Grace Church Waco Sermons

Job 32:1-37:24 // Finding comfort in suffering is more than simply knowing things about God. Elihu's "youthful wisdom" inadvertently reveals our true need: For God himself to draw near. In Christ, God does draw near to us and assures us that we are both his friends and participants in the Holy Spirit together.

Job 29:1-31:40 // As Job gives his final lament and defense, we experience with him the loss of what was and what is—but with stubborn faith believe that in Christ we will never lose what will be.

Job 4:1-27:23 // We must be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking of ourselves too highly, as if we have all the answers to suffering. These chapters provide insight into the complex issue of why a good God allows tragedy, and yet does not cancel other biblical truths such as sowing and reaping.

Job 2:11-3:26 // As we come to Job’s lament in chapter three we realize that deep suffering is always accompanied by deep anguish. Lament gives voice to the depth of our anguish in suffering, and it reckons with the gravity of our suffering and reconciles it to the sovereignty of God. In this way, even and deepest and most difficult lamenting is an expression of faith and hope in God.

Job 1:1-2:10 // Sometimes we suffer for the sake of our sin, as a means of God's discipline, bringing us to repentance. Sometimes we suffer for the sake of our sanctification, so God can grow us in righteous fruit. But in the book of Job, we find the story of a righteous man, not in need of any lesson from God. When he suffers through the sovereign hand of God, we have to ask "what gives"? The answer is that sometimes we suffer simply for the sake of God, that he might be Lord in our life.

Luke 11:37-12:3 // In this passage we encounter Jesus with a different tone and disposition than previously in Luke. Jesus issues six stern rebukes to the Pharisees and scribes because of their hypocrisy - in their self-righteous pursuits they have neglected the justice and love of God, and closed off the way of salvation from others. We should beware that we do not become like them by insisting on righteousness that comes from anywhere other than in Christ through the gospel.

Luke 11:14-36 // All of us are tempted to allow our presumptions of Jesus to downplay his power or his necessity. The solution to our presumption is repentance and acceptance of Jesus on his terms.

Luke 11:1-13 //  In order to follow Jesus into his mission we must first follow him into the school of prayers where we learn to pray beautifully boring prayers, to pray with audacious asking, and to pray with bold belief.

Luke 10:25-42 // Following in the way of Jesus as his disciples has a profound effect on our lives. The way of Jesus rejects unnecessary and false dichotomies, it reorients our worldview, it resists the tyranny of self-justification and of the urgent, and the way of Jesus reorders our priorities. Disciples of Jesus can never be the same as they once were!

Luke 10:1-24 // Jesus doesn't just enter into our human story through the Incarnation—he also invites us to share in his. Which means that 1) you represent Jesus to the world; and 2) that makes Jesus happy.