Sunday Morning Podcast | The Moody Church

We live in anxious times; it’s a world of worry out there. Are you struggling to sleep at night due to anxiety? Are you fearful of what may happen in the future? Psalm 127:1–2 is a beautiful reminder of how God’s beloved children can find peace from a world full of worry.   In this sermon, we’ll discover that our ability to experience the peace of Christ in our lives is dependent on our ability to trust Him in all circumstances.   5 Practical takeaways for God’s beloved: how do we allow God to keep and build our lives on solid foundations?   Communion with God. Time in God’s Word. Community with God’s people. Seek God’s perspective. Rest in God’s sovereignty.   True rest in an anxious world is seeing the very real possibility of our worst fears right around the corner and know that the God who calls you His beloved is sovereign over it all.   Psalm 127:1–2

What does the Bible say about money and possession? There are approximately 2,350 passages about those topics in Scripture. By contrast, faith and prayer receive about 500 passages each. So, the Bible talks about money and possessions more than twice as much as the topics of faith and prayer combined.   Now, why would that be?   In this sermon, we’re going to see why God invests so much time and energy teaching us how to have a spiritually healthy relationship with our money and our possessions. And to do so, we’ll turn to Malachi 3, to one of the classic passages on money in all the Bible.   In Malachi 3:6–12, the Lord and the people go back and forth with one another in dispute. It’s quite clear in this passage that the people of God are spiritually unwell. So, we’ll approach this passage like a physician in three parts.   1) The Symptoms   What are the presenting symptoms of this spiritual malady?   The people were being stingy in their tithes and contributions when they come to the temple for

One the of hardest moments for those of us who are trying to live God’s way comes when those who couldn’t care less about God’s way end up coming out ahead in life. What’s the point in righteous living, if the unrighteous are the ones getting ahead in life?   That’s exactly where God’s people were in Malachi’s day. They’d come back from exile with fervor and resolve to dedicate themselves to living for God. But things didn’t turn out like they’d hoped. It seemed like the ungodly nations around them were prospering, and God kept letting them get away with it!   And so, they began to give up hope that living God’s way was worth it. Why lead a godly life, when the ungodly seem to be the ones getting ahead?   It’s not just God’s people in Malachi’s day who need an answer to this question. We need to hear God’s voice on this issue as well.   In this sermon from Malachi 2:17–3:5, we’ll explore three main points:   1) Wearisome Waiting   Today’s mercies do not negate tomorrow’s justice.   Just because

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment in all the Law and the Prophets was, He gave a two-fold answer: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, AND love your neighbor as yourself.”   Because if we love God rightly, we will love our neighbor; and a failure to love our neighbor is a failure to love God.   This answer sums up the Law and the Prophets. And one of those Old Testament prophets was Malachi, whose book we’ve been studying in this series. Thus far we’ve seen how Malachi has called out God’s people for their failure to love God (the vertical axis).   In Malachi 2:10–16, Malachi is going to turn his attention to the horizonal axis—about the relationship we have to one another—because the Israelites failed to love one another well. And in this 3rd of 6 disputes in the book, Malachi’s focus is on how the men of Israel failed to be faithful to their wives. They were faithless toward God and faithless toward their wives.   This sermon has three parts:   1)

The slide into spiritual disintegration doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a steady slide over time.   Have you ever wondered how the priests and teachers of the law got so far off spiritually that they couldn’t even see their Messiah, the Son of God, when He was standing right there in front of them?   The spiritual decay of the priesthood went back centuries. Even as far back as the Book of Malachi, over 400 years before Jesus, the spiritual rot was already deep and widespread. And so, God had sent prophet after prophet to call them back to repentance, only to be ignored time and time again. So now, in His mercy, God sends Malachi to give them one final warning with language designed to shock them and call them back from the edge of spiritual decay and disaster.   This sermon looks at the second half of the second dispute in the book of Malachi. It divides the discourse neatly into three sections:   1) The Curse   The priests are in danger of losing their ministry.   If they don’t course correct, a

