The Rambling Disciple

Too often I believe that we Christians are driven by the one thing we are commanded more times than anything else not to do; fear. We fear our rights being taken away. We fear the liberals (or conservatives, depending on your political leanings). We fear the LGBT crowd, Black Lives Matter, Marxists, and pretty much anything that doesn't look and sound exactly like us.  Simply put, we Christians seem to be afraid of more things than most people. This is, of course, antithetical to what it means to be a follower of Christ. To follow Jesus should mean that we are a people driven out of love, compassion, and mercy. We are commanded throughout scripture over and over again to not fear, but here we are anyway driven so often by fear. Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church. Do we actually believe that? It would seem to me that many of us don't. We think that just because the wrong candidate is elected president or if the wrong judges are appointed Chris...

This was originally a sermon I preached on January 17th, 2021. Two weeks ago, we discussed God’s grace. Far from being some intangible, nebulous thing grace is a very tangible and very practical reality we encounter from God. Grace trains us to grow in righteousness and godliness. Last week we discussed idolatry. While we specifically focused on the idol of politics and love of country over love of God and neighbor, the same general discussion could be had about any idols we face.              When preparing for those previous two sermons as well as this one, I was unaware that I would end up preaching three times in a row. If I had I probably would have made them more overtly connected, but one thing I would not have changed is the order. Too often we treat grace as merely a response to sin and, while it is certainly that, it is much more.              God’s grace...

This is the manuscript of a sermon I preached on January 10th, 2021. We have a profoundly serious problem in the church today. This problem has infected every person and threatens to destroy everything we Christians ought to stand for. It not a problem with the outside world, for we cannot expect righteousness from there. This is a distinctly Christian problem, and it is not a new one. All of us are guilty of breaking the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” We have all committed the deadly sin of idolatry and continue to do so. Each and every one of us has turned our backs on our true God and savior so that we may instead devote ourselves to hollow idols. We all need to repent. The problem with talking about idolatry in a general sense is that no one ever thinks you’re talking about them. We are all masters of rationalizing our way through these kind of things, convincing ourselves that we are innocent of the sin. It is therefore necessary when confronting ...

 If there is one thing 2020 proved is that we are all in desperate need of grace. We all need to change, to grow closer to God and more like Jesus. We need both God's grace and to show grace to one another. So we should endeavor to make 2021 a year of grace. What exactly is grace? I often think we don't really know what grace is. We say it is "unmerited favor," but that definition doesn't really clarify what exactly grace is. Really we define grace by what it is not. We know that grace is not works. It comes from God and has nothing to do with us. In the end grace has become a sort of nebulous, mystical force that we know is there but aren't really sure what it does. Titus 2:11-14 makes it abundantly clear what grace does. Grace trains us to resist ungodliness. Grace trains us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. Grace is given by Jesus to transform us into a holy people zealous for good works.  Grace is transformative. Grace always brings with i...