Sermon Video: Be Strong and Courageous - Joshua 1

** Note, we are utilizing new sound equipment for recording the sermons; hopefully you will notice considerable improvement.**

As Joshua prepares to take over the leadership role of Israel following the death of Moses, the LORD encourages Joshua with specific and powerful promises that he will be with Joshua as he was with Moses and that "I will never leave you nor forsake you."  In light of his word, the LORD tells Joshua to "Be strong and courageous" as he leads the people across the Jordan into the land that God has promised to give to the people of Israel.  The encouragement to be strong and courageous is repeated three times in the chapter, and the emphasis that God will give the land to Israel is repeated five times. 

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Sermon Video: Doing the right thing for the right reasons - Philemon

In his short letter to Philemon, an important member of the church at Colossae, and a slave-owner.  The Apostle Paul encourages Philemon to be merciful to his "son" Onesimus, a runaway slave whom Paul had evidently met in Rome and led to faith in Christ, and whom he is now sending back to Philemon.  Aside from Paul's bold statements of Onesimus' equality with Philemon in Christ, the letter is notable for Paul's unwillingness to utilize his authority as an Apostle to order Philemon to do what Paul clearly believed to be the right thing.  Instead, Paul appeals to Philemon on the basis of love, hoping to persuade him to view Onesimus as the spiritual brother that he now is, and for the sake of his friendship with Paul, to send him back to be Paul's helper. 
We, as a Church, often appeal to the need to be morally upright for its own sake; doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do.  And while this is true, and will be effective for some, Paul's appeal to love reveals that it is more fundamental to morality than any intellectual argument.  Does God want us to obey and choose what is right because it is the right thing?  Of course, but it cannot stop there, God ultimately desires for his people that they choose righteousness and holiness out of love for him; in the end, morality is relational.

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Sermon Video: Completing the work of the Lord - Colossians 4:7-18

As Paul finishes his letter to the church at Colossae, sending greetings and vouching for those accompanying the letter, a pattern emerges that enlightens us about the Early Church: Paul had a lot of help.  The Apostle Paul may get most of the limelight, and the average Christian may know about his inner circle of helpers like Silas, Luke, and Timothy, but the team that was required to support the ambitious Gospel mission of Paul was far larger and more capable than most people realize.  For us, then, as a modern Church with paid staff leadership in varying configurations, the lesson from Paul's reliance upon a network of helpers is simple: Don't forget the laity.  If we are to be the Church that Christ has called us to be, we need a wide and deep level of involvement from the people sitting in the pews on Sunday.

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The Church: The most diverse organization in the history of the world

The Church, founded by Jesus Christ nearly 2,000 years ago, is indeed the most diverse organization in the history of the world, and at the same time, the most cohesive and tightly knit together.  When Jesus sent his disciples out into the world to share the Good News of his death and resurrection, he sent them to peoples and lands without regard for the race, ethnicity, class, or gender of their audience.  As the Church became established and grew, it soon encompassed a vast array of people who, until their commitment to Christ, would have believed that they had little in common. 

While it is true that the people who comprise the Church have not themselves always been immune to the temptation to sin by treating fellow believers as "other", the spiritual bond of union with Christ that binds the Church together is stronger than any other familial bond, let alone the various other bonds that people enter into willingly.  Those who are indeed part of the universal body of Christ, who have been washed clean by the blood of the lamb, share one characteristic that transcends human frailty and the human propensity to squabble or divide: Each and every Christian is a sinner saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  Unity on that basis cannot be destroyed by the failures of the people who have been called by God out of the darkness and into the light, for it is maintained not by our power, but by the power of God.

Perhaps the vast majority of your experience with church has involved people who look, speak, and think as you do.  Perhaps you've been lulled into thinking that the Church (universal) is a mirror image of the local church to which you belong.  If that is the case, you're not seeing the whole picture.  The Church, universal, is incredibly diverse in virtually every category, much of it very different, perhaps uncomfortably so, on the outside, from what you may have experienced.  And yet, at the same time, that universal Church is bound together by one singular and all-encompassing commonality: Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord of each and every one of his adopted brothers and sisters.

Sermon Video: Make the most of every opportunity for God - Colossians 4:2-6

Before his final greetings, Paul urges one last course of action in his letter to the church at Colossae: prayer.  The particular focus of the prayer that Paul urges upon God's people is the opportunity for a clear presentation of the Gospel.  Paul emphasizes the need for God to "open doors" for the Gospel and reminds the Church that we need to make the most of every opportunity to share the Good News and also ensure that our conversations are always "full of grace".

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