Sermon
Sermon October 31, 2021 - Ephesians 5:15-20
Forks in the Road
not as unwise people but as wiser.
If Jesus is Lord of our life, our path through life will be different because of it. There will be things we must say "no" to in order to say "yes" to others.
Scripture: Ephesians 5:15-20
Sermon October 3, 2021 - Ephesians 4:22-5:2
Anger Management
do not let the sun go down on your anger.
Are you ever angry?
Do you ever do and say things you later regret when you are angry?
If you said yes to either of these questions, welcome to the human race.
Let us learn to deal with anger in godly ways, as well as learning to avoid the burden and danger of unnecessary anger.
Scripture: Ephesians 4:22-5:2
Sermon September 26, 2021
Godly Anger
do not let the sun go down on your anger.
Christians do not talk much about anger, and yet each of us experiences it. Even though we often avoid the subject of anger, scripture does not. Even Jesus gets angry.
Some people blow up and explode in anger, saying and doing things they otherwise never even dream of. Others avoid anger, stuffing it deep inside, unsuccessfully hoping it will go away.
In the big picture, when we consider that God is rightly angry toward sin, what does God's anger lead him to do? God gives his only son, not to condemn the world, but so we might live through him. God's anger resolves into our salvation.
Anger motivates us to action, particularly injustices inflicted upon others, but guided by the same love in which God sent his only son as a living sacrifice.
If that is how God responds to our sins, for which he is rightly angry, so it also is to be how we respond to those who sin against us.
Scripture: Ephesians 4:22-5:2
Sermon September 19, 2021
Taking Flight
and to clothe yourselves with the new self,
created according to the likeness of God
in true righteousness and holiness.
Jesus calls us from our old ways and to a new self.
No matter how you look at it, this means change. Someone said, "God loves you just the way you are, but he also loves you enough to transform and heal who you are."
Scripture: Ephesians 4:17-24
Sermon September 12, 2021
Growing into the Fullness of Christ
for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity,
to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
Is your faith growing or remaining the same? Does your life make a difference?
As humans, all of us have grown up from infants. We start with simple things like learning to turn over to our stomach or back. We learn to crawl. We begin to pull ourselves up and eventually take some tottering steps. But it isn't long until we can run, skip, and jump. What was once impossible becomes ordinary.
Our faith similarly develops over time, indeed over our entire lives. We were not created and saved to remain how we are, but to grow into the full stature of Christ. This is God's lifetime work in us, and this side of heaven we will always have room to grow.
Where are you growing in your faith? What step is God calling you to take? How is God using you?
Our life in Christ is a journey of saying "yes" to God's will in our life.
Scripture: Ephesians 4:7-16
Sermon September 5, 2021
United in Baptism
Baptism is intensely personal, but it also marks becoming part of the communal body of Christ.
1 Cor. 12:13
For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Sermon August 29, 2021
In Over Our Heads Together
Faith can be scary. If we can do it on our own, it doesn't take faith. Faith is following Jesus in ways that are beyond our own ability - over our heads. Not only that, God invites us to take these steps of faith together, not alone.
Sermon August 22, 2021 - Essential Unity
Essential Unity
just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,
who is above all and through all and in all.
God's love and blessings for you far exceed your expectations. However, most people pray and hope for God to bless their own plans, rather than seeking God's. One of the great calls for God's people is to unity in worship, fellowship, and service. Is this unity something you for pray and work for?
Worship, scripture, and prayer are vital parts of the Christian life. Growing in a living relationship with Jesus blesses and transforms us. The living presence of the Holy Spirit empowers us.
But until we commit to living out the second greatest commandment and the fulness of the last six commandments, until we, as the first verse of today's scripture describes, lead a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called, baring with one another in love, we are only partaking of a small part of God's plans for his people.
God calls us not only to himself, through Christ's work on the cross, but inseparably he also calls us into unity and community with each other.
We cannot have live in full relationship with God without relationship with others.
Sermon August 15, 2021
Race to the Bottom
bearing with one another in love,
making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.
Humility, gentleness, and patience are not what the world or our own short-sightedness lead us toward, and yet they are indelible characteristics of Jesus, and essential to being worthy of the calling to which we have been called.
Sermon August 8, 2021
Boundless Love
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great grace was upon them all.
Sermon August 8, 2021
Acts 4:32-37
The lives of the first Christians were radically changed by the great grace they received and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. It was a revolutionary transformation of their hearts and lives, as God's love for them directed their lives, rather than self-interest.
