Kaleo Church Podcast

In Mark 13:32-37 Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to come again and he calls them to stay awake. Part of staying awake means longing for Jesus return. In this sermon, we will consider why it is that we often find ourselves longing more for the temporary things of this world than for Jesus return. We will also see why it is that we can know with absolute certainty that Jesus is truly going to come again and when he does it will be the greatest thing that has ever happened for all those who have put their trust in him.

In Mark 13, Jesus is preparing his disciples to be ready for coming persecution. While there were implications specific to Jesus' disciples, he also calls the reader of Mark to understand that they need to be ready for the Second Coming of Jesus. Listen and hear how the gospel encourages us to be ready for the return of Jesus.

In Mark 13 Jesus alerts His disciples to the persecution that is coming for those who have chosen to follow Him and he warns them about seeking to escape it by following false Messiahs. Instead, Jesus calls His disciples to rely on the Holy Spirit and to endure all the way to the end. Instead of being alarmed by persecution Jesus tells his disciples that God intends to use persecution to be the very means by which the Gospel goes out into the world. In this sermon we will see how God has used persecution to spread the Gospel both in the book of Acts and throughout church history. My prayers is that God would use this sermon to lead all of us to become more dependent upon his Spirit and more bold in our proclamation of the Gospel to others.

There are crossroads that each one of us will face throughout our life. Will we seek to do large things in famous ways as fast and efficiently as possible or will we be content to do small, mostly overlooked things, over a long period of time and to love doing them because we are doing them with Jesus. In this message Jesus warns us about the danger of seeking our glory here on earth. Instead Jesus shows us another way, and in the process demonstrates why He and He alone is worthy of the glory that we often find ourselves running after.

In Mark 12:28-34 Jesus summarizes all of the law and the prophets in a few short verses. What a gift! In this message we will consider some of the obstacles that keep us from following these two great commandments. At the end we will talk about how God’s amazing love for us in Christ offers us all that we need to begin to rightly order our own love and apply Jesus great call to our lives.

We live in a very politically divided time and those divisions are often just as apparent in the church as they are in the world. Many Christians have responded to the political climate of our country in one of two ways. Either they have chosen to withdraw from politics or they have picked one of the two political parties and embraced their agenda even though it has meant sometimes having to look the other way on matters to which Christians out to object. In Mark 12:13-17 Jesus comes to offer us a third way. My prayer is that God would use this message to unify his people under the good rule of our great King and that we would find that his love for us is able to overcome the political divide of this and any other age.

In Mark 12:1-12 Jesus tells a story about the patience of God and the way the religious leaders had abused it. Essentially this text is a warning. It’s a warning not to presume upon God’s kindness or misinterpret his patience for permissiveness. You see as patient as our God might be this story reminds us that there is a day of judgment coming. In this message the landlord’s son comes to each of us and begs us not to neglect the great salvation he came to offer by presuming upon God’s patience but rather to let God’s patience lead us to repentance.

Sometimes we allow things in this world to become so important to us that they begin to become a part of our very identity. Sadly, whenever something becomes a part of our identity we often find it very difficult to listen to feedback in that area. In Mark 11 Jesus challenges the religious leaders about something that was very important to them and we find that they were unable to genuinely consider his critique. By watching how the religious leaders respond to Jesus challenge we can learn a lot about ourselves and the ways we often respond to criticism. The message concludes by seeing how Jesus continues to challenge us even today whenever we allow anything other than his glory to become preeminent in our lives.

In Mark 11:20-25 Jesus reminds his disciples that God is able to do the impossible and he calls them to ask him for anything, believing that they will receive it, and he will give it to them. Some of you may have tried this. Some of you have asked God for the impossible and truly believed that he would do it, and yet nothing happened. And the truth is that hurts. It hurts to believe that God is going to do something impossible and then find out that he doesn’t. So what do we do? Do we stop asking? Do we keep asking but no longer really believe its going to happen? What are we supposed to do with all the impossible things we long for when praying about them often only leads to pain? These are some of the questions we will try and answer in tonight’s sermon.

In this passage we see Jesus curse a fig tree and it raises all kinds of questions. In the end though we realize that this passage really isn’t about the fig tree, it’s about us. So what are we supposed to learn from this surprising passage? In what ways are we like the fig tree? And if we are like this tree what do we need to do to ensure that we don’t receive the same curse that fell on it? Lastly, what does all of this have to do with Jesus cleansing of the temple and how should we apply that to our lives today?

Ruth 4 describes the costly faith of Boaz seeking to redeem Naomi and Ruth. The other redeemer in the story concludes that Ruth and Naomi are not worth his time, but Boaz is willing to redeem them at all costs. All of this is pointing forward to Jesus, the Redeemer who was willing to give it all to redeem the widow, the outsider, and all those who would believe in Him. Through the cross and resurrection, Christ is quilting together a patchwork of redemption that will result in his eternal praise. Through doing this, he proves to be the worthy treasure that is worth any cost to us.

How do you respond to loss? In Ruth 3 we see someone who is well acquainted with loss vulnerably open herself up and lay her heart at the feet of Boaz? How did she do it? Where did she find the courage? What gave her the confidence to risk everything after she had already lost so much? And how would Boaz respond? Was it worth it? And what does this story have to do with us today? Are there things it can teach us about how we ought to respond to the losses in our lives?

In Ruth 2 we are welcomed into the story of Boaz welcoming a Moabite outsider into his field. He protects her provides for her, and associates himself with her by feasting with her. Listen and hear how the gospel is the great news about the Lord of the Harvest who invites sinners to feast with him as a family.

In Ruth chapter 1, we are invited into a story of sorrow and tragedy. Yet, despite such hardship, we see a God who is with His people every step of the way as he directs every single second of history towards its intended destiny. Hear and see how the Gospel invites us into a life where we can trust God in bitter suffering and unmeasured delight.

Waiting can be hard for us. The command to wait is the second most used command in the Bible. If God sees waiting as a good thing, why do we struggle to wait? Listen and hear how the first appearing of Jesus creates in us the ability to wait for his second appearing with eager expectation.