Sermons, Old Testament, Gospel, Discipleship, Worship & Liturgy, Sermon, Lectionary, Homiletics, Year A Porter Taylor Sermons, Old Testament, Gospel, Discipleship, Worship & Liturgy, Sermon, Lectionary, Homiletics, Year A Porter Taylor

From the Archive: Idols, Invitations, and the Immortal

Their God has been going before them, but they want something different. 

Israel wanted images of their new gods. Their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses was invisible. The living God could be seen through fire and cloud, plague, passover and parting the sea, but the people wanted something they could look at. In their short-sighted haste, they trade the invisible for the visible, the one true God for a false idol, the omnipotent for the impotent.

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Sermons, Lectionary, Old Testament, New Testament, Gospel, Christian Formation, Theology, Preaching Porter Taylor Sermons, Lectionary, Old Testament, New Testament, Gospel, Christian Formation, Theology, Preaching Porter Taylor

From the Archives: Further Up, Further In

The Christian life, the redeemed life of salvation, is not about resting on our laurels or sitting on our blessed assurance. It is not about counting our blessings while people suffer around the world or by sitting back and turning a blind eye, mute mouth, and deaf ear to the problems, wrongs, and evils of this world. The Christian life is not about believing that all of the right people already belong to this church or the Kingdom. 

The Christian life is a hope-filled, joy-filled, gratitude-laden response to the summons to go further up, further in.

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Sermons, Matthew, Exodus, Preaching, Homiletics, Old Testament, Gospel, Lectionary Porter Taylor Sermons, Matthew, Exodus, Preaching, Homiletics, Old Testament, Gospel, Lectionary Porter Taylor

Sermon: Is the LORD Among Us or Not?

Jesus tells them that tax collectors and prostitutes are getting into the kingdom of God ahead of them. His cousin, John the baptizer, came with the good news and the religious elite didn’t listen but the social outcasts did. Birthday parties for prostitutes, receptions for tax collectors, banquets for lepers and sinners and ragamuffins. The mercy of God has been on full display with all of the wrong sorts of people getting in like Flynn to the kingdom of God and it has not moved the religious crowd toward conversion, confession, or conviction. 

Instead, their hearts have calcified.
He says: And even after you saw it, you didn’t change your mind and believe.

Again, I ask, Is the LORD among us or not?

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