Sermons from May 2023
Kingdom Emotions: Joy and Anger
James 1:2-3, 19-20 — We live in a consumerist culture in which joy has become bound to the products and services promoted by marketers and influencers. At the same time, we live in a culture where outrage has become the expected response to a growing list of offenses. No matter how we feel about our culture’s values, its influence shapes us. That shaping complicates the already challenging balance between joy and anger. This lesson, which considers the place of joy…
Kingdom Emotions: Peace and Worry
Matthew 6:19-33 — God designed the world to be a place of abundance and blessing. However, we encounter scarcity, pain, and death in the world. Those shared experiences remind us that the world contains dangers that can tempt us to foreground those risks over God. Against that backdrop, Paul instructed the Philippians to “not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:6). Yet, in the same letter, he also wrote about his “anxiety for all the churches” (Philippians 2:20). How then do we…
Good at Being a Woman
Reading: Genesis 2:23 In Genesis 2:23, Adam praises God’s creation of woman. He sees in her the ability to take the good he gives and make it grow and flourish. When she is good at being what God made her to be, this brings glory to God the Creator. If men build a house by their strength, women in their beauty and care make it a home. “A wise woman builds up her house, but with her own hands the…
Kingdom Emotions: Lament and Thanksgiving
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 — My phone gives me accurate, simple, and constantly updated directions to whatever destination I enter into its maps app. Its accuracy, simplicity, and adaptability to the conditions around me have made the app an essential part of my daily life. Even though I claim the Bible occupies an even more important place in my life, it does not have the features I prize in my map app – it instead possesses a sprawling complexity that, while…