Sermons

This passage deals with the scene in which Jesus comes walking on the sea when the boat carrying his disciples runs into a violent storm. Gripped by the rough waves and the terror before their eyes, the disciples forgot Jesus' power and salvation and trembled with fear. But Jesus saves them and calms the sea, showing that he is the Creator.

The sermon emphasizes that for believers to overcome the waves of the world, they must not only confess their faith in their heads but show it through their actions in life. Just as Peter saw the waves, became afraid, and began to sink, we need the perseverance and training to depend on Jesus alone without being shaken by human weakness and emotions. We must also grow our faith not like a small boat but like a warship, and have a mature faith that quietly devotes itself and saves souls, like a deep river.

The sermon asks whether believers are keeping from spiritual sleep through laziness or idleness, and are being faithful unto death and showing the actions of faith. It also asks how they should prepare through perseverance, humility, and prayer to become a deep river and believers whom Jesus cherishes.

This passage deals with the ways Satan deceives people to hinder their salvation, and why believers must discern this and stay awake. Satan attacks relentlessly, veiling the truth of the gospel and clouding people's minds so that the glory of Christ cannot shine. It also emphasizes the urgency of spiritual awakening in light of the signs of the end of the world, the spread of heresies, and deepening moral corruption.

Comparing it to an apple, the sermon explains Satan's strategy of making a small crack in a believer's heart, a 'knife cut' that brings awareness of guilt, so as to eventually make them rot spiritually. It shows not a life that looks fine on the outside while rotting within, but believers who withstand Satan's attacks and are protected by God. For this, believers must not be drunk with wine or with anger, but put on the breastplate of faith and love and stay spiritually alert.

The sermon asks what attitude believers should have in order to live holy lives as children of light without falling into Satan's deception.

Through the life of the apostle Paul, this passage deals with the spiritual crises and inner conflicts that people of faith go through. Before meeting Christ, Paul lived as a legalist, but after his conversion he gave up everything for the gospel and lived a life of bearing suffering. Yet he had to fight continually amid human weakness and the temptation of sin, acknowledging his shortcomings and depending on God's grace.

The sermon explains that in faith we experience both moments of fullness like a high mountain and moments of weakness like a deep valley. In particular, it emphasizes that we need the wisdom not to become proud when we are spiritually full, and to cry out to God when we fall into the valley of suffering. It also points out that to discern Satan's deception and false gospels, the leading of the Holy Spirit and an accurate understanding of the Bible are essential.

How should believers recognize the serious responsibility they bear, in that their words and actions can decide the life or death of a soul?

This passage contains the conversation between an owner and a vine dresser about a fig tree that bears no fruit. The owner orders that the tree, which only takes up ground without bearing fruit, be cut down, but the vine dresser pleads that if it is given just one more year, he will dig around it and fertilize it so that it bears fruit. This scene shows that even though God's judgment is near, Jesus is acting as a mediator who asks for patience and another chance for believers.

The sermon applies this spiritual reality to believers' lives, emphasizing that the present is the last chance God has given. It warns that a fig tree with plenty of leaves but no actual fruit may end up as firewood and be thrown away, and points out that believers have a responsibility to bear the fruit of repentance, devotion, and love. It also explains that rather than dwelling on past failures or regrets, the wise attitude is to live the present faithfully and bear the fruit of salvation.

Believers must reflect on how they are using the grace and gifts they have received to give glory to God. The sermon asks believers to examine the state of their faith, to guard against becoming people of faith with nothing but leaves, and to consider what decision they must make to fill the year given to them with meaning.

We look back on time spent amid the passing years, repeating regrets and resolutions and going through the ups and downs of self-esteem. The sermon distinguishes chronos, time that flows by, from kairos, meaningful time, and points out that worship and the effort of faith should make our time full in quality. It explains that self-esteem comes not from others' recognition or from circumstances, but from an inner assurance gained by acknowledging our own limits and through our relationship with God.

