Our culture can’t make up its mind about sex. We either strip it down until it has no significance, or we load it up with the weight of the sky. It’s nothing or everything, the culture can’t decide. The problem is the following. The more we try to pretend sex is nothing, the more damaged … [Read More…] Lust in the Eyes
The world is full of anger. Sometimes our anger gets big and explosive, and everyone pays when it detonates. Other times our anger gets small, simmering and smoldering. Low-grade anger carried around in our bodies spills out like acid on those around us. And it’s so easy to be angry these days with pandemic restrictions, … [Read More…] Anger in the Heart
Every speech has a central thesis, a big idea around which everything else is organized. In this passage, we come to the central thesis of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This is the blazing center, the beating heart of the upside-down Way of Jesus. In these 111 words (in Greek) we find the big idea … [Read More…] The Truly Righteous
“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” Some of you will recognize that line from the 2014 commencement address Admiral William McRaven gave at the University of Texas which went viral a few years back and was later made into a book. Admiral McRaven was reminding those graduates of … [Read More…] Salt and Light
Words shape the course of history. Two thousand years ago a young Jewish carpenter-turned-Rabbi turned the world upside down with His Sermon on the Mount and He began in the most unexpected way. He announced the blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven we’re coming upon the least, the last, and the left behind. As … [Read More…] The Blessed Ones Part 2
The Sermon on the Mount is the central, essential message of Jesus. It contains His most brilliant, incisive, and challenging teachings. If you want to know what Jesus is all about, look no further than the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is, at its core, about a Kingdom. A Kingdom that … [Read More…] The Blessed Ones
As we enter the new year, what’s the most important thing we can fix our attention on? The highest priority of God’s people for 2022 is to passionately pursue the presence of God in our lives. In this sermon, special guest Stephen Farish focuses our attention on the beauty of God in this passage … [Read More…] The Heart Enthralling “Beauty” of the Lord
The story of Jesus’ coming is full of curious surprises. Nothing is routine in this story! With every turn comes another twist, a reinforcement that this is no ordinary child. And the events we’re about to examine today are no exception. Every first-century Jewish couple, upon having a child, were to go to the … [Read More…] Great Light
In the first-century Greco-Roman world of the New Testament was a highly stratified and class conscious one. At the top was Caesar and the political ruling class, followed by landed estate owners and decorated military leaders. Roman citizens outclassed non-Romans, and on and on down the ladder. Then, of course, on the lowest rung were … [Read More…] Great Joy
When things get personal, everything changes. It’s one thing to see someone on a screen. It’s quite another to encounter them in real life when things become personal, tangible, and real. That’s what’s happened with Mary. All those years reading her Bible, and now it was happening to her! God chose her to bear … [Read More…] Great Things
