moody church

What does the Bible say about money and possession? There are approximately 2,350 passages about those topics in Scripture. By contrast, faith and prayer receive about 500 passages each. So, the Bible talks about money and possessions more than twice as much as the topics of faith and prayer combined. Now, why would that be? In this sermon, we’re going to see why God invests so much time and energy teaching us how to have a spiritually healthy relationship with our money and our possessions. And to do so, we’ll turn to Malachi 3, to one of the classic passages on money in all the Bible. In Malachi 3:6–12, the Lord and the people go back and forth with one another in dispute. It’s quite clear in this passage that the people of God are spiritually unwell. So, we’ll approach this passage like a physician in three parts. 1) The Symptoms What are the presenting symptoms of this spiritual malady? The people were being stingy in their tithes and contributions when they come to the temple for worship. Instead of wholehearted, joyous generosity toward God, they’re withholding and tight-fisted.  And God says, “you’re robbing me!” What does God mean by tithes and contributions? Under the law, the people of Israel were required to bring north of 40% of their annual income to the Lord. (Note: if you strip away portions there were meant as a tax for the nation of Israel, the law required at a minimum 10% tithe of their annual income, 2% for the priests, and 14% for the Sabbath year, plus the value of the sacrifices. Combined, this contribution comes to around 26% of their annual income.) So, when the Israelites fell on hard times, they became stingy with God. And God says, “You’re robbing me!” Why? Because everything belongs to God; it’s all from His hand. And so, our gifts to Him are a bit ironic, because it’s all His to begin with. As much as our wealth feels like it belongs to us, the reality is God gave it—and so much more—to us. Stinginess robs God of glory, and us of grace. When we gorge ourselves on our wealth, making it all about us, we’re robbing God of glory, we’re robbing our neighbors of good, and we’re robbing ourselves of grace. Instead of the joy of partnering with God in the mending and flourishing of this world, we cave in upon ourselves, and make it all about us. In robbing God, it turns out, we’re also robbing ourselves. 2) The Disease Their stinginess toward God was symptomatic of an underlying disease: they’ve turned aside from the Lord, their hearts have wandered, their devotions has drifted, and their love has grown cold. The reason their treasure wasn’t in the Lord’s temple is because their hearts weren’t there either. Our money always shows us our hearts. Our hearts and our treasure are intertwined. 3) The Prescription Gods says to Israel that if they bring the full tithe to the storehouse (temple), He will pour out a list of blessings on them. Now, these blessings are clearly flowing out of the covenant God made with the people of Israel through Moses, where covenant obedience meant covenant blessings, and covenant disobedience meant covenant curse. We can’t claim these promises directly for ourselves or for our nation today. But, here’s a principle here we shouldn’t miss: God always blesses obedience. Not only does our treasure reveal our hearts, but our treasure also leads our hearts as well. When we invest our money into something, we begin to care about it. Our hearts follow our treasure. Do you want to grow to love God more and more? To love your neighbor as yourself? This passage tells us… Lead your heart with faith-filled, joyous, proportionate, lavish generosity. What’s a good baseline? 10% of your income is a great place to start, because it’s just high enough to make you confront your idols and self-worship. It’s just enough to get your heart moving in the right direction. Takeaway: “Return to me, and I will return to you.” Malachi 3:6–12

One the of hardest moments for those of us who are trying to live God’s way comes when those who couldn’t care less about God’s way end up coming out ahead in life. What’s the point in righteous living, if the unrighteous are the ones getting ahead in life? That’s exactly where God’s people were in Malachi’s day. They’d come back from exile with fervor and resolve to dedicate themselves to living for God. But things didn’t turn out like they’d hoped. It seemed like the ungodly nations around them were prospering, and God kept letting them get away with it! And so, they began to give up hope that living God’s way was worth it. Why lead a godly life, when the ungodly seem to be the ones getting ahead? It’s not just God’s people in Malachi’s day who need an answer to this question. We need to hear God’s voice on this issue as well. In this sermon from Malachi 2:17–3:5, we’ll explore three main points: 1) Wearisome Waiting Today’s mercies do not negate tomorrow’s justice. Just because we are bearing with patience the sins of this world… doesn’t mean justice will never come. Justice is calling and His name is Jesus. For the God of justice shall come to His own. And the great and awesome day of the Lord will be at hand. And when He shows up, His will be a purifying presence. 2) Purifying Presence Messiah will purify the heart of covenant worship. When the Lord comes, He shall purify His temple, the priesthood, and the offerings. No more defiled sacrifices. No more faithless priests. No more corrupt worship. This is why when Jesus cleanses the temple in Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 2 it is a massively big deal. Jesus walks into the temple like he owns the place and starts setting things to rights. He comes suddenly to his temple! Like a refiner’s fire…blazing and consuming. Like a fullers’ soap…caustic and cleansing. He comes to purify the heart of covenant worship. It was all foretold right here in Malachi! And on the heels of his Purifying Presence will come His jarring justice. 3) Jarring Justice In Jesus, God ended evil without ending us. And Malachi is hinting at the day when… The Lord will end injustice without ending us. God found a way to purge the dross of our injustice and keep us for Himself as gold. In Jesus, God found a way to scourge the stain of our sin and keep us for Himself as a garment clean and whole. Takeaway: Our only hope to stand in Christ alone.   Malachi 2:17–3:6

