Sermons on Acts
Troubling Truth | Acts 17:1-9
Pastor Ron introduces us to Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica as he begins a new sermon series entitled “A Better Life Now”. Discussion Questions 1. Suffering and Death were great hurdles or obstacles for the Jews to believe Jesus was Messiah. What are some of the common hurdles or obstacles for people today to believe Jesus is who He says He is? 2. How does the gospel trouble you? 3. Jealousy was a problem here. (Note: Prov.14:30; James 3:16: Mark 7:22)…
Space and Grace | Romans 14:1-6 (Women in Ministry Sermon Series)
When I finished my sermon on a hybrid view of women in ministry, I asked a couple of questions: How might we walk by faith and extend grace to each other in this issue? How can we make room for each other? How can we follow our consciences and enable others to do the same? Here’s how I want to phrase it today: How can we give each other grace? We return to this question today because it’s how I…
Spirit-Filled Leadership | Numbers 11:24-29; Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:1-4 (female elders?)
Who does God want to lead his people? Who does God want to serve as pastors, elders, and leaders in the church? It’s easy in a series like this to jump right to gender, “only men lead,” or “men and women can lead.” But I think if we look at the broad scope of scripture, the question of leadership and God’s people, we find a surprising twist and maybe a different answer. Let’s look at Numbers 11, Joel 2, and…
A Caught Faith | 2 Timothy 1:5 (Lois & Eunice – Mother’s Day Message)
Happy Mother’s Day. I want to start by saying how grateful I am for my mom encouraging my walk with Christ, and I’m constantly grateful for how my wife Monica teaches our kids about Jesus. Today, in scripture, we see two examples of women who did the same thing. We’ve been in this series, Women in the Kingdom, and we’ve been looking at lots of women, wives, and mothers throughout the Bible. Today we’re going to look at a grandmother…
Lessons Learned in Acts | Acts 28:11-31 (End of Acts)
We started our series in Acts on January 5th, 2020. Acts is the first big book that we’ve covered in its entirety. Today is our 56th sermon in this series, Outward Church. How do you feel? Has anything changed in your life, in our church’s life? The question, as we come to a close, is twofold. 1) What did we learn? 2) And what are we doing about it? The heartbeat of Acts is missions. Jesus outlined the book in…
A Great Big Snake Story | Acts 28:1-10; 1 Samuel 17 (David & Goliath the Serpent)
Elijah really likes The Jungle Book. One of the characters in that story is a really big and sneaky snake named Kaa. He’s a python, and he’s famous for his colorful, hypnotic eyes and his ability to put Mowgli into a trance. He nearly catches and eats Mowgli, but Mowgli escapes. Snakes are a part of popular culture, from Indiana Jones to Harry Potter to the movie, Anaconda, and Snakes on a Plane (neither of which I’ve seen). But, our…
Always Be Prepared | Acts 25:23-26:32 (How to outline my testimony)
A couple of years ago, Monica and I went through this brief stent where we were really into TV shows about preppers, people who are prepared for disaster. We’d watch these shows, and it would always go like this. “Katie lives in downtown Salt Lake City, but she’s been stockpiling canned goods, dried food, and has a bug-out bag ready to go if she needs to leave in a hurry. Katie is afraid that the famous salt-lake city volcano could…
The Highest Court | Acts 25:1-22 (When we face injustice)
Have you ever faced injustice? Have you ever been treated unfairly? Maybe a boss mistreated you at work, or a family member or friend did not treat you right. Maybe you can think of a family member or friend who has experienced injustice. My dad told me the story of how he was let go from his job for something he had not done, and it was painful for him. Maybe you’ve faced something similar. As we look at the…
Gospel Courage | Acts 24:1-27 (Paul before Felix)
I remember the first time I jumped off the high-diving board in my hometown pool. This wasn’t an Olympic high-diving board, nor was it a diving board at pool level. You had to climb up four or five rungs. I was young enough to be wearing a life vest, and I was scared. And I went out to the end of the diving board. I looked down at the water. And then I turned around, and I climbed down. As…
Unexpected Deliverance | Acts 23:12-35
There’s something wrong with our youth; and I don’t mean our teenagers. I mean the children. There’s this thing that they are just addicted too. It gets in their brains. They always want to watch it, and sing it. That’s right, I’m talking about the dangers of Encanto, Disney’s newest adventure for the whole family. We watched Encanto a couple weekends ago and now we’re listening to Surface Pressure and We Don’t Talk About Bruno so many times. Here’s the…
God’s Work in Emotions | Acts 22:22-23:11
Today is a big day for Cornerstone for two reasons. First, we finally made it back to Acts! I last preached Acts in Juneand, Lord willing, we’re going to finish it by Easter. Second, today is the first day of our new worship service format—which is 20 minutes of worship, 20-minute message, and 45 minutes of discussion. And this is terrifying for me because I normally preach 30-35 minutes. So this is going to be an experiment, for all of…
Part 4. “O” – Other Peoples’ Good | Genesis 1:28; Jeremiah 29:4-7; Acts 2:42-47
We are now in our fourth week, third word, of our sermon series, Faith & Flourishing in Politics. F stands for “Faith, Not Fear.” L is “Love God & Neighbor,” and today we’re on O, “Other Peoples’ Good.” A British game show in the late 2000s tested whether people would put other peoples’ good before their own. The show was called Golden Balls, which was named after golden balls the size of tennis balls that had money from £10 to…