Paul expresses several times a joyful loop of giving in Corinthians. God gave his only Son to the world in Jesus Christ. Believers receive that gift of mercy with our whole hearts. We give thanks for such grace. At the very same time that we do, we get sent into ministry.
God gives. We give. And then the recipients give thanks back to God for the love and salvation we shared. God gets glorified. Then, he pours out more grace into us and through us to others, and the loop of love and praise continues like a wonderful music.
The Reflections of Mary Magdalene
August 4, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Psalm 139:7–12, Isaiah 43:1–2, Isaiah 43:4–5, John 20:11–16, Isaiah 43:1
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
July 28, 2024 • Colton Underwood • Acts 15:36–41
If God can restore to us the years the locusts have eaten, if he can make the barren woman the mother of many children, if he can bring dead hearts back to life, he can take the broken pieces and make you whole. That doesn’t mean it won’t hurt or that you’re less of a Christian because it does hurt. Rather, it gives meaning to the hurt. It gives eternal perspective even on the worst we could do. In Christ, even our deepest divisions are redeemable. Only look to him who has promised to make all things new.
The Room Where It Happens
July 21, 2024 • Darin Travis • Ephesians 3:7–13
How We Build Matters
July 14, 2024 • Ron Hicks • Matthew 7:21–29
Believers are not exempt from trials. They will come. They will show up at unexpected times. But if we've been listening to the words of Jesus, and doing what Jesus requires of us, guess what? When the storms blow, we will be able to stand because we built our lives upon the rock of Christ.
Jesus Forgives and Jesus Heals
July 7, 2024 • Whitney Alexander • Mark 2:1–12
Your mat is your testimony. Imagine the crippled man carrying his mat out of the crowded meeting. The mat was no longer a sick bed but rather a testimony. Jesus knew his route home would take the man through the streets where he begged each day. Everyone could see firsthand his transformation. They would see the wonder-working power of Jesus. Whatever it may be in your life, your “mat” is a testimony!
Lord and Savior—and Treasure: The Complex Beauty of Christ
February 4, 2024 • David Mathis • Revelation 5:1–12
God designed our souls for Jesus. Not just a divine Father, and not just a human friend, but God himself in human flesh. God himself, in the person of his Son, becoming one of us — God with us, as fully God and fully man, in one spectacular person.
#beautyofchrist #firstpresbyterianbr #sermon #revelation #lambofgod #lionofjudah
Better Together
September 3, 2023 • Pastor Adraine White • Ephesians 4:23, Ephesians 4:16, Ephesians 4:1–6
We can clearly see that God has called us to unity. He is more concerned about the unity of the Spirit than he is about the unity of our races or even the unity of our politics. There is a unity that the spirit is capable of producing that will bring us together, if we will allow him. We are different and it's NOT a mistake nor is it a curse, it's by God's design. Our job is to embrace the differences, forbear one another & come together so we can see what wonderful things we can accomplish when we do.
These days, a powerful idea gets marketed to us from all sides. It’s the dream that I can hold my whole life in my hands and get everything arranged according to my truest self. I can live my dreams. I can express my truest self, and everyone will recognize it and give me space and I will be fulfilled in myself. I don’t need God or anyone if I can just grasp myself, and then be myself. I can do it, if I believe enough in myself and work hard enough and carve out my space.
#strength #powerofgod #sermon #worship #firstpresbyterianbr #creator
The Open Secret to Growing in Christ
July 30, 2023 • Rev. Alec Flynt • Hebrews 10:19–25
It is the ethos of modern Christianity to not meet together regularly. Modern Christianity is something to which you attach your name, but not something to which you give yourself. Be committed to the habit, the culture, the ethos of a church that gathers together and is in it together. Meeting together for mutual encouragement, as simple as it sounds, is a radical, counter-cultural practice in our day, that will spur you toward Jesus.
His House Is Forever
July 16, 2023 • Darin Travis • 2 Samuel 7:1–16
God’s promise that David's lineage would be on the throne forever had an immediate impact on David’s parenting.
When we train our children well, we should expect our kids to want to flee temptation. We should expect our loved ones who profess the name of Christ to live holy and righteous lives. We should expect that our Christian family members to be a light in the darkness. We should expect these things not in a “you’d better perform” kind of way, but expecting these things because God is at work, and he is faithful to his promises.
Message to American Christians: Live Like a Narnian
July 2, 2023 • Gerrit Dawson • 2 Kings 6:8–17
Evil doesn’t own more than a speck of this universe. Take your stand with Jesus by whom all things in heaven and earth were made. Though you have not seen him, you believe in him. When you do, you realize just who and what is on your side. Almost everything! The green earth belongs to Jesus. The world still rotates every 24 hours and revolves around the sun every year. Evil cannot stop this. Evil cannot reach to the stars. There remain inexhaustible mysteries around us, below us, and above us.
#narnia #cslewis #sermon #worship #firstpresbyterianbr #creator
Nothing New
January 1, 2023 • Colton Underwood • Ecclesiastes 1
Christ has come to redeem your toil and striving because now all that you do is done in service to him. Only when we bow to Christ as Lord and master can we work with purpose. Why? Because our purpose is not in what we accomplish but in the God who has conquered. Christ’s advent redeems the fact that nothing seems new under the sun because he has actually made—and will finally make—all things new. Christ’s advent redeems the passage of time because the endless and seemingly aimless passage of years has an end: the day when Christ returns and time itself is undone. Christ’s advent redeems knowledge and learning for all true learning and insight can only be found from learning at his feet. Christ’s advent redeems and fulfills our innate desire to find meaning and purpose in something that lasts beyond us because he came to make his people part of his story of redemption, making every detail meaningful.
A New Year A True You
January 2, 2022 • Jim Solomon • Luke 10:38–42
How can we be sure we that we are serving our Savior and now ourselves?
Exalt the Lord and not yourself.
Listen to the Lord.
Focus on what he wants.
