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 …

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 …

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.  

The Nutcracker Suite

The Nutcracker is a story of a battle between good and evil.  In Clara’s dream, she is thrown into a world where the evil mouse queen desires to rule the kingdom.  But Clara and the Nutcracker fight to restore goodness and peace to the land of sweets. While we know that the Nutcracker is a fictional fairytale, the battle between good and evil is very real.  The good news is that the end has already been determined, because Jesus conquered the enemy when He died on the cross to pay the price for our sin, and then came back to …

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 …

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 …

Shoebox Sunday!

Today is one of our favorite Sundays of the year.  For the past several weeks (and much longer for some) we have been packing Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to send the love of Jesus to children around the world.  All the hard work and sacrificial spending of the church culminates on this day when we remember what we are doing and why, then spend time praying over the shoeboxes we packed.  We pray that God will put just the right shoebox into just the right child’s hands.  If you can’t be here in person for this special day, we hope …

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 – 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 …

Political Issues and the Church

A few years ago I preached a series of messages on topics that are often considered “political” and therefore not discussed in polite churches.  It was my desire in those messages to point out that many such topics are actually issues of morality and the bible has much to say about them, therefore the church should as well. As we get ready to vote on Tuesday, I wanted to make those messages easily available for you to review as you prepare to vote.  I believe the privilege of voting is actually a trust God has given to American citizens and …