The Book of Malachi is full of warnings that seem harsh at first but are actually filled with loving-concern to pull God’s people back from the edge of danger.   Because although the people of Israel had come back from the exile eager to rededicate themselves to God, it wasn’t long before their fervor began to fade. They tired of waiting on God’s promises and fell into a kind of spiritual rut. They were doing the right religious things, but their hearts weren’t in it anymore.   Can you relate?   The Book of Malachi is shouting to us today: “Get back! There’s danger lurking right in front of you. You may not see it, but it’s there. Get back to safety, while you can.”   In this passage, we see Malachi calling the people of God back from the precipice of withholding themselves in worship. There are three elements that we find in this passage:   1) Cavalier Worship   At the beginning of the discourse, the Heavenly Father says, “Do you not owe me both honor and fear?”   Now the word for “honor” here

The central theme of the book Malachi is found in 3:7, “Return to Me and I will return to you.” As people whose hearts are prone to wander, whose religion can become performance, we need the message of Malachi to comprehend God’s tough love and tender mercies for our doubting hearts.   There are six disputes outlined in the book. In this sermon, we’ll explore the first dispute between Israel and God. And in these opening verses from Malachi 1, we find three things:   1) Weighty Concerns   Malachi—whose Hebrew name means “my messenger”—begins his prophecy with these words: The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. Now the word translated as “oracle” here is literally in Hebrew the word for “burden.” These are weighty words from a heart heavy with care for a people whose souls weigh upon him.   Malachi feels the weight of his responsibility. His concern for his people lies heavy upon his heart.   The care of souls is a heavy burden.   Aren’t you grateful for those who have loved you

Why should we read the Psalms?   Music enhances worship, and music helps us memorize the eternal truths of God. Psalm 103 teaches us how to praise in all seasons and for all reasons. When it comes to the issue of praise, authentic praise requires our all, not lip service.   In this sermon, we explore five reasons why should we praise God: God heals our disease God forgives our sin God redeems our lives God crowns us with love God satisfies our souls with good.   Takeaway: Above all, we praise God because He is holy!   Psalm 103

Do you struggle with honest doubts about the Christian faith? Have you ever wondered what's the payoff for living a life of faith compared to the secular world?   In this sermon, we explore Asaph's doubts from Psalm 73. Asaph was a musician who almost lost his faith; we would say he almost “deconstructed.” But he came out the other side spiritually stronger.   Asaph gives three reasons for his doubts, but also explains three mistakes he had made when entertaining those doubts   1) Asaph explains his doubts (v. 1–15). Three doubts Asaph had: The wicked are wealthier than he was. The wicked are healthier than he was. The wicked seems to enjoy life more than he did.   2) Asaph was kept from "deconstructing" when he realized his mistakes (v. 16–28). Three mistakes Asaph made: He had overestimated the wealth of the ungodly. He had underestimated his own wealth. He had been swept away by how he felt, not by what he knew to be true.   Takeaway: Come to God with your doubts; think life through

If you want to properly study what it means to be a Christian, you need to study God. As Charles Spurgeon once preached in 1855, “The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the attention of a child of God is the name, the nature, the Person, the work, the doings and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.”   And so, in this sermon, we contemplate our great God from Exodus 3:13­–15. In this passage, we find a dialogue between Moses and God that reveals some amazing attributes about who God is and what our response should be to Him.   1) What was God trying to communicate about Himself to Moses (and us) when He described Himself as "I AM WHO I AM" and "I AM"? The Lord was communicating that He is The Lord was communicating that He is The Lord was communicating that He is The Lord was communicating that He is   2) What are three implications of this massive reality that God is "I AM WHO I AM" and "I AM"? Jesus Christ is the I