Through the disciples, who resented Jesus as he slept peacefully in the middle of a dangerous storm, it shows how a lack of faith gives rise to fear and complaint. Jesus wanted the disciples, rather than asking for a miracle, to take command of their situation and their faith through the word and to grow spiritually. This suggests that believers should make moments of hardship and danger not merely a time to endure, but a kairos in which they trust God and grow spiritually.

The promise of fundamental and eternal blessing that comes when we listen diligently to God's word is presented. It conveys that when we look not only at what is seen but also at the unseen, eternal world and enter into a right relationship with God, we are blessed in every area of life. The sermon raises questions to help believers recognize their own abilities and limits, use the time given to them as an opportunity, build up their self-esteem, and grow to the place God desires.

This passage reveals that behind the joy of Christmas lie the suffering and death that Jesus would have to go through. Jesus, who came as the offspring of the woman to fulfill the promise God made at the beginning of the world, knew in advance of Satan's harassment, the betrayal of countless people, and the pain of the cross. It points out that behind the Christmas the world treats as merely a festival lie the pain and the resolve that God had to bear.

Behind Jesus' birth were the obedience and trust of Joseph and Mary. Mary's faith in accepting God's will even in a situation as dangerous as death shows what believers look like who can trust God and endure even in situations they cannot understand. Immanuel means that God is with us, and those who believe this have no need to fear the world or Satan.

Through the birth of Jesus, believers must come to understand God's love and plan of salvation, and overcome the world by that faith. Just as Jesus walked this road in love even though he knew the pain of the cross and the betrayal of his disciples, believers too must cast off temptation and greed and obey God. The sermon asks what believers must hold on to in order to know the true meaning of Christmas and live by faith to the end without wavering.

This passage deals with the third step of faith, the state of a 'sharp, low mountain', and sheds light on the process of spiritual maturity through the life of Joseph. It is the stage at which a faith that once seemed easy to grasp, the more one learns of God's word, comes up against the difficulty of putting it into practice and the danger of pride, and many believers stop or stumble here. Joseph, not understanding the dream and the mission God had given him, boasted about them and earned his family's hatred, but the passage shows that this was a refining meant to make him into a larger vessel.

The sermon warns against the pride of believers who boast of their devotion and knowledge and judge others. When a heart that bargained for blessings through a prosperity-seeking faith disappears as soon as it gains freedom, it reveals that this was a faith for self-interest, not true love. God wants believers who devote themselves not under compulsion or the leverage of rewards, but with hearts that truly love God and are thankful to him.

Now we must look back on whether our faith is for loving God or for receiving blessings. When we mature spiritually, go down to a low place, and live humbly, we will come to realize how God raises us up high.

This passage points out specifically what the 'stumbling blocks' are that hinder spiritual growth in the life of faith. The author points to bad habits commonly seen in people who fail, such as self-deception, unproductive behavior, discourteous attitudes, and confused priorities, and warns that these become the cause of rebelling against God and wasting one's life. In particular, through the example of Lot's wife, who heard of the coming destruction yet looked back and became a pillar of salt, and the failure of David, who let his guard down in the joy of victory and committed the sins of adultery and murder, it shows the fatal consequences of failing to break with the world and cast off human righteousness.

Going beyond simply pointing out sin, the sermon digs into the psychological background of why believers so easily stumble over these stumbling blocks. It explains how the reward mentality of giving offerings or seeking success through a prosperity-seeking faith, and the temptations of pride and pleasure that come in comfortable circumstances, bring about spiritual death. Comparing Jesus' words that those who believe without seeing are blessed with Thomas's unbelief, it emphasizes that true faith is pure trust, not human common sense and knowledge. Through the example of Achan, it also reminds us of how an individual's sin affects the community, and that the unseen God cannot be deceived.

This sermon leads the reader to reflect deeply on whether their faith is true obedience or has been reduced to a tool for worldly success and pleasure. To leave behind a showy flower-garden faith and climb the steps of faith by clearing away stumbling blocks, we should examine what greed and stubbornness have taken root within us now. Watch the video to see whether now is the time for the decision to face and clear away the stumbling blocks God has given, and what joy and growth can be experienced in the process.

