Category: Sermon Reflections

Never Go It Alone ~ Peter vs Judas

On Sunday we landed on one main difference between Judas and Peter. They both betrayed Jesus. They both were attacked by Satan. They both felt deep remorse for their mistake. They both sought to confess it and make it right. But one went to Jesus, the other went to people who didn’t care. Jesus and Peter had a conversation, a connection, and ultimately a confession. Jesus and Judas never had that. Judas went to the religious leaders who simply heaped on the guilt, shame, and pain for Judas. He left feeling more alone than ever. Peter left Jesus’ presence with a purpose.

Sometimes the difference between having a mistake, betrayal, or failure being something that lasts, and something that is overcome is the difference between going to Jesus and going it alone.

Judas was left to deal with his betrayal on his own and he couldn’t do it.

Peter dealt with his with Jesus.

I think we can learn from this. Confession can heal the soul. Confession brings someone else in, so we aren’t going through it alone. Confession can bring life to a broken area because we are asking for help. This is the big difference between the path of life, and death; the path of Peter and the path of Judas.

So today my challenge is simple. If you have been holding onto something, trying to go it alone, dealing with it isolated and by yourself, bring someone else in. Confess what’s going on to Jesus. Confess it to a true friend, who isn’t interested in the details, but is interested in you. Peter makes it through because he walks with others. And so can you…

by Andrew Mills

Jesus’ Response to Betrayal

This past Sunday we talked about how Jesus responds to Judas and his betrayal. From this response we also can see how Jesus responds to us.

Even though I prepared and preached the sermon, Jesus’ response to betrayal still stops me. It arrests me, grabs me, and holds my attention. In my mind I see Judas walking up to Jesus – giving him a kiss. This moment is intimate and close, they are friends, brothers, and comrades. And Jesus knows he is betrayed. He knows he is being handed over for pain, mockery, alienation, abuse, and crucifixion. And he turns to Judas and says “my friend”. (Matthew 26:50)

My friend…

My friend…

But he’s not your friend Jesus. He is the catalyst for your death. He is the one who gives you over. Friends don’t betray friends. He’s not a friend Jesus…

But Jesus still says “My friend”.

This encounter reveals why I follow Jesus. Because Jesus, at his core, is grace and love. Because Jesus, at his core, responds in ways I could only hope to. Because Jesus, not only turns to Judas and says my friend, but says the same to us.

There is so often times in my life when I betray Jesus. I know I am not his friend. I know I am his enemy. I know I don’t deserve him. And yet he still turns to me and says “my friend”. Throughout history that has been God’s response to betrayal. He gives grace, he gives another chance, he looks at you, me, and Judas and says “my friend”.

So today if you are feeling far from God. If you have betrayed him. If you haven’t spoke to him in a long time. Just know his first words to you are…my friend…

by Andrew Mills

Throw a Party ~ Be Like Jesus…

This Sunday we talked about how God’s Kingdom is like a party.

But not just any party a great party where different people mix, connect, and are invited. God’s Kingdom is like a great banquet where invitations go out to the unlikely, unnonticed, and unwanted. It’s this party where everyone gets great food, where lonely people connect, where people who are down have fun, where boundaries are crossed and life begins. And you’re invited not because of who you know, but Jesus who knows you. This is a picture of what God’s Kigndom is like.

So my challenge to you this week is simple: throw a party.

Throw a good party. Throw an awesome party. Invite friends, neighbors, and people would never get invited. Get great food, great music, and have a great time. Samir Selmanovic  “Christians know how to talk about life, but they don’t know how to love life”. Let’s prove this statement wrong this week. Let’s love life and help others to love it too by our grace, generosity, and inclusion. Throw a great party, and watch as God’s Kingdom surprises you all around.

Following Jesus means throwing parties…so get busy loving life by throwing a party…

by Andrew Mills

Still Stuck on Grace

Here it is Sunday morning and I’m still thinking about last Sunday where we talked about grace. I’m still thinking it all through. Something that has really lasted this week was what we began the sermon with last week – a quote from Mrs. O’Brien in Terrence Malick’s new film “Tree of Life”. She says this:

“There are two ways through life, the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one to follow. Grace doesn’t try to please itself. It accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries. Nature only wants to please itself, and get others to please it too. It likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy, when all the world is shining around it, when love is smiling through all things. They taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end. I will be true to you, whatever comes.”

