Misty Creek Community Church Sermons

By Misty Creek Community Church

Christian Sermons from Misty Creek Community Church in Sandy Springs, GA.... more

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Misty Creek Community Church Sermons episodes:

March 03, 2022 Ash Wednesday 3/2/22 - "What Does the Lord Require of You?" - Misty Creek Community Church
Why Ash Wednesday?
There is no literal mention of Ash Wednesday in the Bible. But there is a tradition of donning ashes as a sign of penitence that predates Jesus. In the Old Testament, Job repents “in dust and ashes,” and there are other associations of ashes and repentance in Esther, Samuel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. We find this reference in Genesis 3:19
“By the sweat of your face You will eat bread Until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
Ash Wednesday, the day after Mardi Gras, usually begins with a service where we recognize our mortality, repent of our sins, and return to our loving God. We recognize life as a precious gift from God, and we re-turn our lives toward Jesus Christ. We may make resolutions and commit to change our lives over the next forty days so that we might be more like Christ. In an Ash Wednesday service, usually a minister or priest marks the sign of the cross on people’s foreheads, using ashes.
Why ashes?
In Jewish and Christian history, ashes are a sign of mortality and repentance. Mortality, because when we die, our bodies eventually decompose, and we become dust/dirt/ash/whatever. Repentance, because long ago, when people felt remorse for something they did, they would put ashes on their head and wear “sackcloth” (scratchy clothing) to remind them that sin is uncomfortable and leads to a sort of death of the spirit. This was their way of confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness.
We hope you will join us for a very contemplative Ash Wednesday service that includes worship, a brief reflective message, elements of prayer, and the imposition of ashes.
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30min
February 28, 2022 "Do You Love, Regardless?" (Motivated to Love Our Enemies) - 2.27.22 Sermon - Misty Creek Community Church
Do You Love Regardless? (Motivated to Love Our Enemies)
Luke 6:27-39

Our passage for Sunday mentions grace and mercy. What is God’s grace and mercy? God’s grace is His unmerited favor and unconditional love.

Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

God’s mercy is not getting what we deserve. His grace and mercy go hand in hand.

Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”

People are into boasting today, aren’t they? They are also into shutting you off if you are not in alignment with them (no mercy, no grace, no agree to disagree or let’s discuss each other’s point of view). People don’t care to ask for clarification regarding what you mean. You're just wrong and close minded.

Listen to Jesus’ words for us: “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Jesus isn’t calling us to an easy task! So, what would this kind of love look like in real life? And how could it change your life story? The first thing we learn from this passage is that Jesus calls us to a courageous love. The second thing we learn from this passage is that Jesus calls us to a generous love. And the final thing we learn from this passage is that Jesus calls us to an unconditional love. We are to love regardless!

Grace and Peace,
Stephen
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34min
February 21, 2022 "Are you Tired?" (How to heal a tired spirit) - 2/20/22 Sermon - Misty Creek Community Church
Are you Tired? (How to heal a tired spirit)
Luke 5:1-11
A study came out last year that was disturbing but not necessarily surprising. The World Health Organization did a study of people around the world who worked 55 or more hours per week compared to those who worked 35-40 hours per week. The study covered health and workplace data from the 1970s to 2018 and included workers in 154 countries. They concluded that, “People working 55 or more hours each week face an estimated 35% higher risk of a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease, compared to people following the widely accepted standard of working 35 to 40 hours in a week.” They also estimated that more than 745,000 people worldwide died in 2016 from the physical stress of working excess hours. Those are some scary numbers. Of course, this study was completed before the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of companies cut their workforce, and the remaining employees worked longer hours to compensate. Also, many people began working from home, which made it harder to leave work at work. The result: working unpaid overtime.

            We all know that the U.S. is the nation of “rise and grind.” Hard work is in our DNA. But so is being tired. We complain about how busy and tired we are. We compare our busy schedules and shrug our shoulders. “Oh well, that’s just how life is. What can you do about it?” How many of you have said, “I’m tired” this week (maybe just to yourself)? Sometimes the tiredness runs spirit-deep. And it steals away our joy, our peace, our hope. That’s not what God intended for our lives. Our God is a creative God, and God made us for peace, hope and joy. So that spirit-deep tiredness poisons the life that God intended for us to have.

