Return to the Lord, Who is Tireless to Deliver You

 The sermon from April 9, 2025. The text is Amos 4:6-13:

“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,

    and lack of bread in all your places,

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

7 “I also withheld the rain from you

    when there were yet three months to the harvest;

I would send rain on one city,

    and send no rain on another city;

one field would have rain,

    and the field on which it did not rain would wither;

8 so two or three cities would wander to another city

    to drink water, and would not be satisfied;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

9 “I struck you with blight and mildew;

    your many gardens and your vineyards,

    your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;

    I killed your young men with the sword,

and carried away your horses,

    and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

11 “I overthrew some of you,

    as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

    and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;

    because I will do this to you,

    prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

13 For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,

    and declares to man what is his thought,

who makes the morning darkness,

    and treads on the heights of the earth—

    the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

Forget What's Behind, Look Forward in Hope

 The sermon from April 6, 2025. The text is Philippians 3:8-14:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Return to the Lord Who Does Not Change

 The sermon from April 2, 2025. The text is Malachi 3:6-12:

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

Be Reconciled

 The sermon from March 30, 2025. The text is 2 Corinthians 5:16-21:

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.