Risen Church Sermons: Recent Episodes
Risen Church
Matthew 1:18-25
-The comfort of Christmas is that in response to real brokenness, God offers us real hope.
It isn't the strength of your faith that saves you. It's the object of your faith. When we take up the shield of faith, we are to ask "Whom am I trusting with my life?"
The Gospel brings us an objective peace with God that allows us to experience the peace that we crave in all areas of life. And when it does, it makes us spiritually "ready" to face the challenges of the world.
Satan's primary M.O. is the distortion of God's truth. We must be vigilant to identify his lies and replace them with the truth of the Gospel.
The Gospel radically impacts how we view vocation—both within and outside of the home. As Christians, work is neither merely a means to an end nor an ultimate end in itself.
Parenting is a beautiful privilege and weighty responsibility. We find our strength to fulfill this calling through the Gospel.
Psalm 51 shows us that ultimately the key to lasting joy is placing our joy in the right thing: namely, our salvation.
Singleness is often treated as a problem to be fixed rather than a gift to be celebrated. The New Testament gives us a remarkably high view of singleness.
Marriage is a gift from God, and it ought to be stewarded as such. Both men and women have roles to play in making marriage a beautiful picture of Christ's love for us in the Gospel.
At Easter, we celebrate the life-giving power of the resurrection and the victory over the power of death itself that it gives us.
The resurrection of Jesus is the bedrock of our faith, and it is rooted in verifiable, historical fact.
There is spiritual power in the singing of God's people. Singing leads our minds and hearts—as well as strengthens our souls.
Paul encourages the church to live a Spirit-filled life, relying on the power of the Spirit for every moment and every facet of living.
Paul reminds the church of the importance of "waking up" to the reality that we're a part of. It is easy to get lulled to sleep, forgetting the story of redemption that we're caught up in as a part of God's Kingdom.
In Acts 16, we hear the account of Paul's trip to Philippi and how the church began there. The first three converts in the city are all utterly different types of people from different walks of life, showing that the Gospel message is for everyone.
Lent is a season of the church’s calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and goes through Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter Sunday). It is a season to prepare our hearts for the joy and celebration of Easter, reminding us that the journey to the empty tomb goes through the cross. In this way, it prepares us for the brokenness we inevitably will face in this life. As we practice even small ways of self-denial, we remind ourselves of the true source of peace and comfort: Jesus himself.
Paul tells us that the Christian life is one that has moved from darkness to light. As children of the light, we must remember our identity and strive to walk in the light as we pursue what is good, right, and true.
Paul reminds us of the goodness of God's sexual ethic and the dangers of stepping outside of that ethic. Sex was created as a gift, and it is precisely because it is so wonderful that it must be stewarded well.
Paul instructs the church to be "imitators of God," which, ultimately, is a fulfillment of the very thing we were created for. As his children, we imitate our Heavenly Father. We sacrifice for others as he sacrificed for us. We love others because he first loved us.
The reality of the Gospel leads us into a new life. We are to put off certain behaviors and take on others, not as a way of earning favor with God but as a way of responding to the favor we've been shown in Christ.
One of the marks of our identity in Christ is the commitment that we have to put our sin to death and put on what the Bible calls "the new self." Jesus doesn't just save us from the penalty of sin, but he is also with us, presently, saving us from the power of sin.
One of the implications of the Gospel is that as we all pursue unity together, we will also all be pursuing maturity in Christ together. Paul reminds us that everyone in the church is needed in this endeavor and that it will require a humble commitment to speaking the truth in love.
Paul begins Ephesians 4 with the word "therefore," telling the church that the Gospel demands of us a life worthy of it. We must allow the truth of the Gospel (its doctrine) to inform our lives and relationships (our culture).