            That’s why we can relate to Simon Peter and the other disciples in our Bible passage for today. Crowds of people have come to the shore of the lake to hear Jesus preach. On the edge of the lake are the fishing boats that have come in after a long night’s work. Professional fishermen in Jesus’ day lowered large nets into the lake. In the dark of night, the fish couldn’t see the nets, so schools of fish were easier to catch at night. Unfortunately, Simon Peter and his colleagues had an unsuccessful night. Jesus climbed into Simon’s boat and asked him to float out a short distance from shore. After Jesus finished teaching the people on the shore, he told Simon Peter to sail into deeper waters and let down his nets again.

            Put yourself in Simon Peter’s shoes. He’s just finished working all night with no results. In addition to being tired and ready to go home, he’s probably frustrated that his hard work didn’t pay off. He was tired and ready to quit. And now Jesus is telling him how to do his job. Simon answers, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

            In this story, Jesus gives us a gift. He shows us how to heal a tired spirit. For example, one thing we learn from this story is that doing meaningful work can heal a tired spirit. A great way to stay energized and effective in your work and in your life is to seek to do something that you truly believe in.

Grace and Peace,
Stephen
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38min
February 16, 2022 "Got Hope?" - 2/13/22 Sermon - Misty Creek Community Church
Got Hope? (Hope for the world, hope in God, hope in the future)
Romans 8:28

Last weekend on the visioning retreat, I floated around to each of the small groups. There was such synergy and unity amongst the groups. People came together in a brief weekend retreat to produce something great as the Spirit directed them. I left with such hope for Misty Creek. Hope for the world, hope in God, hope in the future. What is it about hope that makes it so important? Why did Jesus put it up there alongside faith and love? The Bible tells us “We are saved by hope” (Romans 8:24). Never more than now do we need to be hopeful. Where there is hope there is life. Hope rises above hard economic times, depression, grief, despair, anxiety, etc. Hope is contagious. Got hope?

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

The promise of Romans 8:28 that God works for our good “in all things” is reassuring. It means that no matter the circumstance, there are only two qualifiers for God to be working all things together for our good: (1) Those who love God (2) and are called according to His purpose.

There’s a lot of hope in this folks. I believe that if you apply hope to a situation however difficult, you will rise above your trouble. Hope can overcome the greatest of odds. When everywhere there seems to be no hope, fill your mind with hope, put yourself in God's hands, submit yourself completely to God's will as a worthy servant. Then God will open the door and will pour out everything you need upon you. Hope opens the way when there seems to be no way.

Grace and Peace,
Stephen
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30min
February 08, 2022 "Wounded?" - 2/6/22 Sermon from Misty Creek Community Church
Wounded?
Romans 8:18 & Colossians 3:4
This Sunday will be a Service of Restoration and Wholeness. The apostle Paul assures us that when we are tested beyond our strength, God will provide a way through, until, free on the other side, we can walk forward into the light of a new day. Where there is hope there is life. The Bible tells us “We are saved by hope” (Romans 8:24). Never more than now do we need to be hopeful.

Have you been wounded? Nobody escapes being wounded. We all are wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not “How can we hide our wounds?” so we don’t have to be embarrassed, but “How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?” When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers. (Henri Nouwen)
Jesus is God’s wounded healer: through his wounds we are healed. Jesus’ suffering and death brought joy and life. His humiliation brought glory; his rejection brought a community of love. As followers of Jesus, we can also allow our wounds to bring healing to others.

This Sunday you will have the opportunity to experience restoration and wholeness through a service of healing. Our focus will be emotional health both spiritually and relationally. Jesus said, “love God with all you heart, soul, mind, and strength.” If we are not loving God with the whole person, there is brokenness within us. I hope you will join us this Sunday at 10:30am to begin the healing process.

Grace and Peace,
Stephen
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54min
February 01, 2022 "When Faced with Crisis" 1/30/22 Sermon Only - Misty Creek Community Church
When Faced with Crisis (Restoration Amid Turmoil)
John 2:1-11
Our Scripture this Sunday is about a wedding planner faced with a crisis. Jesus and his disciples and his mother are attending a wedding in Cana. In that culture, wedding parties lasted for days. At some point during the festivities, the hosting family ran out of wine. Jesus lived in a culture that valued hospitality and community. No more wine meant no more wedding celebration, which would be humiliating for the bride and groom’s families. Jesus’ mother, Mary, must have heard whispers about the lack of wine, so she took the problem to Jesus.

