Sermons from 2023
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Sermons from 2023

Commands of Jesus: “Follow Me”

I grew up going to church.  If you had asked me what is a Christian and if I am a Christian, I would have had a puzzled look. I might have said, “What kind of question is that?  Isn’t it obvious?  Of course I’m a Christian.  I go to church.  A Christian church.  And I’m not a Buddhist or Muslim or something else.  So what else would I be besides a Christian?”  But I couldn’t give you any specifics on that. …

Exodus: Immanuel, God With Us

Please find a Bible and open with me to Matthew chapter 1. Today is the last day of Advent, and the hinge point between Advent and Christmas. So I thought we’d base this morning’s sermon on the first Christmas passage. Let’s read the great story. 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy…

Exodus 40: God dwells with his people

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 40. This morning we finally come to the end of our 20 week walk through of the book of Exodus. The theme couldn’t be more fitting for this time of year, the season of advent. Advent is from a latin word that means “arrival” – and as we said at the beginning of the service, it is a time where we remember and reflect on what it must have been…

Exodus 32: The Golden Calf

Before we read Exodus 32, it’s important that I lay out the setting of this story. Within the previous few months, Israel had seen some of the most spectacular, awe-inspiring events in human history.• Ten plagues of judgment on their cruel oppressor, Pharaoh of Egypt. Unparalleled judgment, yet Israel was completely spared. Miracle after miracle.• Then the greatest one: their backs were against the Red Sea and the mighty Egyptian army was bearing down on them. God then parted the…

Exodus 31: The Sabbath

Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 31. As a pastor one of the more frequent questions I am asked, especially by young believers trying to figure out how to live out their faith in Jesus in obedience to His scriptures, and maybe especially by busy college students trying to figure out how to best manage their time (and by the way the Venn diagram of those two groups overlaps quite a bit) – is something like “Pastor Matt,…

Exodus 29: Consecration of the priest

Two weeks ago, Matt read several chapters outlining the design details of what was the centerpiece of faith in the living God in ancient Israel.  It’s called the Tabernacle.  It was a tent-like structure, with an ark, an altar, tables, lampstands, curtains, and more. This portable tabernacle was the focal point of worship and forgiveness for Israel for the next 400-500 years, until King Solomon built the permanent structure, the temple. Though this tabernacle was portable, it was a beautiful,…

Exodus 25-28, 35-39 pt 2: Offerings for Worship

Please open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 35. This morning we are on part 15 of 20 of our walk through of the book of Exodus. If you’ve been following along in the series so far, it is important to note that this morning we’re doing sort of a time-shift in the narrative. We’re skipping ahead a little bit from last week’s passage. Last week God gave Moses the plans for the tabernacle and the tools Israel would need for…

Exodus 25-28: Details and Shadows

Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 25.  Have you ever heard the phrase “the devil is in the details?” It means something like things are always more complicated than they seem, and those complications are going to cause you problems if you find out about them too late.  I learned this week that that phrase is a spin on an earlier more popular phrase: God is in the details. And that is what our passage teaches us this week.…

Exodus 21-24: More Laws

Exodus is a fascinating book filled with some remarkable stories: a baby boy saved from death; a burning bush that God spoke out of; terrible plagues of judgment; a miraculous escape through the Red Sea.Today we are entering into a much different look at Exodus. Not some exciting, miraculous story. Rather, 3 chapters of detailed laws that Israel was to obey. When we read these laws, we might find ourselves bored with some of it. And puzzled with other parts,…

Exodus 19-20: The Ten Commandments

Please open your Bible to Exodus chapter 19. As we pick up our series today we find Israel now three months into their journey out of Egypt, through the wilderness of the Sinai penninsula, headed toward their new home in the promised land. In our passage today we find them having arrived at Mount Sinai for their most crucial encounter with the Living God yet: the receiving of The Law. Today we are going to study, The Ten Commandments. The…

