Author: adb

It’s God’s Grace

adbLeave a comment

(based on Matthew 20:1-16)

Parents can relate to the experience all too well. Mom or dad hasn’t yet made up their mind about whether or not dessert is on the menu for the night. Maybe it depends on how supper goes. Maybe the decision is based on how much junk food the kids have already had over the course of the day. Whatever the criteria, the kids pester with the same question all day – “Can we have dessert?” “Are we having dessert?” “Have you decided if we’re having dessert?” “So, how about dessert?” Finally, the joyous declaration resounds throughout the house, “Yes, we shall feast on dessert this evening.” And, as you would expect, cheers ring out and words of gratitude pour forth from the lips of the children. Only… that doesn’t happen. Instead it sounds like this: “He got more than I did!” “She got a bigger piece!” “We didn’t all get the same amount – it’s not fair!” What should be expressions of gratitude and thanks are instead replaced by outbursts of inequality and charges of unfairness. Parents wonder if their children will ever outgrow this phase. 

But at some point it becomes obvious – or should, at least; we don’t ever outgrow that phase, do we? We spend our entire lives being concerned about the very same thing – making sure that everything is fair and that everyone gets the same or at least no more than they deserve. We find other ways to belt out the adult version of “It’s not fair!” It’s not fair that I got a speeding ticket and that other guy back there going fast enough to zip past me doesn’t get pulled over. It’s not fair that I always get picked for jury duty and she never does. It’s not fair that they got their food first when we ordered before they did. This isn’t fair. That’s not fair. It’s not fair.

“It’s not fair” had the hired hands up in arms in Jesus’ parable, too. It just wasn’t right in their minds. Person A who showed up at the crack of dawn and worked all day long should earn more than Person B who strolled in at the tail end of the work day. That’s how it is supposed to work. That’s fair. And it would be fair if this was a parable to teach us about economics. But, like all of Jesus’ parables as we’ll see the rest of this month, their purpose is not to provide some temporal takeaway, but to provide spiritual insight that gives us a clearer picture both of who God is and who we are. Our parable today achieves both. 

Jesus introduces this parable using what for him is a typical introduction: something “is like” this or that. He is clarifying that what he’s about to say is not a literal occurrence or an actual historical event, but rather a story that is intended to illustrate a particular point or teaching. In this case, he is explaining what “the kingdom of heaven is like” (v.1). What is “the kingdom of heaven,” exactly? It is one way that Jesus reminds us that our sense of belonging in this world – a family name, a town in which we were brought up, or citizenship in a certain country, for example – is vastly different than what it means to belong to the Lord, to be his, or as Paul puts it in his letter to the Philippians, to have “our citizenship [is] in heaven” (3:20). The criteria for belonging to Christ’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, is unlike any criteria on earth for belonging in that it is based on one thing and one thing only: grace. 

We love grace. We celebrate grace. We just sang a hymn about grace that is near and dear to many of our hearts. Grace is what we’re all about. We know forgiveness is extended to us because of grace. We know salvation is ours because of grace. We know that even the gift of faith itself which clings to all these truths is because of grace. From start to finish, through and through, it’s all by grace.

But it is the very thing that makes grace so attractive – that it is underserved – that makes it tough for us to swallow when others receive it. The real irony? It irritates us to see others receive grace when we don’t feel they deserve it! It’s the very definition of grace – undeserved love, that ruffles our feathers when we see it extended to those we don’t think deserve it. But no one deserves it! That’s just it. I don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve it. No one deserves it. 

Yet God desires to extend it to everyone. “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22). “All the ends of the earth” includes everyone – including you, if I’m not mistaken. But “everyone” also includes the estranged family member. Everyone includes that jerk from high school who treated you like garbage. Everyone includes the offensive co-worker. Everyone includes the alcoholic, the addict, the rapist, the racist, the sex-trafficer, and the pedophile.

Here’s where Jesus’ parable challenges us. We know that God wants everyone to be saved. We know that that means everyone needs his grace. So why is it that we can slip into the same thinking as the first hired hands who worked the longest and resent that those who worked the least got paid the exact same amount? Why should such resentment ever creep into our hearts? Well the truth is, it doesn’t creep into our hearts – it’s always been there. It resides there, and a parable like this just exposes it. But why would we ever resent God extending his grace to anyone else if, like him, we also want everyone to be saved?

