Real Peace. Real People.

The Meaning of LifeA SERMON BASED ON ECCLESIASTES 2:1-11

The book of Ecclesiastes is deeply earthly in viewpoint, poetic, proverbial, and topically always challenging. Take, for example, the opening line of the opening poem: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." (Ecc. 1:2 KJV) That’s a full-blown confrontation of us all. It's nothing less than a challenge to the meaning of our very existence.

Jesus Knows Exactly What He’s DoingA SERMON BASED ON MARK 8:27-35

What started as a nice conversation between Jesus and his disciples quickly escalated into quite the confrontation. In one moment, the disciples thought they knew who Jesus was. In the next, they were questioning everything. It seemed like it was all suddenly spiraling out of control. But things were going right according to plan. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing.

We Christians in the West may need to be eased into this. We often do not take the demonic all that seriously in our thinking. Paul challenges our bias. He also lays the groundwork for all spiritual warfare: who the enemy is, where we fight, and how we fight.

See What God Does With Hearts

A Sermon Based on mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Jesus teaches us an important lesson about human hearts. The Pharisees had thought they could be clean in God’s eyes by washing their hands just the right way and by following all sorts of customs. Jesus explained how being clean or unclean is really a matter of the heart. When it comes to our hearts, Jesus protects them from any feelings of uncleanness and washes them so that they are perfectly clean.

These verses get skipped in most Christian churches in North America today. They are too much for listeners and for the clergy called to preach them. Why are they too much? Has Paul gone off the rails? Or have we? This sermon examines these questions in light of the gospel of Christ and emerges on the other side, showing that Paul’s teaching is Christ-centered, loving, and powerful in the Christian life.

Your heart has vessels. You know that from high school biology class. But, did you also know this? Your heart also is a vessel. It needs to be filled. This lesson from Paul explores two wrong ways people try to fill the heart and then gives one proper way. Your heart was always made to run on God, the Holy Spirit.

In this text, Paul gives examples of what it means to put off the old self and put on the new one in the Christian life. This sermon covers most of his examples under this question: what words should we speak? It places that theme into the contemporary context where words can go more wide and deep than ever before. It also gives questions that will help the Christian discern what words are appropriate when, as we live for the Lord who was and is our fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Paul compares and contrasts two different kinds of life in this Scripture: the Gentile life and the Christian life. He makes this comparison because they are the only two kinds of lives a person can live. This sermon, following Paul, makes the same comparison. It compares what life is, how drives in life are managed, and where this life comes from/goes to.

We live in a very divided culture. Sadly, church leaders have seen those divisions walk right into the Church. Even worse, it seems that no one can even agree on what truth is anymore. How does the Church respond to that? How can she maintain her unity? This sermon walks through this section of Ephesians to discover the biblical answer to the real-world problem of division we are currently facing.

God’s Word is so timely. Always. This sermon takes up the theme of racial reconciliation that God has already effected in the Church through the cross of Jesus. It shows how in the Church it is already a gospel reality in which we live, and now we celebrate.