The themes of Christmas, if grasped, are life-transforming. We’re looking at the book of Isaiah, at the prophesies of the messiah. Because Christians believe the messianic king that Isaiah prophesied was Jesus, we believe these prophecies help us und...
What does Christmas mean? The Old Testament book of Isaiah helps us come to grips with the riches of Christmas. If I could put it in one sentence, it tells us that Christmas means the unexpected, ultimate light comes through the God-man, which can on...
The end of a worship service is always about mission. A minister says, “Let us go forth to serve the world as those who love our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Then the people say, “Thanks be to God.” Do you realize how significant this is? You are...
What is a benediction? Is it a little perfunctory ceremony that helps everybody know it’s time to find your purse and get ready to leave? No. I’d like to show you tonight that the benediction is the meaning of your whole life. If you understand the...
This is a sermon on how to listen to sermons. Psalm 19 is a great Psalm, and it can teach us a lot about what it means to listen to the Scripture be read and taught. How do we listen to the Scripture read and taught? We’re going to learn three thing...
Every week we gather for worship, and we move through the same order of service. But after a while, do we realize what we’re doing? We’re going to look at each of the elements of our services, so we can understand them and catch ourselves when we’re...
Psalm 103 is about how to handle life in general. It, in a sense, gives you the key approach to handle all of life’s circumstances, all of life’s situations, no matter what they are. And at first, this key feels anticlimactic. What does it say the w...
If we’ve experienced God as a God of grace, how does that change our attitude toward money? The early church was an economic subculture that was radically different from the culture around it. In fact wherever the early church is described, we see th...
Guilt and shame, having your heart broken under a sense of failure and general unworthiness—I feel this is probably more rampant in places like New York than anywhere else. Do you know why? Because we have so many successful people in New York, peopl...
Your first sound, our first sound, is a wail of fear. The baby comes out saying, “Why is it so cold? Who has a finger down my mouth? Who’s grabbing me? What’s going on?” That’s the way you come into the world. Fear, therefore, is maybe the most prima...
What do you do with your tears? This is a psalm about weeping, about suffering, about grief. If you were to break the 150 psalms into categories, one of the categories will will be lamentations: psalms of tears, psalms of weeping and grieving. There...
The anger, the fear, the hostility, the rawness, the white heat of the emotions expressed in the Psalms really just disturb people today. You look at it, and you say, “What is that doing in the Bible?” The answer is the psalmists are not discussing f...
If you want the flourishing, thriving life depicted in Psalm 112, you need to know the God of Psalm 111. They can’t be separated. They are linked. These two psalms are each 10 verses. Psalm 111 describes the great God, and Psalm 112 describes a great...
Psalm 96 is an astonishingly happy psalm. It depicts the whole human race and even the trees, the earth, and the sea just filled with joy and rejoicing. That actually raises a question. This isn’t the world the way we know it. Not everybody is fille...
On the weekend before I had surgery for thyroid cancer, I wrestled with this question: “How do you face troubles with peace?” I came to realize it’s not petitionary prayer that helps you face troubles. Of course the Bible is filled with petition, wh...
