What a morning. I watched the riots in Baltimore, the devastation in Nepal, and a report on the Supreme Court arguments on same-sex marriage. I was reminded that Jesus told us to "watch and pray" (Mark 14:38). Today, watch. Watch the news reports, read your news...
One question many Christians ask is, "Am I doing what I am supposed to be doing in life?" One confusion many Christians have is that the most important thing in life is what we do. It seems this was the question and the confusion Paul dealt...
In 1 Corinthians 7, the Apostle Paul naturally moves to a discussion of marriage as a continuation of his teaching on sexual purity in 1 Corinthians 6. This is because sexual purity and sexual immorality necessarily have to do with marriage. And that is because...
This Sunday at Grace, we will talk about our bodies in relation to sexual sin and sexual purity from 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. The Christian's body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies were bought with the price of Christ's blood. Our bodies will be...
"God our Savior showed us his kindness and love. He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the...
The gospel is about God changing us. The gospel change described in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 can be summed up in the phrase, "such you were, but now you are." Here Paul gives a list of the kinds of people who will not enter the kingdom...
When I first began to study the passage for this week's sermons (1 Corinthians 6), I asked all the technical questions to present a clear message on this issue of lawsuits among Christians. When can a Christian go to court? What steps should...
Bob Briner, author of Roaring Lambs and a friend of Grace Community Church, used to say, "God's power to preserve is greater than Satan's power to corrupt." Bob would say that when he was talking about how Christians are reluctant and afraid to associate with the...
We hold martyrs in high regard. Laying down one's life for Jesus' sake is in our minds the highest form of self-denial. But are there not other forms of suffering for Jesus' sake? Does not Jesus' call to "deny yourself, take up your cross, and...
We fallen humans are full of wrongly ordered desires. We Christians are still humans and we still struggle with wrongly ordered desires. These desires are for things that are not God's will for our lives. This struggle is called temptation. Being a Christian...
