Solid Rock Church Sermons

As we move through this Advent season, we are focusing on Jesus as the Son of God who was given for us. In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at prophesy about the birth of Jesus from Isaiah 8 & 9. Isaiah announced, 700 years before the birth of Jesus, that God would send a light to shine in the midst of our darkness and bring hope to our hopelessness. The “light” would be God’s own Son, born into the world to guide our lives as a wonderful and wise Counselor and lead us as a powerful King, who wages war on Satan, sin, and death in order to protect us and bring us peace. The Gospel of Luke introduces Baby Jesus as the child about whom Isaiah was prophesying. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Savior and King!

How does the birth of Jesus bring hope to your life in the midst of darkness and despair? Have you truly trusted in Jesus as your Savior and King?

In the sermon this past Sunday we looked at how God calls Christians to pursue holiness. Created in the image of a Holy God, our lives have been marred by sin, and God’s holy image has been distorted by our disobedience. Through our faith in the obedience of Jesus, God is restoring His image in us through the process of sanctification. This is the life-long process of being transformed into the image of Christ. Even though God is the one who transforms, He calls us to participate in this transformational work by walking in faith and pursuing holiness, not as a means to become holy, but because God has already made us holy through Christ.

In our services this past Sunday, we took time to share and celebrate the work God has done in our lives through the Desires of the Heart sermon series. As we walked through each sermon in the series, we looked at the idols of dreams, relationships, performance, being right, control, comfort and possessions. Most of us discovered that our idols are the good things that God has blessed us with that we turn into ultimate things. Our prayer and hope throughout this series has been for God to do a refining work in our lives, individually and collectively as a church. Before we take another step forward in the Solid Rock story, in which we intend to build bigger buildings and create more space to invite more people to be a part of His story, we deeply desire for God to purge our hearts of anything that we have made into an idol.

In the sermon this past week, we answered the question, “Now what?” Now that we have started to identify idols in our lives, what do we need to do to see these idols removed? Idol worship is not simply disobeying God; it’s setting our whole hearts on something besides God, which always plays out in disobedience. Our idols meet us in our need for comfort, security, significance, acceptance, love, satisfaction and peace. By itself, removing the idols leaves a vacuum in the soul in our deepest desires, needs and longing. Idols can’t simply be removed; they must be replaced with something better. Repentance is the great exchange of allegiance, affection and focus. It’s the is the process of reorienting our hearts towards God and allowing Jesus to take the place of our idols. In true repentance, we find that Jesus is the only one who can truly bring joy and peace for our souls.

In the sermon this past weekend, we looked at the final idol in the Desires of the Heart series: The Idol of Possessions. In Luke 12, Jesus stops his teaching to address a question about inheritance from a man in the crowd. Instead of directly answering the man’s question, Jesus takes the opportunity to teach the crowd about the idol of possessions. Using a parable, Jesus points out that what the man is really after is much deeper than filling his pockets and his barns; he is looking for something that will satisfy his soul. Jesus’ conclusion is straight to the point when He explains to the crowd that it is foolish to store up an abundance of wealth in an attempt find satisfaction, joy and peace. Having wealth or possessions isn’t idolatry in itself, but becomes an idol when we look to these things for joy and satisfaction. Instead, Jesus reveals the good heart of God to give us more than we can acquire or store up on earth by giving us access to His eternal Kingdom. True peace for our souls is only found in pursuing a life that is so immensely satisfied in God alone, we are filled with joy and willingly loosen our grip on our earthly possessions.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at the idol of comfort. In 2 Corinthians, we learn about God’s perspective on comfort and how that contrasts with the American Dream theology of the modern church. The Bible draws a distinction between pursuing comfort for the flesh and seeking comfort for the soul. God Himself is the one true source of comfort for the human soul and He provides this comfort to His people through two primary avenues: His presence and engagement with a Biblical community. We looked at the three primary manifestations of the idol of comfort and how this idol can become a significant barrier from fully engaging in worship, community and mission.

What comfort idols have your eyes been opened to today in your own life? How have your idols of comfort inhibited you from fully obeying God and following Christ in your life?

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at the idol of being right. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with desiring to be right, when we allow that desire to become so significant to us that it causes arguments and divisions, the desire has become an idol that is more important to us than our desire to be loving. The idol of being right hinders us from extending forgiveness when we’ve been wronged and being gracious towards those with whom we disagree. Jesus calls us to not only consider our love for one another more important than being right, He calls us to extend love even to our enemies. Jesus himself was mistreated, misunderstood and opposed by those who he chose to die for. He shows us that when we are secure in our relationship with our Heavenly Father, we don’t have to insist on always being right. We can let go of this idol in order to love others well.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we took a break from the Desires of the Heart series to look at the heart of God in the midst of tragedy and suffering. When tragedy strikes, the first human response is to ask the question, “Why?” Questions like “Why did this happen?” or “Why did God allow it?” seem to beg to be answered. In Romans 8, the Apostle Paul reminds Christians that suffering can’t be understood by looking at the event itself. In order to understand God’s heart and perspective on suffering, we have to look at the bigger picture of the human story to see that suffering is a result of living in a fallen world. However, this doesn't leave us without hope; our hope is not in taming evil or fixing the brokenness of this world. Through Romans 8, we are reminded that, in the midst of our suffering and groaning, we are waiting for something better. Our hope is rooted not in understanding the purpose of a single event of suffering but in God’s promise to redeem and one day put an end to sin, suffering and death itself.

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at how Jesus sees performance-based idols in the story of Martha and Mary. In Luke 10, Jesus addresses Martha’s idol of performance and, through her example, we see how performance-driven idols negatively impact our most important relationships. Performance-driven idols occur when we allow our satisfaction in life to hinge on our performance or the performance of others. When our lives are driven by idols of performance, the result is that, like Martha, we miss out on what Jesus has for us. We allow tasks to trump relationships and drive wedges between us and the people we love the most by choosing the distraction of tasks over depth of relationships.

Questions for Reflection

1.Do you allow your satisfaction in life to hinge on how others see your performance as a parent, employee, friend, etc?

2.Do you find yourself accomplishing tasks and then finding subtle ways to make sure that people notice?

3.Does it crush you when you feel like you don’t meet someone else’s expectations?

4.Do you find more validation in the opinions of others or the Word of God?

5.What is your ultimate goal in life: to stand respected before men or to stand accepted before God?