Sermons

Jesus had to take the cup of God’s wrath. He didn’t come to wield the sword but to step under it for us: It was the only way! True salvation is not something we can achieve, but something we must receive.

You can tell if you are Judas or Mary by how you respond when life disappoints you. How you respond to suffering & pain is the measure of your understanding & embrace of the gospel. Judas represents a “religious” approach to God: I serve God to get things from God, & I expect to be rewarded for my behavior. Mary understood the Gospel: I deserve nothing, God has given me everything. Christ is a treasure worth losing everything for.

We the Church by Tracy Marsh Mark 2:13-17

God’s ability to clean things up is infinitely greater than our ability to mess things up.

You have a choice: you can either be part of the radical, self-sacrificial mission of Jesus, or you can walk in disobedience. There is no middle ground. Christ-followers often are willing to take some part of the Bible they like but not all of it. You’re either an active part of the mission or you are disobedient. Is it possible to be close our God’s heart without also being close to His mission?

Jonah is what stood in the way of Nineveh’s forgiveness. Their sin wasn’t the obstacle. Jonah’s failure to get them the word of God was.Are you keeping people from experiencing the grace that could be theirs by your failure to pray for them & get the Word of God to them?

There is a point where you surrender to God because you feel like you have to; then there’s a point where you start to love like God loves. You do what God does because you desire what God desires. God is not just after obedience, He’s after a whole new kind of obedience. He wants real repentance.

Jonah didn’t want to do what God told him to do. Why? (1) He was given a difficult job to do. Jonah had to expect that he would be mocked & treated harshly. He might be attacked & killed if he did what the LORD told him to do. (2) Jonah didn’t want the Assyrians in Nineveh to escape God’s judgment. So, why we don’t we what God tells us to do?

Fan or Follower, Tracy Marsh Colossians 3;15-17