From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

The Inner Life of a Disciple

The last time we met we talked about four words that define what a follower of Jesus should be doing.  You can watch that message here.  There have been a lot of messages preached on those four words and on the outward actions of a disciple in general, and those truths are important, but something is often missing.  All too often someone gets excited about being a faithful disciple for Jesus.  They go to church, get involved, and work hard at spreading the Gospel.  Soon, however, they begin to tire, they begin to get discouraged because of the lack of …

From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

A Discipleship Evaluation

While we seem to use the word “Christian” most often to describe a follower of Jesus, it is actually one of the least used terms in the New Testament.  Much more often we are described as followers or more commonly “disciples” of Jesus.  All of these terms are significant and should be used thoughtfully, for they define our identity.  Unfortunately, we regularly use them with considering either their meaning or the impact they should have on our self-identity. Today I want to offer four words to help shape our underständing of the word “Disciple” and how it should affect the …

Christmas / Sunday Sermons

Sharing the Gift

I want to look at the example of the shepherds in Luke 2 this morning and learn some lessons from them.  What did they do when they heard the good news of the arrival of Messiah?  What were the results? The gift of Christmas, the Gospel, is such an amazing gift that is meant to be shared, not horded.  It grows with sharing, it gets better with sharing, and God gets glorified.  Why don’t we share it more than we do?  Why don’t we act like the shepherds every day?  This message will explore what inhibits us and opens the …

Foundations of Our Faith / From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

The Joy of Knowing Christ as Your King

I just can’t get away from the theme of “Jesus is King.”  We began looking at this in the last message, the fact that Jesus came in fulfillment of many prophecies naming Him ruler and King, not just of Israel, but of the world.  In fact, this is why Herod ordered the massacre of all the babies that first Christmas, because the wise men came to worship the newborn “King of the Jews”, and indeed, that is what Pilot also called Him when He crucified Him. In talking about His Kingship, we also talked about His goodness, His love and …

Foundations of Our Faith / From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

Worshiping Christ as King

This is the season we celebrate the birth of our Savior.  We celebrate baby Jesus in the manger, and we talk about all that He has done for us by becoming one of us.  It is easy to overlook one very important aspect of Jesus in the midst of His condescension – the fact that He is and will be the King!  As we worship Him together as our loving, humble Savior, let’s remember what He stepped away from to come to earth and what it will look like when He comes again to take His rightful place ruling and …

Christmas / Foundations of Our Faith / Sunday Sermons

The Wonder of the Incarnation

The significance of Jesus’ birth is a vast ocean that cannot be contained in one sermon or even a series of sermons. Jesus and His glorious work of salvation on our behalf permeates every page of Scripture. This message seeks to highlight some of the key aspects of Christ coming to earth and becoming a man. Taken from Hebrews 2 it just skims some of the cream of the top of this glorious subject. I trust that you will be blessed as you grow in the knowledge of God’s wonderful work of salvation.  

Foundations of Our Faith / From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

Christology – the Doctrine of Christ

Where is your trust?  That is the question I hope you will consider very seriously as we take our first look at the doctrine of Jesus Christ, known as Christology.  Rather than take a purely systematic approach to this doctrine by drawing from a multitude of passages, I want to spend our time looking at Isaiah 7-9.  I thought it would be fitting, since we are entering the Christmas season, to look at this Old Testament prophecy as our basis for developing some of the major teachings on the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  I hope this study blesses you and causes …

From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

Why We Need Thanksgiving

Have you ever bought something you already had, because you forgot you have it?  I am thinking right now of a tool for my chainsaw I have hanging on the wall in my garage unopened.  Why?  Because after I got home with it and finally got around to using it, I discovered I already had replaced that item!  There was no need to buy a new one, yet I had and it was well past the return window. Now I may be worse than some, but the fact is, we humans are forgetful and we need to be reminded of …

Foundations of Our Faith / From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

Hamartiology – The Doctrine of Sin

Where did the idea of sin come from?  Is it just some old-fashioned idea that was created to help keep humans in line?  Is guilt just a social construct? It would be nice to think that sin and guilt were something fictional that we made up, but I think we all know that is ludicrous.  But that doesn’t answer all the questions we may have – like if there is a good, Almighty God, how did sin come to exist?  Can a good God create sin? This message looks at sin, its origin, its nature, and its effects.  We will …

Foundations of Our Faith / From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

Foundations of Our Faith – Anthropology: the doctrine of man

So when we think of anthropology, we tend to think of history and archeology and maybe even sociology or science.  The truth is, the study of anthropology has many subsections, but today we want to look at the most important, the origin and purpose of man as taught by God in the Bible.  This study will provide a biblical foundation to help you properly interpret all the other disciplines that help us understand who we are as humans and what our place is in the universe.  We will look at the three most important questions – where did we come …