There were many attempts to trap Jesus into saying something that would lead to his arrest, but he saw through them all, even using the occasion to teach his would-be accusers something new.
The Apostle Paul urges us to allow God’s Spirit to change us by changing how we think about ourselves. How does this work, and what happens next? For what purpose does God make us into new people?
“After Transformation” by Pastor Ryan Emmons
Pastor Ryan began his sermon with this quote from New Testament scholar Douglas Moo:
Romans has the reputation – well deserved – of being one of the most theological books in the Bible. Unfortunately, this reputation has led many Christians and even some commentators to wonder why Paul bothers with all the practical stuff at the end of the letter. He has finished the theology section at the end of chapter 11. Why say any more? Such an attitude betrays a basic misunderstanding of theology and its significance. All theology is practical, and all practice, if it is truly Christian, is theological. Paul’s gospel is deeply theological, but it is also eminently practical. The good news of Jesus Christ is intended to transform a person’s life. Until individual Christians own and live out the theology, the gospel has not accomplished its purpose.
It’s a crushing, despairing feeling to know we have done something to hurt another person. And so freeing to know that God forgives us. But we also really want to know that the person we hurt has forgiven us. Similarly, if someone has hurt us, they need to know our forgiveness. Giving that forgiveness is part of our honest worship of God.
“The Freedom of Forgiveness” by Pastor Ryan Emmons
You can also download Pastor Ryan’s sermon notes (not a transcript). During the sermon he demonstrated a silly camp chant called “My Name is Bill”. Here is a similar one called “My Name is Joe”.
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You can also get real-time audio captions when you listen with these apps:
This is the third sermon in Pastor Ryan’s series “The Flawed Yet Faithful”, which looks at some of the imperfect but faithful people listed in chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews. God used them in spite of their flaws, and he can use us in spite of ours as well — if only we are faithful.
The story of Moses is found in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy.
You can download the PDF of Pastor Ryan’s sermon “Moses” if you would like to read it. Note that this is not a word-for-word transcript of the sermon, just the outline he used to preach from.