Podcasts about sermon passage

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“You and all of your new perspective nowWish I could shut it in a closetAnd drag you back down.”~Noah Kahan, “New Perspective” “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British scholar, writer, and Christian apologist, in “Is Theology Poetry?” “All those who are ‘in the Messiah' are covered, shielded, protected, like the Israelites sheltering under the blood of the Passover lamb. That's Romans 3. They are declared to be Abraham's true family, Romans 4. They are therefore the true humanity, Romans 5. And they set off on their journey through the Red Sea as newly-freed slaves, as in Romans 6; they find themselves at Mount Sinai in Romans 7, only to discover in Romans 8 that what the law could not do God has done in his Son and by his Spirit, and they are on the way home through the wilderness to their promised inheritance. This is the new Exodus.”~N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar and Anglican bishop “Here again [in Romans 8:15], it seems that Paul is describing the situation of his Christian readers in Rome by using exodus metaphors. They should not be afraid and desire to return to ‘the house of slavery,' as did the Israelites in the desert. … Instead, they should continue to recognize the leading of the Spirit of God, which confirms their status as ‘sons,' causes them to cry to God as Father, and shows the way to freedom.”~Richard B. Hays, New Testament scholar, in “Pneumatology: The Spirit in Romans 8” “When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, ‘Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: “Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians”? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.'  And Moses said to the people, ‘Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord.'”~Exodus 14:10-13 (ESV)SERMON PASSAGE Romans 8:1-17 (ESV)Romans 8 (ESV) 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.1 Corinthians 10 (NIV) 1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea…. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.  Exodus 16 (NIV) 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Numbers 13 (NIV) 30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” Exodus 14 (ESV)11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord”

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow.”~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich “…sin is treason against a Holy God… Sin lurks in our hearts and grabs us by the throat to do its bidding.”~Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, English professor and author “As if we could think of anything more difficult than to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength! Compared with this law, everything could be considered easy…[For] the law cannot do anything else than to accuse and blame all…, to convict, and, as it were, apprehend them; in fine, to condemn them in God's judgment: that God alone may justify, that all flesh may keep silence before him.”~John Calvin (1509-1564), French-born theologian and reformer “…reason is not king in human beings, the heart is. Therefore, to change your actions, you must change your desires. But your desires will change, only if the Holy Spirit who wrote the Bible also writes his laws on your heart…. Now, in effect, justification gives us a heart transplant. For at the same time that we receive the gift of justifying faith by which we are credited with Christ's extrinsic righteousness, God also sheds abroad in our hearts a new love for him and one another. This new heart love for him, from him, naturally redirects our wills away from sinful selfishness towards a life lived in thankful obedience to God's commands. Even though we continue to have to struggle with the pull of concupiscence in our mortal bodies, the supernatural power of God's abiding love has fundamentally changed us….”~John Ashley Null, theologian at Humboldt University Berlin and North African Bishop “…the unique message of the New Testament is this: For those who are in Christ, and therefore in the Spirit, the battle against sin is to be fought in an atmosphere of victory, not defeat.… Our way of viewing ourselves should reflect this kind of victorious faith.”~Anthony Hoekema (1913-1988), Dutch-born theologian “The pharisee within usurps my true self whenever I prefer appearances to reality, whenever I am afraid of God, whenever I surrender the control of my soul to rules rather than risk living in union with Jesus, when I choose to look good and not be good….”~Brennan Manning (1934-2013), author and former priestSERMON PASSAGERomans 7:7-25 (NASB)Romans 6 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness. 21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 7 1 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is alive she gives herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she gives herself to another man. 4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in regard to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were brought to light by the Law, were at work in the parts of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Far from it! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin came to life, and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it, killed me. 12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? Far from it! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by bringing about my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. 14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. 17 But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body's parts. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. 1 Corinthians 1556 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sermon Passage: 2 Corinthians 8:1-7

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “One's own self is well hidden from one's own self.”~Friedrich Nietzsche  “Man is not truly one, but truly two.” “I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a space to my original evil; and the thought in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine.”~Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Kekyl and Mr. Hyde “All of life is a battle between two selves. But there is a different war before you become a Christian and from the war that happens after you become a Christian. There's a war between the selves before you meet Christ and there's a different war between the selves after you meet Christ. The war before is without hope, but the war after, you cannot lose!” ~Tim Keller  “One must be joined to Christ for salvation, not simply follow the law. The law shows how sinful people are, but only Christ can save by His perfect life and His perfect righteousness.” ~Martin Lloyd-Jones “It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”~C.S. LewisSERMON PASSAGERomans 7:1-13 (ESV) 1 Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, don't you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives? 2 For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. 3 So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress. 4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law. 7 What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again 10 and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. 13 Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Christ is the Christ and has acquired redemption from sin and death for this very purpose that the Holy Spirit should change our Old Adam into a new man, that we are to be dead unto sin and live unto righteousness, as Paul teaches Romans 6, and that we are to begin this change and increase in this new life here and consummate it hereafter.”~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer “Sanctification grows out of faith in Jesus Christ. Remember holiness is a flower, not a root; it is not sanctification that saves, but salvation that sanctifies.”~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), British preacher “He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.”~“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” Charles Wesley (1707-1788), British hymn writer “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”~Matthew 6:24 (ESV) “You must always be at it while you live; do not take a day off from this work; always be killing sin or it will be killing you.”~John Owen (1616-1683), British theologianSERMON PASSAGERomans 6:12-23 (ESV) 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sermon Passage: 2 Corinthians 7:2-16

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Someday, when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a mother, I'll tell them: I loved you enough to bug you about where you were going, with whom and what time you would get home. ... I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover your friend was a creep. I loved you enough to make you return a Milky Way with a bite out of it to a drugstore and confess, ‘I stole this.' ... But most of all I loved you enough to say no when you hated me for it. That was the hardest part of all.”~Erma Bombeck (1927-1996), humorist and mother “‘You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,' said Aslan. ‘And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.'”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in his book Prince Caspian “…shame…is the emotional weapon that evil uses to (1) corrupt our relationships with God and each other, and (2) disintegrate any and all gifts of vocational vision and creativity.”~Curt Thompson in The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves “Christ releases you to be truly human, and you must now learn to express your true self according to the divine pattern, not in self-assertion but in self-giving.”~N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar “Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him…. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in his book Mere Christianity “Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with Him; let us go down with Him to be raised with Him, and let us rise with Him to be glorified with Him.”~Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390), Roman Christian theologian and church leader “Holy baptism…is tantamount to [Christ] saying, My righteousness shall be your righteousness; my innocence, your innocence. Your sins indeed are great, but by baptism I bestow on you my righteousness; I strip death from you and clothe you with my life.”~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformerSERMON PASSAGE Romans 6:1-11 (NASB)1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Sermon Passage: 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “Dying is not a technical glitch of the human operating system; it's a feature.”~Belinda Luscombe, Australian journalist and author “It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”~The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis “The central basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us.”~Tim Keller (1950-2023), American pastor and author “So the final declaration of the supremacy and glory of God's grace in this text is that it takes sinners like us who receive his grace and makes us kings and queens in the age to come. It is almost too good to be true. And if you believe it, if you humbly rest in it, this glorious truth will change your life.”~John Piper, American pastor and author, on Romans 5 SERMON PASSAGERomans 5:12-21 (ESV) 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.the free gift following