I wonder if Jesus’ final words in this parable clue us in. He concluded with, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Mt. 20:16). And, if you look at how Jesus concluded his teaching in the previous chapter, he closed the same way. Why does Jesus need to make this statement repeatedly when teaching? Isn’t it rather obvious? It goes against our very nature. We are bent toward self first and foremost. When that happens, you know what we tend to do? We use ourselves as the metric by which we judge others. We are our own measuring stick. When that is the case, we lose our bearings and it throws everything out of perspective.

See what it did for those hired first in the parable? When they got paid the same exact amount as those who put in less time, “they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day’” (v.11-12). The metric by which they determined how things should be was on the basis of the long hard day that they had put in. By comparison then, the workers whose timesheet reflected fewer hours worked didn’t deserve the same wages. 

Worst of all, their skewed sense of comparison led them to resent the landowner who had hired them in the first place. He even called them out for resenting his generosity (v.15). So an ego-fed hard day’s work as their standard resulted in their despising not only all those hired after them, but also the generous landowner who had hired them all in the first place. And, how quickly they forgot that they had even agreed to work all day for the payment that was promised!

Rather than using our inflated sense of self as the measuring stick, there is only one metric by which we can explain this parable, and really understand the kingdom of heaven. Only when grace is the metric does all of this make sense. Grace makes room not just for those hired last, but also for the resentful workers hired first. Grace hires those who never even applied for the job. Grace pays out the same wages to every worker. What a beautiful thing that is for us! What a beautiful thing that is for everyone! Hired first? Work hard, work faithfully, work as long as it is day, because you know that Jesus means your payment in heaven is never in question. Hired last? It’s never too late to get working in the vineyard. Though even the majority of your life may have been a missed opportunity to serve in the kingdom of grace, Jesus means your payment in heaven is never in question. 

So what is our takeaway from this parable? Let it be two-fold: 1) thank God that he deals with us on the basis of grace and not our own standards, and 2) guard against allowing that grace to be taken for granted or despised when we see it extended to others. How do we keep these two points in our hearts and minds? We remember that it’s God’s grace. It’s his. Though he extends it to us, he doesn’t entrust it to us to determine who does or doesn’t deserve it. Then it would no longer be grace. For it to remain grace, it must remain God’s to give freely as he determines. 

Notice the arrangements of those hired later in the day. They didn’t agree to work for a set amount as did the first hired hands, who agreed to a denarius. No, they agreed to work for whatever the landowner determined was right (v.4). They were excited to be asked to work, not even worrying about the payment. They were totally fine with the landowner paying them as he saw fit. So their joy wasn’t based on how much they stood to earn. In fact they weren’t even worried about that. Their joy was found in getting to work in the vineyard. They were elated to be chosen. 

Actually, if we really want to get at the point of this parable, we have to admit that the landowner really was being unfair. Not only did none of the workers apply for the job or deserve to be hired, but none of them actually deserved to be paid. Yet they were all hired. They were all paid. 

When it’s God’s grace, not ours, to dole out, it isn’t fair. No one deserves it. In fact we all equally DON’T deserve it. But rather than grumbling and complaining about God being unfair with his grace, let’s celebrate it, work our tails off in his vineyard, and then when the time comes, look forward to being paid something far greater than a denarius, far greater than even the dessert your kids pester you for… let’s look forward to finding out what it’s like to be on the other side of the kingdom of heaven. We will, by God’s grace. 

Church Is For Everyone

adbLeave a comment

(based on Romans 11:13-15, 28-32)

You’ve undoubtedly already done it if you’ve seen the image (“Church Is…”). You’ve finished the statement with some word or phrase that expresses your view of what the church is. Church is… what? Just what is the church? Is it a place? An event? Does it invoke positive feelings or negative? And it may very well be that the past 5 months have forced us to revisit previous thoughts we had about church and see if they have changed. Some churches have worshiped exclusively online during that time; many have at least in some way returned to a hybrid form of worship, and still others have closed their doors permanently. What, then, is church, and what role does it have in your life, my life, our lives, today? We will be spending five Sundays exploring the church’s identity and its role in our lives today. 

