Kingdom Authority: One Kingdom. Indivisible.

Introduction

What is one of the best ways to keep your air clean at home? Yes, an air filter. We are a full service church so we wanted to remind you to ...

Understanding Depression: A Biblical, Personal, and Therapeutic Narrative

Introduction

I want to begin with an expression of deep sympathy to the parents of Evan Cheung, Andrew and Julia Cheung, and his sister Ashley. ...

Kingdom Allegiance: One Kingdom. Indivisible.

Introduction

Things have been so heavy lately, so I want to have a little fun. Let me ask you a few questions.

• How many of you can’t stand it when the topic of politics is brought up at the dinner table, at work or with friends?

The Robbing ‘Hood

Introduction

(Read Amos 5:4-15)

A week ago, I was coming home from Midway Airport, and I asked my Lyft driver, “Do you also drive for Uber?” ...

What Do We Worship?

Introduction

I have a lot of baggage with a specific word, which is probably a little ironic because I “lead it,” and that word is ...

Global Thing Locally

Introduction

The gospel of Jesus’ grace leads us into mission. It leads us out into others’ lives and into the world. To begin there, ...

Did God Command Genocide?

Introduction

(Read Joshua 10:38-42; 15:13-15)

Note: I acknowledge with gratitude my debt to the scholarship of William J. Webb and Gordon K. Oeste, in their ...

Fewer Tears

Introduction

As we come to the Table of our Lord today, I invite you to explore with me a passage from God’s Word that seems especially relevant ...

Called to Pray and Never Give Up

Introduction

Before I jump in, I’d love to share a bit about who I am. Prior to starting seminary I had the privilege of being a 5th grade teacher ...

The Endurance of God's Promises

Introduction

As we read the verses this morning, I admit that my mind wandered a bit. And though I'm not proud of what I thought about, I admit that ...

Advent: Joy

Introduction

Christian Wiman, the celebrated poet, professor of literature at Yale and Christian intellectual, in his book Joy, which is a collection ...

Living Between the Tick and the Tock

Introduction

Before Tik Tok was a social media phenom, Tick Tock was the way old clocks sounded. Mechanical, wind up clocks sounded a TICK and then after ...

Christians and Politics

Introduction

This past July most of us missed an anniversary celebration. Thirty years ago, our government passed a law that has helped millions of Americans. ...

Christian Unity and Politics: Why Both Parties Are Wrong

Introduction

My aim in part one of this series was to show how the two truths of baptism—dying with Christ and rising with Christ—correspond ...

Christian Unity in a Politically Diverse Congregation: Why Both Sides Are Right

Introduction

In this two part series we are going to explore how our baptism can help us achieve Christian unity in light of our political diversity. And ...

In the Image of God

Introduction

I grew up in a small community. As a teenager I can remember jokes being told on the school playground about people based on the color of ...

Are You Awake?

Introduction

Typically, sermons begin with a prayer for illumination and end with a prayer of application. The preacher starts by asking God to open their ...

Overcoming Racism and Prejudice

Introduction

The tragic and heart wrenching events that have flooded the news cycles over the past several days have shone a new light on the alarming ...

My Favorite Prejudice

Introduction

As we continue in our study in James, we have looked at our own trials, tests and the troubles God wants to help bring us through. We’ll ...

Dads, What Is the Culture of the Home You Are Building?

Introduction

I want to acknowledge that a day like this, set aside to celebrate fathers, is a difficult day for many people. For some of you, it’s ...

Hope in a Time of Anxiety

Introduction

I know a woman who is a working professional, she’s the mother of young children, a wife, and she recently contracted COVID-19 which ...

Tiny Things in Terrible Times

The virus that changed your life is a 1.25 Nanometer sphere. That is one-billionth of a yardstick, tiny but traumatic. For decades you worried about something ...

How to Live When You Learn You Aren’t a Super-Hero

Introduction

I’ve been a pastor for over 27 years, but during that time I’ve always worked as a low-level, volunteer superhero. This is true. ...

'In Any and Every Circumstance'

Introduction

Our lives are changing rapidly. Our plans and schedules and some of our most basic routines all feel like they’re changing on us by ...