Sermon Passage: 2 Corinthians 6:3-13

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”~C.S. Lewis, British scholar, writer, and Christian apologist, in The Weight of Glory “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 am for a glass of water is [the king's] child. We have that kind of access.”~Timothy Keller (1950-2023), Presbyterian pastor, author, and Christian apologist “Without endurance, hope turns superficial and evaporates when it meets first resistances. In hope we start something new, but only endurance helps us persevere. Only tenacious endurance makes hope sustainable. We learn endurance only with the help of hope.”~Jürgen Moltmann (1926-2024), German theologian “We must ask, what are we necessarily affirming about Jesus when we say that he, unexpectedly, lives? What is the basic difference between a living person and a dead one? And surely we must say: the decisive difference between a living person and a dead one is that the former can surprise us as the latter cannot. Socrates, although he remains dead, is still powerful. But if I am surprised by him, this is because of previously inadequate knowledge. Whereas if Jesus lives, he is an agent in my life, and one whom I must expect to act freely, whom I could know perfectly and yet not always anticipate.… That Jesus lives means that his love, perfected at the cross, is now active to surprise us. That Jesus lives means that there is a subject who has us as his objects, and who wills our good in a freedom beyond our predicting.”~Robert Jenson (1930-2017), American theologian, in Systematic Theology “As we have taken the circle as a symbol of reason and madness, we may very well take the cross as a symbol at once of mystery and health. Buddhism is centripetal, but Christianity is centrifugal: it breaks out. For the circle is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed for ever in its size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its head a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms for ever without altering its shape. Because it has a paradox in its center it can grow without changing. The circle returns upon itself and is bound. The cross opens its arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free travelers.”~G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), British Christian apologist, in Orthodoxy SERMON PASSAGERomans 5:1-11 (NIV)1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Sermon Passage: 2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Reality is too heavy for most people to carry. So they borrow illusions, soft dreams, sweet lies, and call it happiness.”~Franz Kafka (1883-1924), Jewish Czech writer of German literature, known for his works marked by surreal and bizarre storylines “The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts.”~John Chrysostom (died 407 AD), church leader in ancient Constantinople The Letter to the Romans “is the principal and most excellent part of the New Testament. It is the light and way into the whole Scripture. No man can read it too often or study too well.”~William Tyndale (c.1494-1536), scholar and linguist, considered the father of the English Bible “This epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest gospel and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word by heart, but occupy himself with it every day as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much.”~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer, in his commentary on Romans “Because faith alone justifies… publicans and prostitutes will be first in the kingdom of heaven”~Hilary of Poitiers (c.310-c.367), Gallic-Roman church leader “God justifies the believer—not because of the worthiness of his belief, but because of his [Christ's] worthiness who is believed.”~Richard Hooker (1554-1600) in his Ecclesiastical Polity (1593) “Of whatever virtue you may declare that the ancient righteous people were possessed, nothing saved them but the belief in the Mediator who shed his blood for the remission of their sins.”~Augustine (354-430), North African theologian in Against Two Letters of the Pelagians “God's righteousness compels him...to have to judge the guilty. But then he offers forgiveness and says ‘I will not judge you according to your works.' So...he sends his Son...so that now when he calls you his own...he has not compromised his righteousness.”~Jackie Hill Perry, poet, writer, and hip-hop artistSERMON PASSAGE Romans 1:16-17 & 3:21-26 (Dr. Robert Gagnon's translation of the original Greek)Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for effecting salvation to everyone who is believing it, both to the Jew first and to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is being revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written, “And the righteous one from faith will live.” Romans 3:21-26 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, though it is attested by the law and the prophets; that is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all sinned and are lacking in the glory of God, with the result that they are being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption that is available in Christ Jesus, whom God set before himself as an amends-making offering by means of his blood, through that faith, for an indicator of his righteousness, because of the letting go of the sins that occurred previously in the time of God's holding back his wrath, with a view toward that indicator of his righteousness in the ‘now' time, in order that he himself might be righteous and justifier of the person whose identity is derived from faith in Jesus.

Sermon Passage: 2 Corinthians 5:11-15

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Socially prescribed perfectionism is closely related to anxiety; people who suffer from anxiety are more prone to it. Being a perfectionist also increases your anxiety because you fear the shame of public failure from everything you do.”~Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist at NYU, in his book The Anxious Generation “It is the struggle of the natural man for self-justification. He finds it only in comparing himself with others, in condemning and judging others. Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together.”~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), pastor-theologian executed by the Nazis “They all therefore were glorified and magnified, not through themselves or their own works or the righteous doing which they wrought, but through His will. And so we, having been called through His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified through ourselves or through our own wisdom or understanding or piety or works which we wrought in holiness of heart, but through faith, whereby the Almighty God justified all men that have been from the beginning….”~Clement of Rome, early church leader, in a letter written to Corinth in c. A.D. 96 “For ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.' In like manner we also are justified by faith in God: for ‘the just shall live by faith.' Now ‘not by the law is the promise to Abraham, but by faith' for Abraham was justified by faith: and ‘for a righteous man the law is not made.' In like manner we also are justified not by the law, but by faith….”~Irenaeus of Lyon (c.125-c.202) in his Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching “When someone believes in him who justifies the ungodly, that faith is credited as justice to the believer, as David too declares that person blessed whom God has accepted and endowed with righteousness, independently of any righteous actions. What righteousness is this? The righteousness of faith, preceded by no good works, but with good works as its consequence.”~Augustine (354-430), North African bishop, in his Exposition of the Psalms “The righteousness of God is not that by which God is righteous but that with which he clothes man when he justifies the ungodly”~Augustine (4354-430) in his A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter “Lord Jesus, You are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; yet set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not.”~Martin Luther, (1483-1546), German reformerSERMON PASSAGERomans 4:1-25 (NIV) 1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those   whose transgressions are forgiven,   whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the one   whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” 9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. 13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Sermon Passage: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10

GOOD FRIDAY SERMONSERMON PASSAGERomans 3:23-26 (ESV)23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Before cancer, God was something I tried to fit into my life as much as possible. After cancer, I feel like a connection to God…is kind of the whole point of this exercise on this planet.”~James Van Der Beek (1977-2026), the late “Dawson's Creek” star “From beginning to end, the Holy Scriptures testify that the predicament of fallen humanity is so serious, so grave, so irremediable…, that nothing short of divine intervention can rectify it.”~Fleming Rutledge in her book, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ “Death is the heir of the least sin…. Little sins often slide into the soul, and breed, and work secretly and undiscernibly in the soul, till they come to be so strong as to trample upon the soul, and to cut the throat of the soul. There is oftentimes greatest danger to our bodies in the least diseases that hang upon us, because we are apt to make light of them, and to neglect the timely use of means for removing of them, till they are grown so strong that they prove mortal to us.”~Thomas Brooks (1608-1680), English non-conformist preacher and author “Sin is not a mistake. A mistake is taking the wrong exit on the highway. A sin is treason against a Holy God…. Sin lurks in our hearts and grabs us by the throat to do its bidding.”~Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, English professor and author “Unbelief doesn't see God as the ultimate good. So it can't see sin as the ultimate evil.”~Jackie Hill Perry, writer and hip-hop artist “The hardest people to reach with the love of God are not the bad people. They know they are bad. They have no defense. The hardest ones to win for God are the self-righteous people.”~Rev. Charles L. Allen (1913-2005), American Methodist clergyman “For the sake of suffering humanity [Christ] came down from heaven to earth, clothed himself in that humanity in the Virgin's womb, and was born a man. Having then a body capable of suffering, he took the pain of fallen man upon himself; he triumphed over the diseases of soul and body that were its cause, and by his Spirit, which was incapable of dying, he dealt man's destroyer, death, a fatal blow.”~Melito of Sardis in his “Apology to Marcus Aurelius” (c. 169-170)SERMON PASSAGERomans 4:16-5:5 (NASB95)Romans 4 16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. 18 In hope against hope [Abraham] believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; 20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. 22 Therefore it was also credited to [Abraham] as righteousness. 23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. Romans 5 1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4  and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Sermon Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

