Sermons from Grace/Bethel

Shortly before he ascended, Jesus told his followers they were to engage in meaningful ministry—to work their way through the world, sharing the good news of salvation. Our loving Lord knew that was a big and often intimidating task. So, his next words were a promise. “Surely I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). God’s people still need to hear that promise. For several weeks, we have been discus...

King David explains, “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1). That word “everything” doesn’t leave any wiggle room, does it? That word “everything” means that your home and all its furnishings, your vehicle and all that’s in the trunk, your bank account, the twenty-eight dollars in your wallet, the wallet itself, and the pocket in which you carry your wallet all belong to God....

In the ancient Middle East, a shepherd needed certain skills to do his job well: knowledge of edible grasses, ability to trim hooves, capacity to fend off predators, and competency to birth lambs. However, the greatest qualification of a shepherd is much simpler. A good shepherd needed to care for his sheep. Without that, none of those other skills would be fully utilized. In Scripture, meaningful...

When a child asks a sibling to do something, there isn’t much certainty as to the results. The sibling might simply ignore the request. However, if that same child goes to a brother or sister with “Dad said so,” it’s a very different story! Now, the father’s authority is behind the child’s request. As believers carry out gospel ministry, encouraging others to turn to Christ in repentance, people m...

If ministry involves serving others with love and compassion, you would think that people would respond only with glee and gratitude for the help they received. Sometimes, but not always. If you offer to help a family member who is having trouble paying his bills, he might be offended, wondering if you are implying that he is not a good provider. Likewise, if you try and share the gospel with some...

Most people fear death to some degree. Some fear death because they assume it is the end. Others fear death because they assume it isn’t the end at all but that there is some sort of reckoning after death, which might not go well for them. And have you seen what happens to a dead body? It is far from pretty. So, it is understandable that most people would fear death. Not so for those to whom God h...

A powerful tornado rolls through your neighborhood. A massive hurricane heads straight for your city. A bolt of lightning sends 300 million volts to earth. The raw power and unpredictability of storms can inspire both awe and terror. We cannot stop storms from coming. We can only hope to survive them. However, we know the Almighty God can stop storms. He can calm literal storms. He could remove me...

Usually, a kingdom advances and is secured through things like military might, political force, or worldly wealth. It can be tempting to believe the same holds true in the kingdom of God. Perhaps we think churches would flourish if we had the right rulers passing and enforcing the right laws. Or we believe that for a church to do good, it requires a robust budget. Political force. Worldly wealth....

Look at our lives—the problems, the pains—and it’s easy to conclude that we are losing. Look at the world—the brokenness, the bedlam—and it’s easy to believe that the devil is winning. It all can lead us to despair. Yet this turmoil is exactly what God said would happen in the Garden. There, God declared that until the end of time, enmity would prevail between the devil and mankind. But God promis...

After a long day of work, you have earned the right to sit in your favorite chair, put your feet up, and watch your favorite program. After a hard week on the job, you have earned the opportunity to relax a bit that weekend. After doing your job well for many months, you have earned those two weeks of vacation at the beach. This is how everyone thinks: rest is something you earn through hard work....

Christianity, at its heart, is all about relationships. It’s about our relationships with God and with one another. And it’s about how, even though we have broken these relationships with our sins, God has fixed them by sending his Son Jesus into the world to accomplish the work of our salvation by his death on the cross.

Jesus told his disciples that, though he was going to ascend into heaven, he wouldn’t leave them alone. He would send “the Advocate,” a title for the Holy Spirit. But Jesus wasn’t sending the Spirit to keep us company. Jesus would have the Advocate give us spiritual power so that we might participate in Christ’s saving work. Here is the final resurrection reality. The Spirit gives us the ability t...

This world is broken. Oh, certainly, we still see beauty in nature. By God’s grace, we have plenty of happy moments. But that does not change the fact that this world does not function as God designed it to. It is dangerous, especially for God’s children. Jesus once promised that those who live for him will be hated (just as Christ was hated) by those who live for the world. The even greater dange...

God’s Word can be summed up in one word: love. God’s Law is all about love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…” and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37,39). The gospel is all about love: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” (John 3:16). From his compassion for the sick and broken to his sacrificial death on the cross, to the peace he provided after...

Generally, our actions are shaped by our beliefs. People who eat low-carb diets do so, probably not because they hate pasta but because they believe it is the healthiest. If a man buys stock in a company, it probably is because he believes in its business plan. Our beliefs shape our behavior. This is true of Christians’ belief in the resurrection. We believe Christ’s resurrection guarantees our re...

Scripture frequently pictures spiritual care in terms of a shepherd watching over sheep. Even folks unfamiliar with shepherding can grasp the meaning. Sheep are helpless animals—an easy meal for predators. For sheep to survive, they needed a shepherd who not only leads them to sources of food but who also is willing to tangle with a pack of wolves. Jesus is such a shepherd. He proved he was willin...

A platitude is a statement aimed at helping soothe some sort of emotional unease. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Or “Life is a mystery.” Or “Good things come to those who wait.” While platitudes may be well-intentioned, at best, they come off as trite. And since platitudes provide no real help, they can actually make a situation worse. Tell the one whose heart is shattering, “Life is...

In most world religions, the alleged foundational event was experienced by only one person. A self-proclaimed prophet would allege he alone had some special encounter with God. “No, really! Just trust me. It really happened.” The resurrection reality is so very different. In the Great Resurrection Chapter (1 Corinthians 15), St. Paul writes an entire paragraph listing all the people to whom Jesus...

The film director Woody Allen once said, “I’m not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Studies have shown that most people fear death to varying degrees. This fear is so common that there is even a field of psychological study called thanatology. It examines human reactions to death and dying. One of the biggest reasons people fear death is the perception of its permanenc...

Most religions believe in a powerful God. It is assumed that God will use that strength to benefit his followers. That is a reasonable assumption, but it begs the question. What is real strength? It is easy to assume that real strength means exerting your will over another using any necessary means, including force. But this week, we see Jesus Christ demonstrate a different kind of strength. We ha...

Religious sociologists sometimes divide Christians into two groups: committed Christians and cultural Christians. The former are usually defined as those who are active in a congregation, pray regularly, and read Scripture. The latter are those individuals who call themselves Christian and perhaps have some Christian beliefs. Yet, they do not strive to live a Christian life. They are not intereste...

While not every religion uses the word “sin,” they all embrace the concept. Every religion acknowledges that mankind’s flawed attitudes or misguided actions are a source of pain, both now and potentially in eternity. So, every religion offers a solution: a set of laws, a moral code, a path to more enlightened behavior. What do they have in common? We are to solve sin through human effort. Be bette...

Person A never attends worship. He can’t see the point. Person B attends every week out of a slavish sense of obligation. Her mind wanders during the services, for she views the activities of worship merely as tasks for her to complete. Who is worse off? Rather than debating the point, let us just admit neither understand the true worth of worship. And that is exactly what Satan wants. Many think...

We know that the cross was an instrument of torture and execution. However, Scripture also uses the term “cross” to refer to any suffering that one endures because he is a believer: the painful denial of the desires of the flesh, ridicule and persecution from unbelievers, etc. This is one reason people reject religion. They see Christians struggling in life with these crosses, while non-Christians...

“If God loves us, why doesn’t he remove all the trials, tests, and temptations we face?” That question demonstrates the religious assumption that those things are bad. They aren’t. In the hands of a loving God, they are tools by which he refines our faith. He uses tests as a way to compel us to be less self-reliant and instead trust in his strength. He uses trials to teach us that this broken worl...