Sermons by Shawn Reese (Page 8)

Sermons by Shawn Reese (Page 8)

Your Will and Our Bread

Matt 6:9-13 We enter back into the Lord’s Prayer this Sunday. The disciples are recorded to have asked Jesus to teach them only one thing – to pray. Jesus then teaches them the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11). In our journey through the prayer, we are asking Jesus the same thing: Lord teach us to pray. This Sunday we explore petitions 3 and 4: your will be done and give us this day our daily bread.

Your Name and Your Kingdom

Matt 6:9-10 We are journeying through the Lord’s Prayer together, and this week we explore the first two petitions: “hallowed be your name” and “your kingdom come.” Over against babbling like pagans, Jesus teaches us to “pray like this” (6:9): address our Father in heaven, then pray these two petitions. Apparently he thought it vitally important to hallow the Father’s name and pray for his kingdom to come. But, what are we actually praying in these two petitions? I invite you to come Sunday as we explore this text together.

The Lord’s Prayer

Matthew 6:7-15 In the Sermon on the Mount, in the middle of Jesus’ instruction on the Spiritual Disciplines, he gives extra teaching on prayer. He says that we are not to mindlessly babble in prayer, instead we are to pray simply and shortly, the model being the Lord’s Prayer.

Authentic Devotion

Matt 6:1-6, 16-18 After our summer in the Parables, we now enter back into the Sermon on the Mount, Living Right-side Up in an Upside-down World. In our text for this week, Jesus protects the spiritual disciplines. Why? Because the spiritual disciplines nurture our relationship to God and nurture life in his kingdom. Jesus assumes we will do them, but his focus is on our motivation. Are we motivated to do them to be seen by people (others or ourselves), or are we motivated to do them “authentically” to be seen by God?

Extravagant Hope: The Parable of the Wheat and Weeds

Matt 13:24-30, 36-43 If Jesus has brought the Kingdom of God, why is evil still happening?  This Sunday we explore the parable of the wheat and weeds which helps us with that question. In the parable, the wheat and weeds are not to be separated until the final harvest, the final judgment. Ultimately, we are reminded again that God will bring justice and will reward the “righteous,” promising that they will shine like the sun forever and ever!This is our extravagant hope.

The Extravagant Sower

Matt 13:24-30 This week we will look at the parable of the sower from Matthew’s Gospel. The key to this parable is the word “understand.” A way to understand the word understand is to think “stand under.” If we “stand under” the Word sown in our hearts, we will be transformed (from seed to tree) and naturally bear fruit which is Jesus’ primary calling of this parable. Come this Sunday to explore this famous parable.

Introduction to the Parables

Mark 4:1-20 After spending 8 weeks in the book of Acts, we now begin our summer series, Overflowing Extravagance, Studies in the Parables of Jesus. Jesus taught mainly in parables, story-analogies. In fact, they are ordinary stories of ordinary people in ordinary places doing ordinary things. And, yet, they are intended to engage, cause reflection and compel action. Come Sunday as we begin to explore Jesus’ compelling parables.

Easter: The Dance of the Resurrection

1 Cor 15:20-28 He has risen!  The man who was dead and buried on Friday, was alive on Sunday morning.  He is the living one!  And because he is the living one, life wins!  God wins!  The good news of Easter is that God wins, but, also, that those who are in Christ will win too! That’s what Paul is trying to get across in his resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15.  We will soak in verses 20-28 this Sunday, but I encourage you to read the entire chapter in preparation.

We would Like To See Jesus

John 12:12-33 We take a break from our Joshua study this Sunday to enter into the story of Jesus as told by John. I invite you to soak in John’s version of Palm Sunday this week, when some Greeks show up asking to see Jesus. It’s the same question you and I ask everyday, isn’t it? We want to see Jesus.

Christ and Creation

Col 1:15-20 This baby in the manger is the – image of the invisible God firstborn of all creation creator of all things the goal of all things before all things and in him, all things hold together. It takes your breath away, but that’s the magnificence of the incarnation!

Surpassing Love

Matt 5:43-48 Love my enemy? Give food to my enemy when he is hungry? Give drink when he is thirsty? Are you crazy, Jesus? But I want to throw the food and drink in his face… Nothing is impossible with the Spirit of the Living God.

No Longer An Echo

Matt 5:38-42 How do we respond when people wrong us? Do we respond in kind? Do we give blow for blow? Are we simply echoes, returning hurt for hurt? This week we come to the fifth fulfiller, and Jesus teaches us that surpassing righteousness happens by overcoming evil with good. In doing so, we model what Jesus himself did in his passion. This is a seemingly impossible saying, but nothing is impossible when the Spirit of the Living God is involved.