Third Church Sermons

What’s the big deal about the seven days between Palm Sunday and Easter? Becca Payne sits down with Corey Widmer and Dan Marotta (Rector, Redeemer Anglican) to talk about the history of the liturgical calendar, what Holy Week offers us this year (of all years!), and tangible ways we can participate in the season ahead of us. Join us as we tell time differently and in doing so, grieve what we’ve lost, and look with hope to the resurrection.

- Liturgical Calendar Image - “Telling Time Differently”: https://www.thirdrva.org/blog/telling-time-differently-as-christ-followers

- Stations on Boulevard: https://redeemerrva.org/events/2021/3/stations-on-boulevard

- Redeemer’s Holy Week Services: https://redeemerrva.org/events

- Third’s Holy Week services: https://www.thirdrva.org/news-posts/holy-week-2021

We’re nearing the end of our study of the fruit of the Spirit. This week we’ll look at “gentleness,” probably the least well known and least prayed-for fruit of the Spirit.

This Sunday we are looking at the fruit of faithfulness. Faithfulness is at the heart of the gospel! Because of God’s faithfulness we have forgiveness from our past and hope for the future.

Goodness in a Time of Brokenness by Third Church, RVA

This week we look at the fruit of kindness. While kindness has undergone a bit of a popularity surge in our culture (“Be Kind!”), the Biblical notion of kindness is much more than niceness or random acts of service. It is a dedicated, costly commitment to another’s good.

Sermon Sources for 2/28

- Philip Kenneson, “Life on the Vine”

- Christopher JH Wright, “Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit”

- Barry Corey, “Love Kindness: Discover the Power of a Forgotten Hidden Virtue

- Arthur Brooks, “Love your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from a Culture of Contempt.”

- Jerry Bridges, “The Fruitful Life”

- Rosaria Butterfield, “The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert”

- “The Secret to Love is Just Kindness,” Emily Estafani Smith, The Atlantic, June 2014

- Jon Tyson, “Kindness in a Time of Harshness,” Sermon at Church of the City NYC, April 27, 202

This week we look to our next fruit of the spirit: patience. In a time when we are weary and anxious, patience exhorts us to endure what suffering may befall us without retaliation or revenge, and to put up with the weaknesses of others without getting too angry or irritated. In these ways, patience, as we’ll explore together this weekend, is about both our long-suffering, our forbearance and our faithful love and care for the people around us.

Sermon Sources:

- Philip Kenneson, Life on the Vine

- Christopher JH Wright, Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit

- Suzy Silk, “Patient Endurance in a Time of Stress,” Sermon at Church of the City NYC, April 20, 2020

- Tim Keller Sermon Archive, Logos Bible Software

This Sunday we look at the spiritual fruit of peace. Biblical peace is not really defined as inner state of calm, which is the way we moderns tend to understand it. Biblical peace is more about “wholeness” or “completion,” a state of right relationships between God and others. It is something God accomplishes for us, but then it is also something we pursue in community with others.

Sermon Sources:

- Philip Kenneson, Life on the Vine

- Christopher JH Wright, Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit

- Justin Giboney, “Only Biblical Peacemaking Resolves Racial and Political Injustice,” https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/january-web-only/only-biblical-peacemaking-resolves-racial-and-political-inj.html

- “America is Exceptional in the Nature of Its Political Divide,” Pew Research, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/13/america-is-exceptional-in-the-nature-of-its-political-divide/

This Sunday we look at “Joy in a Time of Cynicism.” Derek Mondeau, our Pastor of Discipleship and Parish Life, looks at the dangerous power cynicism can hold, and the promise of joy that is found in brokenness and suffering.

This week we take a look at the fruit of love, which is in many ways the crown of all of the fruit of the Spirit. We look at the gift of love and command to practice love.

Sermon sources:

- Phillip Kenneson, Life on the Vine

- Christopher JH Wright, Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit

- “Love in a Time of Selfishness,” Sermon by Jon Tyson at Church of the City 3/31/2021

- “How ‘You do you’ perfectly captures our narcissistic culture,” by Colson Whitehead, New York Times, 3/31/2015

- “How a ‘You do you’ culture has made us vulnerable to the Coronavirus” by Michael Kruger, 3/19/2020, www.michaeljkruger.com

Youth Sunday 2021 by Third Church, RVA