This year for Lent, we’re walking through the theme, "Silent Sermons from the Sanctuary" to find inspiration and depth of learning from within the walls of our church. "The Zimbelstern" Recorded 03/04/2020
From now until Easter we are back into our GOSPEL OF JOHN: Believe and Live! series, in which we see how our own unbelief is the biggest obstacle we find to true life. This week we'll be studying John 8:12-20 under the worship theme of "Jesus Offers LIGHT FROM ABOVE." One of the hallmarks of The Gospel of John is the 7 famous "I AM" statements. In this text we find Jesus' claim: "I AM the light of the world." And the obvious question is what does that even mean? What properties does LIGHT posses...
This year for Lent, we’re walking through the theme, "Silent Sermons from the Sanctuary" to find inspiration and depth of learning from within the walls of our church. "The Communion Vessels of St. Marcus" Ash Wednesday Recorded 02/26/2020
From now until Easter we are back into our GOSPEL OF JOHN: Believe and Live! series, in which we see how our own unbelief is the biggest obstacle we find to true life. This week we'll be studying John 8:2-11 under the worship theme of "Jesus Offers GRACE & TRUTH." Here we find a woman who was caught in adultery. We learn something very important about the perception of sexual sins, the necessary order of grace & obedience, and the amazing relief that comes when we move closer to Jesus....
Our current series is called "ALL IN" and is a study of how Christ sacrificed EVERYTHING for us, and how the appropriate response is that every aspect of our lives would fully belong to him as well. This week we'll be studying Deuteronomy 16:13-17 under the worship theme of "Generosity Is Worship." As we do a brief view of God's major festivals in the Old Testament, with special emphasis on the Feast of Tabernacles, we see that bringing an offering to the Lord was an integral part of worship. We...
Our current series is called "ALL IN" and is a study of how Christ sacrificed EVERYTHING for us, and how the appropriate response is that every aspect of our lives would fully belong to him as well. This week we'll be studying Hebrews 12:1-3 under the worship theme of "Grateful Generosity." The big idea is that this life is a battlefield, a race, a fight by which we build godly character. We receive God's Word, flex God's promises, fix our eyes on Jesus who completes us and our salvation, and in...
This week we'll be studying Luke 21:1-4 under the worship theme of "Generosity is for Everybody." The concept of generosity is not about amounts, but about the heart. Consequently, every human is equally capable of and responsible for generosity. And every soul that has been graciously saved by Jesus has special reason to express generosity. We'll see one of my favorite examples of that this week when we look at the poor widow who offers to God her last two copper coins....
For the next 5 weeks we'll be hitting the pause button on our Gospel of John series so that we can do something for the first time in my experience at St. Marcus - we're worshipping under the same themes & lessons across all of our services. The series is called "ALL IN" and is a study of how Christ sacrificed EVERYTHING for us, and how the appropriate response is that every aspect of our lives would fully belong to him as well. This week we'll be studying Exodus 16:10-18 under the worship t...
For the next 5 weeks we'll be hitting the pause button on our Gospel of John series so that we can do something for the first time in my experience at St. Marcus - we're worshipping under the same themes & lessons across all of our services. The series is called "ALL IN" and is a study of how Christ sacrificed EVERYTHING for us, and how the appropriate response is that every aspect of our lives would fully belong to him as well. This week we'll be studying 2 Corinthians 9:6-11 under the them...
In the opening weeks of our series, Jesus is clearly making the case of his Messiahship. This week something happens that is somewhat shocking and disappointing, but is nonetheless quite revealing - Jesus miraculously heals a man who doesn't appreciate him, doesn't worship him, and actually turns him in to the authorities. And the Apostle John, in his own way, is teaching us this is the basic way humanity reacts to the GRACE of Jesus Christ. The gospel is never what the flesh expects, often what...
In the opening weeks of our series, Jesus is clearly making the case of his Messiahship. He's made his case to his early disciples and the Jewish Leadership, and this week he's making his case to the Samaritans. Specifically, Jesus here encounters a woman who has been ostracized from her community due to her lifestyle choices. But Jesus refuses to avoid her. He travels directly to her and states that his gospel is for her as well. This week we seek a perfect template for evangelism as we study J...
In the opening weeks of our series, Jesus is clearly making the case of his Messiahship. Last week he made his case to and through John the Baptist and his early disciples/followers. This week, Jesus is making his case to Jewish leadership. Specifically, he has an encounter with a religious leader named Nicodemus, who he tells to be “born again.” This interaction offers us fascinating insights on the difference between religious moralism and the gospel life. This week we’ll look at “Nicodemus an...
A special Christmas Eve message from Pastor Hein.
From Christmas till Easter, each year, we’ve been working our way through a Gospel. 2 years ago we did Mark. Last year we did Matthew. This year we’ll be taking a look at The Gospel of John. The Apostle John was in the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples. He was an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry and resurrection and his Gospel is the last recorded of the four. The purpose of his book is to see the clear evidence that Jesus is the Son of God, God himself, and experience the abundant life that comes a...
We are in our last week in Genesis. And we’re closing with one of my favorite stories of the Bible. It was not until I was an adult, and I comprehended God’s activity in the story of Joseph & his family, that I started to understand the power of God’s sovereignty in my life. This week’s lesson teaches us not merely THAT we should forgive others or THAT we should be content in all of life’s circumstances, but it explains WHY it’s so reasonable. This week we’ll be studying the infinitely deep ...
