Anthem Church

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son for us. In him, we have been brought from complete death to new, true, vibrant life.

What are Jesus' hopes for the Christian community? Far from vain desires, the prayer of Christ here reflects the very heart of God: we are to share and experience the love of God, we are to be unified in the truth and person of Jesus, and we are to be a potent witness of love, truth, and grace to the world around us, that they may know the Father.

As he prays for his current disciples, Jesus asks that they would be protected and set apart to reflect God's love and goodness to a broken world.

God is consumed with his glory... but what does that have to do with us? In Jesus, we are caught up in the life-changing, joy-inspiring story of redemption; we are recipients of love and grace that touches and fills every part of our lives.

Jesus offers, in the middle of a dark, hostile, troubling world, a peace in him and a confidence that transcends all opposition. It is ours, a gift through faith in him... will we take it up?

In one of his darkest moments, Jesus promises his followers that he brings a joy that is strong, permanent, and fulfilling. What is this joy?

There is a paradox within our faith: we are called to live and work with all our might, but we are also called into the rest, comfort, and peace of God. How does this work? The degree to which we allow our hearts to fully find rest in God is also the degree to which we will cease finding peace through our striving. God keeps us, holds us, and never sleeps that we may enjoy and live out of the rest of God.

The resurrection is not just an old event that we reference once a year. The resurrection is an eternal event that touches every moment of every year of our lives. We must recapture the awe, the surprise, and the overwhelming, unbelievable joy of the empty tomb - Jesus is alive, and this means everything to us.

In Psalm 22, we see not only a depiction of life in a broken world, we see the portrayal of Jesus Christ on the cross, the perfect king dying in the place of sinners. In the cross, the joy and pain of Christ touches the joy and pain of our lives, pointing to hope and restoration on Easter Sunday.

The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday is an event of extravagant importance. Here he is, the coming king... but is he the king everyone expected? Is he the king we expect him to be today? He is the king that exceeds all our hopes; he is the King of Grace.

The Psalms are wisdom literature, kept for us with timeless insight for our everyday lives. In this sermon, we examine how wisdom is defined, why it is valuable, and (perhaps most importantly) how we obtain it.

Psalm 146 invites the reader to praise the Lord and to do so by an act of trust. We praise God because we can trust him.

Anger in and of itself is not sin; it is one of a number of emotions we have been designed to feel. The command comes to us: be angry and do not sin. What does it look like to be righteously angry, how are we to feel, examine, and offer our anger before the Lord?

Life has a way of working out such a way that it doesn't seem to match what God has promised us. How do we stay steadfast in times of wandering, when we feel like God sees us. Psalm 44 gives us wisdom in what it means to hold on when it feels like God is not with us.

As we begin our lenten series through the Psalms, we start with David's psalm of repentance, Psalm 51. An honest look at our wrongdoing, a humble request for restoration, and a renewed hope in God all make for hearts that can enjoy renewed relationship with God himself.

As he prepares his disciples for his departure to the cross, Jesus informs them that a Helper, the Holy Spirit of God, will come to them. This spirit will reveal the love and truth of God to them in abundance; a true gift from the giver of all things good.

As Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure, it's not unreasonable for them to feel some fear and confusion. If we're honest, that's incredibly relatable for everyone. Jesus has some helpful encouragement for just this situation.

We all experience a tension in life: the gap between where we are and where we want to be. This is not a unique experience, in fact those who walked with Jesus wrestled with the same hardship. What does God have for us in the gap? How can it be used as an opportunity for redemption and growth?

Judas has departed, and now the remaining disciples of Jesus sit and listen to their Rabbi. What will he have to say? Jesus makes it clear: it’s time for something new, a new commandment that will direct and govern them as they begin forming the community of God as the church.

What can we learn from the life and betrayal of Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus? God is responsible for our salvation, and we are responsible for our repentance and our pursuit of God in return.