Pastor Ryan’s sermon “Why Hold On?” asks the question “If we have tasted the good of the Lord, then why do we still hold on to the ‘bad’ of the world?”
Pastor Ryan’s sermon “Who Should We Say Sorry To?” looks at Psalm 51, where David begs God for forgiveness after his affair with Bathsheba and the resultant fallout.
Pastor Ryan’s sermon “The Girl Who Lived” looks at hope and the faithfulness of God in the stories of Jesus healing the woman who was bleeding when she touched his robe, and bringing Jairus’s daughter back to life. As Lamentations 3:31-32 (NLT) tells us,
31 … no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. 32 Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love.
Pastor Ryan’s sermon “Getting What We Want” looks at the story of the failure of King Saul and the anointing of David as his successor. Sometimes God gives us what we ask for, even if it isn’t best for us, and then He graciously helps us deal with the repercussions.
Pastor Ryan’s sermon “Scattered Seed” is based on Jesus’ parable of the sower: some seeds fell on rocky soil, some on thin soil, some among thorns, and so on. Jesus explains what it means, so our job is to figure out where we fit in the parable. It all seems quite straightforward, until you look at the farmer…
Pastor Ryan’s sermon “The Jar Paradox” talks about the paradox in the image of believers being “fragile jars of clay”, as well as the paradoxes that follow in Paul’s letter. It doesn’t make sense that the great treasure of the Gospel would be “stored” in relatively fragile containers, and yet that is exactly what God has done in entrusting us not only to experience His love, power and grace for ourselves, but also to be witness of that to the world around us.
You can also download Pastor Ryan’s sermon notes (not a transcript). In this sermon, he talks about the classic children’s book The Velveteen Rabbit. Since it is out of copyright, you can read it online for free if you like.
Pastor Ryan’s sermon “Honour the Lord” talks about what that means. Are we included in the “heavenly beings” that Psalm 29 calls to honour God? What are some ways that we can honour God with our words and actions? How do we turn our hearts to want to honour Him?
Pastor Ryan’s sermon “Those Dry Bones” talks about times in our lives that seem dry, like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision. The good news is that God can and will breathe new life into dry bones, just like he did at creation. What can we do to allow this to happen in our lives?
Pastor Ryan’s sermon “What if Ascension Never Happened?” imagines what the Christian church would look like if Jesus decided to stay on Earth after his ascension rather than returning to his Father in heaven. Why was his leaving actually a good thing, and what did it accomplish for us?