The FIVE Sermons

God is not the source of our suffering – God is the source of our healing.

Why would a good, all-powerful God allow suffering? This is not just a question for theologians and philosophers. No, this is a question - perhaps the question - that every single person will probably deal with at some point or another. It baffles our minds and creates great tension in our hearts when we look upon the pain and suffering in the world and wonder, “Where is God in all this? Why has God allowed this to happen?” Most of us don’t have to look very far to see areas in our own lives where hurt and suffering and loss have caused us to ask these very questions. For what it’s worth, we are finite creatures trying to understand our infinite Creator...which doesn’t mean we can’t know anything, but it is good to remember that we probably can’t know everything. This, however, should not prevent us from asking, wrestling and questioning in order to better understand God. After all, real, Biblical faith is faith seeking understanding. So that’s what we’re doing this weekend – doing our best to try to understand the relationship between God and suffering and us caught in the middle. Thanks for joining us and don’t forget, immediately after service Pastor Bobby will be available in the chapel for anyone who might want to spend a little more time wrestling with this week's question. I hope tonight speaks deeply to your heart and invites you further into God’s love for you.

Science and Christianity were never meant to be enemies; they are siblings uniquely gifted to help us wrestle with the complexity of life.

For years now, more and more scientists have claimed that scientific advancements have effectively killed our need for God. Faith, religion and especially Christianity are treated as antiquated superstitions no longer fit for our highly educated and advanced minds… at least, that’s what some claim. But it is true? Has science really killed our need for God? One of the things we must remember is that in much the same way a Christian can say or do something that has nothing to do with Jesus, scientists can say and do things that have nothing to do with science. Science has limits. While science is great at wrestling with ‘how’, it lacks the capacity to effectively address the ‘why’. Rather than being enemies seeking to end each other, Christianity and science would be better viewed as siblings, related but different, who are uniquely capable of addressing questions the other is less suited to address. In this light, science is not an enemy to be feared and faith in God is not a weakness to be abandoned – they are two beautiful gifts we can employ to better understand God, the world and our role within it.

Just because a person claims to know Jesus, does not mean that person is actually a follower of Jesus.

Throughout history, Christians have often failed to live and love in a way that reflects the way of Jesus. Why is this? Why would people who claim to know and love God sometimes cause so much harm and pain in the lives of others? Why would some take something so beautiful, something so good, and turn it so, well, bad? At the risk of oversimplifying our response, we must remember that sin distorts – sin takes what God created to be good and corrupts it, twists it, distorts it into something less than God intended. Every good thing is capable of being corrupted and distorted by sin and Christianity is no different. So why has Christianity done so much harm throughout history? Christianity has done harm because it is filled with broken, sinful people just like you and me who are capable of both great, wonderful, beautiful good and terrible, tragic harm. And when this happens, when Christians do things that harm people, we need to be able to recognize that just because something is done in Jesus’ name doesn’t mean it has anything to do with Jesus. None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes and as the scriptures declare there is grace upon grace, but it is so important for us to repent when we go wrong, seek and offer forgiveness and realize that if we’re not following the way of Jesus, we’re not following Jesus.

There are many reasons to believe in Christianity, what is yours?

In John 12:37-46, it seems everyone had their own reason why they didn’t believe in God. Some folks had a hard heart and others were afraid. We each have our own problems with the faith because God’s story is challenging.   Christianity challenges every aspect of our life. It calls us to move into a place socially, mentally, and spiritually where we are completely uncomfortable. What’s even more interesting is that the walk of faith looks different for every single person. God wants us to make faith our own and not only regurgitate what the tradition has taught us. Yet the one thing we have in common is that Jesus challenges the boxes that we put him in. Just like he did with the crowds, the disciples, and the Pharisees. The followers of Jesus soon realized faith is a continuum, a journey that will always leave us wondering and questioning. We should not be afraid of this reality, but we should embrace it because it opens up our hearts and minds to experience God in a new way every single day.

There's power when we realize that to Jesus, struggling faith is still faith.

