Pride is a problem that all of us struggle with. In fact, the less someone struggles with pride, the bigger their problem actually is. Fortunately, in I Corinthians 4:7 Paul uses three diagnostic questions to attack the very roots of our pride. So for all us who happen to know some proud people, this message is for us. 

      Did you know that our attention is the most valuable resource that we have? And yet the truth is that we often give it away for nothing. In this text Peter tells us that we would do well to pay attention to God’s Word as if it were a lamp in a dark place. But it’s hard isn’t it? It’s hard because we live in an age of distraction. In this sermon we will consider why it is that we are so prone to distraction. We will also consider why it is that God’s Word is truly worthy of our attention and what it might look like for us to give our most valuable resource to the one who is most valuable.

      How is it possible to die in peace? I think many people assume that when death comes, they will somehow find peace and yet the reality is that most people go through life grasping at control and struggling with fear and anxiety when even one of the things they love are threatened. How could we possibly imagine that we might be ready to lose everything in death when we still haven’t figured out how to live in peace with the ordinary losses of life? In this passage Simeon shows us the secret to dying in peace which, we will find out, also happens to be the secret to a life of peace.

Have you ever felt like you just didn’t belong. It’s hard, isn’t it? In this message we will consider what the Christmas story has to say about rejection and our longing to fit in. Specifically we will consider why it is that the only person who got to choose when and how he was born chose to be born in a stable and laid in a manger. 

      How do you respond when God says yes? How do we avoid becoming so enamored with his gifts that we allow them to distract us from the giver? Specifically, what does it look like to separate the gift of forgiveness from the God who offers it to us? In order to help us answer some of these questions Zechariah comes to remind us not only what we have been saved from, but what we have been saved for.

Sometimes we can get so used to the narratives about Jesus coming into the world that we lose our wonder and awe. In Luke 1, Mary and Elizabeth will demonstrate how marveling at who God is and what he has done is intimately intertwined with humility. Listen and hear how the Gospel moves us from mystery to marvel.

The reason we often struggle to believe God’s promises isn’t because they aren’t enough to give us hope in the midst of this broken world, our struggle is that they often seem too good to be true and too big to be possible. So what are we supposed to do? How can we learn to trust in promises that clearly exceed anything we could hope to deserve and how are we supposed to believe God’s word when we cannot imagine how he could ever bring it about? These are the questions that Luke comes to answer in tonight’s passage.

Oppressive, barren, and silent darkness provides the context for Christmas. In the midst of dark days we can be tempted to doubt the promises of God. Yet, into this darkness the Lord sent his angelic messenger to bring good news of God's faithfulness to fulfill his promised salvation in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the faithful One who never doubted the word of God his Father. Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness, the Word made flesh. He came to tear down the curtain so that doubters like us may enter into his presence now and forever!

Most of us find that we care far too much about what other people think about us. Now our culture thinks that the answer to this problem is to say, “As for me it is a very small thing what anyone else thinks because I know that I am good and I love myself and that is all that matters…” But is what our culture tells us true? Are we the judge? Do we get to give the ultimate verdict on our lives? And is relying on our own feelings about ourselves really the only way to stop being controlled by what others think of us?  These are some of the questions that Paul comes to answer for us in I Corinthians 4:1-5.

In this passage Paul shows us the folly of boasting and the wisdom of recognizing our utter dependence upon God. He argues that when we boast we actually rob ourselves of all that our God has offered us as a free gift of grace. However, if we are willing to depend upon him, we will find that “All things” have become our servants to be used by God for our ultimate good.