Listen to sermons from Kaleo Church in El Cajon, CA. Kaleo Church exists to be a Christ-treasuring community, formed by the gospel, and sent on mission to the world by the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. Learn more at www.kaleochurch.com
2 Corinthians 5:17 makes the bold claim that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation! Then you might wonder, "Why don't I feel more like a new creation?" Listen to hear how this new identity in Christ assures us of his great love for sinners like us and empowers our transformation to be more like Jesus as we die to self and live for Christ.
What compels us to persevere in loving hard-to-love people and to share the gospel with people who openly resist it? The Apostle Paul was compelled to preach the gospel and proclaim the praises of God in the presence of others, and his motivation for doing so is found in our passage today. May we also be a people who cry out with the Apostle Paul, "We also believe, and so we also speak!"
In this second sermon on beholding Christ's beauty, we will contemplate how that beauty leads to a changed life. Using Paul's statement in 3:18, we will look at Revelation 1-3 through that lens. Listen and hear how Christ's beauty transofrmed churches in the first century and continues to do so today.
We are all drawn to beauty. In a sense, beauty transforms us all. For followers of Jesus, this means that true transformation can only happen by beholding the pinnacle of beauty. Listen and hear how the gospel transforms us by beholding.Thanks!
All of the promises of God toward us are Yes in Jesus Christ, and so through Jesus we respond with our Amen to God for his glory. An Amen we proclaim with our words and demonstrate with our lives. A life lived with integrity and faithfulness founded upon God's gospel promises and dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit.
If God is the God of all comfort, then what does it mean that we are suffering? Does it mean that something is broken between us and God? Not according to Paul. In this passage, Paul describes his suffering as “sharing with Christ in his pain” and describes the way that our God is able to comfort us even in the midst of our greatest suffering.
The Word of God is powerful enough to transform the unrepentant and hard-hearted into thriving and beautiful new creations. Listen and hear how the gospel can truly transform the most cursed things into the most God-glorifying things.
It is not uncommon for people to project the way others are treating them onto God. We assume that if our parents are sick of us or if our spouses find us difficult to be around, or if our roommates don't enjoy us anymore, then God probably feels similarly. But the reality is that nothing could be further from the truth. You see, when it comes to love, our God isn't anything like us. When it comes to love our God is a natural. You see, God is love, and all love comes from him, and anytime we end up getting love right, it is because God loved us first. These are some of the things we will talk about in this message.
There is a difference between being hungry and lost and being hungry while waiting for food you know is on its way. When we know that food is coming, the hunger that was once so frustrating can be transformed into a reason for joy. In this message, we will discuss how hope can infuse joy in the midst of our hunger.
Often, in the midst of suffering or personal failure, it is not uncommon to begin to wonder if God is really for us. Throughout the Old Testament, we see that from Adam on, even the best of people had times when they felt like God was against them. This war with God came to a climax when God sent his Only Son only to watch people murder him. In this sermon, we will discuss how it is that we often function as if we are at war with God, and we will discuss the peace that Jesus came to offer us. Our hope is that by the end of this message, we will find ourselves overwhelmed with the reality that our God is really FOR his people.
What makes hope so important? And how are we supposed to keep ourselves from losing hope in a world of disappointment? These are a few of the questions we will try to answer in this Christmas message about hope.
Gratitude isn't just something God commands in order to ensure that he gets the credit he deserves, gratitude actually enables us to slow down and extract more joy from the good things that we have been given in life. In this message, we will discuss some reasons for gratitude that remain true in both the best and worst times of our lives. Ultimately, the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever, and that is something worth being thankful for!
What in the world does the future have to do with mission? How should the future promises of God change the way we love our neighbor? Listen and hear how the wonderful realities of us one day seeing Jesus face-to-face changes the way we proclaim the gospel in the present.
Fretting and fear lie to us about our God. They say that our suffering is evidence that God is against us. In this context the command to, "Delight yourself in the Lord" seems like an impossible ask because you will never delight in God if you don't believe he is for you! Instead, you will fear and fret. But the good news of the gospel is that God is for you in Jesus Christ, and he is totally committed to your everlasting joy and peace.
Summary: There are evil people in this world with massive amounts of power, influence, success, and prosperity. So, how are we as Christians to respond to this fact? How are we to live in the "already / not yet" of Jesus' Kingdom? Psalm 37 helps us navigate the temptations we face because it is honest with us about the difficulty of living in this present evil age, but is committed to help us live in light of the future realities promised to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ and his coming eternal Kingdom.
More than ever, we are being discipled by a culture of hurry and distraction. However, God created a world where rest was a built-in rhythm necessary for all humans to flourish. Listen and hear how the gospel frees us from building an identity in anything other than Christ.
Is your prayer life as messy as your real life? If not, why? What parts of your life are you holding back or shoving down or cleaning up before you bring them to God? Over and over again, we see the Psalmist showing us what it looks like to bring our real, unfiltered selves into the presence of God, even when our real selves happen to be a mess. In this sermon we will explore some of these things a little deeper.
We talk a lot about “how to become a Christian?” or “how to live the Christian life?” but in this message, we are going to take some time to think about the “why.” What is it that ought to motivate us to follow God? As we look at 2 Kings 13 we will consider 4 different motivations for being a Christian in order to see which one is big enough to keep us following God all of our life.
