Viewing entries tagged
judgment
As Job deals with physical pain, personal loss, and the rejection and condemnation of the people closest to him, he looks to God in hope. He clings to the belief that God will set the record straight, come to his aid, and reveal Himself to him. This message looks at the hope we need when we can’t see the path forward.
Job 19:21-27
What could be more urgent than your daughter dying? And yet Jesus makes the father wait. As He does, we learn something about faith, death, and the power of God. This message teaches us how to respond when we're forced to wait on God.
Luke 8:40-42, 49-56
God promises to bless His people, but it often feels like our lives are at the mercy of people who don’t know Him. This message looks at the Day of the Lord and how it puts our lives in perspective.
Haggai 2:20-23
We’re constantly exposed to images of people with fabulous wealth, and we live at a time when economic injustice is greater than ever. The average person is tempted to envy or despair and sometimes both. This message looks at the comfort and wisdom that God gives to find contentment in an age of more.
James 5:1-6
Nobody likes to argue but sometimes it feels unavoidable. Just trying no to get angry doesn’t seem to work. This message looks at some practical steps you can take to engage God and reorient yourself to the situation in a way that releases your anger and helps diffuse the conflict.
James 4:1-12
We live at a time when we are investing more than ever in what’s superficial. But it has left us without an anchor to weather the storms of life. This message looks at what needs to change to build resiliency and authenticity in our lives.
Luke 6:43-49
Matthew 1:5; Joshua 2:1-14 | outline
Rahab turned to prostitution to make ends meet in a city that was so far gone that it’s destruction was assured. What hope could there be for someone like her?
Regret is a common feeling people confront at the end of their lives. How do we live today so that we don’t experience regret tomorrow? This message looks at how it’s possible to seize life’s opportunities and the joy that God can give.
We can work hard and get a promotion only to learn that our company is facing bankruptcy or moving offshore. The randomness of life’s circumstances can leave us discouraged and frustrated. This message looks at how we can experience joy even when life seems to be out of our control.
Do you ever struggle with the weight of the world's judgment and pressure? In today's sermon, we learn why in Jesus we have hope to stand in the face of judgment and freedom to live the best way possible!
On one hand, we complain when people do terrible things and God ‘doesn’t do anything about it.’ On the other hand, we struggle with the idea of a God who judges the world. The vision of the 7 bowls helps makes sense of God’s judgment and how we should live in light of it.
As events in our world begin to unravel and we ask the hard questions about what on earth God is doing, Scripture speaks. This message looks at the vision of the 7 trumpets in Revelation that are given to help us make sense of life in the last days.
Death, war, violence, and poverty can make us lose heart and wonder what God is doing in this world. The vision of the 7 seals of Revelation were given to help believers facing those very struggles. This message looks at the meaning of those seals and how they can give us courage today.
We imagine ourselves to be rational people who take precautions in responding to warnings, but the Bible makes it clear that there are many things that keep us from the truth. This message looks at the last days before the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem and the reasons people ignored the warnings and the courage one man showed in responding to them.
The injustice in our world stirs us to act. And there is much in the church that we long to see changed. God’s message to Israel in the midst of their history’s greatest reform movement changes how we see reform, however. The prophet, Zephaniah, helps us to see the limits of human reform and the solutions that God provides.
We see the injustice in our world today and wonder what it will take for God to show His mercy. Today’s passage looks at a man named Phinehas who was as jealous for God’s honour as God is. He secured mercy for God’s people and was promised a priestly dynasty as a result. It is significant that this hero of the early priesthood was the son of a Jewish father and African mother and distinguished by his African features.
Productivity experts tell us to begin with the end in mind. But as we consider the kind of legacy we hope to leave behind, many of the things that we worry about will matter very little. And other things will take on a totally different significance. This message looks at the end of a great king’s life and considers what we can learn from what was remembered and what wasn’t remembered about him.
We live in a time when making right/wrong judgments feels proud and exclusive. But the same Jesus who said, “Judge not, that you be not judged,” also said, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” This message examines when it’s important to make up our mind and how we can go about it.
When we look at the injustice of human trafficking, the #MeToo movement, racial prejudice and mass shootings, it feels like our world’s out of control. We wonder where God is. And if He’s seeing what we’re seeing, why isn’t He doing anything about it? Today’s passage looks at God’s plan to bring justice to our world.