QUOTES FOR REFLECTIONQuestion 31: Why is he called “Christ,” meaning “anointed”?Answer: Because he has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher who fully reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our deliverance; our only high priest who has delivered us by the one sacrifice of his body, and who continually pleads our cause with the Father; and our eternal king who governs us by his Word and Spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the freedom he has won for us. Question 37: What do you understand by the word “suffered”?Answer: That during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race. This he did in order that, by his suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, he might deliver us, body and soul, from eternal condemnation, and gain for us God's grace, righteousness, and eternal life.~Heidelberg Catechism (1563) “When Christ entered into Jerusalem the people spread garments in the way: when He enters into our hearts, we pull off our own righteousness, and not only lay it under Christ's feet but even trample upon it ourselves.”~Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778), English clergyman and hymn writer “God, of your goodness, give me yourself; you are enough for me, and anything less that I could ask for would not do you full honor. And if I ask anything that is less, I shall always lack something, but in you alone I have everything.”~Julian of Norwich (c.1343-c.1416), medieval anchoress and author “By thus riding through the streets in state, Jesus Christ claimed to be a king. That claim had been to a great extent kept in the background until now; but ere he goes to his Father, when his enemies rage has reached its utmost fury, and when his own hour of deepest humiliation has just arrived, he makes an open claim before the eyes of all men to be called and acknowledged a king.”~Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher “Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.”~John Stott (1921-2011), English clergyman and theologian SERMON PASSAGELuke 19:28-40 (ESV) 28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?' you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.'” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“It should be a contest among Christians to neither give offense nor take offense. The best men are harder on themselves than they are to others.”~Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), Puritan theologian in The Bruised Reed (text modernized) Question 33: What is justification? Answer: Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed [credited] to us, and received by faith alone.~Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) “We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works…”~The 39 Articles (1571), originally drafted by Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) “This is perfect and pure boasting in God, when one is not proud on account of his own righteousness but knows that he is indeed unworthy of the true righteousness and is justified solely by faith in Christ.”~Basil of Caesarea (330-379), bishop in Cappadocia in Homilies on Humility “[Paul] shows clearly that righteousness depends not on the merit of man, but on the grace of God, who accepts the faith of those who believe, without the works or the Law.”~Jerome (c.342-420), church leader and theologian “[God] has justified our race not by right actions, not by toils, not by barter and exchange, but by grace alone…. But the justice of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ and not through any labor and suffering.”~John Chrysostom (c.347-407), prolific author and preacher “My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers. …I was taken prisoner. I was about sixteen at the time. At that time, I did not know the true God. I was taken into captivity to Ireland, along with thousands of others. We deserved this, because we had gone away from God, and did not keep his commandments. We would not listen to our elders [i.e., presbyters], who advised us about how we could be saved. The Lord brought his strong anger upon us, and scattered us among many nations even to the ends of the earth. It was among foreigners that it was seen how little I was. It was there that the Lord opened up my awareness of my lack of faith. Even though it came about late, I recognized my failings. So I turned with all my heart to the Lord my God, and he looked down on my lowliness and had mercy on my youthful ignorance.”~Saint Patrick, 5th century Roman-British missionary to Ireland in his “Confession”SERMON PASSAGE Romans 3:21-31 (ESV)Romans 3 (ESV) 9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”  “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. Romans 1 (ESV) 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Exodus 34 (ESV) 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Romans 3:21, 25-26 (First Nations Version: An Indigenous Bible Translation of the New Testament)21 But there is a way to be in good standing with the Great Spirit that does not depend on us keeping tribal law!… 25 The Great Spirit sent Creator Sets Free (Jesus) to show through him the full meaning and purpose of the ancient mercy-seat ceremony, where our broken ways are washed clean when we trust in what the shedding of his lifeblood has accomplished. The Great Spirit did this to prove that he was in the right when he released people from their bad hearts and broken ways in the ages past. 26 He also did this to show people in this present age that he has the right to put people in good standing with himself because they trust in what Creator Sets Free (Jesus) has done.

Sermon Passage: 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“When man subverted order he did a great deal more than merely fall away from the rationality of his nature… he brought disorder into the divine order, and presents the unhappy spectacle of a being in revolt against Being. ...Every time a man sins he renews this act of revolt and prefers himself to God; in thus preferring himself, he separates himself from God; and in separating himself, he deprives himself of the sole end in which he can find beatitude and by that very fact condemns himself to misery.”~Etienne Gilson (1884-1978), French philosopher and scholar “Our knowledge of God is paradoxically not of him as the object of our scrutiny, but of ourselves as utterly dependent on his saving and merciful knowledge of us.”~Thomas Merton (1915-1968), American Trappist monk, theologian, writer and social activist “Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as fiends….That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. Most of the man's psychological make-up is probably due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man, the thing that chose, that made the best or the worst out of this material, will stand naked. All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to a good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see every one as he really was. There will be surprises.”~C.S. Lewis, Mere ChristianitySERMON PASSAGERomans 3:9-20 (ESV) 9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:  “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands;    no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;    no one does good,    not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave;    they use their tongues to deceive.”   “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.”~Cornel West, philosopher, theologian and activist “Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”~Mark Twain (1835-1910), from his 1897 travelogue Following the Equator “Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about ‘man's search for God.' To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse's search for the cat.”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), writer, professor, and literary scholar “The Bible is the perpetual motion of the spirit, an ocean of meaning, its waves beating against man's abrupt and steep shortcomings, its echo reaching into the blind alleys of his wrestling with despair.”~Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), Polish-born rabbi-theologian in God in Search of Man “The pharisee within usurps my true self whenever I prefer appearances to reality, whenever I am afraid of God, whenever I surrender the control of my soul to rules rather than risk living in union with Jesus, when I choose to look good and not be good, when I prefer appearances to reality.”~Brennan Manning (1934-2013), author and former priest “There is a vast difference between self-conviction and Holy Spirit-conviction. When God convicts, He gets specific with us about our sin… He uses specific Scriptures. And His kindness toward us leads to a hopeful conclusion of repentance and dependence. Self-conviction, and the conviction of the enemy, on the other hand, is wide-ranging, condemning, and defeatist. It leads back to self: ‘Try harder and do better' … It will lead us right back where we started – awash in guilt and condemnation.”~Christine Hoover, author and speaker “If Jesus is a wonderful Savior in every way except where we are the most hypocritical, then He is no Savior for us.”~Ray Ortlund, author and minister “God's righteousness compels him... to have to judge the guilty. But then he offers forgiveness and says ‘I will not judge you according to your works.' So... he sends his Son... so that now when he calls you his own... he has not compromised his righteousness.”~Jackie Hill Perry, poet, writer, and hip-hop artistSERMON PASSAGERomans 3:1-9 (ESV)Romans 2 17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.Romans 3 1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words,        and prevail when you are judged.” 5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just. 9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin….

