St Marcus Mke Sermons

In the final week of our series, we’ll be looking at our 4th St. Marcus CORE VALUE: Radical Expectations. We’ll be studying the story of Jesus, on Maundy Thursday, getting down on his hands and knees and washing his disciples’ feet. It was a disgusting task that demonstrated unthinkable humility. Further shocking to the system is the fact that Jesus then says, “You will be blessed if you do these things.” What does this mean? We’ll look to find out as we study together John 13:1-9, 17.

This week we come to the 3rd of our St. Marcus CORE VALUES: Biblical Discipleship. This concept means that your life agenda is not your own; it’s not driven by your wants and desires. Growth and development requires structure and discipline. It requires sitting at the feet of another as well as helping lead another. It requires confronting the truth, no matter how enjoyable or painful…because the truth of God sets people free. Jesus elaborates on this method to liberation as we study together John 8:31-42.

Last week, we had the opportunity to talk about what sacrificial love to one another looks like, including in our community. This week we’re hopping back to look at the first of our CORE VALUES, “Christ First.” It’s ultimately an issue of priorities. And the story of Mary & Martha is tremendously profound when it comes to learning to balance multiple important things in life. This week we’ll study Luke 10:38-42.

For the second straight year, we’re going to be spending a month at the beginning of our school year studying our St. Marcus CORE VALUES. This week we’re looking at the CORE VALUE of “Sacrificial Love” as we have the 3rd annual opportunity to be “in our community” for worship at our Outdoor Service.

Run the Race Marked Out For You I. Christ is Your Strength II. God Gives You Training Based on Hebrews 12:1-11

This is the FINAL WEEK in our summer series on Romans. After explaining our justification (chapters 1-4), and our the initial natural reactions of our flesh to that justification (chapters 5-7), the Apostle Paul is now going to teach us about how to lead a “Life by the Spirit” (Rom. 8:5-17). This involves a radical redefining of WHO you are and WHAT you do in life.

We’re up to week 9 of 10 in our summer Romans series. In chapter 6, Paul addressed the attitude that if Jesus paid for our sins, our sins must not matter anymore. Now, in chapter 7, he’s moving into teaching us how to better fight temptation. All Christians struggle with sin. But all Christians are also given a supernatural power to overcome. And the long-term answer to winning more battles is not merely in asserting greater willpower. This week we’ll look at a lesson on “War With Self” as we study Romans 7:14-25.

In Romans 6, Paul is helping us work out the implications of “Justification” (i.e. God declares us “not guilty” of our sins because of Jesus’ work. That means eternal salvation! But what does it mean for my life RIGHT NOW?) If my sins don’t detract from my salvation, do they even matter? If good works don’t generate salvation, then why bother? Paul anticipates that logic and responds by giving us a lesson on what it means to be “Slaves to Righteousness” in Romans 6:19-23.

We are in the 2nd half of our summer series on Romans. The Apostle Paul has clearly established that salvation comes as the gift of Christ Jesus, not through pedigree (who you are) or performance (what you do). The natural response for some listeners was to say, “Well, I guess what I do in my life doesn’t make any difference then. Are you saying my sins don’t matter?” Paul is directly addressing that logic this week and it’s supremely practical. Paul confronts everything you’ve ever been disgusted with in yourself or others in licentious, lukewarm, standardless Christianity. And he teaches us that if we are “United to Christ” we become instruments of righteousness. Join us this week as we examine Romans 6:5-14.  

This week we begin our 2nd half of the series on Romans. The Apostle Paul is shifting from making the radical statement that we are saved by grace (NOT performance or pedigree) through faith in chapters 1-4 to now teaching about how that impacts our present lives in chapters 5-8. This week we’ll learn 4 distinct and amazing implications of the Christian gospel as we worship under the theme “What Justification Brings” and study Romans 5:1-11.

Every human wants acceptance, love, and appreciation. In this world, we’re convinced we’ll have to work for it. That’s how the world operates - meritocracy. So we work hard at something on which all our hope rests. The Apostle Paul would call that life pursuit our “boast.” And if we achieve what we’re working for, we become proud. If we fail at what we’re working for, we start self-loathing. Both of those are dangerous. But what if there was a validation we could receive that would make us confident, but not arrogant? Humble in success but also content even after failure. The gospel offers exactly that. It’s what Abraham needed. It’s what David need. And Paul will teach us this week that we need it too as we study Romans 4:1-8.