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment in all the Law and the Prophets was, He gave a two-fold answer: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, AND love your neighbor as yourself.” Because if we love God rightly, we will love our neighbor; and a failure to love our neighbor is a failure to love God. This answer sums up the Law and the Prophets. And one of those Old Testament prophets was Malachi, whose book we’ve been studying in this series. Thus far we’ve seen how Malachi has called out God’s people for their failure to love God (the vertical axis). In Malachi 2:10–16, Malachi is going to turn his attention to the horizonal axis—about the relationship we have to one another—because the Israelites failed to love one another well. And in this 3rd of 6 disputes in the book, Malachi’s focus is on how the men of Israel failed to be faithful to their wives. They were faithless toward God and faithless toward their wives. This sermon has three parts: 1) Faithless Betrayal The Israelites were breaking faith with their wives and God. Not only were they abandoning their covenant with their wife as they divorced, but they were also abandoning their covenant with God as they welcomed idolatry into their homes, and they were trashing their own marriage covenants and the covenant of God Himself. But the problem ran even deeper than their faithless betrayal. All of this is arising from their fragmented hearts. 2) Fragmented Hearts Our spiritual lives cannot be compartmentalized. God insists on our integrity, our wholeness. All of life is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Nothing is outside His domain. He wants our whole heart, not just a piece of it. He wants our full devotion. 3) Full Devotion God calls us to wholehearted covenant-love. Because there’s nothing God loves to do more than to take all the broken fragments of our lives and start making us whole, so that we can begin to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves. But there is a catch. To be whole, we must give Him our whole selves. Takeaway: We will never be whole until we are wholly His. It will not do to give God only a part of our selves. Jesus gave His whole self for you. Won’t you give your whole self to Him? Malachi 2:10–16

The slide into spiritual disintegration doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a steady slide over time. Have you ever wondered how the priests and teachers of the law got so far off spiritually that they couldn’t even see their Messiah, the Son of God, when He was standing right there in front of them? The spiritual decay of the priesthood went back centuries. Even as far back as the Book of Malachi, over 400 years before Jesus, the spiritual rot was already deep and widespread. And so, God had sent prophet after prophet to call them back to repentance, only to be ignored time and time again. So now, in His mercy, God sends Malachi to give them one final warning with language designed to shock them and call them back from the edge of spiritual decay and disaster. This sermon looks at the second half of the second dispute in the book of Malachi. It divides the discourse neatly into three sections: 1) The Curse The priests are in danger of losing their ministry. If they don’t course correct, all the blessings they enjoy in ministry will be taken away, just like the offal that’s taken away outside the city and cursed in the fire. Because there is nothing in their worship that is pleasing to the Lord. 2) The Covenant The priests have corrupted the essence of their calling. They neglected their walk with God. They distorted the teaching of the Word. They are calloused in their prayers of intercession. They corrupted the sacrificial offerings. The very heart of their priestly ministry was compromised.  And now, like a prosecuting attorney, God will bring the charge. 3) The Charge The priests have led the people astray with platitudes. They told people what they wanted to hear, and in so doing, feared people more than they feared God. The priests thought they were being loving by sparing people’s feelings with their sugar-coated half-truths. But it only led them away from God’s life and peace, and there’s ultimately nothing loving about that. And so, God said that He would make the priests despised and abased before all the people of Israel. Takeaway: We need the truth, the whole truth, and nothing by the truth…so help us God! The truth is, we owe God everything. He made us. He gave us life, breath, and everything else. We owe our all to Him. But we have failed to worship Him as we ought. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We’ve all failed to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We’ve all failed to love our neighbor as ourselves. But God, in his great mercy, sent his Son Jesus. The bad news of our sin makes way for the good news of our salvation! Tough love gives us the bad news we’d prefer to ignore. Tender mercies give us the good news we find it hard to believe! Malach 2:1–9

