Category: Sermon Preview

Best Sermon Ever Given

65671_5202On Sunday you will be hearing the best, most moving, and most beautiful sermon ever given.

I hope you’re excited, and I hope you also know me well enough to get that clearly it won’t be coming from me.

Instead I want to read and focus on the most beautiful sermon ever given, and of course, it was given by Jesus Christ. On Sunday we are going to be exploring and going deep into the beatitudes found in Matthew 5. We are going to not only explore Jesus’ teaching, but actually experience Jesus’ teaching.

So before we get there why not simply spend sometime with the best sermon ever given. Why not read over the Beatitudes found in Mathtew 5 a few times, and simply let Jesus speak through it to you. And come Sunday, that’s what we’re going to do too.

Matthew 5:3-10

“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.

God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.

God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.

God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, 
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

by Andrew Mills

Looking Back and Looking Forward: Where Has God been active?

Every year, around this time of the year, there is this cultural phenomenon that pops up all over the place. It’s the Top 10 list. There are the top 10 books, movies, songs, and even newsworthy events of 2013.

 

The point is that people look back and review the highlights. Right not DJ’s, pop culture pundits, and movie buffs are all reviewing the year for the best moments. And I’m not against this in anyway, I actually think it’s a practice that Christians should pick up.

 

The truth is that God is so very active in our lives, but the practice of living pushes us past remembering and reflecting on those moments and moving onto the next thing. So I think we as Christians don’t need to be making top ten lists of movies or things like that. Instead I think we should be making the top ten lists surrounding God.

 

What about taking time and reviewing your year and God’s active participation in it? What if you made a list titled:

The Top 10 times God showed up in my life this past year

The Top 10 Ways God’s Proven His faithfulness

The Top 10 Reasons I have to be thankful to God

The Top 10 Things I’ve Learned from God this year

 

This is actually a very spiritual practice. Reviewing, reflecting, and remembering is part of following Jesus. Its actually how we grow closer and deeper by becoming aware and remembering how God has been active in our lives. So I want to give you a challenge – why not make a top 10 list this year? But why not have it centred on God?

 

And come Sunday we are doing the same thing. We are going to be looking at the top 10 things God has taught us this year. But why wait for Sunday, why not do it today?1407094_25104674

by Andrew Mills

Advent Reflection: Where’s Your Focus?

1373026_24335944On Sunday we are looking at one last response to Jesus in this season of Advent. We’ve already looked at waiting, and being willing to follow and on Sunday we are looking at worshipping. We will be looking at the story of the three Wisemen and their response to Jesus. We’ll be covering a lot of territory including a fight I had with sequined shorts trainer Richard Simmons…not once but twice, the meaning of adoration, and what Christmas is all about. But this post isn’t about Richard Simmons but about Jesus.

So the point is this: Christmas should be about Jesus, so why not make it about Jesus? Why wait till we talk about worship on Sunday, why not find ways to worship Jesus today? Why not make him your focus right here and right now?

If we truly want to bring Jesus back into Christmas I think it begins by bringing him back into our lives. The wisemen’s first reaction and response to Jesus is to fall at his feet in worship, and I think we can learn a lot from that. I think what we can learn is to follow in their example. I know, for me personally, I think about Jesus a lot, I talk to him a lot, I spend time learning about him a lot, but I’m not sure I could say I worship him a lot.

For me this realization isn’t something to feel guilty about, it’s simply something to change. So that’s what I’m going to try to do today – I’m going to try to worship Jesus as fully as I can.

What about you? How can you focus on Jesus and worship him today?

Its a good question to think about, but it’s an even better question to act on.

 

by Andrew Mills

Preparing For Christmas and More Importantly – Christ

1409165_39019246This Sunday we are looking at another Advent theme. We are looking at preparing. The truth is for anything big in our lives we start to prepare. People prepare for weddings for months, the prepare for Christmas for weeks, and prepare for days for birthdays.

The point is that the larger the event is the more we prepare. We think about it, we plan for it, we make adjustments for it.

The question then is how are you preparing for Jesus’ coming?

Because this is a major event. This is a life changing reality. This is what Christmas is all about. So how are you personally preparing your life? And not just preparing your home with decorations and gifts. How are you preparing your spirit and soul for his coming this year?

This is what we are going to be talking about Sunday but I don’t think we need to wait till Sunday to start preparing. Why not take sometime this weekend to prepare your heart for Jesus’ coming. Spend some time with him, talk with him, focus on him. Prepare your house and heart for him, and not just all the friends and family you will be having in.