When something doesn’t work out the way we expect, we ask, “what went wrong?” In the Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25:14–30, we consider what went wrong with the servant who squandered their single talent, and how they could go from being a wicked and slothful server to a good and faithful servant.   In this parable, we find Jesus describing a man going away and leaving his property to be managed by his servants. Jesus tells us that each servant received according to their ability. The first received 5 talents, the second 2 talents, and the third 1 talent. When the master returned, he called the servants and asked for a report of how they managed what his property. The servant with 5 talents, made 5 more talents. The servant with 2 likewise made 2 more talent. But the servant with one talent only manage to bring forward a dusty talent that he hid in the ground. While the first two are welcomed into the joy of their master, the third is kicked out into darkness and despair.   So, what happened? What

As Paul wraps up his letter to the Ephesians, he gives one final charge to stand firm in the faith. And to do so, he uses the imagery of a Roman soldier armed for battle as an analogy of spiritual armament.   In this sermon, we’ll explore what the Armor of God is all about.   1) The Reason for the Armor   We need the Armor of God because we are embroiled in a spiritual battle.   The Bible tells us supernatural evil does exist, and his operations are far more subtle than we might expect. The evil one, Satan, is the father of lies, and he uses lies to leave a mark on our soul. Satan lies to over-inflate or deflate us. And both lies serve the same purpose: to drive us away from God.   The only way we can stand firm against the lies of the devil are with the Armor of God. But how does the armor work?   2) The Function of the Armor   We are armored with Gospel identity.   We have truth as your base layer protection against the lies of the evil one. Remember the truth of the Gospel: we are far mo

The Gospel shapes all of life. The Gospel doesn’t just matter on Sundays, the Gospel matters ALL days. It saturates and permeates and consecrates every facet of our lives.   And to illustrate how the Gospel shapes all of life, Paul then goes to the heart of where most people do life: at work and at home. And Paul says, let me show you how the Gospel radically transforms those everyday relationships!   In Ephesians 6:1–9, we’ll explore eight principals for these relationships, two for each party in our text: supervisors and employees, and parents and children.   1) The Gospel at Work: Supervisors and Employees   Principle #1 for Supervisors: Leadership is about service.   If you’re in management, a landlord, an owner, or a boss, as a follower of Jesus you’re there to serve. Remember, Jesus made Himself the servant of all when He washed His disciples’ feet. Leadership is NOT about privilege. It’s about service.   And no matter how high you go, no matter how big your office, no matter what circles y

In this sermon from 1 Corinthians 3: 1–18, we explore Paul’s admonition to the church in Corinth to “be the church.” Paul’s intention is to push back against growing disunity and immaturity taking place within the congregation.   A church is a people, not a building, but there are good churches and bad churches. Many of us don’t exactly know why a church is a good church or bad church. We lack the language to identify what the intangible quality is that we intuitively know is off.   In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he is writing to a church that he planted, but whose leaders started to think that they’ve outgrown the Gospel foundation Paul laid. The Corinthian leaders were convinced that they had found a higher wisdom, a more spiritual & practical way to live. And yet, because they were abandoning the Gospel, they were abandoning the only thing that can hold a bunch of sinners together: their unity.   The church at Corinth was beginning to look like the world outside the church. And if the in

In chapter 5 of Ephesians, where the Apostle Paul has been exploring the implications of the Gospel for every facet of our Christian lives, he lays out the Christian understanding of marriage.   The Christian understanding of marriage is radically different from the understanding of marriage found in both traditional and modern cultures. In Traditional Culture (most of world history, and much of the global population still today) marriage is primarily understood through the lens of societal stability. In Modern Culture (here in the West), marriage is primarily understood through the lens of personal fulfillment.   But the Christian understanding of marriage is radically different from both Traditional and Modern understandings of marriage because it blazes its own unique trail. And there’s no better place to see that in that in Ephesians 5:22-33.   1) The Shape of Christian Marriage: Patterned after Christ’s Covenant Devotion   This passage is the most extensive treatment about marriage in the Bible,

