The concept and pursuit of wisdom have fascinated people since the dawn of time. That's simply because people want to become wiser and be viewed as wise men and women. In the context of Christianity, wisdom has a totally different meaning than in the world. So, what does it mean for a person to be spiritually wise? What does a spiritually wise person look like? Matthew chapter 2 answers that question in a fascinating way. Check out this sermon for some insight on spiritual wisdom.

"You are Christmas." This is what Instagram tries to show you, what Hallmark idealizes for you, and what stores tell you. But that notion does two things: 1) Completely stresses everyone out; 2) Completely misses the mark for what Christmas is actually about. You see, you aren't Christmas. Christmas is about Christ. Christmas is all about what is given to you. And what a gift of peace that is!

Listen as Pastor Mark Birkholz describes and applies these beautiful truths from Romans 15 to your daily life.

An idea exists in the modern religious scene that goes something like this: "You can create the kind of Jesus you want, one that fits and accepts whatever lifestyle you have adopted." One of the major problems with this idea is that kind of Jesus is completely man-focused, not Christ-centered. The reality is that Jesus didn't come to be the kind of King we want (or, want to create). Jesus came to be the king all of us so desperately need.

Jesus never tells his disciples, or us, when Judgment Day is going to happen. But, regarding Judgment Day, Jesus doesn't leave his disciples walking around in the darkness without a light. He prepares them by explaining what is going to happen in this world and what they will experience personally leading up to Judgment Day. Implicit in this preparation in the encouragement to continue standing firm in your faith--the very faith which longs for Jesus to return.

Scripture paints beautiful pictures of what life in heaven is going to be like. But even with those pictures, it is impossible to grasp what life in heaven with Jesus is going to be like because of our sinful nature. Even our best understanding of perfection is tainted by sin. We can get so caught up in trying to figure out what heaven is going to be like that we lose focus on what is most important about heaven: the fact that we will spend eternity with our God! This relationship that lasts eternally is the very thing your faith clings to and it is the thing that guarentees you eternity.

In the final chapter of Jonah, we see Jonah’s irrational anger and God’s upside-down grace on display. Jonah is irrationally angery at God and he reveals the reason why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place: because he knew God to be gracious and loving—even to the point of saving the great enemies of Israel. This is what irrational, sinful anger does: it turns the upside-down grace of God into a negative. In Jonah 4, God’s lesson to Jonah and to us is that in his grace, he has every right to show mercy on who he wishes—even when we don’t think they deserve it. Human life is a gift from God, even the lives of our enemies. And it is the nature of God’s upside-down grace that save the lives those who were once enemies to him, like Nineveh, like you and me.

"What is truth?" This question has been wrestled with throughout all of history. Today, it has become increasingly more difficult to answer that question. 21st-century culture has largely strangled the idea of an objective, absolute truth. Truth is now based on subjective feelings and what best suits you. This is especially true when it comes to human nature and eternal life. In John 8, Jesus turns subjectivity on its ear by preaching objective truth. Not only does he unveil the objective truth about human nature and eternal life but also makes a stunning statement about this truth: "The truth will set you free."

Jonah's reluctant 5-word sermon completely overturns a wicked city. The entire city repents, and God's anger over their evil subsides. It's because they learned two important truths from Jonah's 5-word, heart-changing sermon: God is patient and God has a time-table. Understanding these two truths about your God will overturn your heart this week. Listen to see how.

While in the belly of the great fish, Jonah issued a cry–a cry from the depths of the water, a cry from the depths of his heart. In this prayer, Jonah recognizes that he deserves death, not deliverance. Yet the Lord graciously delivers him in a miraculous way. What Jonah recognizes in his cry from the deep needs to be our own recognition, his cry needs to become our cry. We are frail, sinful creatures who deserve death, not deliverance. Yet God graciously delivers us in an upside-down way: by graciously sending his Son to die in our place. “You brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God.”