Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

God made the world to function in a certain way and, therefore, as we learn that way and conform to it, things tend to go better for us. Even as when we are ignorant of God's ways or out of conformity with them, things tend to go worse. Therefore, let us order our lives according to God's design for His glory and our good.

God made the world to function in a certain way and, therefore, as we learn that way and conform to it, things tend to go better for us. Even as when we are ignorant of God's ways or out of conformity with them, things tend to go worse. Therefore, let us order our lives according to God's design for His glory and our good.

God made the world to function in a certain way and, therefore, as we learn that way and conform to it, things tend to go better for us. Even as when we are ignorant of God's ways or out of conformity with them, things tend to go worse. Let us order our lives according to God's design and wisdom for His glory and our good.

The most miserable life is the life that has access to every possible under-the-sun source of joy, found them all insufficient / empty / hollow, and has not been given the gift of joy in God. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the greatest treasure.

God is the only thing that truly satisfies and God's grace is the only thing that enables us to be satisfied in Him and the things He gives. Let us seek our satisfaction in God alone and contentment in all things through Him.

The love of money leads to all kinds of evils, including taking part in systems designed to oppress the poor. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself.

God alone establishes how we must draw near to Him. Only fools believe they can come to God on their own terms. So consider carefully your approach to God, repent of any man-made ways, and look to Jesus who alone provides access to God.

The only real and lasting solution to the problems we face in this life (physical, relational, emotional, and spiritual) is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. the only real and lasting solution to the problems we face in this life (physical, relational, emotional, and spiritual) is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The author of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher, was inspired by God to help us see that there are no lasting earthly solutions to our earthly or heavenly problems. Let us surrender entirely to the risen Jesus.

Let us keep an eternal perspective, seeking to worship Jesus as He is, not how we want Him to be. Through the scriptures and power of the Spirit, you see Him as the Messiah King over your life and Savior of your soul.

Oppression is everywhere and it is one of the most grievous things known to God and man. Because God saved the world through the oppression of His Son, God's people are liberated to liberate. We are freed from the oppression of sin to work toward freeing the oppressed, body and soul.

As the Preacher looked around, he saw injustice and vanity in that those on opposite ends of the moral spectrum (righteous and wicked) experienced the same outcome in their lives, even as those on opposite ends of the ontological spectrum (man and beast) experienced the same outcome in their deaths. From the Preacher we are charged, once again, to rejoice in our work. And from the rest of God's Word, we are charged to look above the sun.

God's Word calls God's people to glorify God by calling all people everywhere to follow Jesus and we do that best by burning bright for Jesus. Let us do so.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, faithfully leads believers through all of life's circumstances and into eternity. He knows His sheep, knows the path, and ensures His flock will reach "the House of the Lord." Trust and rest in the Good Shepherd.

The fact that God has made everything beautiful in its time is wrapped in mystery. Because of the beauty, we can trust God and find joy. Because of the mystery, our joy is limited under the sun. Let us enjoy that which God has given us and look to God's Word to know more fully what God has given and how to enjoy it.

Every time and season of our lives belongs to God, for His glory and our good. Let us learn to conform our preferences to God's purposes and to develop a better standard by which to judge the seasons than our convenience.

Work for its own sake can never provide the kind of meaning and significance we long and are made for. Let us look first to Jesus, and work as unto Him.

God moves in mysterious ways. Things simply don't work in ways that are predictable, but that's by God's good design. We need more than our own reason or desires to live a life of meaning and significance. Therefore, we should trust God's Word and promises rather than our interpretation of our circumstances.

True and lasting satisfaction is never found in the pleasures of this world when they are sought for their own sake. Seek fullness of joy in the one place that it is found, in the presence of God, through faith in Jesus Christ

All human wisdom has limits. Wisdom is better than folly, but it alone is not sufficient to predict life under the sun with 100% accuracy. And that is often really, really frustrating. Therefore, seek wisdom, reject folly, and live ultimately according to the promises of God that are ours in Jesus.

There is great mystery in understanding how life can have real meaning when there is nothing new under the sun and everything comes back around again. But God is making all things new and the rhythms of this world are profound means of grace. Let us enter into the rhythms of God's design as the means of grace they are.

There are three main themes that we need to get our heads around in order to grasp the main message of the book: The vanity of this life, the sovereignty of God over all things, and the meaning of the phrase, “under the sun.”

At Grace Church, we would be unified on specific truths of God for our faith from His word to reach maturity in Christ.

We're spending the next two sermons laying out a some of what defines us as a church—both doctrinally and practically. Our main aim in doing so is to more firmly establish ourselves in the truths of God so that we might live out our faith with greater confidence, clarity, joy, and unity.

This Gospel, John's aims, John's structure, Jesus' glory, Jesus' signs, are all graciously given to us that we may graciously believe in Jesus and graciously follow Him to the cross and from there all the way to eternal life in heaven.

Just as God equipped Moses despite his reluctance and excuses, calling him to fulfill his duty, we too are called to embrace our God-given responsibilities without excuses, trusting that He will equip and empower us to obey His commands.

Following Jesus is the primary call on all of our lives. Let's learn what it means to follow Jesus and to do so in faith.

Following Jesus is the primary call on all of our lives. Follow Jesus!

