Isaiah 43, Psalm 27, et al.: Relating to Dating

Sermon preached at RUF’s Wednesday Night Fellowship on February 27, 2019. In this sermon, we dive into the exciting, terrifying, beautiful…disorienting world of dating. What is dating? (Let’s define the relationship.) How can you mess up a relationship really quick? What do we need to do in order to date well? Special thanks to friends and fellow RUF CMs Matt Terrell and Matt Howell whose insights on dating were especially helpful.

Selected Proverbs: Relating to Our Friends

Sermon preached at RUF’s Wednesday Night Fellowship on February 20, 2019. You can live the “good life” without sex but you cannot live the “good life” without friends. Friendship is that important. That said, you cannot be friends with everybody. You get to choose your friends, so choose wisely. Your choice of friends will make or break your life. The marks of a good friend are constancy, forgiveness, speaking the truth in love, and safeguarding secrets. Jesus is (and wants to be) your best friend. Give yourself in friendship to him too.

Eph. 5:1-14: Relating to Our Growth

Sermon preached at RUF’s Wednesday Night Fellowship on Feb. 6, 2019. The point of our creation, salvation, restoration is Christlikeness—being fully human, someone who images/imitates God as a dearly beloved child. Our growth into Christlikeness is a process—a walk, not a snap of the finger or wave of the wand. We grow in the light—i.e., in the context of loving, supportive, life-giving and life-saving relationships.

John 1:35-42: Relating To Our Self

Sermon preached at RUF’s Wednesday Night Fellowship on January 30, 2019. Who am I? What does it mean to be me? The names we are called (by our parents, on the playground) profoundly shape how we see our self and self-worth. That so much power exists outside of our control freaks us out. In a desire for autonomy and even self-protection, we try to make a name for ourselves. We do this primarily through our performance (e.g., resume building) and/or our preferences (e.g., being authentic). This approach has problems of its own: 1) if we attach our self/worth to our success (and failures) we feel good when we are winning and awful when we are not; 2) we can make ourselves judge and jury of our self/worth but we are our own harshest critic; 3) because we are made in the image of a Triune God, we are (by design) dependent on other voices telling us we are good, beautiful, etc. Attempts to create a sense of self/worth independent of the estimation of others is doomed for failure. This brings us back to square one. We need someone from the outside-in to instill in us a sense of self/worth. That is a lot of power to be sure, so we need to be careful who we cede that power to. Only God should have that right: 1) because he knows us better than anyone else (including ourselves), and 2) he loves us. He calls us child, friend, beloved, “mine.”

Gen. 1:26; 1 John 4:18-19: Why Relationships

Sermon preached at RUF’s Wednesday Night Fellowship on January 16, 2019. The quality of our life is best measured by the quality of our relationships—relationships Jesus has come to make healthy, whole and right again—our relationship with God, our self, with others, and with the world around us. In this introduction to our semester-long series on relationships, we ask the all important question: “Why?” Why are relationships so fundamental to our well-being? And if they are so vital, why are we so anxious and afraid of getting close?

John 6:51, 60-69: Does This Offend You?

Sermon preached at RUF's Wednesday Night Fellowship on Nov. 8, 2017. Jesus is offensive. His repeated claims to be the one and only heaven-sent Savior of the world offends our pride, our secularism, and our "safe spaces." What are you going to do when you cannot out-alpha the Alpha and Omega? "Are you going to walk away, as well?" Or are you going to receive, submit to, and feast on this "bread of heaven?"