I personally have at least one specific outcome I will be praying for as a result of our time in the Word these next few weeks: that more eyes and hearts would be opened to see church less like a toothbrush and more like a phone. Sounds like a pretty weirdly specific prayer, huh? What I mean is this. The toothbrush has pretty much one specific purpose. You use it for brushing your teeth. You don’t grab it for anything other than that. People who view church as a Sunday morning gathering are viewing it like a toothbrush – while an important part of what church is, that’s not even close to tapping into the full potential of what church is for! Church is far more similar to a phone, which does much more than just make phone calls. Your phone is your calendar, your personal assistant, your search engine, your weather forecaster, your photo album, your camera,… etc. You get it – it does so many things! So does church, and I hope that becomes clear today and in the coming weeks.

My encouragement to you is this: be willing to challenge your own personal views, no matter how long-held they may be. If church has never even been on your radar in life, at least be open to hearing a clear picture of what you have (or haven’t!) been missing. If church has always been a part of your life for as long as you’ve lived, be open to the possibility that somewhere along the lines the routine and regularity of it may have allowed its role to become somewhat blurry over time – after all you aren’t the same person you were years ago, and chances are, neither is your church in some respects. If you’re somewhere in-between, where church has held varying degrees of importance in your life through different seasons of your life, perhaps the time is ripe for it to play a more consistent role. 

This morning as we seek to fill in the blanks, we want to focus our attention on who the church is for (disregard the grammar, because saying it the right way just sounds goofy these days). You probably have at least some idea of the type of person you think of in connection with church. Maybe your description of those you associate with church is positive, or it may very well be negative. The church might be the last place you’d expect to find hypocrites, but I assure you, there are plenty of us here, and you might even be surprised to find that we’ll quickly admit it. We know as well as anyone that God wants us to live a certain way, and we know as well as anyone that we fail daily. You may think of the church as being made up of a class of people who are pretty decent – so much so that you could never see yourself belonging, as your past record would somehow disqualify you. I totally understand that, and admit that sometimes we Christians are even guilty of making you feel that way, unfortunately. Some may loathe church-going people as small-minded caricatures of everything that is wrong with our society today. Others joke about lightning striking if they ever set foot in a church, and sadly, they’re only half-kidding in their own minds. So who is church for? 

A man named Paul provides us with the answer in the letter he wrote known today as the book of Romans in the Bible. Paul is well-suited to spell out who the church is for, as he experienced two vastly different types of “churches.” One church, the church in which he grew up, was fixated on rules and regulations, last names and lineage. The essence of church to him was based on who you were and how you lived. This church was made up of the Jewish people, who could trace their ancestry all the way back to the family tribes that would eventually make up the part of the world that we call Israel today. Only Jewish people belonged to this church. 

Those outside of this church – everyone who was not Jewish – are referred to as a Gentiles. There was a point in Paul’s life that he was so zealous for the Jewish church that he persecuted and hunted down Gentiles for speaking against it or believing a different message. Paul thought he was doing the right thing, until the Lord made it clear to him that his view of church was all wrong. In these verses from Romans this morning, Paul shares how he better came to understand who the church is for, and he shares his observation of the Lord God’s brilliant plan to ensure that it would be know that the church is for everyone. That’s right – everyone. Including you.

The way Paul explains it in these verses may be somewhat challenging, so permit a bit of a modern day parable to clarify. A man wanting to start his own business needed to hire some employees to work for him. Wanting to do things right, and to show them how much he appreciated them, he went above and beyond in taking care of his employees. They were paid well, they received generous benefits, plenty of time for family and vacation, and had the best working environment possible. On top of that all, the company was growing and enjoying great success. The employees were thrilled… at first. No one else enjoyed the level of compensation they did. But eventually they got used to it. They saw what others received and wondered what it would be like to work there. Either out of indifference or being enamored with others, eventually they left. 

Their departure, of course, meant the owner needed to hire new employees. He had no problem finding new employees, as word of his generosity and appreciation as an employer spread quickly. Others were hired and soon enjoyed the same wonderful compensation that the very first employees had. After some time elsewhere, the original employees realized how good they had had it and saw it in the lives of the current employees. They longed to have their old jobs back and to be welcomed back into the company again. Of course they were delighted to find that the growth and success of the company meant that there was more than enough room to take on more employees, and they were rehired to enjoy the same outstanding benefits once again. 

Of course this analogy limps greatly in this – there is no work or effort whatsoever required for one’s salvation! But the rest of the parable hopefully helps us grasp the point Paul was making in these verses from Romans. “Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them” (v.13b-14). Paul didn’t hesitate to make a big deal about his ministry to the Gentiles – not shying away from pointing out that God wants them to be saved, too, and that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection were all the proof they needed that God wanted to include them. In generating that kind of excitement about the one-of-a-kind good news found only in the Christian faith, Paul longed for his fellow Jewish people to be stirred up by the seemingly radical idea that everyone could be saved. HIs people then would be drawn back to the true God and find salvation in his Son, Jesus Christ, the very Messiah they had rejected, but who nonetheless died and rose for them, too!

