Category: <span>Sermons</span>

In the first “beatitude” Jesus said that the “poor in spirit” are blessed because the “kingdom of heaven” belongs to them. What does that mean? Our entire culture of religion is based on the promise that if we pray the right prayer and that we will one day go to heaven, but Jesus doesn’t say...

“Blessed.” One of the most used words in Christianity. “God bless you.” “Be blessed.” “It was such a blessing.” “God blessed me with  . . .” We pray for blessing, we seek blessing and we speak blessing but what does it mean? We have talked before about the reality that God’s revelation of blessing can...

A few months ago I had a friend come and visit from out of town and he asked if I could take him to see some of historical sites in Philadelphia. We went to Independence Hall, saw the Liberty Bell and went to the National Constitution Center. During the opening presentation at the Constitution Center...

Matthew 1:18-24  What does the incarnation of Jesus mean? Technically it is that God became a man but that answer is so theological that I think we miss the point and power sometimes. Why was Jesus born? Why did the Creator take the form of His creation? Why did the King of Glory become a...

This week our prayer pastor, Geannine LeBude shared the Sunday message. Weaving together the devotion of Mary of Bethany to Jesus with the great love the Bridegroom reveals for His bride in Song of Solomon Geannine taught profoundly that “our lives will only bear fruit if they are founded on a deep devotion of love...

Ephesians 2:4-10  We started this year with the theme of “Harvest”. Today we are going to revisit some of those thoughts and not conclude the theme as we often do but in some ways redefine it and I pray become reinvigorated to make harvest a permanent lifestyle rather than a temporary theme. As a group...

We have spent four months studying Paul’s letter to the Philippians, today we will conclude this series by going back over several of Paul’s most famous statements from the letter and seeing that they all have a very common thread. From the beginning we called this series “Bridges of Joy”, the letter is filled with...

Philippians 4:14-25  Last week we saw that as Paul closes out his letter to the Philippians that he reveals to us that the reason for writing the letter was a gift that they had sent to him. The gift gave Paul the opportunity to write and share the heart of God with them. In the first...

Philippians 4:10-13 Today we will get back to the book of Philippians and our “Bridges of Joy” series. In chapter 4 of the letter Paul makes a statement that has probably been quoted more than anything else Paul ever wrote, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Many of the often...