Solid Rock Church Sermons

In this sermon from Mark 12:38-31, we took a deeper look into what it means to be human, and the role of the heart in relationship with God. Even though our hearts are susceptible to sin, God has designed our hearts to give us passion, desire, and emotion. Jesus died not just to remove our sin but also to give us new hearts with renewed passions and desires. With our hearts transformed, we are able to bring all of these things to God in the way in which we were designed. Our hearts are an essential part of who we are and critical in our ability to obey God’s commandment to love Him.

In this sermon, we examined how we are made in the image of God while also existing as created, finite beings. To be in the image of God does not mean we look like Him physically, but that we were created to reflect who God is. We see this in Genesis 1 and 2 in three ways: We have stewardship over God’s other creation, we have rationality and choice, and we are designed to be in relationship. While we are image bearers of an all-powerful God, we are also created beings and, therefore, we are limited and finite. This is a good thing and is according to God’s design! Even before sin entered the world, we see that Adam needed help, that he didn’t always make the right choices, and that he needed God to provide him with suitable relationship. We often live with the pressure to be more than we were created to be or with the thought that our limited nature is a weakness. Instead, when we rightly recognize our limits and our reliance on God, we reflect God in a way that honors who we were created t

In this Easter sermon, we looked at the prophetic words of Isaiah 53 and the significance of Jesus' resurrection. This passage foretells the suffering and resurrection of the coming Messiah and reminds us that Jesus' agony and death were the fulfillment of God’s will and essential for our redemption. Through His resurrection, Jesus conquered sin and death and made a way for us be rendered as righteousness before God by faith. Isaiah 53 ends by pointing out how Jesus shares the rewards of the resurrection with those who put their trust in the transformative power of His resurrection, giving us access to a relationship with God.

In this sermon, we looked at the Gospel of Luke's portrayal of Jesus' deliberate path to Jerusalem, culminating in the pivotal events of Holy Week. The narrative, starting in Luke 9:51, highlights Jesus' determination as He set His face toward Jerusalem and walked toward His impending death, burial, and resurrection. This journey ended in Luke 19:41 when Jesus stopped outside of town to overlook Jerusalem. As He looked down on the city, He was overcome with sorrow for its inhabitants because, amidst their turmoil and suffering, they failed to recognize the peace that Jesus offered. His tears were not only for Jerusalem but for all humanity - past, present, and future. Jesus grieved for those who suffer in anguish and who overlook His presence, and the peace that only He can offer. Jesus is still offering the same peace today for those who would believe and put their trust in Him.

In this sermon, we looked at what it's like to be with God. God values relationship, and in Matthew 11:25-30, we see the intimate connection between the Father and the Son. Jesus invites us to share in this relationship by showing us who the Father is. The call to enter this relationship is not through striving, good works, or perfection; we are simply invited to lay down our heavy burdens and rest. While the world would weigh us down, Jesus desires for us to take his yoke upon ourselves—a yoke which is easy and light. Jesus is gentle and lowly in heart, and He is kind to our souls. While following Him may not always feel light, we can securely rest in relationship with Him.

In this sermon, we looked at what it's like to be close to God by examining Jesus, who embodies "the radiance of the Glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature." In John 11, we see God's compassion for us and how His glory and power to save sinners is revealed through the brokenness of our world. After the death of Lazarus, Jesus' response to Martha's grief was kind and gentle, offering Himself as the solution to her pain. Jesus, Himself, confronted the brokenness of the world, sharing in the weight of our struggles, and He empathizes with our present-day suffering as our compassionate High Priest.

In this sermon, we looked at Romans 3:19-26 to explore the nature of God's justice. True justice requires upholding laws and consequences consistently and without favoritism. In Romans 3, Paul reminds us that every human has sinned under God's Law and is subject to God's judgment. Paul says that while God is just and always upholds His law, He is also kind and patient and has made a way for us to be made righteous without violating His own justice. Through the shedding of His blood, Jesus became a substitute payment for our sin and the death we deserve, satisfying God's just demands while also offering grace and forgiveness to believers.

