The Witness of the Spirit
A Sermon for July 23, 2017 on Romans 8:14-17 What evidence is there that God exists? Although some people take the existence of God for granted, for other people it’s not quite so simple. Broadly speaking, there are two types of evidence. The first is objective evidence. An example of objective evidence would be something like the historical evidence for God raising Jesus…
Life in the Spirit
A Sermon for July 16, 2017 on Romans 8:1-11 How do you form a child who will live a good, moral life? I imagine that the vast majority of parents at some point ask themselves this question. What can you do? Well, there is obviously a place for rules. Black and white look a lot more gray up close than they do from a safe distance. In the heat of the moment, rules can be an…
Jekyll and Hyde
A Sermon for July 9, 2017 on Romans 7:14-25 We’re continuing in our sermon series on Romans. We’ve been talking about the amazing grace that God’s give to us. God’s ability to bring about complete transformation in someone’s life. We’ve been talking about that fancy word justification. And last week we added to it another fancy word: sanctification. I guess we’re just…
The Journey of Sanctification
A Sermon for July 2, 2017 on Romans 6:22 We’re continuing our series on the book of Romans in the second half of chapter 6. And over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at images that Paul uses to describe this fancy word: justification. If you’re going to substitute one word for justification, the best word is probably pardon. But how does that play out and how does…
Dead to Sin
A Sermon for June 25, 2017 on Romans 6:1a-11 We’re continuing our series on Romans with the first chunk of chapter 6, where Paul is continuing to work out what it means to be justified by faith. Last week we talked about one way of looking at this thing called justification. Before justification, we are God’s enemies. Once we are justified, we have peace with God. God…
Justified Love
A sermon on Romans 5:1-8 for June 18, 2017 There’s a retired United Methodist pastor, Dennis Dorsch, who has been walking with me for nearly a decade as I’ve been growing spiritually and discerning God’s call on my life. For someone who has some significant mobility problems, he remains incredibly active and committed to that Wesleyan spirit of “Do all the good you can,…
Authority for Mission
A Sermon on Matthew 28:16-20 for June 11, 2017 The passage that we read from Matthew’s Gospel contains what is called “the Great Commission. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” In the late 18th century, a man named…
The Reason for the Season
A Sermon on Acts 1:6-14 for May 28, 2017 Last week, we spoke about the person of the Holy Spirit, and we talked about a few of the roles that the Holy Spirit takes in our lives. In particular we talked about the Holy Spirit as Advocate, as Comforter, and as Helper. We also spoke about how in the church year, we’re in the season of Easter. The resurrection has happened,…
Another Advocate
A Sermon on John 14:15-21 Did you ever see the show Mythbusters? The premise is that special effects experts rig up scenarios to test various Myths. Will a cell phone used near a gas pump cause an explosion? Can a human hang onto the roof of a speeding car? Does a car explode when driving off a cliff? Something usually ends up blowing up. And even if it doesn’t, they…
Why the church?
A Sermon on Acts 2:42-47 How is it that the church exists? I’m not asking what we exist to do. I’m simply asking, how is it possible that the church of Jesus Christ exists at all? Have you ever stopped to consider how unlikely it is? Before Pentecost, which we’re going to celebrate on June 4, the church was about 120 people according to Acts 1. On the day of Pentecost,…