In Mark 9, there's a father who desperately wants his son to be healed. Jesus tells him that anything is possible for the person who believes. His response? "I believe; help my unbelief!" There's more honesty in those two statements than most of us ever feel permission to express in a church. Modern objections to faith have sent countless Christians and non-Christians alike into a secret struggle with faith, which raises the question: what does it look like for faith to struggle and still be faith? Is struggling faith acceptable to Jesus? If so - how do we struggle well? This weekend we want to explore the father's declaration - "I believe; help my unbelief!" - and realize that the moments when his cry has become our own are not the moments we've submitted to doubt; these are the moments we finally take hold of faith.

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth.” – Jesus

Usually we save the best for last…but I’m not sure we can say this about the seventh and final church in Revelation 3. The church in Laodicea was successful by every worldly standard. They were wealthy, prosperous and totally self-sufficient. They didn’t need anything from anyone. The problem is, they were measuring themselves according to the standards of the world, not according to the standards of God and as followers of Jesus, this was and is a terribly distorted way to measure ourselves. So in love, Jesus speaks a really tough word to them then and us today. We don’t usually like to be corrected and called out, but we have a God in Jesus who speaks the truth in love even when the truth is unwelcomed and unwanted. In a world where a person’s worth is often measured by ungodly standards, sometimes we need to be reminded of what we’ve become in order to rediscover our true selves and find our way back home. We hope you are encouraged by today’s service and that each of us would embrace God’s call to be anything but lukewarm for the glory of God and the sake of the world.

To a hurting and powerless church, God gives a whole new vision for what power and success looks like.

Jesus’ letter to the church in Philadelphia is one of encouragement and hope. They’ve had a rough go at things. They’re under pressure from the world around them to change, they’ve got little to no power to call their own and, by all worldly standards, they’re anything but successful. And yet, despite all these things, they’ve refused to become what they are not and have continued to keep trusting the name of Jesus.

In response to this, Jesus reminds them of his ongoing presence with them no matter what. More importantly, he reminds them that He is power and He is for them.

All of us at some point or another will experience seasons when, even though it feels like we’re doing everything right, nothing seems to be going, well ... right. And it’s in those moments when it is really easy to question the goodness of God or wonder, Is God even here? If you’ve ever been there—or you’re there now—Jesus’ letter to the church in Philadelphia might just be what you need as a reminder that when we are weak, God is strong in us and for us.

God wants us to ‘wake up’ and live here, now and today for the glory of God and the sake of the world. 

At one point, Sardis must have been a church alive with energy and work. They’ve got a reputation of being alive, but now, they are dead. At some point, we don’t know how and we don’t know when, this once vibrant church began to live from the past rather than for the present or future. In a not so nice yet good and loving way, Jesus speaks a hard truth to this church calling them to wake up and recover the missional vibrancy that marks a church committed to the mission of God. It was an important word then and that is just as true today. Jesus invites us to wake up and rediscover who we are meant to be for the sake of the world around us.

How we love people matters and what we believe about God matters. When a church compromises in either area, love or theology, we become something less than God intends for the church.

Thyatira was an economic powerhouse. Trade coming in from the port cities passed through to the east and goods passed through on their way to the ports. Their location put them smack dab in the center of a great deal of commerce and created a vibrant location for trades and businesses to thrive. All this is good. Everyone has to make a living – even Christians. But there was a problem… Roman trade guilds weren’t just connectional in nature; they were spiritual as well. Each guild had their own patron god and those associated with each guild would gather together, make sacrifices to their god and feast on the sacrificed meat. If you don’t participate, your business has little chance of making it. If you do participate, what witness does this set before the world? As a Christian, what do you do? The letter to the church in Thyatira is a heavy, harsh letter written to Christians who had chosen compromise over conviction and as loving as they were, presented the world a distorted understanding of who God is and who God had called them to be. If you’ve ever felt torn, if you’ve ever felt like your loyalties we’re divided, if you ever felt like you were stuck between a rock and a hard place when it came to following God or culture, this week might be just for you. We hope this week encourages and equips you to live by faith and be known by love for the glory of God and the sake of the world.