Sermons from April 2018

Ambassadors of God’s Kingdom

Nic took Paul’s use of “ambassadors” in 2 Corinthians 5 and illustrated how Christians are ambassadors of God’s kingdom in the world today. Just as different cultures have different values and different ways of prioritizing their values, so God’s kingdom has a structured value system. Christians go into the kingdom of this world and spread the cultural values of God’s kingdom. Nic listed three of these values: (1) We value truth. This is a bedrock value—it undergirds the Christian faith.…

The Tree of Life

One of the most amazing things about the Bible is its beautiful unity and cohesiveness . . . It tells one over-arching story about what God is doing in the world. One remarkable symbol of that is the Tree of Life, which is mentioned first in the creation narrative of Genesis 1-2. Then, after the Fall, God casts humanity out of the Garden of Eden and away from the Tree. But it’s interesting that we find subtle references to the Tree…

Do you love me more than these?

Our 2018 theme is “Love God. Love People. Change the World,” and this Sunday we’re going to continue this emphasis by studying Jesus’ post-resurrection interaction with Peter. Just a few weeks earlier Peter had infamously denied any connection to Jesus and had almost certainly been dealing with overwhelming guilt and regret since then. Corresponding to Peter’s denial of Jesus three times, Jesus asked Peter if he loved him three times. We’re going to focus primarily on the first question: “Do…

Look at the Mess We’ve Made

The problems and issues of life are many. Most of the time, the major problems we face are self-induced. It can be difficult to accurately identify and analyze the root causes when we are not honest with ourselves. Also, identifying root causes is often difficult when we close our eyes to prevailing facts and factors associated with our problems. In the sermon, Stan compared the confused world of Zephaniah’s day with our own. Judah was confused in so many ways,…

He Was Raised

Today is Easter and millions of people around the world commemorated the resurrection of Christ. Of all the events in Jesus’ life, none is more significant or more life-changing than the empty tomb. He died on Friday, but that death would have been meaningless had his tomb remained occupied early Sunday morning. When the apostles preached, they emphasized the resurrection more than anything else. We studied 1 Corinthians 15, probably the earliest account of the resurrection in the New Testament.…