Guerrilla Christianity

S10E55: Go, Make Disciples (According to Matthew pt. 1)

Sermon #555

We're beginning a new series for the Summer months called "According to Matthew" that will keep us in Matthew's Gospel at least until the end of August.  Looking back on 10 summers of preaching series, I have never stayed in the Gospel track of the Lectionary and so this Summer we are doing just that.  Today we begin at the end of Matthew's Gospel on this Trinity Sunday, and we look at the Great Commission.  This is the mission of the church, and yet today very few Christians live it out as their own personal mission.  How can we live out the Great Commission today?  Making disciples through baptism and teaching.  And if that seems too daunting a task, we are promised by Christ that he will be with us in our obedience.

Matthew 28:16-20

Recorded at Hudson UMC on June 4, 2023

S.D.G.

S7E71: Creation’s Song (Trinity Sunday 2020)

Sermon #397

On this Trinity Sunday (2020) we hear the witness of Scripture as it testifies to the complexity and the fullness of the Godhead, three in one (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). We hear from the creation account in Genesis and in John's gospel how that all three persons of the Trinity were present and active in the act of creation. We hear the witness of Jesus in the Great Commission and in the Farewell Discourse in John's Gospel his own relationship with God the Father and God the Spirit, and his unique position within the Godhead as God the Son. We hear the witness of early Christian fathers as they toil and wrestle with the theology of the tri-unity of God in His fullness. it is a complex and difficult doctrine but one that points to the uniqueness of the Christian understanding of God.

Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Psalm 8
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on June 7, 2020 (Originally published June 8, 2020)

S.D.G.

Lectionary Readings for Trinity Sunday, Year A

June 4, 2023

Old Testament: Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Psalter: Psalm 8

Epistle Lesson: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 28:16-20

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.

S10E54: Justification by Faith (Wesley’s Standard Sermons #5)

John Wesley's sermon, Justification by Faith, was first preached at the Long Acre Chapel in London on May 28, 1738.  It was later preached again on top of Samuel Wesley's tomb at Epworth on June 8, 1742.  It first appeared in print in 1746.

This sermon provides the foundation for Wesley's doctrine of salvation, that God justifies not the righteous, but the ungodly, and that by faith alone in Christ alone.  Indeed, it is only by God's grace that we can be saved.  In this, Wesley's doctrine of salvation did not differ with the reformers who preached salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, or Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus.  This same doctrine of justification by faith alone, Wesley considered to be in kind with the teachings of John Calvin, and in fact stated "In this respect, I do not differ from him a hair's breadth."

Romans 4:5

Recorded on May 20, 2023

Justification by Faith - full sermon text

S.D.G.

S7E74: Tell Someone (Pentecost 2014)

Sermon #59

We often talk about the church needing revival, but what does that mean? To revive something is to bring it back to life from the dead. That is what the Holy Spirit did on that first Day of Pentecost, using the disciples of Jesus to tell the good news of Jesus Christ to Jews from all over the world, so that they would take that news back with them to their villages and cities, wherever they were from. God is asking us today to tell someone the good news, and He sends His Spirit to dwell in us so that we may speak the words of life, in whatever way they need to be heard. I talk about a couple of witness encounters I had just the week prior, and encourage my congregation at Hudson UMC to go out and tell someone, don't keep it to yourself. Revival comes in the church, and the Holy Spirit equips the church to take the good news to the world for an Awakening.

{I love listening to these old sermons, because it takes me back to what was going on in my life at the time. It also helps me to see how far I have come in organizing my sermon messages and developing the ability to END them. This sermon from 2014 tends to meander but the message I preached then is the message I preach today: The gospel saves souls, and we need to share the good news to everyone for the transformation of the world.}

Acts 2:1-21

Recorded at Hudson UMC on June 8, 2014 (Originally published June 17, 2020)

S.D.G.

S10E53: Tongues Aflame (Pentecost 2023)

Sermon #554

What we see at the birth of the Church at Pentecost is a reversal of what God did at Babel.  Whereas the people building a tower to heaven were all together in one place with one language trying to exalt themselves, the 120 in the upper room were all together in one place with one accord trying to glorify God.  And so the Spirit of God fell upon them and gave them the ability to speak in the language of the people - at least fifteen regions and dialects that are listed in Acts Chapter 2.  When our efforts are to give glory to God and to proclaim the Gospel, the Holy Spirit will likewise give us utterance, if only we are willing to open our mouths and loosen our tongues.

Acts 2:1-21

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on May 28, 2023

S.D.G.

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on May 28, 2023

S7E70: Filled with the Spirit (Day of Pentecost 2020)

Sermon #396

The Day of Pentecost began as a Jewish holiday but has become important in the Christian Church as a memorial to the day when the Holy Spirit was given and the Church was born. Today we focus on what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit (He is a who and not a what)? How does the Spirit of God relate to God the Father and God the Son? And how does God act in our lives when we are filled with His Spirit?

I'm not going to lie, this sermon is pretty raw. I preached it on the heels of spending half the night watching riots all around the country on CNN. My heart breaks for these cities and the communities that feel so desperate in their oppression that they need to react violently, and also for the police who feel the need to rally their troops and put this uprising down by any means necessary. So even though I'm supposed to be preaching on Pentecost, somewhere around the 22 minute mark it went off the rails. Let this message stand as a testimony to the injustice and wickedness in the world today.

Acts 2:1-21

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on May 31, 2020 (Originally published June 1, 2020)

S.D.G.

Lectionary Readings for Pentecost Sunday, Year A

May 28, 2023

First Lesson: Acts 2:1-21

Psalter: Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

Epistle Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

Gospel Lesson: John 7:37-39

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.

S7E68: Becoming One in Ministry (Awakening/Becoming pt. 6, Easter 2017)

Sermon #227

We conclude our "Becoming" series with the final prayer, "By your Spirit, make us one... in ministry to all the world." On the heels of the 2017 Greater New Jersey Annual Conference, it occurs to me that even though we are divided in our theology, we can still be united in our ministry - the ministry of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Christ offered up this prayer to God the Father on the night he was betrayed, that we would be one even as he is one with God the Father. And so we ask the question, even with our deep differences, can we as a denomination truly be one in ministry? And how can we live that out?

John 17:1-11

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on May 28, 2017 (Originally published May 29, 2020)

S.D.G.

S7E67: Don’t Just Stand There (Ascension of the Lord 2014)

Sermon #58

When Jesus was taken up into heaven forty days after the resurrection, his disciples were caught flat-footed, staring into the sky. God sent two angels to remind them that there was still work to be done. In other words, don't just stand there, do something. Jesus will come again, but until he does, we are to continue the ministry that he left for us to do - to make disciples of all nations and continue to witness the good news, in our churches, in our neighborhoods, in the places we don't want to go and to people we don't want to save. We are not to simply wait for Jesus' return, we are to do what he commanded us to do.

Acts 1:1-11

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on June 1, 2014 (Originally published May 27, 2020)

S.D.G.