The more I reflect on this quote the more I think it’s a challenge of the Kingdom. In Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus clearly shows that he runs his Kingdom on Grace. The challenge is that he is clear that if we don’t live by grace, we may find ourselves at odds with his Kingdom. As Malick says, making an illusion to Jesus, there are two ways through life, grace and nature and we must choose our path.

I believe that is the question for you and for me that I am still reflecting and grappling with. That, if the Kingdom truly runs by grace, if its rule is grace, its way of life is grace, then the implicit challenge is: are we living by grace?

Would your friends and neighbors say you give grace? Would your family characterize your life as a life of grace? What about the people who meet on the road driving to work? What about the cashier?

There are only two ways through life, one of grace and one of nature. And Malick is right, “No one who loves the way of grace has ever come to a bad end”. Because Grace is the way the Kingdom runs…

by Andrew Mills

There are Two Ways Through Life – the Way of Grace and of Nature

On Sunday we talked about a parable of Jesus found in Matthew 20 – “The parable of the vineyard workers”. You can download the sermon here. In this sermon we also saw and talked about  a clip from the movie the Tree of Life, discussed the danger of earning rewards from relationships, and talked a lot about grace.

Yet after the sermon there were two thoughts that really lingered for me. We discussed how you can actually “use” relationships and people. That if you love what you get from someone – you don’t love them, instead you love what you get. So if you love how God gives you eternal life – you love eternal life, not God. The point was that there is a danger in letting the rewards or results of a relationship becoming the reason for a realtionship.

So as I was driving home on Sunday I asked myself: Is there any part of my relationship with God – where the focus has shifted from loving God to loving what he does for me? Have I at all gotten caught up with the benefits of my relationship with God without appreciating being in a relationship with God?

That was the first thought that I found challenging, and worth reflecting on. The second was how we ended on Sunday, focusing on the fact that there are two ways through life – the way of grace or the way of nature. While there are two ways through life, there is only one way into the Kingdom and that’s through grace. So the question then is am I living in the way of grace or nature?

Neither of these questions are easy: are we using relationships or appreciating them? Are we living according to what is fair, or by grace? Are we giving or focusing on what we get?

Sometimes though the most difficult questions are the most worthwhile…

Discussion Questions:

  • Adult Questions:
  • What excites you about God’s grace?
  • Who in your life needs to be given God’s grace – without expectations – as an example of the Kingdom? How can you give them grace?
  • How can you make “giving grace” a regular part of your life?
  • Questions for Young Families:
  • Share with them what grace is. Use an example from their lives. For example when you let them do something even if they didn’t deserve to because of their behaviour. Ask them in what times might they might need to show grace to others (i.e. when playing and sharing, when someone calls them a name, etc)?
  • Weekly Challenge:  Give grace to someone who doesn’t deserve it…free them and yourself
by Andrew Mills

A Kingdom Hidden in a Friendship

Last Sunday we talked about where you can find the Kingdom of God. We discovered that the Kingdom of God is hidden in plain sight all around us in relationships. You discover the Kingdom in the friendship, relationships, and connections you have. It’s a treasure waiting to be discovered, to be valued, and to be experienced.

So my question for you today is simple. Who in your life holds the Kingdom within them? Who have you experienced God’s Kingdom because of them?

If God’s Kingdom is found in relationships, and in the connections we have with others. If it can be spontaneously found where joy, grace, and laughter are discovered. Then who in your life consistently share Gods’ Kingdom with you?

Why not tell them today. Tell them they are a source of love and joy for you. And maybe through that they might experience the Kingdom as well.

For me I often find God’s Kingdom in this little dude…and when I get home I’m going to tell him too!

Discussion Questions from the Sermon

  • Adult Questions
  • When have you experienced God’s kingdom in a unexpected place or way?
  • How can you keep “your eyes open” to discovering God’s kingdom in the everyday?
  • What does God’s Kingdom look like? How do you know when you’ve discovered it?
  • Where can you look to find God’s Kingdom this week?
  • Questions for Young Families
  • Children can teach us about the Kingdom. Jesus says that in the Gospels. So ask them when do they have the most fun? Where do have the most happiness? My guess is that the Kingdom isn’t far from that place. So do what makes them happy and watch the Kingdom grow.