For 2 weeks, we watched Jacob move from being a casual believer, to experience an encounter with God’s grace at rock bottom, to struggling with life, wrestling with God, and ultimately holding on to God until he experiences God’s blessing. But how would all of this affect Jacob’s family? The good and the bad travels with Jacob. And this week we move a bit from contemplating our faith in the dark, individual moments, to contemplating how it operates in the communal, relational moments. We’ll be s...
Last week we saw Jacob experiencing his first encounter with God. We learned that it’s one thing to know about God, but another to know God. This week, 20 years later, we see that Jacob has only come to truly trust God after struggling him. And we learn that an essential part of developing a relationship with God can only come in wrestling with him. This week we’ll be studying “Jacob Wrestles With God” from Genesis 32:22-32.
Jacob is the perfect illustration of what happens when you don’t get loved the right way and you start self-medicating. You’re become both a victim and a criminal – i.e. you hurt from problems you didn’t create, but then you take matters into your own hands and try to solve things, only to end up making the situation worse. The real solution is that God’s grace drives him into our brokenness. That experience of grace is what leads to heart transformation. This week, we’ll see what that looked li...
The only way to truly measure love is to see what you’re willing to endure in order to bless someone. In other words, true love can only be measured by sacrifice . The Bible says this is how we know the extent to which God loves us (1 John 3:16). There is likely not a better image in the Old Testament that depicts the gospel than the story of “Abraham Offers Isaac to God,” from Genesis 22:1-18, which we’ll study this week. We learn here something about the necessity of sacrifice for meaning in l...
One of the most divisive stories in the Bible is that of “Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed.” Often, the reason for the controversy stems from each of us looking at the account through our own narrow lens. In reality, the account is one of undeserved, gracious, miraculous deliverance. This week we’ll see what we can learn about the “Sin of Sodom”, the erosion of godliness, and the integrity of our Christian witness as we study Genesis 19:1-17.
One of the principle teachings of the Reformation was the Doctrine of Vocation – the idea that there aren’t spiritual classes, but rather, that God has called EVERY believer to meaningful work. Much seems mysterious about this “calling” thing, so we’ll clear up some confusion about God’s call, we’ll wrestle with the implications of what it actually means, and we’ll see the grace that exists in the Christian call. We’ll do this as we worship under the theme “The Call of Abram” and study Gen. 12:1...
This week, we’re hitting the pause button on our current worship series to hold an October Missions Festival. We will be praying for home missions, world missions, and the personal mission fields in each of our lives. We will be studying Colossians 3:1-2, 16 and applying what it means to let the message of Christ dwell deeply within us and within our congregation
In our 4th week of the series, we yet again hit another major turning point in human history – the story of Noah and the Flood . We’ll learn that the “Floods” of a fallen world are primarily caused by human selfishness. The only way to find shelter in the midst of the inevitable storms is still in the Ark. And the way to be confident that God has turned away his anger from humanity is by focusing on a sweet-smelling sacrifice from his Son. We’ll be studying a whole bunch of verses from Gen 6-9....
We’re in our 3rd week of the series, and this week we’ll be dissecting the story of Cain and Abel. Envy and bitterness result in a highly religious guy, a guy who knows God, killing his own brother, with painful consequences. Already in a fallen world, we discover how sin, God’s grace, and hope for salvation are present in every human story. We’ll be studying Genesis 4:1-16.
Outside of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the most classic, most famous story of the Bible is likely the Fall of Mankind . It is the quintessential story of INFINITE DEPTH. The exact same dynamics that happened with Adam and Eve in the Garden at the Tree has happened to humans billions of times since. And the solution is the same. What are those dynamics? We’ll dig into it as we examine Adam and Eve’s Fall from Genesis 3:1-9.
We all have a lot of stories that we perhaps studied as kids in Sunday School, but we’ve never really, fully reexamined them as adults. These stories do have superficial morals, which we probably learned when we were young, but we may not have understood how the stories fit in to the greater story of Jesus and salvation, nor how our daily struggles resonate with these ancient characters. They are INFINITELY deep. So, we revisit them, not because the stories are new, but because we are continuous...
In the final week of our series, we’ll be looking at our 4th St. Marcus CORE VALUE: Radical Expectations . We’ll be studying the story of Jesus, on Maundy Thursday, getting down on his hands and knees and washing his disciples’ feet. It was a disgusting task that demonstrated unthinkable humility. Further shocking to the system is the fact that Jesus then says, “You will be blessed if you do these things.” What does this mean? We’ll look to find out as we study together John 13:1-9, 17....
This week we come to the 3rd of our St. Marcus CORE VALUES: Biblical Discipleship. This concept means that your life agenda is not your own; it’s not driven by your wants and desires. Growth and development requires structure and discipline. It requires sitting at the feet of another as well as helping lead another. It requires confronting the truth, no matter how enjoyable or painful…because the truth of God sets people free. Jesus elaborates on this method to liberation as we study together Jo...
Last week, we had the opportunity to talk about what sacrificial love to one another looks like, including in our community. This week we’re hopping back to look at the first of our CORE VALUES, “Christ First.” It’s ultimately an issue of priorities. And the story of Mary & Martha is tremendously profound when it comes to learning to balance multiple important things in life. This week we’ll study Luke 10:38-42.
For the second straight year, we’re going to be spending a month at the beginning of our school year studying our St. Marcus CORE VALUES. This week we’re looking at the CORE VALUE of “Sacrificial Love” as we have the 3rd annual opportunity to be “in our community” for worship at our Outdoor Service.
