Lafayette First Church of the Nazarene Sermons

What do we do with our desire to get even or get revenge? According to Jesus, the best way to deal with it is to turn the other cheek.

In Matthew 5 Jesus lays out His vision of a good life and it's different than what we heard. In this sermon we learn how anger can lead to brokenness with each other which can lead to brokenness with God.

Jesus has come to us as the most wonderful of counselors: someone who can empathize with us but also has the power to save us

What is it that keeps us from becoming who we can be and living the kind of life we desire: we lose heart.

In 2 Timothy 2, Paul describes the Christian life using 3 metaphors: a soldier, athlete and a farmer. That's week two of our series called The Grace of Grit.

How do you hold onto your faith when you are in a season of life that it seems to be failing? This sermon looks into what it means to rekindle our faith.

Final sermon in our series on The Hills We Will Die On. Let's face it: we're ordinary. We're normal. And, that's exactly how God wants us to be. We're bread.

When Jesus sends out 72 people ahead of him he only gives them one job but it's a job they cannot do themselves.

To be a follower of Jesus is to anticipate today what God will do tomorrow; it's to live the future in the present; it's to live like tomorrow is today.

The second hill that we will die on: what got you here won't get you there.

Some hills are not worthy dying on. But some are. At our church we're not going to compromise on this core conviction: you were made for this.

The story of Jesus' mission can be summed up in this one phrase: the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.

As humans we are created for authentic and vulnerable relationships with each other. It's what we desire the most.

1 John isn't messing around and makes quite the claim: if we claim to love God but we don't love each other we are liars.

We live in a world of sarcasm, disregard and contempt. In the midst of our culture, how do we present a healed alternative? Paul says: honor one another.

The mission of Jesus was and is to save the whole world. How did He do it? By forming a community of people who were very different from each other and teaching them how to love one another. We could learn something from that.

Jesus' parable of the rich fool is one of the most difficult in Scripture. In this sermon, Pastor Troy helps us understand it's point: your harvest is not your own.

Jesus said that the fields are ripe for the harvest. This sermon talks about how harvest isn't just sitting back and receiving. It means work.

In John 15 we learn that God proves His love for us by preparing us to produce fruit and pruning us so we can produce more.

Soil is an under appreciated aspect of how things grow. In this sermon we take a look at how the soil of our lives affects the kind and quality of fruit that our life produces.

What if I were to tell you that you have been called by God? In this sermon we learn how we have been called to a different way of life.

God's Spirit makes life by creating a separated people who are filled with His Spirit in order that they may be a blessing to the world.

How is it that we actually make a difference in this world? We first have to be willing to be made to be different.

Sermon number 4 in our Everyone Made Alive sermon series. In this sermon we learn that to be a follower of Jesus is to become someone like Mary - who increases in their recognition of God's voice.

For 2,000 plus years Thomas has been labeled as the one who did not believe; as the one who doubted. But, Thomas was just looking for what we all need: a personal encounter with Jesus.

We are prone to think that the cause of our largest struggle is located outside of us and the cure of that struggle is within us. But, what if it was completely opposite?

One of the most used tricks the evil one uses to keep us from becoming like Jesus is to deceive us.

Week 1 of our series called The Good Fight. Revelation describes the evil one as 'the accuser.' We take a look at this scheme of the devil and how Jesus has come to set us free.

We conclude our Life On Purpose sermon series by taking a look at how God uses dreams to guide us and shape us into the people He dreams we can be.

We continue our Life on Purpose series by realizing that Jesus calls us to a new way of life and that way of life requires that we deal with the things that block us from experiencing His love.

Week 2 of our Life on Purpose series takes us to Ephesians 1 where we learn who we already are.

In our last sermon in our The More You Were Made For series we discover what we were really made for: to live a certain way and practice a certain kind of lifestyle.

There is a difference between trying and training and that difference is key to helping us achieve the kind of more that we were made for.

The entry point into the life of Jesus is, and has always been, self-denial. Week 2 of The More You Were Made For sermon series.

As Jesus talked about it, the point of becoming more like Him wasn't just to get the minimal entrance requirements to some otherworldly life but was to participate with Him in His radical mission.

Joy is not just happy feelings. It isn't based on our circumstances. When the bible talks about joy it is talking about a disposition of the heart that anticipates God's future. This sermon unpacks the surprise of joy.

The surprising message of Christmas is that God's arrival into our world is good news. News so good that it is hard to believe; news so good that it's beyond our control.

When God comes into the world we don't have to fear. This message, the first in our 2018 Advent Series, looks at the frequent and surprising command throughout the bible: don't be afraid.

Week 3 of our Nothing To Lose sermon series.

Our first sermon in or Nothing To Lose series takes a look at the biblical principle for profit.

In John 15 Jesus gives his followers a new title: friends. He says they are no longer his servants. Instead, they are His friends. This sermon is about the implications of living as a friend of God.

In the first sermon of our Fall Vision series, where we talk about the mission of our church, we focus on the imperative of prioritizing presence over circumstances.

Week 3 of our Forgiving as We Have Been Forgiven series takes us to Luke 4 where we learn about the most powerful force in the world.

Christianity is based on news: something actually happened that has affected our present. In this sermon we learn about the good news of forgiveness.

Parenting is hard. It has always been hard and it always will be hard. Thankfully the book of Proverbs has some ancient wisdom to offer to modern families.

What if work is part of God's original intention for us and not a curse to be avoided? This week we explore the important nature of our work.

Wisdom says that more than anything else we should guard our hearts. In this sermon we talk about what the bible means when it is talking about our heart and how we can guard it.

Some briefer thoughts and reflections on the nature of trust and our tendency to lean on our own understanding.

The path of wisdom leads to the flourishing of all things. But that path is counterintuitive. In week 2 of How Life Works we examined the counterintuitive nature of trust.