In-building corporate worship set to return on Sunday, Feb 14, 2021 @ 10:50am.
First Christian Church, Grand Junction – Praising God, Changing Lives!
HomeSermonsMark

Sermons on Mark

Easter Sunday 2021 Sermon: When the Sabbath Was Over

Which brings me to the modern Church…to today…and, more specifically…to First Christian Church, Grand Junction on THIS Easter Sunday of 2021.  Today is my last day to guide you as Senior Pastor.  You know this.  You’ve been preparing for it.  Your leadership has been preparing for it.  The Regional Office and Regional Minister have been assisting your leadership in preparing for it. But all the preparations in the world can’t change what’s going to happen tomorrow: you will enter into a transition space.

November 1, 2020 Sermon – The Forest for the Trees: Spiritual Apathy

I began the sermon by asking you to recall a time in your life when you literally or metaphorically ran to and knelt before Jesus.  I hope you can recall such a time.  I imagine you desire to feel like that again.  And the amazing message of today’s scripture passage is that you CAN.  All it takes is removing your expectations of God, of Jesus, and replacing them with an acceptance and praise of WHATEVER God offers. 

Back to Basics: Jesus

He was born.  He lived a while.  He made some friends and enemies.  He died. I suppose you COULD summarize Jesus’ life that way…but if you did you’d be missing just about EVERYTHING important about Him.  As Christians, we must do more to understand who we believe Jesus is…and we must do more to live in accordance with who we SAY Jesus is.  Because, even the slightest nuance in how you live impacts what you say you believe deep in your heart…and even the slightest nuance in what you believe SHOULD impact how you live.

Worship at the Cabin: Creation Care

I said it before; I’ll say it again.  I’m not an environmentalist. You will not anytime soon be hearing me advocating any kind of mandatory restrictions on people’s enjoyment of God’s creation.  However, what you’ve heard today and what you will CONTINUE to here is a person of God imploring you to CHOOSE to perform one of the primary jobs God placed people here to perform: caring for God’s creation the way God would care for it, the way God showed us throughout scripture to care for it.  Choose to participate in God’s desires and efforts to care for creation in such a way that creation can continue to care for people for generations to come.

Hospitality

Y’all, there are thousands of lost and lonely people, hungry people like Marta, all around us in the Grand Valley. Once we’ve invited them to Jesus’ house, we need to do everything we can to help them encounter Jesus while they’re here. Even if it means spending some money on big arrow signs pointing to the entrance that WE don’t NEED for uUS instead of spending that same money on a new convenience WE will use. Even if it means focusing on THEIR children instead of ourselves. Even if it means there will be a few buletin airplanes flying around.

Love Your Neighbor

When I read Jesus’ greatest commandment, I hear Jesus saying we’re supposed to love God, we’re supposed to BE church, not exclusively or even mostly by gathering together for Sunday worship but MOSTLY but loving other people with actions that HELP them…the way Jesus spent his ministry loving people by helping them. So…First Christian Church, what can we do to love our neighbor?

But to Serve

Maybe I’m thinking too big. Maybe what Jesus wants is for us to stay in our houses of worship, talking to each other, and leaving everybody out there to fend for themselves. Maybe, but I don’t think so. Actually, I’m pretty sure those big dreams and visions I have about the way it could be – even just here, in Grand Junction – are more in line with what Jesus meant when he said:

Priorities

Y’all, in the scripture, and particularly in these passages from Mark 10, Jesus tells us that the key to REAL life, the key to ETERNAL life, the key to life WORTH LIVING, the key to FUN is to get our priorities right – to prioritize the things God tells us are important, not the things society tells us are important. When you get your priorities right, you will live.