Grace Fellowship Sermons

We are continuing with our special series, “INDICATIVE and IMPERATIVE” from the first letter of Peter. The theme of this letter is who you ARE determines what you DO. Peter appeals to his readers that since they have been made holy, they now must BE holy in the way they live their lives and especially as they relate to unbelievers. In today’s passage, Peter addresses the difficult subject of a wife’s call to be submissive to her husband, and particularly how that plays out when the wife is a believer and the husband is not.

A certification is a credential granted to an individual to validate their expertise, knowledge, and skills in a specific area or field. It signifies that the person has met certain standards set by an organization, educational institution, or governing body. Today, we will see a certification from heaven as to the identity and mission of Christ.

There are moments in our lives when we are told to remember something: A mother tells her child to "Remember to wear your coat; it's cold outside." A supervisor tells a worker when cutting a piece of wood: "Remember: measure twice, cut once." We all need to remember a truth that we will discover through the life of John in our passage for today.

There are things in life that are exclusive. Things such as the genetic code (DNA) make every individual distinct and unique in their characteristics. Time itself is considered exclusive because each moment is unlike any other moment, never to be repeated. Today's passage will consider how John points to two things that make Jesus exclusive in His superiority as the Savior.

It's a universal reality that experiencing pain from the words and actions of others is an unavoidable aspect of life. However, when someone apologizes and demonstrates a change of heart for their actions, how can you discern the sincerity of their apology? How can you build confidence that the individual is genuinely serious and deserving of your trust? Let's talk about that.

As we have seen in parts 1 and 2, the people in the days of John and Christ were not fundamentally different from people in our day. Family frustrations and disfunction, crisis in leadership, moral failure, governmental overreach, and the like. Couple this with spiritual leadership that was more interested in making a buck than spreading God’s fame and you have a world in desperate need of rescue. Just like we do today.

Don’t let our modern age fool you; we are not fundamentally different from the people in the days of Christ. Ethical dilemmas such as honesty, compassion, justice, and integrity or a yearning for spiritual meaning and purpose; we are just as needy today as they were back then. Jesus came to rescue us… from ourselves.

We value asking questions to better understand how to live life in a God-centered, Christ-exalting way. We believe that church should be the best place in which people can get solid answers to life’s questions from God’s Word.

A writer recently asked “AI” (artificial intelligence, “Chat GPT”) to provide an answer to the query: “What the world needs today.” The items included compassion and understanding, solutions for pressing issues humanity faces, increased cooperation among nations, and “above all, kindness and empathy that can truly transform the world.” It’s incredible to realize the cravings of our world today are encompassed in the birth of Christ from long ago. We are glad you are with us to celebrate this truth today.

Napoleon often reflected on the relationship between religion and power. While Napoleon held intellectual figures such as Socrates in high regard, he marveled at how the teachings of Jesus had shaped all of Western culture with His life and teaching. Napoleon once said: “If Socrates would enter the room, we should rise and do him honor, but if Jesus Christ came into the room, we should fall down on our knees and worship him."