“They have no more wine,” she said. Jesus answered, “Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” This passage is a great example of what I would call mom-power. Mothers have that unique power to talk their kids into doing their bidding. Mary didn’t ask Jesus directly to do anything. She didn’t demand. She just presented the problem to him in such a way that he couldn’t say, “No.” That’s mom-power.

Imagine the master of the banquet’s surprise when he tasted the wine the servants brought him! He didn’t even know Jesus had performed a miracle. He called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

It’s easy to look at Jesus’ first miracle and think it’s just an impressive party trick. We might as well end this passage with the words, “And they lived happily ever after. The End.” But the last line of our Bible passage reads, “What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” This miracle revealed his glory and caused his disciples to believe in him? I call that an important miracle.

This miracle is not about the wedding. It’s not even about the wine. God is not a showman. He isn’t desperate for our attention. So, the miracles we read about in the Bible aren’t just special effects to impress us. Miracles are meant to show us the nature and priorities of God. Every time you read about a miracle in the Bible, ask yourself, “What does this tell me about the nature and priorities of God?
Serving With Joy,
Stephen
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48min
January 25, 2022 "Is There a God?" - 1/23/22 Sermon - Misty Creek Community Church
Is There A God?!
Luke 4:14-21
God Has Come to Bring you Good News

The passage Jesus read in the synagogue was a prophecy from the prophet Isaiah, who had lived about 700 years earlier. But instead of interpreting this passage for his listeners in the synagogue, Jesus simply ended his reading of the scripture with these words: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” I guarantee you that nobody was expecting that! If there were microphones in Jesus’ day, this would be the perfect moment for a “mic drop!” Because Jesus, a local boy, a carpenter from a family of modest means, had just announced that he was the Messiah sent from God. How’s that for something to talk about over Sabbath lunch? The nation of Israel had waited around 1,000 years for God to send His Messiah, His Anointed One. They believed the Messiah would be “a descendent of King David (2 Samuel 7:12-13; Jeremiah 23:5), observant of Jewish law (Isaiah 11:2-5), a righteous judge (Jeremiah 33:15), and a great military leader.” They didn’t expect that one of their own would claim that title for himself. So what was Jesus talking about? If he was the long-promised Messiah, the hope of the nation, then what was God revealing about His nature and His plan for the world?

The first thing we learn is that Christ came to bring good news to the poor. That’s a vital truth to understand about the Messiah. Because it tells us so much about God’s heart, about God’s character. When you have good news to tell, who do you want to share it with? You want to share it with those most affected by that news and in this case, it is the poor. Think about our society. How would you like to be poor in America? How would you like to have limited access to health care? How would you like to own a car that you could not keep in good repair—that sometimes breaks down at the most inconvenient times? How would you like to watch your children’s teeth rot out because you couldn’t afford a trip to the dentist? I could go on, but you get the idea. In the most affluent society in the world, there are still people for whom everyday life is a nightmare. Those are the people about which God is most concerned. Jesus identified with the least and the lowest. It is no accident that Christ’s first bed was a manger where cattle are fed. It is no accident that Jesus spent his adult life without a home of his own, without any possessions beyond what he could carry as he traveled from town to town sharing the message of the love of God with everyone he met. Folks here’s Jesus’ life summed up.

Regardless of how much many affluent pastors might love their state-of-the-art air-conditioned church sanctuaries with their coffee bars, bookshops, and valet parking lots, we cannot forget that Jesus died on the cross naked and empty-handed.
God cares about the poor. When I say that, I’m not putting limits on God’s love. I’m declaring how limitless it is. You can measure the limits of someone’s heart by how well they can love those whom others ignore. They may be overlooked, left out and powerless in our world. But in God’s kingdom, the poor are precious and held close to His heart. He loved them so much He chose to walk in their shoes. And he calls his followers to do the same.

Grace & Peace,
Stephen
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31min
January 18, 2022 Living Without Fear: How Big is your God? - 1/15/22 Sermon - Misty Creek Community Church
Living Without Fear: How Big is your God?
Jeremiah 1:4-10
We all know what it’s like to wake up from a frightening dream and think, “Wait a minute! Was that real?” And once we get a little more alert, we realize that it was just a dream, and we hopefully fall back to sleep. Psychologists say there is one type of dream that is nearly universal. Can you guess what it is? It’s the dream of being unprepared for an exam. It’s awful, isn’t it? School children all over the world report having this dream, or I should say, this nightmare, for that is what it truly is. In this dream, you realize on the day of the exam that you never showed up for class—you missed the entire semester. Or the exam questions are written in a foreign language you don’t recognize, or you completely forgot to study the night before.

