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Sermon: To The Lost (May 10, 2026)

Scripture Text: Ezekiel 34:11-16 and Luke 15:1-10 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection Kylne R. Snodgrass, Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus Few things are more important than our perception of God, for from that understanding we perceive our own identity, how we should think and act, and how the world ought to be. J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of Luke Christ’s love is a deep and mighty love. Just as the shepherd rejoiced to find his sheep, and the woman to find her money, so does the Lord Jesus rejoice to save sinners. It is a real pleasure to Him to pluck them as brands from the burning. It was His “food and drink” when upon earth to finish the work which He came to do. He felt constrained in spirit until it was accomplished. It is still His delight to show mercy. He is far more willing to save sinners than sinners are willing to be saved. N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone In the stories of the sheep and the coin, the punch line in each case depends on the Jewish belief that the two halves of God’s creation, heaven and earth, were meant to fit together and be in harmony with each other. If you discover what’s going on in heaven, you’ll discover how things were meant to be on earth. That, after all, is the point of praying that God’s kingdom will come ‘on earth as in heaven’. Application Questions: 1. Why is our view of God’s disposition toward us so consequential for our relationships with people who are spiritually lost? Does your view of God match how he is described in Luke’s parables? Why or why not? 2. How do the parables of Luke 15 knock down any sense of spiritual superiority? What specific elements can you point to and elaborate on? 3. How can it be most advantageous to simply invite friends, neighbors, and co-workers to church? What is exciting about this idea, and what gives you pause? Who are one or two people of peace in your life who need an invitation?

Sermon: To the Least of These (May 3, 2026)

Scripture Text: Deuteronomy 15:7-11 and Luke 10:25-37 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection Timothy Keller, Ministries of Mercy What was the point of Jesus’ parable? We could put it this way. He was humbling us with the mercy God requires so we can receive the mercy God offers. This is the gospel. All of us lie helpless and bankrupt, dying on the road. Jesus Christ, who is our natural enemy, who owes us nothing, nevertheless stops and gives us of His spiritual riches and saves us. J.C. Ryle, The Gospel of Luke We should regard the whole world as our parish and the whole race of mankind as our neighbors. We should seek to be the friend of everyone who is oppressed, or neglected, or afflicted, or sick, or in prison, or poor, or an orphan, or a heathen, or a slave, or starving, or dying. We should exhibit such worldwide friendship – no doubt wisely, discreetly, and with good sense – but of such friendship we never need be ashamed. The ungodly may sneer at it as foolish and fanaticism. But we need not mind that. To be friendly to all men in this way is to show something of the mind that was in Christ…the world would be a happier place if there was a more practical Christianity. Michael Card, The Gospel of Amazement If our working definition of the Hebrew word hesed is “when the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything,” then the Samaritan clearly exhibits hesed…Hesed is always something you do, and so Jesus closes the interaction with the simple command, “Go and do the same.” Perhaps without realizing it, the scribe’s first question was just answered as well. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ answer? Do hesed. Application Questions 1. Why is self-righteousness such a default-mode for us all? How does self-justification surface in your own life? What impact do you believe it will have and what’s the actual result? 2. How would you summarize the ‘moral of the story’ in this parable and how does that recognition change your love for God? 3. What’s one way that the gospel can transform your perception and relationship to the “least of these” this week?

Sermon: A Brief Theology of Prayer (April 26, 2026)

Scripture Text: 1 Kings 18:17-39 and Acts 6:1-4 Daniel Robbins Quotes for Reflection: Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way (quoting Tito Colliander on the Ascetics). "Prayer is action." Application Questions 1. If you look at your practice, what does is imply about your lived belief in prayer? 2. If you had to focus on one request for this coming day, what would it be? How about for the next week? 3. What fears does prayer bring up in you? Would praying about them help?

Sermon: Investing in People & Place (April 19, 2026)

Scripture Text: Philippians 1:3-11 and Acts 16:6-34 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. Ralph Ellison, Interview on Invisible Man, 1974 I think most of us Americans are challenged, to be very, very conscious of where we are and that’s not an easy thing to do, and I do believe that knowing where we are, has a lot to do with our knowing who we are. N.T. Wright, Acts for Everyone We sometimes think it would be nice if life were not complicated, but it is, and the complexities matter. They are part of God’s world and God’s work. Michael Keller, Contextualization in the Late Modern West It ought to be our goal to know our friends, our neighbors, and our cities and areas so well that we know the cultural stories around us. What makes the gospel unique is that its storyline—its answers to these questions—can encompass and complete every other culture’s storylines. Whereas other cultures identify some created thing as being the problem and another created thing as the solution that will make things right, Christianity says the root of all problems is sin and the ultimate solution is Jesus. Application Questions 1. God can call us to a people over our personal preference. Where have you experienced this in your own life, and how have you seen God at work? 2. Why is our embodied, faithful presence essential to God’s work in the world? Where do you see that taking shape in your own context? 3. The gospel is not only comforting, it is also disruptive. In what ways do you see the gospel confronting the status quo of our city?

