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For all of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27-29). Pro-Biden signs, MAGA caps, anti-maskers, right wing this, left wing that, anti-vaxx protestors, Black Lives Matter signs. We expect such division in society as a whole, but wh...
Keep Readingthat we might receive adoption to sonship (Galatians 4:5b). Picture a city inhabited by scads of street kids. These poor miserable urchins run rampant through the streets, dig through garbage cans for food, pick pockets, bully and are bullied, cower in dark alleyways and whimper in the night. Why is this happening? Because they are orphans with no one to parent them. To...
Keep Reading...to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:5-6). What does that really look like, to be His "sons?" What does it look like to actually live life as these "sons" (and daughters) who are free to know Him as Father?In th...
Keep ReadingNew series: True ID It is not a hostile question, this "Who do you think you are?" It's not asking to you to defend or justify your existence, or prove your worth. Honestly: who are you? We're beginning True ID, our new sermon series, which will help us explore what Scripture says about our identity, who we really are or better, whose we are. "Tell me about yourself." ...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 1:1-13:31 We're approaching the end of Let's Rebuild!, a sermon series that has immersed us in the Book of Nehemiah. As we prepare to wave farewell to Nehemiahbut not to the necessary and continuous hard work of building, rebuilding and maintaining healthy and robust communities of faithlet's give thanks together. Thank you, Nehemiah, for showing and reminding u...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 13:14, 22, 29, 31 Nehemiah's book begins and ends in prayer. The "action" begins with Nehemiah learning of the sad condition of the Jewish remnant in and around Jerusalem. His first act? To praysee 1:4-11. The very last act in the book? A prayer, the tenth time Nehemiah records his prayerssee 13:31. And the very heart of the book: a prayer (chapter 9). We don't...
Keep Reading"Remember meO my God[for] what I have faithfully done" (Nehemiah 13:14). "Some time later [Nehemiah]came back to Jerusalem" (10:6b-7a). Had he been away months, years? However long it's been, and it appears to have been years, the people have moved past the great rebuilding project and instead of a "happily ever after," Nehemiah finds they have dramatically forsaken all t...
Keep Reading"Didn't your forefathers do the same things, so that our God broughtall this calamity upon us and upon this city?" (Nehemiah 13:18a). Sanballat and Tobiah. Do those names ring a bell? (It would be totally understandable if they didn't!) These two showed up in Nehemiah 2 "very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites." Shortly after th...
Keep ReadingNehemiah 13:4-30 Why couldn't Nehemiah have ended his book with chapter 12? The wall has been rebuilt, that accomplishment has been joyfully celebrated (chapter 8), and then we come to the dedication of the wall (chapter 12)another joy-filled celebration with a restored Temple, rebuilt walls, a repopulated capital city. It's like the days of Kings David and Solomon! After...
Keep ReadingThe whole company that had returned from exile built temporary shelters and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great. Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the festival for seven days (Nehemiah 8:17-18). ...
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