You Know the Truth
What kind of treatment should you expect from the God of the universe? Does it depend on what you do for Him and how hard you try? In this message from 2 John, we’ll see that when we’re in Christ, we’re never apart from Him. We’ve been made new, and there’s an ease and rest that replaces doing and improving. […]
The Prodigal Son’s Father
We can make a big deal of our sins, thinking we can somehow undo what the Father has done for us. We see this in the parable of the Prodigal Son as he rehearses a lengthy apology and can’t deliver it before he’s celebrated. In this message from Luke 15, you’ll learn that God doesn’t […]
The Greater Truths of the Gospel
Many settle for less in their understanding of the Gospel, accepting a message that’s nothing more than morality, ethics, or Christian principles. In this sermon, I address three myths and three truths about the Gospel that will help you grasp: Your total and complete forgiveness Why sin is hard work More grace does not lead […]
Healthy Church – Part 7
Our world is full of temptation. Even the church is subject to tantalizing distractions that lead to all kinds of trouble. It’s why we need to protect sound doctrine, as Paul urges Timothy in 1 Timothy 6. In this message, I share the importance of guarding what has been entrusted to us and fighting the good […]
Healthy Church – Part 6
1 Timothy 5 is an important passage with spiritual insights about charity, hospitality, and leadership in the church. Paul’s helping young Timothy avoid chaos and maintain focus within the congregation. In this message, I share how these instructions point to what God esteems most, and what is at the center of healthy church. This passage […]
Healthy Church – Part 5
1 Timothy 4-5 describes a church that comes together to meet each other’s needs. They’re discerning and careful about doctrine and focused on helping and loving others as they follow the Spirit of Christ from within. How do we see our community grow and experience health like this? And what does progress look like in the life of an individual believer? […]
Healthy Church – Part 4
Religion often teaches it’s more spiritual to reject the physical. Examples include “Daniel Fasts,” prohibitions on alcohol, neglect of medicine, even priests avoiding marriage to be more qualified. But in 1 Timothy 4, we see it’s deceitful to make the physical and spiritual look opposed to each other. In this message, I share that healthy […]
Healthy Church – Part 3
The qualifications listed for church leaders in 1 Timothy 3 can look like a lofty bar to jump over. It can tempt us to focus on accomplishments, talents, and abilities when selecting people to lead. In this message, I share how being a healthy church leader isn’t about a laundry list of things to be or do. Instead, we’ll see the characteristics […]
Healthy Church – Part 2
The church in Ephesus was inundated with strange doctrines and crazy belief systems. False teachers were speaking confidently and even in a scholarly manner. But Paul warned Timothy not to be distracted from the simple truth of the Gospel. The same warning is important for us today as we combat tantalizing religious distractions. In this […]
Healthy Church – Part 1
We’ve all experienced a lack of spiritual health in one way or another. We lose our bearings, get distracted, and struggle to stay focused on Christ. Maybe it’s because we’ve made the Christian life overcomplicated, or maybe we’ve gotten caught up in weird or strange doctrine. The church in Ephesus was dealing with similar issues when Paul wrote 1 Timothy. In this […]
Lord, I Don’t Feel Righteous! – Part 3
You are the righteousness of God! Being righteous is more than just a lofty, future ideal with little relevance to daily living. You don’t need to wait for it, earn it, or hope for it. If you’re a believer, you’re in right standing with God apart from anything you offer or do for Him. Righteousness oozes out of you. Sound controversial […]
Lord, I Don’t Feel Righteous! – Part 2
Most of us have been taught to be a good person, do the right thing, and follow the Golden Rule. We feel “right” by what we do. But what happens when life gets crazy, we’re sinning every day, and our emotions are a rollercoaster? We compare ourselves to others and feel like we don’t measure up. The enemy attacks […]
Lord, I Don’t Feel Righteous! – Part 1
We tend to think righteousness comes from obedience or behavior. It can be a treadmill of effort to do more and be more that leaves us feeling discouraged. Add in sinful thoughts that go through our minds, and it becomes even harder to overcome stressful emotions and believe we’re truly righteous. In this message, I […]
Locating God’s Love!
We all have moments of feeling insecure about being loved. Our emotions and circumstances can even lead us to wonder about God’s love. We feel down, numb, or bad about ourselves and start to think maybe God’s trying to tell us something. In this message, I address the danger of looking to your feelings or experiences to determine the level of […]
It’s Just a Fact
Romans 8 contrasts believers and unbelievers. Some view the passage as a call to action. But it’s not about big decisions to make but about big spiritual truths God wants you to know: about who you are and what He’s done for you. So, don’t approach this passage looking for something to do. Instead, be ready to discover how different you are now. […]
The Perfect You – Part 13
A cornerstone is the critical piece of a foundation. It sets the direction and reference point for all other stones. If it’s off at the beginning, what follows is more and more out of whack. To fully live in God’s grace, you need to ask the right “cornerstone” questions, including: How forgiven am I? How […]
The Perfect You – Part 12
We’ve all experienced problems in relationships. As believers, we still face conflict, hurt, and sometimes even abuse from others. But having a new heart changes how we talk, listen, and relate to others. Instead of trying to fix and change people, we can accept and love them. We can be OK when others don’t do […]
The Perfect You – Part 11
What is your concept of God? Maybe He’s only as good to you as you are to Him, waiting for you to perform better or confess more. Maybe that’s His view of the world too, and why we see disasters, pandemics, and bad things happen. He’s trying to send us a message. Or, what if God’s not disappointed and isn’t […]
The Perfect You – Part 10
In Part 10 of my series, The Perfect You, I share an idea you may have never heard in church before: do nothing. What we often hear instead is to focus our energies on being better, closer, and cleaner. We’re told there’s something wrong with us, and it requires frantic activity to try to do enough to be OK with God. […]
The Perfect You – Part 9
In Part 9 of my series, The Perfect You, I address several passages on forgiveness and confession of sin in the New Testament, including: Jesus’ teaching from the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 The instruction to confess your sins to one another in James 5 Confession tied to forgiveness in 1 John 1 Some might […]