Sermon: A New Creation Sent (April 12, 2026)

Scripture Text: Exodus 3:1-15 and 2 Corinthians 5:14-6:1 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection Ed Welch, When People Are Big and God is Small In the biblical sense, what we fear shows our allegiances. It shows where we put our trust. It shows who is big in our lives. N.T. Wright, 2 Corinthians The gospel is not just a mechanism for getting people saved. It is the announcement of a love that has changed the world, a love that therefore takes the people who find themselves loved like this and sends them off to live and work in a totally new way. The energy to get up and go on as a Christian, as one who works for the gospel, therefore, comes not from a cold sense of duty, not from a fear of being punished if you don’t do your bit, but from the warm-hearted response of love to the love which has reached out, reached down, and reached you. It may, of course, make you do things in ways that surprise or even shock other people. The gospels are full of that sort of thing; so is the story of Paul’s life. But, as he now goes on to say, if a new world has come to birth, you wouldn’t expect it to look exactly like the old one, would you? Charles Hodge, 2 Corinthians What constitutes a Christian? It is being so constrained by a sense of the love of our divine Lord to us, that we consecrate our lives to him. Hence faith in his divinity, faith in his love, faith in his having died for us, is the principle or source of the Christian life. Application Questions 1. What questions does the resurrection raise for you—and how might following those questions lead you to deeper truth? 2. Jesus rose from the grave after three days. How might the resurrection invite you to trust God’s work in your life, even when it feels quiet or unclear? 3. If the resurrection creates a people, not just individuals, how might being part of a church community deepen your experience of it?

Sermon: Death Swallowed Up in Glory (April 5, 2026)

Scripture Text: Isaiah 25:6-9 and Matthew 28:1-10 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection John Calvin, The Gospel of Matthew We now come to the closing scene of our redemption. For the lively assurance of our reconciliation with God arises from Christ having come from hell as the conqueror of death, in order to show that he had the power of a new life at his disposal. Justly, therefore, does Paul say that there will be no gospel, and that the hope of salvation will be vain and fruitless, unless we believe that Christ is risen from the dead, (1 Corinthians 15:14.) For then did Christ obtain righteousness for us, and open up our entrance into heaven; and, in short, then was our adoption ratified, when Christ, by rising from the dead, exerted the power of his Spirit, and proved himself to be the Son of God. Ross Douthat, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious Just taken individually, the possibility that someone might rise from the grave, or that our minds might survive our bodily deaths, or that the Something Out There might yield supernatural visions even to a New Jersey mobster, should each demand a serious response from any rational creature…If the door to immortality-real immortality, not the Silicon Valley aspiration to somehow undo cellular aging or merge our minds with AI-is possibly cracked open, you should probably think about making some kind of preparation for whatever might be waiting on the other side. If a vision of transcendent goodness and mercy appears to you, a sinner, and you don't understand what it means, the most obvious interpretation is that you gotta change your life. Dante Alighieri , The Divine Comedy, Paradisio Yet even as a coal engenders flame, but with intenser glow outshines it, so that in that flame the coal persists, it shows, so will the brightness that envelopes us be then surpassed in visibility by return flesh, which earth now covers up. Nor will we tire when faced with such bright light, for then the body’s organs will have force enough for all in which we can delight. Application Questions 1. What questions does the resurrection raise for you—and how might following those questions lead you to deeper truth? 2. Jesus rose from the grave after three days. How might the resurrection invite you to trust God’s work in your life, even when it feels quiet or unclear? 3. If the resurrection creates a people, not just individuals, how might being part of a church community deepen your experience of it?

Sermon: The King Who is Worthy (March 29, 2026)

Scripture Text: Zechariah 9:9-12 and Matthew 21:1-11 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection C.S. Lewis, A Word About Praising The world rings with praise — lovers praising their mistresses [Romeo praising Juliet and vice versa], readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game — praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. . . . Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible. . . . I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. R.T. France, Matthew When Jesus chose this oracle to enact as he approached the city, he was thus claiming to be the Messiah, but not the sort of Messiah much popular patriotism might have hoped for. Zechariah’s vision prepares the reader well for a kingship which will be established without violence and indeed through submitting to the will of his enemies, so that his ultimate triumph will come only when he is “vindicated and saved” from death by the power of God. Tim Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knows. Application Questions 1. What is something you’ve recently praised? What do you notice about the general dynamics of praise that could change your relationship with God? 2. How might your personal agenda be keeping you from seeing the goodness of God? As we begin Holy Week, confess this to him and ask him to set you free. 3. How has the praise of God put your soul at rest? What’s one aspect of worship where you’ve found this to be true, and how can that shape your formation moving forward?

