God of Grace and God of Glory
The grace and glory of God are most fully revealed and embodied through Jesus in the cross as he bears the weight and punishment of our sins so we don’t have to! We had racked up a debt which we could not pay, but the Son poured himself out on the cross in our stead.
Losers Rule
Jesus took our sin and shame to the cross and he said, “It is finished.” You are forgiven. You are redeemed. There is no fine print or blackout date. It is finished. God has parted the red sea of your sin and brought you to a land flowing freely with forgiveness.
A Community of Character
Because Jesus’s heart overflows with mercy and abounds with grace, therefore we are enabled to bind up the broken, heal the sick, search for the strays, bring back the lost, and strengthen the weak. This is not a task built upon retribution but a process soaked in prayer, covered in the name of Jesus, and teeming with divine love.
Call and Response
Once God sees that Moses has turned aside and drawn closer, God calls out to him, calling him by name. God knew Moses before Moses ever knew God. You, my friends, were known by God before you ever knew him. God knows you intimately. He knows your deepest thoughts, your strongest fears, your most burning desires. He knows the number of hairs on your head, he knit you together in your mother’s womb. You are known by God and you will be known by God, world without end. Amen.
Hope (in the Resurrection) Changes Everything
Heavenly Father, this is your world. You are the source of all comfort, the author of all life, and the giver of all good things; you are both promise maker and promise keeper. We come before you with deep gratitude for giving us the spirit of adoption and making us joint heirs with Christ of your eternal kingdom. Bless this time, O Lord, and open your scriptures to us and us to your scriptures that we might know who you are, who we are, and whose we are. We ask this all in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Word of the Kingdom
This kingdom is good news for the poor, the downtrodden, the neglected, the forgotten, the overlooked, the abused and misused, the unemployed and underemployed, the sin-sick, the heartsick, and the soul-sick. This kingdom is freedom, it is release, it is salvation, it is jubilee, it is abundant life in the here and now. This kingdom is the news that God’s reign and rule is here, that God has put on flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood, that God is both covenant maker and covenant keeper, and that God will trample down death with his own death, opening up to us the way of eternal, abundant life.
Here am I, Send Me!
This is not just any God. This is the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the God who chose a man to become a nation, who fashioned a people from himself, who rescued them from Egypt, who led them as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, who settled them into the Promised Land. This is the God who is both covenant maker and covenant keeper. This is the God who is seated upon the throne, reigning and ruling over creation. This is the “holy, holy, holy” whose glory fills the whole earth. This is the God before whom our only response can be, “Woe is me! I am lost! I am unclean! I am a ragamuffin!”
The God of Abraham Praise
God’s promises to Abraham are not given in a vacuum. These promises represent the outline of fulfillment to a promise God made in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. The first humans sinned but God promised salvation. There would be enmity between the woman’s offspring and the serpent, and there would be toil when working the ground and pain in childbirth…but God promised to set the world to rights. The promises to Abram in Genesis 12 are the beginning of that process!
A Burning Fire in my Bones
Friends, we cannot, we must not, we shall not remain silent about the vast and unrelenting love of Christ any longer! We aren’t called to comfort but to courage, not to platitudes but to proclamation, we have been called to discipleship.
"A Sermon a Day Keeps the Heresy Away"
In the last year I have taken to the adage, “A sermon a day keeps the heresy away.” I have committed to reading and/or listening to a sermon every day and it has paid dividends in my own preaching life. For the preacher, or for preaching student-practitioners, there is something particularly formative about reading a sermon manuscript or listening to a sermon preached.* When I see how someone else interacts with a difficult text or moves seamlessly from exegesis to application, or who has mastery over language, cadence, and tone it sets my heart on fire.
You’ll Never Walk Alone
The Trinity means that you are never alone. It means that you are never without promise, presence, or purpose. It means that you always have provision and protection, peace and power. It means that your response is always to be praise and proclamation.
Beyond Expectation
We are called to be Spirit-filled people because we are on a Spirit-led mission. The mission is to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone we meet that they might come to believe in the saving love and amazing grace of the incarnate, crucified, resurrected, and exalted One.
Commissioned for Co-Mission
Friends, you have been commissioned for co-mission. I have intentionally made that last word co hyphen mission because the Holy Spirit is our paraclete, powerful presence, advocate, comforter, guide, and mission partner. We are never alone in mission; Jesus said he would not leave us as orphans but that he would send the Spirit to lead; he said that he would never leave us nor forsake us and that he would be with us, until the end of the age. The Spirit routinely, consistently, and faithfully forms, informs, and transforms Christ-followers into missionaries.
Child of God, What Are Your Intentions?
And yet, we are here tonight because two thousand years ago a Jewish itinerant preacher was killed by Rome, raised from the dead, led his disciples to a hillside in Galilee, whereupon he gave them their final marching orders, and then he ascended into the heavens, where he is now seated at the right hand of the Father. This event has shocking theological meaning and missional ramifications.
God is Not Dead!
The God who is known, who knows, and who loves is also the God who hears. This is what we find out in Psalm 66:17. God hears our cries, he hears our prayers, he hears our hearts, and he acts on our behalf. In the Bible, to hear is not to receive sound into the ear but rather to hear and to do. God has heard our cries and in Christ he has acted decisively on our behalf.
How Now Shall We Live?
Friends, we woke up today with one question in front of us: how now shall we live?The good news is that Jesus is still seated on the throne. The cosmic king of the universe, the one who is reigning and ruling over all things, is still firmly in charge, in control, in command.
Lyke Lost Shepe
All we lyke lost shepe have gone astray, but praise be to God that the Good Shepherd’s mercy is more, his forgiveness is stronger, his grace is amazing, and his love is unrelenting.
The God Who Always Provides
As Christians, we have been crucified with Christ through the waters of baptism and we have been raised to new life with him by his resurrection. This is why we renew our baptismal covenant at the Easter Vigil, this is a baptist liturgy. Resurrection means that God has provided us with new life, resurrection life, everlasting and eternal life in the here and now because of what he has done in Christ, because of what God has done in, through, and for him.
Were Not Our Hearts Burning Within Us?
In all of his gracious goodness, Jesus is willing to travel miles with his disciples to show them who he is and what he has done. Jesus always draws near because he is Emmanuel, God with us and he is always near to us. He meets the disciples in their grief and walks with them through it, turning their broken hearts into burning hearts.