Category: Sermons

All Together Now

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Growing churches often encounter growing pains. That’s only natural, but unless we know how to successfully navigate them, they can prove to be real impediments to seeing that growing momentum continue. God is doing a work right now at this church, and we are seeing and experiencing growth in many exciting ways. With that in mind, we are having a conversation about potential growing pains for us as church and how to navigate them well. Last time we talked about the essential nature of worship and how it can provide a strong foundation for sustainable growth. This week we are talking about how God designed the church to work. Let’s dive in together.

All Together Now

I am not a car guy. Never have been. I really don’t have any level of mechanic skills at all. Well, that’s not totally fair. I can do a few things. I can start the car. I have that one down pretty well. I know how to check the oil. I know how to change an air filter. A tire too. Noah and I worked together with a couple of YouTube videos to install a backup camera on his car. But when it comes to the engine and its operation I’ve got nothing. Not a single thing. I mean, I know the basic theory of what’s happening, but when it comes to what the various parts are, how they work, and what to do when they don’t, I might as well be looking at a jet engine. 

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Practicing for the Real Thing

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Growing is hard. Sometimes it hurts. It means things won’t or even can’t be the same as they were before. But growing is also necessary. Things that aren’t growing are slowly dying. This is true about our bodies. It’s true about organizations. It’s true about the church. When the church is growing, we often experience growing pains. This week and next we are talking about a couple of key foundation points that can help us navigate those challenges should they come.

Practicing for the Real Thing

Do you remember having growing pains when you were a kid? Those were awful. I remember weeks when my legs would just hurt. I hadn’t done anything. There was nothing that I could do to stop it. It didn’t really keep me from doing anything. But they hurt. I’m not sure about a precise medical reason for growing pains, but I can offer a layman’s explanation that seems to make a lot of sense. When you are getting taller, everything has to stretch. Skin gets pulled tighter as it expands. Bones get longer. Blood vessels are lengthening to match. Lung capacity is expanding to push oxygen to all the new boundaries of your body. Everything is getting yanked and pulled and stretched out. I don’t know about you, but I feel that kind of discomfort when I try to touch my toes. Now, imagine a period of several months where your whole body is doing that whether you want it to or not. But instead of the stretch ending after a few seconds, it just keeps going. 

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The Reason Why

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It all comes down to this. The whole of the Christian faith hangs on a single peg: the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Today, as we celebrate our risen Savior and wrap up our series, All Signs Point to Jesus, we are talking about the resurrection, what it means, and why it matters so much. Let’s dive right in!

The Reason Why

When you live in a houseful of boys (including the turtle), you build stuff. It’s just what you do. I’ve long since lost count of the number of Lego sets that have been built in my house, but that is far from the only construction medium our boys have used. We went through a season when they were really into Keva blocks. The name sounds fancy, but they’re basically over-sized Jenga blocks that you can use to build all sorts of things. Because of their shape and size, though, while you can build some pretty elaborate creations, most of them wind up sitting on a really tiny foundation point. In fact, for most of the coolest things we built, there was usually a single block or maybe two that was holding up the whole thing. If you were to take out that one point, the whole structure would noisily collapse in a great heap. Well, while Christianity is a bit sturdier of a structure than anything we ever built with Keva blocks, it nonetheless rests on a single foundation point. This morning, I want to talk with you about what that is and why it matters. 

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Where Is Your Sting?

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Over the course of his Gospel, the apostle John presents us with seven signs pointing to who Jesus is. These were all miracles Jesus performed (although they are far from the total of His miraculous deeds) whose weight and import went well beyond the miracles themselves to the things they revealed about Jesus. On our journey so far, we have examined six of them. Today we are looking at the last: the raising from the dead of Lazarus. Like all the others, this one revealed something crucial about Jesus. Let’s talk about what that was and why it matters.

Where Is Your Sting?

The story of Jesus’ death and resurrection is an incredible one. It is one that has inspired countless other stories since. The idea that someone actually defeated death and returned to tell about it has given hope to untold millions over the course of the 2,000 years since it happened. We’ll talk more about all of that this Friday and next Sunday as we give all of our attention to the resurrection itself. For the moment, I want to draw your attention very briefly to one part of it. 

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See

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We have spent the past six weeks looking at different miracles Jesus performed over the course of His ministry. Some of the miracles have been pretty dramatic. Others fairly easily blend into the background of all the other miracles Jesus did. Some were directly beneficial to a particular individual or group. At least one didn’t seem like it really helped anyone. For all of the variety among these miracles, the one thing the apostle John notes that draws them all together is the fact that they were all really signs intended to point beyond the miracles themselves to something deeper and richer lying behind them: a vision of God’s kingdom and who Jesus really was. This next miraculous sign brings attention and emphasis to Jesus’ efforts to help us see. Let’s talk about His healing a man born blind.

See

For someone accustomed to sight, being blindfolded can be a disorienting experience. I remember once our youth minister did an activity to teach us about trusting Jesus where they had us all put on blindfolds, loaded us in the church van, and took us to a park across town, but didn’t tell us where we were going. If you can believe it, I was the smart-alecky kid who kept up with all the turns the van made and knew exactly where we were the whole time. That’s not totally my fault though, as the driver took all the main roads and didn’t try to disguise the route at all. It so happened that I had a pretty thorough map of the city firmly rooted in my memory then. Without that, though, I would have been sorely tempted to peek through the blindfold just so I knew where I was. Being able to see is essential to getting through life.

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