“Jesus died for my sins. So why am I still so sad?” Almost every careful thinking Christian I know has wondered this at some point. And the answer lies within something Jesus calls “Another Advocate.” We’ll find out more this week as we dig into John 14:15-21.
This Sunday we encounter the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. They have a very common, relatable problem – they don’t see the world through the lens of the Resurrection, and it’s making them terribly depressed. We’ll learn what gets them over that as we study Luke 24:13-35.
The Sunday after Easter is traditionally marked as a time to highlight “Doubting Thomas.” I’m not sure that name is super fair, but we certainly benefit from Thomas’ skepticism. But is our struggle of faith the same as that of Thomas. We’ll take a look this week (John 20:19-31) as we start up our new series, Jesus Always Shows up .
This weekend will be the first distinctly Palm Sunday sanctuary service LIVE IT has had in years. The message of Palm Sunday is very unique – the unorthodox kingship of Jesus. This week’s theme is “Rising Out of Earthly Glory” as we look at Matthew 21:1-11.
As we close in on Easter, we’re grasping what it means that God brings life out of death. This week we’ll take a look at John 11, where Jesus brings one of his best friends, Lazarus, back to life. But before he could do that, he allowed Lazarus, whom he loved to become sick. Much to learn about God’s allowance of pain and what he brings out of it.
I’ve been wrestling this week for many hours with our text. John 9 is a long, fascinating story about a blind man that Jesus gives sight to, and in the process it blows up his life. And I’m finding it’s a story that teaches us something about the inherent blindness of EVERY person, it teaches us about the way we falsely process the pain we face in life, it teaches us how naturally the world rejects Christ and how passionately Christ pursues us. This week, we’ll be worshiping under the theme Risi...
This week’s theme is “Rising Out of Arrogance.” If there’s one Christ-like attribute I’d like St. Marcus to be known for, it might be humility. Morality is good, but you can be moral and arrogant. There are lots of moral Mormons, Muslims, and non-religious people. But any performance-based religion will logically lead to a certain level of self-righteousness or self-loathing. On the other hand, the gospel leads to humility. And Christian humility also helps develop morality. This week we’ll see ...
As we enter the first week of Lent, we’ll be looking at the original temptation and the fallout, which was directly related to gender roles. The tension that exists in the world between men and women is the product of our designed wiring gone awry. But there’s still hope. An offspring of the woman comes to untangle the wires and empower us to carry out our design. We’ll look at Gen. 3:14-20.
This is our last week in Demonstrating the Divine. We’ll be looking at one of my personal favorite texts/Sundays of the year – Transfiguration. It’s arguably as essential to the Christian calendar as Christmas or Easter, but gets very little press. The story exposes our broken relationship with glory in this world and teaches us how to be healed. We’ll try to clear some of that up and explain its relevance when we look at Matt. 17:1-9.
This is our final week in Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” Here he comes up with this crazy “turn the other cheek” principle. It’s uniquely and distinctly Christian, difficult and totally unnatural, but extraordinarily beautiful. We’ll take a look at what “turn the other cheek” really means on Sunday night, Matt. 5:38-48.
We’re looking again at Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” this week and Jesus’ statements on morality. The world believes moral obedience to God is what earns salvation. The gospel teaches that salvation is a gift from God’s grace through Jesus. So why be moral? We’ll take a look on Sunday night, Matt. 5:21-37.
We’re looking again at Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” this week and Jesus’ famous comparison to Christians as Salt & Light. The brilliant analogy provides many interesting points of application for the Christian life. Matthew 5:13-16.
One of the most famous texts of Scripture is Jesus “Sermon on the Mount.” It’s also one of the most commonly misunderstood, especially the opening “blessed” statements, called the Beatitudes. We’re going to clear a lot of that up this week and see how Jesus conditions our hearts to enter the kingdom. I guarantee it will be a new understanding for many of you. Matthew 5:1-12.
This Sunday we’ll be taking a fairly deep look at discipleship, a continuation from our study last week. If Jesus is good, it makes sense that we’d push our chips to the center of the table and go all in on him. But what does that look like in our personal lives? What did that look like for the first disciples? How does that shape the direction of our church? We’ll find out as we examine Matthew 4:18-23.
Week 2 of “Demonstrating the Divine”. Followers of Christ are called Disciples . This week and next we’ll be zeroing in on the concept of what discipleship looks like. We follow because Jesus was the Lamb who sacrificed himself for our salvation. Somewhat frighteningly, discipleship means we’re also willing to follow him anywhere, wherever he leads us. Discipleship is a rich thought, and I hope you can join us for the study of it and worship tomorrow evening.