The Book of Malachi is full of warnings that seem harsh at first but are actually filled with loving-concern to pull God’s people back from the edge of danger. Because although the people of Israel had come back from the exile eager to rededicate themselves to God, it wasn’t long before their fervor began to fade. They tired of waiting on God’s promises and fell into a kind of spiritual rut. They were doing the right religious things, but their hearts weren’t in it anymore. Can you relate? The Book of Malachi is shouting to us today: “Get back! There’s danger lurking right in front of you. You may not see it, but it’s there. Get back to safety, while you can.” In this passage, we see Malachi calling the people of God back from the precipice of withholding themselves in worship. There are three elements that we find in this passage: 1) Cavalier Worship At the beginning of the discourse, the Heavenly Father says, “Do you not owe me both honor and fear?” Now the word for “honor” here carries the idea of weightiness, heaviness, and glory. It indicates that God deserves to be the heavyweight in our lives, the One who matters above all. And the word for “fear” here carries the idea, not of cowering, but of reverential awe and trembling adoration. God deserves our reverential awe, the One before whom we tremble. The people of Israel neither honored nor feared God in worship as they should. They withheld their best worship from God, and their hearts were not in it. We dishonor God when we withhold our first and best. If you are concerned about your heart’s orientation to worship, ask this: is worship and delight or a drudgery? 2) Cursed Religion Cavalier worship leads to cursed religion. That sounds like overly strong language, but it’s God’s language in this passage. Why? God will receive the worship that is due His name. All peoples everywhere shall worship before Him. People from every nation, tribe, people, language, and tongue shall sing out my praise. And the warning from Malachi to Israel is clear: if Israel doesn’t return to a heart of worship, God will to the Gentiles and the nations who will worship Him. 400 years after Malachi wrote these words, that’s exactly what happened. In all the cavalier worship resulting in cursed religion, Israel had forgotten God’s compelling greatness. The potential consequences are enormous. 3) Compelling Greatness Israel forgot who they were and who God is. And all through this passage, God is reminding them of His compelling greatness in five images: Father, Master, Ruler, Commander, and Great King. All these images are designed to encourage Israel to: come back to the honor of the great name of the LORD. Takeaway: How will I give God my first and best? God gave us His first and best when He gave us Jesus. In view of that mercy, how can we not offer ourselves as living sacrifices? Malachi 1:6–14

The central theme of the book Malachi is found in 3:7, “Return to Me and I will return to you.” As people whose hearts are prone to wander, whose religion can become performance, we need the message of Malachi to comprehend God’s tough love and tender mercies for our doubting hearts. There are six disputes outlined in the book. In this sermon, we’ll explore the first dispute between Israel and God. And in these opening verses from Malachi 1, we find three things: 1) Weighty Concerns Malachi—whose Hebrew name means “my messenger”—begins his prophecy with these words: The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. Now the word translated as “oracle” here is literally in Hebrew the word for “burden.” These are weighty words from a heart heavy with care for a people whose souls weigh upon him. Malachi feels the weight of his responsibility. His concern for his people lies heavy upon his heart. The care of souls is a heavy burden. Aren’t you grateful for those who have loved you enough to burden themselves with the care of your soul? Aren’t you thankful for people who love you enough to speak heavy truths into your life? We desperately need people like Malachi who will faithfully bring the burden of the word of the Lord to the people whose souls weigh heavily upon their hearts. 2) Wary Hearts The people of Israel express frustration at the promises of God. They feel like the fulfillment of God’s promises are taking forever. They are doubting God’s love. They’re skeptical that He’s really for them. And so, they’re holding back in self-protection, wary of entrusting their hearts to God. Our hearts grow wary in the waiting. When the life we dreamed of fails to materialize, when God’s promises seem slow in coming true, and when hope feels out of reach, it’s easy to grow wary and doubt God’s goodness, power, and love. Have you ever been there? Sometimes things can seem so dark and confusing and hopeless that we begin to wonder if God really does love us after all. 3) Wonderous Love   Malachi had a weighty concern for the wary hearts of the people of Israel. Which is why he felt compelled to remind them of God’s wonderous love for them. God is forever faithful to His chosen ones. Friends, it’s hard to see it, but God’s love for you is bigger than your cancer diagnosis, God’s love for you is greater than your job loss, God’s love for you is wider than your relational disappointments, and God’s love for you is deeper than your financial losses. It’s bigger than anything! And if we focus on all our disappointed dreams, like Israel did, we’ll end up feeling miserably unloved, falsely assuming God only loves us if everything in life goes our way. But if instead we focus on His graces along the way, in the good times and the bad, His goodness and mercy following us all the days of our lives, faithfully bearing us into the glories He’s preparing for us in His redemptive love, it’s worth it in the end, because through it all, we’re getting more of Him! In life we can dwell on the gaps or the graces. If we dwell on the gaps, we’ll begin to doubt His love. If we dwell on the graces, we’ll learn to trust His love. Takeaway: Remember, you are loved, more than you know! Malachi 1:1–5

Why should we read the Psalms? Music enhances worship, and music helps us memorize the eternal truths of God. Psalm 103 teaches us how to praise in all seasons and for all reasons. When it comes to the issue of praise, authentic praise requires our all, not lip service. In this sermon, we explore five reasons why should we praise God: God heals our disease God forgives our sin God redeems our lives God crowns us with love God satisfies our souls with good. Takeaway: Above all, we praise God because He is holy! Psalm 103