Through Ezekiel's vision describing the water flowing out from the temple and growing ever deeper, this passage illustrates how faith grows from a weak stage to a mature one. It also contrasts eagle faith with flower-garden faith, emphasizing that we must have a solid faith that does not waver in spiritual battle, not a faith that settles into the world's splendor and comfort.

Rather than boasting of their own righteousness or material blessings, believers must move on to a mature faith that gives thanks unconditionally for God's love and the sacrifice of the cross. To keep from growing proud, as though building a tower of Babel, swept along by Satan's temptations and worldly greed, or from falling into a darkened spirit that takes sin for granted like Sodom and Gomorrah, they must develop spiritual discernment through the word of truth and fight sin with their free will.

What God wants is not a confession made only with the lips but an unchanging faith that believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness. How should we strive to cast off a flower-garden faith that can wither at a single frost, and grow into mature people of faith who stand tall toward God like a great tree in any storm?

Today's passage is the scene in which people bring to Jesus a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and beg him to heal him. Jesus took the man aside, away from the crowd, put his fingers into his ears, spat and touched his tongue, and then, looking up to heaven, sighed and commanded, 'Ephphatha', that is, be opened. At that moment the man's ears were opened and his tongue was released so that he spoke plainly, and a miracle took place.

This miracle goes beyond simply healing a physical illness, showing that only when our spiritual eyes and ears are opened can we recognize the Messiah and proclaim the word of truth. People wanted only to see miracles and did not hear the word, so they failed to recognize Jesus, and Jesus sighed as he saw their foolishness. Only when we become believers who follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, deny ourselves, and take up the cross can we understand God's will and carry out the mission of saving souls. And because we know the power of the tongue, we must live lives that build up the church and bring life to our neighbors through good words and wise judgment.

If God has called us out of darkness into light and given us ears to hear and eyes to see, what should we now choose? We are led to look back on whether we are living with our spiritual ears closed, swept along by the noise and judgments of the world, and whether, as those who have experienced the miracle of Ephphatha, we are living lives that proclaim the word of truth.

This passage sheds light on the meaning of the suffering believers go through, by way of the story of Kayla Mueller, who was abducted by an extremist organization and endured deadly suffering, yet kept her faith to the end. Confident that even if the earthly house of her tent were dissolved she had an eternal house in the heavens, she met her death without any negotiation or compromise. This went beyond mere endurance; it was an extreme choice that showed the salvation of the soul and eternal life to be far more important than the suffering of this present life.

The sermon urges believers today to look at life from the same perspective as the prophets and apostles, who counted the hope of the kingdom of heaven greater than the suffering of the body. However strong Satan's temptations and persecution may be, if we remember the eternal judgment and the glory of the kingdom of heaven, we can overcome fear and be bold. We cannot use the weakness of the flesh or the hardness of our circumstances as an excuse for not keeping the faith; rather, we must recognize that such suffering is a process that matures our faith.

Why should we live relying on eternal life instead of clinging to the passing things of this world, and how are we using this season of suffering as an opportunity for our faith to grow?

This passage announces that the end of all things is near, and urges believers to be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer. As the world grows more complicated and civilization advances, people are losing patience and self-sacrifice; they sink into their own emotions, avoid their problems, or make the dangerous choice of throwing their lives away too easily. Satan takes advantage of this mental weakness to obstruct God's plan, and believers are called to live with more strength than the world.

The sermon points out, through the contrast between Job and Judas Iscariot, how much the choices we make in suffering matter. Even in extreme pain and amid the mockery of those around him, Job did not let go of God; he repented and endured to the end, and so overcame Satan's attack. Judas Iscariot, on the other hand, was swept away by his emotions, could not look to the eternal world, and came to a tragic end. When Elijah, too, was so worn out that he begged to die, God knew his weakness, comforted him with bread and water, and raised him up again.

Believers must drive off with God's word the whispers of Satan that push them, overwhelmed by emotion, to the edge of the cliff. With the faith that gains eternal life, they must endure the pain of this life, love one another, and hold each other up as brothers and sisters in the faith. Now that the end of all things is near, how should believers be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer?