Woodbury Church of Christ Sermons

Devotion described the earliest Christians. Now we might only describe the most serious Christians as "devoted". Much of our life and culture conspire to make our lives about anything other than Christ. Many Christians haven't challenged the basic assumptions about what or who we value, what we prioritize and how we live...and, without noticing, Christ was removed from the center of our lives. ......

Every decision to improve or transform ourselves involves an entire host of choices. If we want to exercise in the morning we have to make choices about going to bed at night. If we want to be generous we have to make choices about how we spend our time. Unless we're prepared for ALL the decisions that are involved we're not going to make any transformations. Join us as we explore 1 Corinthians 9:...

Christmas is a rescue mission of grace. The nativity was just one phase of this a quest to redeem humanity. 

We're taught that God loves us more than we can comprehend. However, we're tempted to wonder if that's true when life is tough. How can we trust that God loves us when it's hard to see? 

(Note, the recording starts a few minutes after the message. If you read Psalm 8 you'll get the idea.)  Wonder is not only knowing that God is loving, powerful and good but knowing the He is those things beyond our ability to comprehend. That space between what we know and what we believe is the wonder that fuels our praise our worship and our relationship with God. 

Pointing out someone's blindspots can feel like walking through a field of land mines. If you step in the wrong spot... However, sometimes love means having difficult conversations. As disciples, we need to overhaul our idea of gracious, loving confrontation. 

Scammers are good at masquerading as the real thing and tricking people into doing things that are contrary to their own well being. Just like that, sin is a scam. It promises the very thing that it will eventually steal. It promises happiness and delivers sorrow. It promises freedom and delivers slavery. Worst of all sin makes it harder to believe that there is a Savior who doesn't want to condem...

(The audio quality isn't excellent. We we're experiencing some technical difficulties). We all have them, areas of our lives where we simply do not see ourselves clearly. This lack of self-awareness is not only destructive and, to make matters worse, we don’t even see the problem. Scripture offers a prayer that can help us crack open these dark corners of our hearts.   

Part of being a disciple is making disciples. No matter who we are we have been granted influence into someone's life. What do you have to pass on to someone else? 

Whether we like it or not conflict will inevitably be part of life in a church family. The good news is that, if handled right, this can be a healthy opportunity to show love, grace and humility. If we all are determined to lean into the humility and sacrificial love of Christ then, we may disagree but conflict won't be able to divide us. 

We are interested in Jesus, we are in awe of God but we often find the Holy Spirit so mysterious that we end up avoiding Him. Jesus was explicit - the Holy Spirit would be the very presence of God living in his disciples. Why do we misunderstand and marginalize the Spirit? 

The Bible is an amazing, life-changing and, at times, confusing book. It's not only WHAT we read but HOW we read it. If we're not careful, we can, with pure and sincere motives, elevate our interpretation of the Bible over the Bible itself. This ultimately puts our faith in having an answer for every question rather than in God. Maybe not always having all the answers put us in a better position t...

The Bible can be studied, analyzed, handled, praised, appreciated, respected and even applied...but if we don't see beyond the printed page to the author Himself, then we have missed the point. To understand Scripture is to see and experience the God of the universe. 

Most people's lives are full of ups and downs. The life of Joseph was even more of a rollercoaster than usual. Despite all the twists and turns, Joseph kept his eyes on the prize. Jeff Walling shares from the life of Joseph as we learn what it means to stay focused. 

Everyone has struggled with the question - do I belong? You are not a second-rate, dollar store, discount disciple of Christ. You are not an outsider, you are not excluded, you are part of the family, you are fellow a fellow citizen. No matter who you are, where you’ve come from or what you’ve done…You belong…

Jesus is the ultimate high definition, 4K, crystal clear, highest resolution, zoomed all the way in, large print, vivid, clearest, in full-living-color, undeniably best representation of God! Jesus it the context for God. Jesus is the character of God. Jesus is the Heart of God!

It's not just "How are you doing?" It's "How do you tell how you are doing?" How do we evaluate how we are doing? This can be tricky in all areas of life, including discipleship. If you're interested in figuring out how to assess your discipleship...listen in! 

A disciple isn't a pro-Christian or the heavy-duty version of a follower of Christ...a disciple is a Christian. However, we might not all be on the same page as to what disciple means, is or does. When we think "disciple" we need to think three words Discover/Desire/Do

When it comes to church it's so easy (and tempting) to criticize. Honestly, there's lots to criticize - it's kind of low-hanging fruit. However, when we remember that the organizing principle of the church is that we're a group of imperfect people who are being remodeled by Christ, it changes things. It's kind of silly to point out all the unfinished parts of a home that is being built. In the sam...

There aren't many things that we want to think about less but that influence our thinking more than death. What we believe about what is next has a huge impact on how we behave now. What would our lives look like if we truly lived with hope? 

Sometimes we want Christianity to be simple, easy-to-follow, turn by turn directions. However, Discipleship is often directional. We navigate toward Christ-likeness through the particulars of our own lives. Learning how to plot our course toward Jesus. 

We probably don't often ask - "Why do the right thing?" But when we don't often have a good answer past, "...because it's right." The New Testament almost always talks about something different and it's often the difference between making it and messing up. 

We like to think of ourselves as being people of principle when sometimes we're just being stubborn. How do we tell the difference between being obstinate and standing firm? And why is it so important to our faith? 

The church in Thessalonica, by all accounts, should never have made it. Paul had come to the city to start a church but accidentally started a riot and got chased out of town after just a couple of weeks. All the good church-planting manuals will tell you that this isn’t going to last.  Yet when Paul hears from the brand-new Christians, not only are they still hanging in there, they’re thriving! J...

Jonah is so much more than a children's story. In fact, most of the made-for-kids version of Jonah don't even make it to the final chapter and that's where the real action happens. There's a critical question for us here - how do we handle God's grace and mercy in the lives of people we don't think deserve it?