Exodus 17: Testing and Quarreling

In our series through the Book of Exodus, we are in Chapter 17.  Exodus 17:1–7 (CSB) 1 The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the Lord’s command. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So the people complained to Moses, “Give us water to drink.” “Why are you complaining to me?” Moses replied to them. “Why are you testing the Lord?”…

Exodus 15-16: Proving, Testing, Resting

Please open your Bibles to Exodus 15. The last few weeks we have been studying God’s powerful deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt. Last week we looked at how God miraculously defeated the Egyptian army, and led them to safety through the parted waters of the Red Sea, and they celebrated their rescue mightly and created a magnifient song that they sang! When we left off, these were the words ringing in the air. Miriam sang to them:…

Exodus 14-15: God’s Guidance

Please open you Bibles or turn into your scripture journal to Exodus chapter 14. We are on week 8 of 20 our walk through of the book of Exodus, and today we’re finally getting out of Egypt! This “scene” in the story is extremely dramatic, it almost feels like a Lord of the Rings sci-fi fantasy story. It’s more accurate to say that The Lord of the Rings feels a lot like the book of Exodus. You know what they…

Exodus 12-13: The Passover

This morning we are in week 7 of our walk through of Exodus. Last week we looked at one of the most well known and powerful stories in Exodus: God’s judgment on Egypt through the ten plagues. In these plagues God judged Egypt’s idolatry, worship of false gods, proving them to be powerless.  Perhaps there were real spiritual forces at work, but they were no match for The Most High God. Also through these plagues, God revealed to Pharaoh and…

Exodus 7-11 The Plagues

Today’s passage is a story of war, a war between God and the nation of Egypt.  And it is a war between God and Egypt’s gods (or their so-called gods).  The Egyptians worshiped dozens, even hundreds of false gods.  And through the Story of the Ten Plagues, the Lord easily defeats all of them.  God is the initiator of this war because his chosen people, the descendants of Abraham are enslaved, being violently oppressed by the king of Egypt.  And…

Exodus 5-6: God’s Faithfulness in our Faithlessness

Today’s passage sits at a transition between two famous “scenes” in the Exodus narrative: The Burning Bush, and the Plagues. It sets the stage for one of the most important and encouraging messages God sends his people by his actions in delivering them from their bondage. Paul puts it this way to his young protege Timothy: 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:13 (CSB) Let’s back up into our passage from…

Exodus 3-4: The Burning Bush

Let’s read Exodus 3:1-10. Exodus 3 (CSB) 1 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. 3 So Moses thought, “I must…

Learning to see the invisible

In today’s passage, we see a story of trying to carry out God’s work in our own timing and in our own strength and with our own wisdom, and how this always brings about disaster. Last week, we studied the narrative of Moses’s birth and God’s amazing protection and providence in his being saved from genocide, and being adopted by a princess of Egypt. In today’s passage, the narrative fast forwards through all of Moses’s upbringing and early adult life,…

Exodus 1: Israel’s Oppression

We are beginning a sermon series for the Fall on the Book of Exodus. Exodus is filled with many well-known stories: These are all remarkable, inspiring stories that tell us who God is, and we see examples of both faith and unbelief.  Examples of great deeds of faith, and extraordinary acts of evil.  Almost 2/3 of the book is stories. Yet Exodus has even more to offer us than those stories.  For there is something grand going on at the…

Every Member a Minister

Last week we took a look at one of the points of our ministry emphasis at Stonebrook: “every member a minister.” We have four points to this emphasis that is directing our ministry programs this year.  They are:  Last week we looked at the second point: “every believer a member”, how the scriptures call each believers to commit themselves to a local fellowship, a local congregation, and how we work that out here at Stonebrook through a membership process.  This…

Members of One Another

I have a question to start us off this morning.  How many memberships do you have? Think about it for a second. Costco, Amazon Prime, Sam’s Club, The ISU Alumni Association, Maybe a golf club, a gym membership, Rotary, Toastmasters, Kiwanis, maybe you are a member of a professional association related to your vocation. You can be a member of a coffee shop rewards program, or if you’re like me, you can be a chick-fil-a signature status rewards member because…