MHBC Sunday Sermons

Quirinius, Caesar Augustus, and others missed the significance of Christ’s birth—blinded by power, self-importance, and busyness. Christmas invites us to examine our own hearts so we do not miss Him.

God’s grace is deep enough to use unremarkable people and to chase down a rebellious prophet. In Jonah 3, we see grace multiplied through Jonah’s ordinariness and his failures, as God comes to him a second time with the same word and the same mission. No sin is too great for His grace, so the call is to arise and obey.

Prosperity and ease can plant the seeds of rebellion in the heart of a believer, and Jonah’s story shows how God lovingly pursues His wandering children. In Jonah 2, we follow Jonah from distress and brokenness in the belly of the fish to remembering, worshiping, and repentance, and we see that we can learn from his example instead of walking the same road.

Jonah’s fear that God would show mercy to Nineveh sprang from self-righteousness and national pride. The sailors feared the storm. The only lasting antidote for both kinds of fear is viewing life through the lens of God’s grace.

When God’s servant runs from His will, a great wind, a great storm, and a great fish follow. Rebellion stirs God’s anger, endangers others, and clouds our thinking—yet God’s greatness is still on display.

Paul outlines the mutual responsibilities between citizens and government under God’s authority. Believers are called to be subject to and supportive of human government, out of both fear and conscience, while government is to protect the innocent, punish evil, and serve as God’s minister for the good of its people. Our first allegiance, though, remains to the kingdom of God.

In Colossians 3:22–4:1, Paul applies our new identity in Christ to the workplace. Using the first-century master-slave relationship, he shows how believers are to work wholeheartedly and with contentment as unto the Lord, while masters are to treat those under them with justice and fairness.