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.”~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), statesman, scientist, master of the German language “A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.”~Horace Mann (1796-1859), educational reformer, politician, and abolitionist “To see the law by Christ fulfilled,And hear his pardoning voice,Changes a slave into a child,And duty into choice.”~William Cowper (1731-1800), English poet and hymnwriter “Our pleasure and our duty,Though opposite before,Since we have seen His beautyAre joined to part no more.”~John Newton (1725-1807), slave trader turned abolitionist and pastor “Run, John, and work, the law commands,yet finds me neither feet nor hands,But sweeter news the gospel brings,it bids me fly and lends me wings!”~John Berridge (1716–1793), English revivalist and hymnist “Regeneration is the sovereign act of God by His Holy Spirit whereby he implants new life (a new heart) into man so that the thoughts and inclinations of man's heart are disposed unto holiness. God creates a hunger and thirst for the bread and living water which comes from heaven. The Bible calls regeneration being ‘born again' or ‘born of the Spirit'.”~ Rev. Paul Treick (1944-2025), Christian minister and writer “This monster of self-righteousness, this stiff-necked beast, needs a big axe. And that is what the law is, a big axe…. When the law drives you to the point of despair, let it drive you a little farther. Let it drive you straight into the arms of Jesus who says: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'”~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformerSERMON PASSAGERomans 2:17-29 (ESV) 17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “Before you call the snail a weakling, tie your house to your back and carry it around for a week.”~Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Nigerian novelist “Before pointing fingers make sure your hands are clean.”~Bob Marley (1945-1981), Jamaican singer and songwriter “People get addicted to feeling offended all the time because it gives them a high; being self-righteous and morally superior feels good.”~Mark Manson, author and blogger “We judge people in areas where we're vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we're doing. If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people's choices. If I feel good about my body, I don't go around making fun of other people's weight or appearance. We're hard on each other because we're using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.”~Brené Brown, academic, podcaster, and writer “We judge ourselves by our intentions. And others by their actions.”~Stephen Covey (1932-2012), educator, author, businessman “There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.”~Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician and philosopher, in his Pensées (534) “Nothing can damn a man but his own righteousness; nothing can save him but the righteousness of Christ.” “The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.”~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher “Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together.”~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), pastor-theologian executed for his opposition to the NazisSERMON PASSAGERomans 2:1-16 (ESV)Romans 1 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse…. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.Romans 2 1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

***We encountered some technical difficulties with this audio so we apologize for the lower quality on this particular sermon.QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”~Stephen Hawking (1942-2018), theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist “It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when they have lost their way.”~Rollo May (1909-1994), psychologist and author “When man subverted order he did a great deal more than merely fall away from the rationality of his nature…; he brought disorder into the divine order, and presents the unhappy spectacle of a being in revolt against Being. [...] Every time a man sins he renews this act of revolt and prefers himself to God; in thus preferring himself, he separates himself from God; and in separating himself, he deprives himself of the sole end in which he can find beatitude and by that very fact condemns himself to misery.”~Étienne Gilson (1884-1978), French philosopher and scholar “Human beings are not self-referential. You don't make yourself feel loved by telling yourself ‘I love you.' We are relational beings, and so we need something outside of ourselves to tell us we have value and worth.” “What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.”~Dr. John Ashley Null, theologian and Anglican Bishop of North Africa “If you want your own way, God will let you have it. Hell is the enjoyment of one's own way forever.”~Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), English novelist, playwright, and critic “The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be. God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone. God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.”~ John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) in The Cross of Christ “This is perfect and pure boasting in God, when one is not proud on account of his own righteousness but knows that he is indeed unworthy of the true righteousness and is justified solely by faith in Christ.”~Basil of Caesarea, Homilies on Humility, 20.3SERMON PASSAGERomans 1:16-32 (ESV)Romans 116 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Romans 21 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. Proverbs 17 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of   knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Psalm 191 The heavens declare the glory of God,  and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.2 Day to day pours out speech,   and night to night reveals knowledge. Psalm 10619 They made a calf in Horeb   and worshiped a metal image.20 They exchanged the glory of God   for the image of an ox that eats grass.21 They forgot God, their Savior,   who had done great things in Egypt,22 wondrous works in the land of Ham,   and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.23 Therefore he said he would destroy them—   had not Moses, his chosen one,   stood in the breach before him,   to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “Christ pervades all Scripture, as salt all waters of the sea, as light the brightest day, as fragrance the garden of choice flowers.”~Henry Law (1797-1884), Cambridge-educated Dean of Gloucester in Christ is All “The righteousness of God is God's righteous initiative in putting sinners right with himself, by bestowing on them a righteousness which is not their own but his. The righteousness of God is God's just justification of the unjust, his righteous way of pronouncing the unrighteous righteous, in which he both demonstrates his righteousness and gives His righteousness to us.” ~John Stott (1921-2011), British Anglican pastor and theologian “The righteousness of God is not that by which God is righteous but that with which he clothes man when he justifies the ungodly”~ Augustine (354-430), North African church leader, explaining Paul's understanding of “righteousness” in the Letter to Romans (A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter) “God allowed his Son to suffer as if a condemned sinner, so that we might be delivered from the penalty of our sins. This is God's righteousness, that we are not justified by works…but by grace, in which case all our sin is removed.”~John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians “He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for them that are mortal. For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation! that the wickedness of many should be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors!”~The Epistle to Diognetus (c. 150AD) 9:2-5. “The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug.” “Don't expect faith to clear things up for you. It is trust, not certainty.”~Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964), American authorSERMON PASSAGERomans 1:14-17 (ESV)Romans 1 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Romans 321 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 4 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTIONSERMON PASSAGERomans 1:8-17 (ESV) 1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “A local church's elders do not rule on their own merits or according to their own designs but as subjects and delegates of Christ the chief shepherd…. Our elders may appear to be painfully ordinary men, but under their loving leadership, we receive the ministry of Christ himself…. “Our holiness is not merely personal. It is also the foundation of our corporate identity as the church. The surprising thing about the Bible's testimony is that the word saints does not single out exemplary church members, or church members whose gifts and graces are only of a particular variety. In fact, in biblical terms, there are no individual saints. In its sixty appearances in the New Testament, the word is always plural and always used as a description of all the Christians in the church…. We are not lone saints…; we are corporate saints, members of a holy company…. “The church in eternity will appear more lovely, but it will not be more loved.”~Megan Hill in A Place to Belong: Learning to Love the Local Church “God allowed his Son to suffer as if a condemned sinner, so that we might be delivered from the penalty of our sins. This is God's righteousness, that we are not justified by works (for then they would have to be perfect, which is impossible), but by grace, in which case all our sin is removed.”         ~John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), early church leader in Constantinople “And so, we, having been called through His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified through ourselves or through our own wisdom or understanding or piety or works which we wrought in holiness of heart, but through faith, whereby the Almighty God justified all men that have been from the beginning….”~Clement of Rome (died c.100 AD), early church leader in Rome, from a letter written c. A.D. 96 “This epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest gospel and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word by heart, but occupy himself with it every day as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much.”~Martin Luther (1483-1546) in his commentary on St. Paul's Letter to the Romans “The body of Scripture is a doctrine sufficient to live well…. Theology is the science of living blessedly forever. Blessed life arises from the knowledge of God…. And therefore it arises likewise from the knowledge of ourselves, because we know God by looking into ourselves.”