Category Archives: Sermons

The Love of Your Life: Light, Fire, and Love

Posted on April 28, 2021 by salooper57

In 1 John 4:7-12, the Apostle of Love gives three reasons why Christians love each other. First, they love because of who God is (vv. 7-8). Second, they love because of what God has done (vv. 9-11). And third, we … Continue reading →

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The Love of Your Life: The Three Tests

Posted on April 27, 2021 by salooper57

In St. John’s first letter, readers are given three self-tests that can make clear whether or not a person belongs to Christ and shares the life of the age to come. This, he says is why he wrote the letter: … Continue reading →

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Christian Hope: Does It Differ from Optimism?

Posted on April 23, 2021 by salooper57

He then told me something – and it was hard for him to talk, so I had to listen closely – that I have never forgotten. He told me that the last two months – since he had come over to Jesus’s side – had been the two best months of his life. I looked at him in wonder. Here was a man from whom everything had been taken. His former life was gone. His world was a bed. His body was a prison. And the last two months had been the best time of his life.

How was that possible? What had happened? Continue reading →

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8 Things Hope Does for the Believer (part 2)

Posted on April 22, 2021 by salooper57

My son Kevin and I were once fishing in Quebec from a boat that was anchored about 100 yards above a small waterfall. (I say small, but it probably dropped 30 feet over a course of a couple of hundred yards.) Without that anchor, the current would have carried us into pain and loss. And without hope, the strong currents of this age will carry you and your family where you do not want to go. Continue reading →

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8 Things Hope Does for Us (According to Scripture)

Posted on April 20, 2021 by salooper57

Hopelessness makes work seem pointless, but hope has the opposite effect. It is no wonder that the New Testament’s most hopeful chapter closes with these words: “Stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58). You know that when you have hope. Continue reading →

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Hope – I Need Somebody (Hope- Not Just Anybody)

Posted on April 18, 2021 by salooper57
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Faith Is Work

Posted on April 15, 2021 by salooper57

Amy Carmichael, said: “The tests are always unexpected things, not great things that can be written up, but the common little rubs of life, silly little nothings, things you are ashamed of minding [at all]. Yet they can knock a … Continue reading →

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The Christian and Testing: Will We Pass the Test?

Posted on April 12, 2021 by salooper57

The Bible is uncomfortably clear: God test people and nations. Not everyone passes the test. Yet, as C. S. Lewis so eloquently put it: “The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of … Continue reading →

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The Sorrows of the Past Will Hurt Us No More

Posted on April 9, 2021 by salooper57

In this 28-minute narrative sermon, we learn that Jesus’s people get confused, sad, broken, and hurt. In this world we have trouble – just as Jesus promised. But Christ enters our trouble and meets us there – and that changes … Continue reading →

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Fountain of Life: Love for Jesus

Posted on April 8, 2021 by salooper57

In 1 Peter 1:3-9, we see how the flood of blessing that flows from the Fountain of Life spreads: It blesses us first with new life (verse 3), which comes with hope already installed. It blesses us with a spectacular … Continue reading →

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