Sonoma Avenue Sermons

Moses went to Pharaoh to demand that the people of God be freed from their slavery. Pharaoh said no. Moses had done as much as he could. It was time for God to step in. God's first intervention in this dynamic is at times weird, unexpected and terrifying. But God has a message for Pharaoh and his people. There may be other "gods" but there is no one like me.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. This saying has been around forever. Why is it a part of our cultural lexicon? Because it is hard to try again. Trying again means that you were not successful the first time. Moses went to Pharaoh to demand that he let the Hebrew people go, and things got worse! Moses had done what God told him to do, and the result was more labor, fewer supplies. Wh...

The parable of the sower is one of the most well known teachings of Jesus. It is also the parable that has some of the most detailed explanations from Jesus himself. The sower, seeds, soil and all of the things that can happen through the growth cycle give life to what spiritual growth sometimes looks like. You think you know what it is all about? Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Christians are often characterized as being judgmental. We come by it honestly. We feel a pressure to recognize sin and deal with it, or else. We are especially good at identifying sin in others. The parable of the weeds, and the parable of the nets, give us some insight into what our role is when it comes to judging, and how hard we should work to separate ourselves from the world.

Is the kingdom of Heaven in danger of being overcome? Does God need us to defend him? If so, what is the best way to defend him. These questions and more are being asked in every corner of our country. Depending on who you listen to, you may believe that the kingdom is on the verge of being eradicated. The parable of the Mustard seed and the yeast tell us a different story, if we are ready to hear...

Jesus had much to say about the way he wanted the world to look, and he often painted word pictures for using Parables. Matthew chapter thirteen has several parables about the kingdom of heaven. Join us as we take a look at two parables which tell us about how great the kingdom is.

Things often go wrong. When they do, who is responsible? More accurately who is to blame? When Moses approached Pharaoh to demand that his people be let go, things did not go as Moses thought they would. The more people that got involved, the more blame there was to go around. Following God is challenging and at times frustrating. Regardless, we cannot forget who God is and what he is capable of.

Moses is headed to Egypt! He heard God's plan and (reluctantly) agreed to go and demand that Pharaoh let the Hebrew people go. This is the good part right? Where Moses steps out and God delivers? Not exactly. The road to Egypt is complicated and on the way, Moses needs to learn more about who God is, or else...

What do you do when you meet a fiery bush that is not burning in the wilderness and it speaks to you? You speak to it of course. God chose a strange way to introduce himself to Moses, but there was a method to the strangeness. God needed Moses to do a very important job with his help. The only problem was that as much as Moses didn't trust himself, he did not yet know if he could trust God. Join u...

What do you do when you meet a fiery bush that is not burning in the wilderness and it speaks to you? You speak to it of course. God chose a strange way to introduce himself to Moses, but there was a method to the strangeness. God needed Moses to do a very important job with his help. The only problem was that as much as Moses didn't trust himself, he did not yet know if he could trust God.

Moses is the most important person, in one of the most significant stories in the Bible. God chose him to be his representative when he delivered his people Egyptian slavery. How did Moses become the person that God chose? In order to understand why God chose him, we have to look at the events that made him who he was.

The exodus story is well known within our culture. There have been movies made depicting the dramatic and miraculous story. The name itself has a life of its own, becoming a metaphor for deliverance and freedom. As well as we may know the story, we cannot truly understand it if we do not understand how the story starts. Join us as we look at Exodus chapter one and ask ourselves, "Who are these peo...

There were several events that happened in the days after Jesus was resurrected. What was Jesus doing? Why did he do the things he did? What was he trying to teach his followers? Join us as we examine these questions and more.

Join us as we celebrate the unbelievable resurrection of Jesus.

Today we celebrate Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the kickoff to his last week in Jerusalem before the Crucifixion. The event is significant but also complicated. Who was there? Why were they there? These are a few of the questions we address in our exploration of Palm Sunday.

As we come to the close of the Joseph story, we can marvel over all that has happened with his life. But in the end, it may not even Be Joseph's story.

As we near the conclusion of Joseph's story, we are reminded of the tension between the kingdom that God wanted to create and the kingdom of the world. The two come head to head in the lives of Joseph and his family. Which kingdom will win out?

This week, everything comes full circle in the life of Joseph. He revealed his identity to his brothers, and sent for his father to return. More importantly Joseph show that he understands what God was doing in his life. It can be tough to figure out the relationship between our will and God's will, but the Joseph story helps.

We had a difficult week in our Santa Rosa Schools. Violence broke out on the Montgomery High School Campus and a student lost his life. Other schools faced threats of violence and weapons on campus. In this sermon I talk about my feelings, as a parent of a student at a school where something so awful happened. More importantly I give some thoughts on how I think a follower of Jesus should respond...

Sometimes, we are so familiar with a biblical story that we overlook what is really going on within the story. Joseph has had a difficult road to the top, and when his brothers showed up in need, he struggled with how to handle the situation. Even Biblical heroes struggles with their emotions and thoughts. But perhaps in these moments, we can learn something about ourselves and God.

Joseph has greatly risen to a position of unimaginable power because of the presence of God in his life. He has a family, a home, influence; he was the savior of Egypt. There was just one more problem he had to over come...his brothers.

The road from dream to reality was a long and difficult one for Joseph. He had to wait on God, unsure when the future God envisioned would come to pass. And then one day, everything changed...

Sometimes when we read the bible, or sense of timing is off. It may seem to us that things happen quickly, one even moving directly to the next. In the life of Joseph, time was not his friend. He spent a good portion of his life as a slave and in prison. Even though God was with him, this was not the life that Joseph expected or wanted. How will he ever get to the place God showed him in his dream...

We often believe that God's blessing will make things better for us; that having God on our side means that our life will be more smooth and victory is the name of the game. But what if God blesses us as a way to bless other people? The Story of Joseph gives us new insight into what it means to be blessed by God

Sibling rivalry is a part of life, but it can also create wounds that last. Joseph was loved more than his brothers. His father made sure that everyone knew it. This led his brothers, through years of bitterness, to make a life-changing decision. The thing they did not know is that God had a plan, a dream for his people and nothing was going to keep him from making that happen.