The 3rd week of this year’s Advent messages looks at the gift of Joy. It cannot be complete without pain, it will completely persevere and will be complete with prayer. (John 16:19-24)
To encourage and equip people to love God, love our neighbors, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
To encourage and equip people to love God, love our neighbors, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sermons on John
The role of prayer plays a crucial part in the life and ministry of the Church. It is that vital connection and communion that we have with the triune God. Many times, we look at prayer from our side of the fence but today we will look at things from the other side of the fence, the modeling Christ did (His earthly heart for us) and continues to do for us (His heavenly heart for us).
In today’s passage, John the Baptist seems to be having some doubts about who Jesus is. At Jesus’ baptism, John seems pretty confident that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of God. Now, John is in prison and Jesus doesn’t seem to be the Messiah He expected. Jesus, ever compassionate to the weak, speaks into John’s doubts with words of assurance. The questions for us: What causes doubts to rise in our minds about our Savior Jesus Christ? How should we combat those doubts?
Only One God is awesome. It is not insignificant that the sermon title has a little “g” god in it. The people of Israel had come to believe other gods were awesome, rather than the One true God. The truth is, though, people today (even church folk) have a tendency to love people or things more than God. This misplaced love is consistently referred to in scripture as idolatry. But these false gods fail. Only Jesus, the One true God, is worthy of our deepest devotion. In the message I will be unpacking the ways idolatry fails, but also reminding folks that forgiveness is still offered to idolators.
On this Easter Sunday we look at the 7 last words spoken during His last hours on the cross, specifically unpacking one little word “TETELESTAI” (Greek for It is Finished).
Today we look at the final days leading up to the crucifixion of Christ and some of the characters of the cross revolving around the last supper in 3 different sermon segments.
Christian or not, heartbreak and disappointment are a part of the human experience because of the sinful brokenness of our world. This passage gives us a picture of the hardships of life wringing out the hopes of God’s people. In that we see God remind Moses that He is the Lord. That he is faithful to keep His promises. That He desires to work during our brokenness. That His work and plan always move forward. It is in the heartbreak and trials of life that the glory of God is most revealed in our lives. Through this passage we are drawn to see how Jesus came to give us freedom and hope in Him.
God chooses to display his sovereign might through imperfect people like Moses. The Moses we find in Exodus 4 is much different than the one found in Exodus 2. He has been shaped by his time in the wilderness and his experience with God. In this we discover that the might of God almost always flows through obedience rooted in faith. God pulls Moses away from his selfdoubt and anxiety toward faithful obedience through which God will use Moses powerfully. God wants to use us. He asks us to stopping looking at ourselves and to look up toward Him.
God is the both the SOURCE of joy and the GIVER of joy. While circumstances may IMPACT your joy, they need not STEAL your joy.
Jesus’ Love is…Humble, Sacrificial, Unconditional