~William Perkins (1558-1602), Cambridge-based Puritan theologianSERMON PASSAGERomans 1:1-17 (ESV) 1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Belonging to the church will always increase our obligations and decrease our independence. And this is good.”~Megan Hill in A Place to Belong: Learning to Love the Local Church  “There in heaven this fountain of love, this eternal three in one, is set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it. There this glorious God is manifested and shines forth in full glory, in beams of love; there the fountain overflows in streams and rivers of love and delight, enough for all to drink at, and to swim in, yea, so as to overflow the world as it were with a deluge of love.” “Love dwells and reigns in every heart in heaven. The heart of God is the original source of divine love, existing inherently, like light in the sun. From God, love flows necessarily towards all inhabitants of heaven.” “That which was in the heart on earth as but a grain of mustard-seed, shall be as a great tree in heaven. The soul that in this world had only a little spark of divine love in it, in heaven shall be, as it were, turned into a bright and ardent flame, like the sun in its fullest brightness, when it has no spot upon it.” “In heaven all shall be united together in very near and dear relations... In heaven all shall have property and ownership in each other.” “[In heaven people] will have no doubt of the love of each other. They shall have no fear that the declarations…of love are hypocritical; but shall be perfectly satisfied of the sincerity and strength of each other's affection, as much as if there were a window in every breast, so that everything in the heart could be seen. There shall be no such thing as flattery…in heaven, but there perfect sincerity shall reign through all and in all. Everyone will be just what he seems to be, and will really have all the love that he seems to have.”~Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in “Heaven Is a World of Love” “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”~Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), civil rights activist and Baptist minister “If a person doesn't love the church, they don't love Jesus.”~Voddie Baucham (1969-2025), former Dean of Theology at African Christian University (Zambia) “To dwell in love with saints above— Oh that will be glory! But to dwell below with saints we know— Ah! That's a different story!”~Christopher J.H. Wright, Anglican clergyman and authorSERMON PASSAGE Ephesians 2:1-3:13 (ESV)Ephesians 2 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached the peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 3 1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “Usually, the way God will heal somebody from church hurt is by using the church.”~Jackie Hill Perry, poet, writer, hip hop artist “He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his Mother.”~Cyprian (c.210-258), early North African church leader “…for those to whom [God] is Father, the church may also be Mother…. Furthermore, away from her bosom one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation.”~John Calvin (1509-1564) in Institutes of the Christian Religion 4.1.1 & 4.1.4 “In an era that prizes constant change and originality, it can be surprising to realize that corporate worship has neither…. Belonging to the church will always increase our obligations and decrease our independence. And this is good.”~Megan Hill in A Place to Belong: Learning to Love the Local Church  Chapter 26.12. All believers are obligated to join themselves to local churches when and where they have the opportunity. Likewise, all who are admitted to the privileges of a church are also subject to the discipline and government of it, according to the rule of Christ…. 14. Every church and all its members are obligated to pray continually for the good and prosperity of all churches of Christ in every place. They must also—at every opportunity within the limits of their stations and callings—exercise their gifts and graces to benefit every church. Also, when churches are raised up by the providence of God, insofar as they enjoy opportunity and favorable circumstances for it, they should have fellowship among themselves for their peace, growth in love, and mutual edification…. Chapter 27.1. All saints are united to Jesus Christ their head by his Spirit and by faith…. They have fellowship in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory. Since they are united to one another in love, they have communion in each other's gifts and graces and are obligated to carry out these duties, both public and private, in an orderly way to promote their mutual good, both in the inner and outer aspects of their lives.~The 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, from Chapters 26 & 27 “A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertain-ing the goats…. That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which God abhors.”~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher “Don't build a church that attracts people — build a church that attracts God and God will attract the people.”~AnonymousSERMON PASSAGEEphesians 2:11-22 (ESV) 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“My chief reason for choosing Christianity was because the mysteries were incomprehensible. What's the point of revelation if we could figure it out ourselves? If it were wholly comprehensible, then it would just be another philosophy.”~Mortimer J. Adler (1902-2001), philosopher, educator, and founder of the Aspen Institute “There has not been a ‘when' when the Father was not in existence. This, then, is true of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Put another question and I will answer it.Since when has the Son been begotten? Since as long as the Father has not been begotten.Since when has the Spirit been proceeding? Since as long as the Son has not been proceeding but being begotten in a non-temporal way that transcends explanation….” “How is it then that they are not co-unoriginate if they are co-eternal with him? Because they are from him, though not after him. ‘Being unoriginate' necessarily implies ‘being eternal', but ‘being eternal' does not entail ‘being unoriginated', so long as the Father is referred to as origin.”~Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329-390) in “On the Son” orations 29, chapter 3 “The saints have both their spiritual excellency and blessedness by the gift of the Holy Ghost, and his dwelling in them. They are not only caused by the Holy Ghost, but are in him as their principle. The Holy Spirit becoming an inhabitant, is a vital principle in the soul. He, acting in, upon, and with the soul, becomes a fountain of true holiness and joy, as a spring is of water, by the exertion and diffusion of itself.”~Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in “God Glorified in Man's Dependence” “This then is the order of the rule of our faith…: God, the Father, not made, not material, invisible; one God, the creator of all things: this is the first point of our faith. The second point is: The Word of God, Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who was manifested to the prophets according to the form of their prophesying and according to the method of the dispensation of the Father through whom all things were made; who also at the end of the times, to complete and gather up all things, was made man among men, visible and tangible, in order to abolish death and show forth life and produce a community of union between God and man. And the third point is: The Holy Spirit, through whom the prophets prophesied, and the fathers learned the things of God, and the righteous were led forth into the way of righteousness; and who in the end of the times was poured out in a new way upon mankind in all the earth, renewing man unto God.”~ Irenaeus (c. 125-202) bishop of Lyon in The Demonstration of the Apostolic PreachingSERMON PASSAGEJohn 14:15-26, John 15:26, John 16:5-15 (ESV)John 14 – Jesus speaking 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. 25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 15 – Jesus speaking 26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” John 16 – Jesus speaking 5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?' 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Truth is not something we possess; it is Someone who possesses us.”~Dietrich Bonhoeffer “Christianity is not a set of ideas, but a Person who walks before us and calls us to follow.”~Timothy Keller “To follow Jesus is to discover that life itself has a direction.”~Dallas Willard “Truth is not found in a principle but in a person—Jesus Christ.”~N. T. Wright “The central pronouncement, ‘I am the Way,' is profoundly significant within the chapter as a whole, for it states in so many words what Bunyan knew, that ‘the way' is not what Thomas thought it was, a literal route or pathway, but a Person, Jesus himself. The destination, accordingly, is not a place (not even precisely ‘my Father's house'), but also a Person, the Father himself.”~J. Ramsey Michaels  “The road to heaven runs through the cross.”~Billy Graham “Where is the highway to heaven? Where is the love we all need? Where is the peace we long for? Where is the man who is free?”~ John Denver, “Hold On Tightly”  SERMON PASSAGEJohn 14:1-14 (ESV) 1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father'? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe “Human beings are not self-referential. You don't make yourself feel loved by telling yourself ‘I love you.' We are relational beings, and so we need something outside of ourselves to tell us we have value and worth.”~Dr. John Ashley Null, Humboldt University (Berlin) and Anglican Bishop of North Africa “But where, say some, is the King of America? I'll tell you, friend, he reigns above….”~Thomas Paine (1737-1809) in “Common Sense” (pub. January 10, 1776) “There has not been a ‘when' when the Father was not in existence. This, then, is true of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Put another question and I will answer it.Since when has the Son been begotten? Since as long as the Father has not been begotten.Since when has the Spirit been proceeding? Since as long as the Son has not been proceeding but being begotten in a non-temporal way that transcends explanation.”~Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329-390) in “On the Son” orations 29, chapter 3 “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible. “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only-begotten; that is of the essence of the Father, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; by whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth. Who for us men and for our salvation came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered and the third day he rose again, and he ascended into heaven; from then he shall come to judge the living and the dead. “And in the Holy Spirit. “But those who say: ‘There was a time when he was not;' and ‘he was not before he was made;' and ‘he was made out of nothing,' or ‘he is of another substance' or ‘essence,' or ‘The Son of God is created,' or ‘changeable,' or ‘alterable'—they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.”