A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:1-5). Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths” (Psalm 25:4). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! One of the things that I appreciate most about the psalms is their transparency and honesty. The psalmist speaks to God, directly and openly. Though they aren’t always right with their initial understanding of their situation, the psalmists lay their souls bare before God, honestly describing life as we live it every day—its highs and its lows, its joys and its sorrows, its triumphs and its struggles, its proud moments and its shameful ones. In the psalms, we learn what it’s like to live in a close relationship with God—someone we can talk with about our deepest hopes and our darkest secrets. And we learn what it’s like when that relationship is strained—when its seems God has turned His back on us, or we wish that He would leave us alone. As we consider our psalm this evening, we will find that many o...

"Christ in the Wilderness" by Ivan Kramskoy Click here to listen to this sermon. “The Spirit immediately drove [Jesus] out into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan. And He was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to Him” (Mark 1:12-13). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! One moment, as Jesus is baptized in the Jordan, He experiences the exhilaration of hearing His Father’s voice of approval from heaven and He sees the Holy Spirit descending on Him as a dove. The next moment, He is in the wilderness, surrounded by wild beasts, and suffering the insults of the devil. This sudden shift happens in our lives also, doesn’t it. It’s part of the equation of the fallen world: a tension between good and evil. Between God’s power to help us live, and the temptation to live by our own power apart from God. Martin Luther described it this way: “  You build a cathedral one day, and...

"Nathan Rebukes David, as in 2 Samuel 12" by James I. Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! A star athlete gets intoxicated, starts a fight, and spends the night in jail. The next afternoon, he holds a press conference: “I’m ashamed of what I did,” he says. “That’s not who I am.” A politician gets caught in an adulterous affair. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I’ve embarrassed my family and damaged my reputation. That’s not who I am.” A comedian gets pushback for an offensive tweet. “That comment was inappropriate,” she says. "I’m sorry if I offended anyone. It’s not who I am.” Others take the opposite approach. They refuse to recognize their sin as sin, insisting “This is who I am. God doesn’t make mistakes, so He wouldn’t have made me this way, if it is wrong.” As Lady Gaga preaches acceptance of alterna...

"Transfiguration" by James I. Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. “And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them” (Mark 9:2–3). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The word “epiphany” means a showing, a manifestation, or an appearance. Frequently the word represented the official visit of a prince or emperor. The root meaning came from “sunrise,” or “dawn,” and became associated with light. Consequently, the season of Epiphany is the time of the church year in which our readings, particularly the Gospel, focus on the revelation of Christ as true God. In each we get a small glimpse of the light of Christ’s glory. This is especially true this week with the Transfiguration of Our Lord. Fittingly, this last Sunday of Epiphany gives us the g...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! It’s called “the rule of threes”—how long a human being can go without the basics of life. A man can go three weeks without food. Three days without water. And three minutes without oxygen. But I submit to you that there’s one more basic of life even more vital: Man cannot go three seconds without God. The people of Israel have about run out of God. In the first 39 chapters of his book, Isaiah has repeatedly warned them that because of their idolatry and apostasy, the Lord is sending judgment upon them, first in the form of the Assyrian army, then through Babylon. Beginning with chapter 40, we read about dramatic changes for God’s people. Because of God’s intervention in history, God’s peo...