Tri-State Community Church - Sermons

In our passage John mentions an old commandment and a new commandment. Something has happened. Something that has powerfully transformed the old into the new. In this message, Pastor Rick Anderson explains John's meaning and its implications, namely, that the true church is to be wonderfully loving because it has been transformed by and reflects the very love of Christ.

When we think of the phrase "the love of God perfected" we may be inclined to think of mountaintop experiences, warm fuzzy feelings or even ecstatic emotions. In this message Pastor Rick Anderson takes us through John's words in order to discover what this great truth describes and how it wonderfully applies to all the faithful followers of Christ.

In 1 John 2:1-2, John introduces the word "advocate." In this message, Pastor Rick Anderson takes us through several questions: 1) what is an advocate 2) who is our advocate 3) what is the scope of His Advocacy 4) why does it matter?

The Real Deal // 1 John 2:1a by Tri-State Community Church

This message begins with three "flyovers" which set us up to understand the Psalm from our side of the resurrection of Jesus. From there we look at each verse in order to gain a working understanding of the message of Psalm 2. The fruit of this understanding is the wonderful news that our Psalm 1 Messiah is our Psalm 2 King!

The aim of this message is: 1) to explain the many metaphors and terms in the psalm 2) answer the question, "Who is the man in which Psalm 1 is referencing 3) show how Psalm 1 proclaims the gospel and empowers us to become Psalm 1 men and women.

The Son who is promised in this great verse is a human born just like any other human. But our text also informs us He is to be called Mighty God. Herein is the great gospel truth that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. In this message we gaze at what the bible says about Christ as Mighty God: He is Mighty to create, Mighty to Re-create, Mighty to Save, and Mighty to Keep.

In this message we continue our study of this great passage. After a period of deep darkness, Isaiah speaks of a coming light--a Great Light. This Great Light will dispel the tyranny and oppression of this world and the spiritual forces of darkness imprisoning it. This joy and deliverance comes because "to us a child is born, to us a Son is given. This Son is the light of the world who will dispel...

At the start this message may sound like a history lesson but what we have is a great anecdote to the increasing fear and anxiety which abounds today. As we look at the ancient history we see many parallels to our own time and more importantly, we see God's very own cure for this age old problem.

This message continues where last week's left off, namely, in verse 6 where we saw that walking in darkness is walking in the realm or kingdom of darkness. From this kingdom there can be no holistic fellowship with God. In this message we consider John's contrast, namely, walking in the light. Walking in the light is walking in the realm or kingdom of light. This contrast has led some to conclude...

When John says, "if we say we have fellowship with God but walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth," who is he referring to? The false teachers? Antinomians? Nominal Christians? True believers who have sinned? True believers with besetting sins? True believers who have fallen into a pattern of sin? All the above? If yes to all the above, can the true believer lose fellowship with God...

In 1 John 1:5, John begins to share the message he had heard and proclaimed. As others have pointed out, one of the great lessons of verse 5 is found in John's starting point. We may have expected John to begin with the love of God. But instead, John begins with the character of God. In this message, Rick Anderson develops John's starting point, shows the implications of it for evangelism, shows h...

Last time we began to look at the amazing subject of fellowship with God, and we began by looking at this fellowship from God's side of the relationship. In this message, Paster Rick Anderson continues the discussion on fellowship with God, this time looking at this fellowship from our side of the relationship.

Earlier in this study it was argued that the heart or essence of the Christian faith is fellowship with God. In this message Pastor Rick Anderson digs a little deeper into this fellowship by looking at what this fellowship is from God's side of the relationship. The answers are absolutely staggering and uplifting.

As wonderful as it is, the purpose of Jesus’ earthly ministry goes far beyond forgiveness of sins. There is an inherent danger today of stopping too early and seeing forgiveness of sins as the essence of the Christian faith. In this message, Rick Anderson shows us the true essence of the Christian faith is fellowship with God.

This week we begin a new series in John's first letter. The opening verses of this short letter are lofty. And in order to begin to appreciate the loftiness of these verses we begin by looking at some introductory material--things that had we been part of the original audience we would have known. From there we look at the amazing fact that the "word of life" has appeared and the apostles bear wit...

In this series, we have been looking at who God is and what He has done. So far we have looked at the Father and the Son. In this message we now turn to the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

In this series, we have been looking at who God is and what He has done. And for most of us, if not all of us, we first learn about who God is by learning what He has done, namely, what He has done on the cross. On the cross, Jesus, the Son of God, suffered. He was buried and on the third day He rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father in absolute authority. He shall come ag...

In this message our discussion of the Trinity continues. After a brief review, we look at three things: 1) The Son of God is indeed very God of very God 2) all these blessing have come down to us from heaven 3) how God has chosen to experience human suffering in the person of Christ. This third point has huge ramifications in: 1) our understanding of the love of God displayed at the cross 2) couns...

In this message we begin to move into the heart of one of the most complex doctrines of the faith--the Holy Trinity. We begin by looking at a New Testament pattern expressed by the common phrase, "God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." And from there we begin a discussion on the phrase "only-begotten". The purpose of this is to go deeper in our understanding of who God is so that our worship o...

Having invested a couple of weeks on the importance of the historic creeds and confessions, this week we begin to look at what the church has historically called the Nicene Creed. We begin by offering a thumbnail sketch of the historic context of the creed. There we see its importance for worship, salvation, and our understanding of who God is. Then we look at how to properly use the Creed in the...

This message continues the discussion of the importance of Creeds and Confessions, this time centering Paul's Pastoral Letters.

Recently I was reminded how vast the bible is. This reminder came as I gave a bible to a person whom I had just spent about an hour sharing the gospel with. I was also reminded how important the creeds of Church history are: The Nicene Creed, the Apostles Creed. And also, our historic confessions. For these documents lay out the clear teaching of Scripture. They have been examined for hundreds of...

Psalm 24 raises two questions: "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? Who shall stand in His holy place?" The answer, "He who has a pure heart." This immediately leads us to another question. We do not have pure hearts so how can we ever brought favorably into God's holy presence? In this message Pastor Rick answers this important question from the text of Psalm 24.

Psalm 23 is one of the most popular and beloved psalms in the entire psalter. And it contains some of the best known verses in all of the Bible. "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want." "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." In this message, Rick Anderson takes us through this great psalm with the purpose of encouraging and streng...