If you could capture in an image what the Christian’s life like is with God, what image might you choose? This sermon will suggest in closing that it is the image of a light-hearted person. Why? It is God’s will for us in Christ Jesus that we receive the gifts of rejoicing, prayer, and gratitude. These three gifts combined give the Christian the ability to entrust their entire life to God.
This world has a trajectory and a history, which culminated in Christ’s first coming. There is nothing more for Christ to do for our salvation. It is finished. What happens next? This sermon explores some of the apocalyptic tendencies of our historical moment, clearing the way to call the Christian heart to a sober awakeness because of what Christ has done for us and because of his imminent return.
We are often ambitious for many things. We can tell what we’re aspiring for by looking at what we want in our future, what we regret about your past, or what we want for our children. This sermon fleshes out what God wants us to be ambitious for and strives in its own way to empower that with the gospel of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
The stakes are high for this sermon. To speak on Easter Day into a pandemic is a high responsibility. This sermon explores this Scripture in two parts. The first part examines what an authentic telling of the Easter story looks like. The second part examines what an authentic response to that story looks like in the heart of the Christian. The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!
This Palm Sunday sermon is not a normal Palm Sunday sermon. It cannot be for obvious reasons in this pandemic. This sermon, however, aims higher than recognizing that difference. It aims to be transformational in the life of the listener by holding up who Jesus really is at this time: the King.
We are coming together in Jesus’ name around the Word of God in the pandemic. We are doing it using the book of 1 Thessalonians. Today we examine the difference between faith in God and trusting in an idol. We discover the necessity of waiting, the beauty in waiting, and the end of all waiting.
