2025-12-7 I’m Dreaming of…Peace by The Rev Anders Edstrom

This message is from Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Berkley, MI. Today is the second Sunday of Advent. The sermon series for Advent is “I’m Dreaming of…”. The Scripture is Isaiah 2:1-5

The Lord’s mountain

2 This is what Isaiah, Amoz’s son, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 In the days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of the mountains. It will be lifted above the hills; peoples will stream to it. Many nations will go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of Jacob’s God so that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in God’s paths.” Instruction will come from Zion; the Lord’s word from Jerusalem. 4 God will judge between the nations, and settle disputes of mighty nations. Then they will beat their swords into iron plows and their spears into pruning tools. Nation will not take up sword against nation; they will no longer learn how to make war. 5 Come, house of Jacob, let’s walk by the Lord’s light.

2025-11-30 I’m Dreaming of…Something More by The Rev Anders Edstrom

This message is from Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Berkley, MI. Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The sermon series for Advent is “I’m Dreaming of…”. The Scripture is Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort for God’s people

40 Comfort, comfort my people!

says your God.

2 Speak compassionately to Jerusalem,

and proclaim to her that her compulsory service has ended,

that her penalty has been paid,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins!

3 A voice is crying out:

“Clear the Lord’s way in the desert!

Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!

4 Every valley will be raised up,

and every mountain and hill will be flattened.

Uneven ground will become level,

and rough terrain a valley plain.

5 The Lord’s glory will appear,

and all humanity will see it together;

the Lord’s mouth has commanded it.”

6 A voice was saying:

“Call out!”

And another said,

“What should I call out?”

All flesh is grass;

all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field.

7 The grass dries up

and the flower withers

when the Lord’s breath blows on it.

Surely the people are grass.

8 The grass dries up;

the flower withers,

but our God’s word will exist forever.

9 Go up on a high mountain,

messenger Zion!

Raise your voice and shout,

messenger Jerusalem!

Raise it; don’t be afraid;

say to the cities of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

10 Here is the Lord God,

coming with strength,

with a triumphant arm,

bringing his reward with him

and his payment before him.

11 Like a shepherd, God will tend the flock;

he will gather lambs in his arms

and lift them onto his lap.

He will gently guide the nursing ewes.

2025-11-23 Echoing Grace by The Rev Anders Edstrom

This message is from Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Berkley, MI. It is the final in the new sermon series “Prayers of Gratitude”. The Scripture is 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10

Thanksgiving to God

2 We always thank God for all of you when we mention you constantly in our prayers. 3 This is because we remember your work that comes from faith, your effort that comes from love, and your perseverance that comes from hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father. 4 Brothers and sisters, you are loved by God, and we know that he has chosen you. 5 We know this because our good news didn’t come to you just in speech but also with power and the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know as well as we do what kind of people we were when we were with you, which was for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord when you accepted the message that came from the Holy Spirit with joy in spite of great suffering. 7 As a result you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The message about the Lord rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia but in every place. The news about your faithfulness to God has spread so that we don’t even need to mention it. 9 People tell us about what sort of welcome we had from you and how you turned to God from idols. As a result, you are serving the living and true God, 10 and you are waiting for his Son from heaven. His Son is Jesus, who is the one he raised from the dead and who is the one who will rescue us from the coming wrath.

2025-11-16 Messy Grace by The Rev Anders Edstrom

This message is from Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Berkley, MI. It is the third in the new sermon series “Prayers of Gratitude”. The Scripture is 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

Thanksgiving for the Corinthians

4 I thank my God always for you, because of God’s grace that was given to you in Christ Jesus. 5 That is, you were made rich through him in everything: in all your communication and every kind of knowledge, 6 in the same way that the testimony about Christ was confirmed with you. 7 The result is that you aren’t missing any spiritual gift while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also confirm your testimony about Christ until the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, and you were called by him to partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

2025-11-09 The Gospel According to Paul by The Rev Anders Edstrom

This message is from Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Berkley, MI. It is the second in the new sermon series “Prayers of Gratitude”. The Scripture is Romans 1:8-17

Thanksgiving and Paul’s plans to visit

8 First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because the news about your faithfulness is being spread throughout the whole world. 9 I serve God in my spirit by preaching the good news about God’s Son, and God is my witness that I continually mention you 10 in all my prayers. I’m always asking that somehow, by God’s will, I might succeed in visiting you at last. 11 I really want to see you to pass along some spiritual gift to you so that you can be strengthened. 12 What I mean is that we can mutually encourage each other while I am with you. We can be encouraged by the faithfulness we find in each other, both your faithfulness and mine.

