Matthew 6:5-8

The missionary need of God’s people is to be taught to pray. For many, this topic has the power to stir up deep hope in our hearts while simultaneously stirring within us a deep sense of crippling shame. We know the necessity of prayer. We know that prayer is like breathing, vital and necessary to spiritual life. But we also know that what’s necessary isn’t always natural. After being asked by the disciples—“Lord, teach us to pray”—Jesus does that very thing. In the school of prayer Jesus shepherds us to breathe again because He knows our need to breathe in prayer.

Luke 9:23-50

In Luke 9:1-50 everything orbits around verses 23-27, the nucleus of the Savior’s Summons to deny, die, and follow Him. Looking at the back half of these fifty verses they feel like a hodgepodge of random events. But far from random details strung together, Luke has put these events together for a reason. Yes, they orbit the core focal point of Jesus’ summons to daily discipleship. But, they also reveal the disciples’ struggle and repeated failure to obey this discipleship summons from Jesus. I believe this is what Luke wants us to see and is the reason I put our main idea in the form of a prayer. Because our followership of Jesus can be one step forward and two steps back we pray—Jesus, help me! Open my spiritual eyes to grasp the centrality of your death and resurrection as crucial for my daily discipleship.

Luke 9:1-27

What does Jesus demand of me? It is crucial that we ask this question and then listen carefully as Jesus provides the answer. As Luke continues to write his “orderly account” for Theophilus, the time has come to make plain what it will look like for Jesus’ disciples to follow Him. And as we will see, in order to understand what it means to follow Jesus as His disciple, we must first clearly see who Jesus is and what He came to do. Though many try, we cannot divorce follower-ship of Jesus from the identity and mission of Jesus. Because Jesus is the Christ sent to suffer, die, and resurrect, Jesus summons me to deny, die, and follow Him. Main Idea—I must see who Jesus is, and so be ready to follow Him.

Genesis 3:15; John 3:16

Genesis 3 is most famously known as the place where Adam and Eve sinned against God and how their sin turned everything upside down. But in the middle of Genesis 3 we also discover the first hint of Christmas. That one day in the far off future, God would give His people a gift. And not just any old gift, but a gift of immeasurable worth, a gift that would surpass all gifts ever given. Main Idea—Jesus is God’s promised gift to me.

Matthew 2:13-23

In our fourth week of Advent we turn to the last traditional Advent theme of faith in a sermon called—‘A Cruciform Christmas’. The word cruciform is a bit uncommon. But if something is cruciform it is in the form of a cruce. IOW, it is shaped like a cross. And in the back half of Matthew 2 that’s exactly what we discover—a cross-shaped Christmas as the shadow of the cross was already falling on the Christmas Child. Main Idea—The cross-shaped side of Christmas calls us to repent and believe in the Bethlehem baby.

Matthew 2:1-12

Matthew 1:18-25

*Due to technical difficulties, the sermon was cut short.*

Matthew 1:1-17

We may be tempted to write of the stories and life of Jesus and fairy tale legends. But Matthew course corrects that temptation right off the bat. What he is writing is no ‘once upon a time’ tale. Rather, the life of Jesus is a hope story grounded in history. The proof is found in a genealogy that culminates in the Christmas baby born in a manger. Main Idea: The hope of redeeming grace rests secure on the shoulders of the One born in Bethlehem.

The Savior’s Great Salvation

Luke 8:22-56

In these remaining stories we discover four miracles of salvation. Interwoven throughout these stories of salvation we find a kaleidoscope mixture of fear, falling, begging, authority, faith, and salvation. Yet in this kaleidoscope mixture a singular truth shines bright for all to see—Jesus is the Savior I can trust to save from this disordered creation, the devil, disease, and death.

Listen Up! (Response #2)

Luke 8:1-21

People can have any number of interactions with God’s word, but the question is, ‘How do I respond to it once I’ve heard it?’ In these 21 verses before us the issue at stake has everything to do with ‘hearing’ and rightly responding to what is heard. Remember, Luke wants his readers to be certain about the content of salvation. Not only certain that sinners can be saved by grace through faith in Jesus, but also certain that there is a wrong way and a right way to respond to the Savior’s great salvation. Main Idea—The right response to the Savior’s salvation—hear the word of Jesus and obey it.