Lenexa Central Church Sermons

Ruth 3 Faith is an active trust in the One who is “threshing out” the bad and preserving the good in our lives. Just as the wind blows, separating the wheat from the chaff, the wind of the Spirit blows in our life preserving the good and discarding the bad.

Ruth 2 Ruth went looking for grain, but she found so much more. She found grace. Grace opens the door to more than mercy but to covenant relationship. God’s ultimate plan of salvation doesn't end with the forgiveness of your sins, but extends to the complete transformation of your life. In this journey towards transformation, we find grace in the grain again and again!

Ruth 1 In our suffering, God is present, sovereign, and purposeful. In Naomi’s limited view of her life it appeared that God was actively working against her. However, the story points toward the hope of another harvest just on the horizon, and we often experience this hope through someone we would least expect. 

Romans 8:31-38 God went all in and it will always be enough! We may be discouraged as we face trials of many kinds, but nothing can overcome what God has already done for us. The challenge is to live as conquerors and not as victims.  

Ephesians 4:1-6 A divided world needs a united Church. This is only possible through the healing and empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. This Pentecost, we ask the Spirit to reconcile, heal, and make us one in Him.

Romans 8:18-30 Our worries about the future often begin with a "what if..." question. There is so much about the future we don't know, but God’s Word declares that we are never alone in our struggle. God is WITH us and the Holy Spirit intercedes FOR us even when we don't know what to pray. The Gospel invites us to ask, "What if God is working all things out for the good?&q...

Romans 8:1-11 Following Jesus is simple, but it doesn't happen by accident. We live in this tension of obeying the desires of the flesh or surrendering to the work of the Holy Spirit. We are invited by grace to simply cooperate with God in our salvation by "setting our mind" on the things of the Spirit.

Romans 6:15-23 What does it mean to be human? Sin creates the illusion that we can be our best selves by focusing on ourselves. The Gospel, however, is that grace transforms our heart so that the desire to sin is overwhelmed by a desire to love God and others. It's an invitation to be "awl" in. 

Romans 6:1-14 Coming to faith in Christ means we embrace an entirely new understanding of death and life. The cross and resurrection demonstrate God’s miraculous power to bring life out of the experience of death. God wants to do the same for us as we die to sin and are raised with Christ to live holy lives. We are wanted by our Creator, both dead AND alive.

Romans 5:12-19 Life under the lordship of Jesus is a new way of living like you’ve never experienced before. The grace of God mediated to us through the obedience of Jesus has infinitely more potential for good than our tendency to sin and rebel we inherited from the Fall. 

Romans 5:1-11 The heart of our Easter faith is simple: God is “all in” for humanity. We’ve been forgiven and reconciled to God, something that would not be possible without Jesus going “all in” for us. In response to this grace, are we “all in” with God? 

Matthew 28:1-10 The first witnesses of the resurrection were women who left the tomb, “afraid yet filled with joy.” The resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of all things being made new. There is no fear it does not confront and overwhelm with joy that only Jesus can give.

Ephesians 4:7-14 On Palm Sunday we celebrate the mission of Jesus. Like the colt Jesus uses to ride into Jerusalem, we were made for this mission. Everyone is uniquely gifted to join with God, and “the Lord needs” your story, gifts, and talents. We are people committed to a purposeful mission. 

Ephesians 5:1-2 As we continue talking through core values in our church, Rev. Bethany Acre talks about the characteristics of Christ-like living and the impact of saying "yes" to God on every step of the journey.

Ephesians 3:14-21 Because God is overflowing with abundant generosity to us, we are called to be abundantly generous to others. God uses the generosity of his people to power the Church to accomplish “immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine.”

Ephesians 2:11-22 The Church is filled with diverse individuals who are made one in Christ. When believers walk in loving fellowship with God and each other, an unbelieving world sees what their hearts long for. Ephesians 2:11-22 envisions a life-giving community that God can use to heal the hurts and divides of the world.

Ephesians 1:3-14 We were created to worship. Paul begins the book of Ephesians with a doxology that tells the story of salvation. This good news invites us to respond with our whole life to who God is and what he has done. 

Ephesians 2:8-10 We were not created to live random and haphazard lives. We were made for a good and beautiful purpose, made known to us when we receive the grace of God and live on mission in response to what God has done for us. This is what we were made for, and there is no better way to live! 

James 1:12-18   There’s a big difference in knowing in our heads the right thing to do and actually doing it with our actions. Temptation works the same way: even when we know something is wrong, all too often fail to resist it. Everyone will face temptation, but fortunately, God provides a way out.

James 5:13-18   Prayer is keeping company with God. Learning to pray is like learning anything else: it won’t happen overnight. Pick a time. Pick a place. Ask Jesus to teach you how to pray.

James 3:1-10 Pastor David shares about the weight of our words and how we can express our love for God through intentional encouragement. 

James 2:1-13 Jesus embodied radical hospitality and called his followers to do the same. James calls us to resist playing favorites with people who can advance our place in life and give VIP treatment to the vulnerable. 

James 1:22-27; 2:14-26 Faith without action is dead. The world needs more than talk about what we believe. Those far from God need to see it lived out with tangible action. 

James 1:1-12 James is the New Testament’s book of wisdom. The journey to wisdom begins by recognizing life has inevitable trials and pressures. God provides the gift of his grace, strength, and presence so that we can grow in spiritual maturity, even in the midst of the trials.

Guest preacher, Dr. Frank Moore, shares a prayer for the New Year in which we remember what God has done and forget what might have been.