There’s tremendous power in the quiet, organic, incremental, growth of the life of God planted in us. When the seed of the Gospel is planted within us, as the Father redeems us in the Son by the power of the Spirit, the new life of God starts growing within us.  And we may not notice the growth as it’s happening, because we’re too close it, but over time we may begin to see some of it.   The change that God intends to bring into our lives isn’t superficial: it goes down deep to the very heart of who we are, and it stretches wide to encompass all that we are. It is the complete and utter transformation of our entire being into becoming like Christ in every way.   Which means everything must change.   That’s exactly what the Apostle Paul has been calling us to in the second half of Ephesians. And in Ephesians 5:1–21, Paul shows us just how comprehensive this life-transformation is.   God intends to transform every dimension of our being.   In this passage, we have 3-dimensional transformation:   1)

In Matthew 13:44-46, Jesus tells two short parables the church historically calls “The Parable of the Treasure Hidden in the Field” and “The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value.”   This sermon explores three questions about the parables:   1) What is the kingdom of heaven?   The Kingdom of Heaven in the same way exists everywhere God’s rule exists. In the broad sense, of course, God rules the whole universe, so in that broad sense, the whole universe is His Kingdom.  However, in the narrower sense Jesus intends in Matthew 13, God mainly rules in the hearts of those who are his people by His grace through Jesus Christ the Son. At this point in history, God’s Kingdom is mainly His sovereign rule in the hearts of his people. The Scriptures promise that one day Jesus will rule visibly on earth, but for now God’s Kingdom is His mainly invisible rule in the hearts of Jesus’ disciples.   2) Why is the kingdom of heaven of inestimable value?   The content of eternal life is not mainly living forever; the c

“In God’s family, we choose to live differently.” That’s pretty much what Paul is saying in Ephesians 4. Now that we’re alive as sons and daughters of God, now that we’re members of His family, the house rules have changed. This new family doesn’t live like other families do. It’s all different.   1) The Old:   Paul describes the old self—this Gentile lifestyle—as “corrupt through deceitful desires.” It’s a desire-driven way of life, living to gratify our appetites.   But notice, those desires are deceitful, because they never deliver what they promise. And they are corrupting—they twist and dehumanize us the more we give into them.   Paul says that kind of living messes up our thinking, calling it the “futility of mind.” Paul is describing what moral philosophers call “Akrasia.” What the heart desires, the will embraces, the mind rationalizes, and the conscience justifies.   Paul’s whole point is that we cannot keep living the way we used to.   2) The New:   Paul uses two images to describe our

The second half of Ephesians is about how God means us to live now that we are His children. Who we are shapes what we do.   This passage from Ephesians 4:1­–16 is about growing up. It’s about who we’ll be when we’re all grown up in Christ, and it shows us how we’ll get from here to there.   This sermon centers on three themes:   1) Unity   The hinge of the letter to the Ephesians is this: “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”   You’ve been called into God’s salvation and family as His sons and daughters, so live like it! Let your identity become your living. Let your being shape your behaving. Let who you are flow into what you do.   Act like the person you already are in Jesus Christ. Now, what would that look like? Four traits to pursue as members the family of God: humility, gentleness, patience, and loving forbearance.   We are united in Christ’s body. We aren’t called to create this unity because God has already done that. But we are called t

During Missions Week 2023, guest speaker Rev. Michael Allen challenged us with two passages from Matthew 22:35–39 and Matthew 28:16–20.   Pastor Michael Allen currently serves as the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Together Chicago, an organization that catalyzes faith, business, community, and government leaders to inspire hope and affect peace and justice in Chicago communities. Together Chicago (TC) seeks to reduce gun violence and increase thriving communities in our city through five key areas: economic development, educational achievement, violence reduction, gospel justice, and faith-community mobilization.   Originally from Jamaica, Pastor Allen immigrated to the USA in 1977 and earned a BA in Biblical Studies and an MDiv with a focus in urban ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Previously, he pastored at The Moody Church (1997-2002), Sagemont Church in Texas (2002-2005), and most recently as the Senior Pastor at Uptown Baptist Church in Chicago (2005-2020). He and his wife Marilza have be