"Featured" Tagged Sermons (Page 7)
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Who Do You Say that He is?
Mark begins his gospel by making it clear who the subject of his narrative is: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1). Near the end he includes this confession–from the mouth of a calloused, pagan centurion: “And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” (15:39). And in all the chapters in between, he’s concerned about…
God’s Broken Heroes
Many folks in our congregation are reading through the Bible again this year, and most reading plans–including the one we invited people to join–spend much of January in Genesis. One thing that jumps out at me every time I read through Genesis is this: these people God called aren’t particularly good people. I don’t mean that they weren’t at times characterized by faith or that they didn’t grow in their faith. I’m just always surprised again at some of the things…
Renew
A year ago we had just announced our theme for 2020, which was, “Focus On What Matters,” using Philippians 3:13 as our theme text: “This one thing I do.” Little did we know what 2020 was going to hold for us and for the world. Many of us probably have mixed feelings as we begin another year. There’s some hopefulness in us, I think, as we anticipate the vaccines’ distribution and subsequent slowing down (we hope) of the virus. At…
Daily Practices for Anxious Times: Serve
As I’ve previously mentioned, in December I’ve deviated from the One Word devotional reading topics and have done something different. 2020 has been a hard year for many people, including many in our congregation. Anxiety levels for some people are higher than ever. Professional counselors are suggesting that they’re receiving a record number of requests from people who are seeking help for various problems. For December I’m preaching a short series called, “Daily Practices for Anxious Times.” I sense there’s a need for us to revisit…
Daily Practices for Anxious Times: Pure Scripture
As I mentioned last week, in December I’m deviating from the One Word devotional reading topics and doing something different. 2020 has been a hard year for many people, including many in our congregation. Anxiety levels for some people are higher than ever. Professional counselors are suggesting that they’re receiving a record number of requests from people who are seeking help for various problems. For December I’m preaching a short series called, “Daily Practices for Anxious Times.” I sense there’s a need for…
This Man Went Down to his House Justified
This week we enter a four-week stretch in the One Word devotional readings where we focus on the nature of salvation. These four themes are Justification, Propitiation, Redemption, and Atonement. Tomorrow we’ll study the first of those–Justification–by using a story Jesus once told about two men who went to the temple to pray. One pleased God, and one didn’t. The punch line is verse 14: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.” That…
Set Free: How the Gospel Rescues You From Guilt, Shame, and Fear
As you know, I haven’t preached at Hoover for the last two weeks, but there’s a theme that unites what we’ve been reading in the One Word devotional book and what we’ll read in the next couple of weeks. Two weeks ago the theme was Worry, this week it’s Shame, and next week it’s Guilt. When I was trying to think of a way to tie the ideas together, I ran across a book called, The 3D Gospel: Ministry in Guilt, Shame, and Fear Cultures. It…
A Prophet like Moses
For centuries the Jewish people had been looking for “the Prophet,” the one Moses said was coming in our reading for tomorrow. It seems that at least some of them were looking for both a Prophet and a King/Messiah–two different people. Apparently they didn’t understand that the One who was to come would be a Prophet-King-Messiah. Traditionally, we’ve focused a lot on Jesus being the fulfillment of the OT’s prediction of a coming King from the lineage of David, but…
Truth Matters
Pilate’s question makes it sound like he would fit quite well in our post-truth society. Asking “What is truth?” with a tone of skepticism is fairly common these days. As we studied a couple of weeks ago when our emphasis was on Scripture, most folks are comfortable with “truths” but not “Truth.” They’re even less comfortable with the idea of the Truth being a Person. For whatever reason, Jesus wasn’t squishy on truth. Standing before the person who–from a human…
Breathed Out by God
You’ve probably heard talk about our living in a “post-truth” world, one characterized by news outlets that prevent different versions of events, all proclaiming to be “the truth.” Of all the characteristics of postmodernism, one of the most alarming is the lack of trust in institutions/people/religions to be purveyors of truth. In other words, we’ve become a society that has no absolute standard of Truth. We’ve got “truths” but no Truth. We don’t trust the government, we don’t trust the…