A Sermon for July 9, 2017 on Romans 7:14-25 We’re continuing in our sermon series on Romans. We’ve been talking about the amazing grace that God’s give to us. God’s ability to bring about complete transformation in someone’s life. We’ve been talking about that fancy word justification. And last week we added to it another fancy word: sanctification. I guess we’re just getting really fancy. But these are core concepts for Christianity. We’ve talked about how, roughly speaking, justification is […] The post Jekyll and Hyde appeared first on Lansdowne UMC.

A Sermon for July 2, 2017 on Romans 6:22 We’re continuing our series on the book of Romans in the second half of chapter 6. And over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at images that Paul uses to describe this fancy word: justification. If you’re going to substitute one word for justification, the best word is probably pardon. But how does that play out and how does Paul describe it? Two weeks ago, we saw how Paul talked […] The post The Journey of Sanctification appeared first on Lansdowne UMC.

A Sermon for June 25, 2017 on Romans 6:1a-11 We’re continuing our series on Romans with the first chunk of chapter 6, where Paul is continuing to work out what it means to be justified by faith. Last week we talked about one way of looking at this thing called justification. Before justification, we are God’s enemies. Once we are justified, we have peace with God. God gives us an assurance of that peace because the Holy Spirit pours God’s […] The post Dead to Sin appeared first on Lansdowne UMC.

A sermon on Romans 5:1-8 for June 18, 2017 There’s a retired United Methodist pastor, Dennis Dorsch, who has been walking with me for nearly a decade as I’ve been growing spiritually and discerning God’s call on my life. For someone who has some significant mobility problems, he remains incredibly active and committed to that Wesleyan spirit of “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places […] The post Justified Love appeared first on Lansdowne UMC.

A Sermon on Acts 1:6-14 for May 28, 2017 Last week, we spoke about the person of the Holy Spirit, and we talked about a few of the roles that the Holy Spirit takes in our lives. In particular we talked about the Holy Spirit as Advocate, as Comforter, and as Helper. We also spoke about how in the church year, we’re in the season of Easter. The resurrection has happened, and we’re waiting for Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit […]

A Sermon on Matthew 28:16-20 for June 11, 2017 The passage that we read from Matthew’s Gospel contains what is called “the Great Commission. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” In the late 18th century, a man named William Carey wrote about this passage of scripture. He argued very convincingly […]

A Sermon for April 30, 2017 on Acts 2:36-41, Luke 24:13-35 Have you ever had a moment when something you’ve been trying to understand just… clicks?  I’ve heard of this happening to some people as they learn to read. They learn what the letters are individually, and they learn that they go together to form words. But at some point something their brain just goes “pop” and suddenly they’re not processing sequences of letters anymore– they’re reading words. There’s that […]

A Sermon on Acts 2:42-47 How is it that the church exists? I’m not asking what we exist to do. I’m simply asking, how is it possible that the church of Jesus Christ exists at all? Have you ever stopped to consider how unlikely it is? Before Pentecost, which we’re going to celebrate on June 4, the church was about 120 people according to Acts 1. On the day of Pentecost, 3000 people were added to their numbers after Peter […]

A Sermon on John 14:15-21 Did you ever see the show Mythbusters? The premise is that special effects experts rig up scenarios to test various Myths. Will a cell phone used near a gas pump cause an explosion? Can a human hang onto the roof of a speeding car? Does a car explode when driving off a cliff? Something usually ends up blowing up. And even if it doesn’t, they usually blow it up. Obviously they worry about safety and […]

A Sermon for Palm Sunday, April 9, 2017 on Matthew 21:1-11 Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of two of Jesus’ disciples: let’s call them James and John. Let me tell you about your experience. In the years that you’ve followed Jesus, you’ve been amazed by Jesus’ compassion. He would see people that the society considered untouchable– people with leprosy– and he would touch them and healed them. You saw people marvel at the authority of Jesus when he healed […]