Do you struggle with honest doubts about the Christian faith? Have you ever wondered what's the payoff for living a life of faith compared to the secular world? In this sermon, we explore Asaph's doubts from Psalm 73. Asaph was a musician who almost lost his faith; we would say he almost “deconstructed.” But he came out the other side spiritually stronger. Asaph gives three reasons for his doubts, but also explains three mistakes he had made when entertaining those doubts. 1) Asaph explains his doubts (v. 1–15). Three doubts Asaph had: The wicked are wealthier than he was. The wicked are healthier than he was. The wicked seems to enjoy life more than he did. 2) Asaph was kept from "deconstructing" when he realized his mistakes (v. 16–28). Three mistakes Asaph made: He had overestimated the wealth of the ungodly. He had underestimated his own wealth. He had been swept away by how he felt, not by what he knew to be true. Takeaway: Come to God with your doubts; think life through to the very end. The only thing that really matters is what matters forever. Psalm 73

If you want to properly study what it means to be a Christian, you need to study God. As Charles Spurgeon once preached in 1855, “The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the attention of a child of God is the name, the nature, the Person, the work, the doings and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.” And so, in this sermon, we contemplate our great God from Exodus 3:13­–15. In this passage, we find a dialogue between Moses and God that reveals some amazing attributes about who God is and what our response should be to Him. 1) What was God trying to communicate about Himself to Moses (and us) when He described Himself as "I AM WHO I AM" and "I AM"? The Lord was communicating that He is The Lord was communicating that He is The Lord was communicating that He is The Lord was communicating that He is 2) What are three implications of this massive reality that God is "I AM WHO I AM" and "I AM"? Jesus Christ is the I AM come to Earth in human flesh (John 8:58–59). Because God is the I AM, He alone has the power to save sinners from their sin and its consequences. Because God is the I AM, He alone is able to satisfy the deepest longings of your heart and soul. Takeaway: God loves you so much that he made you for the highest good in the universe: to know, worship, praise, and delight in Him, your great I AM, infinite in goodness and greatness. Exodus 3:13­–15

When something doesn’t work out the way we expect, we ask, “what went wrong?” In the Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25:14–30, we consider what went wrong with the servant who squandered their single talent, and how they could go from being a wicked and slothful server to a good and faithful servant. In this parable, we find Jesus describing a man going away and leaving his property to be managed by his servants. Jesus tells us that each servant received according to their ability. The first received 5 talents, the second 2 talents, and the third 1 talent. When the master returned, he called the servants and asked for a report of how they managed what his property. The servant with 5 talents, made 5 more talents. The servant with 2 likewise made 2 more talent. But the servant with one talent only manage to bring forward a dusty talent that he hid in the ground. While the first two are welcomed into the joy of their master, the third is kicked out into darkness and despair. So, what happened? What should the 1-talent servant have done differently? “He should just own it!” 1)Own the Relationship with the Master Acknowledge that Jesus is the Master. He is a loving and gracious Savior, but also a just a powerful Master. As servants of the Master, we must acknowledge both aspects of His nature. To fully experience Jesus, you need to own your relationship with Jesus as Master and Savior. 2) Own the Revelation of the Master The faithful servant acts on the knowledge of the will of the master. What is a talent? It’s not ability or skill; it’s a measure of weight. In the New Testament, the talent was the largest named quantity of money, worth about twenty year’s wages. In the context of the parable, Jesus is equating the revelation of God with the talent. What we do with that knowledge is of incredible consequence. 3) Own the Returns for the Master The faithful servant looks for growth and applies what he has received. The Master holds the servant responsible for what he knows and what he does with the knowledge. What does the Master expect? To grow it and to invest it. Every person will be responsible for what they did with the amount of revelation they received. We will have to give an account for what we did with Jesus. Takeaway: What kind of servant are you? Have you owned the treasure of the Gospel that has been deposited in you? Matthew 23:14–30

As Paul wraps up his letter to the Ephesians, he gives one final charge to stand firm in the faith. And to do so, he uses the imagery of a Roman soldier armed for battle as an analogy of spiritual armament. In this sermon, we’ll explore what the Armor of God is all about. 1) The Reason for the Armor We need the Armor of God because we are embroiled in a spiritual battle. The Bible tells us supernatural evil does exist, and his operations are far more subtle than we might expect. The evil one, Satan, is the father of lies, and he uses lies to leave a mark on our soul. Satan lies to over-inflate or deflate us. And both lies serve the same purpose: to drive us away from God. The only way we can stand firm against the lies of the devil are with the Armor of God. But how does the armor work? 2) The Function of the Armor We are armored with Gospel identity. We have truth as your base layer protection against the lies of the evil one. Remember the truth of the Gospel: we are far more sinful that we ever dared realize, yet in Christ Jesus, we are far more loved than we ever dared hope. The truth of the Gospel is our base layer of humble courage, our foundational protection against the lies of Satan. 3) The Source of the Armor We are clad in the armament of God’s own character. The forces of darkness cannot touch us because we are covered by the flawless character of God Himself. The Divine Warrior has clad His people in His own armor. Which means, Satan has no power over you. Christ disarmed Himself before the enemy, that He might arm us forever against the enemy.   Rather than keeping the armor for Himself, so that evil couldn’t touch Him, Jesus shed his armor and hung naked on the cross, allowing evil to pierce him through so that we might be forever protected by His flawless character from the schemes and lies of the evil one. Takeaway: Stand firm in your Gospel identity.   All of this Armor is already yours in Christ. So, act like yourself. Stand firm in your Gospel identity. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Ephesians 6:10–24