How would you respond if you looked into the future and perceived a new political leader coming to power that you knew for certain was bent on bringing untold suffering on you and the ones you loved? This was the position Elisha found himself in here in 2 Kings 8. However, Elisha is not the only one who finds himself facing an enemy that is stronger than he is and bent on bringing him harm. Paul tells us that, as Christians, we too find ourselves in a similar situation. In this message, we will consider one of the ways that the Bible calls us to respond to it.
What do we do with our regrets? And how does the promise of restoration deal with all that we end up missing out on in life because of the things we have lost? In this passage, the author of 2 Kings writes to a people who have lost everything and are struggling with regret. He gives us a glimmer of hope and helps us see why we should continue to wait for the LORD even in seasons of significant loss.
Sometimes, what makes God's promises seem difficult to believe is how big they are. In the midst of terrible loss, it can be hard to believe that God has a plan to use even loss for our ultimate good. In the midst of deep loneliness, it can be difficult to believe that God is with us, and in the midst of inexcusable failure, it can be hard to fathom that he continues to enjoy loving us. These are some big promises, and in this passage, we will consider some different ways that people respond to things they consider too good to be true.
Description: Psalm 23 is a well-known Psalm about God as our Shepherd. With lush imagery about green pastures and waters of rest, it is no wonder it's a favorite of many. But what happens when we find ourselves in the valley of deep darkness? Listen and hear about the good news of a Shepherd with his people in the darkness, using it all to help us better know him.
ave you ever found yourself asking, “Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” It is a question born out of pain and disappointment. A question that comes when we don't understand why God isn't fixing something that we care about and we don't know why. For any of you who have ever wondered, “Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” this sermon is for you.
Summary: Sin is a failure to believe in God's promises to us, God's presence with us, and God's power for us. When we fail to believe the gospel, we blindly give into the temptations to grasp for control, to be lured away by the enticements of the world, or to give into fear and despair. And so, the constant refrain of scripture is to repent and believe the gospel - to turn away from that which has stolen our gaze and to fix our eyes of faith once again upon Jesus so that we might see with a right perspective.
Have you ever really struggled to forgive someone because you didn't think they deserved it? Have you ever tried to extract from someone just a little bit of the pain that their sin had caused you? Have you ever hidden your failures in order to feel superior to someone else? If you find yourself resonating with any of these questions, then this sermon is for you.
All of us have people in our lives who we find difficult to love, but what do we do? How do we love people who have hurt us? In this message, we will consider God's love for his enemies and how it can enable us to love the people in our lives who we find difficult.
Have you ever tried your best at something only to find out that it wasn't enough? That is a tough feeling, isn't it? That feeling that comes over us when we realize that we are not good enough. In this message we will see why it is that we work so hard to be enough. We will also discover how it is that God has chosen to deal with the areas in which we have fallen short.
Have you ever tried your best at something only to find out that it wasn't enough? That is a tough feeling, isn't it? That feeling that comes over us when we realize that we are not good enough. In this message we will see why it is that we work so hard to be enough. We will also discover how it is that God has chosen to deal with the areas in which we have fallen short.
In a world where nothing feels safe, how are we supposed to protect ourselves from being crushed by disappointment? How can we open our hearts to unfiltered joy when happiness often feels like a setup for heartbreak? These are just a few of the questions we will consider in this sermon.
Have you ever heard someone share a miracle story and wondered, “Why did God answer their prayer for a miracle and not mine?” In this passage, we will consider the purpose of miracles and how we are supposed to deal with the difficult times when God says No.
Where do you turn in the midst of a crisis? Do you turn to God or do you double down on your own wisdom? If you do turn to God, do you turn to him in humility to ask for help or in frustration to blame him for everything that is going wrong? And how do you respond when the crisis is over? Do you continue to live in dependence upon God or do you drift back into self-reliance until things fall apart again? In this passage we will be reminded of just how desperately we need God's help and why we can trust that his help will always be there for us.
On what do you place your confidence? Whether we like to admit it or not our confidence is often misplaced in things that are fleeting. Elisha teaches us that for those who follow the LORD, the foundation of our confidence is the Word of God empowered by the Spirit of God. The Word of God alone is always true and always accomplishes the purposes of God. Jesus Christ died and rose to ensure that his Word will overcome all opposition and his promises to us are certain.
Anyone who has ever been discipled knows how God can give you respect and admiration for the one who discipled you. But what happens when God calls that person elsewhere? Should you find someone else to disciple you? Should you disciple others? Listen and hear how the gospel forms us into men and women who count the cost of following Jesus and call others to follow him with us.
What does the call of Elisha have to teach us about the call of God to each and every follower of Jesus Christ? Have you counted the cost? Is following Jesus worth it when it leads to a life of service and sacrifice? Elisha's call reminds us that "God is my salvation." Jesus answered the call of God perfectly so that he could now call us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
How do you respond when someone points out an area in your life where you were wrong? Do you get defensive? Do you return the favor and point out all of the areas where the person who corrected you has fallen short? In I Corinthians 16:10-11 Paul calls the Corinthians to welcome Timothy's correction rather than despising him for it. In this message we will consider what it might look like for us to apply this advice towards anyone who chooses to correct us out of love.