In this sermon from 1 John 4:7-10, we looked at how love is embedded in God's nature and how He is the source of all love that is experienced in the world. Love is not merely an attribute of God's personality or something He does in the world; love is part of the very essence of His being. Despite varying definitions of love in the world around us, the Bible describes love as a selfless and compassionate desire for the good of the one who is loved, initiated by the one who loves, with no expectation of anything in return. This is how God has loved us. The ultimate demonstration of God's love is displayed in the Gospel through the sacrifice of God's only Son, Jesus, to atone for our sins. Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated His love by doing this for us while we were still dead in our sins and had nothing to give in return. To know God is to know love, and the evidence of having received God’s love is a willingness to share it with God and others. When we love others the way God has loved us, we reflec

In this sermon, we looked at how Revelation 4 reveals the profound nature of God's character. The vivid imagery of God sitting on His throne magnifies the majesty and holiness of God. The four creatures hovering around God's throne repeatedly declaring God’s holiness further reveals that God is sacred, pure, worthy of awe, and unlike anything else in existence. This holiness is not just about moral purity; it signifies God’s unique position as the sole supreme being, deserving reverence and worship. This chapter in Revelation begins with an invitation from God for John to draw near and see who He is and what He is like. As God invites John to "come up here," we see an open invitation for all of humanity to draw close and witness His majesty firsthand. This encourages us to pursue a deeper, more personal relationship with a God who is not like us, yet who wants to be with us.

In this sermon, we continued our journey to answer the question, "Who is God?" We began by looking at how God reveals Himself in the Bible as one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. In the Gospel of John, we saw that the Father, Son, and Spirit have eternally existed in a loving and honoring relationship within themselves. God did not create us because He was lonely or needed relationship; He already had relationship before He created us. He created us as image bearers to reflect His character and qualities in the world through how we live in relationship with Him and one another. Our very essence and purpose are intertwined with our ability to forge deep, meaningful connections with God and others. Through loving and honoring others, we mirror the communal nature of God Himself and fulfill our ultimate purpose in the world.

With this sermon, we started a new series on the Greatest Commandments. In this series, we’ll spend time looking at the commands to love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself. This week, we began with the question, “Who is God?” If we are going to love God, we must first know who He is. We looked in Exodus 3:13-15 at the significance of God’s name: “I AM WHO I AM.” This name goes beyond human comprehension and speaks to God’s eternal, self-existent nature, unbound by time. Unlike us, God’s existence is necessary for the universe to exist and He is self-sustained, inviting us into a relationship of wonder and worship. This revelation is not just about understanding God’s identity but also realizing the depth of relationship He offers to us as His creation.

In this sermon, we looked in Matthew 16:13-19 at the pivotal moment when Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" This question was more than a theological pop quiz; Jesus was drilling into the core of the disciples’ personal faith. As Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” we were reminded of how the entire narrative of Scripture points toward that answer. The Old Testament’s anticipation, prophesies, and law all serve as a prelude to the coming of the Christ. Peter was declaring that Jesus is the Son of God who became flesh and dwelt among us, fulfilling God’s promise to rescue His people and restore His Kingdom on earth. This confession of Jesus’ identity is foundational to our faith and the essence of the Gospel. As God’s representatives in the world, we are all called to be prepared to answer the same question Peter answered… “Who do you say that Jesus is?” Our mission in the world is to be prepared to gi

In this sermon from 1 Peter 3:15, we looked at how we were created to live our lives on mission to make disciples for Jesus, beginning in our own neighborhoods and reaching toward the ends of the earth. We were also reminded that our mission starts with living our lives with sincere love for God and others, serving as a beacon to draw others toward Him. The Bible tells us that living our lives in this way draws people toward us as they see a hope in us that they desperately desire for themselves. In this passage, Peter reminded these persecuted Christians to always be prepared to explain, with gentleness and respect, the reason for the hope they had in Jesus. God reminds us today that He is also calling us to be prepared for these conversations, always ready to answer the question, “Why do you set your hope on Jesus?”

In this sermon, we looked at God’s plan for His Church to grow together in biblical community. We began in Genesis 2 with a reminder that we were created with a need to be in relationship, with God and others, in which we can be fully known and fully loved. In Ephesians 4:11-16, Paul lays out God's plan for His Church and the essential roles of Church leaders in equipping Church members to minister to one another in order to build up the body of Christ. Growing together is the sanctification process through which God makes us more like Christ, individually and collectively. For sanctification to take place in our lives individually, it is critical for each member to engage in ministering to one another, leading to the collective growth and sanctification of the Church. As we grow together in biblical community, we are being sanctified together, becoming fully restored in the likeness of Christ.

