Home inspections reveal that which is good and that which needs improvement. So, our world is filled with shooting stars and shooting victims. Jesus began a cosmic restoration during His brief life and He invited others to join Him in healing the world and humanity. For united with Him, His death was the death of the project for worldwide renewal and personal wholeness. So, His resurrection, was more than His resurrection. It was the rebirth of all that He began, His disciples now continue, and He will complete when He comes again at the end of the age – the renewal of all things!
Sermons by Dean Wertz (Page 21)
Whether Jesus rose from the dead is the central issue of the Christian faith. If false, the implications are huge. If true, the implications are infinite. As we begin a new series entitled Living with the Resurrected Jesus, this message raises questions about the resurrection and then presents some of the many reasons to believe Christ is risen!
Through His resurrection, Jesus revealed that He is Lord of all. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Crowds gather for sporting events, national holidays and religious ceremonies. Why did they prepare, come together and shout Hosanna for a traveling Rabbi riding a colt during on the Sunday preceding the Jewish Passover? Beyond reporting the events of Palm Sunday, the Apostle John shares the basis for the gathering on that day. It is for this reason that we continue gathering, waiving branches and re-orienting our lives toward the One to whom every knee will one day bow.
Often we cry to God in distress and either glance His way or neglect Him altogether when life is good. In Psalm 107 we are summoned to always consider the steadfast love of the Lord and to give Him thanks both privately and in the congregation of the people. On this 4th Sunday of Lent we unite to recall our God’s love and to give Him thanks.
We were made to live with God. Yet, like David, we wander, breaking the Divine’s laws and heart. Fortunately, God pursues His people in many ways. On this 3rd Sunday of Lent we see in Psalm 19 that God reveals Himself to His wayward king through His creation and His written Word. This was a gift to David and, for those of us who live after the first coming of Jesus, we have the clearest demonstration of God’s love and grace. In Christ, we can be restored and reconciled to our God-given purpose – the blessed life with God.
We were designed to experience God while living in His presence daily. Yet suffering can cause us to turn from God. On this 2nd day of Lent we meditate on David’s response to suffering. He felt forsaken by God and he questioned God, yet he continued to cry out and come to God. A thousand years later the Gospels report that one of David’s descendants fulfilled the suffering and joy originally penned by David. As He hung on a Roman cross atoning for the sins of the world, Jesus expressed words from Psalm 22 to the Father identifying with David and all of us when we are afflicted with suffering.
This first week of Lent, David’s prayer in Psalm 25 reveals that shame, hurt, confusion, loneliness, guilt, concerns for others and many other afflictions are a part of our humanity. Rather than figuring these things out before we come to God, these are the very things our Heavenly Father, whose love is steadfast, is calling us to bring to Him just as we are.
Today we finish our 4-week series entitled, Be Still My Soul in which we are looking to Jesus who lived in communion with the Father, faithfully fulfilled His divine assignments, evaded people’s expectations, loved the right people and sustained a soul at rest. Throughout these first weeks of 2018 we are reminded that God envisions followers of Jesus doing the same. Today’s message emerges from the final 2 verses in Mark 1:35-39 in which we see Jesus faithfully fulfilling God’s priorities. Here He shows us how to do the same.
God made you to commune with Him while fulfilling His call to love the right people. Once you discern what this unique kind of life looks like for you, get ready because distractions are coming. Jesus’ friends requested that He serve more people in Capernaum, yet He was so clear on His Father’s priorities that He evaded their seemingly good suggestion in order to stay the course with His Father’s will. Good news – all followers of Jesus must, and can, learn to do the same.