Guerrilla Christianity

Sermon #59

We often talk about the church needing revival, but what does that mean? To revive something is to bring it back to life from the dead. That is what the Holy Spirit did on that first Day of Pentecost, using the disciples of Jesus to tell the good news of Jesus Christ to Jews from all over the world, so that they would take that news back with them to their villages and cities, wherever they were from. God is asking us today to tell someone the good news, and He sends His Spirit to dwell in us so that we may speak the words of life, in whatever way they need to be heard. I talk about a couple of witness encounters I had just the week prior, and encourage my congregation at Hudson UMC to go out and tell someone, don't keep it to yourself. Revival comes in the church, and the Holy Spirit equips the church to take the good news to the world for an Awakening.

{I love listening to these old sermons, because it takes me back to what was going on in my life at the time. It also helps me to see how far I have come in organizing my sermon messages and developing the ability to END them. This sermon from 2014 tends to meander but the message I preached then is the message I preach today: The gospel saves souls, and we need to share the good news to everyone for the transformation of the world.}

Acts 2:1-21

Recorded at Hudson UMC on June 8, 2014 (Originally published June 17, 2020)

S.D.G.

Sermon #554

What we see at the birth of the Church at Pentecost is a reversal of what God did at Babel.  Whereas the people building a tower to heaven were all together in one place with one language trying to exalt themselves, the 120 in the upper room were all together in one place with one accord trying to glorify God.  And so the Spirit of God fell upon them and gave them the ability to speak in the language of the people - at least fifteen regions and dialects that are listed in Acts Chapter 2.  When our efforts are to give glory to God and to proclaim the Gospel, the Holy Spirit will likewise give us utterance, if only we are willing to open our mouths and loosen our tongues.

Acts 2:1-21

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on May 28, 2023

S.D.G.

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on May 28, 2023

Sermon #396

The Day of Pentecost began as a Jewish holiday but has become important in the Christian Church as a memorial to the day when the Holy Spirit was given and the Church was born. Today we focus on what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit (He is a who and not a what)? How does the Spirit of God relate to God the Father and God the Son? And how does God act in our lives when we are filled with His Spirit?

I'm not going to lie, this sermon is pretty raw. I preached it on the heels of spending half the night watching riots all around the country on CNN. My heart breaks for these cities and the communities that feel so desperate in their oppression that they need to react violently, and also for the police who feel the need to rally their troops and put this uprising down by any means necessary. So even though I'm supposed to be preaching on Pentecost, somewhere around the 22 minute mark it went off the rails. Let this message stand as a testimony to the injustice and wickedness in the world today.

Acts 2:1-21

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on May 31, 2020 (Originally published June 1, 2020)

S.D.G.

May 28, 2023

First Lesson: Acts 2:1-21

Psalter: Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

Epistle Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

Gospel Lesson: John 7:37-39

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S.D.G.

Sermon #227

We conclude our "Becoming" series with the final prayer, "By your Spirit, make us one... in ministry to all the world." On the heels of the 2017 Greater New Jersey Annual Conference, it occurs to me that even though we are divided in our theology, we can still be united in our ministry - the ministry of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Christ offered up this prayer to God the Father on the night he was betrayed, that we would be one even as he is one with God the Father. And so we ask the question, even with our deep differences, can we as a denomination truly be one in ministry? And how can we live that out?

John 17:1-11

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on May 28, 2017 (Originally published May 29, 2020)

S.D.G.

Sermon #58

When Jesus was taken up into heaven forty days after the resurrection, his disciples were caught flat-footed, staring into the sky. God sent two angels to remind them that there was still work to be done. In other words, don't just stand there, do something. Jesus will come again, but until he does, we are to continue the ministry that he left for us to do - to make disciples of all nations and continue to witness the good news, in our churches, in our neighborhoods, in the places we don't want to go and to people we don't want to save. We are not to simply wait for Jesus' return, we are to do what he commanded us to do.

Acts 1:1-11

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on June 1, 2014 (Originally published May 27, 2020)

S.D.G.

Sermon #553

Often when we are going through adversity it is difficult to see beyond our current circumstances.  Certainly for the Christians in Asia Minor to whom Peter wrote this epistle had a hard time keeping their eyes on Christ as they suffered in his name.  But Peter reminds them and us as well that God is not an uncaring and disconnected God.  He intimately cares about the things that concern us.  Jesus said as much in the Sermon on the Mount.  And so we can look beyond our present situation into eternity and be reminded that ours is a living hope because we have faith in a living Christ.

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

Recorded at Hudson UMC on May 21, 2023

S.D.G.

Sermon #305

The Ascension of the Lord is a day on the Church calendar that is every bit as important as Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas. Why? Because our belief in the ascension (which we affirm every time we recite the Apostles Creed) is what informs our faith that Jesus Christ is alive today and seated at the right hand of God the Father. We have an advocate who is fully man - identifying with us - and fully God - identifying with and of the same will as the Father. There is great promise in this. And so we look at Luke's two accounts of the Ascension, in his Gospel account and in the book of Acts, and we find that belief in the Ascension is every bit as critical as belief in the Resurrection, the virgin birth, and the substitutionary atonement of Christ.

Luke 24:44-53/Acts 1:1-11

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on May 24, 2020 (Originally published May 25, 2020)

S.D.G.

May 21, 2023

First Lesson: Acts 1:6-14

Psalter: Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35

Epistle Lesson: 1 Peter 4:2-14, 5:6-11

Gospel Lesson: John 17:1-11

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S.D.G.

Sermon #226

Continuing with our "Becoming" series, today we look at how we become one with each other. There are many churches, many different denominations, many different interpretations of God's word, and yet we are all one body of Christ. How is that possible? The common thread that links us together is the Holy Spirit, which dwells in each of us when we are born again. And being indwelt by God's Spirit is not a small thing. Without God's Spirit, we do not know Jesus as savior. The world does not see him as such, and in fact cannot because the world does not have the Spirit of God. And so it is the Holy Spirit which draws us together and makes us one with each other.

John 14:15-21

Recorded at Hudson UMC on May 21, 2017 (Originally published May 22, 2020)

S.D.G.