Sermons

The relationship between strength and weakness so often goes terribly wrong with the strong taking advantage of the weak to harm or oppress them. In this passage we see how one man addresses and corrects this relationship so we can learn from him and imitate him.

Faith is trusting what God says is true. And we show our trust by how we act. So, when God says that He has rescued His children from hell by the death of His Son, these new friends of God not only need to believe that future, but live in the present like it were true. God loves His people so much that He has done everything they need to enjoy an eternity of fellowship with Him.

Love can be risky. At least between humans. Not only are we experts at violating love, we often have all the wrong ideas about it to start with. We think it has everything to do with how others make us feel, as opposed to how we serve them. We should delight in the fact that God is love. He never gets it wrong. And the proof of that love (as if we needed that!) is the death of His Son for His peop...

Trials and difficulties are a key component of the Christian life. As much as they may be uncomfortable and unfortunate in the moment, they cannot be avoided, and there's a good reason why this is so: God purposes hardships for the spiritual good of Christians. Like a bitter, but effective medicine, sufferings, though painful, are good for the Believer's soul.

God is who he says he is. He does what he says he’ll do. In this Psalm we see a contrast between two people. One trusts in God and one does not; and their futures couldn’t be more different. One is glorious. One is not. Do you trust in God? And, if so, will you continue to trust in him no matter what?

There are times we get things backwards in the Christian life. Sometimes we think the worst thing that could happen to us is another trouble or trial. In reality, that difficulty or resistance may be a gift from God to grow our faith and experience more of His love. Wise Christians learn to stop resisting His providence and start increasing their hope.

Having finished making his case that the only people who will spend eternity with God are those who have been justified by His grace, Paul now turns to revealing more of the blessings or benefits that come to every single person who has faith in Jesus. It is one thing to know about these benefits, and an altogether greater thing to live like they are true. If we lack spiritual confidence in this w...

"Love" is a concept that is often misunderstood. We can get our definition of love from many places, but the only final and definitive definition of love comes from God Himself. By learning about God's love for His people, we will better understand what it means to love, and how we should go about loving one another.  

We are easily deceived by appearances. What might look to us to be an unmitigated disaster, might actually be a remarkable success. Not just in the sense of making something good happen out of a mistake, but more in the sense of the thing itself being truly good. All we need are eyes to see it.

We are prone to evaluate spiritual things with all the wrong tools and criteria. We are impressed by things that are meaningless and miss the obvious things that are vital. We learn toward things that we can control and fuel our pride and we neglect the things that display our weakness and His glory. That is why we often judge colossal failures to be remarkable displays of “success.” We need a new...

One temptation that is constantly facing Christians is to forget who Jesus actually is. Wrong systems of belief can have a negative effect on us, causing us to diminish the significance of Christ’s person and work. In contrast to this, Colossians 1:15-20 calls us back to the majesty and supremacy of Christ. This passage shows us that Jesus is in a league of His own for the very fact that He is God...

God promised Christians would suffer. But that’s not God’s only promise. There are many more glorious promises God makes to every Christian - one of which is that Christians will surround their King in glory with no more suffering forever. And that promise will be realized because of all their King has done; and because of their union to their King through faith.

All of us are prone to fear the wrong things. When we do, we often cower when we should be courageous. There is a way to live a courageous Christian life. It does not often involve huge exploits or massive sacrifices. More often than not, it means choosing to do what you know is true, when doing so looks scary.

In this fallen world we will experience affliction, and we will desire to be delivered out of it. Our King experienced affliction too — and God delivered him out of it. He sought the Lord and perfectly feared the Lord, and the Lord delivered him. In fact, it is because Jesus sought and feared the Lord that we are able to be delivered. All that is left for us to do now, as we await our future deliv...

God is directing his people to do something new and intimidating: To go in a way they have not passed before—a way that will involve difficulties, trials, and tests. God wants his people to know that when he directs them, he provides for them and ultimately delivers them.

Good News should make you happy. Otherwise it would not be good! And the Good News of salvation - being justified by grace through faith, and not works - should make you particularly joyful. A child may not understand the meaning of a massive inheritance until they reach adulthood and have access to it. In like fashion, a Christian may not grasp the riches that belong to them until they lean in to...

It is easy to be afraid of what will happen in the future- especially when faced with suffering. It is a lot harder to take our eyes off our fears and our suffering and trust our God. Psalm 56 helps us to trust God, and it reminds us that we don’t need to be afraid, for we already know what our future holds.

It is always interesting to see which questions God deems the most important to answer. Many times we come to the Bible with queries we consider of utmost importance. God knows the questions behind our questions and always tells us what we actually need to understand. There are three questions answered in this passage. Each of them fills out the answer to one big concern: How should sinners who ha...

The Lord is more concerned for His glory than your good. That becomes obvious when you unpack this passage. The other thing that becomes obvious is that He loves His people so much! In many ways, this particular paragraph pulls together the entire Bible and explains how it is God is able to save anyone… and remain God!

Today we launch into the second big section of Romans. I. The reason for the Gospel: universal guilt (1:18-3:20) II. The heart of the Gospel: justification by faith (3:21-4.25) As we do, we begin to unpack a paragraph of the Bible that some have viewed as the most important information of all. For this paragraph is answering the question of who can be declared Not Guilty by God.