Sermons

Last Sunday I mentioned the idea that the Holy Spirit in 1 Peter 1:10–11 is called “the Spirit of Christ.” This is a mysterious title for the Spirit and is worth reflecting on a little more.

In my passage, Peter told us something unexpected about OT prophecy. He told us the prophets spoke because they were inspired by “the Spirit of Christ”:

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted…

What do we find when we open up Peter's first epistle? Perspective. Perspective on so many of the things that confront us in life: identity, gender, marriage, Christ and his cross, salvation,  government, what God asks of us as Christians, what God accomplishes in us as Christians, the church, leadership in the church, work (vocation), our purpose, suffering, our past, present, and future, how we should think of ourselves in the midst of this fallen world—and where we should think of our true home. And there's more. These five chapters (or 105 verses) are packed with God's truth for God's…

If Jesus himself asked you, "Who do YOU say that I am?", how would you respond? It's one thing for a friend or your dad or even a pastor to ask that question. But what if Jesus himself was the one asking it? That would be unsettling. In that moment you'd realize any pretending would be foolish. Borrowing someone else's answer wouldn't work. Drawing on all that you know and have read and have observed, you'd have to go on record and tell Jesus the truth. Whatever the consequences might be, you'd have to just lay it out there. 

The apostle Peter…

(Sam gave this testimony Sunday after our sermon on Pentecost. We asked if we could post it on the blog for those not able to be there. Enjoy!)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I grew up in church and have heard the gospel story for as long as I can remember. I can still remember asking Jesus Into my heart around the age of 6 while sitting in my high chair. But it was in my early teens that I felt the conviction of needing a “real" relationship with God. I constantly struggled with the “feeling” of not being…

Beginning Sunday, April 11, we’ll spend eight weeks looking at the book of Psalms (and one looking at Acts 2). The title of the series is “A Heart for God.” The reason for the title is that’s what we hope you experience, a greater heart for God.

The Psalms meets us wherever we are—even in the most desperate of all places—and draw our heart to God as the Good Shepherd, the Almighty Creator, the One Faithful to his promises, the one sure and steady anchor in a world collapsing all around us.

Here are some thoughts and excerpts from this sermon on January 31, 2021. You can listen, watch, or read the entire sermon here.

Listen! Look Here! He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Pay attention to what you hear! These are the commands from the mouth of Jesus in Mark 4. His listeners’ and our spiritual lives depend on our response to it. Jesus goes on to warn his disciples that if they don’t understand this particular parable (of the Sower), they will have trouble understanding the rest of what he will tell them. We would do well to pay attention as well.

Tomorrow we begin our next sermon series, "Introducing...Jesus." We'll be working through the Gospel of Mark over the next months to see various aspects of Jesus Christ. The goal of the series is to both encourage and deepen the faith of those already Christians and to allow easy entry points for those who aren't yet Christians. In each sermon we hope to highlight an aspect of Jesus as he's presented in this distinct historical document.

Mark is the shortest and sharpest of the four gospel witnesses—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. For much of church history Mark was overlooked since scholars assumed…

I mentioned this morning that Deuteronomy gives us seven principles in building a community of concern, a community of people who are caring for one another's needs in ways pleasing to the Lord. Here are those seven.

We had some technical issues Sunday with our sermon on Deuteronomy 5:20, so we decided to put the sermon notes into a blog post.

This Sunday we begin our series in Deuteronomy, the last book Moses wrote. In some ways it’s not really a book at all but a sermon—or a series of sermons by one of the Bible’s most significant figures. One author said in Deuteronomy Moses is best seen not as a lawgiver but as a pastor. Knowing that his death is imminent “Moses gathers his congregation and delivers his final homily, pleading with the Israelites to remain faithful to Yahweh" (Daniel Block, NIVAC).