Where is God? He is Delivering You

When sorrow burdens our hearts, worries pester our minds, and the world simply scoffs – where in the world is God? Our series this Epiphany season will show our God exactly where he is, and where he is found.

So often we put on our happy Christian face so when people ask us how we are doing, we reply, “I’m fine.” But we are anything but fine! On the outside we appear good, faithful, and even almost holy. On the inside we know there is nothing good that lives within us. We are captives to our sinful nature. We have a Savior who steps into our lives to deliver us from our prison so that He can really make us good, faithful and truly holy in Him.

Where is God? He Is Strengthening You

When sorrow burdens our hearts, worries pester our minds, and the world simply scoffs – where in the world is God? Our series this Epiphany season will show our God exactly where he is, and where he is found.

As far as miracles go, changing water into wine at a wedding party doesn’t seem to be all that important. Yet there is comfort for us that Jesus chose to reveal His extraordinary power for the first time in a very ordinary situation. There comes a time for each of us when the wine runs out. Yet we have a Savior who cares enough to help us and strengthen us in both the ordinary and extraordinary issues of life.

Where is God? He is there: Baptizing You

We are often filled with silent fears, burning guilt and heavy sorrow. We can feel that we are without hope and imagine that God is absent from our lives. We believe that God has forgotten about us. In our uncertainty and vulnerability, we often cry out "Where is God?" During the season of Epiphany, we see exactly where God is in our world - He is in the person of Jesus Christ. We may ask “Where is God”, but through His holy writers of the Gospels, God tells us that He exactly where He is.

Despite our best intentions, we find ourselves caving in to the cravings of our sinful nature. In Baptism, we are renewed and reborn. We no longer have to give in to our sinful cravings. Christ stands in the Jordan River in our place, washing us clean of filth, forgiving, restoring, and saving us through the precious waters and words of Baptism.

The Savior Comes for All - The Epiphany of our Lord

We’re right to expect big things out of Christmas. Unfortunately, we often look for those things in all the wrong places. Just like he did at the first Christmas, God often gives us these blessings “undercover.” He puts his best gifts in the last place we’d expect to find them - like in a manger. Just as no one would have guessed that the Son of God and Savior of the world would have been born in such lowly circumstances, so also no one would have guessed that the experts and insiders of his day would be left out in the dark while strangers and foreigners from distant lands would be drawn to the light. God’s wisdom often looks like foolishness to us. Rather than trusting our wisdom for everything, true wisdom is found in the worship that results when we recognize God’s wisdom.

Christ Became Our Brother - The First Sunday after Christmas

In the family of believers, it is our brother Jesus who changed the future for Abraham’s descendants. To be about the Father’s will meant sharing in our humanity and destroying the power of death.

The Festival of the Nativity of our Lord: The Word Made Flesh (A Service of Lessons and Carols)

Our worship this morning is an adaptation of the Lessons and Carols service traditionally held at King's College, Cambridge, England, on December 24th every year. Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve, 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King’s College after experience as an army chaplain.

A Light in the Darkness. Light and darkness are polar opposites. Where one advances, the other must retreat. Thus, they parallel the ultimate of polar opposites—good and evil, holiness and sin. Ever since mankind fell into sin, God promised to send a great Light to pierce the darkness of sin and death. Through a series of seven lessons, we explore that theme of light in the darkness.

With the glory of the Lord still shining from Luke 2, we assemble once again to celebrate with joy the Word made flesh. The mystery of the incarnation is beyond us. Yet we are blessed to participate in him who is born the Bread of Life in the House of Bread. How beautiful is the good news, how radiant his glory, how perfect his timing, how gracious is the Father to give us his son for us and for our salvation.

A Light in the Darkness: Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

A Light in the Darkness. Light and darkness are polar opposites. Where one advances, the other must retreat. Thus, they parallel the ultimate of polar opposites—good and evil, holiness and sin. Ever since mankind fell into sin, God promised to send a great Light to pierce the darkness of sin and death.

