Elmwood Church - Sermons

Psalm 63 shows how to thrive in life’s wilderness seasons through three practices: turning our thoughts to God, singing songs that strengthen our faith, and clinging to His promises. Even in hardship, we can find hope and satisfaction in Jesus, the living Word who delivers us from sin and death.

Numbers 21 shows how the wilderness exposes our struggle to trust God’s daily provision while also revealing his mercy. God uses testing for our good, invites us to depend on him in prayer, and points us to Jesus, lifted up on the cross as our rescue from sin and death.

Genesis 16 shows how God meets Hagar in the wilderness, sees her misery, and extends grace she did not earn. The God who saw Hagar sees us too, and through Jesus he meets us in our deepest need, stays with us in suffering, and invites us to trust him even when the way ahead is unclear. 

1 Corinthians 9 calls us to approach the race of faith with disciplined investment. We do not train to earn God’s love, but because we already have it in Christ. Discipline helps us build practices and habits that form us into faithful, fruit-bearing, maturing apprentices of Jesus.

 Hebrews 12 reminds us that the Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint. To finish well, we must throw off both sin and anything that hinders us, live at a sustainable pace, and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who has already run the race before us and faithfully carries us to the finish. 

Luke 10 shows the need to balance doing for Jesus with being with Jesus. Martha’s service was good, but her worry and overactivity pulled her away from him. Mary models the better way: discerning when to stop, listen, and let service flow from communion with Christ. 

Luke 15 reveals God’s compassion toward sinners who repent and return to him. Like the father who restores his lost son, God forgives, restores dignity, celebrates reconciliation, and calls us to show that same compassion toward others. 

Philippians 4 gives a Christ-centered way to face anxiety: pray with trust, give thanks, bring requests to God, and filter thoughts through what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. God’s peace guards us as we fix our minds on Christ. 

 Ephesians 4 shows that a healthy church keeps Christ, not the pastor, at the center. Christ gives leaders to equip the whole body for ministry, so the church grows as each member uses their gifts in love. As Pastor John returns from sabbatical, Elmwood is invited to grow with him in grace, patience, and shared ministry. 

Daniel 9 shows us how to pray with humility and hope. Daniel confesses sin honestly, trusts God’s faithfulness, and pleads for restoration not because his people are righteous, but because God is merciful. In Jesus, the divide caused by sin is bridged, and we can come boldly before God as redeemed people.

Luke 14 shows God’s heart to fill his banquet with people who know their need for grace. Jesus invites the undeserving, the overlooked, and the resistant to come to him. We are called to receive that invitation ourselves and help compel others toward the table.

 Luke 10 calls us to see the world as Jesus does: a plentiful harvest with too few workers. Jesus sends his followers into a world where some will welcome the kingdom and others will resist it, but the message remains the same: the kingdom of God has come near. As his people, we are called to pray for workers, recognize the harvest around us, and go as those workers ourselves. 

Psalm 109 gives language for bringing anger, pain, and cries for justice honestly before God. Rather than acting in revenge or suppressing difficult emotions, believers are invited to give their anger to the Lord in prayer, trusting him as both righteous judge and loving Father. Because Jesus has taken our sin, wrath, and suffering to the cross, we can come to God with all of ourselves and wait in...

 In Matthew 18, Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving servant shows that those who have received God’s overwhelming mercy are called to forgive others from the heart. This sermon explores forgiveness as a decision of the will, not forgetting or excusing, and warns that unforgiveness creates bitterness, spiritual bondage, and distance from God. True freedom in Christ includes releasing offenses by God’...

In “God’s Good Work,” Colossians 3:23–24 frames work and rest as part of God’s calling, not as separate from the spiritual life. From creation to fall, redemption, and restoration, work is shown as originally blessed, now affected by sin, and redeemed through Christ. Because God sees and values even ordinary labor, Christians can approach their work with purpose, gratitude, and faithfulness, doing...

 Paul’s call in 1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1 shows us how to live with wisdom in a spiritually complex world. Because everything has the potential either to become idolatry or to become worship, Christians are called to filter all of life through the pattern of the gospel: Does this glorify God, and does this benefit others? In Jesus, we see the perfect example of one who gave up his rights for God’s...

Unpack Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 10:14–22 that idolatry divides our allegiance from God. While the Corinthians faced the specific temptation of participating in idol feasts, the deeper danger remains for us today: treasuring created things above the Creator. Because God alone deserves our total loyalty, we are called to flee from every form of idolatry and run to Christ, who remained faithfu...

This sermon reflects on 1 Corinthians 10 and Paul’s warning to run hard after the lasting prize of Christ. Through the cautionary example of Israel in the wilderness, we are reminded that persistent, unrepentant sin and idolatry can pull us away from faithful endurance. Yet God is faithful, providing a way of escape from temptation and calling us not only to flee from sin, but to flee toward Jesus...

Empty me. Fill me. Use me.  What if the key to reaching the people around you started with a simple three-line prayer? This message unpacks how Paul's radical approach to connecting with wildly different people can inspire all of us to slow down, show up, and let God do something wonderful through our ordinary lives. Spoiler: you're going to mess it up — and that's actually the best...

In this Mother's Day message, we turn to Exodus 2:1–10 and the story of Jochebed — a mother whose courage and trust in God changed the course of history. Her willingness to defy Pharaoh and entrust her son to God's providence points us forward to Jesus, who embodied that same courage and trust on the cross. Whether you are a biological mother or called to invest spiritually in others, th...

In this message, we dive into 1 Corinthians 9:1–18, where the Apostle Paul sets a radical example for the church in Corinth — and for us today. Rather than demanding what he was rightfully owed, Paul willingly laid down his right to financial compensation so that nothing would get in the way of the gospel taking root in people's lives. Paul's pattern points us back to Jesus, who gave up...

What does it look like to live without anxiety in a world of overwhelming abundance? Drawing from Matthew 6:25-34, this message offers a framework for navigating material abundance without losing your soul to it. We dig into what the Bible actually says about enjoyment, the hidden costs of accumulating stuff, and why contentment isn't about owning less — but about treasuring something more.