Guerrilla Christianity

Sermon #450

The story of David and Goliath is a very familiar story to anyone who was raised in the church.  It is one of the first stories we learn in Sunday school.  And because of its familiarity, as adults sometimes we can gloss over the greater meaning of the story.  David was a shepherd, not particularly exceptional and decidedly not a battle-hardened warrior like Goliath.  Yet David had something that Goliath did not, and that is faith in God.  He saw Goliath as a little problem because he knew that his God is a big God who spoke and the worlds were formed.  And he also knew that victory would not come because of his ability but rather because of his lack of it, for, as he said, the battle is the Lord's.  God uses the weak to confound the strong, and ultimately He gets the glory for it.

1 Samuel 17

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on June 20, 2021 (Originally published August 16, 2021)

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S.D.G.

Sermon #449

How do we judge people?  I know, we're not supposed to judge people but we do, don't we?  And how do we do it?  Most of the time we judge by sight, by what a person looks like, by the things that they do outwardly.  That's not how God judges.  What we think of as wonderful, often God sees as corrupt.  What we think of as worthless, often God sees as valuable.  We as human beings are limited in our senses, but God knows all and sees all, and so when God judges, he judges by the content of our hearts.  He knows our motivations.  He knows our desires, even better than we do.  And this is why God can reject a tall and handsome warrior king like Saul, and anoint a lowly shepherd boy like David.  God looks on the heart.

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

Recorded at Hudson UMC on June 13, 2021 (Originally published August 5, 2021)

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S.D.G.

Sermon #286

As we continue our examination of the Apostles' Creed, we come to one of the most difficult affirmations for the modern believer, that Jesus was "Conceived by the Holy Spirit" and "Born of the Virgin Mary."  Such things we would be tempted to write off as superstitious nonsense and mythos but we need to be reminded that in affirming this belief, what we are saying about the birth of Jesus is that it is very special, for a child born of a very special purpose, and that it was real - and also very human.  

Text: Matthew 1:18-25

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on June 17, 2018 (Originally published on August 29, 2018)

S.D.G.

June 16, 2024

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

Psalter: Psalm 20

Epistle Lesson: 2 Corinthians 5:6-17

Gospel Lesson: Mark 4:26-34

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 #448

Welcome to the 9th season of Guerrilla Christianity!  We are beginning a new series for the season of Pentecost called "Prophets & Kings."  We will be looking at how God has appointed kings to rule over Israel, and how He uses prophets to speak to those kings when they get out of line, which is a frequent occurance.  In today's lesson from 1 Samuel 8, we see the people crying out for a king to rule over them, God's warning through the prophet Samuel that the king they get will not be the king they want, and their ultimate rejection of both Samuel and God as they clamor for a king to rule over them "like the other nations."  

1 Samuel 8:4-20

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on June 6, 2021 (Originally published July 28, 2021)

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S.D.G.

Sermon #607

At Pentecost, Christian churches around the world celebrate the birth of the Church and the giving of the Holy Spirit as related in the Book of Acts, chapter 2.  There were 120 disciples in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon them and they ran out into the streets proclaiming the gospel in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.  We are told that three thousand were added to their ranks that day.  Two thousand years later there are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to how churches approach the work of the Holy Spirit among us.  Some would diminish the importance of the work of the Spirit.  Some would over-emphasize it to the point of making the Holy Spirit the central object of their worship.  But as we see in today's lesson from the Farewell Discourse of Jesus, recorded in John's Gospel, the role of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, is to point us to the Second Person of the Trinity, that is, Jesus Christ, and to glorify him.  We can neither ignore the work of the Spirit in the church, nor can we make it the only thing we focus on, but Pentecost shows us that the Spirit is living and active among us and points us to the saving work of the Father in Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Recorded at Hudson UMC on May 19, 2024

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S.D.G.

June 9, 2024

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 8:4-20; 11:14-15

Psalter: Psalm 138

Epistle Lesson: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Gospel Lesson: Mark 3:20-35

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 #285

We begin looking at the Christology of the Apostles' Creed with three statements of who Jesus is.  First, he is Christ, the anointed of God.  Second, he is the only begotten son of God.  And third, he is Lord of all.  Third in the series on the Apostles' Creed.

Text: John 1:1-18

Recorded at Hudson UMC on June 10, 2018 (Originally published August 27, 2018)

S.D.G.

May 12, 2024

Recently (a few days before I delivered this sermon) I had been to the Billy Graham library in Charlotte, NC.  The tour that they give illustrates the progression of how God used this man to proclaim the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.  But more importantly, the tour was presenting the gospel itself as well.  We preach the good news because we want others to know that God has loved them by sending his Son to be the propitiation for their sins, that they can have eternal life through Him.  I've heard it said that gospel preaching is just telling people how you want them to be.  In my case, I preach the gospel because of how God has transformed me, and how I know God can transform others.  In today's closing passage in John's first epistle, we see four things that John wants his readers in the church to know with assurance: that we may have eternal life, that we may have deliverance from sin, that we have been regenerated (born again), and that Jesus Christ is God.  

1 John 5:13-21

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on May 12, 2024

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S.D.G.

Sermon #285

As we continue to examine our affirmation of faith, we turn next to the notion of God as "maker of heaven and earth."  What does it mean that God is the creator of all things?  What does it mean for us that we are part of His creation?  And how does acknowledging God as creator of the universe affect our relationship with Him and with His creation: our home, the earth?

Text: Genesis 1:1-2:4

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on June 3, 2018 (Originally published August 20, 2018)

S.D.G.