St Marcus Mke Sermons

Jacob is the perfect illustration of what happens when you don’t get loved the right way and you start self-medicating. You’re become both a victim and a criminal – i.e. you hurt from problems you didn’t create, but then you take matters into your own hands and try to solve things, only to end up making the situation worse. The real solution is that God’s grace drives him into our brokenness. That experience of grace is what leads to heart transformation. This week, we’ll see what that looked like in the life of Jacob, and what it can mean in ours as well as we study “Jacob’s Ladder” in Genesis 28:10-22.

The only way to truly measure love is to see what you’re willing to endure in order to bless someone. In other words, true love can only be measured by sacrifice. The Bible says this is how we know the extent to which God loves us (1 John 3:16). There is likely not a better image in the Old Testament that depicts the gospel than the story of “Abraham Offers Isaac to God,” from Genesis 22:1-18, which we’ll study this week. We learn here something about the necessity of sacrifice for meaning in life, for reciprocating God’s love, and, most importantly, God’s sacrifice for our salvation.

One of the most divisive stories in the Bible is that of “Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed.” Often, the reason for the controversy stems from each of us looking at the account through our own narrow lens. In reality, the account is one of undeserved, gracious, miraculous deliverance. This week we’ll see what we can learn about the “Sin of Sodom”, the erosion of godliness, and the integrity of our Christian witness as we study Genesis 19:1-17.

One of the principle teachings of the Reformation was the Doctrine of Vocation – the idea that there aren’t spiritual classes, but rather, that God has called EVERY believer to meaningful work. Much seems mysterious about this “calling” thing, so we’ll clear up some confusion about God’s call, we’ll wrestle with the implications of what it actually means, and we’ll see the grace that exists in the Christian call. We’ll do this as we worship under the theme “The Call of Abram” and study Gen. 12:1-9.

This week, we’re hitting the pause button on our current worship series to hold an October Missions Festival. We will be praying for home missions, world missions, and the personal mission fields in each of our lives. We will be studying Colossians 3:1-2, 16 and applying what it means to let the message of Christ dwell deeply within us and within our congregation

In our 4th week of the series, we yet again hit another major turning point in human history – the story of Noah and the Flood. We’ll learn that the “Floods” of a fallen world are primarily caused by human selfishness. The only way to find shelter in the midst of the inevitable storms is still in the Ark. And the way to be confident that God has turned away his anger from humanity is by focusing on a sweet-smelling sacrifice from his Son. We’ll be studying a whole bunch of verses from Gen 6-9.

We’re in our 3rd week of the series, and this week we’ll be dissecting the story of Cain and Abel. Envy and bitterness result in a highly religious guy, a guy who knows God, killing his own brother, with painful consequences. Already in a fallen world, we discover how sin, God’s grace, and hope for salvation are present in every human story. We’ll be studying Genesis 4:1-16.

Outside of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the most classic, most famous story of the Bible is likely the Fall of Mankind. It is the quintessential story of INFINITE DEPTH. The exact same dynamics that happened with Adam and Eve in the Garden at the Tree has happened to humans billions of times since. And the solution is the same. What are those dynamics? We’ll dig into it as we examine Adam and Eve’s Fall from Genesis 3:1-9.

We all have a lot of stories that we perhaps studied as kids in Sunday School, but we’ve never really, fully reexamined them as adults. These stories do have superficial morals, which we probably learned when we were young, but we may not have understood how the stories fit in to the greater story of Jesus and salvation, nor how our daily struggles resonate with these ancient characters. They are INFINITELY deep. So, we revisit them, not because the stories are new, but because we are continuously being made new.  This week we’ll examine the Creation Account from Genesis 1:1-25.

In the final week of our series, we’ll be looking at our 4th St. Marcus CORE VALUE: Radical Expectations. We’ll be studying the story of Jesus, on Maundy Thursday, getting down on his hands and knees and washing his disciples’ feet. It was a disgusting task that demonstrated unthinkable humility. Further shocking to the system is the fact that Jesus then says, “You will be blessed if you do these things.” What does this mean? We’ll look to find out as we study together John 13:1-9, 17.