In our 3rd week of Advent, we continue in our series Listen. Don’t Look. This week we’ll be listening again to the voice of John the Baptist. This is honestly one of the most helpful texts I’ve found in the Bible for processing the inevitable doubts about God that we experience in life. The lesson provides incredible insights for overcoming doubt. Matthew 11:2-6.
In our 2nd week of Advent, we continue in our series Listen. Don’t Look. This week we’ll be listening to the advice of John the Baptist, whose ministry could be summarized in one word – REPENT. Repentance seems completely counterintuitive to our natural condition, but our premise this week is that it’s actually the key to all progress in life. Looking at Matthew 3:1-10.
This week, we start Advent – the first season in the new Church Year. We’re starting a new series ( Listen. Don’t Look.) that reminds us, as Christians, that we do not find our peace for life in the circumstances of a dying world, but in the promises of a living God. Jesus is going to teach us something about the certainty of life using the story of Noah’s Ark, Matthew 24:37-44.
This is the final week of the church year, called Christ the King Sunday. On it, we celebrate the fact that Jesus is the one who controls the entire cosmos for his glory and our benefit. One day the entire world will clearly see that. But Paul teaches in Colossians 1:13-20 that we can start benefiting from that information right now.
What is heaven really going to be like? We’d all like to know. This week, on Saints Triumphant Sunday , we’ll get a better look as we examine Revelation 22:1-5.
One of the more common objections to Christianity I get as a pastor today is the question: “How could a LOVING God send anyone to hell.” Even some leaders in large Christian churches have shied away from discussing hell or outright denied it. And sometimes from fellow Christians all we’ve received is “Well, the Bible says so, so I guess we have to believe it” which is accurate, but not particularly satisfying. This week, as we celebrate the Sunday called The Last Judgment in the church year, we’...
499 years ago, Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses to the front door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany. He couldn’t sit back and let the nonsense (e.g. the sale of indulgences to ‘earn’ the forgiveness of sins) being taught in churches at the time go on any longer. He had to stand up for the truth, a gospel truth he knew would truly liberate people from their sins and the darkness of unbelief. This week, as we celebrate Reformation Sunday, we celebrate the liberating power of the gospel as...
Jesus encourages us to be as innocent as doves but as shrewd as snakes (Matt. 10:16). We’ll see this week that this is certainly true when it comes to our wealth as well. The Bible commends us for using the brains God blesses with us as well as for investing in things that last. In our final JUST TO SEE week, we’ll look at the story of The Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1-15) .
Every world philosophy, including modern secularism, has agreed that the biggest key to happiness is gratitude. But what if you feel angered, frustrated, and struggle with thankfulness? You and I regularly need our thoughts recalibrated by gospel promises. We’re working through the middle of the Gospel of Luke and digging deeper into these stories than we’ve ever dug before. This week, we look at the story of The Ten Lepers (Luke 17:11-19) .
We’re working through the middle of the Gospel of Luke and digging deeper into these stories than you’ve ever dug before. This week, we look at the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) . This account tells us about natural obstacles to investigating Jesus, the relentless pursuit with which Christ seeks us, and the inevitable transformation of grace that happens when Jesus truly comes into your home.
We’ll be working through several chapters from the Gospel of Luke in the upcoming weeks and digging deeper into these stories than you’ve ever dug before. This week, we look at the story of The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) . This account gives us fascinating insights on the experience of hell, the illusion of control offered by wealth, and the delusion caused by self-centeredness.
In worship this week we’ll be discussing the importance of Christian Education both on an “important ministry of St. Marcus” level and on a “Christian faith is designed to be a lifelong pursuit” level. In other words, the person who knows very little about the gospel is the person who believes they fully have grasped the gospel. To “know Christ” is to be in constant study of his Word. Sermon based on Deuteronomy 6:1-9
This week we’ll be talking about A SABBATH REST . Humans are finite creatures that need rest. So what’s the spiritual reason why many of us are so driven to work ALL THE TIME and even feel guilty when we take a day off? We’ll talk about how to enter true recuperative rest and gain a healthy sense of work & rest as we meditate on Hebrews 4:1-11.
In our last week of this series, we’ll be talking about THE LOVE OF GOD . This generation of Christians has often been conditioned to think of God in loving terms. However, many Christians simply don’t know what to think when negative circumstances in life inevitable strike. They think, "How could a LOVING God _______________?” It feels like divine rejection. Romans 8:35-39 has some answers.