The Gospel shapes all of life. The Gospel doesn’t just matter on Sundays, the Gospel matters ALL days. It saturates and permeates and consecrates every facet of our lives. And to illustrate how the Gospel shapes all of life, Paul then goes to the heart of where most people do life: at work and at home. And Paul says, let me show you how the Gospel radically transforms those everyday relationships! In Ephesians 6:1–9, we’ll explore eight principals for these relationships, two for each party in our text: supervisors and employees, and parents and children. 1) The Gospel at Work: Supervisors and Employees   Principle #1 for Supervisors: Leadership is about service. If you’re in management, a landlord, an owner, or a boss, as a follower of Jesus you’re there to serve. Remember, Jesus made Himself the servant of all when He washed His disciples’ feet. Leadership is NOT about privilege. It’s about service. And no matter how high you go, no matter how big your office, no matter what circles you run in, you always have a Boss: Jesus is your Master.   Principle #2 for Supervisors: You both report to Jesus.   There’s no partiality with Him who is both their Master and yours who is in heaven. On the heavenly org-chart, supervisors and employees are both direct-reports of Jesus. For supervisors, work is a place to live out our discipleship of Jesus as we become more like Him! Principle #3 for Employees: Christ dignifies all work.   Whatever you do, it’s worth doing because it’s for Jesus. You may not think your job is all that meaningful, but Jesus values it. He sees the effort, creativity, and care you put into it. He sees what goes unnoticed, and He’ll reward you for every faithful investment.   Principle #4 for Employees: Your boss is not your Boss.   Paul says “obey” our boss not because our masters are good, or nice, or easy to get along with, or compensate us well. He says “obey” because, ultimately, we’re working for Christ. For employees, work is a place to live out our discipleship of Jesus as we become more like Him! 2) The Gospel at Home: Parents and Children   Principle #5 for Parents: Your children need nurture.   Your children are real people with real desires and real hopes and real dreams and real needs and real emotions. To nurture them, you must know them to adapt to their own individual needs. Your Heavenly Father nurtures and cares for you as His beloved child—that’s how you’re to care for your own children as well. Principle #6 for Parents: Your children need training.   If you’re to “bring them up” – raise them to be mature adults and disciples of Jesus – it’s not enough to nurture and love on your children. They must be trained, instructed, and admonished. But how do you do that in a way that doesn’t provoke them to constant anger? Love them in their main love language. Discipline in their secondary love languages. For parents, home is a place to live out our discipleship of Jesus as we become more like Him! Principle #7 for Children: Learn obedience at home.   Your obedience to your parents is a part of your discipleship to Jesus. As you learn to obey your parents, God is softening you to His own instruction. And as your obedience muscle grows, it will help you thrive in your walk with Christ. Principle #8 for Children: Choose to give honor.   We grow out of the command to obey our parents as we become adults, but we never out-grow the command to honor them. In love, Christ honored us when we didn’t deserve it. Now He calls us to honor one another. For children, home is a place to live out our discipleship of Jesus as we become more like Him! Takeaway: Your relationship with God changes all your other relationships.   For Believers, work and home are the places we live out our discipleship of Jesus as we become more like Him! Because our relationship with God changes all our other relationships. Ephesians 6:1­–9

In this sermon from 1 Corinthians 3: 1–18, we explore Paul’s admonition to the church in Corinth to “be the church.” Paul’s intention is to push back against growing disunity and immaturity taking place within the congregation. A church is a people, not a building, but there are good churches and bad churches. Many of us don’t exactly know why a church is a good church or bad church. We lack the language to identify what the intangible quality is that we intuitively know is off. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he is writing to a church that he planted, but whose leaders started to think that they’ve outgrown the Gospel foundation Paul laid. The Corinthian leaders were convinced that they had found a higher wisdom, a more spiritual & practical way to live. And yet, because they were abandoning the Gospel, they were abandoning the only thing that can hold a bunch of sinners together: their unity. The church at Corinth was beginning to look like the world outside the church. And if the inside of the church looks, thinks, acts like the world outside, the church is going to develop the same soul crushing problems as the outside world. If the church stops being the church, it becomes irrelevant. What does Paul suggest that a church need to stay true to the Gospel and remain relevant? 1) Personal Maturity: The only way we can handle the “good stuff.” Personal maturity is important to be able to enjoy the gift of the church. But Paul wants the Corinthian church that their maturity isn’t developing because they are divided. 2) United by Humility: The only way we can go from “me” to “we.” Humility is critical to the unity of the church if we are ever going to go from “me” to “we.” If the members of the church aren’t united in humility, the church won’t hold together. 3) Corporate Mission to Be the Temple: The only way we can truly “be the church.”       If we are to properly build a church, Paul is telling us that we must recognize we have a shared mission. All of us together, when we are assembled, are meant to be God’s temple! We have a shared mission to BE THE CHURCH, to be the place where God’s love is felt more powerfully, where God’s truth is proclaimed, where broken people can come and find true rest, where people tossed about by the storms of this world can find true peace, purpose, and joy. If we are holding on to reasons to divide from one another, we don’t stand a chance at accomplishing this mission. We must be reconciled to one another. Takeaway: If the church stops being the church, it becomes irrelevant.  1 Corinthians 3:1–18

