The Tree Church Sermon Podcast

God uses the experiences of our lives to prepare us for the future. Every experience God takes us through has a present day purpose but also a future purpose. Our response to our experiences is either to worship God or to create an idol out of it. The way that we use it for worship is we submit it back to God and are willing to sacrifice all that He has given us. The way we make it an idol is for...

Jesus clearly explains that the only way to follow Him is to deny yourself, die to yourself and then follow. He goes on to explain that if you don't follow this pattern, you are not really following Him or experiencing life. This world offers an illusion of life. Jesus offers the real thing. We must be willing to surrender our lives in order to experience the realness of His life. It's not what we...

Jesus asks His disciples who the crowd thinks that He is. Jesus then asks Peter, "Who do you say that I am?"  This question is being posed to men who left everything, made financial sacrifices, and risked their lives to follow.  Isn't it obvious who they think He is? Jesus wanted them to declare the fullness of who He is. When Peter says, YOU ARE THE CHRIST!  This statement goes beyond the crowd's...

Often our steps of faith feel bigger than us and are hard because God doesn't always ask us to take steps when things are ideal (ie...we have enough money, we have enough rest, we have enough time) or easy, but rather God asks us to take steps of faith in the midst of our busy, stress filled lives. And yet this passage gives us some keys to working through whatever barriers we feel are keeping us...

Jesus asked the disciples to do something unique and seemingly illogical. He told them to go on a trip and don't do any of the things you would normally do to prepare for it. Jesus was preparing them to take a step of faith. He wanted them to go alone, trusting God would supernaturally provide for all of their needs. The reason Jesus wanted them to do this is He knew later on He would be leaving a...

For thousands of years, people got sick and died without ever knowing what was killing them. Mankind’s ignorance that bacteria was the force behind sickness was destructive for so long. What if we are living in a more destructive time and even more ignorant? We are. The reality is that there is an unseen force destroying billions of lives every year and it’s spiritual. We still battle in the physi...

At times, Jesus leads our lives to "storms" (difficult situations) so that we will learn to trust Him so our faith will grow. The reason we fear present situations is because of past experience (whether ours or someone else's). Jesus wants us to understand that present reality changes past experience...Jesus is now in the boat with us and that makes all the difference!

Jesus continues His theme of responding to His commands/teachings with obedience. He then gives an illogical example. He says, “No one lights and lamp and covers it with a jar.” The idea is that no one gets saved (the light of Jesus) and then hides it by not doing good works. That’s illogical. An honest and good heart listens with the purpose of obeying. The idea is that the only logical response...

All of human history is now viewed in relation to one event, the birth of Jesus Christ. When Jesus came into the world, He changed human history on two important levels. He changed the very culture (how people viewed needy people, women, slaves, generosity, etc.) and He changed the spiritual reality. Before Jesus, everyone was spiritually dead and after Jesus, true life was available. So what’s ou...

The heart of the message, and I think the heart of Jesus, is getting people to recognize (not for condemnation but for the hope of change) where they are…what type of soil they are and calling for them to desire to be the good soil.

When we understand how much we have been saved from, we will show greater mercy to other people and worship Jesus more. The way to love better, be more forgiving, be more patient and be less judgmental is to realize how great your own sin is/was and that Jesus forgave it.

Each idea in this passage is challenging the religious community that was simply going through the motions and trying to justify themselves. Jesus' whole message was that to follow Him takes obedience through actual behavior.