Even if we are doing all of the "right Christian things", it is possible to still have a hardness of heart towards God, which can be revealed by a hardness towards other people. This sermon looks at how Jonah was hardened towards those outside of his own people group, even when they were reflecting righteousness and a fear of God.

Jonah was called to love those starkly different from him, or "the other"; yet, he ran in the opposite direction. Despite that, God used "the other" to draw Jonah back to himself. This sermon prompts us to consider where in our lives we are running from those different than ourselves, looking down upon them instead of loving them as our savior does.

When we think of the book of Jonah, we usually think of the whale. However, this sermon begins our series on Jonah by looking at how the story of Jonah is really about race and nationality, about following God's commands, and about our own ideas of God and what he may ask us to do.

What is truly important is being a “new creation.” Works don’t please God, power, acclaim doesn’t please or impress him, what he wants from us is to become a new creation in Christ. If that is how we can summarize Galatians, then we should be concerned about knowing what a new creation is!

This sermon looks at how Christian life is meant to be done together, in community, and how true spirituality is displayed in self-sacrificing love that is powered by the Holy Spirit to the body of Christ.

When looking at the fruits of the spirit, we must realize that resisting the desires of the flesh is not about willpower or our own strength, it is about our faith in God and love for God, and the fruits that come of it. This passage is not about effort- the point is not to "try harder" or to "do better", the point is to allow the Spirit to produce the fruit.

In this sermon Matt Simpson looks at how Paul defines freedom in his letters to the Galatians. As Christians we have freedom from sin, as well as freedom to approach God and to be in relationship with Him. Our society looks at freedom as individual liberty, but in Christ we know that freedom is far from selfish and that it calls us to a greater purpose.

Galatians 5 shows how the cross was not politically correct when Paul was writing to the churches of Galatia, just as it is not politically correct now. Society still wants us to add different cultural movements to the gospel, but if we are following the true gospel, it is only Jesus. What are we adding or taking away from the message of the cross?

This message examines the promise of freedom that Jesus gives those who follow Him and examines the temptation to align oneself with causes and movements (even good ones) that distract us from the one, true gospel. Christians must hold out the hope of Jesus alone for the problems of our world and culture today.

On one side there's religious bondage, and on the other is spiritual freedom. Paul teaches the Galatians about the joy of a love relationship with Christ and how legalists will always try to rob us of simple faith.