Pastor JD VanValin: Sermons

Fifth Sunday of Epiphany

Text: Luke 5:1-11

Jesus called Peter from catching fish to catching people (making disciples). Jesus models for us how to pursue people, and not just any people, but those who are on the margins of society--the overlooked, disregarded. How well are you doing at following Jesus and fishing for people?

Fourth Sunday of Epiphany

Text: Luke 4:22-30

Jesus went from popular to hated as quickly as raindrops from the sky. Do we tend to take Jesus as he is, or adapt and adjust him to how we think he ought to be? If he truly is Lord, then in what ways do I need to change, and how can I better submit to him? 

Third Sunday of Epiphany

Texts: Nehemiah 8:1-3, Luke 4:14-21

Before Christ came, Israel was God's chosen people to "flesh out" his word in the world, but they fell short. Jesus is the Word of God in the flesh, and he is perfect. He "fleshed out" the Word of God flawlessly even to the point of death. He is our source and our model for how to obey the commands of God. When he read from Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth and he said that the scripture was "fulfilled in their hearing", Jesus was informing all people that God was in their presence. The presence of God empowers the church to do as Jesus does.

Second Sunday of Epiphany

Text: John 2:1-11

The first sign Jesus performed was turning water to wine at a wedding feast. Jesus revealed his glory and also the abundance of the house of God. God's house had indeed come in Christ. We have received the abundance of God's house, the best we have ever had, in the person of Jesus. Jesus, the Word made flesh, lived among us, and gave us his life (entering death), so that we could have not just any life, but abundant life, eternal life.

Happy New Year! May 2022 be a year that you become a more faithful follower of Jesus!

Second Sunday of Christmas

Text: Ephesians 1:3-14

What did you get for Christmas! Ephesians 1:3-14 gives a profound list of gifts that are only from the Lord. Because of these gifts in Christ, we are set free to live a life that is for the praise of God's glory, not for our own.

First Sunday of Christmas

Text: 1 Samuel 2:18-26

There are quite a few accounts in scripture of miraculous births, but none are like the birth of Jesus. Yet, at the same time, all of them point to the person of Jesus and the salvation that he provides for the world. 

Third Sunday of Advent

Text: Isaiah 12:2-6

The ability to sing is a gift from God. God sings over us and over creation, and so we sing back to him. We sing because of his marvelous gifts, especially the gift of Jesus. Throughout generations and across the globe, humanity has been singing about the coming of Christ. God is putting together a choir that will join the everlasting song in the new creation, and it is our joy sing to the King.

Second Sunday of Advent

Text: Malachi 3:1-4

Prepare the way, meaning make space, but not just any space, sacred space. God wants to live with his people, and but he is a refining fire and will consume anything that is unholy. He came to dwell in the temple, then he came to dwell in Jesus (God in the flesh), and he wants to dwell in us through the Holy Spirit. In order to do this, we must do as John the Baptist taught us--repent.

First Sunday of Advent

Text: Luke 21:35-36

Hope is an incredibly powerful force. It is what drives human life. If hope is lost, life quickly follows. Our hope is in Jesus, and the foundation of that hope is in his advent, or coming. He came, and he is coming again. In the meantime, we have great hope, not in the things and events in the world, but because of the promise of his return to reign forever.

Text: Revelation 1:4-8

Jesus is King, he has always been King, and he is returning as King someday. What is this King like? And what is his Kingdom like? In our American culture, we tend to want the Kingdom without the King. But the Kingdom is impossible without the presence of the King. How should this change how we live in the world.