Sermon Video: When God sets you free, who can condemn you? - Romans 8:33-34

Using Monty Python and the Holy Grail's infamous witch trial (witch=wood=duck) as a foil for humanity's imperfect justice, the comparison is to God's full, impartial, and absolute justice.  God knows each and every sin (evil) in the hearts of humanity.  And yet, God has chosen to declare some of those same people to be his children, to be 'not guilty' and instead righteous.  How??

The answer is simple: In Jesus Christ

God justifies (declares not guilty) those who have faith in Jesus because Jesus' life of righteousness and total absence of sin enables him to be our substitute, to take our place.

Once God has done that, who is left to condemn us?  Nobody.

Not ourselves, not other people, not Satan himself.  Nobody.

Sermon Video: Adoption into the Family of God - Romans 8:14-17

Adoption is beautiful.  In our world there are always children who need to be loved, cared for, and to have someone worthy of being called mom or dad.  

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, God himself wants you to call him dad.  God wants you to have a family relationship with him, to be included, welcomed and treasured.  For God, saving our souls from damnation was not enough, neither was beginning the transformation process (sanctification) to make us Christ-like.  Both of those are amazing acts of God's grace, but God is willing to go further, willing to welcome us into his family and call us his own.

Sermon Video: Jesus: Baptism, Temptation, and Proclamation - Mark 1:9-15

What does it take to get something big started? How much planning, what preparation? As the Gospel of Mark unfolds, Jesus travels to the Jordan to be baptized by John, and then into the Wilderness where he was tested by Satan. Following these two episodes of confirmation (the Spirit descending like a dove and the voice from Heaven on the one hand, and the ability to resist the Devil on the other), Jesus takes up John's message of repentance, adding to it the Good News that the Kingdom of God has come near (because he is here).

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Sermon Video: "Do we not all have one Father" Malachi 2:10

The prophet Malachi reminds us that everyone who is in a relationship (covenant) with God has the same father.  One Father = One Family.  In addition, he then reminds us that all of humanity has one Creator.  One Creator = One Human Race.  The prophet's subsequent question, "Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?" reminds us that there is no place in the Church of Christ for racism or discrimination of any kind.  All those who are in Christ share the same Father, and all of humanity as a whole shares the image of God.  Therefore, the Church must be proactive in supporting and defenders our brothers and sisters in Christ who face racism or discrimination, who suffer injustice.  Additionally, the Church has no room for Nationalism or other false ways of dividing the world into groups of 'us' and 'them'.  Silence is not an option, inaction is not acceptable.  It is long past time for the entire worldwide Church to speak together against racism (for example) in ways that transcend politics, affect our own hearts and minds, and impact our family, friends, and neighbors.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video: Christ will reign - 1 Corinthians 15:23-28

How does it all end? The Apostle Paul offers an interesting analysis of the End Times by approaching it through the lens of authority/power. When Christ returns, and begins the final unfolding of God's will, it will be a tumultuous time indeed, but one in which the authority, power, and dominion of the Son of God (achieved by the Father, and given back to the Father by the Son) will become unchallenged and unquestioned, with even Death itself falling victim to the glorious reign of Jesus Christ.

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Sermon Video: Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love? 1 Corinthians 4:14-21

Nobody enjoys being corrected, but it is an absolutely necessary part of life, spiritual life being no exception.  Paul had ample reason to bring corrective discipline to bear on the people of the church of Corinth, and yet he chose to do so with a fatherly warning instead of public shaming.  Paul recognized the ineffective nature of using shame against a rebellious heart, focusing instead upon warning them in love.  That Paul eschewed using shame is not an indication that he wasn't serious about the discipline that was needed, in fact, Paul told the people of Corinth that his approach to them would be determined by how they responded to his letter of warning.  If the people accept the warning, he will be able to come to them in gentle love when he visits, but if they refuse to cede their pride to the authority of God's Word, Paul will instead be forced to visit them with the "whip" of tough love.  In the end, what matters is keeping the people of God on the path of holiness, if gentle persuasion works, all the better, if not, love will have to get tough.

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Sermon Video: Jesus is God, Luke 9:28-36

Modern skeptics of the Bible, such as Dr. Bart Ehrman who wrote How Jesus Became God, have asserted that Jesus didn’t think of himself as divine, that his disciples never thought of him as such, and that all such references in the NT are later changes made by the Church.  Aside from the lack of evidence for such claims, there is the additional problem that the entire message of the New Testament, and the Bible as a whole, falls completely flat if Jesus Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, was simply a man wrongfully accused and executed by the Romans.  If Jesus isn’t God, in the same sense that Abraham and Moses spoke to God, Christianity has no reason to exist and all of its teaching are useless.  The disciples did believe in the divinity of Jesus, as did his earliest followers because they witnessed things that could not be explained any other way, among that ample evidence was the Transfiguration of Jesus witnessed by Peter, John, and James.

