Jesus, the Promised Christ

I had not really studied the idea of "Messiah" in much depth before I studied for this sermon.  It is interesting that this concept was not developed by the close of the Old Testament canon (the writing of Malachi) and people still had very different ideas about the coming Christ by the time Jesus came on the scene.  But when people heard Jesus talking about the "Kingdom of God," they thought about the Messiah.  And to understand Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom, we have to understand how his teaching about himself as the One Sent by the Father (the Messiah) interacted with Jewish expectations and redefined who the promised Christ would be.

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Fun Bible Quiz

Something fun I was doing over lunch...

Can you name the people (other beings included) whose names are mentioned at least 14 times in the Bible? - sporcle

The Preaching Project: Please take action to end modern-day slavery

The Preaching Project: Please take action to end modern-day slavery: "I just took action in the fight against slavery by asking President Obama to fight human trafficking. I'm asking you to join the fight becau..."

The Invisible Kingdom Made Visible

Jesus taught repeatedly that in the Kingdom of God, "many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first."  What does that mean?  I think one way to answer that question is that those unseen matters of the heart, where the Kingdom is built, will one day be made visible.  And in that day, all of the ways that we measure success in this life will be swept away, and a new order will emerge that will be completely surprising to us but obvious to God, who can see the hearts of people.  In light of this reality, Jesus told us that we should "store up our treasures in heaven," and not invest in the temporary things of earth.  And this week we took a look at three bad investments we make in life that will completely disappear in God's Kingdom.

This was the first week we recorded with the new church computer, and there is good news and bad news.  The good news is that the recording is free of almost any of that noise and buzzing that caused the previous recordings to sound bad.  The bad news is that, for some reason, the first and last parts of the sermon were cut off, so you will have to fill in the blanks with your own thoughts and meditations.

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All-New Sunday Night

We had a good crowd last Sunday night for the launch of our new Sunday evening program.  For those of you who were not there, here is a brief rundown...

F.I.S.H. stands for a four-week rotation of what we do each week.  The rotating schedule is meant to keep things fresh and to give us a chance to do things the church is supposed to do.  The goal is to move us to application of Scripture and action toward loving one another and reaching our community for Christ.

Kingdom of the Invisible

My wife cringed when I told her I was going to cover the Sermon on the Mount in one sermon.

"Jesus did it in one sermon"

"You're not Jesus"

I didn't cover the whole thing (only about 3/5 of it), but now I present it to you as one of the shortest podcasts so far.

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The Preaching Project: Good Mexican Food in Magnolia

The Preaching Project: Good Mexican Food in Magnolia: "I love Mexican food.  I grew up in Houston, where there is great Mexican food in just about any strip mall.  When we moved to..."

Seeds and Soil, Sowing and Sleeping

This sermon covers the basics of what Jesus taught about "kingdom cultivation."  Jesus used the word "kingdom," but he usually described its coming and nature in organic terms.  This week, we examined three parables from Mark 4 and the implications for us in terms of how we can expect the kingdom to grow and how we can be effective workers in God's Kingdom.

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The Coming Rule of God

This week's sermon was the first part of six weeks that we will be spending on the Kingdom of God, which was Jesus' first emphasis as he began his preaching and teaching ministry.

I think we oftentimes skip too quickly over Jesus' life and teachings, especially in evangelical churches where we are focused on individual salvation and the importance of the saving power of the cross, in order to get to the cross.  We sing songs where we say Jesus "lived to die," and so forth.  There is certainly a sense in which this statement is true.  Jesus' work on this earth reached its fulfillment in his death and resurrection.  But Hebrews tells us, "in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son."  Jesus is God's final and complete revelation of himself to us.  It is important for us to look not only at the significance of the death of Jesus, but his life as well.

So we will start where Jesus himself started, with the Kingdom of God

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(I never got the audio quality to where I was satisfied with it.  I apologize for the buzzing).

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