Solid Rock Church Sermons

In this sermon, we looked at the connection between serving God and worshipping God. The book of Malachi opens with God referring to Himself as a father and Israel as His son. In verses 3:13-18, God confronts Israel's vanity in serving. The people had ceased to serve God out of their love for Him and had, instead, come to a place of complacency and contempt in which they were going through the motions of worship while their hearts were bitter and rebellious. God reminds Israel that He hasn't called them to serve Him like a slave serves a master but like a son serves His father. Just like Israel, we can drift away from serving God out of our worship. The good news of the Gospel is that God doesn't give up on us or turn His back on us but loves us as a good Father who invites His children to return to Him.

In this sermon, we continued to look at God’s design for His Church and how our fellowship with one another is connected to our worship. In the New Testament, God uses the Greek word "koinonia" to describe the community within the Church. The koinonia is a community of close mutual relationships, in which people share possessions and partner in living the mission of Jesus in everyday life. In Acts 2, the believers experienced the overwhelming love of Jesus in a way that compelled them to eagerly desire to give that love to others. This created a koinonia community where they had everything in common: they shared life, they shared struggles, and they shared resources. When we are devoted to the koinonia, our giving will be generous, our receiving will be grateful, and both will be done as acts of worship. A church devoted to the fellowship is a church engaged in worship and living the mission in everyday life.

In this sermon, we looked at the connection between our love for God and our love for others. In 2 Corinthians 13:11-14, Paul gives the church six commands, starting with the command to rejoice or worship. The next five commands guide us in our relationships with one another. In the Bible, God continually compares our fellowship with Him to our fellowship with one another, saying that we can't claim to have fellowship with Him if we aren't living in fellowship with one another; our relationship with one another is connected to our relationship with God. Therefore, our worship is deeply connected to our relationships. This helps more greatly understand Matthew 5:23-24, when Jesus said that if we discover we have a broken relationship with another believer, we should set down our worship and go get right with that person then return to offer our gift of worship to the Lord.

In this sermon, we looked at Colossians 3:12-17 to see how we can cultivate a lifestyle of worship through gratitude. Paul calls us to put on and wear the attributes of Christ on a daily basis. Additionally, he encourages us to allow the peace of Christ to rule over our hearts with thankfulness and to let the Word of God dwell in us richly so that everything we say and do gives thanks to the Father. This genuine thankfulness connects us to Christ and compels us to a lifestyle of worship.

In this sermon, we looked at the role of prayer in our worship. We read Matthew 6:7-13 to see Jesus' instruction on how to pray and Mark 14:32-36 to see His example of prayer. We also looked in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 at how Paul modeled this same prayer in his own life. Through these passages, we see that prayer is not only about getting God to change something external in our lives but also about asking the Father to align something internal in our hearts. Whether or not we get what we're asking for, we always get God. Prayer doesn’t have to change the things we can see to be supernatural; all prayer is supernatural. Prayer is where finite beings commune with the eternal God. Prayer shifts our trust from earthly things to God and re-postures our hearts from trusting in idols to worshipping the one true God.

In this sermon, we looked at the role of the Word of God in worship. The Word of God reminds us of who God is and what God has done. It leads us to salvation and restored relationship with Him. With our relationship with God restored, we are able to see God for who He is and reflect on His goodness and kindness towards us which evokes reverence, gratitude and love in our hearts towards God. Worship happens when we take those inward affections and display them in our outward actions toward God. Not only does the Word of God evoke worship, it also describes how God desires for us to express our worship: to be aimed at Him and Him alone.  When we come before His presence in worship, He instructs us to leave all other false gods or idols behind, to identify Him as the one true God, and to rest in His presence.

In the first sermon of our "Worship is…" series, we studied what a heart of worship looks like and where it comes from. Worship happens when our love for God aligns with our right thoughts about God and is expressed in our obedient actions toward God. When the Lord gives us His presence, it exposes our neediness and we either run and hide or turn toward Him. When we take our neediness to the Lord and cry out for help, He responds with kindness, filling our hearts with gratitude, love, and worship. Worship isn't something we conjure up in our strength; it is a heart posture that comes out of our experience with God when He meets us with loving kindness in the midst of our deepest needs.

In our last sermon of the Ephesians series, we looked at Paul's final charge for believers to stand strong in the gifts that Jesus has given them. This exhortation reminds us that the devil seeks to steal, kill, and destroy us through his evil schemes. Our defense against these schemes is to put on the whole armor of God, given to us as Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, His Spirit, and His Word. When we put on this armor, we stand firm in the very same strength that raised Jesus from the dead.

In this sermon, we looked at how God is restoring His people as image bearers in the way we work and lead others. In Ephesians 6:5-9, Paul calls those who are in Christ to engage in work in a way that reflects His image. We do this by following instructions and going about our work willingly and wholeheartedly, whether or not anyone is watching, always looking for opportunities to do the will of God. When we engage in work this way, we can see our efforts as a gift to our employer, trusting Jesus for our ultimate reward. Additionally, Christians who are employers or managers are to lead those who have been entrusted to their care in a way that reflects the relationship between Christ and His people.

In this sermon, we looked at God's call for parents and children to bear His image in the home through the way they interact with one another. God calls children who are in Christ to honor their parents by speaking respectfully, listening to and following their instruction, and expressing gratitude for their care. When children honor their parents, we get a glimpse of the honor that we are all called to display toward God. Parents are to instruct and correct their children in a way that nourishes and cultivates their souls. This requires parents to be patient, kind, and slow to anger in shepherding their children. When parents guide and love their children in this way, we get a glimpse of what it looks like to be in relationship with a good God who is also our loving Father.