Naturally, the Lord’s determination to take the good news to the Gentiles had the potential to fill them up with pride. Paul addressed that. “Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you” (v.30-31). Paul is reminding his Gentile hearers to remember that they were once the ones on the outside looking in, but that God opened up and extended his loving arms to embrace them with his grace, his underserved love, too. Now, the same is true for the Jewish people. Just as they turned away from the Lord’s mercy through the Messiah and were suddenly on the outside looking in, God’s plan in welcoming in the Gentiles was not to exclude the Jewish people, but to win them over again and see his heart for them, too. 

Paul summarized God’s approach in verse 32: “For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.” This sounds irrational, doesn’t it? Why turn everyone to disobedience and not just to obedience? However, if you are an unbeliever, would you be OK if I forced you into believing? Of course not. So why should anyone turn around and take issue with God’s plan to let us have our own way, especially when his purpose for doing so is 100% purely noble – “so that he may have mercy.” God wants to extend his mercy to all people, and so he leveled the playing field and disregarded all of the different ways we humans have of categorizing and casting people to determine status. God did away with that and put everyone in the same sinking Titanic of unbelief and sin – everyone in the same boat. That way, as everyone comes to realize their grave situation, they would see their need for rescue and deliverance, and see that the Lord is always waiting with his mercy to extend to everyone who realizes their need of it.  

Church is for everyone. Everyone. Yes, that means church is for you. Now that we’ve established that, and that you know our doors, like Jesus’ arms, are open to welcome you, stick around for a few weeks to discover more about what church is.

God’s Good

adbLeave a comment
(based on Romans 8:28-30)

“Trust dies, but mistrust blossoms.” Though attributed to the Greek playwright Sophocles around 2,500 years ago, I wouldn’t fault you for assuming this quote was written in 2020, for it surely fits today as well as ever. Those more easily trusted only a generation or two ago are more commonly mistrusted today. Our trust in doctors has eroded as we become aware of pharmaceutical payouts and bonuses for pedaling certain pills, and hospital protocols or insurance limitations. Journalists and reporters used to do an admirable job of presenting the facts and details of an account in an unbiased manner, but today openly reveal – even overtly in the headline itself at times – their personal opinions, shaping their slanted writing. While “trustworthy” may never have been a common description applied to politicians, we trust them less today than ever. Sports heroes dope and cheat, charities and crowd-funding efforts are mired in scandal, and even religious leaders and their ministries mislead. Trust is not easy to come by today. 

That may be a contributing factor in why Romans 8:28 can come across as such a polarizing passage. In a society that breeds mistrust, even the words and promises of God are brought into question – both inside and outside the church. So Paul’s statement in verse 28 receives a mixed response. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (v. 28). Some things? Sure, but “all things?” We can read the verse, we rattle it off to others going through hardships, but to actually trust that it’s true that in everything – everything – God is at work for our good? Well, it may be a pretty tall order for many of us to buy into that one.

Good? Everything? Tell it to the mother who just miscarried. The spouse crushed by infidelity. The classmate mortified by what was posted about her on social media. The exhausted single mom straining to raise her children. The dad who discovers his adult son living on the streets. Stretched and stressed caregivers. Cancer. Unemployment. Abuse. Good? Everything? Can you really blame the unbeliever for scoffing at this verse when it pushes us as Christians to the limits of our own faith to fully trust it?

Let’s stop right there and reflect on one key understanding of this verse. If we don’t understand this, we’ll remain perpetually puzzled by this passage. Moreover, it could then have the exact opposite effect that God intended – it could drive us further away from God instead of closer to him. That key understanding is this: God’s “good” is not the same as your “good.” God is not promising here that he will work things out for good according to how you define and determine what is good. Now you may not wish to hear that right now, but it has been my experience that his good is always greater than my good.

One may actually appreciate that God’s “good” is greater than our “good” if we review some of what we thought was good at any given time in our lives, only to have experience later reveal otherwise. That boyfriend or girlfriend that we had our heart set on didn’t turn out so well. The job we thought would be best for us left us worse off than when we started. More money created problems instead of solving them. And how many times didn’t we think we knew better than our parents just to end up learning the hard way they were actually looking out for our good? Looking back at our own ideas of what was good and best over the course of our lives serves as all the evidence we need to see for ourselves that our own ideas of what is good miss the mark nearly as often as they hit it. Our notion of what is good is flawed. 

