Church of the Open Door Sermon Archives

David bring us back to Moses and the Israelites preparing to cross the Jordan River and enter the land God had promised them. But things like that don't always come easy; and it wasn't until they were willing to step into the deep waters of a risky obedience that God made a way for them. There are so many lessons for us in the account of God's dealings with His people! May we respond with the faith of the priests who stepped obediently into floodwaters (probably with wobbly trust!) and created dry ground for others to follow.

David takes us to Deuteronomy 4:9 for a significant sermon series between now and November 25. In this passage, the children of Israel are preparing to enter the Promised Land. Moses, knowing that his own departure is imminent, urges them: Do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. What have our eyes seen in these last 38 years? What have we experienced of the grace, truth, power and goodness of God that must not slip from our hearts?

Mark 10:17-31 shows us the love Jesus had for the rich young ruler even as he was struggling with what Jesus had told him he needed to do.

This is Al Schuck's last Sunday with us as a Pastor on staff here at Open Door. From here on, the scope of his pastoring broadens considerably, spanning to include Haiti, Kenya and Uganda. Al share's with us a bit of his story from transitioning from Open Door to Beyond Our Door Global, inviting us all into the bigger story of what God is doing in us and in the world.

Chris Heuertz speaks on friendship in the margins, the simple radical, countercultural incarnational practice of presence that can bring reconciliation and healing to our broken world.

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Jesus’ first question to His disciples, as they’re on the way to Caesarea Philippi, is, “What’s the word on street? What do you hear out there? Who do people say that I am?” What David sees here is that Jesus really doesn’t care what people say about who they think He is, because the penetrating question is, “Who do you say that I am?” While most of us resonate with Peter’s “You are the Christ, the son of the living God,” we sometimes forget. The extraordinary nature of who He is becomes ordinary, and the familiar things that we truly do believe become unfamiliar. We forget that He really is the Christ, the Son of the Living God; and that He really is “the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation… that all things were created by Him, through Him and for Him… and in Him all things hold together.”

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Jesus' stern response to the Pharisees' criticism that His followers didn't adequately follow Jewish rituals of cleansing, contending that "it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly; all these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." Jesus confronts the temple system that excluded people of poverty who couldn't afford the requisite external washings; and He confronts our own religious propensities to put on a good show while our heart grows cold and we simply go through the motions -- of marriage, job, church -- and ignore the heart that He longs to warm and cleanse. Jesus' statements like this occur throughout the Gospels and have been foundational for Open Door for years, inviting us to "get out here what's inside" and to pay attention to the interior "heart work" rather than "polish the outside of the cup and of the dish" while the inside remains "full of robbery and self-indulgence."

At the beginning of John 6 Jesus was at the top of His game, thousands following Him wherever He went. They were already singing His praises when He added to their astonishment by providing food for them all with five loaves and two fish. But when He clarified to them what He really came to do and what He really came to offer (not physical, but spiritual bread), they did what the crowd often does; they withdrew from Him. David wants to explore with us the relationship Jesus had with the crowd. He really did care for them; He taught them about the Kingdom; He healed them; He fed them; He had compassion on them. But He never chased them, He was never enamored with them, and He never softened His message to become more attractive to them. We need to study Jesus here and learn from Him.