Real Peace. Real People.

This Sunday in Advent is our mountain peak just before Christmas. It’s the high point as we await the Christ child at Christmas. In keeping with that, this sermon looks at Isaiah's prophecy that is a direct prophecy of Jesus. It explores the threat of Jesus, the wisdom of Jesus, and the reign of Jesus. As it does so, it places the prophecy in our contemporary setting of 2020, asking listeners to make applications to their lives in time for the New Year.

This sermon seeks to take the great Immanuel prophecy of Isaiah 7 and place it into the manger of its context. It looks at the context of uncertainty, fear, and unbelief into which it was spoken. It shows that, finally, Isaiah 7 is a diagnostic of what it means to have faith. It, therefore, looks at the way that faith holds to the Word, fears God, and believes the evidence God provides that he is trustworthy and credible.

The Lord doesn’t here speak to his people. He speaks about them, but not to them. He speaks to his preachers. What is the significance of that for God’s people? How are they to view their preachers, what they say, and what they bring? This sermon explores Isaiah’s teaching that he gives to and about God’s preachers. They are one of the ways God prepares his people for his Son.

What does the world really need? It needs nothing but the full-on advent of God himself. This sermon explores how Christians are reduced to praying only for that. It, therefore, interacts with modern optimism, which is not sure that the end of this world is really necessary. It also looks at the way that Isaiah spiritually and prayerfully prepares Christian hearts for the final advent of the Lord. He does this magnificently, taking on our self-righteously and pointing us to Christ who is our only true righteousness.

In this culminating teaching from Jesus, he lays out what his final judgment will look like. This sermon looks at the key question in the teaching: who are the brothers and sisters of Jesus that he’s protecting. This sermon gives a biblical answer and calls Christians to reflect on that in three specific ways in their life.

Jesus tells his second parable in Matthew 25. It’s a story about how a master gives to his servants talents. The story is by turns scary, comforting, and inspirational. This sermon examines those spiritual reactions to this story, pulling together how the story supports each of those responses. It ends pulling it all together in a call to see Jesus as the generous master who is calling is to work for him while we wait.

This sermon begins a new sermon series based on Christ’s teaching of what his kingdom will be like when he comes back. This sermon looks at the first story he tells in the chapter: the parable of the ten virgins. It’s a story about watchful waiting. What does Christian waiting look like? This sermon shares four counsels on what watchful waiting looks like.

Today we take a look at the epic ending that Moses places onto his epic book, Exodus. What does he show us there? The glory! What makes it hard for us to keep seeing it? What assures us that it is always with us? The Glory in Exodus promises through this Word to lead us all the way to glory.

What is the Lord’s most amazing feat? The wonder that is more wonderful than the plagues? The miracles that are more improbably than the parting of the Red Sea? What is it that puts Moses’ jaw on the ground and ours too? This Reformation Sunday sermon reveals that the Lord characteristically forgives!

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” He would have been more right if he would’ve said, “This life is a journey.” The point remains, though, that we are all in this life on a journey. What makes the journey worthwhile, good, and ok? This sermon maintains that the special, saving presence of the Lord is what does that. The very presence we need, however, is the presence we cannot have. Why is that and how does the Lord deal with that?