Category: Sermons

Our story today concerns the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but not since chapter five and six when God saw the wickedness of Noah’s father Lamach, and the wickedness of mans inhumanity towards man have we seen God’s wrath provoked the way we do today. And most of us don’t like to think of our God as wrathful. This sermon is definitely not appropriate for children

Boy have we got a great story for you today! It involves radical hospitality, an intimate friendship, the fulfillment of a promise, a  shared confidence, and a challenge to God’s justice.

You won’t want to miss this.

Most people outside of our tribe think holiness means… We don’t smoke, we don’t chew, we don’t go with girls that do! We don’t drink or play cards, we don’t dance, we think of ourselves as morally superior. We are the joyless, frozen chosen… the morality police! No wonder no one wants to be part of our tribe? So today I want to talk about holiness. This message does not exhaust all that has to be said about holiness, but I hope to tie it into the series we have been working through in the Book of Genesis.

Every day we make lots of decisions. Some are easy, some are not. Some people are quick to make decisions, others seem to take forever, but… 10 out of 10 times when I take matters into my own hands (apart from the will of God) I mess things up. I wonder if anyone else can relate to that?

Some of my biggest Life Challenges have come to me by way of Family, and this is certainly true of our story today. Each day we are faced with many life choices and we can learn a lot from men and women in the Bible by watching the choices they make, and the consequences that come with those choices.

All through the New Testament we hear, “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,” but you know what? It’s not that easy to live up to that kind of faith. Abraham’s life, (well lets just say) “its complicated.”

The Book of Genesis open’s with God’s preferred vision of the cosmos beginning in a Garden. Human kinds failure to trust God’s definition of good and evil short circuits God’s plan, but God’s will won’t be frustrated. In the revelation of John, God’s vision is finally fully realized.

Scripture references 1Corinthians 15, Hebrews 11, and Revelation 22 

Genesis 4-11 recounts the downward spiral of humanities decision to choose for themselves what is good and what is not good, all leading to disharmony, to violence, and to death. But there is hope!

The story of Adam & Eve is one of the most familiar stories in the entire Bible, but one that we often get very wrong. Generally referred to as “the fall,” I believe should better be titled “God hatches a plan to rescue.”