Sunday Sermons

Genesis 1-2. Christianity is not just about how to be saved. It’s about the whole structure of reality. The faith it takes to believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and we’re saved through him is the same faith it takes to believe the opening words of the Bible. In this series, we’re starting with Creation, and we’ll end with Jesus returning to take his people to heaven for eternity. His people are those who believe in the God who spoke the universe into existence. Have you put your faith in the God of Creation? Are you living to glorify him?

Colossians 4:2-18. Paul wraps up this letter to the Christians in the small town of Colossae. He shares some final thoughts with them as well as greetings and remarks about some Christians who have served well. He says prayer matters, our behavior matters, and our words matter when it comes to sharing the message of our Lord with those who don't know him.

Colossians 3:1-4:1. Paul gives several descriptions of sins that we deal with. Because you have a new life in Christ and because God has cut away sin from your life in baptism, the Bible says we’re to put to death sin in our lives. We are to bring our behaviors, our words, and our thoughts in-line with our new identity. God has taken away sin in our lives, now while we remain in this earthly life, we still have to deal with the flesh, and Paul says the Christian is to bring our bodies under the lordship and control of Christ. We are to make a break with the sinful tendencies we have. God has set us free from sin. We’ve got to stop returning to it. When you’re a Christian and you sin, the Bible is saying that you’re acting out of character with who you are.

Colossians 2:6-23. Paul urges these Christians to walk in Christ, to be built up, to be established in their faith, and always thankful for their salvation, and not to be led astray by false teachings. Paul also explains to them that when they were baptized, the died with Christ, were raised with Christ, and were made alive with Christ.

Colossians 1:1-2:5. Paul was overjoyed at the faith of the Colossian Christians, and he wanted nothing more than for them to thrive in their walk with Jesus and not be deterred by false teachings. He wanted Jesus to be the center and the foundation of their lives. Since they believed that Jesus was Lord and Savior, Paul wanted it to be shown in their lives.

Bro. William Chen with Chinese Bible School visited to share about their great work and preached a sermon about Jesus, the Son of God, and the Son of Man, what that means, and what that means for us!

Hebrews 10:19-25. It’s one thing to start. It’s another thing to finish. How many projects have you started that you never finished? How many books did you start reading and never finish? We do that, don’t we? But we don’t want to start our walk with Jesus only to leave him later in life. The Hebrews author has given us a picture of faithfulness because of Jesus. A picture of someone who is faithful because they are gripped by what Jesus has done for them on the cross, which should be our reason for staying faithful to him.

The Lord's church truly is a family. In this lesson, we learn about several characteristics the Bible teaches about the family of God.

Romans 5:6-8. The love of God for us is far beyond what we can truly comprehend. He has provided all things for us because of his great love for us, most of providing his Son for our salvation. Why would we not do all we could to love and serve him?

Acts 8:26-39. Every Christian has their own story to tell about how they became a Christian, but you wouldn’t have one if those people in your life hadn’t cared enough to share with you the message of Jesus. In Acts 8, Luke tells us the story of an Ethiopian man who was a worshiper of God and studied the Scripture, but needed some help to understand what he was reading. God sent Philip to help, and he taught the Ethiopian man about Jesus and we see that inherit within the full teaching of Jesus was teaching on baptism and the man stopped the chariot to go down into the water to become a Christian. We learn several things from this wonderful story. The main thing being that there are people seeking God and we need to be seeking those people.

Ephesians 2:8-10. In our main text, Paul wrote saying Christians are created for good works. That raises some questions we want to look at, but basically what the Bible is saying is that God makes Christians. God makes Christians for two reasons. The first is so he can save us. God would love all people to put their faith in him and be saved. The second reason God makes Christians is so he can give us his work to do on this earth.

John 4:23-26. Worship is vital to the Christian’s life. If you want to grow spiritually, you must engage in worship to God along with his people. Worship is the natural response from the person who has come to know Christ and his salvation. When Jesus talked with the woman at the well, he told her the time was coming, and had come because Jesus was now here when worship would change. Under the new covenant the way God’s people would worship was going to be totally different. There would be a new kind of worship and a new kind of worshipper. Jesus was talking about Christians who are in his church worshiping his Father. Now, worship of God would be done in spirit and in truth. Worship was no longer about all the external rituals and practices. Those were earthly and physical. Now, worship is spiritual and done in spirit. Worship is now to be you communing with God on his spiritual wavelength. Worship is now the connection between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the worshiper. That's why the early church didn't use instruments in worship, except for one, the heart, which is the instrument God gave us to use in worship to him.