            The Transfiguration, during a time of prayer on a mountain in Galilee, was not a transformation of Jesus, but rather a revelation of that which was already within him.  As the “Word became flesh”, to use John’s description, Jesus had within himself both all of humanity, except sin, and all of divinity, willingly limited in time and space.  Why such a fuss?  Why would God go to such great lengths when he could have just sent another prophet to share the same message as Jesus?  The answer is simple, no one else could have accomplished the task that the Father required of the Messiah.  Another messenger would not have fixed the fundamental problem that separated humanity from God: human sinful rebellion.  Only by coming amongst us, only by accepting the role of vicarious savior, could Jesus forever open up the path to redemption; only he could do it, and only if he was indeed the Son of God.

            The Church has always taught the divinity of Jesus, those who denied it in the Early Church were opposed, their teachings labeled as heresy.  This belief is absolutely foundational to everything that the Church and Christians think, say, and do.  Jesus is God.

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Sermon Video 

Sermon Video, "As a father has compassion on his children" Psalm 103

When searching for a sermon text for Father's Day, it becomes painfully clear that there are few fathers in the Bible who are known for being good fathers.  This lack of proper fathers is the single greatest need in American society, affecting millions of homes and countless children growing up without a godly father's influence.  In Psalm 103, David highlights the action, heart, and mind of an amazing father, our heavenly father.  God, because of his love and compassion, is an example of the type of father each of us would want as our own.  Throughout the psalm, the example of God resonates with father's as a how-to guide to parenting.  Not only biological fathers, but father figures and anyone and everyone trying to fill the void of a missing father, all would benefit from copying the attitude of God toward the wayward children of humanity.  In the end, God earns the praise directed to him, and so will earthly fathers if they too learn from his love, compassion, and wisdom.

To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video

Where are the fathers?

When special Sundays roll around it's always an option to take a break in whatever sermon series I'm doing and write something appropriate to that day.  With Christmas and Easter, it isn't an option, the message always reflect the holiday (they are after all, holy days).  With Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and Thanksgiving, the option is always there when I decide to take it.

This year for Mother's Day I didn't break from the messages I've been preaching in Philippians.  This upcoming Sunday is Father's Day.  Having preached eight messages in a row out of Philippians (from 1:1 to 2:11), I thought it was time for a break.  So where do I turn for a message that will speak to God's people on Father's Day?

If it had been Mother's Day, there would be no shortage of stellar mothers whose stories I could use to illustrate a moral or theme.  I could have used Jochebed, Hannah, Naomi, or Mary (to name some of the easiest choices).  But what fathers can I use who distinguished themselves in the Bible as a father?  Suddenly, the list seems short.  Let's see, how about Abraham?  Ishmael votes no.  How about Isaac?  Esau says try again.  How about Jacob?  Joseph isn't too keen on that one.  What about Eli?  Yikes, both of his sons were notorious sinners.  Then certainly we could use Samuel, his mother was on the list for ideal mothers; nope, both of his sons "did not walk in his ways".  I'm getting worried here; this doesn't look promising.  Then certainly we could use David, isn't he a man chosen by God?  Sadly, Absalom thinks we ought to avoid talking about his relationship with his father.  We could use Joseph, after all he was a man of character in the birth narrative, but we don't know anything about his relationship with Jesus.

Do you see the pattern?  To find a good mother one need simply look around in the Bible, there's plenty of them.  To find a good father, you need the scour the Scriptures or avoid the unpleasant sides of the stories of men like David.

Are you surprised?  If you've spent any time looking at and analyzing our society you shouldn't be.  The single greatest flaw in modern American culture and society is a lack of fathers.  We have plenty of boys willing to create children, but precious few men willing to be fathers.  Men, this indictment falls squarely on our shoulders.  You or I may have fulfilled our obligations, but literally millions of men have miserably failed their children.  Single moms raising their children may be awesome, but they're not meant to carry that burden alone.  Some kids may turn out OK without a father, but the education, social welfare, and criminal justice systems are full to the brim of kids who haven't been so lucky.  We, as American men, have failed.  It doesn't matter which statistic of social ills you look at, they're all made worse by absent or lackluster fathers.  Can anybody honestly not see the connection between teen pregnancy/abortion and absent fathers?  Is it hard at all to see the connection that gang activity, gun violence, and drugs have with fathers who are MIA?

Father's Day is a tough one.  I'm just glad that I can preach about our Heavenly Father; at least then I'll know that everyone in the congregation has a good one.