Sunday Sermons

What is the tithe? / tee up Matthew’s Gospel about hearts and treasures (NOTE: Jesus came not to do away with the Old Testament, but to fulfill it)

God is working towards creating a new people, living within a new covenant relationship, having new hearts made alive in Christ Jesus through the work of His Holy Spirit.

God’s plan is to give His people a new heart with a new Spirit. Consider a look back to David’s prayer in Psalm 51 where he asks God to give him a clean heart. David also asks that God not remove His Spirit from him.

The first mention of heart in the Bible is God seeing how the inclinations are evil all the time. His plan is to create in His people a new heart. This shows God’s heart for His treasured people. From the very beginning (Genesis 1 and 2) God has had a heart for His people to be made in His image, having His heart.

From the first verse to the last, Psalm 18 is all about how God gives us the strength to face anything. Psalm 18 begins: To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said… Psalm 18, like so many of the psalms, repeatedly calls God a refuge, because we so constantly need it. When David says in the opening words of the psalm, “I love You, Lord,” he uses an unusual Hebrew word that conveys deep emotion and passion. May we, like David, consider how God delivered us (and continues to deliver us) through Christ our redeemer. Lord, help us to remember that our salvation in Christ is complete. The great work is already done. The great debt has already been paid. No matter what we face, may we put our trust in You. For this we praise You, O Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

God’s Word leads us to celebrate His story being lived out in the world. As we live out the Good News of Jesus, we want to tell the story of what it looks like when the people of Messiah are engaged in God’s Word every day and joining Jesus on His mission. It’s then with joy that we celebrate God adding to our family those being saved.

God’s Word calls us to give witness to the good news of Jesus. Through the work of the Holy Spirit we are called to give witness to the good news of Jesus. As we live out God’s Word in the everyday places of life, we can share with others the reason for the hope that we have in Christ. NOTE: IN ACTS 2, THE DISCIPLES ARE LIVING OUT JESUS’ INVITATION TO BE HIS WITNESSES. IT’S STARTING IN JERUSALEM. AND WHAT THEY ARE GIVING WITNESS TO IS WHAT THEY THEMSELVES ARE WITNESSING.

God’s Word equips us to serve Him by serving others. Whether it’s serving within our Messiah family, engaging our community, or reaching out to the world; we want people to experience what Jesus means when He says that He didn’t come to be served but to serve. Everyone is gifted by God and can discover his or her part in the body of Christ.

God’s Word helps us grow as followers of Jesus. At Messiah we believe in being a 3/3’s church. By that we mean all ages - in God’s Word - everyday. Through study of God’s Word people of all ages can grow in faith as followers of Jesus.

Martin Luther was amazed and moved by the Syrophoencian woman’s interaction with Jesus. Luther saw the gospel in it. “This woman saw the gospel - that you’re more wicked than you ever believed, but at the same time more loved and accepted than you ever dared to hope…On the cross, the Child of God was thrown away, cast away from the table without a crumb, so that those of us who are not children of God could be adopted and brought in. Put another way, the Child had to become a dog so that we could become sons and daughters at the table. And because Jesus identified like that with us, now we know why we can approach Him” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 89-94).

“Chapter 8 of Mark’s Gospel is a pivotal chapter. It’s the climax of the first act, in which the disciples finally begin to see the true identity of the one they have been following…Here at last Peter begins to get the answer to the big question, ‘Who is Jesus?’ He proposes to Jesus, ‘You are the Chirst.’ Peter is using a word that literally means ‘anointed one.’ Kings were traditionally anointed with oil as a kind of coronation, but the word Christos had come to mean the Anointed One, the Messiah, the King to end all kings, the King who’s going to put everything right” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 95-96).

“Jarius came to Jesus for a fever cure, not for a resurrection. When you go to Jesus for help, you get from Him far more than you had in mind…Or take the sick woman. She came to Jesus for healing. But she wanted to just touch and run.” Both the healing of Jarius’ daughter and the sick woman is a foreshadowing of the cross. “Are you trying to hurry Jesus? Are you impatient with the waiting? Let Him take you by the hand, let Him do what He wants to do. He loves you completely. He knows what He’s doing” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 65-69).

“The word Sabbath means a deep rest, a deep peace. It’s a near synonym for shalom - a state of wholeness and flourishing in every dimension of life…Jesus is the source of the deep rest we need…When Jesus calls you to rest, He is calling you to take time off - physical and mental time off from work on a regular basis. But there’s another level of rest, a deeper level…Jesus has lived the life you should have lived, He has died the death you should have died. If you rely on Jesus’ finished work, you know that God is satisfied with you. (And) you can be satisfied with life” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 42-43).

“The Bible says that our real problem is that every one of us is building our identity on something besides Jesus” (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 30). It’s important that we let Jesus be our Savior!

Sermon 1 in a 4 part series.

Theme: “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 NIV

Theme: “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Romans 10:4 NIV