Mosaic Boston - Sermons

Deep down inside, every single one us wants to (or has wanted to) live lives of consequence. We want our work to matter. We want our lives to matter. We want to matter. We all yearn for glory. Unfortunately, many of us don't understand one of the greatest paradoxes of the universe: if you live for your own glory, your life won't matter that much, but if you live for God's glory, you will live of l...

However, the God of Holy Scripture is radically different. Scripture tells us God is love, and one cannot love from afar. God is intimately involved and wholly committed to us. One cannot become this involved in any relationship without becoming vulnerable. To love is to open up your heart, either to acceptance or rejection, to bliss or to grief. Genesis 6 gives us a glimpse into God's grieving he...

In Philippians 3:12-21, Paul shows us how to live in response to amazing grace. Knowing he was completely unqualified for the position God gave him, Paul begins to “Run Like He Stole It” without looking back! Jesus qualified him when he was completely unqualified, so Paul makes it his aim to run faster, work harder, and grow up into a life worthy of the Gospel. Hear this great message from Ivey Rh...

As we continue our journey through the book of Genesis, we learn about the first city ever built. The city was built by Cain. Although God created everyone to find their deepest satisfaction in Him, by fully glorifying him, Cain seeks to build a life and city apart from God.

In Genesis chapter 4, through the story of Cain and Abel, God reveals some profound truths about the nature of our hearts and about the subtlety of sin.

In Genesis 1 and 2, the Lord God created the cosmos and humanity perfectly. He looked at all creation and proclaimed "it is very good." Everything was flawless. Chapter 2 ends with Adam singing a long song to Eve. After their wedding, they were meant to blissfully "live happily ever after" in paradise, with all of their needs met and desires satisfied. They had a perfect relationship with God, per...

While Genesis 1 describes God's general purpose in creation, chapter 2 explains His more specific purposes for our lives. God reveals to us his plan for our work, rest, gender, sexuality, singleness, and marriage. Did we cover all those hot-button issues in one sermon? You bet. And you don't want to miss it!

Many are familiar with Genesis and it's epic themes of Creation & Fall, of Calling & Blessing, of Covenant & Promise. Many are familiar with the timeless stories of Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, Noah & the Ark, Babel & beyond. However, most Christians fail to understand Genesis as Jesus understood Genesis. Jesus interpreted Genesis as a book about Himself! In Luke 24, while traveling on the road to Emm...

Every year, right about this time (late August, early September), just before the new surge of people into the city, we pause everything at Mosaic, and remind ourselves of the mission before us. Church is a family and once any family grows, it needs to get organized. Like every organization, churches have the tendency to subtly drift from their original objectives. This is called mission creep. Ir...

A couple years ago, we went through a series at Mosaic, entitled "This Changes Everything." In this teaching series, we talked about how the person and work of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, doesn't just save our souls, but the Gospel also is meant to transform all the most practical areas of our life: work, money, sex, relationships, and the church. Many people view the Gospel as the way we enter th...

Sick of the election yet? Cheer up, there's only than 3 months left of it (!). Today, we'll be talking about a more encouraging kind of election. This one isn't about Hillary and Donald (thankfully). We'll be diving deep into some of the most profound but also historically confusing chapters in all of the Bible. Most churches never even crack open the book of Romans, not to mention Romans 9-11. So...

I really hope you're enjoying the Book of Romans as much as I am! As we soar over this most profound book and get a glimpse of the breathtaking vistas, you can't help but be amazed at God's glorious plan of salvation through the Gospel. In chapter 6, Paul pauses to deal with a question that naturally arises when people hear that we're saved simply by grace through faith in Christ, not because of a...

How do you measure success? What does a great life look like? Most people would measure success by wealth, power, comfort, popularity… but how does Jesus measure success? This week we conclude our series on the 7 letters to the 7 churches in Revelation by looking at Jesus’ letter to the church in Laodicea. The Christians in Laodicea were physically healthy, economically secure, and socially accept...

"Who can make it stop?" This was CNN's headline this morning. After living through another blood-soaked, tear-filled, gut-wrenching week, I think many of us are asking the same heavy question. It's a question that acknowledges our helplessness. It's a question that realizes we are faced with problems greater than even our collective resources can solve. It's a question that longs for someone power...

Are you a tolerant person? It’s a questions we’ve all either asked, or been asked. If you’ve asked that question, you were probably curious to know if the person, or people, you were addressing could love you if they really knew your beliefs or lifestyle. If you’ve been asked that question, you may have worried that you were about to be ambushed. Sometimes the real question behind the question is,...

A.W. Tozer once said: "A new Decalogue has been adopted by the neo-christians of our day, 'Thou shalt not disagree,' and a new set of Beatitudes too, 'Blessed are they that tolerate everything for they shall not be made accountable.'" These words seem to be truer than ever. Our culture appears to be putting more and more pressure on the Church to conform to the prevailing culture's values. To conf...

Throughout church history, Christians have been persecuted for simply remaining faithful to Jesus Christ. Though we enjoy relative religious freedom, Christians worldwide are continuing to suffer for their faith. Several watchdog organizations have published papers saying that "2015 was the worst year in modern history for Christian persecution." With North Korea leading the way, and militant radi...

Today we begin a new sermon series at Mosaic through Jesus' seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. The incredible unvoiced assumption behind these letters, is that just as much as Jesus Christ loves and cares for the universal Church, he loves and cares for particular churches. As the Apostle John gazes at the glorious Christ in Revelation 1, Jesus turns John's gaze to...

When you hear the parable of the good Samaritan, where do you cast yourself within the story? On a particularly good day, we may feel like the good Samaritan. Or, at least, if we just tried a little harder, or we were at the right place at the right time, we could be like him. We're inspired by how Jesus describes his acts of compassion, and we get pumped up to "Go, and do likewise" in a broken wo...

What is the most important thing about you? And, not just the thing you really want someone to know about you when you first meet them. I'm not talking about what you do for work, how much you make/have, where you went to school, your athletic prowess, or social connections. What's the thing, if you lose it, you lose everything? A.W. Tozer once said, "What comes into our minds when we think about...

Have you noticed the recent trend in Hollywood to make movies and shows about the end of the world? The future of our planet is always being threatened, by aliens, asteroids, floods, freezing, killer viruses, robots, mutants, nuclear weapons, and of course, zombies. Ours is a culture full of existential angst and Hollywood (and Politicians!) are cashing in on it. We're past the question, "Is the w...

Preaching famous texts is always challenging, because people think they know the story, and as the saying goes, "familiarity breeds contempt." We're so familiar with the story, it's lost all relevance in our lives. The story of Daniel and the lions comes with an additional challenge: though famous, it has been famously misinterpreted! The usual interpretation goes like this: "Look at Daniel, he's...