I suspect I’m not the only one who panics at the thought of facing a big challenge unprepared. And it helps us relate to the situation of Jeremiah the prophet in our Scripture lesson for today. Jeremiah was a young priest in a small settlement near Jerusalem when God spoke to him one day and called him to be a prophet to the nations. Nothing scary about that, is there? Don’t kid yourself. It’s funny, but I’ve often said, and I’ve heard others say, “If God would just speak to me! If He would just tell me what I should do with my life, it would be so much easier.” We all think that if God spoke to us in a clear and unmistakable way, we would feel instant relief, and would obey instantly. But look at all the people God spoke to in the Bible. Very few responded with, “Sounds great! I’m on it! Thanks for the clear directions.” Almost every person responded with fear, questions, or excuses. So, let’s not kid ourselves that we are so faithful or courageous to respond when God calls us to fulfill His purposes.

Jeremiah responds like we probably would, “Alas, Sovereign Lord” [which is another way of saying “Oh no!”] “I don’t know how to speak; I’m too young.” Which seems like a reasonable excuse to us. “No, thank You, Lord. I’m not ready. I’m sure You meant to give this job to someone else.” All Jeremiah heard was the responsibility. He didn’t hear the reassurance. God never gives a responsibility without first giving reassurance. God never calls someone without first comforting them. God never appoints someone without first anointing them.

How big is your God? Look at God’s words in the beginning of this passage: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart . . .” I hope you hear these words too just as Jeremiah did . . . and plant them in your heart and mind. Because your life will never have the impact God created you for unless you understand this truth: God made you for a purpose. That’s the first truth we need to understand from Jeremiah’s story. God made you for a purpose. In fact, when God tells Jeremiah “. . . before you were born, I set you apart,” the word used here literally means “set apart for a sacred purpose” or “consecrated.” You weren’t just made for a purpose. You were made for a sacred purpose. For God’s purposes.

Grace and Peace,
Stephen
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34min
January 11, 2022 "What Happens When We Pray?" 1/9/22 Sermon - Misty Creek Community Church
What Happens When We Pray?
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

According to the Gospel writer Luke, John the Baptist was baptizing people on the banks of the Jordan River. Then Luke makes one of the most startling pronouncements in the New Testament. He writes, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.” Each year on the First Sunday after Epiphany, liturgical churches celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. For us, it is a major event. The Son of God submits to being baptized at the hands of a somewhat eccentric preacher called John the Baptist. Mark describes John as wearing clothes of camel's hair, living on locusts and wild honey, making his home in the wilderness. John admits that he is not worthy to carry Christ’s sandals. In fact, he seeks to deter Jesus from being baptized at his unworthy hands. And yet Jesus comes to John to be baptized. It is a remarkable scene. He who was without sin submits himself to a religious rite that most of us associate with the symbolic act of washing sin away.

And notice what happens next, after Jesus’ baptism. Luke writes, “And as he was praying . . .” (Note those words.) “And as he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’' You’ve heard or read those words many times. It is a most familiar scene. But have you noticed those words coming immediately after Jesus’ baptism—"And as he was praying" . . .? Was it not entirely natural that Jesus, immediately following his baptism, should pray? Prayer played a major role in his entire ministry. Here he was, the very manifestation of God on earth, and yet he felt the need to be in continuous communication with his Father.

Contrast his example with the practice of many of us. We have a very limited acquaintance with the Father, yet we spend only a nominal amount of time in prayer. We are so busy that we have crowded out the one necessary practice for a truly successful life. Jesus never let that happen. Immediately after he was baptized, Jesus was praying, and what happened next? Luke tells us, “The heaven opened.” What an exciting statement. When good people pray, good things happen. “The heaven opened.” Something like that should happen at some time in our life. Baptism at its best should result in our becoming a new person. We should become aware of our identity as a part of the family of God. We should discover that we, too, are children of God.

Grace and Peace,
Stephen
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36min
January 03, 2022 "What Is God's Plan For Your Life In 2022?" 1/2/22 Sermon - Misty Creek Community Church
"What Is God's Plan For Your Life In 2022?"
1/2/22 Sermon
Misty Creek Community Church
Senior Pastor: Stephen Streett
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37min

FAQs about Misty Creek Community Church Sermons:

How many episodes does Misty Creek Community Church Sermons have?

The podcast currently has 390 episodes available.