Because the promise of Advent is that Christ comes. So let’s be ready for his arrival.

by Andrew Mills

Waiting is a Forgotten Art

384110_4480For today’s post I want to begin with a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

“Celebrating advent means learning how to wait.  Waiting is an art which our impatient age has forgotten. We want to pluck the fruit before it has had time to ripen”

This is what we are looking at on Sunday, the art of waiting.

Advent is about waiting. Waiting for Jesus to come, for salvation to enter the world, for God’s promises and covenant to come true. But I really believe in our day and age we don’t know how to wait. Yes we know how to be impatient but not to truly wait. To wait with expectancy, to wait even with urgency, to wait, not as if Jesus’ coming doesn’t affect us, but as if our lives depend on it.

So that is what we are looking at on Sunday – the art of waiting and also the art of finding. On Sunday we are going to be preaching from a page in your Bibles I’m almost absolutely sure you haven’t heard from before.

But before we get there start to think about waiting. What are you really waiting for this Christmas? And we’re not talking about gifts or the new Xbox. What are you really waiting for, and really desiring? Is it a healed marriage, friendship, or even a health concern? Is it a purpose, a dream, or job to come about?

What is it you are truly waiting for, and come Sunday we will talk about how to wait. And most of all…how to find as well.

by Andrew Mills

The Challenge of Grace

968281_45652240This week we are going to be looking at a really important but a challenging topic. We are going to be looking at grace. We are specifically going to be looking at the parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 28 and how it should shape our lives.

So to get us started on thinking about grace, I want to post a rather lengthy, but very thought provoking passage on grace. It’s written by Jay Bakker and I want to post it to get us thinking about grace, and what it means. And then we’ll come back to this quote on Sunday.

So here it is and I hope it gets not only your mind but your heart thinking about what grace really is (p.s. I highlighted two of my favorite lines):

We cheapen grace when we make it temporary, a ticket to an afterlife; when we say grace gets you into heaven, but holiness is what is required of you now. If grace isn’t about ‘right now’, but instead about ‘in the future’ then we are tempted to make it something we can earn in the time between. We might not have earned gracebefore we received, but we think we have to continually earn it again now that it’s ours. We do this because we desperately want to have some control over grace. We want even the smallest ability to claim that we somehow earned this grace, that we’ve got it. Which in turn allows us to say that other people don’t have it. If we’ve earned grace, other people can fail to earn it. …But that’s not how grace works. It’s a pull on us that we surrender to. We have nothing to do with it… Christians are always looking for someone or something grace can’t cover. So we end up putting restrictions on grace…in order for grace to truly be grace, it has to extend to absolutely everyone, no matter what, no questions, no expectations. Otherwise we think that somehow by living a moral life, or giving to the poor or voting a certain way or dedicating our lives to a certain thing, we’ve deserved it… We never let grace overwhelm us…Rather than being humbled and baffled by grace, we draw lines around who is in and who is out and pretend we’ve done something to earn grace. Our fear that we are accepted no matter what leads us to restrict grace, to redefine it, as if somehow we could possibly understand or control grace… People will live untransformed by grace. Some will use it as an excuse to be uncaring. Others will use it as a license to sin. But none of them will ever be transformed through legalism…when they are transformed they will be transformed by grace… When we really understand it, we will always find grace offensive. And that’s exactly the way it should be. If we start to feel comfortable with grace, then we’ve lost what it really means.

What do you think? What lines do you like or wonder about?

by Andrew Mills

What are the Strategies of the Enemy?

854352_49670242On Sunday we are going to be looking at something really important: the strategies of the enemy. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 2:11, “Do not be unaware of the Devil’s schemes”. But I think if we are honest most of us are pretty unaware of the Devil’s schemes.

If we were asked to explain what Paul means; if we were asked to share what the schemes were; if we were asked to share how to stand strongly against them, I think many of us would struggle with some clear answers.

That’s what I hope to change on Sunday.

Regardless of your belief in supernatural evil or Satan, the truth is we have all experienced the reality of Satan. What I mean by that is that we each have at some point probably come under an attack of fear, temptation, accusation, depression, confusion, or worry. We each have probably experienced darkness in some shape or form in our lives. And on Sunday I want to reveal how those things happen, so that we might be recognize them, and most importantly overcome them.

