Are You Born Again? | John 3:1-8
This is the first of several sermons throughout the next two years in which I will reflect on what I learn at the GCTS Ockenga Fellows retreat. The Gordon-Conwell Ockenga Institute is named after the seminary’s first President, Dr. Harold John Ockenga, and exists to help the church bring about cultural renewal and transformation. Our first session was on the Great Awakening and Ministry in New England, so I look forward to sharing some of what I learned in this…
Raised to Life | Ephesians 2:1-10
Read or listen to Andy Bradshaw preach Ephesians 2:1-10 and our need for God’s grace. You can access a PDF of his sermon by clicking “Save” and “PDF.” Church Service You can watch the full service on Facebook or only the sermon on YouTube. Sermon Slides
My Prayer For You | Ephesians 1:15-23
Do you remember prayers? Are there certain prayers that stick out in your memory, maybe from your childhood or more recently? When I was a kid my dad put us to bed every-night by praying something like, “Heavenly Father, would you put a hedge of thorns and a wall of protection around Jonathan, and would he wake up refreshed and ready to go. Amen.” What prayers do you remember? Maybe your parents or a sibling or your pastor or an…
Grace is a Gift | Ephesians 1:3-14
What’s one of the best gifts you’ve ever received? Maybe some of you are leaning into your spouse right now and saying, “My husband” or “My wife.” Aww… That’s so sweet. But chances are you had to work for your spouse. You had to date them, try and look attractive for them, treat them nicely. No I’m talking about an item or thing someone gave you that you really like—pure materialism. On one of my favorite childhood birthdays I received…
Introducing Grace | Ephesians 1:1-2
Today maybe you’ve come to Cornerstone because it’s the beginning of the fall season or a friend invited you. I want you to know that I have the most encouraging message prepared for you. In fact, I want to start off with a word of encouragement I received at the last church conference attended. My encouragement to you is this… “You are good for nothing.” You are good for nothing… You, are good, for nothing. Would everyone say this phrase…
The Certain Gospel: How To Survive The End Of The World | Luke 21:5-38
What’s your worst fear when you’re a child? Quicksand. There’s nothing like quicksand to strike fear in the heart of a child. I can’t wait to tell Elijah about quicksand. This week I came across a wonderful game published in 2001 called The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Game. It teaches you how to survive bad things that can happen. So I thought, let’s play a little game today. Let’s see how well you would do surviving some worst-case scenarios. I thought…
The Certain Gospel: Where Jesus Stands Politically | Luke 20:20-26
Today I’m going to preach one of those sermons that I hope you will talk about on the drive home or at dinner afterwards with your family. Today I’m preaching on politics. I didn’t choose this topic because I thought, “You know what would go well with my son’s baby dedication? Politics!” No, I chose this text a while ago. Now this isn’t the first time I’ve preached on politics, but I think it’s good to have a refresher before…
The Certain Gospel: Wait… What? God’s Storyline | Luke 5:17-26
When you expect one thing and God does something completely different, remember God is telling a bigger story than you can ever think or imagine. Watch, listen or read this sermon on Luke 5:17-25 by Mark Pender. Click “Save” to download the pdf manuscript. Church Service You can watch the full service on Facebook or only the sermon on YouTube. Sermon Slides
The Certain Gospel: Consumer Christianity | Luke 19:45-48
I want to start out by playing a little game. I want to see if you can guess each answer. I’m going to ask you a “how many” question and you’re going to see if you know the right answer. How many cars and trucks did Americans buy in 2017? Answer: 17.3 million How much did we spend on movie tickets domestically in 2017? Answer: $11 billion How much did Americans spend on donuts in 2014? Answer: $581 million How…
The Certain Gospel: Pray for Justice | Luke 18:1-8
Does prayer work? When you’re going through something and you ask people to pray for you, does it matter? Does it help? Maybe you’ve seen this meme on Facebook about the uselessness of prayer. “I named my cats ‘thoughts’ and ‘prayers’ because they’re useless.” I actually think that’s pretty funny, but it’s sadly popular because people believe it. Prayer doesn’t work. Maybe some of you were on social media after the recent Parkland Shooting and you saw this meme showing…
The Certain Gospel: Divorce & Remarriage | Luke 16:18
I think I’m a bit naive. When I chose preaching on divorce and remarriage this week I thought it would be an easy sermon. I mean I’m preaching on one verse, right? How hard can it be? Don’t the majority of pastors and scholars agree about what the Bible has to say on divorce and remarriage? No they do not. The more I studied this topic the more I realized I don’t know, but I’m still going to try and…
The Certain Gospel: What is the kingdom of God? Part 2/2 | Luke 18:15-17
We’re starting this sermon by watching a clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This clip shows how many people feel about the idea of kings and authorities. Dennis really didn’t like the king, did he? He saw no reason to respect King Arthur and King Arthur was not very respectable. He used his authority to repress his subjects. If you could have a good king, would you want him? Would you want a king to lead you, protect…