Tag: God

Patrick Preaching—The King’s Economy

You and I are living, breathing icons of the living God. Who gets to make a claim on your life? Who is the highest authority? The one whose image you bear.

Patrick Preaching—Proverbs: Working Well

When we come to Jesus, he’s not a superhero shaming you for not saving the world like he is. He’s a man who knows what it feels like to be exhausted and burdened by work, and he’s the God who took all our burdens upon himself on the cross.

Are Christians Really Happy?

Are Christians delusionally optimistic or toxically positive in the face of suffering? Is religion just a sad excuse for a crutch in the face of our crushing circumstances? I would say: absolutely not! Christianity avoids both delusional optimism and toxic positivity, and our text this morning shows us how. 

An Open Letter on Self-Love

Stop trying to prove to yourself whether or not you’re lovable if that’s what you’re doing. If you’re anything like me, you’ll never find a reason within yourself. Instead, search the heart of God and listen to Him say to you “I love you.” 

Jesus Jesus, Precious Jesus

Do you realize that Jesus considered you precious? He considered it a joy to redeem you. That’s the love we are rooted in. It’s not our own fickle, fleeting, weak love. It is our Lord’s eternal, unshakable, true love. Jesus is worth the pain. He’s worth the awkward, sheepish shame that so often comes with repentance. He’s worth imprisonment. He’s worth celibacy and ridicule. He’s worth the cost of obedience. 

The Church: A Gnarled Mess

We’re a gnarly, messy bunch of branches. We didn’t earn the life Jesus fills us with, and we’ve still got a long way to go before we’re completely pruned. But God in His infinite love and power and mercy chose to graft us to Jesus so that we might abide in Him. And this invitation is open to all.

Thanksgiving with Job

If you know anything about the book of Job, this might seem like an odd choice of passage for a thanksgiving message. Most of the book of Job shows a miserable man, deep in suffering, longing for death, looking for an explanation of why God would allow a righteous man to suffer so horribly. Job’s

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Patrick Preaching—The Pandemic: Jonah

This sermon was preached for RUF at CNU’s Virtual Large Group on April 1, 2020. RUF’s Large Group is a weekly worship service that has now shifted to live-streaming on YouTube thanks to COVID-19. Our passage comes from Jonah 2:1-10. 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish,

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