Sermons from July 2025
Priests in Exile: Representing God in a Foreign Land
1 Peter 2:9-12 – As we enter the final movement of our 2025 theme, we are turning our attention to connecting to the community. This journey began by rooting ourselves in Jesus, then growing together in fellowship, and now leads us outward into the world around us. But this is more than outreach or programs; it’s about living as a nation of priests, embodying God’s mission of reconciliation and restoration in our everyday lives. From Abraham to Israel, from Jesus…
The Big Story: Jesus the Royal Priest
(Zechariah 6:9-13) – Although familiar, our nation’s embrace of democracy and Protestantism makes the roles of kings and priests an abstraction rather than a lived reality. Additionally, the veneers of contemporary politics and religious traditions have shifted those roles so that our experience of such leaders today does not quite align with the Bible’s portrait of kings and priests. While we might consider the positions necessary to administer a population, the Bible reveals they originated for different reasons – God…
The Big Story
Exodus 19:5-6 – Mediation/arbitration offers individuals and businesses experiencing conflict a government-regulated path to resolution that hopefully avoids the costs, delays, and publicity associated with the courts. Professional standards and clear expectations, incentivized by the benefits of mediation and arbitration, contribute to the industry’s reported success rate of 70-80%. But we are not the first society to recognize the value of mediation/arbitration. For example, Job lamented that he had “no arbiter between” himself and God, someone who could “lay his…
A Promise to Bless
Genesis 18:17-19 – This lesson marks the beginning of a series exploring the third part of the year’s theme – connecting the 151st church family to Jesus, to one another, and its community. This month, we will introduce the theme by considering the Bible’s overarching story of God’s plan to reconcile with rebellious humans, a plan introduced through God’s promise to Abraham. God’s promise revealed His intention to bless the world through a human who acts righteously and justly, a…