In this sermon we will take a look at what David knew about God. His understanding was ahead of his time; he was called a prophet by Peter in Acts 2 and an oracle in 2nd Samuel. We see in his words prophetic statements about who the Messiah would be.
Week five of Eastertide, our focus is on who Jesus is.
Some years I have chosen not to preach a Mother’s Day sermon at all. Others I have focused on God’s plan for all the family relationships and how each teach us something about our relationship to Him. The number one rule of public speaking is Know Your Audience and I had a sanctuary full of godly mothers. On Mother’s Day this year we examine Mary, mother of Jesus, as a model of what all mothers are like.
It’s a very well-known verse often used in calls to worship. The tone of Psalm 118 is worship but this verse could serve as a reminder that we are called to more than worship. This is the day the Lord has made and we are the craftsmanship of his hands. We are not our own but have been bought with a price. The world and all that are in in are his. Something to think about each and every morning.
The Gospels record several instances of Jesus appearing to his disciples after the resurrection. Today, the week after Easter, we will look at one of those from John 21. If the question is “What would Jesus do?” then have a fish fry is always a possibility. Not sure I’d want fish for breakfast but the point of the story is that Jesus was performing miracles, providing for their physical and spiritual needs, basically doing the same things Jesus always does.
Apologies regarding the Easter sermon. Another person, with the best of intentions, stopped the recording and I didn’t realize what happened until the end of the service. So here is a summary of what you missed.
The preaching of the cross is foolishness/folly to those who perish but to those of us being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18) Paul wrote in Galatians 6 that we have nothing to brag or boast about apart from the cross of Christ. How can we brag about what seems to be the final and greatest defeat of the leader we follow? The cross looks like the end and even many of Jesus’ closest followers thought so. But that was his purpose for coming into the world. The crucifixion was God’s plan. At Calvary is where heaven touches the earth, building the only path/doorway/bridge by which we can approach God.
And of course the cross was not the end. On the third day the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty. Jesus is risen and lives forever more. He is seated at the right hand of God where he ever lives to make intercession. Serving in humility doesn’t look like “winning” to the world but they have always had their winning and losing backwards. The wicked appear to prosper and their is pleasure in sin for a season. But the one who loses his life for the sake of Christ and the gospel will save it. When we stand before God on the day of judgement he will determine who the winners and the losers are.
Galatians 6:11-18 wraps up our series in Galatians and serves us well as our text for Palm Sunday. Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… Paul exhorts his readers to look past the Law, circumcision, anything that is not becoming a new creation in Christ.
The argument Paul sets up in Galatians 5 is made in Galatians 6. If you sow in the flesh you will reap corruption of the flesh; if you sow in the Spirit you will reap eternal life.
There are many voices competing for out attention but we can choose which to listen to. The flesh and the Spirit are opposed to each other but we decide which leader to follow.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. (Galatians 5:13) This sermon doesn’t take freedom out of context, like some verse of scripture used to describe an American holiday, but finds it’s place right at the center of Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
