Mercy Fellowship Sermons

Living out the plans and purpose God has for us will require intentionality and tenacity. While running our race there will always be obstacles and adversity which can easily distract us and, if we are not careful, derail us. Remaining focused is essential to our faithful flourishing.

We are lost on how to think about masculinity making it difficult for men to live out how God has made them. The world is relentlessly preaching various views of manhood that lead us to places of inadequacy as we struggle to hit an ever-moving target, excel at things that do not truly matter, or in discouragement fail to live out the purposes we have been given. Men, and women, need to be reminded...

Alone in prison, awaiting his final trial and likely execution, the apostle Paul writes his last letter to a long-time ministry partner and apprentice. His leg of the race is ending, and it is time to hand off the baton of faith.

The Story began in a lush garden, descended into a harsh wilderness of sin and despair, was dramatically altered by the death and resurrection of Jesus, “ends” in the splendor of a new forever city. In this place, there will be no more sin or death and God will again dwell with His people in harmony. For sin and death to be no more requires an absence of all that is evil and broken. With Jesus’ pr...

Risen, ascended, and promising His return, Jesus’ people remain for a purpose. Preach the Gospel of His kingdom, baptize those who believe, make disciples, and plant churches. For a small eclectic group of disciples more closely resembling the Island of Misfit Toys than The Avengers, this is a weighty commission with little chance of success without divine empowerment. The fearful faithful gathere...

400 years of silent darkness, including false saviors leading fizzled out rebellions, is broken. An angel appears to a young virgin women, a distant daughter of Eve. A child will come from you who will forgive sin and save His people. The promise from the garden is going to be realized, one from woman will come who will defeat Satan. An offspring from the family line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob w...

A people have gone from slavery, to promised land, to a great kingdom only to be led by a series of imperfect rulers. Some are secretly corrupt, others openly wicked, while few are faithful but insufficient to keep Israel from descending into division, decay, destruction, and ultimately exile. Hope in God’s promised victory over evil and joy for His people is waning, sin appears to be winning.

A wandering horde of former slaves becomes a conquering army expelling wicked idolatrous nations and establishing God’s rule and worship in the place He had promised them. God is faithful to consistently give His nation victory in battle. Faithlessly, Israel (sometimes individually, sometimes collectively) seems to stop short of full obedience and even ignores God’s clear instructions to purify th...

Once favored refugees, God’s family (Israel) now finds itself an oppressed minority. While powerless in slavery, the Egyptian regime systematically increases Israel’s suffering by placing heavier burdens and even killing their male children. Through Egyptian civil disobedience and divine providence, a young Israelite boy (Moses) finds himself in Pharaoh’s care.

As people multiply and spread so does sin and darkness. God’s judgment and wrath is displayed in a cataclysmic flood. His mercy is shown in preserving a remnant. While dramatic, the story is reset but not resolved. Rebellion continues and the question from chapter 3 remains: Who will be the one to crush the head of the serpent? 

Beauty, joy, and life are part of what we experience. Yet we know The Story also has pain, bitterness, sin, evil and death. If God is good and made everything good how can this be? What went wrong? We did. In the midst of a garden paradise with unfathomable liberty God gave humanity a single “you shall not”. There is a tree with the knowledge of Good and Evil that God declared if they disobey His...

Once upon a time….. is not how The Story begins, because it is not a myth, legend, or fairy tale. The Story only matters because it is true! It begins with God not us. Before you, me, or any other person enters the scene of The Story there is God. Eternal, God had no beginning, rather God began all beginning. Three key attributes characterize God and help us understand the author of The Story. God...

Our telling of The Story begins in the middle. Two travelers walk down a lonely road towards a small village. A city, days earlier sent into an uproar over a crucifixion, lies behind them. They knew the executed. They followed Him as their leader, listened to Him as a prophet who brought God closer to them, and hoped He would deliver their people from oppression. Disorientated and trying to make s...

We do not always know what our path of healing and restoration will look like. We also do not always know how our steps of faith and risks taken will pay off. We see so little of God’s plan played out even in the span of our own lifetimes it is nearly impossible to know how our lives will be used for His glory and our joy. Sometimes the impact of our faithfulness will not be seen in our day but in...

We cannot force growth, but we can foster it. This means at times we will take bold next steps requiring faith and courage. When we feel stuck, we need to be reminded real change is possible. Contentment is healthy, but compliancy is not. Where do you need to move from daily provision to a more enduring security or even lasting legacy? On the path to flourishing, sometimes we are called to take ca...

Desolations happen and we can fall into a pit bitterness with no way out. Pain should not be minimized, and grief cannot be ignored. Grief needs to be “visited”, but we cannot “live/dwell” there if we are going to experience healing. The road to healing and wholeness can have many steps, but for the journey to begin the first step of faith must be taken.

When tragedy strikes, or we are under trauma’s long shadow, we are unsettled is ways which keep us paralyzed with grief, stuck in despair, and unable to move toward anything that looks like healing let alone flourishing. Suffering can cause to questions God’s goodness and leave us hopeless. When we are blind to a path forward, we need the illumination that only divine hope can provide.

The opening notes of this song ring out with satisfying sound of Hope realized. God is to be praised because He has come to His people with a purpose, their redemption. Where sin has separated people from God, He remembers His promises to redeem His people from the slavery of sin. Many prophets for generations have sung in anticipation of God intervention in history to provide there salvation. Joh...

The Creator moving in the life of a person is a powerful creative inspiration. Mary’s response to all God has said and done is a poetic song praising three characteristics of God. 

The church in Thessalonica was given clear and robust teaching, prayers, encouragement, admonishment, and instructions from Paul, an early church leader who knew and cared for them, in his first letter to them. The hearing of good teaching is only beneficial if it leads to doing. After this first letter Paul is given reports of how the congregation heard, received, and responded to what they had r...

Much of our correspondence closes with little more than an empty “sincerely,” or careless emoji. As Paul ends this letter to the Thessalonians, by closing with a robust and carefully constructed benediction. These final verses ring out the notes of Hope and Holiness sung throughout the entire letter. It also includes big themes of God’s character, His continuing work in the lives of His people, cl...

Paul has spent significant time calling the church in Thessalonica to remain committed to individual holiness. He has reminded them of their great hope in the risen Jesus who will one day return. In all of this, he has sought the church to intentionally grow in health. As he begins to close his letter, we see some key ingredients to the recipe for a healthy church.