Sermon: Marked as God's People (March 22, 2026)

Scripture Text: Exodus 29:1-9 and Matthew 25:31-46 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection Martin Luther, Church Postil We receive Christ not only as a gift by faith, but also as an example of love toward our neighbor, whom we are to serve as Christ serves us. Faith brings and gives Christ to you with all his possessions. Love gives you to your neighbor with all your possessions. These two things constitute a true and complete Christian life. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity This is the terrible fix we are in. If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again. We cannot do without it, and we cannot do with it. God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger—according to the way you react to it. And we have reacted the wrong way. Ross Doughout, Believe Life is short and death is certain, and what account will you give of yourself if the believers turn out to have been right all along? That you took pointlessness for granted in a world shot through with signs of meaning and design? That you defaulted to unbelief because that seemed like the price of being intellectually serious or culturally respectable? That you were too busy to be curious, too consumed with things you knew to be passing to cast a prayer up to whatever eternity awaits? Application Questions 1. Why does the idea of final judgement often feel uncomfortable? How have you grown to appreciate this approaching reality in your journey of faith? 2. Jesus seems to indicate that love for the least of these begins in the community of the church. Why is this the starting point? How have you seen love that begins in the church minister to the broader world? 3. How can seeing Jesus in the face of another change how you love someone this week?

Sermon: The Cost of Belonging to God (March 15, 2026)

Scripture Text: Exodus 22:1-15 and Matthew 21:23-46 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection Dante, The Divine Comedy, Paradisio Rather it is inherent in this state Of blessedness, to keep ourselves within The divine will, by which our wills with his Are one. So that as we from step to step Are plac’d throughout this kingdom, pleases all, E’en as our King, who in us plants his will; And in his will is our tranquillity; It is the mighty ocean, whither tends Whatever it creates and nature makes. C.S. Lewis, Talking About Bicylces I meant this. Whether there is, or whether there is not, in this world or in any other, the kind of happiness which one’s first experiences of cycling seemed to promise, still on any view, it is something to have had the idea of it. The value of the things promised remains even if that particular promise was false-even if all possible promises of it are false. J.I. Packer, Concise Theology It is his glory, given him by the Father, to be in this way the all-sufficient Savior. We who believe are called to understand this and to show ourselves his people by obeying him as our king, trusting him as our priest, and learning from him as our prophet and teacher. To center on Jesus Christ in this way is the hallmark of authentic Christianity. Application Questions 1. How would you describe our culture’s view of authority? What are some strengths of this view, and what are some of its weaknesses? In what ways might this cultural posture make it difficult for us to receive the authority of Christ in our lives and in the church? 2. According to this passage, how does authority become corrupted? What attitudes or fears led the religious leaders to resist Jesus? Can you think of a time in your own leadership—at home, work, church, or elsewhere—when authority in your life became distorted or self-protective? What do you think God was teaching you through that experience? 3. Read again Matthew 21:42–46. The leaders recognized Jesus was speaking about them, yet they still resisted him. Where might the authority of Jesus be challenging or confronting you right now? What would it look like to respond with repentance and trust this week?

Sermon: Between Glory and the Way (March 8, 2026)

Scripture Text: Exodus 15:22-27 and Matthew 17:1-23 Bryan Buck Quotes for Reflection Ross Douthout, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious If mind might well precede matter, and the laws of the universe indicate that some intelligence created and sustains existence, and human reason seems to have the privileged ability to unlock existence’s mysterious underlying order, and the seemingly supernatural intrudes upon the natural as often in the modern world as in the past-well, then, you, as a man or a woman trying to chart the best course through a finite lifespan, with difficult moral choices at every turn and death awaiting sooner rather than later, have every reason to take a pretty strong interest in the story you’ve found yourself inside, what part you might be asked to play in it, and how, for you and everyone, it might ultimately end. N.T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone The secret, of course, is that the size of the faith isn’t important; what’s important is the God in whom you believe. If you want to see the moon, the size of the window you’re looking through isn’t important; what matters is that it’s facing in the right direction. A tiny slit in the wall will do if the moon is that side of the house. A huge window facing in the wrong direction will be no good at all. That’s what true faith is like. John Calvin, The Institutes (III.2.7) Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Charles Spurgeon, Sermon No. 979 “Strong Faith” Little faith will take your soul to heaven; great faith will bring heaven to your soul. Application Questions 1. Reflect on a time when you experienced the nearness or power of God in a way that strengthened your faith. How did that moment sustain you in the season that followed? 2. In Matthew 17, the disciples—who had previously ministered with authority—suddenly falter. What tends to contribute to your own “malfunctions of faith”? Fatigue? Self-reliance? Fear? Distraction? Unconfessed sin? 3. What might God be calling you to in this season that requires deeper trust and obedience? Share this with a few others, and spend time praying together for the faith to follow where he leads.

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