This passage shows us Jesus' loving and gracious restoration and recommissioning of Peter. Let us receive Jesus' love, love Jesus above all, and follow Jesus in loving ministry to His people.

Jesus cares for His people as a true friend and King, with compassion, grace, and fellowship.

John explicitly states the reason he wrote his Gospel: To describe Jesus' signs, in order to convince his readers of Jesus' nature, in order that we might receive life by believing in Jesus. Let us consider Jesus' signs, believe in Him and have life, and share all of that with others that they too might believe and have life.

The risen Lord is patient with His people and faith is His gift to us. Let us identify the promises of God and fight in the Spirit's power to believe them because Jesus has risen from the dead.

Our charge from Jesus is great and costly, but our help and reward are greater still. Boldly share the good news of Jesus with the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.

First, because God's ways are higher than our ways, what we expect from God and what we get are not always connected. Second, the ability to see things (especially spiritual things) as they truly are is always a gift from God. Finally, Jesus is risen from the dead! Let us pray and trust - pray for spiritual eyes and trust God's invisible promises.

In spite of all the OT promises and all of Jesus' teaching, none of Jesus' followers imagined Jesus' resurrection as the explanation for the empty tomb. Let us study the Word of God carefully and be humble.

In times of distress and moments of death, God's servants and saints cry out to him in prayer, find rest in his benefits, trust in his words, and praise him for his salvation.

Faithfulness to Jesus in times of suffering and mystery is often a matter of simple devotion. Let us consistently make use of the ordinary means of grace so that when times of suffering and mystery come, simple devotion flows freely out of us.

Meditating and proclaiming the greatness of God and His works increases our love, awe, and worship of Him for our good and His glory in this life and the life to come.

Jesus was knowingly, willingly, lovingly, and graciously crucified for the sins of the world so that by believing in Him we will be saved. Believe in Jesus, and live in light of the full measure of the salvation He brings.

Jesus died to accomplish the centerpiece of God's eternal plan of redemption. Let us be amazed by the magnitude of the sovereign grace of God, such that obedience and worship flow with increasing freeness.

The Son of God was crucified. Within that, we see the incongruity of the crucifixion, several different responses to the truth of the crucifixion, and the sovereign plan of God in the crucifixion. Let us live lives of consistency and trust; or, better still, consistency in trust.

Look to Jesus' example, as did the parents of the kids dedicated today, and ask the Lord to send us out in His power to pour forth dozens more bursts of light this week as we all give ourselves to living, no matter the cost, for God's glory and the good of the world.

Although there were no credible accusations against Jesus, the sinfulness of man, the righteousness of Jesus, and the loving, gracious plan of God all came together to bring about Jesus' condemnation. Therefore, let us praise Jesus for gladly giving Himself to the will of God even though it led to His mistreatment at the hands sinful men, and let us follow Jesus' example in that.

Jesus' love and grace in the face of the growing treachery of those He came to save is staggering. Let us cultivate humility, gratitude, trust, and love in the power of the Spirit.

The time had come for Jesus to “drink the cup that the Father” had given Him—He knew exactly what was coming, because it was the loving, eternal plan of God, to save the world. Let us humbly trust Jesus' promises even when conventional reason suggests otherwise—especially His promise to save those who would trust in Him.

In these closing sentences of Jesus' prayer, we can clearly see the essence of living in the light: (1) Knowing God for who He really is and what He is really like and (2) Conforming every aspect of our lives to that. In His prayer, Jesus acknowledged that He did that and taught His followers to do so as well, and both in order that the love of God may be in us as it is in Him.

Jesus cares deeply about His followers, knows certainly what we need most, and believes wholly in the sovereign grace of His Father, and so He prays. Let us marvel at the fact that Jesus prayed for us and prayerfully and zealously seek the things Jesus asked of the Father on our behalf.

Jesus was leaving, the disciples were staying, and, therefore, they needed specific help to continue living according to the Word Jesus had given them. Let us consider carefully our relationship to the world, and within that, to seek the things Jesus prayed for above everything else (perseverance, unity, joy, faithfulness, protection, and sanctification).

Jesus was leaving, the disciples were staying, and, therefore, they needed specific help to continue living according to the Word Jesus had given them. Let us consider carefully our relationship to the world, and within that, seek the things Jesus prayed for above everything else (perseverance, unity, joy, faithfulness, protection, and sanctification).

Samson was an example of the coming Savior of the world Jesus Christ. The parallels between his miraculous birth and his task of rescuing and delivering his people and in death he delivers a great blow to the enemies of the Lord. However he should also be a reminder to us that we do not follow after man but we follow after the one true and perfect Savior Jesus Christ. He also reminds us that we can still be used in spite of our sin, but we must be killing sin in our lives.

Jesus prayed for His disciples and in the processes gave a clear description of His disciples: those to whom He manifested the Father's name and who were given to Him by the Father, from out of the world, to receive the Word of God. Pray for and call people to Jesus, out of the world, according to the Word of God.

Jesus' first impulse regarding the challenge ahead of Him was prayer and His first prayer was for the glory of God and the first prayers of glory were rooted in eternality, authority, salvation, and fulfillment of mission. Prayerfully seek Jesus' heart in prayer.