In chapter 5 of Ephesians, where the Apostle Paul has been exploring the implications of the Gospel for every facet of our Christian lives, he lays out the Christian understanding of marriage. The Christian understanding of marriage is radically different from the understanding of marriage found in both traditional and modern cultures. In Traditional Culture (most of world history, and much of the global population still today) marriage is primarily understood through the lens of societal stability. In Modern Culture (here in the West), marriage is primarily understood through the lens of personal fulfillment. But the Christian understanding of marriage is radically different from both Traditional and Modern understandings of marriage because it blazes its own unique trail. And there’s no better place to see that in that in Ephesians 5:22-33. 1) The Shape of Christian Marriage: Patterned after Christ’s Covenant Devotion This passage is the most extensive treatment about marriage in the Bible, and what’s remarkable is how little here is actually about human marriage. Of the 215 words here in English, only 100 are about human marriage. The majority of this passage is about Jesus Christ and His covenant love for his bride, the Church. The commands to husbands and wives are patterned after Christ and the Church. Paul is saying that marriage points beyond the earthly and physical to the cosmic and spiritual. Marriage is designed to be a mirror that reflects the covenant devotion of Christ Himself. Or better yet, marriage is intended to be a window through which we can glimpse the love of God. From the very beginning, the unity-in-diversity and self-giving union of marriage was designed to reflect the unity-in-diversity and self-giving union of the Triune God. Theologians describe the interior life of the Triune God with the word perichoresis ­­­– the dance of mutual indwelling, self-giving love. The two-in-one dance of human marriage reflects the Three-in-One dance of the Triune God. And finally, marriage reflects the overflow of Christ’s redeeming covenant love for His bride, the Church. Paul is telling us that for Christians, the primary lens through which we understand marriage isn’t societal stability or personal fulfillment (those are valid but secondary lenses). The primary lens is theological: marriage is about God and the Gospel. 2) The Calling of Christian Marriage: Imitation of Christ through Love and Submission In light of this soaring theological vision for marriage, Paul now gives husbands and wives some specific callings, woven all throughout the text. Paul starts with instructions for the husbands.  Husbands, God has given you a position of leadership… but it is not for your benefit. You have been given leadership so that you might be first to serve and sacrifice for your wife. Husbands, you will be the first one to stand before God and answer for how you led your wife in loving, sacrificial self-giving. For wives the calling is to respectfully submit in self-giving love. Respectfully submit in self-giving love just like Jesus submitted Himself to the Father and submitted his own needs to yours, putting you first, in His sacrificial love. Lay down your life in love for him. In many ways, love and submission are two sides of the same coin. Love says, “You go first.” Submission says, “I’ll go last.” A Christian marriage is one in which both husband and wife everyday seek to outdo one another in sacrificial love. 3) The Purpose of Christian Marriage: Growing in Holiness to Reveal Christ        Spiritual transformation that lies at the very heart of this passage on marriage.  Marriage is a vehicle of Christ’s transforming work. It is a pressure-cooker in which Christ is preparing us for Himself. Marriage is less about happiness and more about holiness. Jesus is in the business of making us like Himself, in order that he might present us to himself as his bride in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that we might be holy and without blemish. And in Christian marriage you’ve got to catch that vision! Christian marriage is less about happiness and more about holiness. It’s about shining the Gospel love of Christ to each other and to the world. It’s about helping each other get ready to marry Jesus. Takeaway: These fragile and momentary marriages are pointing to the ultimate everlasting Marriage.   Marriage isn’t for everyone. Singleness isn’t for everyone. But standing before Jesus, radiant and in splendor is for every one of God’s children. The Bible upholds the value of both singleness and marriage as a means of showcasing the love of Christ as we grow in holiness by the Spirit until the day we fall into His everlasting arms. As marriage displays the covenant-nature of His love, singleness displays the all-sufficiency of His love. Ephesians 5:22-33

