Gulf Coast Community Church - Sunday Sermons

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Why should we pray the Psalms? Some may frame that question variously: “Why pray psalms that had to do with David’s rise to kingship, or Israel’s troubles?” “Why pray psalms if I don’t understand them?” “Why pray psalms that ask God to judge our enemies or complain about His management of the world?”

Bonhoeffer has offered at least one good answer to the above question about why to pray the psalms. “How am I to pray something that is still so incomprehensible to me?… How are you to understand what you have not yet prayed? Rather than our own prayer being the standard for the psalm, it is rather the psalm that is the proper standard for our prayer.”

We learn how to pray by praying rightly. The Psalms, as does the Lord’s prayer, teach us how to do that. It’s like gymnastics. You learn how to be a gymnast by doing gymnastics over and over with a coach who teaches you to do it rightly. The psalmists are our coaches. The coaches will make better sense if we understand their context.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2022/07/20220717.pdf

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Text: Jonah 4:5-11

Themes: A Mysterious Tree and God’s Way of Salvation. God’s compassion on all creation. The ongoing existence of evil. God’s patience. The glory of the cross. The Kingdom as a mustard bush!

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2022/07/20220710.pdf

Speaker: Ryan Carver

The Story of God’s Mission – Part 6

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2022/07/20220703.pdf

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

If we’re “good” Christians and somebody wrongs us, what do we do? We entrust ourselves to the One who judges justly (1 Pet. 2:23) not retaliating, right? But what do we expect? That God will give them their comeuppance, which simply means they will get what’s coming to them. What happens if, instead of getting their comeuppance, they prosper?

Recently in my own life, due to circumstances like the above, I realized that deep down I was angry (“Bothered!”). If pressed, “At whom am I angry?” there is only one possible answer: God! Why? For not doing His job—at least the job I thought was His. That’s the kind of anger Jonah is experiencing in our text. This is how I came to see that I am Jonah (which is not very flattering). And, I suspect if we are all honest, we may discover that we are all Jonah!

“Is it good for you to be angry?” That’s a question we should ask ourselves when angry and certainly one God asks. There are a variety of ways it might be answered for there is more than one reason to be angry. Sometimes it is justified. Other times, not so much. But “Is it good for us to be angry?” In this week’s text we discover that even when anger is justifiable, it may still not be good!

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2022/06/20220626.pdf

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Text: Jonah 3

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2022/06/20220619.pdf

Speaker: Dave Wilson

Preacher: Jerry

Text: 2 Cor. 1:21-22

Themes: Fulfillment, Identity, Calling as a prophetic people, priesthood, and agents of the king. Kingdom of God.

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Text: Jonah 2

Themes: Spiritual Formation; preparation of faith, sufficiency of faith, performance of faith

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Themes: death and resurrection, safe in Christ, identity as a people, identity in Christ.

Handout: https://media.gccc.net/2022/05/20220522.mp3

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

Many a biblical prophet has been reluctant to accept their call. Jonah takes the cake. He responds to his call by doing everything he can to run from God. But there is a problem: God has called him, and God’s call pursues him. Mercifully, yes, but pursues him nonetheless with what appears to be a severe mercy.

To run from God is to pursue death, and God in his mercy will turn Jonah around so it is mercy indeed. But Jonah is chosen to bring life to his enemies. In fact, Jonah’s mission will ultimately result in the destruction of Israel. What kind of plan is that?

Jonah’s flight from God results in one of the most vivid scenes in the whole book. While Jonah flees the Lord, he begins a downward spiral into the hull of a ship and a deep spiritual sleep which endangers the unbelievers on the boat with him. His co-travelers are idol worshipping sailors who appear to be more righteous than Jonah himself. Jonah has to be lost in order for them to be saved, which may get to the whole point of the story.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2022/05/20220508.pdf