13 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I planned to visit you many times, although I have been prevented from coming until now. I want to harvest some fruit among you, just as I have done among the other Gentiles. 14 I have a responsibility both to Greeks and to those who don’t speak Greek, both to the wise and to the foolish.

God’s righteousness is revealed

15 That’s why I’m ready to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. 16 I’m not ashamed of the gospel: it is God’s own power for salvation to all who have faith in God, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 God’s righteousness is being revealed in the gospel, from faithfulness for faith, as it is written, The righteous person will live by faith.

This message is from Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Berkley, MI. It is the first in the new sermon series “Prayers of Gratitude”. The Scripture is Philippians 1:3-11. Thanksgiving and prayer

3 I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers. 4 I’m thankful for all of you every time I pray, and it’s always a prayer full of joy. 5 I’m glad because of the way you have been my partners in the ministry of the gospel from the time you first believed it until now. 6 I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus. 7 I have good reason to think this way about all of you because I keep you in my heart. You are all my partners in God’s grace, both during my time in prison and in the defense and support of the gospel. 8 God is my witness that I feel affection for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.

9 This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight. 10 I pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters and so you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ. 11 I pray that you will then be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.

This message is from Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Berkley, MI. The Scripture is 2Corinthians 5:16-21.

16 So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. 17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

18 All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation.

20 So we are ambassadors who represent Christ. God is negotiating with you through us. We beg you as Christ’s representatives, “Be reconciled to God!” 21 God caused the one who didn’t know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God.

This message is from Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Berkley, MI. The Scripture is Luke 14:25-33.

Discipleship’s demands

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus. Turning to them, he said, 26 “Whoever comes to me and doesn’t hate father and mother, spouse and children, and brothers and sisters—yes, even one’s own life—cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever doesn’t carry their own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28 “If one of you wanted to build a tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and calculate the cost, to determine whether you have enough money to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when you have laid the foundation but couldn’t finish the tower, all who see it will begin to belittle you. 30 They will say, ‘Here’s the person who began construction and couldn’t complete it!’ 31 Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand soldiers could go up against the twenty thousand coming against him? 32 And if he didn’t think he could win, he would send a representative to discuss terms of peace while his enemy was still a long way off. 33 In the same way, none of you who are unwilling to give up all of your possessions can be my disciple.

This message is from Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Berkley, MI. The Scripture is Jeremiah 29:1-9. Disturbing hope: Settle down in Babylon

29 The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter from Jerusalem to the few surviving elders among the exiles, to the priests and the prophets, and to all the people Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem. 2 The letter was sent after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the court officials, the government leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen and smiths had left Jerusalem. 3 It was delivered to Babylon by Elasah, Shaphan’s son, and Gemariah, Hilkiah’s son—two men dispatched to Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar by King Zedekiah.

4 The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away. 7 Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because your future depends on its welfare.

8 The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Don’t let the prophets and diviners in your midst mislead you. Don’t pay attention to your dreams. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I didn’t send them, declares the Lord.

This message is from Greenfield Presbyterian Church in Berkley, MI. The Scripture is Isaiah 25:6-10. 6 On this mountain,

the Lord of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples

a rich feast, a feast of choice wines,

of select foods rich in flavor,

of choice wines well refined.

7 He will swallow up on this mountain the veil that is veiling all peoples,

the shroud enshrouding all nations.

8 He will swallow up death forever.

The Lord God will wipe tears from every face;

he will remove his people’s disgrace from off the whole earth,

for the Lord has spoken.

9 They will say on that day,

“Look! This is our God,

for whom we have waited—

and he has saved us!

This is the Lord, for whom we have waited;

let’s be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”

10 The Lord’s hand will indeed rest on this mountain.

Moab will be trampled down

as straw is trampled into manure.