Sermons

The unity and diversity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are meant to be mirrored by the unity and diversity in the church. Like the humble God, this is only possible by a humble church, so cultivating humility is necessary for the church's mission.

While Paul's life has been tremendously difficult during his imprisonment, he maintains a boundless optimism grounded in God's faithfulness. He has confidence that God is working in his trials, and he has confidence that God will deliver him. He knows that the Philippian church can have that same confidence and that it will allow them…

The church described in Philippians 1 is a community with a new life—marked out by humility and love; a new power—God's grace mediated to us in community; and a new family—a diverse group of people who mentor us in the faith and a common mission and sense of purpose hold that together. We don't become…

If Jesus comes to demonstrate what a Godly life looks like, how does that help those who never got to see him live? Jesus sends the disciples into the world to form discipling communities where they reflect Jesus' example to others. With the help of scripture, the Holy Spirit, and the example of those who…

In our world of Darkness, God sends Jesus to be a light, showing us what an authentic human life looks like. Jesus' example exposes much of worldly wisdom as lies. In this sermon, we look specifically at how Jesus' example challenges our assumptions about worldly success (wealth, power, & security) and also spiritual success (morality).

While we think of Christmas as a happy time, not everyone experiences it that way. In fact, the first Christmas was a time of great distress for Jews in general and for Mary and Joseph in particular. We look at how when the story seems hopeless, God might be just on the edge of intervening…

Sloth is not laziness, but a spiritual apathy we experience when we lose faith that God's grace is able to accomplish its goals in and through us. When we give in to sloth, we become closed off to what God is doing, supposing that we know that it is all for nothing. To counter the…

Gluttony is when we take the good gift of food and drink and make it too important in our lives. We use it to comfort ourselves instead of looking to God for comfort. Instead, we must cultivate a rhythm of feasting and fasting, where we feast to celebrate community and God's faithfulness, but also fast…

While anger can be a legitimate response to injustice, wrath is where anger is distorted. This happens when we let it linger or when our anger is motivated by ignorance or selfishness. To combat the power of wrath in our lives, we can cultivate the virtue of forgiveness. The way of forgiveness follows the example…

Greed distorts natural self-interest by elevating our desires over even the basic needs of others. For the Greedy person, this may feel nice in the short term, but it keeps them from properly relating to their community. The answer to this is the virtue of generosity, where we participate with God in his gracious giving…

Lust seems like an embarrassing but inconsequential sin. But in both the scriptures and our personal experiences, we can see that lust leads to things that are quite consequential. Lust--disordered sexual desire--causes us to objectify people for our sexual gratification. Because of this, it wildly distorts our relationships with others in ways that can have…

Envy, the second deadly sin, happens because we fix our attention on the things God gives us rather than on God and his mission in the world. As we understand our calling as Christians, we draw our significance from that rather than by comparing ourselves to others, and so we can cultivate the virtue of…