Claim OwnershipGrace Church: Sermons
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We’re trying to learn how to do the things Jesus said to do.
349 Episodes
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The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is an invitation to a new way of life. And not just on Sundays, but in every hour of every day.
Paul spent the first three chapters telling the narrative of what God has done, but then in chapter 4 there’s this transition toward us and what we are to do and he’s finally begun to answer that question: How do we church?
Ephesians 4:1-16
Ephesians 3:14-21
The cure for division is to center on Christ, who is our peace, who in his flesh tore down the wall of hostility which separate us. Christ, who is gathering all things in heaven and things on earth, is drawing all people to Himself to be built together into a dwelling place for God, and He himself is our cornerstone. Without him as our center of gravity, it all falls apart. (Ephesians 2:11-22)
Ephesians is about ecclesiology, the church. What should the church look like, who are we? If there’s any question this letter is in response to it is simply this: “But how do we, the church, live, right here, right now?”
We humans are so desperate to see where God is because, I think, we intuitively understand that if we can find Him we will be OK. (2 Cor. 12:2-10)
Pastor Wilma Johnson brought a word about transition that is very timely and relevant to our recent announcement. I (Zack) apologize for the audio quality on this episode. I dropped the SD card it was recorded to into an abyss and haven’t yet been able to locate it. This audio is directly from the camera microphone and will be challenging to listen to at times, but I hope you’ll give it a listen anyway!
What if we stopped trying to be so-and-so down the street? What if we stopped striving to be something we aren’t? What if we could quit trying to mimic what we see on Facebook or Instagram and, instead, focused on being faithful…and smart?
What do we do when things don’t go according to plan? What do we do with regret?
The way we conduct ourselves in this world is our prophetic witness which leads to God being glorified. As you engage in this world you must always do so with dignity and honor, being careful not to do so like everyone else.
(This gets just a smidge political.)
There is nothing wrong with disagreements. They are natural. But how we conduct ourselves in those disagreements says everything about what we really believe about God.
Pastor Wayne Drain joins us again from Russellville, Arkansas on this Pentecost Sunday with some timely encouragement.
Dan Kent, author of Confident Humility, visits from St. Paul, Minnesota to teach us about becoming our full selves without becoming full of ourselves.
Jesus asks us to love each other, to love our neighbors, and to love our enemies, and this is the most powerful evidence the world will have that He exists and offers them eternal life.
If we start from any other theological point than the simplicity of “God is love” – without the usual “buts” which may sometimes accompany this truth – we are bound to wind up with a theological system and/or church which may justify some pretty heinous things in the name of Jesus, as even a cursory reading of church history can demonstrate.
Following our model, Jesus the Good Shepherd, we can lay it all down for the sake of those Jesus loves — for the sake of those we are learning to love — as we are being formed into the kinds of people who make up this new kind of community Jesus is still forming.
Jesus the Stranger, hidden in plain sight but revealed as we gather together to tell the story and the breaking of bread, showing himself in inexplicable ways in our darkest and most solemn moments, and opening our minds to help us keep pressing forward to carry this candle of hope forward into the unknown.
After a six-month sabbatical Pastor Devon is back in the pulpit with a message about one of Jesus' parables.
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