This week we come to the 3rd of our St. Marcus CORE VALUES: Biblical Discipleship. This concept means that your life agenda is not your own; it’s not driven by your wants and desires. Growth and development requires structure and discipline. It requires sitting at the feet of another as well as helping lead another. It requires confronting the truth, no matter how enjoyable or painful…because the truth of God sets people free. Jesus elaborates on this method to liberation as we study together John 8:31-42.

Last week, we had the opportunity to talk about what sacrificial love to one another looks like, including in our community. This week we’re hopping back to look at the first of our CORE VALUES, “Christ First.” It’s ultimately an issue of priorities. And the story of Mary & Martha is tremendously profound when it comes to learning to balance multiple important things in life. This week we’ll study Luke 10:38-42.

For the second straight year, we’re going to be spending a month at the beginning of our school year studying our St. Marcus CORE VALUES. This week we’re looking at the CORE VALUE of “Sacrificial Love” as we have the 3rd annual opportunity to be “in our community” for worship at our Outdoor Service.

Run the Race Marked Out For You I. Christ is Your Strength II. God Gives You Training Based on Hebrews 12:1-11

This is the FINAL WEEK in our summer series on Romans. After explaining our justification (chapters 1-4), and our the initial natural reactions of our flesh to that justification (chapters 5-7), the Apostle Paul is now going to teach us about how to lead a “Life by the Spirit” (Rom. 8:5-17). This involves a radical redefining of WHO you are and WHAT you do in life.

We’re up to week 9 of 10 in our summer Romans series. In chapter 6, Paul addressed the attitude that if Jesus paid for our sins, our sins must not matter anymore. Now, in chapter 7, he’s moving into teaching us how to better fight temptation. All Christians struggle with sin. But all Christians are also given a supernatural power to overcome. And the long-term answer to winning more battles is not merely in asserting greater willpower. This week we’ll look at a lesson on “War With Self” as we study Romans 7:14-25.

In Romans 6, Paul is helping us work out the implications of “Justification” (i.e. God declares us “not guilty” of our sins because of Jesus’ work. That means eternal salvation! But what does it mean for my life RIGHT NOW?) If my sins don’t detract from my salvation, do they even matter? If good works don’t generate salvation, then why bother? Paul anticipates that logic and responds by giving us a lesson on what it means to be “Slaves to Righteousness” in Romans 6:19-23.

We are in the 2nd half of our summer series on Romans. The Apostle Paul has clearly established that salvation comes as the gift of Christ Jesus, not through pedigree (who you are) or performance (what you do). The natural response for some listeners was to say, “Well, I guess what I do in my life doesn’t make any difference then. Are you saying my sins don’t matter?” Paul is directly addressing that logic this week and it’s supremely practical. Paul confronts everything you’ve ever been disgusted with in yourself or others in licentious, lukewarm, standardless Christianity. And he teaches us that if we are “United to Christ” we become instruments of righteousness. Join us this week as we examine Romans 6:5-14.  

This week we begin our 2nd half of the series on Romans. The Apostle Paul is shifting from making the radical statement that we are saved by grace (NOT performance or pedigree) through faith in chapters 1-4 to now teaching about how that impacts our present lives in chapters 5-8. This week we’ll learn 4 distinct and amazing implications of the Christian gospel as we worship under the theme “What Justification Brings” and study Romans 5:1-11.

Every human wants acceptance, love, and appreciation. In this world, we’re convinced we’ll have to work for it. That’s how the world operates - meritocracy. So we work hard at something on which all our hope rests. The Apostle Paul would call that life pursuit our “boast.” And if we achieve what we’re working for, we become proud. If we fail at what we’re working for, we start self-loathing. Both of those are dangerous. But what if there was a validation we could receive that would make us confident, but not arrogant? Humble in success but also content even after failure. The gospel offers exactly that. It’s what Abraham needed. It’s what David need. And Paul will teach us this week that we need it too as we study Romans 4:1-8.