~The Nicene Creed (325 AD) “…we are not entitled to such license, I mean that of affirming what we please; we make the Holy Scriptures the rule and the measure of every tenet…”~Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-c. 394), church leader from ancient Cappadocia; key participant in the Council of Constantinople (381AD), that confirmed and expanded the Nicene Creed (325 AD). SERMON PASSAGEselected passages (ESV)John 5 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Philippians 24 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Psalm 21 Why do the nations rage  and the peoples plot in vain?2 The kings of the earth set themselves,  and the rulers take counsel together,  against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,3  “Let us burst their bonds apart  and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;  the Lord holds them in derision.5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,  and terrify them in his fury, saying,6 “As for me, I have set my King  on Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will tell of the decree:  The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;  today I have begotten you.8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,  and the ends of the earth your possession.9 You shall break them with a rod of iron  and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;  be warned, O rulers of the earth.11 Serve the Lord with fear,  and rejoice with trembling.12 Kiss the Son,  lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,  for his wrath is quickly kindled.  Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “And I'm not talking about the distant future, where super intelligence leads us to traveling the galaxies and overcoming death and All that. I mean the nearer term future...in a world where we keep accelerating towards better and better and more capable AI...I think AI is uncategorically the best hope for accelerating prosperity. It will touch everything.” ~Guillaume Verdon, better known for his X handle “Beff Jezos”, as heard on episode 8“The Accelerationists” of the podcast The Last Invention, hosted by Gregory Warner. “Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world… The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity…A vast image …Troubles my sight:Somewhere in sands of the desertA shape with lion body and the head of a man,A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,Is moving its slow thighs, while all about itReel shadows of the indignant desert birds.The darkness drops again; but now I knowThat twenty centuries of stony sleepWere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”~Written about the bleakness of the future by William Butler Yeats in 1919 in the aftermath of WWI, the height of the global flu pandemic of 1918-19 which nearly killed his pregnant wife, the wake of the Easter uprising in Ireland against the British crown, and the beginning (in his view) of the collapse of the civilization Europe had spent the last 1600 years building.SERMON PASSAGE selected passages (NIV)Exodus 16 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” Deuteronomy 8 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Micah 5 2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Luke 2 1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.  John 6 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…” 51 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”…58 “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Now this is the catholic faith: That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity, neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence. For the person of the Father is a distinct person, the person of the Son is another, and that of the Holy Spirit still another. But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.Similarly, the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty. Yet there are not three almighty beings; there is but one almighty being.Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three gods; there is but one God. Thus the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord. Yet there are not three lords; there is but one Lord.”~ The Athanasian Creed (circa 5th Century) “If Jesus were to visit with a modern day psychiatrist, the doctor might say: ‘Jesus, I know that your father is important to you, but for a moment, let's set aside that relationship and talk about just you. How are you doing?' Jesus would probably reply, ‘My Father and I are doing fine.' How those words change any situation we may find ourselves in! ‘My Father and I are doing fine.'”~ Paul Miller, author of A Praying LifeSERMON PASSAGEPsalm 27 I will tell of the decree:  The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;    today I have begotten you. John 1 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.John 8 12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 10 30 “I and the Father are one.” John 17 1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Colossians 1 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 1 Corinthians 8 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTIONParagraph One: The Lord our God is but one only living and true God; whose subsistence is in and of Himself, infinite in being and perfection; whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but Himself; a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and withal most just and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. Paragraph Two: God, having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself, is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creature which He hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them; He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things, and He hath most sovereign dominion over all creatures, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever Himself pleases; in His sight all things are open and manifest, His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent or uncertain; He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands; to Him is due from angels and men, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience, as creatures they owe unto the Creator, and whatever He is further pleased to require of them. Paragraph Three: In this divine and infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word or Son, and Holy Spirit, of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided: the Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son; all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations; which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and comfortable dependence on Him.~“Of God and the Holy Trinity” in the 1689 Second London ConfessionSERMON PASSAGEDeuteronomy 6 (ESV) 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Jeremiah 32 (ESV) 17 ‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.' John 1 (NIV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made…. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. John 14 (ESV) 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father'? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”John 17 (ESV) 1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. John 20 (ESV) 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others.”~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in his book The Great Divorce “Grumbling is the death of love.”~Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992), German-American actress “Bless you, prison! Bless you for being in my life. For there I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity, as we are used to thinking, but the soul's work.”~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2007), Russian writer of his time in a Soviet gulag “Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.”~Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808-1890), French critic and novelist “Let us be ashamed of our slowness in thanking God when He gives, and of our quickness in grumbling at Him when He takes away.”~Nikolaj Velimirovic (1880-1956), Servian Orthodox prelate, imprisoned by the Nazis “Let me clear up something...God is not against you having things. He's against things having you.”~Voddie Baucham (1969-2025), pastor and writer “Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic.”~John Henry Jowett (1863-1923), British minister and preacher “What the Lord wants is that you shall go about the business to which He sets you, not asking for an easy post, nor grumbling at a hard one.”~Catherine Booth (1829-1890), co-founder of The Salvation Army “Thankfulness is a flower which will never bloom well except upon a root of deep humility.”~J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), Anglican bishop of Liverpool “Praise is the rehearsal of our eternal song. By grace we learn to sing, and in glory we continue to sing. What will some of you do when you get to heaven, if you go on grumbling all the way? Do not hope to get to heaven in that style. But now begin to bless the name of the Lord.”~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacherSERMON PASSAGEPhilippians 2:12-18 (ESV)Philippians 2 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Philippians 1 12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. 27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“The church…is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God's kingship.”~Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), British theologian and missionary “The people who heard Jesus' disciples proclaiming the Good News were as impressed by what they saw as by what they heard. They saw lives that had been transformed…. A new quality, Christian love, was born. Conventional love is evoked by lovable qualities in the beloved, but the love people encountered from Christ embraced sinners and outcasts, Samaritans and enemies. It gave…because giving was its nature.”~Huston Smith (1919-2016), religious scholar and chair of the Philosophy Department at MIT “Why do we not observe how the charity of Christians to strangers…has done the most to advance their cause? For it is disgraceful…the impious Galileans support our poor in addition to their own, while everyone is able to see that our coreligionists lack aid from us!”