Sermon Video: Sharing spiritual and material blessings, Romans 15:25-33

To the church at Rome the Apostle Paul explains why he is on his way to Jerusalem with a gift designed to help relieve the poverty of the Jewish Christian in Judea that he had collected from the Gentile Christians of the churches he had founded.  Why did this matter so much to him?  Paul had hopes that he could keep the Church united around its shared Lord and squelch the divisions of ethnicity and culture.  Why were they willing to give?  Gratitude.  They knew how great the spiritual blessings they have received from God, given through the Jewish Christian community, really was, and these first generation Gentile Christians were glad to be able to give a material blessing in return.

Sermon Video: Living like Jesus in the everyday things - Romans 12:13-16

As disciples of Jesus, imitating him is a key aspect of our faith.  Here in Romans 12, the Apostle Paul offers 4 examples of behavior that help illustrate our obligation: (1) sharing/hospitality, (2) blessing those who persecute us, (3) having empathy, and (4) limiting pride to foster harmony.

Sermon Video: "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away" Job 1:20-21

The day is coming: A day of joy or a day of sorrow, a day of victory or a day of defeat.  Such days are coming for all of us and each of us.  In the book of Job, Job learns first of the complete ruination of his family's wealth, and then on the back of that shock, the horrific death of ALL 10 of his children when the building they were in collapsed during a storm.  How does Job respond to this trauma worst than our nightmares?  He falls to the ground in worship of God.  What??  Rather than ignoring God or responding with anger, Job responds with reiterating his commitment to the will of God.  How can this be possible?  Job understood a profound truth: All of life's blessings are from God, and all of them are temporary.  That perspective allowed Job to survive the worst possible news with his faith intact.
Can we worship God on our worst day?  Will our faith hold firm?  Perspective is the key.

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Sermon Video: An immoral people cannot expect God's blessings - Haggai 2:10-19

Utilizing an illustration involving consecrated food and the defilement associated with touching a dead body, the LORD utilizes the prophet Haggai to show his people the danger of disobedience.  During the 16 years when the temple was not being rebuilt, the LORD tried to get his people to pay attention by affecting their harvests and limiting their material successes.  This was not evidently noticed by the people because they didn't act until the prophet made the connection clear to them.  Moving forward, however, God promises to once more bless his people because they are no longer disobedient.  What then is the connection for the Church?  While not under the blessings and curses of the Covenant of Moses, we too are held to a high standard of holiness and righteousness as well as being required to put away immorality.  We do not look to the harvest for confirmation of how we're doing, nor do we need to, for the Word of God has made clear to us our obligations and the Spirit of God now dwells with God's people.

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Sermon Video: Come and see what God has done - Psalm 66

In a psalm of praise, the author speaks of our need to shout for joy to God, to sing the glories of his name, and then recounts the awesome deeds of God for his people and all mankind.  In addition, the psalm mentions that God preserves his people from "slipping" (immorality) through testing them with hardships.  In the end, the people of God, who have been shown the mercy of God, need to speak to others and share "what he has done for me."

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