U-turns Permitted

Today we move on to the "practical" part of Paul's letter to the Romans. We will look at Chapter 12:1-8. This is a call to give ourselves completely to the service of Christ and each other. Intern Dan Kim is preaching.

Today we survey the difficult chapters 9 through 11 of Romans, often used to justify the "God elects some and not others" approach to salvation. Hopefully, we will see that God does elect, but not to a special privilege (to be saved). He elects to a special responsibility (to be part of the colony that is establishing His reign on this broken world). That changes everything.

We get back to our COVID-interrupted series on Romans entitled "When In Romans: Rescue all the way out and all the way down". This sermon is a review of where we have been so far - through the first 8 chapters of Romans. We meet Iris and Nereus again, and try to understand this letter as written an explained by Phoebe in Rome through their eyes and ears. 

Today we look at the well-known song by Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Teach Your Children. Known for its simple guitar background, complex harmonies and depth of lyrics, it was a staple of the late 60s and 70s. All of us have a responsibility to teach and live as an example in front of the generations coming after us. What does that look like? That's what this sermon is about.

Today we listen to a song from Bob Dylan's latest album entitled "Rough and Rowdy Ways". The song is "False Prophet". We will look at the theme of "Garden" in the Bible and hear about the hope that we have in Jesus the King and Gardener. This sermon leans heavily on a sermon by Brian Zahnd of Word and Life Church in Missouri for some of its central themes.

Today we continue our series "Finding God in Your Songs". We hear two songs: "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, and "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley. The weekend of this sermon is bookended by the Democratic and Republic National Conventions. Those recurrent events form the background for our dive into these songs and Scripture. The Scriptures we read are Psalm 27 and Luke 4:16-21.

In this second in our series entitled "Finding God in Your Songs" we listen to the famous "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel, one of their most classic songs,  written by Paul Simon, sung, interestingly enough, only by Art Garfunkel. We connect the song to 1 John 3:16: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

This is the first in our summer 2020 series in which we look for God in some popular songs of our time or generation. Today's song is by The Rolling Stones, their famous "Gimme Shelter". "Oh, a storm is threat'ning, My very life today, If I don't get some shelter, Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away."  Relevant lyrics for our time. Psalm 91 speaks of the shelter we find in God. Join us!

Today we look at the virtue of Kindness. "Kindness is a type of behaviour marked by acts of generosity, consideration, or concern for others, without having an expectation of praise or reward." God is Kind- and he calls us to show kindness to one another.

Today we look at the virtue of Patience - being "long in the nose" as the Hebrews say. And we try to make a distinction between the everyday frustrations and irritations that produce patience, and the kind of patience that aligns with God's "slow to anger" work of building His Kingdom.