There’s tremendous power in the quiet, organic, incremental, growth of the life of God planted in us. When the seed of the Gospel is planted within us, as the Father redeems us in the Son by the power of the Spirit, the new life of God starts growing within us.  And we may not notice the growth as it’s happening, because we’re too close it, but over time we may begin to see some of it. The change that God intends to bring into our lives isn’t superficial: it goes down deep to the very heart of who we are, and it stretches wide to encompass all that we are. It is the complete and utter transformation of our entire being into becoming like Christ in every way. Which means everything must change. That’s exactly what the Apostle Paul has been calling us to in the second half of Ephesians. And in Ephesians 5:1–21, Paul shows us just how comprehensive this life-transformation is. God intends to transform every dimension of our being. In this passage, we have 3-dimensional transformation: 1) Upward: Be Imitators of God If you want to imitate God, you must walk in love, give yourself away, sacrifice for others, and offer your life unto God’s good pleasure. But how? How can self-centered, self-absorbed, self-obsessed, self-protective people like us find the power to imitate God in following Jesus? The Father in our pattern, the Son is our path, and the Spirit is our power. All three members of the One Triune God are essential in our transformation. 2) Outward: Be Children of Light If we are imitating God as His beloved children, following the way of Jesus through the filling of the Spirit, that upward transformation should result in an outward transformation as well. This outward transformation affects our spiritual orientation to money, sex, and power.  The way the world pursues money, sex, and power is incompatible with your new life as beloved children of God. As imitators of God and children of the light, our relationship with money, sex, and power are being radically transformed into radical generosity, holy sexuality, and sacrificial service. 3) Inward: Filled with the Spirit Our upward transformation as children of God ought to lead to an outward transformation as children of light. But how? This process occurs through the inward transformation that comes from being filled with the Spirit. The will of the Lord is that we be filled with the Spirit, that we be under the Spirit’s influence. Instead of being enslaved to our inordinate desires, running endlessly after money, sex, and power, we now follow the desires of the Spirit. We are transformed under the influence of the Spirit. But you having the Spirit isn’t the same as the Spirit having you. To be filled by the Spirit is to come under His transforming influence. It means handing over your whole self and holding nothing back. Takeaway: The key to Spirit-filled living is found in surrender. The deep, comprehensive, transformational change we need is beyond our doing. Only God can change us. Our job is to stay in position: be filled with the Spirit, so we can be imitators of God, and then live as children of light. Ephesians 5:1–21

In Matthew 13:44-46, Jesus tells two short parables the church historically calls “The Parable of the Treasure Hidden in the Field” and “The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value.” This sermon explores three questions about the parables: 1) What is the kingdom of heaven? The Kingdom of Heaven in the same way exists everywhere God’s rule exists. In the broad sense, of course, God rules the whole universe, so in that broad sense, the whole universe is His Kingdom.  However, in the narrower sense Jesus intends in Matthew 13, God mainly rules in the hearts of those who are his people by His grace through Jesus Christ the Son. At this point in history, God’s Kingdom is mainly His sovereign rule in the hearts of his people. The Scriptures promise that one day Jesus will rule visibly on earth, but for now God’s Kingdom is His mainly invisible rule in the hearts of Jesus’ disciples. 2) Why is the kingdom of heaven of inestimable value? The content of eternal life is not mainly living forever; the content of eternal life is knowing God, that is, seeing and knowing and enjoying God forever. Jesus meant in these two parables that God is the treasure hidden in the field; God is the pearl of great value! As the fourth-century church leader Gregory of Nyssa so wonderfully put it: [God] is the one who distributes the inheritance, he himself is the good inheritance. He is the good portion and the giver of the portion. He is the one who makes riches and is himself the riches. He shows you the treasure and is himself your treasure. 3) Why should we give up everything to gain the kingdom of heaven? Jesus does not mean anyone can buy his or her way into the Kingdom of Heaven. In that sense, of course, we give up nothing to gain the Kingdom, because it was Jesus who did everything necessary to give us the Kingdom. Instead, Jesus had two things in mind. For one, giving up everything to gain the Kingdom means giving up all efforts to try and make yourself right with God by means of good works, even religious good works. Second, giving up everything means not only surrendering every effort to make myself right with God but also surrendering the rule of my life. Takeaway: By the grace of the Holy Spirit, go hard after God, pursuing Him for all that He is for you in Jesus Christ.  Do it because God is the Treasure hidden in the field; He is the pearl of great value! Matthew 13:44-46