Weekly Challenge: Watch for the Kingdom and share with one person this week where you found it…


by Andrew Mills

Dangerous, and Wild Growth

This last week we talked about how God’s Kingdom is like a plant that can grow and spread. You can download the sermon here. We began looking in Matthew 13 how in quick succession Jesus tells three parables of the Kingdom, based on plants growing.  I shared how Jesus was teaching and talking to farmers who would know a thing or two about growing thing. If the Kingdom is something that can grow ~ farmers would know that it would take hard work. They didn’t have the luxury of the equipment we had. It would take hard work. It would also take time. Growing and harvesting doesn’t happen in a day. And lastly it would take God’s timing, and provision. God was the one who sent the rain, and caused the growth. So seeing this Kingdom grow will take time, hard work, and God’s involvement but it grow.

But what I didn’t tackle or bring up is how God’s Kingdom also grows in a dangerous way.

Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed in Matthew 13:31. Mustard seeds were in ancient times dangerous and also explosive. They took over, they spread, and couldn’t be controlled. An ancient author Pliny the Elder wrote that mustard “grows wild…and once it has been sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it”

I love that picture of the Kingdom. That once it’s sown its scarcely possible to get the place free of it. That it starts to take over, growing, spreading, almost uncontrollable. That if we are spreading this Kingdom of grace and love it spreads, takes root, grows wild, and can’t be contained.

But that also is a bit dangerous. Why? Because this Kingdom of God can’t be controlled by us. It grows, it’s wild, and it is not meant to be contained but to spread. When you start spreading God’s Kingdom you are spreading life, grace, and love that once released can’t be contained.

For me that is a beautiful picture of God’s Kingdom. A Kingdom that grows from small seeds, takes time, hard work, and God’s involement but once it takes root spreads, shakes things up, and is almost impossible to get rid of.

So this week why not spread the seeds of God’s Kingdom? Because wouldn’t a beautiful testimony to you, the church, and Christians be that our communities are so full of God’s kingdom that “it’s scarcely possible to get the place free of it”…

Discussion Questions from This Sunday

  • Adult Questions
  • How do you “spread the seeds” of the Kingdom?
  • Where should you be “scattering the seeds” of God’s Kingdom?
  • Who should you be praying for consistently and watching to see if the Kingdom is growing in their life?
  • Who in your life is ready and open to growing closer to God? How can you help them?
  • Questions for Young Families
  • Your kids grow slow just like God’s kingdom. So sit down around the dinner table and ask them how they think they have changed over the past few years, or months. Listen to their ideas. Then take time to bless them – literally. Share how you’ve seen them change, affirm the good things in them, and affirm where they are growing too. Because that’s God’s kingdom.

Weekly Challenge: Spread the seeds of the Kingdom in someone’s life and pray for them daily…

by Andrew Mills

Learning to Care for Each Other

Last Sunday was a worthwhile, but also a heavy Sunday. In our church family there is a family going through some real health challenges. But what struck me on Sunday wasn’t the challenges, but the connections. I saw people hug them, pray with them, share tears, and share hope with them. This is what church is to be – a body that cares for one another.

Surprisingly enough that was the focus of  Sunday’s service. That while the church is sent out; it is sent out together as a community of love. If we can’t learn to love each other within the church, we won’t be able to practically show love to those outside the church. So what I saw on Sunday was people practicing love. That was beautiful, even in the midst of difficulty.

Someone shared with me afterwards that what made them choose to part of this family at Plattsville was how people were honest, real, and cared for one another. What they might not have  known is they were actually quoting Jesus. Jesus says that the way we love each other will prove to the world that we follow Jesus (John 13:35).

So today and this week – make a practice – of practicing love. Put love into action and show it. Because love is meant to be shown. Here are a few practical ways from Scripture:

  • “Stop passing judgment on one another.” (Romans 14:13)
    • Who do you need to stop judging?
  • “Carry each other’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2)
    • Who has a burden that you can help carry? What can you practically do?
  • “Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.” (Colossians 3:13)
    • Who do you need to forgive today?
  • “Encourage one another daily” (Hebrews 3:13)
    • Who can you encourage today? What can you say to them to build them up?
  • “Accept one another just as Christ accepted you” (Romans 15:7)
    • Who should you accept today?