2 Peter 3:18. This new series is about what you’re supposed to do when you are a Christian. We often talk about how to become a Christian, as we should, but we also need to study what to do when you become a Christian. We understand growth when it comes to a baby, or when talking about skill development in a sport or in playing an instrument, or even riding a bike. When it comes to our spiritual lives, God expects every Christian to grow and mature. To be a healthy Christian, we must grow spiritually. Lack of growth equals lack of health. The more I get to know Jesus, the more I get to know his grace. Bible study and prayer are two of the most important ingredients to spiritual growth. You simply cannot mature as a Christian and become more like Jesus without immersing yourself in the Word of God and prayer.

Habakkuk 3:1-19. We began our study seeing Habakkuk complain, "When, God?" regarding the rampant sin among God's people. Habakkuk thought God was sitting back doing nothing about their sin. Then God answered that he was going to use the Babylonians to punish Judah and Habakkuk complained, "Why, God?" because he wanted the wicked Babylonians punished and didn't understand why God would use them to punish his people. Finally, in our lesson today, Habakkuk has realized God is going to do what he's going to do and Habakkuk comes to understand God's words that the righteous will live by faith and he ends his book saying even though things will be as bad as they're going to get, he will still trust in God. He will still rejoice in the Lord and take joy in the God of his salvation. He came to understand that God was his strength, not his external circumstances. Habakkuk could say, "Thank you, God!"

Our youth minister, Kenley Dover, preaches during our back-to-school service about looking ahead and staying the course in our faith.

Habakkuk 1:12-2:20. At the beginning of chapter 1, we found the OT prophet, Habakkuk come before God pleading that he see the moral decline of his people and act to cause them to return to God. Then, God answers Habakkuk telling him something the prophet didn’t want to hear, saying he was going to use the wicked Babylonian army to punish Judah for their unfaithfulness. In today’s passage, we find Habakkuk still has questions for God. He’s struggling with understanding his current situation with this evil army on their way to punish his people and what he knows to be true of God. We’ve been there to some degree, haven’t we? Where our situation and what we know to be true of God doesn’t match up. Where we can understand why a good and loving God allows the terrible situation we see around us. Habakkuk asks, “Why, God?”, and God tells him some things that get him closer to the greater faith he will have at the end of this book.

Habakkuk 1:1-11. We’ve all experienced the challenges of this life: suffering, loss and difficulties and we’ve wondered, “How long will this last?” We’ve probably prayed, “God, when will you help me? When will things get better?” The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk struggled with the same questions. He didn’t understand why things were the way they were, and he didn’t understand why God wasn’t acting to fix things. He cried out to God asking when he was going to make things better. In this lesson, Habakkuk takes his first complaint to God and God responds and we'll see what we can learn about how God has been at work to deliver us.

Habakkuk 3:17-19. We’ve talked about Christian contentment from different angles and from different passages of Scripture in this series. But as we conclude, let's think about how we can stay content. Habakkuk was a prophet in a time of great turmoil and he looked at the world and questioned God about all the injustice and violence he was surrounded by. He wondered how is it that wicked people get away with their wickedness and it seemed like God wasn’t doing anything about it. The prophet comes to understand that God’s people do deserve punishment for their sins and God tells him that the Babylonians would eventually be destroyed for their wickedness. Habakkuk foresees the devastation the Babylonian army will cause and he has come to a point in his faith that now he says, "yet I will rejoice in the Lord". No matter what was going to happen in life, Habakkuk was going to stay content in the God of his salvation, maintaining his faith. As we grow in our faith, we grow in our contentment in God and redirect our lives to his service.

Bro. Marvin Whitt from Cherokee Home for Children was with us to share about their work in our Bible class, then he preached in our worship service about being a disciple of Jesus.

Matthew 16:24-27. There are many human accomplishments that amaze us. Many have proven valuable to us throughout history. While these are impressive and important, they all fall short of the value of faith in Jesus. Jesus is asking what is your soul worth? If you were able to gain it all in this life, would that be worth your soul? No, it wouldn’t. Jesus is saying to us that the things of this world aren’t a better investment than heaven. Nothing this world has to offer is worth your soul. Fortunes can be made and lost, but you only have one soul. You’ve got to choose where you find contentment. Do you get contentment in the things of this world or in Christ?