Sermons

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 12:31 - 13:13 | Preacher: Pastor Daniel Roels 1 Corinthians 13 is used often at weddings, but that use confuses the very meaning of the passage. The chapter isn’t about romantic love, but the love that comes from God and by which Christians choose to relate to others. It also doesn’t simply celebrate that love as a great thing and offer some advice to keep love genuine, but it insists on love as something that reveals God more strongly than all the other great spiritual gifts. No one has ever seen God, but if we love.

Bible Text: James 1:19-27 | Preacher: Pastor Daniel Roels As we close our June series on listening, we get some straight advice from the letter of James. But it’s hard advice when our emotions are making our choices about how to treat people. “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” It’s especially hard if we just try to do it because we think we have to be nice, but it gets easier if we do it because we are called to establish the righteousness of God. Listening serves the Kingdom, and it has us serving others’ needs before our own.

Bible Text: Romans 14-15:4 | Preacher: Pastor Daniel Roels In the Age of Outrage, it is harder to listen to others whose viewpoints we do not share. The Christian community, the church, can be just as polarized about most issues as the broader society. But Paul’s teaching about Christian freedom and welcoming others makes an uncomfortable amount of space for agreeing to disagree, because on non-essentials, Christ can be Lord of both sides. (Romans 14-15:6)

Bible Text: Job 2 | Preacher: Pastor Daniel Roels Christian listening begins with listening to God, but it extends to loving and listening to others in pain. There are so many ways to get this wrong, and we’ve all been wounded one vulnerable time or another by someone who didn’t really listen. But then we must work to get it right and be gentle and compassionate when hearing the pain of someone who suffers. Doing so well will put Christ, The One who suffered for us, in the center.

Bible Text: Deuteronomy 6:1-9 | Preacher: Pastor Daniel Roels As a follow up on the “Listening is Love” teaching sessions at the end of April, June will feature a similar sermon series. Listening to others can be done out of human compassion, but Christian listening must begin with God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one! Listen to Him, live for Him, and love Him!

Bible Text: Psalms 49 | Preacher: Pastor Daniel Roels The term “blessings” has made its way into the secular sphere, and almost always applies to material things or things that make us happy. And Christians get envious, as if real blessings, the ones we claim in Christ, are so cheap as worldly blessing. We must beware of these idols, because they will always disappoint, but God does not.

Bible Text: Acts 6:1-7 | Preacher: Pastor Daniel Roels The early church, like every other church since, had its issues. In Acts 6, cultural and language differences led to certain people being overlooked. The disciples recognized the seriousness of the issue, and how they resolved it is instructive for all churches that seek to become more diverse. And then the Spirit used what happened to spread the gospel. Biblical diversity serves God’s glory!

Bible Text: John 14:15-26 | Preacher: Pastor Daniel Roels In our lonely moments and our times of disaster, it is easy to ask, “Where is God?” And, yeah, why doesn’t Jesus just show up and break into life and set things right? Why leave us so alone in a broken world? But He doesn’t. He sends another ally to be with His people forever. And while Jesus doesn’t walk with us the same way He did, physically, with the disciples, His Spirit walks with us, and that is at least as real.

Bible Text: 2 Peter 1:1-11 | Preacher: Pastor Daniel Roels Peter has been restored to ministry, and now he’s written a letter that expresses strong confidence in God’s work. Though it’s an encouragement to Christian growth, that comes against a background of God’s choice of those who belong to Him. In other words, Christians do not become what they’re meant to be in order to gain God’s favor, they do so because they have received God’s favor. When Christians grow, that’s a sign that salvation is real in them.

Bible Text: John 21:15-25 | Preacher: Pastor Daniel Roels Jesus has appeared to his disciples a number of times, but there remains this dark cloud between Him and Peter, who denied knowing Him three times. It’s agreed that Jesus restores Peter, but sometimes we think it’s by making Peter affirm love, or promise to do Jesus’ work of “feeding the sheep,” but all of that happens after Jesus has decided that Peter is still the guy He wants. Peter’s regrets, and ours, are powerful, but not more so than grace.