~The Pagan Roman Emperor Julian (332-363), Letter to Arsacius, 360 AD “Why among all of the varieties of Judaism in the first century did only two survive….? One, the religion of the Rabbis – the other, the religion of Christianity. [This] rather improbable message that the Son of God has come to earth and been crucified, in human form, and risen from the dead ... appealed to a lot of perfectly ordinary people…in such a way that they were willing…to become initiated into a group which brought them only hostility, estrangement from their families and neighbors, and the possibility of persecution to the point of death.”~Wayne A. Meeks (1932-2023), Religious Studies Professor at Yale University “I believe that it was the religion's particular doctrines that permitted Christianity to be among the most sweeping and successful revitalization movements in history. And it was the way these doctrines took on actual flesh, the way they directed organizational actions and individual behavior, that led to the rise of Christianity.”~Sociologist Rodney Stark (1934-2022) in The Rise of Christianity “Assist…one another in good faith, and by deed and with a hearty will; nor let anyone remove his hand from the help of a brother, since ‘by this' saith the Lord, ‘shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.'”~Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome from A.D. 199 to 217 on John 13:35 “The person characterized by humility, gentleness, mercy and righteousness does not build a fence around good deeds. Rather, that one ensures that these good fountains overflow for the benefit of others. One who is pure in heart and a peacemaker, even when persecuted for the sake of truth, orders his way of life for the common good.”~John Chrysostom (347-407) revered early church leader in homily on Matthew 5SERMON PASSAGE selected passages (ESV)Genesis 12 1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Psalm 671 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah2 that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Isaiah 22 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Matthew 5 – Jesus's Teaching to His Disciples 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.13 You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 1 1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew 28 – Jesus's Commission to the Church 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” John 13 – Jesus's Commandment to the Church 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 17 – Jesus's Prayer for the Church 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Might be back on the ropes,Might be down in the ring,Oh, Death, you're a fighter,But you've lost all your sting.So the more that you hit meThe more you can't win.You can knock me down, drag me out,But ring the bell for one more round.I'll get up again, ‘cause this is not the end.”~“This Is Not The End” by The Grey Havens “God never fumbles the ball. If he turns it over to the other side for a few downs, it's because he knows a better way to win.”~John Piper, pastor and author “What would it mean for Christians to give up that little piece of the American Dream that says, ‘You are limitless?' Everything is not possible. The mighty kingdom of God is not yet here. What if ‘rich' did not have to mean ‘wealthy', and ‘whole' did not have to mean ‘healed?' What if being the people of ‘the gospel' meant that we are simply people with good news? God is here. We are loved. It is enough.”~Kate Bower in Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved “This is the most precious answer God can give us: wait. It makes us cling to him rather than to an outcome. God knows what I need; I do not. He sees the future; I cannot. His perspective is eternal; mine is not. He will give me what is best for me when it is best for me.”~Vaneetha Rendall Risner in The Scars That Have Shaped Me SERMON PASSAGEActs 12:1-24 (ESV) 1 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. 6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” 16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place. 18 Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19 And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. 20 Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. 21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. 22 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.24 But the word of God increased and multiplied.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike. O that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the king of heaven displayed, that this is godlike, to humble oneself, to become servant of all!”~Andrew Murray (1828-1917), writer and pastor “It is blasphemy if you pray before God while you are full of anger.”~Ephrem the Syrian (c.306-373), Aramean Christian theologian and writer         My dear Wormwood,Be sure that the patient remains completely fixated on politics. Arguments, political gossip, and obsessing on the faults of people they have never met serves as an excellent distraction from advancing in personal virtue, character, and the things the patient can control. Make sure to keep the patient in a constant state of angst, frustration, and general disdain towards the rest of the human race in order to avoid any kind of charity or inner peace from further developing. Ensure the patient continues to believe that the problem is “out there” in the “broken system” rather than recognizing there is a problem with himself.Keep up the good work,Uncle Screwtape~from C.S. Lewis's devilish book, The Screwtape Letters (1941) “They all therefore were glorified and magnified, not through themselves or their own works or the righteous doing which they wrought, but through His will. And so we, having been called through His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified through ourselves or through our own wisdom or understanding or piety or works which we wrought in holiness of heart, but through faith, whereby the Almighty God justified all men that have been from the beginning; to whom be the glory forever and ever.”~Clement of Rome in 1 Clement 32:3-4, a letter written to Corinth in c. A.D. 96 “God allowed his Son to suffer as if a condemned sinner, so that we might be delivered from the penalty of our sins. This is God's righteousness, that we are not justified by works (for then they would have to be perfect, which is impossible), but by grace, in which case all our sin is removed.”~John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians Question 33: What is justification? Answer: Justification is the act of God's free grace by which He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight. He does so only because He counts the righteousness of Christ as ours. Justification is received by faith alone.~Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647)SERMON PASSAGEselected passages (ESV)Acts 2 41 So those who received [Peter's] word were baptized, and there were added that day [to the church] about three thousand souls. 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.Ephesians 2 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.Ephesians 4 & 5 1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes.“Whither is God?” he cried; “I will tell you.We have killed him—you and I. All of us are his murderers.But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea?Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon?What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun?Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns?Are we not plunging continually?Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down?Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space?Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?”~“The Parable of the Madman” by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) “How much larger your life would be, if your self could become smaller in it.”~G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), author and literary critic in Orthodoxy “For even creation reveals Him who formed it, and the very work made suggests Him who made it, and the world manifests Him who ordered it.”~Irenaeus (c.125-c.202), early church leader, in Against Heresies (II.9.1) “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is allYe know on earth, and all ye need to know.” “A thing of beauty is a joy forever:Its loveliness increases; it will neverPass into nothingness; but still will keepA bower quiet for us, and a sleep…An endless fountain of immortal drink,Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.”~John Keats (1795-1821) from “Ode to a Grecian Urn” and Endymion “Because the face of God is so lovely, my brothers and sisters, so beautiful, once you have seen it, nothing else can give you pleasure. It will give insatiable satisfaction of which we will never tire. We shall always be hungry and always have our fill.”~Augustine (354-430 A.D.), North African church leader and theologian “Glory is the beauty of God unveiled! Glory is the resplendent radiance of His power and His personality…. Glory is the external elegance of the internal excellencies of God. Glory is what you see and experience and feel when God goes public with His beauty!”~C. Samuel Storms (1951-present), theologian and authorSERMON PASSAGEPsalm 191 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. Isaiah 6 1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;the whole earth is full of his glory!” John 1 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 12 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw [Jesus's] glory and spoke of him. 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. John 17 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed….24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.Leviticus 10 1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.'” And Aaron held his peace. 1 Corinthians 3 16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. Romans 118 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “We have smoothly transitioned from one form of feminine subservience to another, but we pretend that this one is liberation.” “…Western sexual culture in the twenty-first century…promotes the interests of the Hugh Hefners of the world at the expense of the Marilyn Monroes.”~Louise Perry, British journalist in The Case Against the Sexual Revolution “For we were the purpose of [Christ's] embodiment, and for our salvation he so loved human beings as to come to be and appear in a human body.” “He became what we are so that he might make us what he is.”~Athanasius of Alexandria (c.296-373), On the Incarnation “The dignity of human nature, fashioned in the divine image, is such that God can take it for himself—and keep it.”~Nigel Cameron, bioethicist “[The] central doctrines of Christianity prompted and sustained attractive, liberating, and effective social relations and organizations…. [P]erhaps above all else, Christianity brought a new conception of humanity to a world saturated with capricious cruelty and the vicarious love of death…. [W]hat Christianity gave to its converts was nothing less than their humanity.”