Kuna United Methodist Church Sermons
by Kuna United Methodist Church
Sermons of Kuna United Methodist Church in Kuna, Idaho
Podcast episodes
Season 3
Savior: Jesus restores your relationship. April 6, 2025
All relationships have problems. Failed relationships aren’t necessarily caused by big issues like abuse. More likely, failed relationships are the accumulation of many little things brought on by neglect and disconnection. We’ve all neglected our relationship with God. We don’t keep the sabbath, we worship the idols of consumerism and materialism, and we fail to help the needy. You could say, God is like that friend should call but you never get around to it. Jesus, however, got around to dealing with the disconnect. He died on the cross so God could be close to us in a relationship we give freely, by choice. Jesus restores our relationship with God. This week, Pastor Mia reminds us that following Christ and modeling our lives after him improves all of our relationships. When we stop trying to save ourselves, our relationships change because we are free to love and care for each other.
Savior: Jesus Makes Us Clean. March 30, 2025
We all have something we're powerless against. Death is one. The other is the collection of things that get in between us and God. When we admit we are powerless and finally turn to God, Jesus washes away the things that suppress us from living in full relationship with the Lord. When Jesus makes us clean, he's not washing dirt off our bodies. Instead, he's cleansing us from another type of grime, the captivity of sin and death that make us feel spritually dirty. In this context, clean means life and unclean means death. When we're tainted with sin, we can try to ignore it and we can justify it. However, the result is guilt and self doubt. Although we want sprititual cleanliness, we simply can't achieve it on our own. At the Last Supper, Jesus humbled himself to an act of service, washing the disciples' feet. In that moment, Jesus demonstrated that faith and loyalty to God are part of being clean. The next day, a reluctant Pontius Pilate turn Jesus over to the authorities to be crucified. Then Pilate washed his hands of the matter, blaming his decision on the crowds Like Pilate, we can try to stifle our guilt, mistakes, and failures, or we can follow the example of Jesus. In other words, there are handwashers, and there are footwashers. On this fourth Sunday of Lent, Pastor Mia asks, which one are you?
Savior: Jesus shows you how to live. March 23, 2025.
In this third Sunday of Lent, we explore the profound ways Jesus is our Savior, focusing on Jesus as a moral example. Jesus teaches us to live a life of love, integrity, and selflessness. Jesus' life is a testament to kingdom living, calling us to shift from self-centeredness to self-giving. Through actions and teachings, Jesus provides a model for moral and ethical living, inspiring us to embody the image of God within us. Jesus' life inspires us to live with love and integrity, challenging us to reflect God's character in our daily lives.We are reminded of historical figures like Rosa Parks and Oscar Romero, who, inspired by Jesus, stood against injustice and oppression. Their courage and moral fortitude exemplify how one person's actions can ignite a movement towards justice and righteousness. Jesus as a Moral Example: Jesus' life serves as a powerful moral example, teaching us to live with love, integrity, and selflessness. His actions and teachings guide us to embody the image of God within us, inspiring us to reflect God's character in our daily lives. [19:35]- The Power of One: Jesus' life inspires us to initiate change through selfless actions. Our individual efforts can create a ripple effect, leading others towards love and righteousness.
Savior: Jesus sets you free
John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but how? This week guest speaker Pastor Steve Tollefson wrestles with the question, how did Jesus set us free from sin? When we try to understand how Jesus’s death on a cross makes it possible for sins to be forgiven, the thing we’re trying to understand is atonement. Atonement is the reconciliation of God and people through the sacrifice of Jesus dying on the cross. Scholars have worked to understand atonement by developing various theories. They include the Ransom Theory of Atonement, the Satisfaction Theory of Atonement, and the Moral Theory of Atonement. Although there is some truth in each of these distinct theories, they also have commonalities. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus happened for the purpose of leading us to unity with God.
Savior: Jesus Takes Our Place. March 9, 2025
God became human to save us, but what was God saving us from? On this first Sunday of Lent, Pastor Mia takes on that question. God's covenant with the Israelites included rules intended to help the people live their lives with order and decency. The Israelites, however, disobeyed God's commandments by continually worshipping idols and neglecting to keep the Sabbath. Because of the people's failures, the covenent was broken. You'd likely expect punishment for the Isralites when they broke God's covenvent, but punishment wasn't God's remedy. After all, God is love and a loving God wouldn't create people just to send them to hell. When we see Jesus dying on the cross, we see God, because everything God did to save us was about relationships. God wants our freely given love and connection more than anything else. The death and resurrection of Jesus was so saving, because God ultimately paid the price for our sins by becoming human to take our place.