We begin 2024 with our Created sermon series, reminding us why the Church exists and how that connects to what we do at Solid Rock. In this sermon, we looked at how Psalm 95:1-6 calls God's people to worship. The Psalmist reminds us that we are created by God to worship Him for who He is and what He has done. Worship is a reverent acknowledgement of God's creative power, majesty, and authority over all creation. Psalm 95 begins by inviting us to express our joy and gratitude toward God through music and singing. We see in this passage that worship is relational because our singing is not just about God, but an act of worship to God. This passage ends with an invitation for all humanity to worship and humble themselves before God, the Creator, reminding us of our mission to share the Gospel with those who don't know God. Every human is created to worship and, as a church, our mission is to make disciples for Jesus through Christ-centered worship, fostering biblical community, and living out the mission of Jesu

In this sermon, we looked in Acts 9 to see the grace of God at work in providing Saul with a fresh start. Saul was one of the early Church's biggest opponents: he watched approvingly as Stephen was stoned for his faith, and he obtained special permission to arrest anyone who followed Jesus. On his way to arrest believers in Damascus, he encountered Jesus, who asked, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Saul was blinded by the encounter so his travel companions led him into the city, where he met a man named Ananias who God had sent to heal him by the power of the Holy Spirit. Saul believed in Jesus, was baptized, and became one of the most passionate evangelists and defenders of Christianity ever to live. This story reminds us that we all need a fresh start. However, it's not the new year or resolutions that provide this fresh start; it's the enduring, persistent grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

After walking through Isaiah 9:6 over the last month, we ended our Advent series by looking at the final title given to the baby who was to be born in a manger: Prince of Peace. Our need for God's peace began in the Garden of Eden. After being banished, Adam and Eve no longer had peace on earth; they were left with a longing for the peace and blessing of Eden, where they once walked with God and one another without strife and division. Ephesians 2 reminds us that Jesus came into the world to tear down the walls that divide us from God and one another. Verse 14 says that Jesus, Himself, is our peace. Peace is not found in changing our external circumstances; peace is only found in the presence of Jesus. The baby in the manger came to be our Prince of Peace, that in Him we could have His perfect peace in a broken and fallen world. Through Jesus' presence, we can be sad for the brokenness we see in the world around us while also having an internal peace only possible through Him.

In this sermon from Isaiah 9:6, we focused on how "Everlasting Father," one of the prophetic titles ascribed to Jesus, foretells His birth and the profound impact it would have on humanity's relationship with God. This title emphasizes Jesus' role in revealing the fatherly nature of God and His eternal authority and care for us. The arrival of Jesus in the world signifies the birth of a Savior who would open the door for us to have a direct, enduring relationship with God as our Father. Through Jesus, believers are invited into the family of God, in which we find eternal love, guidance, and protection. Through Jesus, God has given us the right to be called "children of God" and to be invited into an eternal relationship with Him as our Forever Father.

In the second sermon of our Advent series, we looked at how Jesus fulfilled the Isaiah 9:6 prophesy to come to earth as a Mighty God. The nation of Israel would have understood this prophetic title of the coming Messiah as a "God who is mighty in battle." In 1 Corinthians 15:24-26, the apostle Paul explains that, through His resurrection, Jesus overcomes all dominions, authorities, and powers, effectively defeating sin and death. This triumphant victory over the grave reveals His divine power and authority, fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy of a Messiah who would be a Mighty God who brings salvation. Jesus is the war hero who God sent to earth to conquer our greatest enemies: sin and death.

With this sermon, we launched our Advent series by looking at Isaiah 9:6 to see what God promised to the world through the birth of His Son. This week, we focused on God's promise that His Son would come to us as a Wonderful Counselor. John 14:15-26 tells us that Jesus promised to send His Holy Spirit to those who follow Him. The Holy Spirit, described as the "Advocate," or "Helper," is given to believers as a source of divine help, counsel, guidance, and comfort. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit, whom the world cannot receive, will teach us all things and remind us of everything Jesus said. Jesus was born into the world to be a Wonderful Counselor and, through His Word and the presence of His Holy Spirit in our lives, He is still our Wonderful Counselor today. For those who are in Christ, the Holy Spirit and God’s Word provide us with continual personal guidance to an abundant life filled with peace, joy, and security.