Roseville Covenant Sermons

In recent years there's been a shift in the objections people have against Christian faith. In an earlier time, skeptics would ask, "Is the Bible true?" More often these days people ask, "Is the Bible good?" The problem of religious violence has become a bigger objection than the plausibility of miracles. For believers and skeptics alike, one of the most challenging books of the Bible is Joshua. I...

When we’re young, we imagine adulthood as a place where confusion evaporates and answers become clear. As adults, we discover the truth: everyone is still learning as they go. The growing pains don't stop when you reach a certain age. When the Bible commends "spiritual maturity", it paints a similar picture. Christian maturity doesn't necessarily mean we're finished products, but that we've commit...

There are all kinds of institutions and organizations that have local chapters of a common mission (think of things like the Kiwanis Club, Alcoholics Anonymous, or the YMCA). They often have a charismatic founder and a set of guiding values and documents that create an enduring mission and culture in diverse settings. You might be tempted to think of the Christian church in a similar way, but let...

In 1949 about 76% of Americans held "membership" in a church congregation. In 2025 just 45% of Americans belong to a congregation. Yet despite this precipitous decline in church membership, 65% of Americans still identify as "Christian." Belonging to a church and being a Christian no longer seem synonymous. A lot of people who are interested in Jesus are nonetheless asking, "What's the point of ch...

As summer comes to a close I am always grateful for the ways this season allows me to enjoy the outdoors and marvel at God's creation. Whether it's taking in the stars under the milky way, watching thunderclouds roll across the prairie, or feeling the wind as it blows through the trees; time in nature is a prime opportunity to consider the majesty of God and the humility I should have before him....

Most of the Ten Commandments speak to behaviors that are observable and measurable (e.g. there are ways to tell when a person is stealing or working on the sabbath). The final commandment of the ten forbidds something much more internal to our minds and hearts: we should not covet neighbor's "house or spouse" (Exodus 20:17). This command puts restraints on our most secret thoughts and inner desire...

It's been said that trust takes years to build and seconds to break. What's more, since so much of life depends on trust, a broken promise creates suspicion and resentment that afflicts more than individual relationships. Communities run on trust like an engine runs on oil. When there's a leak, it doesn't take long for the whole engine to seize. As we continue in our summer sermon series on the Te...

We often describe a brand new baby as, "the miracle of life." It's an appropriate phrase because scripture tells us in a variety of ways that life is not an accident nor is it a given, but life is a precious gift from God. In the same way, there are few things that shock our sense of goodness more than when a life is taken by violence. It is the ultimate act of disorientation and desecration. "Blo...

There are words that have fallen from the lips of parents at least once in their life, "Because I said so!" Even the most patient moms and dads sometimes just want kids to follow instructions without stopping to explain why. It would be tempting to appeal to the fifth commandment as justification, "Honor thy father and mother." (Exodus 20:12). There are Bible verses that commend a child's obedienc...

Early in his ministry, Mark’s gospel records these words from Jesus:“The Sabbath was made for humankind (man), not humankind for the Sabbath.” (Mk 2:27). Sometimes it can feel like Jesus is speaking in riddles. What does Jesus mean?  In our journey through the 10 commandments, scholars and theologians suggest that the third command about Sabbath is a cornerstone to the other nine. It isn’t all tha...

Do you ever get a word or phrase stuck in your head and it drives you a little batty? Or maybe there's a word or a name that "triggers" you because you associate it so closely to a bad memory. The Bible frequently warns us that words can be dangerous and that names are important. This is why the story of Exodus includes a story about God's name (Exodus 3:13-15) and a warning that this name carries...

One of the major shifts that took place in the human mind during the age of enlightenment and the rise of democracy is the idea that religion was simply one "part" of your life among many. It has resulted in the idea that "worship" is simply what we do on Sunday mornings, and is related to the very specific spiritual activities like saying a prayer, singing a song, or attending a service. This was...