While that may be the case, you still may find it quite a leap to believe that God’s good is any better. Let’s allow him speak for himself and make his case. He doesn’t hide what his idea of good is. He spells out exactly what his purpose for us is: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (v.29-30). Now there’s a lot of theological jargon there, but if we break it all down, God’s purpose is for you to be numbered among the many brothers and sisters in his family, and for that to happen, a pretty big change has to take place: “being conformed to the image of his Son.” Put another way, God wants you in his family, and to be numbered among his family, you have to be like Jesus. That is God’s good purpose – for you to be like Jesus. 

Think of what that means! The fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (cf. Gal. 6) – these would all be fully yours, all the time. And consider how we see Jesus live and treat others in the Gospels – who wouldn’t want to be like Jesus?! Always forgiving, always caring, always genuine, always longing to carry out the Father’s will. Perfect. Holy. Without sin and therefore without guilt.

Oh, to experience that alone – no guilt! But the image of his Son, the image of Jesus in all his righteous glory – it is so far beyond our reach, so far out of our league. We could never attain it. The fruits of the Spirit so often serve as reminders of all that we’re not. Our animosity in place of love, bitterness instead of joy, quarreling in place of peace, impatience, cruelty, wickedness, unfaithful, harsh, out of control – these are all our spoiled fruits! As if our own spoiled fruit didn’t condemn us enough already, we return back to this promise of God to work things out for good and are reminded of how our trust in that very promise is so lacking. How on earth should we ever hope to be numbered among God’s family? We are nothing like the Son. Surely there is no place at the table for the likes of you and me if we must be like Jesus.

And this is where God’s good far exceeds what we could ever hope for or imagine. His good will be carried out, and nothing can stop it. Paul used the words “foreknew” and “predestined.” Those terms, which are the basis for the Bible’s teaching on what we call election or predestination, simply mean this: God determined that you would be numbered among his family. Period. It is that simple. You belong to God because God determined that you would belong to him, and he determined that not only long before you were born, but even before he brought creation into existence. He didn’t save you by peering into his crystal ball to see that in the future you’d believe or do enough good works for him to include you. He saved you because he wanted to save you. That’s grace, pure and simple.

What Paul then does to demonstrate this is lays out every step God took along the way to ensure it would happen. He chose you, he called you, he justified you, he glorified you. Notice what role you play in all of it? Nothing. From start to finish it is all God’s work. You do nothing but receive it. Since he chose you, he then called you to faith, made possible because in Jesus, who paid for your every last sin, you have been declared free of all guilt, and all that remains is glory, in part now, but fully when we’re brought home to heaven. 

God’s good is that he wants you to be like Jesus so that you can be a part of his family. God’s good is that because of Jesus, and through faith in him, you now are a part of the family. 

So then, if God has addressed every necessary detail to bring you into his family, is there even a sliver of a chance that he somehow could be unconcerned about your day-to-day life? Could you really fathom that the gracious God who handpicked you for his family even before time itself existed, could for a second, a minute, and hour, day, week, etc. not care about you or your life? Impossible. No, the God whose greatest good for you has already been accomplished in and through Christ Jesus, will also continue to orchestrate the ups and the downs in your life for your own good. 

To us it might look at times like the underside of a hand-woven rug. It appears to be full of loose ends and mismatches through and through. But to see that same rug from the other side is to reveal a beautiful work of art. Here on earth we see our lives as the underside of the rug. Home in heaven we’ll see a different view, the top-side, the life that God was weaving and working into a thing of beauty. So no, you may not always see the good that God promises to bring out of all things in your life, but you can still trust him in that promise. You can still trust him because he’s already taken care of your greatest good. He’ll do the same in your life today, tomorrow, and the next day, all the way up until we get to the place where there’s only good all the time.

The Best “No”

adb1 Comment
Photo by Kai Pilger

In many parts of the U.S. right now, including where I live in southern California, we’ve gotten accustomed to an almost daily dose of “no’s” being doled out in an effort to practice social distancing (everyone’s new favorite phrase to hate):

  • no gatherings of groups over 250, then 50, now 10, which has resulted in
  • no coffee meetups with friends at your favorite local spot (like here or here)
  • no workouts at the gym (ah – just the excuse you needed to continue avoiding them.)
  • no taking in a movie at the theater (thank you, Netflix and Disney+!)
  • no libraries (time to get at that stockpile of books you’ve been accumulating)
  • no church
  • no work for many
  • no leaving your home except for essential needs.