At the center of all biblical doctrine is Paul’s Letter to the Romans. And at the center of Romans is the notion of gifted “RIGHTEOUSNESS,” perhaps the most under-comprehended, underappreciated teaching of the Bible. This week we’ll do our most thorough study of this concept of “The Righteousness of the Gospel” as we examine Romans 3:21-31.

In Romans, Paul teaches that the good news of Jesus is the only one-size-fits-all solution for humanity. Last week we established that the gospel is the thing that the pagan world desperately needs. The bad behaviors in society come when people suppress the truth of God and exchange it for a love of created things. This week, Paul teaches about another form of idolatry – a religious idolatry. Consequently, though they tend to be shocked by this revelation, religious people need the gospel just as much as the pagans. Paul will expound on this truth as we study Romans 2:17-29.

Humanity’s greatest need is reconciliation to the God we’ve rebelled against. Last week, the Apostle Paul told us that this reconciliation cannot come through man’s work, but only through Christ’s gift. This week, Paul adds the thought that the pagan world is not inherently interested in this “good news” of Jesus. This world inherently knows the truths of God, but suppresses those inconvenient truths, choosing to worship created things rather than a Creator God. And this idolatry drives all the bad behavior we see in the world, including our own. As we study Romans 1:18-25 this week, however, we’ll see what God does to solve the problem.

This summer we’re going to be working our way through the first half of Paul’s Letter to the Romans, which is considered by many scholars to be the most foundational of Christian writings. It is here that the Apostle Paul, who is the primary human agent that God uses to record the New Testament, lays out the essence of the gospel in the most comprehensive form. This week, as we hear Paul stating that he is not “ashamed” of the gospel, we’ll be looking at the natural offense the message of Jesus is to human flesh, which is further proof as to why we need that gospel. The start to our series will be a study of Romans 1:16-17.

This is our final week in the series and we’ll be worshipping under the theme “Merely Human Messengers.” This week we examine a fascinating account from Acts 14:8-21 in which the pagans in the city of Lystra don’t know what to make of Christian missionaries Paul and Barnabas. In fact, after witnessing a miracle, they start worshipping them as gods. This week we’ll examine what we can learn from this for our own witness.

Our theme for this week is “Paul’s Early Preaching.” When it comes to witnessing, an area where many Christians get stuck is in debating peripherals – aspects of the sanctified life God intends for his people. In reality, the most important point of discussion is “Did Jesus rise?” Our willingness to submit to his will all hinges on whether or not he’s God. The Apostle Paul is excellent about always staying on task and we too can learn how to stay focused in spiritual discussions as we study Acts 13:26-44.

Our theme for this week is “What the Church Did.” In Chapter 11, after hearing three stories of conversion, we start to understand that the gospel is moving full force out into the Gentile world. Perhaps the best example of that is the church in Antioch under the leadership of Barnabas. Studying that location and that guy will give us a fantastic insight in how the Holy Spirit seeks to work through his churches in the city today. This week’s message comes from Acts 11:19-30.

Our theme for this week is “The Conversion of Saul.” The Book of Acts tells us a great deal about conversion. Conversion is an essential part of Christianity. And while in one sense, our hearts are converted only once, in another sense, as our sinful unbelief it’s perpetually being fought by the Spirit, our hearts are continually converting. Saul of Tarsus, who turns from persecutor of Christians to famous missionary is perhaps the most famous conversion in history and there’s a ton to learn as we study Acts 9:10-19. 

Our theme for this week is “Philip and a Foreigner.” The Book of Acts tells us the story of the Early Christian Church. By and large, what the Spirit of God moved the early Christians to believe and do would seemingly fully apply to us still today. This includes things like gospel proclamation, conversion, discipleship, communal love and healing, etc. In the second quarter of Acts, we see numerous stories of conversion that should shape the way we understand Christianity, and inspire us to deeper discipleship, particularly extending ourselves into the lives of those drastically different from us. This week, we find an early church leader (Philip) evangelizing a highly talented, but spiritual lost foreigner (an Ethiopian eunuch.) There’s much to learn as we study Acts 8:26-40.