March 15                (Fourth Sunday in Lent)

Text:                      John 3:14-21

Title:                      Take Up Your Cross: “An Experience of Grace”

Theme:                  That God should love us enough to send God’s only Son to die for us on a cross is a great mystery. It is a mystery too grand for mere explanation. Thus we come   to church to worship, not to explain God but to gaze upon a wonder too deep for          words, to experience God rather than merely to explain God. Taking up your cross is not about knowledge but an experience of grace

March 15                (Fourth Sunday in Lent)

Text:                      John 3:14-21

Title:                      Take Up Your Cross: “An Experience of Grace”

Theme:                  That God should love us enough to send God’s only Son to die for us on a cross is a great mystery. It is a mystery too grand for mere explanation. Thus we come   to church to worship, not to explain God but to gaze upon a wonder too deep for words, to experience God rather than merely to explain God. Taking up your cross is not about knowledge but an experience of grace.

 

March 8                  (Third Sunday in Lent)

Text:                      John 2:13-22

Title:                      Take Up Your Cross:  “The True Temple”

Theme:                  Jesus has come among us to cleanse us of our sin, including the sin of religion.  He comes into our temples, our sanctified and holy shrines, and cleans house.  Jesus is that fearless prophet who is so consumed by the righteousness of God             that he is determined to do away with anything that would stand between us and confrontation with and service to a holy and righteous God.  Taking up your cross is not about religion but about a life following Jesus.

March 8                  (Third Sunday in Lent)

Text:                      John 2:13-22

Title:                      Take Up Your Cross:  “The True Temple”

Theme:                  Jesus has come among us to cleanse us of our sin, including the sin of religion.  He comes into our temples, our sanctified and holy shrines, and cleans house.   Jesus is that fearless prophet who is so consumed by the righteousness of God       that he is determined to do away with anything that would stand between us and confrontation with and service to a holy and righteous God.  Taking up your cross is not about religion but about a life following Jesus.  

 

March 1                  (Second Sunday in Lent)

Text:                       Mark 8:31-38

Title:                       Take Up Your Cross:  “All That You Are”

Theme:                   In this text Jesus tells the disciples that to follow him the disciples must “Take up their cross”. But what exactly does that mean? Is Jesus calling us to die or to live a radical kind of following? This sermon will begin a series that discusses what it    means for us to “take up our cross” daily.

 

John 13:12-17

What is a Disciple? "Blessed Servants"

(Missions Sunday)

John 13:12-17

What is a Disciple? "Blessed Servants"

(Missions Sunday)

February 15            (Last Sunday after the Epiphany)

Text:                       Matthew 5:38-48

Title:                       What is a Disciple?  “Tough Love”

Theme:                  Jesus gives his most difficult command, “Love your enemies”. This is something that is possible only for a

                              true disciple. Religious people, even many Christians, will never attain it; but all things are possible for disciples.

 

February 15            (Last Sunday after the Epiphany)

Text:                       Matthew 5:38-48

Title:                       What is a Disciple?  “Tough Love”

Theme:                  Jesus gives his most difficult command, “Love your enemies”. This is something that is possible only for a

                               true disciple. Religious people, even many Christians, will never attain it; but all things are possible for disciples.

 

February 8              (Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany)

Text:                       Matthew 5:21-30

Title:                       What is a Disciple?  “Something Greater”

Theme:                  Jesus often gives us some impossible sounding commands. In this text Jesus invites us to imagine ourselves, not

                              as victims of our passions or desires, but as something greater. He invites us to imagine ourselves as disciples.