Solid Rock Church Sermons

In today's sermon, we took a deeper look into the Gospel rhythms of everyday life in the early Church. Acts 2:42-47 captures a beautiful and challenging picture of the rhythms necessary to living life with one another in Biblical community. At the dawn of the Church, the believers were devoted to spending time together on a regular basis. They worshipped together weekly and spent time in one another's homes on various days throughout the week. They were able to meet each other's needs because they were available and present. Like the believers in the early Church, we are called to live life in the rhythms of Biblical community, spending time together consistently and intentionally. We can't worship together if we aren't meeting together, can't grow together if we aren't spending intentional time together, and can't meet each other's needs if we aren't available. In order to experience the kind of Biblical community that marked the early Church, we need to be willing to go against the grain of current cultural pressures and make sacrificial decisions that create margin in our lives. When we do this, we are able to truly share life with one another in Biblical community.

In this sermon, we continued The Dawn of the Church sermon series by looking at the early Church's devotion to Communion. In Mark 14, Jesus reveals the full meaning of the Passover meal to His disciples and transitions the Passover meal into the Communion meal we practice today. In the Passover meal, we see that the promises of Exodus 6:6-7 are fulfilled in Jesus. As we take Communion together, we remember and celebrate everything the Passover meal symbolized: Only Jesus can rescue us from our burdens and our slavery to sin. Through His death and resurrection, we are redeemed from sin and death and adopted into His family as the people of God.

In this sermon, we continued to look at the early Church's devotion described in Acts 2. This week, we looked at these early Christians' deep devotion to praying together as they passed along what Jesus taught His disciples about prayer. In Luke 11, the disciples asked Jesus how they should pray. He gave them an example prayer before teaching them about the heart behind prayer. Through this passage, we learn that prayer isn't about making transactions between us and God; prayer is a way for us to lean into God's presence and experience His goodness. New Testament Scriptures tell us that when we don't know what to pray or how to pray, we can ask the Holy Spirit to pray for us, ask others to pray for us, be honest with God about where we're at and what we're feeling, pray for things we are thankful for, pray Scripture and the written prayers of others, and pray the words that Jesus equipped His disciples with in the Lord's prayer.

In this sermon, we continued our The Dawn of the Church series by taking a look at the early Church's deep devotion to their fellowship with one another. We learned that, as believers, our fellowship with Jesus is made visible through our fellowship with one another.  To be part of the fellowship of Jesus implies that we are in a partnership with one another in the mission of Jesus as we share our lives in both suffering and blessing. Living as the fellowship of Jesus also includes giving generously to the Church as a reflection of God's generosity toward us. As described in Acts 2:41-47, the fellowship of Jesus is the sacred gathering of those who have believed the Gospel and through which God choses to display His power to the world.

With this sermon, we began the first of four weeks looking at the devotion of the early Church to the Apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer found in Acts 2:42. This week, we focused on the Church's devotion to the Apostles' teaching. This heartfelt dedication was born out of belief in the message of the Church, found in Christ Jesus. As we devote ourselves, both personally and corporately, to the powerful message of the Gospel, we are able to experience true life in Him and forever be changed from the inside out.

For this second week of The Dawn of the Church series, we looked in Acts 2:22-41 at the first sermon of the Church. In this passage, Peter uses the Scriptures to boldly preach that Jesus is the Messiah who was proven by miracles and signs, predicted by the Prophets, delivered up according to the plan and foreknowledge of God, crucified, killed, and raised up by God. Upon hearing his words, the people listening are deeply convicted and ask Peter what to do. Peter’s answer is simple: repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. Acts 2:41 tells us that about 3000 people were saved that day. This first sermon of the Church provides a template for all church sermons today and it informs each of us as believers. As we believe and continue to be changed by the grace of God, we are to share the Gospel of Christ with those around us so they may experience the life-changing love of Christ.

With this sermon, we launched The Dawn of the Church: Acts 1-2 series. We looked at Acts 2:1-21, when God uses fallible humans to establish His infallible Church by sending His Spirit to empower the Church and accomplish works that would otherwise be impossible for His people. This significant event marks the dawn of the Church and reveals that the true power of the Church is found in the Holy Spirit of God. God has given the Holy Spirit to the Church to empower believers to deliver the message of the Gospel. Through His powerful Gospel, God is dismantling the curse of sin and death, saving the lost, setting captives free, and uniting all who believe into one people as His Church.

In this sermon, we looked at the importance of the Church investing in the next generation. In Deuteronomy 6, Moses challenges the Israelites to not only be a people who follow and honor God but to also pass on this charge to their children. In the roughly 936 weeks between a child’s birth and high-school graduation, the Church has the responsibility and privilege to join with parents in raising up kids to know and follow God. This means intentionally investing in kids and students, leading out in transparency and grace, and shepherding young hearts to live for Christ.

In this sermon, we looked at the surprising and glorious angelic announcement of the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:8-21. The angels appear to shepherds watching their flocks at night and proclaim that the Savior, Messiah, and Lord has been born! The joy of heaven overflows into the appearance of an angelic multitude giving glory to God and praising Him for His favor toward mankind. After traveling to see Jesus with their own eyes, the shepherds tell others about the angelic announcement of this newborn Messiah. They praise God, rejoice, and are glad because their long-awaited King has come! Like those who had been awaiting the arrival of the Savior, we struggle with sadness, fear, loneliness, and a general sense that things aren’t as they should be. We find that what this world has to offer is insufficient; we are in need of something greater. The celebration of Christmas reminds us that there is a source of ultimate joy found in our Savior who enters into our sadness, fear, and loneliness and gives us a reason to be glad!

In this sermon, we looked at Mary and Joseph's experience of the first Christmas. In Matthew and Luke's accounts of the nativity, we see that Mary and Joseph faced many difficult situations that caused them deep loneliness. We also learned how God gave us the feeling of loneliness to remind us that it’s not good to be alone; we were created to be deeply connected to God and to others. Loneliness allows us to know when that connection is missing and drives us toward real intimacy with God and others. Jesus died on the cross to provide this true relational intimacy. Without the Gospel, we would be shackled to perpetual loneliness. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has reconciled us to Himself and to one another by faith, allowing loneliness to remind us of our need to live in community.