Everywhere You Look
St. Luke Columbus Sermon Podcast
Many divide society into sacred and secular spaces. Certainly, churches are considered sacred spaces where religious activities are conducted and secular spaces, like a park or government building, are considered secular, a place where attitudes and activities have no religious background to them. And yet, much of the books of Acts takes place in public, secular spaces like marketplaces, calling into question the sacred/secular divide. Today we will discover what happens when God crosses this false divide and the impact it has on the world around us. Next...
info_outline
Everywhere You Look
St. Luke Columbus Sermon Podcast
Jesus showed that there are no limits to where God would go to reach us. The work of God through Jesus not only went to the ends of the earth but to the dead - the dead that were once to be avoided. Jesus came to raise the dead, physically, and spiritually. Because of sin, all people are born spiritually dead. In our baptism and coming to faith, we are born again and raised to live a new life. As the raised Church of Christ, we go to be with the dead in hopes that God will work through our witness to raise the dead to new life. Next Step: Identify people you know...
info_outline
Everywhere You Look
St. Luke Columbus Sermon Podcast
Following the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, his followers met together in their homes. Following a vision from God, Peter was led to be in the home of a gentile unbeliever named Cornelius who was a Roman centurion. We see in these and other events reported in the New Testament that the earliest Christian churches met in people’s homes and that the saving activity of the Holy Spirit happened in homes. Lessons: Watch:
info_outline
Everywhere You Look
St. Luke Columbus Sermon Podcast
The Church of Jesus Christ is to be more sent out everywhere rather than gathered in a church building. In the book of Acts almost all of the work of God through the apostles happens away from any church building. The earliest Christian churches left the building and during the pandemic most churches today have left the building. The disciples met the risen Jesus outside somewhere and were sent to the ends of the earth to be witnesses of Jesus. While we are strengthened in the gathered community of Christ Followers, we are sent out into our communities to give witness to the salvation that...
info_outline
A Service of Lament
St. Luke Columbus Sermon Podcast
“Lamentation, a prayer for help coming out of pain, is very common in the Bible. Over one third (50 or so) of the psalms are laments. Lament frequently occurs in the Book of Job: “Why did I not perish at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?” (Job 3:11). The prophets likewise cry out to God, such as Jeremiah does: “Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable…?” (15:18) and Habakkuk: “…my legs tremble beneath me. I await the day of distress that will come upon the people who attack us” (3:16). One whole book, Lamentations, expresses the confusion and suffering...
info_outline
Fault vs Responsibility
St. Luke Columbus Sermon Podcast
While a societal evil might not directly be our fault, we still have a responsibility to bring good. Because we have received much, we are called to live out this truth in the racial reckoning that we are experiencing in our society today. Jesus taught, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Whether we understand that societal evils are in any way our fault or not, Jesus calls us to use our privilege, power, and wealth to correct the evils and bring good into the lives of others. We are to...
info_outline
God's Grace in the Land Between
St. Luke Columbus Sermon Podcast
Getting help is essential to making it through the land between. There are always challenges in the land between. The Israelites faced the hostile Amalekites in battle. As long as Moses held up in arms, the Israelites prevailed in the battle. When Moses could no longer hold his arms up, those around him helped him and the battle was won. Our first move when we are in the land between is often to think that we can go it alone and prevail. That is very rarely true. When we rest on Jesus (the stone in v. 12) and allow others to help us and hold us up, we are much more likely to...
info_outline
God's Grace in the Land Between
St. Luke Columbus Sermon Podcast
God sometimes gives signs when we thirst for reassurance, but our trust in God cannot rest on God proving his love and care for us. Trust is the most necessary quality for an eternal relationship. In an account Water-from-the-rock account found in Numbers 20:1-13, the necessity of trusting God is tragically illustrated when Moses goes beyond the direction of God and strikes the rock and is therefore not permitted to enter the Promised Land. Trusting in God is so vital to our relationship with Him that He used what appears to be a momentary and minor lack of trust on Moses’ part to teach us...
info_outline
God's Grace in the Land Between
St. Luke Columbus Sermon Podcast
Grumbling. The Lord heard their grumbling, the text tells us, and instead of rebuking them for their grumbling against Moses and Aaron, He provides abundantly: quail and manna. But on the seventh day, some looked for food but there was none. Others saved some until morning, but it was spoiled by the maggots. The people’s lack of trust in God’s abundance caused problems in the community. The people had a scarcity mindset which caused them to hoard food and not rest. During this time, when certain items have been on short supply, and when...
info_outline
God’s Grace in the Land Between
St. Luke Columbus Sermon Podcast
The Israelites were thirsty, really thirsty. They had traveled three days and found no water, and then the water they found was bitter. One can imagine the disappointment and possible frustration with Moses. After all, they were out there because he had led them there. Couldn’t they find some water after all? Bitterness, psychologists tell us, is a smoldering resentment. We are wronged, we feel angry and then we ruminate on the wrong. We become bitter. We think, “Someone must be to blame for my misery.” In this case, Moses. Fueling...
info_outlinePastor Tyus Nedd, Alvin White, Pastor Mike Weaver, Pastor Steve Brown
Lessons: 2 Chronicles 7:14, Romans 12:2