Whether or not you agree with the extreme measures being taken to avoid the spread of COVID-19 (is it some rule that we have to put a virus in all caps to make it sound more terrifying?), we are currently in a state of “no’s” as a society. If they haven’t already, those “no’s” will start to take their toll. They can make us feel constricted, discouraged, and frustrated.

So, to counter all the negative “no’s,” here’s one of the best “no’s” you’ll ever come across:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 8:1

Did you catch that? “No” condemnation. No rejection. No abandonment. No forsaking. No judgment. None. That assurance belongs to all who have not socially distanced themselves from Christ. To be in Christ, to call him Savior, to trust in him alone for salvation, is to have complete confidence that the best no possible is yours: no condemnation. When you have that kind of confidence, you know what else you have?

No fear.

We don’t know how long restrictions will be in place. We don’t know the long-term impact they’ll have on our lives. We don’t know if more “no’s” will be coming out in the days ahead. But we have this right now in Christ: no condemnation. That is the best no ever.

In Good Hands

adbLeave a comment
Photo by Geetanjal Khanna

Nothing has changed.

In light of tanking retirement portfolios, closed schools and businesses, travel bans, and a combination of other steps like social distancing being taken to flatten the curve of covid-19, anyone who states that “nothing has changed” may sound a bit like he’s had his head stuck in the sand for too long. Or, it may just be that he’s had his head stuck somewhere else – in the Word of God:

“But I trust in you, LORD;
I say, ‘You are my God.’
My times are in your hands.”
(Ps. 31:14-15)

Nothing has changed. Our times were in God’s hands long before anyone had ever heard the word “coronavirus,” and our times will be in God’s hands long after we’ve forgotten the word altogether. What does that mean? While many in the world are crippled with fear, we live confidently in faith. Faith assures us that we belong to God. No virus can change that – not even Satan himself could change it! God’s perfect love for us in Christ Jesus drives out all fear. Rest easy. You are in good hands – God’s.

Works Won’t Work (Sermon)

adbLeave a comment

We know that heaven isn’t earned, right? We know that our works count for nothing as far as our salvation is concerned, don’t we? So we say. Nevertheless, our way of thinking and our very lives themselves often reveal otherwise. This morning we take an honest look at our works and where they really rank in our lives.

“Works Won’t Work” (Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 sermon), was preached at Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS) on Sunday, March 8, 2020.

Knowing –> Loving –> Living: Living and Listening (Sermon)

adbLeave a comment

What is the best way to live for the Lord? There is no better way than to start by listening. Listening to the Lord and living for him are inseparable. Do you really want to live more for him? Start by listening. This is the final sermon of a six-week series, Knowing –> Loving –> Living.

“Living and Listening” (Matthew 17:1-9 sermon), was preached at Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS) on Sunday, February 23, 2020.

Knowing –> Loving –> Living: Live for the Lord (Sermon)

adbLeave a comment

We crave affirmation. A child obeys his father in an effort to receive it. An employee works hard for her boss to receive it. Do we live for the Lord for the same reason, or is there more to it? This is the fifth sermon of a six-week series, Knowing –> Loving –> Living.

“Live for the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 sermon), was preached at Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS) on Sunday, February 16, 2020.

Knowing –> Loving –> Living: Live Good Lives (Sermon)

adbLeave a comment

Knowing the Lord is key to loving him. What do we do for those we love? We live for them. In the second half of our series, our focus shifts to living for him who loves us most. This is the fourth sermon of a six-week series, Knowing –> Loving –> Living.

“Live Good Lives” (1 Peter 2:9-12 sermon), was preached at Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS) on Sunday, February 9, 2020.

Knowing –> Loving –> Living: The LORD (Sermon)

adbLeave a comment

Living for God depends on knowing him better. In addition to knowing our Savior as the Lamb and the Light, we also rightly call him Lord. But… do we even know what that title means? Do we really know what we’re saying when we call him our Lord? This is the third sermon of a six-week series, Knowing –> Loving –> Living.

“The LORD” (Micah 6:1-8 sermon), was preached at Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS) on Sunday, February 2, 2020.