Solid Rock Church Sermons

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked again at the final restoration that God promised. Revelation 19 begins with the mighty sound of the nations gathering together in the great wedding hall, where Jesus will claim the Church as His bride. In this passage, we see a beautiful picture of our worship and community being fully and finally restored. Jesus rides into the wedding hall, at just the right time, to rescue his bride from the villain. Jesus is no longer postured to endure the injustices of His enemies with great patience; Instead, He unleashes His righteous anger, bringing His enemies to an end. This the moment in God’s story when the preeminence of Christ is made known in the heavens and on the earth, as sin and death are brought to an end. Jesus secured our victory over sin and death at His resurrection, but this is the moment when the whole universe will know, without wavering and without doubt, that He truly is the King of Kings.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we were reminded that we are God’s children and, therefore, we are saints because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. The Holy Spirit reminds us who we are in Christ during our journey through sanctification, as we become more like Him every day. Paul reminds us that, since we are children of God, we are awaiting our inheritance of glorification as heirs with Christ. At the revealing of the sons of God, creation will be set free from its bondage to corruption and the saints will become fully and finally like Jesus. Whatever hope and blessing, forgiveness and confidence we have in this life through our faith in Jesus, all pale in comparison to the new glorified body we will receive on the day when we finally and fully behold the glory of Christ.

What are some past achievements or events in your life in which you placed hope but, in the end, didn’t deliver what you had hoped for? (i.e. job, marriage, children, retirement, etc.) How does the promise of future glorification give you hope for your life today?

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at the second part of God’s re-creation work in our lives. Last week, our focus was on the work that God has done to restore everything that was lost in the Fall. Our focus this week is on how our efforts fit into the amazing work that God is doing in us. Fueled by the love of Christ, we are compelled to put our old selves to death and walk in the new life that we have in Him. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have been set free to pursue holiness and righteousness; fueled and anchored in the grace of Jesus and the victory He has already won on our behalf.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at the impact that the resurrection of Christ has on our lives. God has restored everything that was lost in the Fall. Through faith in Christ, we are re-created as image bearers and stirred once again to worship the one true God. In Christ, every barrier that kept us from dwelling in genuine fellowship with one another has been put to death, allowing us to dwell in abiding and transparent community with one another. And in Christ, our mission to multiply and become a kingdom of image bearers of the Most High God has been restored, as He entrusts to us the message of reconciliation as His ambassadors on earth.

How is your relationship with Christ challenging you to step deeper into Christian community? In what ways can you be more engaged in the mission of God to share the message He has entrusted to you and to live as His ambassador in your everyday life?

In the sermon this past Sunday, we continued looking at God’s great Rescue. We recognized that the resurrection of Jesus is the greatest singular moment in the Gospel Story. Jesus came to do what no person in the Old Testament had been able to accomplish. All of man’s attempts to save himself fell short. The sacrifices in the temple weren’t enough. The pursuit of a high standard of morality was never enough. Jesus did what no man or woman can do; He lived his life in perfect obedience and fulfilled the demands of the law, then He died and resurrected from the grave to overcome sin and death for us. The resurrection of Jesus is the climax of the Gospel Story of the Bible. This is also the climax of your story. Jesus’ resurrection is the decisive moment when the war for your soul was won.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at the part of the Gospel Story where the rescue begins to takes place. The first four books in the New Testament, referred to as the Gospels, contain the story of God’s Son stepping down from His throne and into our world to become flesh and live a perfect life of obedience to the Law of God in order to rescue us. Through faith in Jesus alone, His perfect obedience becomes our perfect obedience. Everything that is required of us to enter Heaven was accomplished through Jesus and He gives it to us as a gift to be received by grace alone. When we place our trust and our faith in Jesus, our sins are forgiven and He makes us righteous.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we continued our journey through the Gospel Story by looking at one of the primary themes in the Old Testament. From Genesis 12 through the book of Malachi, we see God making and reiterating his promise to rescue mankind from sin and death. Through every small story in the Old Testament, we see a perpetual cycle of man’s struggle with sin and God’s promise to rescue. At the end of the Old Testament, the Gospel Story leaves creation with the lingering promise that God will rescue mankind and make all things new again. This is the same promise we cling to today as we look to Jesus, the hero of the Gospel story who fulfilled all that God promised.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we continued our journey through the Gospel story. We looked at the fall of humanity and the impact that sin had on our God-designed purpose for worship, community and mission. Through believing the lie of the serpent, Adam and Eve sinned by engaging in self-worship, the root of all sin. Once our worship was distorted, our community and our mission followed. Self-worship leads to self- centered community. When we are engaged in self-worship, we only engage in community as long as it’s comfortable and we perceive it to be beneficial. Self-worship also distorts our mission. When we are engaged in self-worship, we only engage in mission that makes us feel better about ourselves and we only help those who we perceive are in need.

Am I willing to fully engage in relationships in the church that aren’t easy or comfortable? Is there a part of the mission that God has called me to get involved in that I have been resistant to or completely avoided?

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at the beginning of God’s Gospel story. The story began with the account of how and why the universe was created. In this narrative, we see that the first man and woman were created with the primary purpose of reflecting God’s image in the created world. God was building for Himself a Kingdom of image bearers, through multiplication and living in community. Even though this plan became distorted through sin, God sent His son, Jesus, to rescue what was lost because of our sin. He redeemed our ability to dwell in deep and abiding community, thereby restoring our mission to multiply, in order to expand His Kingdom.

This past Sunday, we began The Gospel Story sermon series. In this series, we will be looking at how all of the small stories of the Bible come together to tell one epic story of redemption. In God’s redemption story, Jesus is the hero. The Bible tells the story of Jesus coming to rescue His people from sin and death. This story continues today in our lives. When we trust Jesus as our rescuer, He becomes the hero of our story and God begins writing a redemption story with our lives. When we are able to see our lives this way, we find more purpose and meaning than before. We see ourselves as supporting characters in God’s epic drama and begin to feel the weight of the fact that God has invited us to join His story.

Do I see my life as the main story or a small scene in God’s epic redemption story? Am I using my life to tell the story of God’s redemption?