Proverbs was written with a wealthy, royal reader in mind, so it includes almost no advice for how to survive in poverty or how to get out of poverty. But it has a lot to say about how painful and unjust poverty is, it clearly shows the dignity of the poor, and it makes dramatic demands on those of us who are wealthy.
Speaking
Audio: The Danger of Godless Godlikeness
We are called to be 100% perfect, just like God is, but we can’t try to become perfect in our own strength. We must receive our holiness from the God who is holy, basing the ways in which we are like him on our communion with him. When we try to shape our own holiness, rather receiving God’s holiness by being with him, we can fall away from God, just like Adam, Eve, and the Pharisees did.
Audio: Your Hometown Jesus
It’s not enough to have loved someone in the past, or to know them based on the categories they belong to. True love never ends, which means that it must always change and grow. If you love someone, you must be willing to love them as they change, or as your knowledge changes. The people from Jesus’ hometown made this big mistake: because they felt so familiar with Jesus, and so comfortable with their old assumptions about him, they were unable and unwilling to see him as he was. Like them, we can have a sweet, personal Jesus who’s comfortable and familiar to us. Unlike them, we should learn to lay aside our assumptions about Jesus and turn toward him again and again, eager to see him as he is. We must not worship a hometown Jesus of our theological creation; we must turn to worship the living, surprising God,
Audio: God, Christians, and Natural Disasters
Natural disasters shouldn’t happen, but they do happen. How should we respond to them? How can we hope? As Christians, we must not respond by ignoring them, fearing them, or despairing. Instead, we must recognize that we are unsafe, but we’re also not alone: God is with us. Like him, we should join the needy and give them what we have to help. Someday, God will lead us through disaster into a healed and finally safe world. Until then, we must take up his cross and follow Jesus into the darkest places of human suffering.
Audio: Growing Up With Jesus
Salvation isn’t the end of the story; it’s the beginning! It starts a beautiful process of growing up in Christ. In this sermon, Peter uses Ephesians 4:11-16 to help us desire that growth.