So that’s where we are going on Sunday. Discovering the tactics and strategies of the enemy so that we might live freer, deeper, and wholer lives.

And to discover the answer to this question of what the schemes of the enemy are we are going to be exploring the first passage where he shows up visibly and prominently. We are going to explore Genesis 3. So this is the passage we will be reading on Sunday. Why not take a look at it and see if you can discern from it: what are the tactics of the enemy? Because the first step to overcoming them is learning to recognize them.

Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. “Really”, he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.”

by Andrew Mills

Fighting the Darkness Around Us – Theology of Spiritual Warfare

On Sunday we are exploring a new series, looking at a new topic often called “spiritual warfare”. While many people have many different thoughts and opinions on what spiritual warfare is, a simple definition for me that works is how we are called to challenge the darkness and evil that is around us.

I think this is simple yet easy to understand. The reality is that in our world we do see evil and darkness around us. Often we don’t have to look very far, we turn on our TV’s or look around in our neighborhoods. And what we might see is greed, hate, loneliness, anger, war, racism, injustice, sin, and pain. These are all simple examples of the darkness that is around us. And as Christians we are to be part of challenging that darkness, and changing it to light.

Jesus was clear that he is the light of the world (John 8:12), to bring light, life, and hope to anyone and everyone. Jesus came not simply to save us from our individual sin, but to overthrow the powers of darkness and evil around us. He came to show us a different way to live, and a different Kingdom to follow. So for the next few weeks we’re going to be looking at what that all means, how it happens, and how we can be part of it.

I know surrounding this whole topic of “spiritual warfare” the spectrum of what people believe is huge. The point for me isn’t what other people believe, but what do you believe? And more importantly, how can you start to change the darkness that’s around us? I don’t think a lot of people debate that there is hurt, pain, sin, anger, and hate around. The question is then how do we transform those anti-Kingdom things into Kingdom things of life, love, grace, hope, and mercy. So that’s what we hope to discover, but why wait? This week if you see something that’s running counter to God’s Kingdom, why not try to bring a little of God’s Kingdom and love to that situation, place, or conversation.

the darkness games

by Andrew Mills

What’s Your Posture? What’s Jesus’?

1390296_18138490On Sunday we are talking about something really important but not often ever addressed. We are talking about posture.

And no I’m not talking about sitting up straight, or those type of things.

I’m talking about the posture we have to those around us.

Because here is the thing – most studies show that people like Jesus, but don’t like Christians. The question is why? Why do people like Jesus and not like his followers? And I think it has something to do with our posture, our stance, our way of relating to others around us.

So on Sunday I want to discover what Jesus’ posture to the world was, and what our posture to the world should be as well.

The question I have for us today is this: what is your current posture to the world? By that I mean how are you currently relating to those around you? Is it one of judgment? Is it one of separation? Is it one of accommodation? Is it something else?

I think it’s important to actually think through because so much of what we communicate to our family, friends and neighbors is unconscious. So what is your posture to the world around you? And better yet, what do you think our posture should be?

I’ll leave you with those two key questions that we’ll be exploring more in-depth on Sunday. But I’ll give you a hint I think our posture has something to do with the Hebrew word barak.

Have a great weekend!

by Andrew Mills

Learning to Actually Live Like Jesus

On Sunday we are looking at probably one of the most important passages in the entire Bible. We are going to be looking at  Philippians 2:5-11. This is called the Christ Hymn by scholars, and here is why this passage is so important.  This passage is important because it sets out with absolute clarity who Jesus Christ is.jesus-on-cross-4-1364043-m

And this matters because if we don’t know who Jesus is, we don’t know how to live, and we can end up not looking or living at all like Jesus. And maybe you’ve seen this in your own life; people who seem to know a lot about God, but don’t seem to actually live anything like him.

This is what we want to really dive deeply into on Sunday. Who is this Jesus we follow? How do we live like him? And how do we change the world with him? Because make no mistake, we, as Christians, are called to change the world. The problem is that we do it in the way of the world, rather than the way of Jesus. And as we’ll see on Sunday the way of Jesus is all about vulnerability, obedience and humility. The way of Jesus is about getting rid of power, position, and privilege and emptying ourselves. So come Sunday we hope to come away with two clear things. First, who Jesus is, and secondly, how we are to live.

So before we get there why not spend sometime with the passage below and wrestle with it. Ask who does this passage reveal Jesus to be? And how is it then calling us to live?

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

by Andrew Mills