Text: Psalm 37:4 | Listen to Message It’s one of the favorite verses of the Prosperity Gospel crowd: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Think of all the desires you have! Think of all the things you want! Just believe in God, and he’ll make all of your wildest dreams come true! I dunno, sounds more like a “Vote for Pedro” t-shirt than a sound interpretation of Psalm 37. If your prayers treat God like a Magical Sky Genie or a Cosmic Vending Machine, if your religion makes life all about God...

Text: 2 Chronicles 7:14 | Listen to Message It’s the verse of choice for the National Day of Prayer: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” What a hopeful verse! We should just call on God and step back and watch as he fixes everything wrong with our country! “God bless America!” Well, sort of. See, 2 Chronicles 7:14 isn’t about America. It’s about Israel. God is speaking to King...

Text: Matthew 9:9-13 | Listen to Message When’s the last time someone accused you of having serious character flaws because of the type of people you spend time with? Jesus had to deal with this. The religious didn’t. See, religious people avoid “sinners.” And, by “sinners,” they mean people who do the bad things on the naughty list. People who sin the sins they’d never think of sinning (and they’d never admit it if they did). The religious make two piles of people: “sinners” and us. They separate from sinners and condemn them. On the other hand, Jesus gravitated toward sinners...

Text: Psalm 126 | Listen to Message Everyone wants to be joyful. But wanting and experiencing joy are two different things – especially when you consider that many of our instincts and intuitions ultimately undermine the very joy we seek. God wants us to be joyful. In fact, he commands us to be joyful! But God knows better than anyone that the journey to joy requires the right perspectives on our past, our present, and our future 1. Remember the past. Psalm 126:1-3 – When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth...

Text: Psalm 96 | Listen to Message The Psalter has a collection of songs known as “the Royal Psalms” that extol the virtues of a great king. While some of these celebrate a human king like David or Solomon, many of them point to a divine King with ultimate authority. Psalm 96 speaks of such a divine King. A King whose greatness surpasses the greatness of all other kings and gods. A King who is both beautiful and powerful. A King who is worshipped by all creation. A King who is returning one day to judge the world. The psalmist seems...

Text: Psalm 80 | Listen to Message “God, where are you? Are you paying attention? Do you even care?” “How long, O Lord? When are you ever going to do something about this pain?” “God, why are you doing this to me? It’s not fair.” “God, I know you’re not a bully, but it sure feels like it today.” These statements are all examples of lament. A lament is weeping with words. It’s an expression to God of grief, fear, doubt, even anger. It’s a complaint, a howl, a cry, a protest. A lament typically uses questions or accusations to imply...

Text: Psalm 146; Luke 4:16-21 | Listen to Message Apparently there’s some kind of debate in the church over whether or not Christians ought to be involved in social justice. One side seems to be saying the mission of the church is to proclaim the gospel – and engaging in ministries of justice is a distraction (or even disobedience). The other side seems to be saying that justice ministries are an integral part of what it means to show the love of Christ to our neighbors. The first group is usually conservative, suburban, and/or affluent; the latter group is often liberal,...

Text: Matthew 5:13-16; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 | Listen to Message It’s the most oft-repeated summary of a Christian’s relationship with culture: “We are to be in the world but not of it.” On its face, this simple statement implies some level of engagement balanced with some level of separation (or Christian distinctiveness). So far so good. But in countless everyday activities extrapolated out over many years, that one basic principle has been applied many different – even mutually exclusive – ways by good and godly people. Rather than claiming to know who’s right and who’s wrong, we prefer to recognize the...

Text: Genesis 1:28; Ephesians 6:5-9 | Listen to Message It’s a common problem experienced by countless Christians: there’s a massive disconnect between our faith and work. We have no idea what the Sunday sacred has to do with the Monday-through-Friday secular grind. We’ve compartmentalized our Christianity to a few nights and weekends, and we live with spiritual amnesia the 40, 50, or 60 hours a week we’re on the job. “I’m just an electrician, just an attorney, just a student, just an accountant, just a teacher, just an architect, just a nurse practitioner, just an engineer, just an artist,” we tell...