Historians sometimes observe a kind of see-saw in the life of societies and nations. In one era, a culture may become permissive and libertine. Once this gives way to anarchy, the pendulum swings back towards the rule of law in response. In some ways, we might be seeing this in our moment. An increasing number of people who have grown up with lawlessness are growing curious about tradition, religi...

To wrap up our Bridgebuilders series, we will return to the Old Testament prophets, where we started, to consider Isaiah’s words to the people of Israel post-exile. In Isaiah 58, they ask the question: “Why have we fasted and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?” But, they seem to lack self-awareness as it turns out that when they “fast” their workers are...

One of the fun things about the Bible is that it is full of little sayings we throw around in everyday conversation without even realizing where they came from. This week, we will spend some time in Luke 10 which has not one - but two! - of these sayings. If you've ever referred to "a wolf in sheep's clothing" or "shaking the dust off your feet", you're squarely in Luke 10 territory. We find Jesus...

Who has told you the good news of Jesus? I can list a whole slew of people who turned my heart toward Jesus in small and big ways. Their influence moved me to consider God in deeper, truer, and more personal ways. They ‘evangelized’ me (evangel = good news). Sometimes when we think of evangelism we think of street preachers or formulaic gospel presentations and we get the ‘ick.’ And, because we do...

In a world with increasing global conflicts that seem harder and harder to resolve, it can feel like diplomacy is a lost art. Across the history of civilization, tribes, nations, and empires have called upon individuals to cross boundaries with wisdom and skill to negotiate peace and friendly relations. When describing the work of an apostle, Paul uses this image of a diplomat, telling the Corinth...

Divided. Isolated. Fractured. Atomized. These are the words we often hear used to describe our current cultural moment. There is discontent and a hurt in the world that creates estrangement, injustice, and violence (we call it sin). Yet in the face of these forces, God's people have been called to be peacemakers, rebuilders, and repairers (Isaiah 58:6-12). That's a huge task! What power makes it p...

"It is to your advantage that I go away" (John 16:7). I think a great number of us come to worship because we want to become closer to Jesus, so how then is it advantageous that Jesus "goes away"? Without some understanding of who the Holy Spirit is, you might get the sense that the point of the Christian life is to suffer in God's absence until one day we might be reunited, but the Bible tells a...

Confirmation is a long tradition in many Christian churches in which our youth commit to study, reflect, and practice their faith in the hope and preparation that they will continue to be life-long followers of Jesus. It culminates on Confirmation Sunday, which includes our students sharing their faith stories. The traditions, rites, and celebrations of Confirmation Sunday spotlight our youth as i...

Over the last 5 weeks we've surveyed ancient cultural customs, re-examined the stories of Hebrew patriarchs, considered the context of Israelite law, looked at historic heresies, and had plenty of time to reflect on historic doctrine. The book of Galatians is indeed "a crash course" of the gospel and would be an excellent textbook for "Christianity 101." Yet all these challenging thoughts and idea...

Many political scientists and statesmen have observed that while freedom is the bedrock of democracy, freedom requires exercises of responsibility to keep from collapsing on itself. It's sometimes described as the difference between "liberty" and "license". License thinks freedom is for your own self-satisfaction. Liberty is freedom that we extend to others for the sake of common good. In the firs...

Some decades ago, a sociologist suggested that one of the major sources of increasing depression in our world comes from the pressures we put on ourselves to create and manage an image or an "identity." He called it, "the weariness of self." The effort to fit in, stand out, or rise above can be exhausting. We have phrases in our parlance that capture this (eg "we're slaves to fashion"). Biblical w...

We may think the days of succumbing to peer pressure are long gone; that saying what we think others want us to say or doing what they want us to do or wearing what they want us to wear was for the high school lunch table. But, when we’re honest with ourselves, we know that people pleasing doesn’t just go away with adolescence. We are much too fickle for that. As we move into the second chapter of...

An old proverb says, "a leopard can't change its spots." We assume that people are largely predictable and personalities are largely fixed. We make certain judgments about a person who drives a large pickup truck and shops at Fleet Farm, and make another set of judgement about someone who drives an EV and shops at the organic co-op. Our culture has excelled at believing that certain things about u...