Christians and the Coronavirus

INTRODUCTION

I want to speak to you today about the virus that is currently and quickly changing the landscape of our world. More specifically, I want ...

The Danger of Descending into Sin

Introduction

To err is human—am I right? We as human beings, we often do things wrong. We mess up. We sin. And when we sin, when we mess up, we usually ...

Fully Alive: The Call of Men

Probably one of the top five Ruch family favorite films would be a really beautiful film made several years ago called The Nativity. As a matter of fact, ...

National Reflections

Introduction

This past week, our elders met to pray and talk about our church and the level of churning in our nation these days around issues of political ...

Halloween: Rethinking This Weird Holiday

Introduction

Ever watch Sesame Street? Remember the old jingle "Which One Doesn't Belong?" They'd put up on the screen a picture of a beach ball, basketball, ...

God's Surprising Use of Governments

Introduction

We are going to begin a very important study in what is arguably the most important passage in all of the Bible, regarding how we as Christians ...

A God-Centered Vision of Politics

Introduction

(Read Matthew 22:15-22)

"Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" (Matt. 22:21). This is certainly one of the most famous ...

The Empty Niche

Introduction

During Spring Break recently, my son Reed and I drove through upstate New York and passed near the town of Saratoga. Saratoga is a lovely ...

Preparing for the Gift

Introduction

December is a month that raises all kinds of feelings for us. Some really look forward to this time. For others there are things that we dread ...

Vampire Churches

Introduction

In 1998, author Anne Rice shocked readers and the publishing world when she announced she would never write another vampire book again. She ...

Weathering the Storms of Compromise

Introduction

People wonder, Is it really possible to be a Christian in today's world? So much of the values of this world are inimical to Christian ...

Refocusing on Fatherhood

Introduction

I was driving home from a friend's house on a Saturday night when the familiar highway I had traveled many times began to remind me of ...

Three Challenges to the Contemporary Church

Introduction

Let's pray before I begin so that we may look to him for light. I'd like to use a prayer that John Calvin wrote in the 16th century ...

Community: The Context for Change

Story behind the sermon (from John Ortberg)

I am a huge N. T. Wright fan, and I think some of his material on the role and destiny of human beings is a ...

How Did the World Get So Messed Up?

Introduction

Not everything in the world is good. Not everything in the world is happy. Not everything in the world is beautiful. In fact, real evil does ...

Finding Joy Amid Our Differences

A number of years ago a man named Sadam Hussein invaded the little nation of Kuwait. With that invasion he brought death, disease and destruction to that ...

You Shall Not Kill

Introduction

The sixth commandment is short. "Thou shalt not kill." Ratsach, the Hebrew word used here for "kill," is more properly ...

Coming to Grips with the Authority of Christ

From the editor

Donald Sunukjian is a master at making a text come alive for a congregation, carefully and memorably pointing out all the details that ...

Pragmatism

Introduction

We have built in us the desire to see things work, and we are an inventive people. That's in part a by-product of living in our American culture. ...

Happiness

Introduction

Peggy Noonan currently writes for the Wall Street Journal. She was at one time the speechwriter for Dan Rather for his radio program, as well ...

Affluenza

Introduction

The next time you get a chance to go to the public library, check out the book A Material World. A photographer went around the world and ...

Consumerism

Introduction

Paul Anka penned a song back in 1968 that was made famous by Frank Sinatra: "I'll Do It My Way." It became his signature song and rose as ...

Relativism

Introduction

Lately, I've been monitoring the gas pump—carefully. I know how many gallons will fit in my tank, so when I go to fill it up at $3 and ...

At Ease in Athens

Introduction

I was reading an article from Newsweek recently: "In Search of the Spiritual." Apparently, the religious website Beliefnet sends out more ...

The Abundant Life Commitment

From the editor:

The debate over embryonic stem cell research rages on and on. It was a center-stage issue in the last presidential election, and probably ...

Blessed Are the Persecuted

Introduction

Imagine you are in the market for a new car. You visit the dealer and the salesman who is showing you the latest model takes you for a test ...