Solid Rock Church Sermons

In this sermon, we looked at John 8:31-38 when Jesus proclaimed that if we will abide in His Word, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free from our slavery to sin.  Jesus proclaimed this to a crowd of Jews who had already placed their faith in Him. However, when the people heard these words, they argued that they were not enslaved to anyone. Jesus explained that we are all slaves to whatever we obey; our actions reveal the identity or our true master. It’s only through the life-long journey of abiding in the Word of God that we are able to experience true freedom. Jesus has come to set us free from our slavery to sin and adopt us into His kingdom as sons and daughters. 

In this sermon, we were reminded that Jesus is not from our world. In obedience, Jesus left the perfect presence of God to come into our broken world where sin leads to spiritual death. Throughout His ministry, Jesus repeatedly emphasized our great need for salvation and His plan to reconcile us to Himself. In John 8:21-30, Jesus warned his listeners that their unbelief and denial would lead them to “die in their sin.” When we wholeheartedly believe in Jesus, the Son of God, He rescues us from sin and death, forever reconciling us to God.

In this sermon, we looked at John 8:12-20 in which Jesus tells His followers that He is the light of the world and that, if they truly believe in Him, they will follow Him. The Pharisees, who were experts in the law, begin to question Jesus from a legal perspective, asking Him to name witnesses that validate His claim to be the Son of God. In verses 19-20, Jesus exposes the real root of the problem for the Pharisees: they don’t know Him nor do they know His Father. The problem wasn’t that they didn’t know a lot about God, the problem was that they didn’t know God personally. In this passage, we see the Light of the World who draws us to Himself that we may believe and truly come to know Him as we walk with Him daily.

In this sermon, we looked at what Jesus meant when he said, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink." In this simple invitation, Jesus outlined the Gospel. With gentle honesty, Jesus told the crowd that they had all broken the law of Moses, but they were also invited to come to Jesus to drink of His forgiveness. After this, the religious leaders started debating whether or not Jesus was born in the right town to be the Messiah. Ironically, if they had taken time to ask, they would have discovered that Jesus’ place of birth lined up exactly with the prophesies regarding the Messiah and that the very evidence they were using to disprove Jesus’ identity actually proved it. It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t possess the credentials or proof that He was the Son of God as predicted by the Prophets; it was because of the hardness of their hearts that the religious leaders rejected Jesus despite His simple invitation to come to Him for salvation. His invitation extends to us today: that we would come to Him, taking the Gospel just as it is, to drink and be filled.

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus lived His daily life in complete submission to the unfolding plan that His Father had for Him. In John 7, Jesus' brothers encouraged Him to make a public appearance in Jerusalem but He refrained from traveling there at that time because it would have put Him directly in the crosshairs of the Pharisees’ plot to arrest Him and have Him killed. Jesus knew that His public entry into Jerusalem would start the unfolding of the final week of His time on earth, ending with His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. In response to His brothers’ encouragement to travel to Jerusalem, He said, “My time has not yet come.” In other words, Jesus was telling His brothers, “I trust my Father’s plan for my life.” Like Jesus, we are called to wholeheartedly trust our Father and His plan for our lives.

In this sermon, we looked at how Jesus challenged the large crowd that was following Him to consider whether they were following Him because of who He claimed to be or because of what they wanted from Him. Up to this point in Jesus’ ministry, many people were leaving their homes to follow Him. Jesus tells the crowd that unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they won’t receive eternal life. Rather than pressing in for more understanding, many of the people turned away from following Jesus and went back home. Jesus then turns to the twelve disciples and challenges them as well. They reply that they have no one to return home to because they have staked their lives on the Truth that Jesus is the Holy One, the true Son of God.

In this sermon, we looked at Jesus’ claim to be the only way by which a person can get into heaven. In John 14, Jesus makes it clear that our entry into the Kingdom of Heaven is not something that can be bartered for or purchased by us. Our entrance into heaven is already paid for by His death and resurrection and Jesus has invited us to enter through the only way possible: faith in Him alone.

In this sermon, we looked at how Psalm 51 reveals the transformative power of repentance and how God works in our repentance to lead us to abundant life. In this Psalm, we see that our repentance begins when God lovingly and mercifully reveals our sins to us, leading us to have broken and contrite hearts. It’s in our brokenness that the loving kindness of God begins to work powerfully in our lives. He tenderly creates a new heart within us that is renewed and restored, leading us to abundant life filled with joy and gladness.

In this sermon, we looked at where God’s people go to find perfect peace. In contrast to the peace that we find in the world when we are comfortable and things are going our way, perfect peace can only come from trusting in the Lord. Isaiah reminds us that when the people of God put their trust in the Lord, He keeps them in His perfect peace; a peace that is not contingent on our circumstances or our environment but, instead, surpasses all human understanding. This is the perfect peace that can only come from the safety of dwelling in the salvation of the Lord.