Southland Weekend Message Series (Video)

This sermon will focus on 1:5-12 and 2:13-17. There was great confusion in the church at Thessalonica. Many people were getting confused about the time of Christ's return, thinking he had already come or believing that because his return was so close they should quit working and simply wait for him. To counter this confusion Paul wrote this letter and explained how to properly wait and prepare for Christ's return.

This message will focus on 2:1-20 and elaborate on Paul's heart for ministry. Though Paul only stayed in Thessalonica for a short period of time, he shared his life and heart with this church. Paul cared for them with pure motives, truthful preaching, parent-like love and hard work. This powerful passage gives us a personal, intimate look into the heart of Paul as a pastor who would pay any price for the good of the church.

This sermon will focus on the truth of who Christ is and how Christians are to clothe themselves with Christ on a daily basis. The book of Colossians has some of the highest christology in the entire bible, and this message will likely reference the deep truths about Jesus from 1:15-20 and also explain how this impacts our life and character, as described in 3:12-17.

This message focuses on Philippians 2:1-11, one of the most important passages about Jesus in the entire Bible. In this section of Scripture Paul admonishes the Christians to be united in love towards one another and accordingly instructs them to have the same mindset as Jesus. Jesus emptied himself, served others and was then exalted to the highest place. And Paul wants everyone to follow Jesus' example; empty themselves by becoming a slave/servant to all, and allow God to honor them in due time.

This sermon will be based out of 4:17-5:21 as a whole, but focused on 5:8-21 more specifically. In this section Paul shows us what it looks like to live as children of light. We are no longer in darkness, so we must not live in darkness! We are to wake up from our slumber, become imitators of God, clothe ourselves with Christ, live in wisdom, and understand the Lord's will.

This sermon will center around Ephesians 1:3-14 and focus on the manifold blessings believers have been given in Christ. As a loving Father, God has showered his grace upon his children, and Paul emphasizes seven different expressions of that grace in this passage. (He chose us in Christ, predestined us to be like Christ, lavished grace upon us, redeemed us, revealed to us the mystery of his will, made us his inheritance and sealed us with the Holy Spirit.)

This sermon will focus on Galatians 5:1-6 and 5:16-26. During this weekend we will focus on the freedom that Christians have from the Law (and all the Law represents). Instead of living under the Law, which brings slavery and death, Christians are invited to live in freedom, to keep in step with the Spirit and replicate the life of Christ through God's power at work in them.

The ministers of the new covenant are not controlled by power or pride, but rather by love. And love compels them to tell every person for whom Christ died about his saving love. Christ's saving love makes us new creations. God sent his Son into the world to reconcile the world, and he has entrusted this message of reconciliation to us. We are ambassadors. We are the stewards of this hope. We are the conduits of grace. God made his sinless Son into sin itself so that sinners could become sons and be made right with him. What a message we have been given to proclaim! (2 Cor. 5:11-21)

In the church at Corinth false teachers had ascended to positions of leadership by using underhanded, manipulative methods. Paul counters their evil tricks by talking about how genuine ministers of the new covenant live. Ministers of the new covenant never use shameful tactics as they serve God's people--they only tell the truth. And instead of presenting themselves as leaders, they present Christ as the leader and themselves merely as servants. Ministers are nothing more than jars of clay--simply regular, ordinary vessels that are somehow, someway used to hold invaluable, glorious contents. The ultimate task of ministry is to daily participate in the death of Christ, so that the life of Christ may also be made visible in us. Ministers don't serve for their own benefit, but for the benefit of those they have been called to love. And when the road seems too challenging, they set their gaze on heaven and focus on what is unseen and eternal. (2 Cor. 4:1-18)

In 2 Corinthians Paul is battling false teachers who infiltrated the church at Corinth and accused Paul of being an illegitimate minister. Paul responds to these accusations by talking about how the new covenant demands a new ministry. In this new ministry, ministers lay down their lives for Christ, and though some smell death, others smell the fragrance of life. In this new ministry, ministers don't present “letters of recommendation” that have been chiseled out of stone because their credentials are the lives of people who have been transformed by their work. In this new ministry, the glory of God's presence and power does not fade away as it did with Moses, but increases more and more until we shine with the very radiance of Christ. (2 Cor. 2:14-3:18)

This is one of the most well known passages of Scripture in the entire Bible, but oftentimes the context is overlooked. The people of Corinth were approaching their relationships within the church and even their own spiritual gifts in a very self-serving way. People were only focused on themselves, not God or others. So in this passage Paul reminds them about the centrality and supremacy of love and admonishes them to let love be the motivation for everything they do. It doesn't matter if someone can speak in tongues and move mountains with their faith and is willing to give everything they have to the poor--all of that is void unless it is motivated and promoted by love. The sort of love that Paul talks about here is very contrarian to the ways of the world. It is not love “because of,” it is love “in spite of.” Not love given because of worth, but love given that actually imparts worth. God alone is the source of this type of love. (1 Cor. 13:1-13)

When it comes to making the most important decisions in life, the normal questions to ask are: “What do I want to do? What are my hopes and dreams? What goals would I like to accomplish?” But all of these questions have “I” at the center of them. That's the normal way to think, but the contrarian way to think is to exchange the “I” for “The Kingdom of God.” When it comes to important decisions in your life, instead of thinking, “What is best for me?” or “What advances my hopes and dreams?” We learn to ask instead, “What would bring God the most pleasure” and “What would make the biggest impact in the kingdom?” When we reorder our priorities, our entire approach to life changes. That is especially the case with relationships. In the kingdom, marriage and family are not ultimate--God is ultimate, and marriage and family are actually subserviate to Christ. This is an entirely new way of engaging with the world. (1 Cor. 7:1-40)

At first glance, the message of salvation makes no sense. The all-powerful creator God became a part of his creation and allowed himself to be humiliated, rejected and crushed by mankind, and somehow or another his death is suppose to change my life and eternity forever??? To so many in the world this message seems like nonsense and utter foolishness. But nonetheless, this message is the pathway to salvation. God is so contrarian that he chose the least likely, most foolish things of the world to save the world. He worked in a way no one would have ever guessed or anticipated in order to save the world. And we are saved as we place our faith in this “unexpected wisdom.” Just like with Jesus' life, our life doesn't have to make sense according to the world! (1 Cor. 1:18-31)

God's mercy not only makes us legally righteous and sets us free from a life of sin, it prepares us for an entirely new way of living. In the old covenant, worshippers would offer animal sacrifices to God. In this new covenant ushered in by Christ, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God--this is the expression of true worship. As we go through life, it is so easy to become just like everyone else around us and to look just like this world, but Paul tells us that we can be made new, transformed, and even undergo metamorphosis through the renewing of our minds. Once our minds are made new, we learn to think about ourselves and our role in the body of Christ in an entirely new way.

Not only does God save us from the consequences of our sin he saves us from bondage to our sin. He not only makes us “legally” righteous before him in heaven, he makes us practically righteous in the way we live day in and day out. Some say, “The more we sin, the greater God's grace actually appears...so we should keep on sinning so God's grace seems greater.” Paul refutes this logic and reminds us that when we joined Christ in the waters of baptism, our sinful nature died with Christ. So now, instead of being a “slave to sin” we are actually “slaves to righteousness.” God's grace is so great that it changes our nature and and breaks the power of sin in our life.