“In God’s family, we choose to live differently.” That’s pretty much what Paul is saying in Ephesians 4. Now that we’re alive as sons and daughters of God, now that we’re members of His family, the house rules have changed. This new family doesn’t live like other families do. It’s all different.   1) The Old: Paul describes the old self—this Gentile lifestyle—as “corrupt through deceitful desires.” It’s a desire-driven way of life, living to gratify our appetites. But notice, those desires are deceitful, because they never deliver what they promise. And they are corrupting—they twist and dehumanize us the more we give into them. Paul says that kind of living messes up our thinking, calling it the “futility of mind.” Paul is describing what moral philosophers call “Akrasia.” What the heart desires, the will embraces, the mind rationalizes, and the conscience justifies. Paul’s whole point is that we cannot keep living the way we used to.   2) The New: Paul uses two images to describe our new way of living: a classroom and a wardrobe. Your new self is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. It’s God’s own signature style. It’s a look that He created and wears Himself. And He’s clothing you in His own image and likeness. You are His sons and daughters after all, part of the family. So, it’s fitting that you would dress the part. And at the heart of this “putting off” and “putting on” is to “be renewed in the spirit of your minds” We are to put off the old self and put on the new self, as we actively receive the ongoing Spirit-led renewal of our minds. Paul is describing spiritual transformation, not behavior modification. As we open ourselves up to the Spirit, following His lead, obeying His call, surrendering to Jis will, we are putting off the old self and putting on the new self. When we keep in step with the Spirit, those old gentile rags just don’t fit right, and our new godly threads start to become increasingly comfortable. We feel more at home in them day by day. as we grow into the people we were always meant to be. We have a whole new life to live into.   3) The Change: Paul now gives 5 examples of what this Spirit-led renewal looks like as we put off the old and put on the new. Put off lying and instead put on truth. Put off sinful, festering, sustained anger, and instead put on daily reconciliation. Put off stealing, and instead put on honest work. Put off corrupting talk—caustic words that tear down—and put on instead constructive, edifying, situationally wise speech. Put off bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, malice, and relational ugliness—and put on kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness. What does it mean to be imitators of God? “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” We have the Father to imitate, and the Son to follow, and the Spirit urging us to new life. We have everything we need for life and godliness.   Takeaway: In God’s family, we choose to live differently.   Ephesians 4:17–5:2

The second half of Ephesians is about how God means us to live now that we are His children. Who we are shapes what we do. This passage from Ephesians 4:1­–16 is about growing up. It’s about who we’ll be when we’re all grown up in Christ, and it shows us how we’ll get from here to there. This sermon centers on three themes: 1) Unity The hinge of the letter to the Ephesians is this: “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” You’ve been called into God’s salvation and family as His sons and daughters, so live like it! Let your identity become your living. Let your being shape your behaving. Let who you are flow into what you do. Act like the person you already are in Jesus Christ. Now, what would that look like? Four traits to pursue as members the family of God: humility, gentleness, patience, and loving forbearance. We are united in Christ’s body. We aren’t called to create this unity because God has already done that. But we are called to maintain unity. What does it mean to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called? It means living out the very character of Christ with and toward one another, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. It means unity. 2) Diversity The unity of the body of Christ isn’t uniformity. Uniformity means everyone is exactly alike. But in the body of Christ, everyone is different. And yet, we’re all united in Christ. There’s unity-in-diversity. We are diverse in Christ’s gifting. You are a uniquely gifted conduit of Christ’s grace for those around you. When you show up, grace pours out. We’ll never be all that Christ wants us to be unless you’re present. 3) Maturity The reason Christ is giving all these gifted people to His church as pipelines of His grace is in order that we might grow to full maturity, so that together we might become like Christ. We are maturing in Christ’s fullness. God has the audacious aim of making us like Jesus in every way. And if that is the case, we have a lot of transformation to undergo. To grow in maturity in the fullness of Christ, we must learn to “speak the truth in love” with one another.   Takeaway: God grows us by grace through one another. So, what does it mean to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called? It means eagerly maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. It means eagerly contributing our diverse gifting for the building up of the body of Christ. It means speaking the truth in love with one another that we might mature in the fullness of Christ. Unity through diversity unto maturity. Ephesians 4:1–16

During Missions Week 2023, guest speaker Rev. Michael Allen challenged us with two passages from Matthew 22:35–39 and Matthew 28:16–20. Pastor Michael Allen currently serves as the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Together Chicago, an organization that catalyzes faith, business, community, and government leaders to inspire hope and affect peace and justice in Chicago communities. Together Chicago (TC) seeks to reduce gun violence and increase thriving communities in our city through five key areas: economic development, educational achievement, violence reduction, gospel justice, and faith-community mobilization. Originally from Jamaica, Pastor Allen immigrated to the USA in 1977 and earned a BA in Biblical Studies and an MDiv with a focus in urban ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Previously, he pastored at The Moody Church (1997-2002), Sagemont Church in Texas (2002-2005), and most recently as the Senior Pastor at Uptown Baptist Church in Chicago (2005-2020). He and his wife Marilza have been blessed with four children.

For many, the deepest WHY of missions is lacking. The early church understood that EVERYTHING spirals out of our understanding of God—the triune God of the Bible. “...As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you. And with that, he breathed [on them] and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:19–22) As Missio Dei is the expression of God Himself, so Missio Dei is the essential expression of faith in the life of the believer. Historically, what does the phrase Missio Dei describe? 1) Missio Dei is grounded in the Holy Trinity: The Father sends the Son and the Spirit into the world. 2) The triune God’s mission is our mission. He has come, we are called. 3) Missio Dei is a deeply personal invitation: It is the essential expression of faith in the life of the believer. Missio Dei is the intimate, existential divine calling; we are free to say yes or no. Yet obedience to our Lord in self-giving is essential to our being filled with God’s Life. In the end, understanding who God is will define WHY you and I exist, WHO we are as persons, and HOW we may most be fulfilled individually and in relationship to other persons, and above all else to our Creator. John 20:19–22