that inevitably fails, we try our best to earn His forgiveness. Thankfully, though, our Father loves us too much to leave our salvation up to our best efforts. Enter our Great High Priest! When Jesus came, He gave us an unbreakable covenant that is eternal, internal & powerful because it's based on God's grace, not on our best efforts.

In John 10, Jesus told the timeless story of The Shepherd & The Thief, which still divides the world to this day. For those who say "no" to His invitation, He wants them to know exactly what they're rejecting. But for those who say "yes," He wants us to live in the full joy He lived, died & rose again to give us.

God is both sovereign & good, which means we can always trust that He has a purpose in our pain. However, the only way for us to embrace that purpose (instead of wasting our suffering) is if we commit: (1) To obey before we understand; (2) Proclaim what we can't explain; (3) Cling to what we know; & (4) Worship the Son of Man.

True disciples finish well, but only if we embrace the truth of Jesus that sets us free from our slavery to the lies we believe & the lies we tell.

When we can't see beyond "right now," we're tempted to take control. In those moments, we've got to remember that the Light of the World came to give life to the world. This will only comfort us, though, when we lay down our fears and follow Jesus by faith into the presence of the Father.

The Light of the World exposes the darkness in all of us, but He never exposes us without covering us in His grace. Because both are true, His gospel leads us from fear to freedom as we're reminded over and over that our God knows us (all the way to the bottom) & He loves us still.

Only Jesus can satisfy the thirsty soul, and when He does...we will never thirst again! No shortcut or substitute can ever be enough, but Jesus is all we need forever. The only question is: "Do we trust Him?"

Jesus didn't come to make us more comfortable in our sin. He came to wage war on our idols and He never loses. That means we all have one of two options: (1) We can fight against Him & be defeated with our idols; or (2) We can fight with Him against our idols and share in His victory.

God's mission for us isn't to tell the world how bad they are, but to tell them how much better Jesus is than whatever may be competing for their love. To do that effectively, we must learn to recognize counterfeit wisdom and we must be willing to speak the truth in love.

We're all worshipers...the only question is who/what we're worshiping? As our Creator & Redeemer, only the one, true God is worthy of our worship. The more we see Him as He is, the more we'll celebrate His greatness & surrender to His grace.

Faith is a process, but so is unbelief. Ultimately, the way to tell the difference between true disciples and false disciples isn't in our words or actions in a moment...but over time. As Jesus shows us, true disciples finish well by: (1) Leading with a "yes;" (2) Being drawn by grace; & (3) Always coming back to Jesus.

False Belief is sadly more common in our culture (and even in our churches) than True Belief. Thankfully, though, True Belief is God's work in us applying Jesus' work for us forever, and this is a work that He's still doing in everyone He's drawing to Jesus. The invitation for us all is to come & believe in Jesus, and our eternal hope is in the God who draws us & the Savior who will never let us g...

We're never more than a moment away from our lives descending into total chaos. Thankfully, when that happens, God has given us a Map of Faith to help us identify: (1) Where we are; (2) Where we want to go; & (3) What our next step should be as we follow Jesus in faith (even when we don't understand) because we know He always has a purpose in our pain.

Since Jesus is all we need, we need to seek all of Jesus! We can't allow ourselves to settle for His gifts, His power, or His victory...because if we're not seeking all of Jesus, then we're not seeking Jesus at all.

After defending His claim to be the Son of God, Jesus shifts from defense to offense, exposing the fundamental struggle of every human heart: living for the wrong glory. For those who get stuck living as servants, though, Jesus invites us to share His glory and live in freedom as sons of God. Once we start to get this, it changes everything from how we read the Bible to where we look for hope.