Which ones are easiest for you to practice? Which ones are hardest? Which one resonates most with you today? Which one can you put into practice today?

Because as you put it into practice you might be not only helping someone, but proving God’s love for them…

by Andrew Mills

Birthday’s, Blessings, and Books

I always found the stories in the Bible of the father’s blessing their sons a little weird. Just read in Genesis and you see it all the time. I pictured this weird ceremony where they would kneel or something and have these words spoken over them. I didn’t get it.

Then I had a son.

Yesterday was Hudson’s birthday. He’s two. He’s almost a man now. And I bought him one of the coolest kids books ever called stuck.

The book is great about things getting stuck in a tree. On the inside though I wrote a long note to Hudson, that I read to him now and I hope he’ll read later too. I wrote about how heis so fun and wonderful. I wrote about why I love him, what good things I see inside him. I wrote where I see him going. I spoke into his life words of trust and promise. And at the end I promised that no matter what happens, and no matter what gets “stuck”, I’d be there.

So I talked about his past, present, future and where I’ll be in all of it.

When I was done writing it – I knew what I would then do. Whether he gets it or not, we’re making a blanket fort. We’re crawling in it. We’re getting his Thomas the train engine flash light and cuddling up close together. And I am reading / speaking this blessing over him, because that’s what it is. It’s a blessing just like in the Old Testament where father’s would speak over their sons, shaping them, building into them, and creating hope. And maybe the Old Testament fathers didn’t say they’re blessing under blanket forts. For me though, the point is not where or when you bless someone but the actual act of taking time to speak blessing and life into someone.

So here’s my challenge to you. Bless someone else. Mother’s bless daughters. Father’s bless sons. Friends bless each other. Make it a habit and make it meaningful. Because for today more than any other day, I get why it matters. Because there is something powerful in sharing where someone is at, what you see in them, and where you see them going.

So why not share something meaningful with someone. Share why they matter, share who they are, and share blessing…

by Andrew Mills

Called to Spread and Go #missional

This Sunday I preached on how in Acts 1 Jesus tells his disciples to spread out and be a witness to his new reign or Kingdom of grace, love, and life. He gives them the green light to literally go into new areas and places with the message of the Kingdom.

Jesus is very specific and says go to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. For me I think these are places that not only were the early Christians sent but also we’re sent today.

We’re sent to our Jerusalem’s the places around us where we have natural and established relationships. These can be at work, in your neighborhood, or even in your family. We’re called to be a witness to God’s grace there.

We are also called to move, to expand, to go to our Judea’s. These are nearby places where relationships aren’t difficult, or awkward to start. They are people who are similar to you and can be found at local coffee shops, sports clubs, in a large office, or just people a few doors down. The point is that we aren’t to be comfortable with just blessing (literally to give life) to people we know but are called to expand and grow giving life to new relationships as well.

This then also includes our Samaria’s. These are people different from us, that are difficult to get to know. There are obstacles, and boundaries maybe cultural, religious, or social. The point though is that the Gospel is too beautiful to be stopped by any boundary and is to cross over the boundaries with us as we go to give life and be a blessing.

And lastly God wants to send us to the ends of the earth – places we haven’t been or even dreamed of going. But God has. And his plan to save creation, is to send us, if we are willing.

So for me the question is are we willing to go, and where is God sending us. Who are we to meet, to connect with, to bless? Who is in our Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria that this week we can show love too?

And are you willing to do it?

Discussion Questions from this Week Sermon

  • Adult Questions
  • Where is your Jerusalem? The place you find yourself in often and are comfortable.
  • Where is your Samaria? A place where you meet and mingle with different people who stretch you?
  • Where is your “ends of the earth”? Where might God be sending you?
  • Questions for Young Families
  • Talk to your kids about the idea that God sends us out to make the world a better place. Ask them to think of places that God might send them to make better. Maybe it will be their class through accepting a lonely boy or girl. Maybe it will be at a friends who doesn’t have a lot. Maybe it will be to grandma and grandpa in the nursing home. But start them thinking that they are sent out to make the world a better place. And if they have ideas how make sure to do them.

Weekly Challenge: Go to your Jerusalem and Samaria with the intention to bless…

by Andrew Mills