Bring the Full Tithe

In this sermon, we looked at what it's like to be close to God by examining Jesus, who embodies "the radiance of the Glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature." In John 11, we see God's compassion for us and how His glory and power to save sinners is revealed through the brokenness of our world. After the death of Lazarus, Jesus' response to Martha's grief was kind and gentle, offering Himself as the solution to her pain. Jesus, Himself, confronted the brokenness of the world, sharing in the weight of our struggles, and He empathizes with our present-day suffering as our compassionate High Priest.

In this sermon, we looked at Romans 3:19-26 to explore the nature of God's justice. True justice requires upholding laws and consequences consistently and without favoritism. In Romans 3, Paul reminds us that every human has sinned under God's Law and is subject to God's judgment. Paul says that while God is just and always upholds His law, He is also kind and patient and has made a way for us to be made righteous without violating His own justice. Through the shedding of His blood, Jesus became a substitute payment for our sin and the death we deserve, satisfying God's just demands while also offering grace and forgiveness to believers.

In this sermon from 1 John 4:7-10, we looked at how love is embedded in God's nature and how He is the source of all love that is experienced in the world. Love is not merely an attribute of God's personality or something He does in the world; love is part of the very essence of His being. Despite varying definitions of love in the world around us, the Bible describes love as a selfless and compassionate desire for the good of the one who is loved, initiated by the one who loves, with no expectation of anything in return. This is how God has loved us. The ultimate demonstration of God's love is displayed in the Gospel through the sacrifice of God's only Son, Jesus, to atone for our sins. Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated His love by doing this for us while we were still dead in our sins and had nothing to give in return. To know God is to know love, and the evidence of having received God’s love is a willingness to share it with God and others. When we love others the way God has loved us, we reflect His image in the world around us.

In this sermon, we looked at how Revelation 4 reveals the profound nature of God's character. The vivid imagery of God sitting on His throne magnifies the majesty and holiness of God. The four creatures hovering around God's throne repeatedly declaring God’s holiness further reveals that God is sacred, pure, worthy of awe, and unlike anything else in existence. This holiness is not just about moral purity; it signifies God’s unique position as the sole supreme being, deserving reverence and worship. This chapter in Revelation begins with an invitation from God for John to draw near and see who He is and what He is like. As God invites John to "come up here," we see an open invitation for all of humanity to draw close and witness His majesty firsthand. This encourages us to pursue a deeper, more personal relationship with a God who is not like us, yet who wants to be with us.

In this sermon, we continued our journey to answer the question, "Who is God?" We began by looking at how God reveals Himself in the Bible as one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. In the Gospel of John, we saw that the Father, Son, and Spirit have eternally existed in a loving and honoring relationship within themselves. God did not create us because He was lonely or needed relationship; He already had relationship before He created us. He created us as image bearers to reflect His character and qualities in the world through how we live in relationship with Him and one another. Our very essence and purpose are intertwined with our ability to forge deep, meaningful connections with God and others. Through loving and honoring others, we mirror the communal nature of God Himself and fulfill our ultimate purpose in the world.

With this sermon, we started a new series on the Greatest Commandments. In this series, we’ll spend time looking at the commands to love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself. This week, we began with the question, “Who is God?” If we are going to love God, we must first know who He is. We looked in Exodus 3:13-15 at the significance of God’s name: “I AM WHO I AM.” This name goes beyond human comprehension and speaks to God’s eternal, self-existent nature, unbound by time. Unlike us, God’s existence is necessary for the universe to exist and He is self-sustained, inviting us into a relationship of wonder and worship. This revelation is not just about understanding God’s identity but also realizing the depth of relationship He offers to us as His creation.

In this sermon, we looked in Matthew 16:13-19 at the pivotal moment when Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" This question was more than a theological pop quiz; Jesus was drilling into the core of the disciples’ personal faith. As Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” we were reminded of how the entire narrative of Scripture points toward that answer. The Old Testament’s anticipation, prophesies, and law all serve as a prelude to the coming of the Christ. Peter was declaring that Jesus is the Son of God who became flesh and dwelt among us, fulfilling God’s promise to rescue His people and restore His Kingdom on earth. This confession of Jesus’ identity is foundational to our faith and the essence of the Gospel. As God’s representatives in the world, we are all called to be prepared to answer the same question Peter answered… “Who do you say that Jesus is?” Our mission in the world is to be prepared to give an account for the hope we have in Jesus and to share what we believe about who Jesus is, what He has done, and how we called on Him to be saved.

In this sermon from 1 Peter 3:15, we looked at how we were created to live our lives on mission to make disciples for Jesus, beginning in our own neighborhoods and reaching toward the ends of the earth. We were also reminded that our mission starts with living our lives with sincere love for God and others, serving as a beacon to draw others toward Him. The Bible tells us that living our lives in this way draws people toward us as they see a hope in us that they desperately desire for themselves. In this passage, Peter reminded these persecuted Christians to always be prepared to explain, with gentleness and respect, the reason for the hope they had in Jesus. God reminds us today that He is also calling us to be prepared for these conversations, always ready to answer the question, “Why do you set your hope on Jesus?”

In this sermon, we looked at God’s plan for His Church to grow together in biblical community. We began in Genesis 2 with a reminder that we were created with a need to be in relationship, with God and others, in which we can be fully known and fully loved. In Ephesians 4:11-16, Paul lays out God's plan for His Church and the essential roles of Church leaders in equipping Church members to minister to one another in order to build up the body of Christ. Growing together is the sanctification process through which God makes us more like Christ, individually and collectively. For sanctification to take place in our lives individually, it is critical for each member to engage in ministering to one another, leading to the collective growth and sanctification of the Church. As we grow together in biblical community, we are being sanctified together, becoming fully restored in the likeness of Christ.

We begin 2024 with our Created sermon series, reminding us why the Church exists and how that connects to what we do at Solid Rock. In this sermon, we looked at how Psalm 95:1-6 calls God's people to worship. The Psalmist reminds us that we are created by God to worship Him for who He is and what He has done. Worship is a reverent acknowledgement of God's creative power, majesty, and authority over all creation. Psalm 95 begins by inviting us to express our joy and gratitude toward God through music and singing. We see in this passage that worship is relational because our singing is not just about God, but an act of worship to God. This passage ends with an invitation for all humanity to worship and humble themselves before God, the Creator, reminding us of our mission to share the Gospel with those who don't know God. Every human is created to worship and, as a church, our mission is to make disciples for Jesus through Christ-centered worship, fostering biblical community, and living out the mission of Jesus in our everyday lives.