Romans
But what about suffering?
A Sermon for July 30, 2017 on Romans 8:18-39 We’ve arrived in the last section of Romans 8. We’re at the climax of chapter 8– the climax of the climax of the letter. These are some of the most beautifully composed truths in the whole New Testament. Paul, the writer of the letter, is bringing everything that we’ve talked about over the past 6 weeks together. The big…
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…
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,…