Grace Point Sermons

When "the way things have always been done" are challenged with the truth of God's Word, our knee-jerk reaction is to try and silence the truth so that we can hold onto our traditions. Thankfully, Jesus loves us enough to tell us hard truth. As He does, He invites us to surrender to Him so that we can enjoy eternal life that starts right here, right now.

When we separate mercy & truth, we're left with nothing but superstitions that lead to misplaced hope. However, Jesus reminds us that real hope comes from true mercy, which only Jesus can give. To help us really get it, Jesus confronts the superstitions of Mysticism & Moralism, inviting us to instead embrace the supernatural power of His love.

When we use people for what they give us instead of honoring them for who they are, we kill the relationship. What John wants to help us see is that this is just as true in our relationship with Jesus as in every other relationship. Thankfully though, Jesus loves people who don't love Him & He shows that love by speaking hard truth, showing deep compassion & strengthening weak faith.

Do you tend to focus on what you do for Jesus or what He's done for you? How you answer that question will determine whether you spend your life working for rest or working from it. Thankfully, Jesus invites all who are weary and burdened to come to Him: not to give Him anything, but to receive what He offers by His grace. When we say "yes" to that invitation, we can rest in the truth that "it is...

When we're following Jesus on His mission, we should always expect multiplication. But as our King establishes His Kingdom and reaps His harvest, it will challenge our own faith as we're called to work together for something bigger than us and to love others as Christ loves us. As challenging as these are, however, they are the sure path to joy as we do the will of the Father and rejoice with Jesu...

If Jesus has saved you, then He's recruited you to take His gospel to a world in desperate need of grace. However, every time we try to do that, we're going to meet the same resistance Jesus did. Thankfully, in His conversation with the woman at the well, He shows us how to overcome obstacles so that we can follow Him on His mission in a way that glorifies the Father & makes His love undeniable.

The gospel tells us that we're saved by grace through faith. But passive faith isn't Biblical faith, it's just another form of unbelief, dressed up in religious clothes. Active faith, however, always shows up in our lives in the form of humility, joy & obedience. This kind of active faith is the only faith that leads to eternal life.

Jesus came to show us the fullness of God's love, which is the very definition of grace. That grace, however, can only be received by faith, as we let go of substitutes and trust that only Jesus can save, satisfy & sanctify us.

The difference between blind faith and Biblical faith is where it comes from. If our faith doesn't come from God, then it can't lead us to God. Thankfully, Jesus came to invite us into God's Kingdom, but we can only accept His invitation when we recognize our need for His Spirit, His word & His cross.

More often than we'd like to admit, we confuse "what's normal" with "what's right" and justify sin based on how common it is in our culture (whether that culture is religious or irreligious). Thankfully, Jesus is willing to disrupt our lives so that He can wake us up and lead us to repentance.

When you hit your limits, who do you trust? As John tells the story of Jesus' first sign (turning water into wine), he reminds us that Jesus doesn't have the limits we do, and so we can & should always trust Him because He's always enough for us.

Apart from Jesus, we live in the tension of knowing we're incomplete but not knowing where to find fulfillment. But once we truly encounter Jesus, He shows us that He is all we need by: (1) Meeting us where we are; (2) Telling us who we are; & (3) Inviting us into something bigger than ourselves.

If Jesus has saved you, then He has recruited you to be a witness to His grace and glory before a watching world. The question for all of us, though, is: Do we see this as something we have to do, or something we get to do? From the example of John the Baptist, we get a glimpse of what it looks like to be joyful witnesses to Jesus as we learn that there's only one Savior and while we aren't Him, w...

In his famous introduction to his gospel, John goes all the way before time began and tells us: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And as the apostle unpacks this Divine Metaphor, he helps us see that this Eternal Word, who was confirmed by the Promised Witness, has come to show us a Better Way and give us life & light in place of our darkness & death...

We're all searching for happiness and there's nothing wrong with that! In fact, the Bible teaches us that God is even more committed to our happiness than we are. But what Jesus shows us in the Beatitudes is that true & lasting joy can only be found in full surrender to Him as King. The question is: will we be willing to surrender all to Him (in repentance and faith) so that we can experience the...

God has given us a job to do and we can't let anything stand in the way. However, too often we choose what's easy over what's right. Thankfully, even when that happens, Ezra reminds us that there's always hope for those who respond in repentance and faith, following the path of humble confession and costly obedience through the maze of threats on every side.

Are you a fighter or a quitter? No matter how you answer that, there are times when all of us are tempted to give up. In those moments, we need to remember that, in Jesus, the curse has been reversed and for all who trust Him: (1) Death leads to life; (2) The best is still to come; & (3) Judgment becomes mercy.

How often do you live like the past is irrelevant, the future is uncertain, and all that matters is right now? When that's where we find ourselves, it's easy to feel like we're on our own to fight the battles that Jesus has already won. At times like these, what we need to do most is: (1) Look back and see that Jesus has already succeeded where Adam failed; & (2) Look forward and see that Jesus' v...

Since we prefer to feel in control, we often settle for a "me-centered gospel" that has no power. But once we see how deep our need for mercy really is, we can start to understand how much we need a "God-centered gospel" that: (1) Teaches us what we can't know on our own; (2) Makes us who we can't become on our own; & (3) Gives us what we can't achieve on our own.

When hope & happiness in Jesus feel impossible, we need the courage to ask if our repentance is really focused on Him...or on us? Selfish repentance can never produce gospel results, so what we need most in those moments is to remember & rest in the truth that our salvation is God's work, rooted in His character, and guaranteed by His promises.

The fear of the LORD leads to wisdom. However, because we're sinners, it always leads us down the path of repentance. For some, repentance can be scary because we see it as something we have to do when we get caught. But once we realize that it's a gift of God that sets us free to enjoy His love more fully, we start to see that repentance is really something that we get to do when we get stuck.

When God speaks, the wise listen because they fear His name. Fools, on the other hand, ignore God's voice, and when they do: they reject faith & embrace futility. As Micah builds toward the climactic conclusion of his prophecy, he challenges us to ask ourselves: Are we humble enough to take God seriously? Or are we still too proud to listen?

Because of Jesus, God calls us "family." And just like children struggle to submit to their parents, so we struggle in our relationship with God. Thankfully, He doesn't push us away or cut us off when this happens, but instead He draws us near, reminding us through Micah that when families fight: (1) We say how we feel; (2) We remember what's real; & (3) We make it right by resting in His goodness...

Jesus has always been a Divisive Messiah and we all respond to Him in one of two ways: (1) We either worship Him as He deserves; or (2) We wait for someone better. What Micah helps us see is that only worship leads to freedom in Jesus, while waiting leaves us as prisoners to self. How we respond to Jesus, therefore, determines both our present peace and our future joy.

All we can do is our best...but our best is never enough. This doesn't leave us hopeless, though, because God's best is always enough, and He's given us His best in the Messiah. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Micah gives us one of the clearest and fullest portraits of this Messiah over 700 years before He came. As he does, he calls us to fight fear with faith as we fix our eyes on Jesus.