~Rodney Stark (1934-2022), Professor of Sociology and Comparative Religion “It is a serious thing…to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare…. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal…. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit….”~C.S. Lewis (1893-1963), The Weight of Glory “Christianity's success is to be found in its inclusiveness. More than any other of its [ancient] competitors it attracted all races and classes…. Christianity, too, was for both sexes…. The Church welcomed both rich and poor…. No other [religion]…took in so many groups and strata of society.”~Kenneth Scott Latourette (1884-1986), historian at Yale UniversitySERMON PASSAGEselected passages (ESV)Genesis 1 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image,    in the image of God he created him;    male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Matthew 22 15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.... 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” 1 Corinthians 6 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Hebrews 2 14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“We cannot continue to send our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.” “We mustn't live like those with ‘little faith' who compromise for the sake of food and clothing. What we do matters. And not every job is a good job.” “I understand that there are different expressions of Christianity in different cultures. Contextualization is essential for the growth and expansion of the church. But there is a difference between contextualization and compromise. Using goat's milk for communion in a culture that has never heard of wine or grapes is contextualization; sacrificing the goat is compromise. Having a Saturday night service because we have run out of room in all four Sunday services is contextualization; having a Saturday night service to accommodate and/or appease people who are ‘too busy' on Sunday is compromise.”~Voddie Baucham (March 11, 1969 to September 25, 2025), American pastor and author, who left this world too early “If God is Creator of the Universe, then it must follow that He is the Lord of the whole universe. No part of the world is outside of His Lordship. That means no part of my life must be outside of His Lordship.”~R.C Sproul, American theologian (1939-2017) “When Jesus is truly our Lord, He directs our lives, and we gladly obey Him. Indeed we bring every part of our lives under His lordship - our home and family, our sexuality and marriage, our job or unemployment, our money and possessions, our ambitions and recreations.”~John Stott, British theologian (1921-2011)SERMON PASSAGE1 Peter 2:1-12 (NIV) 1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:     “See, I lay a stone in Zion,       a chosen and precious cornerstone,       and the one who trusts in him       will never be put to shame.”   7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,     “The stone the builders rejected       has become the cornerstone,” 8 and,     “A stone that causes people to stumble       and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Official Christianity, of late years, has been having what is known ‘as a bad press'. We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine — dull dogma as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man — and the dogma is the drama…. That God should play the tyrant over man is a dismal story of unrelieved oppression; that man should play the tyrant over man is the usual dreary record of human futility; but that man should play the tyrant over God and find him a better man than himself is an astonishing drama indeed. Any journalist, hearing of it for the first time, would recognize it as news; those who did hear it for the first time actually called it news, and good news at that; though we are likely to forget that the word Gospel ever meant anything so sensational.”~Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), novelist and playwright, in “The Greatest Drama Ever Staged” “Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us. He assumed the worse that He might give us the better; He became poor that we through His poverty might be rich.”~Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390), 4th century church leader and theologian “Once, when Paul came to Athens, a mighty city, he found in the temple many ancient altars, and he went from one to the other and looked at them all, but he did not kick down a single one of them with his foot. Rather he stood up in the middle of the marketplace and said they were nothing but idolatrous things and begged the people to forsake them; yet he did not destroy one of them by force. When the Word took hold of their hearts, they forsook them of their own accord, and in consequence the thing fell of itself…. For the Word created heaven and earth and all things; the Word must do this thing, and not we poor sinners.”~Martin Luther, at his return to Wittenberg under an Imperial death threat (March 10, 1522) “I would propose that the subject of the ministry in this house, as long as this platform shall stand, and as long as this house shall be frequented by worshippers, shall be the person of Jesus Christ. I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist; I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist; but if I am asked what is my creed, I reply, ‘It is Jesus Christ.' …Christ Jesus, who is the sum and substance of the gospel, who is in himself all theology, the incarnation of every precious truth, the all-glorious personal embodiment of the way, the truth, and the life.”~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), his first words at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London “As for me, my charter is Jesus Christ, the inviolable charter is His cross and His death and resurrection, and faith through Him.”~Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35 - c. 107), student of John the Apostle “…upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”~Jesus in Matthew 16:18SERMON PASSAGEselected passages (ESV)Romans 1 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” 1 Corinthians 1 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God….  22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 2 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.1 Corinthians 15 1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.  Galatians 2 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Colossians 1 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.”~Henri J.M. Nouwen (1932-1996), Dutch priest, professor and theologian.“Here in our house you'll find a royal welcome; Have supper first, then tell us what you need.”~From Book 1 of Homer's Odyssey“What you leave behind is not engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.”~Pericless (495-429 BC), Greek general“Christian hospitality has much more to do with good relationships than with good food. There is a fine line between care and cumber. In many instances, less ado would serve better.”~Kevin DeYoung, American pastor and theologian“The focus of entertaining is impressing others; the focus of true hospitality is serving others.”~Tim Chester, British pastor and authorSERMON PASSAGE3 John 1-15 (ESV) 1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. 2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. 9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. 11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. 13 I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. 15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “To those who ask us whence we have come or whom we have for a leader, we say that we have come in accordance with the counsels of Jesus to cut down our warlike and arrogant swords of argument into plowshares, and we convert into sickles the spears we formerly used in fighting…We have become sons of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader.” ~Origen Adamantius, Christian theologian (185-253 AD) “In the beginning there is struggle and a lot of work for those who come near to God. But after that there is indescribable joy. It is just like building a fire: at first it is smoky and your eyes water, but later you get the desired result. Thus we ought to light the divine fire in ourselves with tears and effort.”~Amma Syncletica, author and teacher (293-373 AD) “The Christians… worship a man to this day – the distinguished personage who introduced this new cult, and was crucified on that account…. You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains their contempt for death and self-devotion…. their lawgiver [taught] they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take on faith.”~Lucian of Samosata, Greek author (120-180 AD) “Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.”~Tacitus, Roman historian (56-120 AD) SERMON PASSAGEActs 1:1-10 (ESV) 1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Waiting is not a waste.”~Mark Vroegop (author Dark Clouds, Deep Mercies, pastor, president of TGC)“In the waiting, in the searchingIn the healing, in the hurtingLike a blessing buried in the broken piecesEvery minute, every momentWhere I've been or where I'm goingEven when I didn't know itOr couldn't see itThere was Jesus.”~Zach Williams (Southern Rock artist), feat. Dolly Parton “Waters never part, until our feet get wet.”~Petra (Christian Rock group) “Life doesn't discriminateBetween the sinners and the saints.It takes and it takes and it takesAnd we keep living anyway.We rise and we fall and we break.And we make our mistakes.And if there's a reason I'm still aliveWhen so many have died,Then I'm willing toWait for it,Wait for it."~Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr in Lin Manuel-Miranda's Hamilton “The waiting is the hardest part.”~Tom Petty (Rock artist, 1950-2017) SERMON PASSAGEJoshua 3:1-3, 3:9-4:3 (NIV)Joshua 3 1 Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. 2 After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3 giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it….” 9 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12 Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13 And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.” 14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.Joshua 4 1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“To have Faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” ~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity“If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”~Saint Augustine “All people know the same truth. Our lives consist of how we choose to distort it.”~Woody Allen, film director SERMON PASSAGEHebrews 13:20-25 (ESV) 20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 22 I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. 23 You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. 24 Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. 25 Grace be with all of you.