Tough Questions 2009
Is This Life a Gift from God, or the Next?
Acts 14:8-18
Matthew Raley (08/09/09)
| Churches spend a lot of energy trying to persuade people to hate “this life” and “the world.” The result can be a distortion of biblical teaching. In this sermon we see that in Christianity, the pleasures of life are so good that they are reasons to trust, thank, and worship the Creator. |
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Is Beauty Important in the Christian Life?
Psalm 96:6
Matthew Raley (08/16/09)
| Many evangelicals are soul-sick for lack of expressions of beauty in their lives. They wrestle with depression, secret sin, and anxiety because they are not using the sources of loveliness that the Lord has given them. In this sermon we see that beauty is a n essential part of the Christian life. |
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Why Pray if God's Already Decided?
Matthew 6:5-15
Matthew Raley (08/23/09)
| Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of prayer in which other human beings are the audience, not the Father. He sees the secret things. He hears what we say. And he knows what we need before we ask him. In this sermon we see that the Father is intimately involved with your life. Far from being a reason not to pray, Jesus cites this as a motivation. |
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Should I Forgive God?
Psalm 22
Matthew Raley (08/30/09)
| Bitterness against God is the biggest problem inside and outside the church. Outside the church, especially among the New Atheists, I hear a great deal of anger over life experiences. Inside, I hear a deafening silence, an unwillingness to voice the actual problems of the Christian life. In this sermon we see that where there is no wrong, forgiveness is presumptuous. |
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Is America a Christian Nation Today?
1 Peter 2:9-17
Matthew Raley (09/06/09)
| We urgently need to recover a biblical sense of our responsibilities to God’s Kingdom. In this sermon we see that our task as American evangelicals is not to uphold Christian morality through cultural means. We are to live in the midst of unbelievers not as advocates of the law, but as witnesses of grace. |
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Is Pre-Marital Sex That Bad? pt 1
Genesis 2:22-25
Matthew Raley (09/13/09)
| Christian sexuality is not founded on self-interest or the prevention of harm, but on a vision of what the whole person can become, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The Bible is full of this vision, and we will spend this sermon and the next looking at it closely. |
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Is Pre-Marital Sex That Bad? pt 2
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Matthew Raley (09/20/09)
| In one sense, we’re guilty of exaggerating the impact both of sexual sin and of sexual fidelity. Sex is normal, not extraordinary. But in another sense, we’re guilty of not emphasizing the importance of sex enough. Whatever your sexual life expresses, that’s what you are. What we focus on in this sermon is the fact that we need redemption sexually, and that by the providence of God redemption is open to us in Christ. |
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