He Comes, Bearing Gifts: A Wondrous Sign Shows Wondrous Love

Love is rarely a gift. Typically, when you love someone, it is because you get something in return. You love your spouse in part because of the support and affection he shows to you. You love your favorite teacher because of what she gives you by making learning enjoyable. You love your dog because he is a loyal companion. In such cases, love is not a gift. It is something that is merited…deserved. Now, if you loved a spouse who always treated you like dirt, loved a teacher who taught you nothing, loved a dog that daily bit you, then your love would be a gift. If you love someone who gives you nothing in return, who makes your existence more difficult, then your love is a gift. You are showing undeserved love, which Scripture calls grace.

Love is rarely a gift. However, with God, his love is always a gift. God the Father looks at humanity and he sees us doing the evil we should not do. Just as bad, he sees us failing to do the good that we ought to do. Do we make God’s existence easier? No. Instead, God the Son took on human flesh and suffered and died to make atonement for our sins. Yet, he did so gladly. Why? Love! Love that is undeserved. The gift of love! 

We Sing of His Glory - Children's Christmas Service

The ancient church had Latin titles for all their Sundays. They called the third Sunday in Advent “Gaudete Sunday.” The Latin word gaudete means rejoice. On some Advent wreaths, the third candle is a pinkish rose color, symbolizing joy.

When Jesus came that first Christmas, it wasn’t to bring judgment, but to bear judgment. Jesus was born, not to punish sin, but to be punished for sin. All those with faith in Christ know that when he comes for the second time, it will be to deliver us, not destroy us. He will not increase our pain but take every pain away. Then, and not a moment before, our lives will finally be perfect! And so, we live joyfully and thankfully, looking forward to Christ’s return.

He Comes, Bearing Gifts: The Gift of Peace

How do you feel when meeting someone important? Maybe it was a job interview with your potential future boss. Did you feel peaceful walking into that meeting? Or perhaps you were summoned, for a reason unknown to you, to come to the principal’s office at school? As you walked the hallway towards his door, were you at peace? When we come face-to-face with someone who can influence the direction of our lives, that tends to be nerve-wracking, not peaceful. How nervous will you be, then, when you stand face-to-face with your God, who will determine where you spend eternity?

God is much more than a boss or a principal. He is your Creator, the one who gave you life. And when he did, he intended you to use that life in a very specific way, one which would bring glory to him and beauty to this broken world. So, are you ready to meet him?

Today, we see that God wants you to be at perfect peace when you stand before him. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace…” the angels sang that first Christmas Eve. Through the work of Christ, sinners are at peace with a holy God. Even more, throughout history God’s messengers like John the Baptist proclaimed the gospel, so that God’s people could live in peace. God raises up a messenger to preach that gospel to you today.

There is no video available from today’s sermon.

He Comes Bearing Gifts: The Gift of Hope

When you look at the downward spiral of humanity, it is easy to grow cynical. The world seems to grow more dangerous each year. People are more divided than they have been in a long time. Immorality is no longer something that people try to hide. As a nation, we have become largely disinterested in God. Disgusted by the world, we then look in the mirror, and things do not improve much. For we confess that we are not pillars of nobility and virtue either.

Looking at our world or at ourselves, it is easy to become jaded. But today, Christ Jesus wants us to set that aside and, instead, to live in hope. Our hope is not a naïve wish that things will get better. Our hope is rooted in the fact that Christ came at that first Christmas to forgive every sin. Our hope is that just as he kept his promise to come the first time, Jesus will keep his promise to come again and destroy everything that is wrong with Creation. Judgment Day will be full of incomprehensible terror for those who have aligned themselves with the world. But Christians hope that day comes soon. Confident that we are wrapped in Christ’s righteousness, it will be a day of great deliverance.

Christ the King (Last Sunday of the Church Year)

Never could there be a king like Christ, our king. Beyond all comparison is the rule he exercises in time and in eternity. Incomparably great therefore is also our joy in worshiping him even now as we await his triumphant return to transform our worship in faith and under the cross to worship in sight and in glory.