Sermon Video: Faith Resting on God's Power - 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

In this self-reflective section, Paul explains his attitude and reasoning regarding his initial time in Corinth when he first preached the Gospel, first in the synagogue, and then among the Gentiles.  Paul reveals that he purposefully avoided trying to sound polished and slick in his presentation, not wanting to win people over with anything other than the Gospel message itself.  In addition, Paul admits to a level of trepidation at the weight of the responsibility God had given him, but ends the section with a reassuring thought: It was not upon anything that Paul did that the people built their faith, but on the power of God.  How does Paul know this?  Paul kept his focus upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the heart of the Gospel, thus ensuring that what the people believed in was the Word of God, and thus reliant upon the power of God, as it should be.

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Sermon Video: God's Misfits - 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

The message of the Gospel, a message of redemption and hope, naturally appeals more to the downtrodden and the poor than to the powerful and rich.  It is thus no surprise that the Church has always been more welcome among the outcasts of this world than among its upper crust.  But, as Paul informs us, it is not simply the appeal of the message that is responsible for this outcome, but the will of God itself.  God chose to focus on the lowly for his own purpose: to destroy human pride and ensure that all whom he calls to him will come in humility.  In the end, the only boasting available to the people of God is boasting of the awesome works of our God.

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Being a Habitually Accurate person

Much was said in 2016 of the accuracy of the statements made by various American politicians and their surrogates, most of it not complimentary.  We, as a society, struggle with the desire to put Power above Truth, and the willingness to bend, or invent, "facts" in order to win.  These tactics, win or lose, come at a cost; those who utilize them pay by earning a reputation as a person who cannot be trusted, except when acting in their own self-interest.
The Church, and the people of God, must not allow themselves to be swayed by this siren's song of power to taint their trustworthiness with exaggerations, half-truths, bendable "facts", and outright lies.  Whatever is at stake, to "win" by such methods is to certainly lose.
Compare the current atmosphere's emphasis on finding things that are "true for me" with the timeless desire for Truth in the Word of God.  In F.F. Bruce's 1943 classic, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, Bruce writes the following after citing dozens of examples of historical accuracy by Luke in his Gospel and in Acts.

"Now, all these evidences of accuracy are not accidental.  A man whose accuracy can be demonstrated in matters where we are able to test it is likely to be accurate even where the means for testing him are not available.  Accuracy is a habit of mind, and we know from happy (or unhappy) experience that some people are habitually accurate just as others can be depended upon to be inaccurate.  Luke's record entitles him to be regarded as a writer of habitual accuracy."

These words bear weight in the ongoing apologetic effort to defend the trustworthiness of the Bible, but they also remind us of something important: that character (or the lack thereof) matters.
Are you accurate and reliable?  Do the things you say on social media, and the things you "like" and share also value Truth over Power?  If we are inaccurate in the small things, why will others trust us when we claim to speak the Truth about the important things?
The people of God cannot afford to sacrifice their love of the Truth in the pursuit of political power, and must certainly not sacrifice our reputation as Truth-speakers about eternity for any purpose in the here and now.  Speak the Truth, our Father loves the Truth, its that other guy that spends so much time crafting lies.

Sermon Video: The Shepherds go to Bethlehem - Luke 2:15-18

The first missionaries of the Gospel were the shepherds visited by the angels who first came to see the promised child for themselves and then went and shared that Good News with many.  The shepherds did not know how this child would save his people, but because they trusted God they were filled with joy and shared their wonder with others.

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Sermon Video: A baby whose origins are from of old - Micah 5:2

The prophet Micah predicted that the future king in the line of David would be "from of old"; yet how could this be?  How could a future king be from the past?  The mystery of this prophecy was solved at Bethlehem when Jesus Christ, the God-Man, became flesh and he who had created the world entered into time.

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