By Pastor R. Bret Walker

August 18, 2024 Old Testament: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 Psalter: Psalm 111 Epistle Lesson: Ephesians 5:15-20 Gospel Lesson: John 6:51-58 Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. S.D.…

Sermon #7 Well this week we have a bonus sermon, one that I gave a couple years ago when I was a layperson. From the Gospel of John, this message centers on Peter's declaration to Jesus, "You have the words of eternal life." We sometimes forget that we can only be satisfied in Christ. We try to fill our lives with things that the world tells us to …

Sermon #294 What we find in the words "I Believe in... the holy catholic church, the communion of saints..." can be troublesome to some. How can we profess belief in one church when there are so many denominations? Often it is used against us as Christians to say that we can't even agree with each other. And yet, there is undeniably something unive…

Sermon #616 A priest is one who intercedes on behalf of the people to God, to make sacrifices to atone for sin. The high priest is one who makes atonement for the sins of all the people, in this case, the people of Israel. But the high priest is himself a sinful person and so he must first make atonement for his own sins before making atonement for…

Sermon #457 The episode of David's sin does not simply end with his repentance. As is often the case, the wreckage of this single momentary lapse in judgment follows not only David but also his immediate and extended family for many years, and even affects the nation of Israel as it descends into civil war, led by David's third son Absalom. We ofte…

August 11, 2024 Old Testament: 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33 Psalter: Psalm 130 Epistle Lesson: Ephesians 4:25-5:2 Gospel Lesson: John 6:35, 41-51 Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwi…

Sermon #293 We turn our attention in the Apostles' Creed to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. There is much misinformation regarding the Holy Spirit given in the last hundred years or so, and so we take a look at some of the myths about the Holy Spirit and debunk them, then examine how the Holy Spirit works in the life of the baptiz…

Sermon #615 God promises a rest for those who follow him in faith. To the Israelites, he promised they would enter into his rest in the land that he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet they refused and instead feared the people of the land, and God made them wander in the wilderness for forty years. The rest that he promises to believers tod…

Sermon #456 This dark chapter in David's life brings in a new person to the story, Nathan the prophet. Although David had hidden his sin from others, he had not hidden the sin from himself, and he certainly did not hide it from God. When Nathan confronts David with the made-up story of a rich man who stole a poor man's lamb, David was enraged. Yet …

August 4, 2024 Old Testament: 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a Psalter: Psalm 51:1-12 Epistle Lesson: Ephesians 4:1-16 Gospel Lesson: John 6:24-35 Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. S.D.…

Sermon #292 Our exposition of the Apostles' Creed brings us to the end of the Christological statement of faith. We who have embraced Christ by faith for forgiveness of sins can rest assured in the final judgment. But what about those who have not? Jesus said he will come again, and he talks about his return as a time of judgment - what the Old Tes…

Sermon #614 After having asserted that Jesus, as Son of God, is greater than Moses (considered by the Jews to be the greatest prophet), the writer of Hebrews now looks at a particular event in the history of Israel, saying that even though God brought all of Israel out of Egypt, not all of them entered the promised land, but most perished in the wi…

Sermon #455 [This sermon was recorded in 2021 but was never released. In an effort to complete the Prophets & Kings series from that Summer, we are going back and releasing these sermons in 2024.] In our series so far, we've only seen the good in David. He is faithful to God, he is faithful to Saul even when Saul wants to kill him, and he is faithf…

July 28, 2024 Old Testament: 2 Samuel 11:1-15 Psalter: Psalm 14 Epistle Lesson: Ephesians 3:14-21 Gospel Lesson: John 6:1-21 Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. S.D.G.…

Sermon #352 I can think of no better message to kick off the eighth season of Guerrilla Christianity than this message which was preached at the Pitman Grove Camp Meeting in 2019. Very few Christians today share their faith in Jesus Christ, and perhaps it is because we have no idea who Jesus is. The writer of the book of Hebrews offers us the found…

Sermon #613 Without a doubt, the greatest figure in the history of Israel was Moses. He was the one who led the people out of slavery. He was the one to whom God gave the law. He was the leader of the Hebrews in the wilderness for 40 years. And yet, the writer of Hebrews insists that we ought to consider Jesus as greater than Moses. After all, Mose…

Sermon #454 Often in scripture, David is referred to as a man after God's own heart. We see that in today's reading as David expresses a desire to build a temple for God in Jerusalem. His desire is to put down roots for the nation of Israel, to establish the spiritual center of the family of Abraham. Yet God, in a play on words, says through the pr…

July 21, 2024 Old Testament: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a Psalter: Psalm 89:20-37 Epistle Lesson: Ephesians 2:11-22 Gospel Lesson: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. S…

Sermon #291 It is easy for us to slip quietly past this affirmation, but that would be a mistake. We are told so much in the Gospels about the earthly ministry of Christ and very little about the forty days after the resurrection, and less about the actual ascension (only Luke records his account in his Gospel and in the book of Acts). Yet the Asce…